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.
