Dear readers,
From now onwards, the main and important
extract from each chapter, starting from 14th chapter in this post, shall first
be posted and then in the next couple of posts, we will try and go deeper
into the essence of the main extract.
Entire chapter by chapter may not be
taken up as it is.
Universal “I”
"Every living being refers to
itself as “I”, “I am Rama”, “I am Krishna”, “I am Sita”, “I am Radha”. Each
assumes the “I” as their own and uses it whenever they have to designate themself.
When we spend some time thinking this
over, it will be clear that some great mystery is embedded in the expression
“I”.
But who probes into this mystery? And
among those who have dared to probe, how many have succeeded in unraveling it ?
Even if a few have unraveled the mystery, how many among them have used the
discovery to transform their lives?
In the Gita, in the following and
similar declarations, Sri Krishna refers to “I”, doesn’t He?
So this expression “I” is clearly omnipresent; it is the sign and symbol of all individual souls (jivatmas); it has unlimited forms and appearances. Like the string that passes through the rosary beads, it interpenetrates and holds together all names and forms.
The body is only the container, the
sheath. Nevertheless, imposing differences and distinctions based on physical
characteristics and material considerations, some are elevated as “touchable”
and some condemned as “untouchable”; some are classified as “high” and others
as “low”.
Really, when you dive into its
significance, the word “I” leads you to the supreme Godhead. “That is you”,
“That is I”, “I and that are One”, this what the great Vedic dictum “That thou
art (Thath thwam asi)” declares. This
is the very core of all teaching, the grandest of counsels.
This sacred principle embodied in the
“I” is beyond the grasp of the most learned scholars by means of lone inquiry,
without guides and helpers. However, the guides have to be aware of the truth
and be earnest in living the truth. It is beyond the reach of scholarship,
logic, and grammar. Note that these are warnings administered by the Vedas and
law codes (sruthis and smrithis).
Well. Whoever intends to learn in a
general way about this “I” and its implications can be told the secret in just
three sentences:
I am active in the daytime, when I am
awake. I sleep at night, and experience dreams. Thus, acting and experiencing
both day and night, I die.
Koham: Who am I?
When one considers these statements of
the individual, one can conclude that they are based on the individual’s
knowledge gained from this life. “The I begins, when I am born”, one believes.
But, did this “I” exist before birth? If it did, how can an existing thing be
said to be born? Even if this objection is ignored, how did it exist, and
where? Was it disembodied apart from name and form? Was it beyond the pale of
the senses? Doubts such as these pursue the seeker in waves. It has to be
understood clearly that the “I” is not related or affixed to one object, thing,
or being, to one name and form.
Remember this: when you identify and
recognize the “I” or arrive at the true answer to the question “Who am I?”, you
have identified and recognized the entire cosmos and its mysteries.
It may be asked, what exactly the
urgency is to understand the meaning of this “I”, when there is an infinite
number of topics in the universe that call for study. One can well try to
unravel the secrets of the cosmos. Or, attention may be paid to understand what
is meant by the “individual soul (jivi)”
or by “God (Deva)”. When such
profound subjects as the universe, the individualized Divine, the Divine Itself
— subjects that are incomparably important — are clamouring for attention, why
give them up and investigate the meaning of expression used by common folk and
children, this “I”? Of what benefit it can be, people may ask.
The expression is simple, of course, but its implications are infinite and fundamentally satisfying. This is why all great teachers exhort the seekers to “Know Thyself”, “Inquire into yourself, since that alone can give you release”. The scriptures also confirm this exhortation.
The scriptures extol the importance and value of this inquiry and make it clear that inquiry into the Atma is essential. The assurance is given that the Atma is you, yourself, as in the sacred axiom “That thou art (Thathwam asi)”.
Therefore, to fulfil the yearning, you
first have to inquire into this mystery of who you are. You can then realize
that you are eternal (nithya), beyond
the boundaries of time. The scriptures will help you cast away the ignorance (a-jnana), the dark clouds of ignorance
that now hide this truth from your awareness. Then, you can delight at the
experience of the awareness of your genuine nature.
Mere worldly scholarship cannot delve
into the meaning of the Vedas. The grace of God has to be won by devotion and
dedication, and that grace alone, the compassionate glance of the eye of God
alone, can instil in one the real meaning of the Vedas.
Only people who are embodiments of
divine wisdom and compassion can decide what exactly is helpful to the
spiritual progress and well-being of humanity. Others only flounder and find it
impossible to cope with the task.
Unity of individual Self with Supreme
Self
Many preceptors and teachers declare
that the path of inquiry into oneself is the path of liberation. “Self-inquiry
leads to liberation (Swavimarso mokshah)”
is the assurance. “That is the Atma; that is myself.” “I and the Atma are not
different.” “The Atma and the Paramatma are not separate.”
The yarn “I” is both warp and woof of
the cloth, the Atma. When the “I” yarn is found in different bodies and feels
that in each body it is distinct from the rest, the Atma cloth can be said to
disappear; but in both yarn and cloth, one substance persists forever, in spite
of how each feels: that substance is “cotton”. So too, the supreme Self (Paramatma) persists as the only truth in
the “I”, the Atma. Without the cotton, the supreme Self, there can be no “I”
yarn; without the “I” yarn, there can be no Atma cloth. Those three — Paramatma, Atma, and I — are only
names and forms for the ONE —the Paramatma,
the ONE Atma, the DIVINE Atma, the Supreme Self.
Love.
