JIVA AND ISWARA
Sthoola shareera
abhimaani jeeva-naamakam,
brahma pratibimbam
bhavati;
Sah eva jeevah
prakrityaa swasmaat eeshwaram bhinna- tvena jaanaati.
Avidyaa upaadhih san,
aatmaa jeevah iti uchyate.
Maayaa upaadhih san,
eeshwarah iti uchyate.
Evam upaadhi bhedaat
Jeeva-eeshwara-bheda-drishtih, yaavat paryantam tishthati;
Taavat paryantam,
janma-marana-aadi-roopa samsaarah,
na nivartate.
Tasmaat kaaranaat,
jeeva- eeshwarayoh bheda-buddhih,
na sveekaaryaa.
Identifying
himself with the gross body, and known as the Jiva, is the reflection of
Brahman.
This
Jiva by its very nature considers itself to be different from Iswara the
Creator.
Conditioned
by Ignorance, the Self is called the Jiva;
Conditioned
by Maya, the same Self (Brahman) is called Iswara.
In
this way, due to different conditioning, seeing Jiva and Iswara as being
different, as long as that continues...
so
long, this worldly existence of the form of repeated birth and death, can never
be removed.
For
that reason, the mentality of seeing difference between Jiva and Iswara, should
never be accepted.
Nanu saahamkaarasya, kinchid-jnasya jeevasya;
Nir-ahamkaarasya,
sarva-jnasya eeshwarasya.
i.
endowed with ego, and
ii.
having limited knowledge, is the Jiva;
while
i)
without any ego, and
ii)
having Omniscience, is Iswara.
When
sunlight gets reflected in a river or in a bucket of water,
1.
the pure sunlight is Bimba or Chid-Akasa or
pure consciousness.
2. the
reflected sunlight is Pratibimba or Chid-Abhasa or the reflected consciousness.
(sunlight, after falling on the river surface or on the water in a bucket).
3. the
bucket stands for the individual body and.
4. the
river / ocean stands for the Cosmic Body.
The reflections appear different due to the vast difference in the medium /
limiting factor through which they are reflected.
If
the differences due to the medium / conditioning factor are ignored, it means
the reflections are ignored.
What
is left is just the Pure Consciousness in both cases.
It
makes it very clear that the pure consciousness is unaffected by the size or
shape of the Upadhis / limited medium through which it is reflected.
In
this manner the Jiva (the “sunlight from the bucket”) is seen to be identical
to Iswara (the “sunlight from the ocean”) from the point of view of
Consciousness.
The
above analogy could be aligned with the pure canvass talk given to few / written
elaborately in Creation of Universe theme, with teachings from Panchadasi on
the Drawing in pure canvass chapter.
While the pure canvass can be compared to the sunlight falling on the ocean and
the drawings on the canvass related to the water in bucket, if the reflection
on the water (drawings on the canvass is erased, as told by the author in a
talk, then what remains is just the pure canvass).
A
secondary deduction from the analogy is this: The reflection from a bucket of
dirty water would be different in quality to that from a bucket of clean
water.
The
Jiva has a large amount of impurity in it. The Sattva in the Jiva is sullied by
impurity, which is why it is deluded by Avidya. It does not know its true
nature.
As
far as Iswara is concerned, the comparison here is the ocean, which is always
Sattvic and pure. This ties up with the fact that Iswara is predominantly
Sattvic, and hence not deluded by Maya, but is the master of Maya, i.e.
Maya-Pati.
Let
us take another example.
This
is a famous example in Vedanta, of Pot space and Universal space.
This
model compares:
1.
the Pure Consciousness to unlimited
space,
2. the
Jiva to the limited space within a pot or ‘ghata’, and
3. Iswara
to the limited space of the building or ‘mata’ in which the pot is kept.
The
ghata and mata are Upadhis or “that which conditions or limits”.
The
ghata is the individual body and the mata is the Prapancha of the Cosmic Body.
The
space within the pot is Ghata-Akasha or ‘ghata space’, and within the building
it is Mata-Akasha or ‘mata space’.
When the ghata is broken, the ghata space merges with the mata space, and when
the mata is also demolished, the mata space merges with Maha-Akasha or the
‘universal space’.
As
the space within the pot was never different from the mata space, which in turn
was never different from the universal space, so also, the Jiva in essence is
not different from Iswara, and both are not different in essence from Brahman.
When
the Upadhis or conditionings are removed, the distinctions between Jiva and
Isvara are destroyed and their identity is seen, in accordance with the
Mahavakya statement “Tat Twam Asi”. However, whilst the Upadhis are present,
they give an apparent unique identity to both Jiva and Isvara.
Avidya Visishtha
Chaitanyam Jivah
“Limited
by Avidya, Atman is called Jiva at the microcosmic level.”
Maya Visishtha
Chaitanyam Ishwara
“Limited
by Maya, Brahman is called Iswara at the macrocosmic level.”
Summary
i)
Space is always one, even when the
limitations exist.
ii)
The limitations give the ‘appearance’
that they are different, but that is illusory. When the limitations are
removed, the oneness is made clear.
iii)
Space is not affected by the shape of the
ghata or the mata.
It
ever remains pure, like the Pure Consciousness, which ever remains unaffected
and pure.
Love
