Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the
words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.
We are now studying Aatmabodha. As
always, with each week, you are encouraged to review the previous teachings and
spend some time in contemplation of the meanings as the affect your life.
Please do consider purchasing the text. Remember, also, to recite the mangala charana before each study and
review the lessons before each new one.
We
now approach a shloka which comes directly from the understanding that Aatman
reflects within us at all times, but we fail to see it.
jIv>
svRml< }ata Ô:qeit muýit.26.
Aatmano
vikriya naasti buddherbodho na jaatviti,
JiivaH
sarvamalam jnaataa drishteti muhyati ||26||
Aatman never does anything and the intellect of its
own accord has no capacity to experience "I Know"; but the
individuality in us due to delusion thinks that it, itself, is the seer and the
knower.
A
very important point is raised here in reference to Self and self, Higher and
lower.
Firstly
we must understand that Aatman (Brahman, OM…) holds no agency. It is the very
Knowledge which permits all other knowledge and therefore requires not to act.
Secondly,
we must understand that our intellect, in and of itself, has no ability to
function. It, like the mind upon which it sits, is a physical tool of our
material body (albeit an extremely subtle one) and tools in and of themselves
cannot carry out the work for which they are built. Tools require 'workers' to
use them.
Thirdly
we are to understand that the spiritual 'worker' which wields the intellect,
called as the jiiva, tends to get attached to its tool and
"I"dentifies, resulting in a sense of doership and knowledge, forming
the ego-self.
That
which 'Knows' is Aatman. Aatman is reflected in the material equipments just as
the moon is reflected on the bucket of water. That reflection is the jiiva, the
Aatman's image, but not directly the Aatman itself. The one constant in
everything is Aatman. Everything - absolutely everything - else is subject to
alteration in one way or another. Aatman remains as the substratum, unchanging.
When the Aatman becomes jiiva-form, there is sufficient consciousness in that
form to get lost in the world of duality. It begins to attach and desire and
think itself important. This confused ego-self loses its connection with the
Whole Self. It does not understand that, just as the waves are but the same
water as the ocean upon which they act, the jiiva is never actually separate
from the Aatman from which it has arisen.
The
illuminating consciousness, because of which there is an awareness of the
objects and activities of the antaH karana, is that Supreme Reality. Thus, he
who experiences all the waves of life's sorrows, joys, successes and failures,
angers, passions and so forth, in knowing that Aatman, remains steady beneath
them; in knowing the 'Knower', can stand unaffected by those waves. We can know
we are happy or unhappy, but also know that the True Self is immune to these
things because it is Happiness itself. That Happiness is our Truth, all else is
false. None of the conditions of the mind is the Self; this is the constant
wisdom of the wise man.