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)