ATMA BODHA 46

 

ATMA BODHA 46

“TATTVA-SWAROOP-ANUBHAVAT UTPANNAM-GYANAM-ANJASA

AHAM-MAMETI-CHA-AGYANAM BADHATE  DIG- BRAHMADIVIT.”

THE IGNORANCE OF PERSONS IS CHARACTERED BY THE NOTIONS OF “I” AND “MINE.” THIS IS DESTROYED BY THE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCED BY THE REALIZATION OF THE TRUE NATURE OF THE SELF.THIS IS SIMILAR TO THE RIGHT INFORMATION WHICH  REMOVES THE WRONG INFORMATION ABOUT THE DIRECTIONS.

Knowledge and experience of the Reality in an individual instantaneously removes the ignorance or Agyana that has created wrong  ideas of a false ego earlier. This wrong conception of a limited, colored, distorted, personality has been the cause  for the notion of possession ……..the “ I” and “ mine” in everyone.

When there is a feeling of confusion regarding the directions in a new town it is the sun rise that  helps in  locating the direction correctly. In the same manner, when the Knowledge of the Reality dawns the  limited ego sense till now living, the perceptions, feelings and thoughts it gains an understanding  of the right way of living in and experiencing through the various material equipments.

Sankara seems to foresee here the possibility of a logical doubt in the mind of an intelligent student. Commonly in our intellectual life knowledge of one object cannot remove the ignorance of other objects. But Sankara asserts that knowledge of  the experience of the Self will destroy the ignorance created  concepts of “ I “ ness and  “ MY-ness”  This appears to be  in contradiction to our daily intellectual  experience.

Sankara  llustrates  this idea through a simple example. When a traveler is in a confusion regarding the  direction  he has taken in a new place, a local man indicates to him the West. This indication by the local man   removes his ignorance regarding the South, the East and the North. This is because ,the other quarters have a definite relationship  with the one known  direction. The traveler can know for himself the other three directions.

Similarly with the realization of the Self, we immediately  understand our true relationship  with the world of objects around us and our own relationship with our matter envelopments. Ego centric “ I” and the concept of “Mine”  both become meaningless and delusory  as soon as the SELF is realized as One Universal Reality always the same within and without.

The directions are ever present whether we know them or not. Our confusion makes us take the east to be the west and so on. A right understanding gives us the true directions. Similarly, when the Self is known or realized, we can fix our relationship in the world on surer footings with a more balanced vision.

 

ATMA BODHA 45

 

ATMA BODHA 45

“STANOW PURUSHAVAD- BHRANTYAT KRITA BRAHANI- JEEVATA

JEEVASYA TATVIKE ROOPAE TASMIN- DRISHTE NIVARTATE.”

“BRAHMAN APPEARS TO BE A JEEVA ON ACCOUNT OF OUR IGNORANCE. IT IS LIKE CONFUSING A POST TO BE A GHOST. WHEN THE REAL NATURE OF THE “JIVA” IS REVEALED AS THE SELF THE EGOCENTRIC INDIVIDUALITY IS TOTALLY DESTROYED.”

It is delusion that makes us think and recognize the post as a ghost. It is because of the non-apprehension of the post . The result is the misapprehension of the ghost. Likewise, on the Brahman, the Supreme Self and the substratum for all, our ignorance or avidya  projects our egocentric existence and the world of diversity. In the resultant confusion we spin and weave in us a cobweb of our own creation. Later we we identify ourselves with our body, mind and intellect. Thus we are totally caught  in a net of our own creations because of our own ignorance.

We have to understand the One Truth behind  all this multiple existence.  We should start seeing the post behind the ghost We should begin to experience the SELF in us like a dream that rolls back in to the dreamer. Then all this illusory existence loses its imaginary reality------the apparent truth with which we have painted them all in gay enchantment.

What is the result of this non-apprehension of the post? It is the misapprehension  as the head, trunk, limbs, dress, eyes , movement etc of the vivid vision of the ghost. It is the misconception or superimposition of  the ghost on the post.  When the cause, the misconception dies, the effect, the ghost also ends. With the end of the ego sense, all its by-products also  are removed.  And there is no more bondage!  

“Two birds inseparable companions, cling to the same ree. One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on without eating.”

“On the self same tree man sits immersed and deluded and grieves  on account of his helplessness. But when he sees the other-----the Lord who is worshipped by all-----and his glory, he becomes freed from sorrow.”  (MUNDAKOPANISHAD  ( V Up.III.I)

ATMA BODHA 44

 

ATMA BODHA 44

“ATMA-TU SATATAM PRAPTAH API- APRAPTAVAT-AVIDYAYA

TAN-NASE PRAPTAVAT  BHATI SWA-KANTHA-ABHARANAN YATHA”

“ATMAN IS AN EVER PRESENT REALITY. YET IT IS NOT REALISED BECAUSE OF IGNORANCE. WHEN IGNORANCE IS ANNIHILATED  ATMANIS REALISED. IT IS LIKE THE MISSING ORNAMENT OF ONE’S NECK.”

Knowledge is covered up by ignorance. “ agnanena avrutam Jnanam.”  The waker alone can give the dreamer his experience.  The dreamer is none other than the waker .There is absolutely no need to acquire or create a new personality in me to enter into the lofty sphere of experience. I am EVER the Eternal INFINITE Bliss. If I am not that already, and if I have to reach that state, reflection and meditation on Upanishadic texts becomes necessary. ATMAN cannot be “created” by these sadhanas. If it is through sadhana, then the experience, the effect should also end. Anything created should also end or die. In other words, the Infinite cannot be created through sadhana. The Self or the Atman is always with us . We recognize it  when the veil covering it is removed through constant and sincere Sadhana.

The Atman permeates all states of experiences and in all beings and at all times. The Atman is wide awake even as we are asleep The pity is that we are not aware of the Eternal Self within us because of our preoccupations of the misunderstanding of the Reality. Our life is because of Its illumination. But we are blind to that Divine Light. When ignorance is removed , when we are far away from the enveloping darkness the glory of the Self is realized  just as when the clouds move away the sun ,whose light is already there, shines upon us

 When we remove the veil  enveloping  the ever existing Self, we gloat over that we have found  something that was not already there. This is not true at all. We are lamenting  over something that we have not lost. The pity is that we are miserable for what we have not actually lost. In fact It is the Self which has been all along with us. Sometimes we search for it and are weary and disappointed. The key is all the time in our pocket  but we are unaware of it. A lady  is often shocked at the loss of her necklace which is still on her neck. We only rediscover the Self which was all the time with us. When our ignorance  regarding the Self ends through discipline and meditation the SELF is rediscovered as the Indweller !

“The person of the size of a thumb, the inner Self abides always  in the hearts of men. One should draw Him out from the body with firmness as one draws the pith from a reed. One should know Him as the pure, the immortal, yea, one should know Him as the pure, the immortal.”(KATHOPANISHAD VIII (Up  II. 3)

ATMA BODHA 43

 

ATMA BODHA 43

“ARUNENEVA BODHENAPURVAM-SANTAMASE-HRITE

TATA-AVIRBHAVET-ATMA –SWAYAMEVA AMSUMAN EVA.

“Aruna, the lord of the early dawn  himself has taken away the thick darkness when soon the sun rises. The Divine consciousness of the Self rises when the right knowledge has already destroyed the darkness in the bosom.”

Man’s life is inextricably intertwined with the “vasanas’ or leanings of the manifold previous births. Unless we break through this dense darkness it is impossible to get into the Citadel of Truth which is the treasure house of the divine experience.

Soon  after the early dawn. a little later after the East is illuminated with the golden hue, the sun emerges in all his glory and energizes life in the world.  Aruna or the dawn is the harbinger of the sun. In the same manner when we diligently and constantly meditate on Truth and destroy the egocentric tendencies in us, as well as the obstructing darkness……the vision of the Self, the experience of Oneness is revealed. That is the experience of our own Self.

 It is maya or illusion and avidya, mental agitations, ego centric vanities that obstruct the vision of our own Self. Meditation plays a large part in quietening the thought flow and the mind’s extrovertedness. Thus, when the mind is pacified and withdrawn from its extraneous activities, turns inward, it loses itself and becomes one with it.

“The Self-existent pierced the senses outward, and so one looks outward and not within one self. Some wise man, however, seeking immortality, and turning his eyes inward, sees the inner Self.”  ((KATHOPANISHAD IV  (Up.II. I)

 

ATMA BODHA 42

 

ATMA BODHA 42

“EVAM-ATMA-ARANOW-DHYANAMATHANE- SAATATAM-KRITE

UDITAVAGATHIH-JWALA SARVA-AGYANA-INDHANAM DAHET”

It is practically impossible to believe that you are the imperishable Soul and not the body! Clubbed up with the material world and all its silly pleasures and ups and downs of samsara , Man thinks only of the body and various associations it has developed in his mortal existence. He is so enveloped in maya or illusion that that he has no time to ponder over the reality and the importance of the Self embedded in his own heart! But the aspirant, at a time, may involve himself in a constant churning of Knowledge (Dhyana Mathana) and realize that he is the Self  but not the combination of the mere body mind stuff. It is only such constructive thoughts that can lead you in meditation with single minded devotion.

This constant churning of the fire of Knowledge is otherwise called as “Dhyana Mathana.” The means for such a constant churning of Knowledge is the process of right understanding and discrimination by your own intellect. The Sadhaka shall experience  a revelation of his own Self as Absolute Bliss! Even as ignorance vanishes. When that “ fire of Knowledge “develops into a mighty conflagration all ajnana or misconceptions  are burnt down as fuel  is consumed by ordinary fire.

Kaivalyopanishad  exhaustively describes the “ Churning of Knowledge. In olden days  for rituals and sacrifices fire was produced by  turning a wooden rod on two wooden pieces hollowed out for the end of the rod to rest. When the rod is churned in the sockets and pressed down firmly, the friction creates  heat and fire. The sloka has taken this idea in this beautiful metaphor. The lower ego and the higher Self are pressed into the “Mahamantra “ I am the Supreme Self”  ( Aham Brahmasmi). When through constant reflection it is churned properly ‘the fire of Knowledge’ is generated. Meditation fans it into  a conflagration. This destroys all our ignorance and misconceptions. “Thus the glory of a man of culture and perfection is that he has  burnt up his lower nature in the fire of his own higher understanding of life and its consummate Goal.”

 

“THE FORM OF FIRE WHICH IS LATENT IN WOOD IS NOT SEEN, NOR THAT SUBTLE FORM DESTROYED BUT MAY BE SEIZED AGAIN AND AGAIN FROM THE WOOD BY MEANS OF A DRILL,

. …… ( Swetasvataropanishad  11)

ATMA BODHA 41

 

ATMA BODHA 41

“GAYTR-GYANA-GYEYA BHEDAH PARE NA-ATMANI VIDYATE

CHIDANANDA-EKA- ROOPATTWAD DEEPYATE SWAYAMEVA-HI”

THERE ARE NO DISTINCTIONS LIKE” KNOWER”, THE “ KNOWLEDGE”, AND THE “ OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE” IN THE SUPREME SELF. BECAUSE OF ITS NATURE OF ENDLESS BLISS IT DOES NOT ADMIT OF SUCH DISTINCTIONS WITHIN ITSELF. IT ALONE SHINES BY ITSELF.

Our intellect is capable of seeing only objects other than itself.  All our knowledge is made up of the knowledge of things “ other than ourselves”. Our lived experience of knowing things is possible only by a contact of the experiencer with the object of experience Therefore  a world of objects as well as the subject who is the experience is necessary. A certain relationship between the experiencer and the experienced is absolutely needed. No experience is possible without these three fundamental factors---the subject, the object and the necessary relationship between the two. No experience is possible at our present condition of body- intellect existence.

The SELF is Non- dual, Homogenous and Eternal. It cannot suffer in Itself  any differences  like the subject or the object .  Every seeker, therefore begins to question how he would realize the Self and with what instruments he would experience It after transcending the body perceptions, mental feelings and intellectual thoughts.

The answer is that the Self is the very Consciousness by which all thoughts, feelings and perceptions are illumined and when all these are eliminated , to know Knowledge no other “ Knowledge” is necessary.  Self is Knowledge itself. It is Consciousness itself. When all the furniture is removed from the room in the day time what happens to the sun? It illumines on Itself whether there are objects or not and to see the sun no other torch is necessary.

“Verily, he who sees this, who thinks this, who understands this-----he loves the Self, he delights in the Self, he merges in the Self, he rejoices in the Self-----he becomes a Self –ruler, he has unlimited freedom in all the worlds. ( Chandogyopanishad XVIII—Up. VII.I, 23—26  8)

“ That Self, hidden in all beings, does not shine forth, but it is seen by subtle seers through their sharp and subtle intellect.” ( Kathopanishad  22)