Jnana Vahini - Post 12

Dear Readers,

From now onwards, some portions from Jnana Vahini are skipped and most relevant portions are being addressed to, in the blog.

Swami Writes, 

“Look at the clouds that wander across the sky; note that they have no intimate lasting relationship with the sky which they hide but for a few minutes.

Such is the relationship between your body and You, that is to say, You who are of the nature of Paramatma. The body is but a temporary passing phase, hiding and clouding the truth.

How can the body's behavior - wakefulness, dream and sleep - affect in any way the Eternal Consciousness, the Paramatma?

What of your shadow? Is it not something separate from you? Does its length or clarity or career affect you in any way? Understand that the same is the relationship between the body and Yourself. 

If you take this bundle of flesh and bone as yourself, consider what happens to it, and how long you can call it 'mine'. Pondering over this problem is the beginning of Jnana.

This physical frame, built out of earth, fire, water, wind and ether, breaks up into its components, as built-up things do. Only ignorance will take it as Real; only the uneducated will attach value to it as permanent and eternal. 

Did this body exist before birth? Does it persist after death? No. It appears and disappears, with an interval of existence! Therefore, it has no absolute value; it is to be treated only as the cloud or the shadow.

As a matter of fact, this physical world is like the mango tree raised by the magician's wand, the product of the trickster known as Mind. 

Just as clay takes the form of pot and pan and plate and after an interval becomes once again clay, shapeless clay, so too, all this is the formless Sath - Chith - Ananda; the Niraakaara appearing with Aakaara for some time, on account of the delusion and ignorance of the Mind. 

(Author’s note - Swami compares the shadow and the sky, with our unreal identity and real identity, thus:-

Sky = Man’s real identity - SATH

Shadow that covers the sky for some time = Man’s body / identification with body.

Shadow – Remains only for some time and passes away

Human body compared to shadow – Also is formed on birth and perishes on death

Human body – Built out of 5 elements, as any other matter.

Then, Swami talks about the creation with example of a magician thus:

Magician = Mind

Mango tree / any object brought by magician by trick = This physical world (projected by one’s mind)

Swami concludes, 

Clay takes form of pot but exists as clay, even after the pot is broken

Similarly, all names / forms = Pot, arising out of the clay = SAT CHIT ANANDA

All names and forms = Mind’s projection out of ignorance).

Love.