Atma Bodha - Post 31

Verse 23

रागेच्छासुखदुःखादि बुद्धौ सत्यां प्रवर्तते ।

सुषुप्तौ नास्ति तन्नाशे तस्माद्बुद्धेस्तु नात्मनः ॥ २३॥

RAAGA-ICCHHAA-SUKHA-DUKHA-AADI

BUDDHAU SATYAAM PRA-VARTATE

SUSHUPTAU NA ASTI TAT NAASHE

TASMAAT BUDDHEH TU NA AATMANAH

(Attachment, desire, pleasure, pain, etc, are perceived only when the intellect functions. In deep sleep, when the intellect is absent, they too are absent. Therefore, they belong to the mind alone and not the Atman. )

Placing himself in the shoes of an objector, suppose, someone asks, “You are asking me to take all my attention away from the things I like. What kind of life are you asking me to live? Whatever you may say about desires, I feel very much that I am those desires. Is there any proof you can give of your statements apart from all these examples. I am tired of your similes. They are only similes, where is the proof that this is so?”

  

These objections are to be expected, but the Vedantin is rooted in sound logic and observation of life without any bias. Here, in this verse, Sankara resists the temptation of giving a simile, in order to answer the above doubt.

Where Do Attachments, Desires and Pleasures Reside?

We experience all these only as long as the intellect or mind functions. As soon as the mind is not available, as in deep sleep, these tendencies, desires, attachments, and so on, also cease. Is that not proof enough that they exist only in the mind and not the Atman? Hence, they cannot be the Self.  

The logic of this verse is undeniable. It is simple and clear. The conclusion Sri Sankaracharya expects us to draw from it is that these are mental conditionings and we should not identify ourselves with them, unless we don’t mind being kicked about whichever way the mind blows.

One of the monks from Chinmaya mission gives some excellent examples for this verse, though Sankara has not given any simile for this verse.

1. A buffalo is walking past as you cross the road. Buffalos are always a nuisance to traffic, but you have no need to make that your problem unless, of course, you somehow feel that you are that buffalo! That is what we are doing to the thought-buffalos of our mind. They are not “me”; we should just observe them and ignore them. But when we make them “me”, that is when we are asking for trouble.

2. We see a boat rocking in the water at the river bank. After watching it for some time, we ‘take over’ the rocking movement and feel as if we are rocking with it. Why? – Because we identify with it.

3. A Mahatma was trying to teach a student how to handle the mind. He took two stones and kept rubbing them against each other. His student, watching this, asked why this was being done. The Mahatma said, “I am trying to make these stones white.”

 

The student said it was not possible to do that; the stones will never become white. Then the Mahatma smiled at him and said, “It is the same with this mind. We can never change it; we have only to learn to be indifferent to it. However much we try, we will never make it Brahman.

4. And the last example: Suppose we have just completed a long 2-day journey to Sidhbari in the Himalayas. When we get off the train, for quite a while we find ourselves still swaying like we were doing in the train. It is hard to keep balance, until we adjust slowly to being motionless again.

There is a Self within us that is steady and unflickering. It does not follow the vagaries of the mind. It is stable and steady, silent and peaceful, desireless and unattached.

Love.