Jnana Vahini - Post 25

The Atma is always content and blissful. To you, one thing appears more attractive than another and so this sensual attachment and affection are the results of delusion and desire. 

The attachment to the Atma will not undergo any modifications; even when the senses and the body fall, the Atma will remain and infuse bliss. It is unlimited and indestructible. Everyone has attachment to the Self, or Atma. 

It is of the nature of Paramananda. For this reason, it is also described as of the nature of Sat, Chit and Ananda.

Are these three the characteristics or qualities of the Atma? Or are they its essence, its nature? A doubt of this type may arise. Redness, heat and splendor are the nature of Fire, not its attributes. Atma, too, in the same manner, has Sat, Chit and Ananda as its very nature. Liquidity, coldness and taste are of the very nature of Water; yet, water everywhere is the same, not diverse.

(Author's note - Swami clarifies here that Sat-chit-ananda is not the characteristic of Atman like we describe all other objects in this world with their characteristic but sat-chit-ananda is the very nature of Atman, not mere attributes of Atman)

The Eternal Knower - Chaitanya

Atma is Chit and all else is jada. Atma alone can know, nothing else is capable of knowing; and Atma knows that all else is Atma. Can the pot know the Akasa inside it? 

Though it does not know, the Akasa is there all the same. But the Atma in man knows even the inert that is of the senses. Thus, the body, the house, the field, the village, the country, are all "known"; so too, the unseen items like heaven etc., are 'understood'.

In dream, though one experiences multiplicity, one knows that they are unreal creations of one's own mind; this is clear to the witness of the dream. Similarly, the experience of the waking stage also is a mental picture, at the most. 

Some people declare that they have had Realization! How can it be taken as true? When according to the statement, "Aham Brahmaasmi", one understands that "I am Brahman", the Jivi who is the 'I' is a mutable entity, a Vikari. How can he possibly grasp it? A destitute cannot realize that he is a monarch; so too, a mutable entity like man cannot grasp the immutable Brahman or posit that he is Brahman.

(Author’s note - In the last para, what Swami is revealing? He is drawing our attention between idam and aham which we understood in Upadesa Saram, He is teaching us the difference between Aham which is pure and Ahankara which is Ego.

So, till the time one exists as pure Aham or Sat-chit-ananda, he cannot say that he has realized SELF / Brahman. And, when one actually roars that he has attained realization, then, there is no thought, no mind, no ego involved there. Such a roar is from and as the source and not from the Jiva.

How is that roar?? 

Janaka reveals about His… ne... THAT state, in Ashtavakra Gita when He says,

aho ahaṁ namo mahyaṁ

vināśo yasya nāsti me

brahmādistaṁbaparyantaṁ

jagannāśo’pi tiṣṭhataḥ

How wonderful am I! Adoration to myself, who knows no destruction, surviving even beyond the destruction of the entire world from Brahma down to a clump of clay.

aho ahaṁ namo mahyaṁ

eko’haṁ dehavānapi

kvacinna gantā nāgantā

vyāpya viśvamavasthitaḥ

Wonderful am I! Glory to myself who, though with a body, am One, who neither goes anywhere nor comes from anywhere but abide forever, pervading the Universe.

aho ahaṁ namo mahyaṁ

dakṣo nāstīha matsamaḥ

asaṁspṛśya śarīreṇa yena

viśvaṁ ciraṁ dhṛtam

Wonderful am I! I bow down to myself! There is no one so clever as I, who is bearing the Universe for all eternity without even touching it with my body!

aho ahaṁ namo mahyaṁ 

yasya me nāsti kiṁcana

athavā yasya me sarvaṁ 
yad vāṅmanasagocaram

Wonderful am I! I bow down to myself! I who possess nothing at all or possess everything that is thought or spoken of.

It has to be known clearly that all along when Janaka says "I am" in the above verses, the I referred is beyond his body, mind, intellect, vasanas, senses. It is the Pure SELF, SAT-CHIT-ANANDA which is the very nature of "I" when Janaka roars - "How wonderful AM I".

Love.