Verse
24
प्रकाशोऽर्कस्य तोयस्य शैत्यमग्नेर्यथोष्णता ।
स्वभावः सच्चिदानन्दनित्यनिर्मलतात्मनः ॥ २४॥
PRAKAASHAH ARKASYA
TOYASYA
SHAITYAM AGNEH YATHAA
USHNATAA
SWABHAAVAH SACHCHIDANANDA
NITYA-NIRMALAT AATMANAH
(As the sun’s nature is
luminosity; that of water is coolness; and that of fire is heat; so too,
the nature of Existence, Knowledge and Bliss, of Eternity and Purity, are of
the Self or Atman).
Knowing
that the mind’s nature cannot be changed, we leave it to its own ways. We do
not fight it, just ignore it. Just as the mind has its own nature, so too, the
Self has its own nature which is the opposite.
Why
not try to be identified with the nature of the Self instead of the mind? This
is what we are being made aware of here. Everything in creation has a nature
which it has to express. The Self has the nature of being eternal, pure,
Existence itself, Consciousness which is of the nature of Knowledge, and Bliss.
These
are not just qualities that we are seeing in a role model outside, but they are
of our very own Self. By shifting our attention to that which is stable and
unchanging within us, we can break away from our mind, whose very nature it is
to be changing all the time. This is the strategy which is being passed on to
us in this verse.
Sankara
gives us three universally known objects whose nature cannot change, and
without which they will be something else. The Example: The Sun, Water, and
Fire.
It
is the Swabhava of these three objects to respectively be luminous, cool and
hot. Without these qualities they will not be what they are. The Self has the
essential qualities mentioned above.
If
we contemplate upon these qualities, we will get closer to the Self, and
thereby feel these developing in us. The Self can only be defined directly in
terms of its essential nature, Satchidananda.
Let us get more deeper into the three essential nature of Atman/
our true Self.
SAT
In
the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, we find a dialogue between a
sage and his son, Shvetaketu.
The
enquiry here is, ‘What is that knowledge by which everything becomes
known?’ And to grasp the answer to this bold question, we must
appreciate the concept that by knowing the cause one can know the effects.
Thus
if you know clay, you know all pots made of clay (you know that all such pots
are nothing but clay), by knowing iron one understands all implements made of
iron, by knowing gold, all gold ornaments are understood as nothing but gold
and so on. In the same way, if we enquire deeply enough, the Upanishad claims,
we shall see that all existent things are nothing but existence itself or pure
existence.
Sat
is the term used for Pure Existence. To explain further, take the traditional
example of a pot — the pot is nothing but its cause, clay; clay is nothing but
its cause prithvi or the earth element, prithvi is nothing but its cause apah
or the water element, and in this way we trace everything back to the primeval
cause, Pure Existence or Sat.
It
is Sat appearing as this world through the mysterious agency of maya. And
‘Thou, O Shvetaketu,’ says the sage, ‘art That!’ By ‘That’ of course, he means,
Sat, Pure Existence. You, your mind and body, and indeed, everything you see
around you, are essentially nothing but Pure Existence, appearing in
multifarious forms, courtesy of maya.
Ignorance
means being unaware of your Sat nature, and consequently being identified with
the body-mind complex with all its attendant problems and sufferings.
Enlightenment is just the reverse — being aware of yourself as Sat and being
free of the body, mind and all samsara.
You
are the immortal, unchanging Sat and the world is a mere shadow, the projection
of maya, passing over you. This does not actually destroy the body or the world
— rather you begin to see things as they really are.
Your
true Self, Sat, is not a thing, an object, among other objects of the universe.
Rather It is the very existence of all things and they are not apart from It.
To a jnani, each object reveals Sat.
We
will take up the 2nd essential nature- Chit,
tomorrow
Love.
