Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 10

Chapter IV

The Miracle of Miracles

The children of India (Bharathiyas) believe that they are, each one, the Atma, the eternal Self. They are aware that the Atma cannot be cut in twain by the sword, that fire cannot burn It, that water cannot wet It, and that the wind cannot dry It. 

The Atma has no bounds. Its centre is in the body, but, its circumference is nowhere. Death means the Atma has shifted from one body to another. This is the belief that every Indian has firmly in mind.

The Atma is not subject to material or worldly limitations or laws. By Its very nature, It is free; It is Unbound; It is Purity; It is Holiness; It is Fullness. 

But, since it is associated with material, inert, bodies, It imagines that it is also a product of material composition. This is the wonder, the mystery, the miracle that It manifests! To unravel this mystery and explain this miracle are beyond the capacity of anyone.

Atma is unbound, eternal, full

How could the Full (purna) Atma get entangled in the delusion that It is “not full” (a-purna), “a fraction”, “incomplete”? Some people might say that the Indians (Bharathiyas) who declare that the awareness of incompleteness itself can never arise are attempting to wriggle out of an impossible situation. 

They might say that this is but a stratagem to cover up their ignorance of the Truth. How can the Pure, the Unpartitionable, lose Its nature to the slightest extent? The Indians are simple and sincere, and their nature is seldom artificial. 

They would never attempt to wriggle out of a situation by resorting to specious arguments. They have the courage to encounter in a brave way any problem before them.

Therefore, the answer to the question posed is: The delusion cannot happen! There is no basis for the error of imputing “incompleteness” for the “complete”. The “full” entity called Atma can never imagine Itself as “wanting” or “less than full” or feel that It is limited or controlled by the material sheath whose core It is.

Everyone knows that they feel they are the body. Can anyone announce how this feeling arose and persisted? No one can offer to answer this question. 

For, to say, as some do, that it is the will of God, is no answer at all. The plain statement, “I do not know” conveys the same meaning, as the statement “It is the will of God”. 

One is no wiser at the latter statement than after hearing the first. What remains is this: “The Atma in the individual (jivatma) is eternal, immortal, full. There is no death; what appears so is the shifting of its center.”

 

Summary- Essence

If today’s portion of Swami’s writing has to be explained, then one has to take up any of the Upanishads or Vedanta treatise and write down the essence of that entire treatise.

The first part of today’s post has been elaborated in the second chapter of Bhagwad Gita

Here the unseen has been explained by means of the seen to indicate its nature. The changeless Self is explained with the aid of ever changing world which is familiar to Arjuna and others. In the world of change, objects meet their end by means of instruments of destruction like weapons, fire, water and wind.

Arjuna’s grief was based on the assumption that he would be killing the elders and other relatives by striking them with lethal weapons. Hence in order to remove his grief the Lord points out the immortality and formlessness of the soul by pointing out the inability of all the four elements of earth, water, fire and air to destroy it. The body is perishable and possessed of a form; the soul is everlasting and formless. 

Therefore, the soul can never be destroyed by the elements of earth in the form of weapons or by the elements of water, fire and air and so it is sheer ignorance to lament for it.

Continuing the import of the previous verse, The Lord says that if a thing cannot be annihilated by any means of destruction discovered by man such an object must be everlasting. Since the Self is indestructible, it is necessarily everlasting. 

That which is everlasting, or eternal will pervade everywhere. All-pervading indicates that It has only itself all around It and it is unconditioned by anything other than Itself.

That which is eternal and all-pervading must be stable meaning no change can ever happen to It. That which is stable is immovable. Mobility or moving implies the transfer of an object or person from one set of time and place to another set of time and place where they were not there already. 

Since Self is all-pervading there cannot be any place or period of time where It was not there before. As the Self is unconditioned by the concept of time It is said to be ancient.

When Swami writes the lines “The “full” entity called Atma can never imagine Itself as “wanting” or “less than full” or feel that It is limited or controlled by the material sheath whose core It is”, it takes us to the shanti  mantra of the Isavasya Upanishad

This mantra explains that Brahman is complete and whole and the universe, caused by Brahman is also complete and whole.

Brahman remains complete/Purnam, changeless, even while He creates this universe, with Brahman being the efficient, material and the instrument cause for this creation to emerge.

Thus, as Swami writes, “There can never be a delusion for the SELF to be incomplete/A purna” ever.

Love.