ATMA BODHA 31

 

  “AVIDYAKAM  SAREERADI DRISYAM BOOD- BOOD AVAT KSHARAM

   YETAT VILAKSHANAM VIDYAD AHAM BRAHMETI NIRMALAM.”

“The body  etc up to the causal Body or Ignorance which are perceived objects , are as perishable as bubbles. It is through discrimination alone that one can realize that he is the “ PURE BRAHMAN” totally separate from all these.”

The five layers like ANNAMAYA,  PRANAMAYA and other kosas or sheaths are all vehicles of expression. The three bodies viz  the gross, the subtle and the causal are all conditionings through which the Consciousness expresses itself. When the SELF identifies itself with the gross body it is the WAKER  experiencing the waking state. When it identifies with the Subtle body it becomes a Dreamer who was himself a Waker earlier. The Dreamer experiences the dream world’s multiplicity. The Self, after this two way  identification as Waker and Dreamer, identifies itself with the Causal –body it become the SLEEPER enjoying the total negation of the multiple experiences which it enjoyed earlier.

If the SELF, in its identification with the gross, the subtle and the causal bodies becomes the Waker, the Dreamer, and the Deep sleeper,  It in Itself must be something other than  its manifestations in the three states. Sankara  asserts this point in this stanza. He advises the seekers to rediscover the Self which can never be the  perishable developments. This can happen only through a close subjective realization.

It is only through discrimination that the evils can be undone. What is perceived through the sense organs, the feeler or the mind, and the comprehending faculty or the intellect must be different from the Perceiver. The Divine Spark within is the  one Illuminator who illumines every-one of these objects Things illumined are always different from the Illuminator! Therefore objects recognized by me are certainly different from the Pure Self within me the Eternal Subject.

The KATHOPANISHAD establishes the very same aspect of the Eternal, Imperishable quality of the ATMAN or the SELF:

“The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor these lightnings. How then could this fire? When He shines, everything  shines after HIM; by HIS light all this is lighted.”