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 learned last week that, due to being jivas fixed in flesh and
blood, we tend to view things as having an explanation based on finitude. This
even applies to our perception of the Divine. We have, over the centuries,
separated the spiritual entity within us and given it the name "God".
Then we set up rites and practices of worship to that Divine Principle. In
shloka three, Shankara-ji pointed out that these actions could not actually
result in our rediscovering our True Self. He says further;
Avi½Ú
#va}anaÄÚaze sit kevl>,
Svy<
àkazte ýaTma me"apaye<=zumainv.4.
avacchinna
ivaaGYaanaattannaashe sati kevalaH.
svayaM
prakaashate hyaatmaa meghaapaayeM.ashumaaniva||4||
The Self appears to be finite because
of ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed, It is recognised to be Infinite,
Absolute. The Self reveals Itself by Itself - like the sun when the clouds pass
away.
This may look the same as the previous shloka, however there is a
deeper sense of Self intimated here and a clearer focus on the revelationary
aspect of It.
For grasping the immensity of the claim that nothing is required in
order to remove ignorance and obtain Knowledge (go from avidya to vidya), an
analogy is used. When, in the depths of atmospheric lows, the sky is filled
with blankets of clouds for days on end, we can forget what the sun looks like
- or even that it exists! Then, as if by magic, something causes the clouds to
move on and we are left in the full bath of sunlight. Do we not stretch
ourselves before it? Do we not breath more deeply and smile more widely? Do we
not feel every part of our body responding to the warmth of that light? Are we
not glad to be reunited with the sun?
It is not that the sun was ever absent, but that there was a
physical defect, causing us to think it had gone. Even when in the presence of
current, widely understood science, we accept that the sun is there, we are so
dependent on physical presence that we become forgetful and complain of its
absence.
This is how we have become with The Self - though fully worse, for
we have truly forgotten and even become totally unaware of its continued
presence in our existence - that Its existence IS our existence. When - if - we
reach the level of inner understanding and surrender which allows us to enter
that spiritual effulgence again, it will feel like that moment of the break in
the clouds - only this time the clouds will not return and the bliss will be
exponentially more than a brief sun-bathing!
The Self is infinite. There is no plurality in
that homogenous Being; The Self Alone exists as the illuminator and makes Its
presence felt by its life-giving power. It sits and waits for those 'down
below' to create for themselves the atmosphere in which the clouds part. It
does not need to do more. Those who are qualified and reach to the Universal
Truth are those who have no clinging attachment to the enchantments of the
external world of objects and who have placed themselves firmly in the physics
of spirit. In doing so, the limited knowledge which was "I" joins with the unlimited Knowledge of "T"ruth to become "IT''. …
Some extra terms for your notebooks… svRVyaip/sarvavyaapi
- not limited by space; svaRTma /sarvaatmaa - unlimited by object; kalinTy/kAlanitya - unlimited by time=eternity. To put these
terms into sentences descriptive of The Self…
ndez gt pirCDed AiSt tSmat! AaTma svRVyaip /nadesha gata paricCheda asti tasmaat
aatmaa sarvavyaapi - there is no limitation (boundary) pertaining to space
therefore Self is not this way limited
nkal gt pirCDed AiSt tSmat! AaTma inTy>/nakAla gata paricCheda asti
tasmaat aatmaa nityaH - there is no limitation pertaining to time therefore Self is
eternal
nvStu gt pirCDed AiSt tSmat! AaTma svaRTma/navastu gata paricCheda asti
tasmaat aatmaa sarvaatmaa - there is no limitation by object therefore Self is all
things.
