ATMA BODHA 33

 

                                                              ATMA BODHA   33

                         “AMANASTWAD NA-ME DUKKH-RAG-DWESH BHAYADAYAH

                           APRANO-HI-AMANA SUBHRA  ITYADI SRUTI SASANATH.”

“I AM DIFFERENT FROM THE MIND ANA SO FREE FROM SORROW, ATTACHMENT, MALICEAND FEAR  BECAUSE “ HE IS WITHOUT BREATH< AND WITHOUT MIND, PURE etc” IT IS THE COMMANDMENT OF THE GREAT SCRIPTURE, THE UPANISHADS,”

When thoughts flow,the mind  becomes an irresistible and terrific force. It is ever changing in its

contents and moods. In fact man cannot exist even for a moment without a thought flow or the mind. At the same time I am not the mind  although “ I have a mind.” In other words I am separate from the mind. My real nature is the Self, the changeless and the Eternal.The mind has its own idiosyncracies. The mind is a bundle of thoughts engendered by desires acquired from my experience of objects that have nothing to do with myself. I am thus really something other than the mind. I also realize that the power of awareness of the inert mind is because of the illumination of the Self.

I , therefore remain perfectly remain unaffected by the eruptions of the mind. Waking up from my dream, I do not mourn for the dream child that died in my dream. In short, I have ceased to identify myself with the mental emotions that gurgle up in the mind. I can no longer be a victim of the onslaught of sorrow, fear and other things that torment man.

 I am without a mind!  I am pure Intelligence itself:  I am the Higher and Imperishable Truth beyond all explanations and concept of time. This can be experienced by everyone  when there is Self realization. Vedanta does not allow dogmatic assertions. Every statement requires the authority of the Vedas and Upanishads. So Sankara quotes his authority : the Upanishads.

“Then Uddalaka Aruni said to his son Swetaketu, “ Learn from me, my boy, the true nature of sleep. When a man here sleeps, as they say, then he has become united with Pure Being, my boy, then he has gone to his own. ( Chandogya Upanishad)

“As a bird tied by a string flies first in every direction and finding no resting place anywhere settles down at last at the place where it is bound, so also the mind after flying in various directions and finding no resting place anywhere settles down in the vital breath, for the mind, my boy, is bound to the vital breath.” (Chandogya Upanishad)