Atma Bodha - Post 4

Dear All,

Let us go through few questions and answer on the subject "ATMAN" in this post.

Satsang with Sri Swami Viditatmananda Saraswati Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

Question

Do all living beings have an Atman? Are all living things interconnected because of Atman?

Answer

Yes, all living beings have an Atman. Atman is the essence, the core, the very truth, and the very being of all living beings. Atman is saccidänanda and is present everywhere. It is not that everything has Atman. Rather, Atman is everything. 

Do not separate Atman from things. It is not that I have a self; rather, I am the Self. All that exists is but the manifestation of Atman and, therefore, everything is interconnected; everything is one. The many things that we see are the manifestation of the One. 

The one Atman manifests as all beings, sentient and insentient, and living and non-living. All are manifestations of this one Self just as all ornaments are manifestations of gold, or all waves are manifestations of water. 

Everything in creation is the manifestation of the one Self, Atman. Atman is present everywhere and is the connecting link. All beings spring from the Self, and that is why we have order or harmony that connects or sustains everything. This very order or harmony is Atman, which sustains everything.

Question

The Self is dear to me. Who is this ‘me’?

Answer

The Upanishad states that anything that I hold dear, is dear to me because the Self is dear to me. Whatever is important to me in this life is because the Self is important. The Upanishads simply say, everything is dear to me for my own sake. Another treatise raises the question of this ‘me’. It is explained that the ‘me’ can have three meanings: it could be mukhya or important, it could be gauna or secondary, or it could be mithyä or false.

For example, I may be so attached to my child that I am prepared to do anything for the sake of that child, even to the extent of giving up my life. Similarly, there are people who love their country so much that they are willing to give up their lives for their country. In these cases, there is a strong identification with something other than the Self. 

Therefore, even in the awareness that the child or the country is not the ‘I’, the identification with it is so complete that the child or the country becomes very ‘I’ to which I am strongly attached.

More often than not, the ‘me’ is my body, this upädhi or personality, which is not the real me. Out of ignorance, however, I identify completely with it, and it becomes me.

Finally, in the true sense, the ‘me’ is my Self. The Self is that which is separate from the three bodies, the gross, subtle, and causal bodies; it transcends the five koshas, notions, and is witness to the three states of awareness, the waking, dream, and deep sleep states. The nature of this Self is saccidänanda. Thus, the true ‘me’ or ‘I’, is saccidänanda or Brahman.

In the sense if it being mithyä or false, the ‘me’ is this body, and in the sense of it being gauna or secondary, it is yet another thing with which I identify, e.g., my child or my country.

Thus, the meaning of ‘me’ keeps changing in different situations. One thing, however, is certain: whatever I look upon or identify with as being ‘me’ or the essential ‘I’ is my primary equation and dearest to me. Every other association, everything else, becomes secondary.

Question

How are Atman and paramätmä related? Answer

Answer

Atman is the Self of the individual being and is usually understood to be the essential ‘I’.

‘Param’ means that which is free from limitations. Paramätmä means the Self that is free from limitations. It is the limitless Self and, usually, we say that it is the Self of the universe. 

Thus, Atman is the individual Self and Paramätmä is the universal Self. It looks like these are two different entities, but Vedanta teaches that both are one. Atman, the individual self, is the Self of all and Paramätmä, the universal Self, is my own Self.

  

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 3

Dear All,

Let us recapitulate one more post which was covered under the theme "Creation of the Universe" as well as "Vedas and Vedanta". 

This post will directly explain what ATMAN is and what BRAHMAN is; which will be very useful as we are entering into the new theme which is all about knowledge of ATMAN or SELF KNOWLEDGE.

Now, to the post which is the essence of chapter 6 of Panchadasi by Sri Vidyaranya.

PURE CANVASS AND DRAWINGS 

Let us visualize a strange situation in the context of the Pure canvas – Starched canvas - Outline of drawings - Inking of drawings and completed drawings appearing on the canvas or a motion show running on the movie screen.

We are seated away from the screen in both cases and we see drawings / human beings of so many different dimensions - some short, some tall, some thin, some fat, some beautiful, some ordinary, some ugly, etc.

Suppose, imagine, a miracle happens and we, at that instant, travel and sit on the canvas ourselves.

What will happen?

Seated on the canvas, how will we be able to see the other varied objects on the canvas? It is impossible because there is no space / no distance between us and the other drawings and the eyes cannot see itself, the eyes can only see things to our right / to our left / in front of us / above us / below us. It cannot see itself, it cannot see anything which exist as itself on the screen, with no space between it and the other drawings.

Correct?

This imagination takes us directly to the highest philosophy, highest truth which is pregnant in all the 100+ Upanishads.

What is the highest truth which follows the above imagination?

·       The pure canvass is Brahman which is referred as Purusha in Panchadasi and Purushottama in Bhagvad Gita.

·       All the fallacies, all the issues, all the karmas are faced by us only because WE EXIST AWAY, AS A SEPARATE IDENTITY, AS MR. SO AND SO, FROM THE PURE CANVASS, FROM  BRAHMAN, FROM GOD.

·       Existing away from God (avidya and asmita) as explained in MBCA, we are seeing / perceiving all drawings, the varied creations, good people, bad people, beautiful people, ugly people, good things, bad things etc. and are disturbed seeing this variety.

·       As per our ego (attachment / hatred), we deal with different human beings, different things perceived by us, standing away from God.

·       GO, MERGE, SIT ON THE SCREEN YOURSELF!!
(Go towards God through spiritual sadhana, merge in God in the climax of your sadhana and exist as God yourself)

·       If you have merged with the screen / God, then how will you see other things / diversities in the canvass / world?

Now, for the ONLY truth which follows from the above, which is the theme / essence of vedantha.

·       The pure canvass is the universal consciousness / absolute consciousness which is referred to as Purusha or Brahman or Paramatman in vedantha.

·       You, the one who have occupied a portion of the canvass is referred to as JIVA.

·       The portion of the pure canvass which has been occupied by you is the individual consciousness or Atman or Jivatma.

·       When, in Sadhana, undertaken with intense craving for God realization (Mumukshatva in vedantha), a day or THE DAY arrives when you have totally discarded your identity with your body, mind, intellect, ego then what happens?

·       The discarding of your identity is to be understood as erasing your identity which is sitting on the pure canvass, occupying a portion of the pure canvass.

·       What happens when your physical identity seated on the canvass is erased?

·       Is it not that the portion of the pure canvass on which you had super imposed your physical identity, GOT FREE??

·       This erasing of your identity is FREEDOM OR MOKSHA.

·       The arrested portion of the pure canvass on which you had super imposed yourself, getting free now, is ATMAN or JIVATMAN

·       With the portion on which you had  been existing on the canvass getting free, it has now regained its original free existence and post erasing, there is no difference between that portion and the other area of the pure canvass. 

·       This non difference explained above is MERGER OF JIVATMAN WITH PARAMATMAN, Merger of Atman with Brahman, Merger of your individual consciousness with absolute, universal consciousness.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 2

Dear All,

The essence of all questions posted in connection with various theme covered in the blog (except the  2 vahinis and the Narada Bhakti Sutras which caste up later) are given in the following  3 questions:

Questions

What is the God existence to be realized by a Jiva as culmination of Sadhana?

Does God exist in universe after creating universe??

What is God consciousness or Brahman actually???

An answer, an expression, A secret

"The Isavasya Upanishad says that the whole Universe is pervaded by Isvara or God, who is both within and without it. He is the moving and the unmoving, He is far and near, He is within all these and without all these."

Now, let us devote time in reading and then absorbing the same in early morning hours, in total silence, with pure mind, on one portion of the above expression "WITHIN"!!

Author is recapitulating the following part from a post under the theme "Creation of Universe".

"Suppose there is a big boulder, a stone. You see the stone; it

is very hard and heavy, and you can touch it as a solid object. 

Bring a sufficiently powerful microscope and look at this stone. You will find that the stone is a heap of very minute, fly-like, insect-like entities called molecules. It is a heap of certain things, and not one solid object.

Bring another, more powerful microscope, more powerful than the earlier one. Even the molecules will not be seen there. There will be still finer elements looking like almost non-cognisable particles which are called atoms.

Bring a still more powerful microscope. You will find that even these little particles melt into a continuum of energy, or force, which impinges on the energy centres which are other atoms. It looks as if there is one sea of force everywhere, an indistinguishable continuum.

What has happened to the stone?

Can you say that this sea of force, these atoms, one day thought: “Let us become a stone”? 

If the atoms have really become the stone, they will not be there for you to see through the microscope. 

You will conclude that they have never become the stone. It is only your vision that presents the perception of a solid object.

These so-called ‘things’ – molecules, atoms, energy centres, etc. – never became the stone. They were never transformed into the stone. They did not create the stone. They exist and have always existed in the same condition as they were when you perceived them through a powerful perception.

The stone has not been created, though it is solidly perceivable. In the same way, the world has not been created, though it is visible to the eyes.

CONCLUSION FOR TODAY

Similar to the stone which was never created, which is actually only a continuum of energy if one reaches to its subtlest existence, we the Jivas , exist with our body at gross level, just as the stone is also visible at a gross level, but exactly like the continuum of energy explained in the case of stone, we the jivas are also actually not the physical form that we are, but we are actually THE SPIRIT / THE SOURCE / THE PURE CONSCIOUSNESS !!!!

Love.