Verse 28
किं स्वरूपमित्यात्मदर्शने
|
अव्ययाभवापूर्णचित्सुखम्
|| २८ ||
kiṁ
svarūpamityātmadarśane |
avyayābhavāpūrṇacitsukham || 28
||
"What is the
true nature?” Upon the revelation of the Self, thus?
It is
immutable, birth-less, making perfectly full, Consciousness-Bliss.
In the
previous verse, Maharshi proclaimed that the Self is beyond both knowledge and
ignorance & there requires no external knowledge medium to know the Self
which is the Seer that is always established and pulsates as “I-exist,
I-exist”.
There is a
famous line often quoted in Vedantic lessons - “To define Brahman
is to deny Brahman”.
The
Upanishads proclaim that everything in this world becomes an object and objects
can be defined or described.
But the
Subject which itself is the definer of the definitions of the objects, the
describer of the descriptions can never be defined or described.
Still, let
us look into the nature of the Self being explained here by Maharshi, which is not
knowledge expressed but Maharishi's own state of existence poured.
Avyaya or
Indestructible and Abhava or Unborn
That which
is subject to birth is subject to changes as well as death. Such a changing
object cannot be the Self because the Self is always constant – changeless and
that from which the world gets its existence.
Hence the
Self is without any birth and death. Since the Self is without birth and death,
it is without any change also (that which is born is subject to change also).
We have
learnt from earlier blog posts and the talk delivered on “Sai Aum” bhajan last
week in Sai Centre, Brahman or THAT existed prior to the cosmic vibration
AUM which means that, time and the five elements came into existence much
later.
We all know
that the entire creation is made out of the combination of five elements and all
that are made out of five elements do perish at some point of time.
Thus,
Brahman, which existed prior to creation, prior to five elements, which caused
the five elements to emerge one by one, is BIRTH LESS as it is not bound by
time, space, not created out of five elements.
Perfectly
full
The Self is
perfect or full. One’s own very nature is fullness or perfect being.
The easiest
way to understand this fullness is to align this SELF with
the 'pure canvass' talk given by the author to some devotees couple of
days before.
The canvass
lesson is from Vidyaranya Swami's 'Panchadasi'.
We learnt
from that talk that the pure canvass is the infinite Brahman, without any
boundary, without any limitation.
So, any
thing is said to be limited / apoorna only if there is anything else that
exists apart from the earlier one. Since the pure canvass Brahman is infinite
and each Jiva is an integral, indivisible part of the same canvass, Jiva is
also infinite and complete, with nothing else existing other than the pure
canvass Brahman.
Consciousness
and Bliss
The inherent
and natural state of the Self is Consciousness and Bliss as Maharshi says in
the last few words. Consciousness is one’s own real nature because it is from
“I” or “ME” that all objects gain existence. “I” alone is capable of having the
independent experience - “I-exist, I-exist”.
As Maharshi Himself
proclaimed earlier that Consciousness alone is capable of illuminning existence,
therefore my real nature is Consciousness alone. Not just Consciousness alone,
it is Bliss also.
The sorrow
that we have, is not the inherent nature of the Self or “I”. Because if sorrow
was the natural state, no one would want to attain happiness. But we see that
people are all striving for eternal bliss. The sorrow thus, is not the real and
natural state of the Self.
We have
dealt with Sat and Chit adequately earlier. And this verse talks about Chit-sukham,
Existence, Bliss.
One who has
raised his consciousness to the ultimate level is full of Bliss.
This is Bliss, Ananda or Sukha. In such a consciousness it is not
possible for any pain or sorrow to exist.
Swami Krishnananda Ji,
while writing on Existence, writes thus:
“The bliss
of God manifested itself as this world, by the bliss of God the world is
sustained, and into the bliss of God the world will return one day. As we are
not outside creation, we have also come from the bliss of God, and are
sustained by the bliss of God.
That is why
we love everything. Everything is pleasurable for us because the essence of the
bliss of God is present in the very ability in us to sustain ourselves. And in
the end we return to the bliss of God.”
What a grand
revelation from a realized Master from Hrishikesh!!
Having
explained all about Ananda, it has also to be explained here that the state of
Pure existence, consciousness, where one transcends all possible happiness
which he can derive out of finite objects, scriptures could only express that
state with the limited expression “Ananda”, otherwise, that state can
never be comprehended by a sadhaka who attains liberation and exists as pure
existence state.
When one
exists as Jivanmukhta, he does not have any experience of even this Ananda as
he transcends this Ananda as well. He just EXISTS.
Those who accept
him, feel and say that, “O, He is full of Ananda / bliss", because, at
best, they can use only this expression at purest level for such an
existence. However, up-to the point of realization, these three
expressions SAT-CHIT-ANANDA, fills the sadhaka with enough fire, enough
conviction to experience such a state. Upon realization, He exists beyond
even this description of SAT-CHIT-ANANDA.
Aho!! How
that state would be? Only when one reaches that state and when he sees the
other one also in the same state, both would know exactly about the state of
each other!
A dear
brother of mine used to describe his reading in some book about a
meeting of Buddha and Mahavira once, when they happened to stay at the same
place one night. Throughout their stay, they did not speak a word to one
another. There was no need because each one knew that the other one
is in the state which is immutable, Birth-less, perfectly
full, Consciousness-Bliss.
And, what they would have communicated in
that silence, the whole world put together is not capable of
communicating.
Love.
Both bondage
and liberation belong to the 'Aham Vritti' or the ‘I-thought’. Bondage and
liberation are only at the level of the mind. They are from the standpoint of
the ordinary mind. The impulse to strive for happiness in the ordinary man is
also mind-driven.
The state of
such a Jivanmukhta, liberated while alive, has been explained vividly in many
treatises. Swami Dattatreya has dedicated a Gita itself, all about such a
sage, titled “Jivanmukhta Gita”. Swami Sivananda has written beautiful
commentary on the verses of Jivanmukhta Gita.
