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.
