Atma Bodha - Post 12

Yesterday we understood that ignorance is not ‘removed’ but only negated. Let us continue further on this…

Example of the “Kataka-nut”:

The above process is compared with the effect that the powder of the kataka-nut has on a bucket of muddy water. In India, this powder, which is also ‘dirt’, is added to water which is to be used for drinking, especially during the Monsoon season, when the water sources are always very muddy.

The powder has the special quality to precipitate the fine muddy particles in the water and make them settle to the bottom of the bucket. The clear water left behind at the top of the bucket is decanted for drinking. Finally the dirty mixture of mud and the powder at the bottom of the bucket is discarded, having done its job of clearing the rest of the water.

The simile applies in the following manner: 

1) The water is the Self. 

2) The adulteration with mud is the impurities embedded in our Jiva due to the lifestyle fostered in us by Ignorance. 

The ignorance referred to in these verses is the Primal or the first and the subtlest ignorance of the real truth that we are divine. This Ignorance gives birth to our identity as a human being with a Body, Mind and an Intellect. This then extends our identity to so many things like - I am a doctor, I am a CA, I am rich, I am  poor, I am handsome, I am bad looking, I am this, I am that .........., the list is endless.   

3) The remedy for a disease depends on the cause of that disease. Here, the disease is IGNORANCE. So, the cure for this disease has to be KNOWLEDGE.

4) So, the Kataka nut in this case is the KNOWLEDGE of Brahman to remove the DIRT of our ignorance, which is covering the clean water which is SELF.

5) Thus, only the state of "AHAM BRAHMASMI" can drive away our mistaken notion of "I AM SO AND SO".

It does not end there. 

When once, a disciple approached his Guru and told, "Guruji, I have known Brahman", the Guru says only 2 lines - "SHUT UP AND GET OUT".

What did the Guru mean??

The Guru meant " GET MORE AND MORE INWARD WITH THE APPARENT KNOWLEDGE  ABOUT BRAHMAN WHICH YOU HAVE GOT, WHEN HE SAID, " SHUT UP".

AND WHEN HE SAID "GET OUT", HE MEANT, LET THAT KNOWLEDGE ITSELF GO OUT OF YOU WITH THE INWARD EXPERIENCE YOU WOULD GET WHEN YOU GET INWARD!

Dear All,

This verse stands out as one of the most crucial verse in the entire Atma Bodha text, in the context of those who take up the path of Knowledge or Jnana Yoga for God realization.

One dangerous disease which grips one who studies all treatise on Knowledge, the upanishads, all vedanta treatise is that, the person is internally blown up with the impression that he is the most learned person on the earth.

This is called as "Shastra Vasana", i.e., impression about one's expertise and one's knowledge of shastras.

When such impression sets in, the entire knowledge gathered by that person of wisdom has only added more ego to him, rather than removing the very ego, the very ignorance of the real truth that HE IS VERILY DIVINE SELF.

So, the actual culmination of Knowledge happens when the knowledge gathered is absorbed so intensely that it transforms into inner subjective experience of the TRUTH, the ONLY TRUTH that ONE IS DIVINE SELF. Once such a Jnani abides in SELF, then the so called knowledge or say, the impression about one's knowledge does and must leave him once for all, like the kataka nut dissolves in the water after clearing all the impurities so that the water is rendered pure and clean!!!!!

This inward experience of Knowledge is easier said than done. It is the last stage in Sadhana where, having spoken or meditated enough on "I AM BRAHMAN", the meditator actually attains the intuitive intimate inner experience of Brahman which is referred as BRAHMA ANUBHUTI and thereafter, there is no object of meditation - Brahman, there is no one who is meditating on Brahman, there is no meditation even.

All the three - the meditator, the meditation and the object of meditation merge together like the Triveni Sangam where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati come together and merge in Allahabad. 

Thereafter, the Jiva is freed of all bondage and becomes a Jivan Mukhta!!

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 11

VERSE - 5 

अज्ञानकलुषं जीवं ज्ञानाभ्यासाद्विनिर्मलम् ।

कृत्वा ज्ञानं स्वयं नश्येज्जलं कतकरेणुवत् ॥ ५॥

AJNANA KALUSHAM JEEVAM 

JNANA ABHAASAAT VINIRMALAM

KRUTVA JNAANAM SVAYAM 

NASHYET JALAM KATAKA RENUVAT

(Constant practice of knowledge purifies the Self (‘Jivatman’), stained by ignorance and then disappears itself – as the powder of the ‘Kataka-nut’ settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water.) 

In previous slokas, we learnt that it is only knowledge that can remove the ignorance and the ever present Atman is untainted by ignorance just as the clouds covering the Sun. 

In this sloka, Acharya is again explaining the reality of the non-dual Brahman by explaining about the nature of the knowledge that removes the ignorance. A student may doubt that after disappearance of ignorance the knowledge may remain and hence duality would always remain, thus leading to the wrong conclusion that removal of ignorance cannot lead to the non-dual blissful Atman.

Let us analyze the ignorance and the knowledge a bit to understand Acharya’s answer to this doubt. Ignorance is nothing but forgetting one’s own nature of Self. It can be neither termed as real or unreal and can never be proved. 

Knowledge can be termed as that which is got from the scriptures which is the paroksha jnana and that from self experience which is aparoksha jnana. 

These are again but modifications of mind or experiences only and hence limited only to the realm of the empirical level. Thus this knowledge can also be called as illusory only.

It is this knowledge that negates the illusory ignorance. But the Self knowledge which is but the consciousness, i.e. the Self is ever present just as the sun behind the clouds and hence is unaffected by this illusory and illusory knowledge.

The ignorance can never be ‘removed’ as it is not that which is newly acquired to be removed, also that which is removed can be got again. We can never remove anything that is neither present nor absent. Ignorance as we analyzed is something that is neither real nor unreal. It is just a mere illusion. 

Just like the illusion of the snake in the rope or the water in the desert. Like the snake in the rope that can never be removed as it never existed in the first place, by knowledge, this ignorance is not ‘removed’ but only negated.

We shall take up the example of Kataka Nut in the next post.

Continued...

Atma Bodha - Post 10

Verse - 4

परिच्छन्न इवाज्ञानात्तन्नाशे सति केवलः ।

स्वयं प्रकाशते ह्यात्मा मेघापायेंऽशुमानिव ॥ ४॥

PARICHHANNA IVA AGYAANAAT

TANNAASHE SATI KEVALAH 
SVAYAM PRAKAASHATE HI AATMAA MEGHA APAAYE N ASHUMAANIVA

(The Soul appears to be finite because of ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed, the Self which does not admit of any multiplicity truly reveals itself by itself: like the Sun when the clouds pass away.)

In the previous sloka, we learnt that the ever present Atman cannot be known through actions but by knowledge alone. In this sloka, Acharya is again explaining the eternal nature of Atman.

The  identification of a human being  with  the  body,  mind  or  intellect  causes  one  to feel very restrained and limited. The following three aspects may clarify this limitation:

i) Limited in Space

The pure Self is defined to be Sarvavyapi or omnipresent. Due to the  identity  with  the  body,  it  is  experienced  as  being  Alpavyapi,  that  is,  limited  in  space  to just here, not everywhere.

What does this mean?

We are verily divine SELF and like Divinity/ Divine Lord is present every where, as SELF or as ATMAN, we are not limited by any space and we and God are same.

How ever, when we ignore/ forget our real identity as Divya atman , as Swami addresses us and we think we are our body, then the limitation of space comes, as our Body is definitely limited by space.

ii) Limited in Time

The pure Self is also eternal or Nitya. Again we do not experience this  as  our  very  nature,  because  we  are  limited  in  time as our limited body  is defnitely limited in its existence by time. The body exists in a particular limited space, at a particular point of time.

Time is a mental concept superimposed on the Self, and hence we feel we are Anitya instead of Nitya. We are oppressed by the idea that we have a temporary existence only.

We do not wish to die. The very thought instills fear in us.  Yet, our true Self is deathless.  

iii) Limitation in Body

The  pure  Self  is also  not  limited  to  one  object,  it  is  Sarva Atman.   However,   because   of   identification   with   one   body   only   we   feel   limited   and threatened by all the other bodies or objects around us as we see them as “not us”. 

Thus we experience the severe limitation of being “Mama Atman” and not the Sarva Atman that we are in reality.

Thus  ignorance  has  robbed  us  of  knowing  ourselves  as we  are.  To  restore  us to our original  nature,  we  need  to  have  knowledge  of  who  we  are.  Then ignorance automatically gets destroyed.

Knowledge is in direct opposition to the ignorance of “I am the body”.

Acharya here gives the example of the sun to explain the nature of Atman.

Just as the ever present sun seems to be veiled by passing clouds; the Atman seems to be veiled by the ignorance. When clouds cover the sun, it may seem as though the sun itself is not there or that the sun has lost the power of giving light!! 

But in reality, the sun is ever present, luminous and shines forth always, only that the clouds have to be removed. It was never affected by the passing clouds nor is its luminosity lost.

Similarly, the Atman which is but verily consciousness can never be subject to ignorance nor can be affected by the plurality of the world. It is that which is the substratum of all objects and stands alone as a witness to all actions. 

Due to ignorance about the Self, the Self, is perceived by the mind as finite, non eternal etc. It is only because of the ignorance that all the illusory attributes are superimposed on Atman. 

When this ignorance is removed by the knowledge then all that ever remains is the non dual Atman alone. Just as the sun that shines forth when the clouds are removed, the infinite Self which is the only reality reveals by itself. 

Like the sun distinct from the clouds, the atman untainted by all the illusory multiplicity of the world shines off once the ignorance is removed.

Atman is but existence, consciousness and bliss. It is only because of the ignorance that one forgets one’s own nature of existence-bliss and suffers with all the miseries of the world. 

Just as the clouds, this ignorance has to be removed and the only way as we have learnt in the previous slokas, is by knowledge.

Thus the Acharya here explains that it is only because of ignorance that Self appears to be finite. When ignorance is destroyed, the Self reveals itself like the sun when clouds are removed.

Love.