Atma Bodha - Post 1

Dear Readers,

We, as human beings, lead our life, believing our body, our mind and our intellect to be our true identity.

We pursue so many things to satisfy the requirement of our Body, Mind and Intellect or BMI.

In reality, as it was very clearly given in all the posts in the very first theme in this blog, "The Purpose of Human Birth", we are verily divine, We are verily God, sent into this world so that, through spiritual sadhana, we retrace our earth and seek, discover and merge in our true identity.

So, there is an apparent contradiction in our approach to our life.

We are infinite God.

We believe  ourselves to be the limited BMI.

All our efforts to satisfy our finite existence fail ultimately because:-

The objects / relations which we pursue to satisfy our thirst for making our finite existence happy - even those objects / relations etc. are also finite and they are all not permanent.

So, human being is in continuous search to derive permanent happiness out of ephemeral and finite objects, with an illusion that his ephemeral BMI is eternal!!!

He thus continuously fails to get the permanent happiness which he seeks birth after birth, as he is searching for right thing (eternal happiness) in wrong objects (the worldly objects which are perishable sooner or later, by their nature).

Where is the ultimate truth - the God or the SELF or the Atman???? How to unfold the mystery behind the only truth - THE GOD??

In a post under the theme “Vedas and Vedanta”, few  questions were raised by the Author, referring to various themes dealt in the blog until then.

The same post, with the questions are reproduced today, to give a kick start to the new theme “Atma Bodha”.

The questions posed were as follows:-

Theme	Questions
Purpose of Human Birth	How and what is the divine experience that we attain??
	How do we experience God without a name, form and without attributes??
Karma	How is the divine experience / the state of existence with no karmas left as balance and we have transcended all actions / all thoughts / all karmas?
Surrender	What is our state of existence in that absolute self surrender??
	How do we experience God / Divinity within and without, with no thoughts, when we have merged into the ocean of Love that God's essence is!!!
MBCA	In the flow shown, the final culmination is shown as “Purpose of life, God realization, is fulfilled”.
	That is the final culmination of the all the efforts taken up in one's spiritual sadhana, with unshakable conviction (mumukshatva).
	However, when it is said, God realization, what is it exactly all about?? Which God is realized?? Where??? And what is the experience, if there is any experience at all, upon realizing the God??
	How any realized Master, upon God realization, can possibly explain THE GOD that has been realized by the Master???

Let us start off with these questions and proceed to the next post, again taken from the posts on the theme "Vedas and Vedanta" which tries to answer the fundamental question raised on each theme's essence.

Love.

WHAT IS THE NEXT THEME IN THE BLOG?

Dear Readers,

Adi Shankara

After one of the most important treatise on Bhakti / Devotion, Narada Bhakti Sutras got completed with many posts covering all the Sutras, there was a gap for a week and from within, it has come intuitively to take up ATMA BODHA, a beautiful poetical gift given by Adi Sankara to the world of sincere seekers of the ultimate goal in / through the path of Jnana / Knowledge.

ATMA BODHA is a prakarna Grantha, dealing with Knowledge of the Self. It describes the state of realization from different standpoints, using various comparisons from day-to-day experiences. It explicitly conveys Brahman as the only Reality and all other Tattvas in the world have only an apparent Reality. That is the sole subject of this text.

It is written in poetry. There are 68 couplets in the entire text, without any group classification or title for each verse. The poetical meter is similar to the verses of the Bhagavad Gita.

From the Introduction by Swami Chinmayanandaji, we quote:

“Sri Sankaracharya, in the days of his perfect maturity, took up his pen to write ‘Introductory Books’, introducing the theme of Vedanta for the infants in the spiritual world. Atma Bodha is one of them. This is not an original book in as much as there is not a single idea in it which is an entirely original contribution of Sri Sankara. 

Every one of them is culled from the garden of the Upanishads, and strung together on the chord of his poetry.

“Scientific detachment, honest observation, logical conclusions, and heroic decisions alone can help an individual to come away from his own life’s fallacies. Atma Bodha supplies all these requisites and Acharya Shankara has made this scientific treatise a chiselled beauty with a distinct cadence and rhythm of its own.”

Commenting on the exquisite examples given in the book, Swamiji says: “The poet in Shankara revels in these 68 verses. There is no verse here which does not have a simile. Each is a picture, a sure and striking example. These examples are real hammer strokes that nail the elusive ideals of Vedanta onto the immature comprehension of all early students. They are all striking examples, so pregnant with suggestions that to ruminate upon them is in itself a profitable meditation for the new initiates.” 

In the next few posts, we will reproduce / recapitulate important and relevant posts covered earlier under various other theme such as "Creation of Universe" or "Veda and Vedanta" to gain a proper insight into the KNOWLEDGE OF SELF / ATMAN which is what ATMA BODHA is all about.

With such introduction and insight, the posts related to the 68 couplets of Atma Bodha are ready to feast the spiritual hunger of the world of Mumukshus / sincere seeker existing at present / in times to come, even after the author leaves this world.

Love.

Anandamayi Ma

Which exactly is that great Moment depends for each one upon his particular line of approach. Does not the moment at which you are born determine and rule the course of your whole life? 

Similarly, what is important for you is the Moment at which you will enter the current that is the movement of your true being, the Going Forth, in other words, the Great Pilgrimage. 

Unless this happens, perfection cannot be attained. This is why, for some disciples, the Guru fixes special times for sadhana, such as dawn, dusk, midday, and midnight; these are the four periods usually prescribed;

It is the duty of the disciple to carry out conscientiously the Guru’s orders, which vary according to the temperament and predisposition of the aspirant. The same method does not suit everyone. 

The average person can have no knowledge of the particular combination of factors that are necessary to bring to completion the hitherto neglected facets of his being; for this reason it is essential to obey the Guru’s instructions. 

Within the twenty-four hours of the day, some time must be definitely dedicated to God. Resolve, if possible, to engage regularly in japa of a particular Name or mantra while sitting in a special posture, and gradually add to the time or the number of repetitions. 

There is no need for a daily augmentation. Fix the rate and the interval at which you will increase, say fortnightly or weekly. In this way try to bind yourself to the Quest of God; wherever you may be, take refuge in Him, let Him be your Goal.

When by virtue of this endeavour you become deeply immersed in that current and devote ever more time to it, you will be transformed and your appetite for sense enjoyment will grow feeble; thus you will reap the fruit of your accumulated efforts. You may also come to feel that the body is liable to depart at any time, that death may arrive at any moment.

Gradually you will get more and more deeply absorbed in Him - He and He alone will preoccupy your thoughts and feelings. 

For the mind ever seeks that which gives it proper sustenance, and this cannot be provided by anything save the Supreme Being Himself. Then you will be carried away by the current that leads to your Self. You will discover that the more you delight in the inner life, the less you feel drawn to external things.

In consequence the mind becomes so well nourished with the right kind of food, that at any moment the realization of its identity with the Self may occur.