Either melt by devotion the sense of separateness, or
burn it by knowledge-for what is it that melts or burns? Only that which by its
nature can be melted or burnt; namely the idea that something other than your
Self exists. What will happen then? You come to know your Self.
Anandamayi Ma
Children of immortality
Children of India (Bharath)! Teach your children this life-preserving, glorious, and
heart-expanding truth from the early days of life. The sanctifying vision that
Indians secured is this: the Atma is
full and free. It is a wonderful discovery, a thrilling thought!
The Atma is by its very nature full; fullness need not be attained or accomplished and added to it. If fullness could be added to it, it could also be subtracted by the passage of time; what is built up must disintegrate.
If one is impure by nature, even though one may succeed in achieving purity for five minutes, one has to wallow later in impurity, for the purity that comes in the middle will be easily swept away by circumstances. So, all Indian spiritual thinkers declared that purity is our nature and that fullness is our genuine reality.
They said that we are never really “wanting”. This is the lesson that Indians taught the world. This is the stream of spiritual strength that flowed from India and fertilized the world.
At the end of life, one should bring to consciousness the great thoughts one has attained in life, the high feelings one entertained; this was the directive of the sages of India. They did not demand that one should bring to memory the faults and errors one committed in life. These are inevitable and universal.
Essence
In today’s part of the SSV, when Swami writes, “The
Atma is by its very nature full;
fullness need not be attained or accomplished and added to it.”, Swami is
taking us back to the shanti mantra of Isavasaya Upanishad.
Swami Krishnanada writes on this shanti mantra,
“That which is anantavavtu is spoken of as pūrṇam. It is that to which there is no limit; beyond which there can be nothing. If there is something outside it, it becomes an individualised object. But objects cannot be pūrṇam.
The śāstrik meaning of pūrṇam is, that more than which nothing can exist, i.e., it is the infinite. And creation has come from pūrṇam. And this creation too is pūrṇam.
This śloka is from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad and forms the mangalā-carana mantra for this Īśāvāsya Upaniṣad.
The terms adaḥ and idam have often occurred in Kathopaniṣad also. Adaḥ means the cause from which the effect comes.
Idam means that which is manifest and here it means the world. The objects of the sense organs are spoken of as idam. That which is beyond the sense organs is adaḥ.
As the cause is, so is the effect. The effect exists within the cause in an unmanifested form. In the seed, the tree is not seen, but it is in an unmanifested state. In reality, the world is also limitless.
Wherever you go, you still will see it extending
further. You find that ether, a subtle manifestation of the Supreme is
limitless, and wherever you go you cannot find its limit.
This is so, because it is a manifestation of
that which is infinite. This mantra says that, that which has come from the
Infinite is also Infinite from this point of view, even though it is
comprehensible to the senses.
Really speaking, the world is not outside you, that is to say, outside the senses, but within you. This, the later mantras of the Upanishad is going to tell us. The world appears to exist outside you. And hence it is correct to say, ‘this world is pūrṇam.'
That is why Sankaracharya says that īśvara is advitīya, that which has no second. It is not a mathematical calculation where one minus one leaves zero.
Īśvara is not a numerical like 1. Īśvara who is infinite is beyond all numericals. This is a bit difficult to comprehend with our minds. We have neither seen the pūrṇam nor can go beyond numericals.
We can go on saying crores, a hundred crores, a hundred-thousand-crores and so on, that is all. But He is beyond countable numbers. Hence the word pūrṇam is used to indicate īśvara. There is no place where He is not. This is the essence of this verse.”
Since, we as Atman, are not different from Iswara, Swami has written that Atma is ever full, ever complete.
The purpose of our existence/our birth itself, is to realize that we are ever full, ever complete, ever whole Atman and as Atman, we are neither born, nor do we die.
Love.
Dear All,
In today’s post, we will repeat the previous post related to Swami’s writing and then capture the essence at the end.
This wave-like movement of proceeding and receding, of merging and emerging, has been happening since time; it will happen till time ends; it is eternal in its feature. This is the belief of Indians (Bharathiyas).
One other article of faith, which is a unique feature of Indian mental equipment: Until the individualized soul gets liberated from the individualization and merges in the Universal, thus attaining liberation (moksha), it has to encase itself in one body after another and go through the process called living. This idea is held by no other people.
This is the cycle-of-birth-death (samsara) idea, which the ancient texts or scriptures of India reveal and propagate. Samsara means “movement into one form after another”.
The nature of Atmic reality
All the different schools and sects among the
Indians (Bharathiyas) accept the fact
that the apparently individualized souls (jivatmas)
are eternal and unaffected by change.
The schools and sects may differ in describing or denoting the relationship between the Atma and God.
- One school of thinkers may posit that the two are ever separate;
- another that the individualized soul (jivatma) is a spark in the universal flame of fire that God is;
- a third that the two are undifferentiated.
But the truth remains that the Atma is beginningless and endless; since It is not born, It has no death. Its individualized image has to evolve through a series of bodies until it attains fulfillment in the human. All schools are one in upholding this faith, in spite of the variety of their other interpretations.
We now come to the foremost among the glorious truths, the most astounding of the basic truths that the human intellect has attained in the spiritual field: the Atma is, by its very nature, purity, fullness, and bliss (parisuddha, paripurna, and ananda). This is the belief that animates all schools of thought, whether they are worshipers of Sakthi, Siva, or Vishnu or whether they are Buddhists or Jains. Every Hindu acknowledges it.
The dualists (dwaithins) believe that the fundamental genuine nature of the Atma is bliss (ananda); this is diminished and desiccated by the consequences of human actions in life after life, so it has to be restored and revitalized by the grace of God.
The monists (adwaithins) believe that there can be no diminution or desiccation. They assert that the Atma is fully splendorous; however, through the influence of the deluding effect of ignorance (maya), which superimposes false impression on what is really true, It appears as if it has diminished.
Whatever the differences in interpretation, when we take our stand on the central core of the truth on which all agree, a deep passage will be discerned between “East” and “West”, where both do journey to the goal.
People of the Eastern countries seek the realization of this gloriously beneficent consummation in the inner regions of themselves. While worshiping, we close the eyes and endeavor to visualize God inside ourselves.
Another point must be understood: We have to hold fast to the belief, always. Unless a belief is held unshaken throughout night and day, it cannot be used to achieve victory. No success is possible otherwise. When a man asserts that he is low and mean and that he knows but little, he becomes low and mean and his knowledge shrinks.
We become what we believe we are. We are the children of almighty God, endowed with supreme power, glory, and wisdom. We are children of immortality. When we dwell in this thought, how can we ever be low and ignorant? Indian spiritual culture enjoins on everyone to believe that the real nature of mankind is supreme and that one should be ever conscious of this truth.
The Indians (Bharathiyas) of past ages had faith in their great reality. They achieved victory in their endeavours as a result of this faith and rose to lofty heights. They reached the peak of progress. Today, we have slid down into the present decline mainly because we have lost faith in the Atma in us.
This was the beginning of our fall. For, loss of confidence in the Self (Atma) involves loss of faith in God Himself. That Omnipresence is the inner motivator of all, the warp and woof of our body and mind, our emotions and intellect.
Strengthening faith in Him is the only means of realizing the highest goal of mankind. This is the lesson that Indian spiritual history longs to teach.
Essence
Until the individualized soul gets liberated
from the individualization and merges in the Universal, thus attaining
liberation (moksha), it has to encase
itself in one body after another and go through the process called living.
This is the cycle-of-birth-death (samsara) idea, which the ancient texts or scriptures of India reveal and propagate. Samsara means “movement into one form after another”.
After giving the beliefs that 3 schools- dvaitha, vishishta advaita and advaita schools hold, Swami reveals the truth thus:
Atma is beginningless and endless; since It is not born, It has no death. Its individualized image has to evolve through a series of bodies until it attains fulfillment in the human
Atma is, by its very nature, purity, fullness, and bliss (parisuddha, paripurna, and ananda)
If this is the nature of atman, then why we human beings fail to recognize this divine atman within ourself??
Swami answers:
The dualists (dwaithins) believe that the fundamental genuine nature of the Atma is bliss (ananda); this is diminished and desiccated by the consequences of human actions in life after life, so it has to be restored and revitalized by the grace of God.
The monists (adwaithins) believe that there can be no diminution or desiccation. They assert that the Atma is fully splendorous; however, through the influence of the deluding effect of ignorance (maya), which superimposes false impression on what is really true, It appears as if it has diminished.
About the ignorance/avidya referred above, Swami says,
“We are children of immortality. When we dwell in this thought, how can we ever be low and ignorant? Indian spiritual culture enjoins on everyone to believe that the real nature of mankind is supreme and that one should be ever conscious of this truth.”
Still, if we were to rush to Swami and submit and confess that we are still not able to realize the atman within us, then, Swami gives the reason as well the solution for our problem and says,
“Today, we have slid down into the present decline mainly because we have lost faith in the Atma in us.
This was the beginning of our fall. For, loss of confidence in the Self (Atma) involves loss of faith in God Himself.
That Omnipresence is the inner motivator of all, the warp and woof of our body and mind, our emotions and intellect.
Strengthening faith in Him is the only means of realizing the highest goal of mankind. This is the lesson that Indian spiritual history longs to teach.”
Love.
