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.
What
is to be expected of one who has crossed samsaara?
baýainTysuoasi´<
ihTvaTmsuoinv&Rt>,
"qSwdIpvCDñdNtrev
àkazte.51.
Baahyaanitya-sukhaasaktim
hitvaatma-sukhanirvRtaH,
Ghathastha-diipa-vachchhashvad-antareva
prakaashate ||51||
The Self-abiding jikvanmukta, relinquishing all his
attachments to the fleeting joys of the world and satisfied with the bliss
derived from the Aatman, shines inwardly like a lamp placed in a jar.
A
jiivanmukta is a person still in living body who has attained the highest
spiritual goal, Union with Self; he who has withdrawn his consciousness
entirely from all BMI identification. This man of Realisation will, naturally, not be conscious of objects, variety of
feelings or arrays of ideas.
To
the one who is now at one with Self, there is nothing but the Self to illumine.
When the Self-Effulgent Truth has nothing else other than Itself to illumine in
its own Infinite Glory, how will it exist? This is the conundrum which comes to
every student of Vedanta, especially in early stages whilst still wrangling
with the concepts of the philosophy from the current, limited view. Indeed some
advanced students even struggle and there are those who claim that this
realisation cannot occur whilst the body remains. However, there have been
plenty of Masters over the years who have been present and contributed to
society, even whilst being in the state of Realisation.
The
condition of the pure Consciousness, when it has no other object to be
conscious of except the Self, is beautifully presented to us here. When a lamp
is lit and put on a table, its glowing illumination plays upon the surfaces of
the various objects in the room and in varying degrees of intensity. As soon as
that lighted lamp is lowered into a pot or jar, the light of the lamp must come
to illumine only the inner space of the jar (the analogy here is of a clay
item, not glass as we may think in modern terms).
In
the same manner, Consciousness, while playing through the equipments of our
BMI, gets reflected upon the objects of the world and we see them as being
separate entities because of this; but when we have withdrawn the Consciousness
from the vehicles (the indriyaanis) and into Itself, It can illumine only
Itself. The pot does not cease to exist,
but the lamp within continues to burn. The lamp is not concerned about the pot,
though, and if it were to drop away, the lamp still would burn. Consciousness,
the Light of Existence, is present, whether or not there is a pot/body in which
to shine. At no time, however, can the pot/body exist inside the
lamp/consciousness. This is the subtlety of the philosophical example. When it
is spoken of that there is withdrawal, it is not to be taken literally as being
deep within… it is actually 'without' also, for the consciousness, like the
light, is pervasive; unlike the light (and here is the limitation of analogy),
Consciousness is all-pervasive. It pervades all, but nothing pervades It. At
the moment of Self-Realisation, the final experience when the Consciousness
comes to illumine the within, that experience is of an Infinite, All-pervading,
subtlest of the subtle, ever-effulgent Self, of the nature of Pure
Awareness. This is the depth of this
shloka. It is explored a little more in the next.
