ATMA BODHA 51

 

ATMA BODHA  51

                                          “BAHYA-ANITYA- SUKH-ASAKTIM HITVA-AAMA-SUKH-NIRVRITAH

                                          GHATASTA-DEEPAVT-SVASTAH SVANTAREVA PRAKASATE.”

“THE SELF ABIDING REALISED SOUL—JEEVAN MUKTHA RELINQUISHES ALL HIS ATTACHMENTS TO THE TRANSITORY ILLUSORY HAPPINESS.HE IS CONTENTED WITH THE BLISS DERIVED FROM THE ATMAN. HE RADIATES INWARDLY LIKE A LAMP PLACED INSIDE A JAR!”

The goal of every spiritual seeker is to end all sorrows and attain perfect joy or bliss!  A man of realization retracts his consciousness totally from identifying with his body, mind and intellect. Hence he will be unconscious of the three layers of matter: namely the world of sense objects, the variety of feelings and the array of ideas. To the SELF, in the SELF there is nothing but the SELF to illumine.

But when the self radiant Truth has nothing else other than Itself to illumine in its own infinite glory how will it exist? This will be the doubt in every student of Vedanta studying the theory of Self-realization during his early days of study. This is because he tries to appreciate philosophy through his own limited intellectual evaluations.

Sankara  brings out the condition of the Pure Consciousness when it has no other objects to b conscious of except the SELF, with a beautiful analogy in this stanza. When a lighted lamp is placed on a table, it illuminates various objects in the room in varying degrees of intensity. But when that lighted lamp is slowly and carefully lowered into the jar or a pot, the light of the lamp illuminates only the inner space of the jar. Likewise, Consciousness reflects upon the objects and provides us with the knowledge of objects. But when we withdraw the consciousness from the vehicles into Itself it can illumine only Itself.

The stanza asserts that at the stage of meditation the SELF “shines inwardly alone.”  “ When the Consciousness is withdrawn into the SELF, it illumines the ‘within.’  This is a statement couched in the Vedantic technical language. Therefore, the inner-most SELF is the subtlest of the subtle. It is all pervading and that nothing pervades it. At the moment of SELF-realization illumines ‘within’  suggests  that the final experience is of the Infinite, All pervading SELF------the subtlest of the subtle—the Ever-effulgent----the Pure Awareness.

“ EVEN AS A MIRROR TARNISHED BY DUST SHINES BRIGHT AFTER IT HAS BEEN CLEANED SO DOES AN EMBODIED BEING WHEN HE HAS SEEN THE NATURE OF THE SELF, REALISE ONENESS, ATTAIN HIS END AND BECOME FREE FROM SORROW.”   “SWETASWATAROPANISHAD.”

“AND WHEN BY MEANS OF THE NATURE OF HIS OWN SELF HE SEES< AS BY A LAMP< THE NATURE OF BRAHMAN-----THEN, HAVING KNOWN GOD, WHO IS UNBORN, ETERNAL AND FREE FROM ALL NATURES< HE IS RELEASED FROM ALL FETTERS.”  “SWETASWATAROPANISHAD”