Sandeha Nivarini - Post 37

Dear All,

Though Swami has covered many aspects in the previous chapter which were covered from posts 32 to 35, we will try and take in a few selected teachings from this chapter in the next couple of posts.

1) MUKHTI

Devotee: But they say, “attained liberation (mukthi)”, etc. What is that?

Swami: Understanding the root of death and birth, one must destroy completely the awareness of the separate “I”; that condition is “liberation (mukthi)”.

Devotee: So, when I die, I and You are One, right?

Swami: Who said “No”? That feeling of One when you are firmly established in it, there is nothing separate at all.

2) CHIDABHASA AND CHIDAKASHA

Devotee: But what exactly is this chidabhasa?

Swami: Chidabhasa means the “I” awareness conditioned by the consciousness (chit) that One became three, the three became five, the five became many. 

-The “I” awareness (purity, sathwa) became three on account of contact with passion (rajas) and ignorance (thamas); 

-In these three, the five elements (bhuthas) arose; and through those five, the manifold happened. This is what causes the illusion that the “I” is the body. 

Devotee: What is chidakasa? 

Swami: That is the Atma.

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Author's note

In the language of vedantha, Chidakasha is known as pure consciousness and Chidabhasa is known as reflected consciousness.

Let us take the example of illumination by sun.

The Sun stands as the source of light / illumination.

However, when the sun rays falls on a pot containing muddy water, the sunlight, upon reaching the muddy water, stands scattered / diverted into many / few rays of sun light, with lesser intensity, when we look upon the pot containing water.

Another example - The sun rays are intense when they fall on earth. However, when the sun rays fall on a mirror, then from the mirror, the rays gets scattered / diverted to few / many rays with lesser intensity.

Similarly, Chidakasha is to be understood as pure awareness / pure consciousness / Brahman which have been explained in detail in various posts under the theme "Creation of Universe" / "Vedas and Vedantha" .

Chidabhasa is the abhasa or conditioned consciousness when the pure awareness / consciousness reaches our mirror intellect and from there, the same gets conditioned and goes to illumine our mind and in this process, the chances are that the consciousness, just as the sun rays got disturbed due to the muddy water in the pot, may get mixed up with our own limited mind with its limited vasanas / limited likes and dislikes!!!!

We will see the next couple of main learning from the previous chapter, in the next post.

Love.