Atma Bodha - Post 53

Verse 43

अरुणेनेव बोधेन पूर्वं सन्तमसे हृते ।

तत आविर्भवेदात्मा स्वयमेवांशुमानिव ॥ ४३॥

ARUNENA EVA BODHENA

POORVA-SAN-TAMASE HRITE

TAT AAVIR-BHAVET AATMAA

SWAYAM EVA AMSHUMAAN IVA

[As by the Lord of early dawn, so too, it is by knowledge, the former dispels the darkness existing before dawn. So too, (ignorance is dispelled) when the Self rises of its own accord, just like the sun.]

“Aruna-Amshuman” Simile:

The Dawn & Rising Sun In this exquisite simile of sunrise, we

see the same process from another angle.

In the minutes before sunrise, the dense darkness of the sky lightens up slowly until the sky has a reddish glow to it. This period, called dawn or ‘aruna’, symbolizes the period of intense meditation when the darkness of ignorance is being gradually removed.

As the process advances and the skies turn red and then orange, the sun rises of its own accord, as it were, bringing on the bright day. Nothing needs to be done to the sun to reveal it. The darkness had to be removed by Sadhana to usher in the state of illumination of the Self.

“When the egocentric existence in us, that obstructs the vision of the Self, is falsified by constant and diligent meditation, the vision of the true Self arises in all its glory” 

(Swami Chinmayananda.)

The removal of the darkness of the sky is itself due to the approaching presence of the sun. There is nothing that is being done to brighten the sky. True, we have compared that to meditation, but meditation is a state of ‘being’, not of ‘doing’.

As Sadhana progresses and the dirt clears away, the mental ‘sky’ becomes brighter and brighter. The revelation of the Self is inevitable. It comes of its own accord. In this way, Sri Sankara, a great lover of nature with a keen observation, conveys to us another great Truth to inspire us into the practice of deep meditation, when only Awareness alone clears away the dross and leads naturally to Self-illumination. 

Dear All,

In this verse, Sankara beautifully  equates the sadhana process with the rising of sun, wherein, like the sun slowly rises, dispelling the darkness, in spiritual sadhana, one shines slowly, with rigorous sadhana and meditation and in that shine (of one’s SELF), the darkness of ignorance is dispelled.

The beauty of vedantha is much more than this.

In the path of wisdom, the acharya, having accepted the disciple in His fold, in His ashram, gives series of discourses on Upanishads, drives in the essence of Upanishads through a maha vakya, “Tat Twam Asi”. “That Thou Art”.

When the Acharya takes the disciple through this mahavakya, the teacher shows the disciple the glimpse of his state once all darkness of ignorance in him would get dispelled, i.e., the sun shine in his sadhana, even if it is going to take years to achieve that, is already shown to the disciple through Acharya’s compassionate teachings!!!

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 52

Verse 42

एवमात्मारणौ ध्यानमथने सततं कृते ।

उदितावगतिर्ज्वाला सर्वाज्ञानेन्धनं दहेत् ॥ ४२॥

EVAM AATMAA ARANAU DHYAANAM

ATHANE SATATAM KRITE

UDITAA AVAGATI-JWAALAA

SARVA AJNAANEN-DHANAM DAHET

[Thus, in the Arani of the Self, meditation   is done constantly as churning in the Arani;  in the fire of knowledge that arises, all the fuel of ignorance gets burned.]

“Atma Aranau” Nyaya: The Fire-maker Simile

This is an example from Vedic times. People used to make a fire by using a contraption made of a wooden rod rotated between two wooden hemispherical-shaped sockets (called ‘arani’; for two aranis the Samskrit dual form ‘aranau’ is used), with a piece of cotton in one of them.

The rotation, similar to the action of churning, would produce heat by friction until the cotton ball caught alight. The ball would then be used to start the fire.

The application of this analogy is as follows: The two hemispherical sockets are the lower ego and the higher Self. They are ‘churned’ with the Mahavakya rod of “I am Brahman”. The fire of Knowledge that is generated by this churning process of meditation ignites the cotton ball of ignorance.

This churning of knowledge is described clearly in Kaivalyopanishad.

AATMAANAMARANIM KR^ITVAA PRANAVAM CHOTTARAARANIM

GYAANANIRMATHANAABHYAASAATPAAPAM DAHATI PANDITAH...

(A sage thinks of this mind as lower piece of sandalwood, and OM as the upper wood. Through the practice of constant friction between them, he kindles the fire of knowledge which burns up the impurities of mind.)

Thus making the Atman as the lower piece of wood and OM (symbolic representation of Brahman or Supreme Self) as the upper piece of wood, through repeated friction of knowledge, a wise man burns all the bonds.

Acharya is here thus describing the effect of intense mediation. Meditation is but unbroken thought towards an object. 

Just as how fire can be produced by constant rubbing of two pieces of wood, knowledge is churned out by constant meditation on reality. i.e. when the one constantly contemplates on the Brahman as nature of Self, by this constant contemplation or meditation which is compared to the friction here, the Self knowledge arises. 

It is this knowledge alone that burns all the desires and bonding and ultimately liberates one from all duality and hence sadness. Hence a seeker must constantly contemplate on the real nature of Self and only with such intense sadhana can one acquire the Self knowledge.

Lord also mentions the same in Gita fourth chapter 19th sloka as “The wise call him learned whose actions are all devoid of all desires and their thoughts and whose actions have been burnt away from the fire of wisdom”. 

Thus Lord Krishna is thus explaining that the actions, and ignorance that causes them are incinerated by the fire of knowledge and such a one is called by the wise as the learned one.

Such a wise one whose ignorance is burnt by the intense fire of knowledge becomes verily Existence-Consciousness-Bliss alone.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 51

Verse 41

ज्ञातृज्ञानज्ञेयभेदः परे नात्मनि विद्यते ।

चिदानन्दैकरूपत्वाद्दीप्यते स्वयमेव तत् ॥ ४१॥

JNAATRU-JNAANA-JNEYA BHEDAH

PARE NA AATMANI VIDYATE

CHIDAANANDA EKA ROOPATVAAT

DEEPYATE SWAYAM EVA TAT

[Distinctions like knower, knowledge and known do not exist in the Supreme Self.  Since its nature is homogenous consciousness and bliss, It verily shines by Itself.]

The knowledge referred to here is the intellectual knowledge. Our intellect is capable of perceiving objects other than itself. Hence all our knowledge is constituted by the knowledge of things other than ourselves. But for the Brahman which is verily knowledge as the Taittriya Upanishad says “Satyam Jnanam Anantham Brahma”, there is no duality of knower nor the object to know or the knowledge.

Also for any action or specifically for knowledge, there should be an ignorant subject, a means of getting knowledge and the object of knowledge and knowledge itself. Thus for the Self which is verily knowledge and self luminous, there can be no action of knowledge. Being non-dual and eternal, it cannot have any distinction such as the subject and the object. Like the sun that shines by itself and needs no other torch to illumine it, Atman is self luminous.

As we have learnt in the previous slokas, when the ignorance of the nature of Self has been destroyed by knowledge of Brahman, there is nothing but Self. To such a knower of Brahman for whom everything such as names and forms are merged in Self and has become Self, how can there be the difference of knower, known and knowledge?

Just as how a fire does not burn itself, similarly the Self cannot know itself. When the knower of Brahman who has discriminated the real from the unreal, there exists only the subject, one without second.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, second chapter speaks in detail about this as:

“When the object of understanding is not there, what is there to understand? When there is no more of such an object then how can there be knowing of anything? And because that object of knowledge has become knowledge itself, so there is no such thing as knowing ‘anything’. Where everything is Self of knowledge, there can be nothing that the Self can know except its own Self and through what instrument should one know the knower? Everything hence is known by the knower of Brahman.”

Dear Readers,

Are we getting a feeling that what is explained above is very abstract, as we are not able to relate to the above explanation about SELF as Self Illuminous or That which is Knowledge itself??

Let us take the knowledge which we speak of, which we can relate to in this world. It could be any knowledge, knowledge of science, knowledge of arts, knowledge of Business, knowledge about religion etc. All these knowledge is received / pursued and attained by our intellect.

But how does this intellect get the awareness, the illumination by which it is able to pursue and get knowledge of everything in this creation??

Science may explain it by the presence of neurons etc in the Brain. But they can only help the intellect (brain) to know about objects. How about the one to one experience which a human being gets??? The subjective experience, the inner most feelings, the experience when he visits a place of worship and gets immersed there??

This source that gives the power / illumination to the intellect first and then, through intellect to the body, mind, senses, is dealt with in the Srutis or the Upanishads and its related treatise and commentaries.

And, a sincere spiritual seeker, endowed with the knowledge as given in the Srutis, when he absorbs them and sits in deep meditation, then, if he is fortunate, if his craving to experience SELF is sincere and above all, if God showers His grace on him, then he gets glimpse of the TRUTH given in Srutis as a subjective experience within.

This subjective experience is the KNOWLEDGE itself.

When he gets such a subjective experience, then at that moment, he, the knower, the known or the knowledge which is known by him externally, the knowing or the process which he is able to relate externally are all gone and only that TRUTH, which is his subjective experience, remains.

Let us take an example.

We are seated in Sai centre or in SK Hall. We are singing a bhajan. Here, we are the knower or more precisely, the experiencer of our singing, the process of singing is the Knowing or the experiencing process and Sai / God is the known or the object of experience.

But when we are deeply immersed in our singing / any other’s singing, a moment might come when we forget that we are singing, we forget the place, the process, the percussion’s sound, the environment etc, we also forget or transcend the thought of God with form.

However, upon transcending all these things, there is an experience beyond our intellect, our mind, deep inside, where there are no thoughts at all. Call it Bliss or Pure Awareness or Jnana or Sathyam or Pure existence!!!

This experience is what is given in this verse.

Hope, with this bhajan example, at least we are easily able to relate to what this verse says!!!

Love.