Sandeha Nivarini - Post 30

Dear All,

Let us take the essence of Swami's teachings in the last 2 posts and get a little more deeper into the same, with Swami's grace.

Two reasons for doubting in one's ability to progress in sadhana.

First Reason

Swami: The first reason for that is lack of faith in yourself, faith born out of the conviction that you are really the embodiment of the Atma (Atma-swarupa). 

Second Reason

Taking the divinity in humanity as only humanity and getting lost in the pursuit of sense enjoyment. These demons pounce on you for just these two reasons. Instead, if you establish yourself in God, understanding the divinity in people as divinity itself, this demon of doubt will not attack you. You simply must give up this superimposition (adhyasa), which makes you mix things up.

Swami: The “I” is separate from the body, mind, etc. The “I”

simply superimposes on the soul —that is, on Itself, the body consciousness and the internal behaviors of the mind, etc. “I am fair”, says the soul, superimposing upon itself something with which it has no connection. “I am dumb”, it says, making the same mistake about the senses. It says it has this desire and that and imposes on itself the activities of the mind, etc. All this is mere superimposition.

Swami: You see the Supreme Atma (Param-atma) in this form of nature (prakriti) and take it to be the mere world (prapancha), and you are afraid. It is on account of this delusion that you have become the victim of all these varieties of weakness and are declining through doubt and illusion. 

Dear All,

Swami has talked about 2 levels in super imposition.

1) At the creation level where, the supreme Paramatma, the Purusha explained in creation posts, the Brahman explained in Veda and Vedantha posts, is mistaken as this created world.

Here, the created world, the objects seen and felt and experienced are super imposed on the Paramatman.

2) At human being level-  We superimpose our identity as our Body, Our mind, Our intellect, on the Real Identity of each one of us- The Self or Jivatman or Pure consciousness!!!

This super imposition or Adhyasa is explained in Vedantha with the example of a Rope and Snake.

Snake may be taken as the real identity - The SELF or The Paramatman

Rope may be taken as the mistaken identity - The world, we the body, mind.

So, what happens, a man sees a rope which is exactly hanging  in the shape of a Snake in darkness and is filled with fear of Snake and cries out.

Second example is Ghost and a post.

Exactly as in the case of Snake and Rope, in darkness, with the shadow of a post ( an iron  post seen on the sides of Roads) seen on the floor, an ignorant man takes it to be a ghost and is filled with fear. His belief is that the  object seen with the shadow is 100% ghost!!!!

So, what solution Swami gives for the above mistaken super imposition and the fear one undergoes, the misery one undergoes due to such super imposition???

We will see in the next post.

Love.