Atma Bodha - Post 28

Verse 20 

आत्मचैतन्यमाश्रित्य देहेन्द्रियमनोधियः ।

स्वक्रियार्थेषु वर्तन्ते सूर्यालोकं यथा जनाः । २०॥

AATMA CHAITANYAM AASHRITYA

DEHA INDRIYA MANAH DHIYAH

SWA-KREEYAARTHESHU VARTANTE

SOORYAA-LOKAM YATHAA JANAAH

(Depending on Self, of the nature of consciousness,   the body, senses, mind and intellect engage in their respective activities just as sunlight heralds activity amongst people.)

In the previous sloka, we learnt that all the activities done are attributed only to the mind and the senses whereas the Self remains untainted by all actions and their results. Then one may get a doubt that do these senses act in their own accord?

And if so are they not sentient and hence the Self? To answer this, Acharya explains in this sloka that just as how people work depending on the daylight of the sun, the senses, mind and intellect seem to act only due to the Consciousness. 

The Witness-ship, seen in the above two verses as a figure of authority that inspires action and as the contractor himself of all activities, is here seen in a third perspective, as the energizer that sets everything in motion.

Aashritya: “depending on”; the Self is first defined as of the nature of Consciousness, to indicate that it is actually just a witness of all the activities taking place.

The body, senses, mind and intellect depend on the Self to do their work. What are they depending upon Him for? – For the power that energizes them or galvanizes them into action.

The analogy of the relationship between the workers and their boss is the best to describe this dependency.

“Sooryalokam Yatha Jana”: The Energizing Sun

The sun has the power of getting things moving. The word Surya itself literally means “that which moves others”. When the sun rises, people ‘move’ – out of their beds!

When the sun rises, the birds start chirping. Everything in nature awaits the signal from the sun before engaging with their work for the day. This beautifully compares with the situation of the Self, who has simply to give consent and all things get done thereafter.

The sun rises up. Its first rays place its signature on the pay cheques of the workers here on earth, and they are happy to plunge into their work thereafter!

Dear All,

In one of the previous verses, we went through a detailed explanation on How consciousness illumines the intellect.

Once the Consciousness illumines intellect, then the EGO of a being goes on to absorb the reflected Consciousness in the intellect and then passes the same to body, mind, senses.

The process of Ego absorbing the reflected consciousness is explained in Drik Drsya Viveka and few other texts with an example of a furnace and an iron ball.

When an Iron ball is brought in connection with furnace, then with the heating process, the iron ball assumes the nature and quality of furnace and glows like the furnace itself.

Exactly in the same way, the ego (iron ball), gets in touch with the reflected consciousness in intellect (Furnace) and then, the ego itself gets conscious / sentient and then from the ego, the reflected consciousness is passed on to body and senses so that the body and senses become conscious!!!

Thus without this consciousness, there is no activity possible. But the Self by itself is ever pure and is not affected by the actions of the senses. 

Senses seem to work only due to consciousness but consciousness is never affected by their actions.

We have to never forget that the illusory duality can never affect the Self. It is only due to ignorance that one perceives the senses, world of duality and hence all the actions. 

Like the sun that illumines any object that comes in front of it without itself being affected, the Self illuminates the physical and the subtle bodies. 

           

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 27

Verse 19

व्यापृतेष्विन्द्रियेष्वात्मा व्यापारीवाविवेकिनाम् ।

दृश्यतेऽभ्रेषु धावत्सु धावन्निव यथा शशी ॥ १९॥

VYAAPRITESHU INDRIYESHU AATMAA

VYAAPAAREE IVA AVIVEKINAAM

DRISHYATE ABHRESHU DHAAVATSU

DHAAVAN IVA YATHAA SHASHEE

(The Atman, observed through the active senses   by the non-discriminating people, is as if active in appearance; when the clouds move in the sky, it seems as though the moon were running)

In Verse 18, the Witness-ship was focused on authority, awe and respect; it did not get into contact with the work.

In this verse, the same Witness-ship is seen as if performing the activity, although it is in reality untouched by the activity. We have to consider the example first in this case, to properly grasp the real situation.

 “Dhaavan Iva Yatha Shashee” Simile

Imagine - It is twilight; a group of clouds are flying through the skies. In between them we see the moon. From a scooter the little boy, holding fast to his dad, stares at the moon. He screams to dad, ‘Hey, father, look the moon is chasing us. Will it reach home before us? Quick, go faster, let’s beat it!’ This is how a child would see the moon racing with his scooter!

What does this teach us? How far away is the moon? – Never too far away to avoid taking the blame for our activities on earth!  

The Self is in a similar situation. Although it remains only as a witness of what is going on “under its nose”, yet in the eyes of one who has not learnt to discriminate, the Aviveki, it appears as if the Self is acting.

For an ignorant person who mistakes the mind and the senses as the Self, Self appears to be limited. It is only when there is a false cognition of Self that there arises misery due to thoughts such as “I am sad”, “I am poor”, “I did this” etc. but the Self like the moon is ever blissful and is never the enjoyer or the doer of any actions. 

It is only the ego that creates this illusion. Hence for a wise one who discriminates between the reality and the non-duality, for one who knows the real nature of Self, there can never be any miseries.

In an earlier verse, we learnt clearly as to how consciousness illumines intellect.

Going further, the ego of a human being borrow such reflected consciousness from intellect and it mistakes that it is consciousness and it totally ignores the truth that it has only borrowed the consciousness reflected in the intellect, so that the body, the mind all can be conscious.

Thus, this verse is all about the mistaken notion of the ego that it is consciousness and thus, the ego mistakes all actions done by itself as reality, exactly like the child saw the moon and thought, the moon is moving!!!

It is a little difficult to absorb but those who contemplate in depth can take this part.

Due to the Self’s proximity to the scene of action, it is viewed as if it is performing the actions. There is a complete transference of doership from the Upadhis that are involved in the action, to the Self which is independent of these Upadhis and who is not affected by the actions.

Hence it is very essential for a seeker to know that all the duality and hence the actions are illusions only and are perceived only due to the ego arising due to ignorance of one’s true nature. And that any actions can never be done by the Self and that ‘I am verily bliss alone’ and hence all the actions can never affect Self, just like the movement of clouds on moon. This is what Acharya says in Atmashatkam also as “Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojyam Na Bhokta; Chidananda Rupa Shivoham Shivoham”

The Self is Asanga (unattached), Kutastha (unaffected) and Chidrupa (pure consciousness). Yet it is seen by the unknowing intellect as being the actor itself of all the numerous actions performed by the body and mind.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 26

Verse 18

देहेन्द्रियमनोबुद्धिप्रकृतिभ्यो विलक्षणम् ।

तद्वृत्तिसाक्षिणं विद्यादात्मानं राजवत्सदा ॥ १८॥

Deha indriya manah buddhih

prakritibhyah vilakshanam

tadvritti saakshinam vidyaat

aatmaanam rajavat sadaa

[The body, senses, mind and intellect  constitute Prakriti or matter; distinct from them, and known to be their witness, is the Atman or Self, always like the King(distinct from the crowd)]

  

Here we are introduced to the practice of being a witness to the five sheaths (i.e. the three bodies). The essential quality of being a witness is to remain “uninvolved”. A witness in a court of law has to be someone who saw what happened, but from a neutral perspective, not taking any sides.

Similarly, being a witness to our three bodies requires us to consciously remain neutral and not take sides, either towards likes or towards dislikes. That “un-involvement” is only possible if we see ourselves as NOT being these sheaths, that is, we see them as instruments we are using, but not identified with them in any way. “They are ours, we are not them”. That is the requirement for being a witness.

“Rajavat Sada” Simile

What simile can reflect this witness-ship better than a King who:

Simply by his presence among his ministers, gets them to do their job with perfect loyalty. If it is announced that the King is coming to a certain place, without any effort from the King, all the necessary arrangements for his visit are made automatically and people gather there in their thousands.

This air of authority, respect and confidence which the King instills in his subjects merely by his presence, is what Sri Sankara wishes to convey by choosing a King as the simile for the Self in this verse.

·       A King with such faithful ministers can sleep peacefully. His kingdom runs smoothly and efficiently.

·       He is not called upon to interfere in the state affairs.

·       He remains a perfect witness of all state matters.

Exactly in the same way, we should exist as witness consciousness, the Supreme SELF always where:

·       In our state of existence as witness, all the work is carried out by our body, mind, intellect on their own

·       We the witness, remain peaceful, blissful, while our body and senses perform the required functions smoothly

·       Witness, in a court, is the one who is supposed to have seen the incident but has not participated in the same. Similarly, while our Gross body and our subtler mind / antahkarana perform all the functions, we remain as witness, always aware that we are not the one who is acting there in his (our) physical identity.

Dear All,

All the above expressions may sound theoretical as we are seldom able to experience ourselves as witness to all that is going on within us, around us, to whatever we are doing or whatever is happening to us.

But to stand as a testimony to this verse, there are Self Realized masters and monks in advance state in spiritual evolvement who have existed in this world. Few of them exist even now.

There are masters like Swami Sivananda, his Disciple Swami Chinmayananda, Swami Vivekananda, Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda, Mata Amritananda Mayi and so on.

All of them were running a massive spiritual organization and in most of their organization, there were major service activities like running hospitals etc, and also there were educational institutions, besides their spiritual centre imparting spiritual knowledge to their disciples and to general public.

We can imagine how much work is involved in managing such vast institutions. Still, those who have observed these masters from close quarters sincerely and with reverence would have observed that while their body may be involved for 18 hours a day non-stop, 24/7, 365 days in a year, the peace and bliss radiated by them would clearly reveal how they exist as witness to all that is going on around them.  

Author has been fortunate to experience one such master, seated in the presence of the master, witnessing her involved apparently in some matter relating to the hospital under Her organization, talking to Her administration staff on hospital matter for 45 minutes and the author sat there, observing Her and with the peace within the author, he could clearly know and even experience the bliss and peace within that Master who existed as witness consciousness even when Her body was intensely involved in matter relating to the world. 

And, speaking of our divine Lord Sathya Sai, as far as His Human Avatar is concerned, Hospitals, Ashram, University and how many things He had to handle during the period He existed in physical form?

Still, How He existed!!

In this verse, it talks about being witness to one's Gross, Subtle and Causal body, to one's action in this world. 

And, as far as Sai is concerned, leave along being witness to His Body's functioning, He stood as witness to the functioning / right or wrong doings of the entire human race and still, what Bliss was radiated in the Hall when he glided / floated amongst a sea of devotees gathered!!!

Rightly therefore, while the verse gives the example of a King standing as witness to his Kingdom, his durbar and yet remaining peaceful, when it comes to Bhagawan, we learnt and sang samarpan bhajans in Sadan when we addressed Him as,

"Prashanti Mandir Ke Maha Raja,

Parthi Puri Tera Dham"

and

"Shiva Shakti Avatar, Sai Pooorna Avatar, 

Rajaadi Raj, Sathya Sai Maharaj"

Such a state of existence can be known by seeing such masters and can be experienced ONLY when one exists verily as witness consciousness, unperturbed by whatever that happens to him / his family / society etc.

Love.