Atma Bodha - Post 47

Verse 37

एवं निरन्तराभ्यस्ता ब्रह्मैवास्मीति वासना ।

हरत्यविद्याविक्षेपान् रोगानिव रसायनम् ॥ ३७॥

EVAM NIRANTARA-ABHYASTAA

BRAHMA EVA ASMI ITI VAASANAA

HARATI AVIDYAA-VIKSHEPAAN

ROGAAN IVA RASAAYANAM

[Thus, by constant, endless practice of the thought “I am Brahman”, the impression created destroys ignorance and mental agitations,  just as medicine destroys diseases.]

From verse 25 to 37 we have journeyed from a state of “indiscriminate mixing” productive of the most serious of all blunders in human evolution, to the serene state of infinite peace and purity that transcends all duality.

What a vast ground to have covered! And where did all this take place? In that crucible or laboratory of all thought processes – the human intellect. We have used intellect for its highest purpose: to establish the “I am Brahman” thought as a counter - Vasana in the causal body to eradicate ignorant Vasanas.

For this reason – to perceive the real self, we took the help of Sravanam, Mananam – for first understanding the Nature of our SELF and then for clearly ingraining this understanding in us without an iota of doubt. 

But, this is just the path but not yet the final goal post. We need to do Nidhidhyasanam, a sort of contemplation / Meditation process – on our real nature, for as long as it takes to totally identify with the “Brahman” and dis-identifying with the Anatma. This process started with Vs.31 and is continuing.

“I am the Brahman” is the Key understanding in Nidhidhyasanam.

With “Aham Brahma Asmi” I become the master, I become free of all dualities, I become the eternal, supreme Consciousness bliss. My responses to worldly situations will become infinitely better.

My avidya and its related vaasanas are totally destroyed and will fail to have even an iota of influence on me. This is the biggest advantage I get from Nidhidhyasanam even for my worldly life.

The Nyaya of “Roganiva Rasayanam”: Medicine Destroys Diseases

The medicine that destroys the most widespread of diseases that perplexes humanity - IGNORANCE. To produce a medical cure takes a long time. Much research is needed to analyze information as well as various chemical processes. 

To then produce the medicine requires more laborious effort, trying to get the best conditions to carry out the chemistry needed to produce it.

Thus this simile fits excellently in describing the laborious effort or Abhyasa that we need to put in to bring us to the threshold of spiritual illumination. 

Since the disease here is of the nature of ignorance, the cure produced is of the nature of knowledge. Knowledge is the only antidote for ignorance, even as medicine is the only cure for disease.

The knowledge is obtained from hearing it, no doubt, but much else goes into it from that point onward in overcoming doubts, and undergoing further purification in thinning out the strength of old impressions that contradict this knowledge. Vedantic Cure Compared With Other Cures This work is well and aptly represented by the medicine analogy.

One can use a medicine that will just get rid of the symptoms of the disease; this gives temporary relief from the disease. Then one can get a medicine that goes to the root of the disease and “roots it out”. 

This may take longer, but it is more effective in the long run. Similarly, in the comparison with a spiritual cure, the Vedantic medicine goes to the very root of all diseases, namely, ignorance or Avidya itself.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 46

Verse 36 (This is What I Am)

नित्यशुद्धविमुक्तैकमखण्डानन्दमद्वयम् ।

सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं यत्परं ब्रह्माहमेव तत् ॥ ३६॥

NITYA, SHUDDHA, VIMUKTAIKAM,

AKHANDA-AANANDAM ADVAYAM

SATYAM JNAANAM ANANTAM YAT

PARAM BRAHMA AHAM EVA TAT

[Eternal, pure, ever-liberated and One, indivisible Bliss, and non-dual Existence, Knowledge and Infinite; I am verily that Supreme Brahman.]

“AHAM” is again the key word in this verse.

NITHYA SHUDDHAM:  I am ever pure. I am not affected by the impurities of the dualities like sukha, dukha at any time.

VIMUKTHAHA:  I am always liberated and free - in the past, the present or the future.

EKAM: I am the one and the only one without a second.

AKHANDAM: I have no parts or divisions and I cannot be divided into any such individual parts. The Anaatma has several parts. Sareeram has many parts. Mind has many parts. But, I, the Atma, am division-less.

AANANDAM: I am the eternal Bliss. I have no inadequacies. I do not miss anything. I do not have any regrets. When any thing comes into my life or goes out of my life, it creates no ripples in me. I am the aanandam, the eternal bliss

ADVAYAM:  I am one without a second.  I am all pervading, including the Sareera Thrayam and the world. I am the cause of every thing. Everything is merely my reflection and is Mithya. I am therefore the only one without a second.

SATHYAM, JNANAM, ANANTHAM BRAHMA:  This is again the definition of Brahma. Sathyam means Pure Existence. Death, Pralayam etc does not affect my existence – but only of the Sareera thrayam and the external world. JNANAM means - I am pure consciousness. ANANTHAM means - I am beginning-less and end-less but is infinite in time and space.

YATH PARAM BRAHMA: The one with these characteristics is the PARAM BRAHMA (Supreme Brahma).

AHAM YEVA THATH: I am that Param Brahma. I AM THE ABSOLUTE, INFINITE BRAHMAN.

Again an assertion is made as to who we really are. And again we have nine qualities painted before us in a panorama of exquisite beauty.

To contemplate on these thoughts is the way to directly experience the Self. This concludes the Nididhyasana or meditation upon the Self. In the process, we have unearthed the richest of spiritual treasure.

The Brahma Nishtha sage drinks his fill of these qualities as though they are nectar to him. Since beginning the quest for perfection from verse 30, starting with the doctrine of negation, we have completed all the three Lakshanas or definitions or pointers to the Self. This verse gives the final, Swaroopa Lakshana, the direct pointer to the Self by telling us what It actually is.

Satyam, Jnaanam, Anantam:

This is a very familiar Upanishadic statement appearing in the Taittiriya Upanishad, and dealt with in great detail in Sankara Bhashya on that Upanishad. Here, Sri Sankara repeats the words as they are the most eloquent expression to describe the nature of the Self.

This Taittriya Upanishad verse gave the complete expression on “BRAHMAN” for the first time, with the clarity found in very few Upanishad verses. The verse says,

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD | 2.1.1 |

OM! brahmavidapnoti param | tadesa'bhyukta | satyam jnanamanantam brahma | yo veda nihitam guhayam parame vyoman | so'snute sarvan kaman saha | brahmana vipasciteti || tasmadva etasmadatmana akasah sambhutah | akasadvayuh | vayoragnih | agnerapah | adbhyah prthivi | prthivya osadhayah | osadhibhyo'nnam | annatpurusah | sa va esa puruso'nnnarasamayah | tasyedameva sirah | ayam daksinah paksah | ayamuttarah paksah | ayamatma | idam puccham pratistha | tadapyesa sloko bhavati || 2.1.1 ||

(OM! The knower of Brahman attains the highest. Here is a verse uttering that very fact: “Brahman is truth, knowledge, and infinite. One who knows that Brahman as existing in the intellect which is lodged in the supreme space in the heart, enjoys, in identification with the all-knowing Brahman, all desirable things simultaneously. "

From that Brahman indeed, which is the Self, was produced space. From space emerged air. From air was born fire. From fire was created water. From water sprang up earth. From earth were born the herbs. From the herbs was produced food. From food was born the human. That human, such as one is, is a product of the essence of food. Of one this indeed , is the head , this is the southern (right) side; this is the northern (left) side ; this is the Self ; this is the stabilizing tail.)

Sathyam affirms Brahman by negating non-existence; Jnaanam affirms It by negating inertness; and Anantam affirms It by negating incompleteness. In this way we have the most comprehensive description of the nature of the Supreme Truth.

This one expression “Sathyam Jnanam Anantam” is sufficient and complete in itself for contemplation, meditation and absorption and the subjective experience of Brahman / Atman, within the cave of a sadhaka’s heart!!!!

The session on this one expression taken by the Author is a very elaborate one and it spreads to more than 3 hours as it is a verse which is the essence of all Upanishads.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 45

Verse 35

अहमाकाशवत्सर्वं बहिरन्तर्गतोऽच्युतः ।

सदा सर्वसमः सिद्धो निःसङ्गो निर्मलोऽचलः ॥ ३५॥

AHAM AAKAASHA-VAT SARVAM

BAHIH ANTAR-GATAH ACHYUTAH

SADAA SARVA-SAMAH SHUDDHAH

NISSANGAH NIRMALAH ACHALAH

[Like Space I fill all things within and without. Changeless, always the same in all, ever pure, unattached, stainless and motionless (am I).]

Aham, that is, I, am all pervading, internally and externally, in everything, much like the all pervading space (Akasa) that I see.

In the external world of Sareera Thrayam (the 3 bodies) and Bahya Prapancha (external world) – I  am the existence principle, the principle of Sath.

In the internal world of thoughts and emotions in the Manas (or Mind) – and all its associate parts like Ahamkara, Chittha and Buddhi, I am the consciousness principle or the principle of Chith.

 

I am Achyuthaha.  I never ever fall to the dualities of Samsaara and I am always my own protector and savior. I have no arrival or departure. I have no such limitations.

I am Sadaa  Sarva Samaha. I am the same to everyone. I exist everywhere and equally in all (Sarva), all the time (Sadaa). I have no differences based on any mundane distinctions – like caste, religion, sex, status and so on. All Naama roopas (Names and Forms) which differentiate all beings and objects have no relevance for me.

I am Siddhaha : It can mean either a Self evident person or  a liberated person. I do not need any proof for myself. I am the proof of everything else, as the one consciousness principle enlightening all others. I am also the ever liberated one.

I am Nissangaha. I am not related to, not connected to and not attached to anyone or anything in the creation. For worldly matters (vyavahaara), I may be a father, son, wife and so on. But, I have no attachments to these names and forms, which come at some point of time and space and go at some other point of time and space. They are ephemeral and transitory. In meditation, I negate all these relationships as binding forms and look upon myself as ever free.

I am Nirmalaha.  There are no disturbances and no impurity in me – from any worldly relationships and attachments.  Even good remembrances come after us and disturb us. Good or bad, I am free of all past, present and future relationships and occurrences. I am free of anxieties, sorrows and all effects of Samsaara.

 

It is not that worldly relationships do not exist for me in a worldly sense for transaction purposes. But, these will not bind me and create disturbances and impurities in me. These will remain at the level of Sareera Thrayam and Chidhabhasa and I remain free of their bondages.

I am Achalaha. When no relationship and occurrences bind me, none of them can shake me. People around me are born and they also die. They undergo the travails of Samsaara. Even this body (for referral purpose, I may say, my Sareera Thrayam) is undergoing all changes like old age, diseases and so on.

But, I remain unshaken and unmoved. I, as consciousness, is knowledge myself and even the most difficult situations cannot shake me. As Atma Jnani, I do not get hurt by others, nor do I hurt others.

“Akashavat Sarvam” – The Simile of Space Again:

The only simile that can compare with our ever expanding consciousness is Space itself. That is captured in, “I fill all things within and without.” Space, as inspiring and expansive as it is, is just a concept in the mind. We can only compare the Self to it, but the Self goes beyond it; It has no second to be compared with. 

However, there is a strong point of similarity: The Self, like space, allows everything to exist in It, yet is not contaminated by anything else. 

This is the context in which we used the same simile earlier, in verse 10, where it was from the angle of ignorance that we looked at space – as being cut up by our limited individuality into units. This time the context is the opposite.

We are seeing it from the angle of the enlightened sage. It is unlimited and pristinely pure. Reality can have no qualities. If it had, then there would need to be another Reality that would support those qualities. Extending this reasoning would lead to an infinite regression that makes the hypothesis illogical.

Love.