Atma Bodha - Post 37

Verse 27

रज्जुसर्पवदात्मानं जीवं ज्ञात्वा भयं वहेत् ।

नाहं जीवः परात्मेति ज्ञातं चेन्निर्भयो भवेत् ॥ २७॥

RAJJU-SARPA-VAT AATMAANAM

JEEVAM JNAATVAA BHAYAM VAHET

NA AHAM JEEVAH PARAATMAA ITI

JNAATAH CHET NIRBHAYAH BHAVET

(As one who regards a rope as a snake, so too one, regarding oneself as an ego, is overcome by fear.  “I am not the ego, but the Supreme Self”, if he realizes this, he becomes fearless.)

An attempt is made in this verse to relieve the intellect of the burden placed upon it by the falsely created sense of “I”. The burden is simply all the fears resulting from the misplaced identity of oneself as an individual. 

These are shown in this verse to be unnecessarily taken upon one’s own shoulders, when in reality they do not even exist.  

“Rajju-Sarpa-Vat Atmanam”: The Rope-Snake Analogy

 

In this simile, a rope is seen and misidentified as being a snake. The resulting fear that grips the person beholding this has no basis as it arises from pure delusion. 

The rope is not even aware of the existence of the ‘snake’, so it cannot be held responsible. It is the individual consciousness or the ego which has to bear the responsibility of the consequences for this deluded perception.

The rope is our true identity, the SELF or the Atman.

The mistaken identity of rope as a snake is our mistaken notion of our ego “I am this jiva”.

The burden of ‘fears’ represent the entire range of deluded perceptions arising from this ego-consciousness.

Removing the venom of snake’s bite is overcoming the notion that “I am this Jiva”.

Freedom / fearlessness is the state of Realization that “I AM THE CHANGELESS, BIRTHLESS, DEATHLESS PURE SELF”.

When a Jiva exists with his mistaken identity as Jiva, he suffers from all the 6 negative qualities, Kama, Krodha etc. The Jiva, under its own delusion and imagined fear, suffers from the consequences of such fear. The real fear of the snake is due to the venom in its bite.

The sage solves the problem by removing the ‘venom’ from the snake’s bite. The venom lies in the sense of egoism that heads this whole web of delusion. Hence, the “ego-sense” in a sage is rendered ‘toothless’.

The snake has been burnt and is there only in appearance, it cannot do any harm. A burnt snake may still look like a snake but it cannot do anything. 

The sage’s egoism is like that. It is just enough to go on functioning in this world; it serves only an operational function. But really there is no ‘venom’ in it. The venom of selfishness has been transformed into the nectar of universal vision.

A burnt rope cannot be used to tie anything; the moment it is touched it crumbles to ashes. Similarly, the sage’s egoism, which is burnt, cannot tie him to this world anymore. The sage is freed from bondage to this world.

An ignorant person’s ego is full of venom. If he is criticized he will seek revenge on the one who criticizes him. He will try to bite back with venom.

But in a Jnani there is no such reaction. He knows he has been criticized, but remains indifferent to it, understanding that it is only a thought current passing through. He has no fear of criticism. 

The fearlessness of the sage tantamount to complete liberation from all bondage. Because the Jnani has risen above egoism, he sees the correct picture of all the facts listed in the previous verse.

He knows that the consciousness expressing through his intellect is a reflection of the Self, i.e. it is Chid-Abhasa. Hence he is not disturbed by any wave produced in it, such as the crest of praise or the trough of criticism.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 36

Verse 26

आत्मनो विक्रिया नास्ति बुद्धेर्बोधो न जात्विति ।

जीवः सर्वमलं ज्ञात्वा ज्ञाता द्रष्टेति मुह्यति ॥ २६॥

AATMANAH VIKRIYAA NA ASTI

BUDDHEH BODHAH NA JAATU ITI

JEEVAH SARVAMALAM JNAATVAA

JNAATAA DRISHTAA ITI MUHYATI

There is no action for the Self and the intellect itself has no capacity to know; yet the individuality, experiencing them, thinks. “I am the knower and the seer”, and is thus deluded.

Three important facts are presented in this verse which we would need to keep in mind when engaging our intellect to the task of probing the Truth:

i)  Atman has no modification, hence it cannot be attributed the responsibility of acting; it does not act. 

ii)  The inner instrument is inert. It is composed of ‘matter’, subtle matter but still insentient. Human intellect is not endowed with the powers of feeling, thinking, willing or wishing, because it is a product of matter which is inert.

iii)  Intellect reflects the light of Atman: This makes it appear to be a conscious entity, but that is the delusion. The individuality (Jiva) which is a reflection of the pure consciousness in the mind, falsely identifies itself with the body-mind-intellect equipment due to ignorance of its true nature.

Accordingly, it comes to super impose the characteristics of the true Self on these insentient matter developments (Body, Mind, Intellect)

In this way, the delusion that “I am the seer”, “I am the knower” etc. arises in EGO.

This is a false self, not the real Self. But it does not know that. These are the items which our discrimination or intellect has to apply itself to in order to assist us in obtaining Self-knowledge.

Analogy of a Light Bulb:

There is no example or simile given in this verse but Swami Chinmayananda ventures an illustration: that of an electric bulb.

All three of the above points are illustrated by it:

In itself the bulb cannot give light without electricity flowing through it. When electricity (symbolizing the Self) flows, then the inert bulb lights up, as that is what it is designed to do; it cannot do anything else.

The bulb becomes the means by which we are able to “perceive” electricity. In the same way, the intellect plays its role of making us “aware of” the existence of the Self, although on its own it has no power to know it.

The point about the ego-sense is also illustrated by this analogy. If the bulb had an ego-sense, it would feel that it itself were producing the light, although it is only an instrument that is used by the electricity to give light. By its association with the electricity it is seen to be an instrument of light.

Chinmaya concludes his commentary on this verse with the following truth, which is crown jewel of wisdom.

“The illumining consciousness, because of which there is an awareness of the various objects and activities in the inner mind, is THAT supreme reality.”

Thus, though waves of sorrow, dejection, despair, joy, success, anger, jealousy, passion etc. may come in mind, he who knows the “Knower” of all these waves is not affected by them.

He rejoices in his experience of SELF and cries out in Joy, “THE SELF I AM. I am illumining my mental conditions.” 

I may be happy or unhappy but these are all the mental waves that “I” am illumining. I am the Light of Consciousness. None of the conditions of my mind is Me, the Pure consciousness!!!”

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 35

Verse 25

                     

आत्मनः सच्चिदंशश्च बुद्धेर्वृत्तिरिति द्वयम् ।

संयोज्य चाविवेकेन जानामीति प्रवर्तते ॥ २५॥

AATMANAH SAT-CHID-AMSHAH CHA

BUDDHEH VRITTIH ITI DVAYAM

SAMYOJYA CHA AVIVEKENA

JAANAAMI ITI PRAVARTATE

(The Existence-Consciousness aspect of the Self and the thought wave of the intellect by the indiscriminate blending of these two, there arises the notion of “I know”.)

                                      

Here, Sankara turns again to pure reasoning to present his point, without resorting to any analogy or simile. The verse aims to help us explain at the level of the mind, that is, to our own intellect, how the Self has come to get identified with the mind.

From the standpoint of creation or duality, this explanation gets to the very root of the entire problem of Ignorance and all its ramifications. 

We cannot explain this to our mind, because the mind is not where reasoning, analysis and decisions are taken.

Reasoning belongs to the realm of the intellect. This verse explains at the intellectual level how this false identification takes place. 

It is quite a fundamental misperception, and any light thrown on this will be of value to dis-identify ourselves from the mind, using the intellect as our tool.

Though Sankara has not given any Simile for this verse, a classic example is given in a treatise “Drik Drsya Viveka” of a red hot iron ball. We have two things in this example:

     i.            Firstly, there is fire, which is red hot but has no solid form.

  ii.            Secondly, we have an iron ball which has form but no heat.  

When the two are brought together, the iron ball begins to glow with the heat from the fire.

In an earlier post, we have dealt with "How Consciousness illumines intellect (or, How Intellect by itself absorbs Consciousness).

Thus, the intellect has absorbed consciousness and the first reflected consciousness has emerged in the intellect.

Exactly similar to the iron ball and furnace example given above, the reflected consciousness and the Ego of a human come into contact with each other. Till this point of contact, the Ego is Pure "Aham".

Imagine once the iron ball has assumed the entire quality of furnace, as if the iron ball begins to think that it is verily the furnace itself.

Exactly, after the coming together of Ego (aham) and the reflected consciousness, the Ego gets a mistaken notion that it is verily the reflected consciousness, i.e. the reality.

This is how, the pure Aham, with the illusion caused, becomes ahamkara, the lower ego.

The Ahamkara then begins to think and assert, "I know"!!

This is how a human being starts believing that whatever he thinks, whatever his likes and whatever his dislikes are, to be TRUE and REAL, though they  are not his real identity.

The verse tells us that such an association has brought about a misplacing of identity, or a shift in our identity from the Self to a pseudo-Self identified with thoughts. 

Love.