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.