Atma Bodha - Post 54

Verse 44

आत्मा तु सततं प्राप्तोऽप्यप्राप्तवदविद्यया ।

तन्नाशे प्राप्तवद्भाति स्वकण्ठाभरणं यथा ॥ ४४॥

AATMAA TU SATATAM PRAAPTAH

API APRAAPTA-VAT AVIDYAYAA

TAT NAASHE PRAAPTA-VAT BHAATI

SWA-KANTHA-ABHARANAM YATHAA

[Although the Self is the ever-existing Reality, yet, because of ignorance, it is not realized. When ignorance is dispelled, the Self is “gained” as though it were an object, just as the missing ornament around one’s neck.]

In discussing this verse, particularly the aptness of its simile, one cannot not resist asking: “How many doctorates must we give to Sankaracharya for these beautiful metaphors!”

In appropriateness this may well claim the first prize.  It has been said repeatedly that the Atman is the ever-existing Reality. It has always been there. When, after so much of sacrifice and serious Sadhana, the Jnani finally realizes the Atman, what a fool he must appear to himself! He searched and searched, for goodness knows, how many decades, and when he found it, it was in himself already!

Indeed the loss (of Atman) was illusory; and its gain, too, is equally illusory. It appears that It is ‘attained’ whereas in fact It is really forgotten; so It is not discovered but rather It is only remembered! And that idea is caught with great precision in the following metaphor… “Swa-Kantha Abharanam”:

The Missing Neck-Ornament Simile

To drive home the essence of this simile, a monk in Sandeepani (Chinamaya Ashram) addresses his disciple with this example.

Imagine a student sitting for Japa with his Japamala. Halfway through it he goes into Samadhi! It is a very deep Samadhi, and to enjoy it all the more he puts his mala around his neck and brings his head to his pillow. That is not comfortable enough, so he puts his blanket over him.

He only gets out of this Samadhi the next morning. When he gets up he is in a desperate hurry – there are only 7 minutes left and he still has to bath, but where is his mala? There is a knock on his door. 

The neighboring Brahmachari is there to remind him that he is getting late for the morning chanting class. He opens the door and says he cannot find his mala. Instead of his friend offering to help him to find it, as one would expect Brahmacharis to do, he just smiles back, as if teasing him! 

The Brahmachari who is running late cannot take this, especially when there are now only three minutes to go. The friend, still irritatingly smiling, walks closer to him, clutches something around his neck and turns it around.

The Brahmachari realizes instantly what had happened: “Oh, what a fool I have been, its still around my neck!” He is happy that he has found his mala.

Dear All,

This is one of the most famous simile in vedantha teachings and the teacher has to take aid of this simile in almost all Upanishads teaching to his students.

The distance between you the jiva and you the pure SELF is only the ignorance that you really and essentially are Pure SELF, just as the gap between one’s agony of losing a precious ornament and then finding the same on his own neck is only his ignorance that he already possesses the ornament, there, on his own neck, in his own SELF!!!!

All the years of the disciple’s stay in his master’s hermitage, 5 or 7 or 10 years, the role of his Master is only to teach the student that he is ever the Pure ATMAN, even while he is struggling to get a glimpse of this truth in the depth of his nidhidhyasana / meditation, on what the master teaches him every day, from dawn to dusk!!!

While in the path of Devotion, the God is separate and the devotee is separate up to the penultimate stage, in the path of Jnana, the edifice of Master’s teachings on Jnana is built on the foundation – “YOU ARE THAT”, “YOU ARE VERILY THE GOAL WHICH YOU ASPIRE FOR, THE PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, THE SAT CHIT ANANDA BRAHMAN!"

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 53

Verse 43

अरुणेनेव बोधेन पूर्वं सन्तमसे हृते ।

तत आविर्भवेदात्मा स्वयमेवांशुमानिव ॥ ४३॥

ARUNENA EVA BODHENA

POORVA-SAN-TAMASE HRITE

TAT AAVIR-BHAVET AATMAA

SWAYAM EVA AMSHUMAAN IVA

[As by the Lord of early dawn, so too, it is by knowledge, the former dispels the darkness existing before dawn. So too, (ignorance is dispelled) when the Self rises of its own accord, just like the sun.]

“Aruna-Amshuman” Simile:

The Dawn & Rising Sun In this exquisite simile of sunrise, we

see the same process from another angle.

In the minutes before sunrise, the dense darkness of the sky lightens up slowly until the sky has a reddish glow to it. This period, called dawn or ‘aruna’, symbolizes the period of intense meditation when the darkness of ignorance is being gradually removed.

As the process advances and the skies turn red and then orange, the sun rises of its own accord, as it were, bringing on the bright day. Nothing needs to be done to the sun to reveal it. The darkness had to be removed by Sadhana to usher in the state of illumination of the Self.

“When the egocentric existence in us, that obstructs the vision of the Self, is falsified by constant and diligent meditation, the vision of the true Self arises in all its glory” 

(Swami Chinmayananda.)

The removal of the darkness of the sky is itself due to the approaching presence of the sun. There is nothing that is being done to brighten the sky. True, we have compared that to meditation, but meditation is a state of ‘being’, not of ‘doing’.

As Sadhana progresses and the dirt clears away, the mental ‘sky’ becomes brighter and brighter. The revelation of the Self is inevitable. It comes of its own accord. In this way, Sri Sankara, a great lover of nature with a keen observation, conveys to us another great Truth to inspire us into the practice of deep meditation, when only Awareness alone clears away the dross and leads naturally to Self-illumination. 

Dear All,

In this verse, Sankara beautifully  equates the sadhana process with the rising of sun, wherein, like the sun slowly rises, dispelling the darkness, in spiritual sadhana, one shines slowly, with rigorous sadhana and meditation and in that shine (of one’s SELF), the darkness of ignorance is dispelled.

The beauty of vedantha is much more than this.

In the path of wisdom, the acharya, having accepted the disciple in His fold, in His ashram, gives series of discourses on Upanishads, drives in the essence of Upanishads through a maha vakya, “Tat Twam Asi”. “That Thou Art”.

When the Acharya takes the disciple through this mahavakya, the teacher shows the disciple the glimpse of his state once all darkness of ignorance in him would get dispelled, i.e., the sun shine in his sadhana, even if it is going to take years to achieve that, is already shown to the disciple through Acharya’s compassionate teachings!!!

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 52

Verse 42

एवमात्मारणौ ध्यानमथने सततं कृते ।

उदितावगतिर्ज्वाला सर्वाज्ञानेन्धनं दहेत् ॥ ४२॥

EVAM AATMAA ARANAU DHYAANAM

ATHANE SATATAM KRITE

UDITAA AVAGATI-JWAALAA

SARVA AJNAANEN-DHANAM DAHET

[Thus, in the Arani of the Self, meditation   is done constantly as churning in the Arani;  in the fire of knowledge that arises, all the fuel of ignorance gets burned.]

“Atma Aranau” Nyaya: The Fire-maker Simile

This is an example from Vedic times. People used to make a fire by using a contraption made of a wooden rod rotated between two wooden hemispherical-shaped sockets (called ‘arani’; for two aranis the Samskrit dual form ‘aranau’ is used), with a piece of cotton in one of them.

The rotation, similar to the action of churning, would produce heat by friction until the cotton ball caught alight. The ball would then be used to start the fire.

The application of this analogy is as follows: The two hemispherical sockets are the lower ego and the higher Self. They are ‘churned’ with the Mahavakya rod of “I am Brahman”. The fire of Knowledge that is generated by this churning process of meditation ignites the cotton ball of ignorance.

This churning of knowledge is described clearly in Kaivalyopanishad.

AATMAANAMARANIM KR^ITVAA PRANAVAM CHOTTARAARANIM

GYAANANIRMATHANAABHYAASAATPAAPAM DAHATI PANDITAH...

(A sage thinks of this mind as lower piece of sandalwood, and OM as the upper wood. Through the practice of constant friction between them, he kindles the fire of knowledge which burns up the impurities of mind.)

Thus making the Atman as the lower piece of wood and OM (symbolic representation of Brahman or Supreme Self) as the upper piece of wood, through repeated friction of knowledge, a wise man burns all the bonds.

Acharya is here thus describing the effect of intense mediation. Meditation is but unbroken thought towards an object. 

Just as how fire can be produced by constant rubbing of two pieces of wood, knowledge is churned out by constant meditation on reality. i.e. when the one constantly contemplates on the Brahman as nature of Self, by this constant contemplation or meditation which is compared to the friction here, the Self knowledge arises. 

It is this knowledge alone that burns all the desires and bonding and ultimately liberates one from all duality and hence sadness. Hence a seeker must constantly contemplate on the real nature of Self and only with such intense sadhana can one acquire the Self knowledge.

Lord also mentions the same in Gita fourth chapter 19th sloka as “The wise call him learned whose actions are all devoid of all desires and their thoughts and whose actions have been burnt away from the fire of wisdom”. 

Thus Lord Krishna is thus explaining that the actions, and ignorance that causes them are incinerated by the fire of knowledge and such a one is called by the wise as the learned one.

Such a wise one whose ignorance is burnt by the intense fire of knowledge becomes verily Existence-Consciousness-Bliss alone.

Love.