Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 56

 

 

Science of absolute truth

 

Vedanta is the legitimate property of every section, caste, community, and race, of the followers of any faith, and of people of both sexes. Vedanta means supreme spiritual wisdom (jnana). Wisdom relating to which field of knowledge? Knowledge of the Atma. This wisdom is the highest gain that can be earned in life. 

 

The object seen is clearly separate from the subject who sees. This is a universally accepted truth. Who is this “I” that sees? All things that have form are recognized and seen by the sense organ, the eye. The body is also a thing that the eye sees, along with the rest. So, how can we conclude that the body is the I?

 

Then, who really is this “I”? Fire burns and also brightens. It burns things by heat and brightens them by the light it sheds. Fire is different from the things it acts upon. Now, who is it that knows this truth — the truth that fire and the things that burns are different? 

 

It is the Atma, the divine Self. When log burns, the fire is present and active in all of it. Similarly, the Atma pervades the entire body and enables it to perform deeds and to move itself and its limbs. 

 

 

Never-changing Self-reality

 

Now about the self, or “I”. It operates in two fields, so it has two meanings: (1) egotism (ahamkara), the body consciousness, the exterior “I” and (2) the inner “I” (pratyagatma). People who do not know this distinction confuse themselves and assert that “I” is applicable to the body consciousness, but this is wrong. As we have seen, the body is a tool, it is an object, it is the seen and not the see-er. How can the ego, identified with it, be the Atma? 

 

This ego also is of the “seen” category. It is absent in sleep and plays false in dreams. Truth has to persist unaffected, in the past, present, and future. How can that which is absent in two states be true?

 

 

Atma is its own proof

 

The Atma is consciousness, as fire is heat and the sun is light. It has no affinity with distress or delusion; it is supreme everlasting ecstasy (paramananda). It is the core, the heart of all beings; it is the awareness in all. It is the seer of everything “seen”; it sees all objects seen.

 

The scriptures (sastras), which are texts supplementary to the Vedas, declare that God resides wherever six excellences are evident: enthusiasm, determination, courage, good sense, strength, and adventure (utsaha, sa- hasam, dhairya, sadbuddhi, sakthi, and parakrama). The inaugural prayer has to be directed to God (Ganapathi) to gain these six gifts, which can purify consciousness and reveal the Atma. One has to undertake the discovery of one’s Atmic core with bravery in the heart; this is no exercise for cowards. Wicked people, waverers in faith, doubting hearts, woeful countenances, are destined to go through life as sick persons (rogis) and not dwellers in Atma (yogis).

 

This is the distinguishing mark that separates the wise (jnani) from the unwise. Krishna spoke, laughing with an outburst of joy; Arjuna listened, overpowered by sorrow. The wise one is always full of joy and laughs. The unwise one is afflicted with sorrow and weeps.

 

Continued…

 

Love.