ATMA BODHA 21

ATMA BODHA 21

“DEHENDRIYA-GUNAN-KARMAN-AMALE SACHIDATMANI

ADHYASYANTI-AVIVEKENA GAGANENEELATADIVAT.”

“BECAUSE THEY LACK IN THEIR POWERS OFDISCRIMINATION, FOOLS SUPERIMPOSE ALL THE FUNCTIONS OF THE BODY AND THE SENSES ON the ATMAN, THE”ABSOLUTE-EXISTENCE-KNOWLEDGE (SAT-CHIT) JUST AS THEY ATTRIBUTE BLUE COLOR AND THE LIKE TO THE SKY.”

The Katha Upanishad declares:”He is swan in the sky, the wind in the firmment, the priest at the altar, and the guest in the house. He dwells in men; He dwells in gods; He dwells in the sacrifice; He dwells in space; He is all that is born in water, all that is born on earth, all that is born of sacrifice and all that is born on the mountains------He is the true and the great.” He is the embodiment of Existence- Awareness and Bliss—Sachchidananda Swarupa. But it is very difficult for the ordinary mortal to realize or experience this indweller Atma. Involved in family life and pleasures and the eternal cycle of birth and death, he has no time to think of the invisible but the ever existing Atma within himself. He thinks that he is the body not the Soul or self. He feels that the Self experiences all pleasures and pain that he undergoes. In short, he is totally oblivious of the terrible mistake that he commits!

Modern man lacks the power of right discrimination! He is enveloped by maya or illusion. Because of this he considers the right as wrong, wrong as right, the real as unreal, unreal as real. The qualities of body mind and intellect are not equipped with the capacity to examine things in the right perspective. There are the limitations of the physical and subtle body. As such, these limitations are superimposed by the ignorant on the Pure Self! Thus the Real Self is mistakenly understood as possessing all the imperfections of the superimposed things. Sankara points out that this AVIVEKA or nondiscrimination is similar to the misconception of children who believe that the sky is blue while actually it has no color!

The sky appears to be concave. It is also murky, full of mist and dust.  These qualities are mistaken as the conditions of the sky!  Space gives the impression that it has these qualities but space as such has none of them! Hence it is clear that an object is not affected by the traits superimposed on it. So when we superimpose certain characteristics of the body, mind, on the Self-effulgent Being the Truth itself is not affected by such misconceived notions and attributes!  The blueness perceived is just the experience of our limited vision when it looks at the endless sky!