Atmeeyam : ( 22/10/2012. )

ISAVASYOPANISHAD (Continued) Mantras 6 and 7. Who sees all beings in his own Self and the Self in all beings, - he does not shrink away from anything, i.e., does not get disgusted with anything. In whom, the knower, all beings have become the Self, - to him, who beholds unity, where is delusion, where is sorrow? The person who has established himself in the Absolute Self sees everything situated in himself, because he is the support and the possibility of all beings. This realisation comes to him through absolute renunciation which means the transcendence of all particular forms and diving into the general substance which enters into the very fibre of the particularities. Because of this knowledge of the oneness of all beings there is no reason for him to get disgusted with any form or to be attached to any form. He knows that he lives in all bodies and that it is his spirit that works the life of the different individuals. He is the cosmic life in which all individual lives

2. Evam eva khalu, saumya, imah sarvah prajah sata agamya na viduh, sata agacchamaha iti, ta iha vyaghro va simho va, vrko va, varaho va, kito va, patango va, damso va, masako va, yad-yad-bhavanti tad-abhavanti. 3. Sa ya esho'anima etad-atmyam-idam sarvam tat satyam sa atma tattvam- asi, svetaketo-iti, bhuya eva me bhagavan vijnapayatviti tatha somya iti hovacha. When they have gone there and come back, they do not know that they have gone there and have come back from there. They have touched, entered, practically become one with the Being in deep sleep, but they do not know that. Their eyes have been blindfolded, as it were. When they come back, each one says, “I am so-and-so”. That is all. They have no other consciousness—Sata agamya na viduh sata agacchamaha iti. Whatever they were, animals or human beings, that they become again. The particular species and the particular body with which they entered into sleep or die, they w

  Section 10 :  The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) Illustration of Rivers and the Ocean --------------------------------------------------- Mantram-1.   1. Imah, saumya, nadyah purastat pracyah syandante, pascat praticyah tah samudrat samudram evapiyanti, sa samudra eva bhavati, ta yatha yatra na viduh, iyam aham asmi, iyam aham asmiti.     There are the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Krishna, Cauvery, etc. They all go to the same ocean and fall into the same body of water. When they enter the ocean they become a mass of water and you no longer can make out which is Ganga, which is Yamuna, or any other. If you take a tumbler of water from the ocean you do not know which river-water you are taking. Why? Because the distinguishability of character in the river has been abolished in the body of the waters of the ocean. No river thinks “I am Ganga”, “I am Yamuna”, etc., after it has entered the ocean. The bodily distinction of the river is completely transcended, overcome

  Mantra 5         It moves, and it moves not. It is far, and it is near. It is inside all this, and also outside all this. The movement of the Atman is like the movement of the sun with reference to a perceiver. The sun does not really move; only the clouds move. It is the mind that shifts its centres of thought, and consciousness appears to follow it because of its omnipresent nature. The mind cannot move outside the reality of the Atman. Its motion is within Truth, but, because it works in terms of forms or particular centres, it moves and changes itself. And because the Atman-consciousness is reflected through the mind, the reflection appears to move when really the medium it is that moves. In itself, the Atman does not move, because it is eternal. It is very far, because it is infinite and without boundaries. Also it appears to be very far to the ignorant, because it is not possible to know it even in crores (tens of millions) of births through any worldly means. I

Mantra-4.   ISAVASYOPANISHAD (Continued) : The Atman is motionless, one alone, swifter than the mind. It is not overtaken by the senses, because it is prior to them. It is ahead of them. Others run fast to overtake it, but it is before them even while sitting. On the basis of this Self does Hiranyagarbha make actions possible.   The Self is motionless, because it is eternal. It is one, because duality is non-eternal. Individuality and motion mean changing from one condition to another, which means death. The Self, being permanent, is free from individuality and motion. Because the Self is omnipresent it exists wherever the mind goes and is even beyond the province of the mind. The mind may run with the greatest speed to any place or time, but the Self is already there, it being the very implication of the existence and activity of the mind. The senses cannot overtake the Self because the senses have got two defects. One is that they always run away from the Self, an

  3. Ta iha vyaghro va simho ra vrko va varaho va kito va patango va damso va masako va yad-yad-bhavanti, tadabhavanti.     If a tiger sleeps, when it gets up it is the same tiger only, not even another tiger in the same species. If a mosquito sleeps, when it gets up it is the same mosquito only. They do not become something else even though in sleep they have no particular consciousness, having merged in the pure Being. Whatever one's nature is, one reverts to that particular form of individuality in spite of the fact that there has been a tentative contact in an unconscious manner with the undistinguished Reality which is pure Being. This pure Being is the Self of all. One may be conscious or not. That is a different matter. But that is the Being behind all your activities, behind your sleep, behind your birth and death, behind the whole process of universal evolution. It is the Self that is caught into this activity in the form of birth, death, incarnations, etc. Thi

        The Indwelling Spirit: --------------------------------   1. Yatha, saumya, madhu madhukrto nistishthanti, nanatyayanam vrkshanam rasan samavaharam katam rasam gamaynti. 2. Te yatha tatra na vivekam labhante, amushyaham vrkshasya raso'smi, amushyaham vrkshasya rasosmiti, evam eva khalu, saumya, imah sarvah prajah sati sampadya na viduh, sati sampadyamaha iti. What happens to all individuals when they reach Being? The explanation is given through an analogy. “You see,” says the father to the son, “honeybees go to different flowers, collect the essence of the flowers and convert it into a jelly by certain chemical processes that take place within their own bodies. Thus is formed what is called honey. Now this thing called honey includes the essences of various flowers, hundreds and hundreds of them from where they have been collected. The honey is an amalgam of all these essences, but in this body of the honey one cannot distinguish the essence of one fl

    ISAVASYOPANISHAD (Continued) Mantra-3.   Devilish are the worlds covered over by dense darkness, which are reached by those who have killed their Self. The regions experienced by the destroyers of the Self, i.e., those who are ignorant of the Self, are devilish or godless because they are destitute of purity and light, devoid of sattva-guna, cut off from the knowledge of Truth. They are devilish because experiences there are extremely painful and antagonistic to the Divine Presence. People who reject the Divine Self and love the undivine matter, which is subjectively called the body and objectively the world, have such experiences as are characterised by extreme repentance for having committed the evil of not knowing the Self. The asuras or the devils are those who have deserted the One Immutable Being.       In this sense all individuals are asuras in different degrees, because they experience the material sheaths or the bodies. These realms of these unfort

      ISAVASYOPANISHAD (Continued)   Mantra-2. :   1. The first mantra refers to jnana-nishtha, and is meant for those who have the ability to abandon all desires and establish themselves in knowledge alone. But on others who are not yet ready for such a state the performance of action in conformity with the natural inclination of the individual is enjoined: “By doing action alone here one should wish to live a hundred years. Thus it is in your case; there is no other way than this. Action dose not cling to man.” One can wish to live as an individual only by performing actions. As long as there is the strong feeling that on is a human being alone, the laws pertaining to the human being have to be observed. One cannot live in one plane and observe the rules of another plane. The notion of one’s being an individual is inseparably connected with the ideas of and the necessity for desire and action. The very fact of individuality denotes that individuality is not complete

    7. Sa ya esho'nima aitad atmyam-idam sarvam, tat satyam, sa atma: tattvam- asi, svetaketo, iti; bhuya eva ma, bhagavan, vijnapayatv-iti, tatha, saumya, iti hovaca.       1. O Svetaketu, my dear boy! You cannot be separated from That; you cannot stand outside this Being. As everything has come from that, you too have come from That. By the triplicated process of the elements your body has been formed, and everything that you are individually is a shape taken by that Being through the triplication of the three elements. So what you call 'yourself' or 'myself' or anything, refers to the Self and is a shape or form taken by the Being, and these shapes in turn cannot stand outside the Being. That is the Self of all Beings, and therefore, naturally you too are that. You cannot stand outside it, or external to it, or different from it. That is your Self; you yourself are That. O Svetaketu, the great conclusion to which you come by the analysis of the th

          1. What is the ultimate cause? The cause ultimate can only be that which is not absorbed into a higher cause. The absorption process ceases when the ultimate cause is reached. The grosser forms get absorbed into the subtler ones, and the subtler ones reach the causal state, the so-called ultimate cause from the empirical point of view. This ultimate cause dissolves in the Absolute. 2. There, everything comes to a cessation. The individuality gets dissolved, as it were. It gets tuned up to the ultimate Reality. So, there is an absorption of the grosser element of the earth into the water element, the water element into the fire element and the fire element into the ultimate Reality which is called Sat, pure Being. It is the origin of all things from which the multiplicity appears to proceed through the instrumentality of this triplicated structure of the universe, the constituents of which are fire, water and earth.   3. Everything, ultimately, is rooted in

  Isavasyopanishad   Mantra-1.     All this is pervaded by the Lord, whatever is moving (and not moving) in this world. By such renunciation enjoy (or protect). Do not covet the wealth of anyone. Vasyam or avasyam means fit to be dwelt by or clothed by or covered over by. The universe is to be covered over by the consciousness of God. It means that God indwells every being of the universe. But this indwelling does not in any way create a distinction between the indweller and the indwelled. The Lord exists as the innermost Self of all. The Self, however, cannot pervade itself. Pervasion, here, means existence. The universe in essence is the truth of God Himself. It does not exist as an object to be covered over by God, like cloth, etc. There is nothing in this universe which can have any value or being without the existence of God. This is to say that God is the sole existence.     It also means that one has to fill the whole universe with the consciousness of Div

      4. “This absorption of the food into the water element inside your body is an indication that some subtle force is working in you, other than the mere working of the alimentary canal in your physical body. There are subtler forces. So from the effect you go to the cause,” says the teacher. “If the food is dissolved by water and drawn further inward by the action of water and due to it you feel hungry, even so you feel thirsty for another reason. The water is absorbed or dried up by the fire principle in your system. The fire draws into itself the water principle and then you begin to feel thirsty. The water principle goes into the fire principle. So, finally what remains is a heat in the system and energy that is generated on account of the food that you eat. So what is the heat? It is the heat of fire,—in other words, the energy that you acquire due to the consumption of food. When food is dissolved by water, and water is absorbed by fire, it is converted into energ

  ISAVASYOPANISHAD:   Santi Mantra   That is full; this is full. From the full the full proceeds. Taking the full from the full, the full alone remains. That Absolute is full. This created being is also full. Brahman is infinitude and is therefore full. That which proceeds from the full or the infinite must be either real or unreal. If it is real, it must also be full, because a part cannot be ever-enduring, and that which is not always enduring is not real. If it is unreal, nothing proceeds at all. This means to say that either infinity is the product of infinity or nothing proceeds from infinity. Infinity cannot proceed from infinity, because, thereby, there would be two infinities. Hence, the proceeding of infinity from infinity does not change infinity, because infinity alone remains even after that. The drift of the statement is that infinity is unchanging and this mantra is a figurative way of saying that nothing proceeds from infinity. Even the idea of something

Siddhanta Tattva Vindu :  ( The Song of the Self ) By Sri Adi Sankaracharya      1. Nor earth nor water, fire nor liquid air, nor ether, nor the powers, nor these in one; undifferentiated, in dreamless perfect rest, that, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. 2. Nor castes nor their divisions, rite nor rule, are mine, nor fixing mind and thought and mood; no longer dreaming things not Self art 'I' and 'mine,' that, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. 3. Nor mother, father, nor the gods and worlds, nor Scriptures, offerings, shrines are there, they say, in dreamlessness abandoned by the lonely Self; that, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. 4. Nor sectary of Cause or Lord or Life knows That, nor follower of Saint or Rite, in perfect union, pure of all but Self, that, the One, final, blest, alone, am I. 5. Nor upward, downward, nor within, without; nor midward, backward, That, nor east nor west; all-present everywhere in partless unity, that, the One, fi

1. Why are you hungry, and why are you thirsty? 2. This, again, is the action of the three elements in your body. We said there are three primordial features of reality manifest as fire, water and earth. They are functioning in the body in some way. Because of the action of these three elements in the body, you are hungry and thirsty. What is this hunger, and what is this thirst?   3. “Now, my dear boy, listen to me again. I shall explain what is hunger and what is thirst.” You go on pouring food, gross items, articles of diet into your stomach, but, even then, you are hungry after some time. Why?   4. The water element liquefies the physical food, draws the essence of it inward, and exhausts the contents of the food that you have taken. So you feel hungry again, in spite of your having eaten food. The water principle draws the gross food into itself. Food dissolves in the water principle and, then, naturally, the food is exhausted and so you feel the need for it agai

        Vakya Sudha (The Essence of the Teaching) By Adi Sankaracharya. Mantram- 1 to 46.   (a).  Seer and Seen: ------------------- 1. The form is seen, the eye is seer; the mind is both seen and seer. The changing moods of mind are seen, but the witnessing Self, the seer, is never seen. 2. The eye, remaining one, beholds varying forms; as, blue and yellow, coarse and fine, short and long; and differences such as these. 3. The mind, remaining one, forms definite intentions, even while the character of the eye varies, as in blindness, dullness, or keen-sightedness; and this holds also of hearing and touch. 4. The conscious Self, remaining one, shines on all the moods of mind: on desire, determination, doubt, faith, unfaith, firmness and the lack of it, shame, insight, fear, and such as these. 5. This conscious Self rises not, nor has its setting, nor does it come to wax or wane; unhelped, it shines itself, and illumines others also.   (b). The Personal I

              1. You have no support anywhere in this world, except your own self, as the peg is the resting place of the bird in the illustration. But, this is a point which nobody can remember. You seek support outside, and so go on working hard every day to come in contact with things external, thinking that your support is outside, but it is not there! You can not find a final support anywhere in the world. 2. Everybody is sick of you, in fact, wherever you go. Then what happens? Your experiment fails and you go back to your home, because nobody really wants you. There is the home which you enter after realising the truth of things. “I have searched and searched with the help of friends and so-called supports. I have found nothing anywhere; I go back to my own home.”     3. This is what you do when you retire to sleep, but you do not properly get educated by the phenomenon. You do not know why you are exhausted in life. If you had known the reason for this

Chapter-2.   Section-8. Concerning Sleep, Hunger, Thirst and Dying : ---------------------------------------------------------------- Mantram-1. (a). Now, there are greater secrets in a person than the food that is eaten. We are not merely food, or water, or fire. There is something very interesting in us, something which one cannot understand, ordinarily. Every day you go to sleep, you dream, you wake up. Why does this happen? This is something quite different from the subject of food. You have some other element in you more than the food you take. You have some essential root of your personality, which is the deeper side of your nature, whose various functions are waking, dreaming and sleeping. What happens to you when you sleep? Do you know that? You cannot easily say what happens to you in sleep, nor why you sleep. Listen to me now. I shall tell you something about this interesting secret. When a person is in the condition of sleep, in Sanskrit we say, svapiti, “H

  Karma Yoga : By Swami Abhedananda     ONE of the significations of the word "Yoga" is "Dexterity in work." To render this meaning still more specific, the Sanskrit term "Karma," derived from the root verb "Kri," to act, is added. Taken in its literal sense, therefore, Karma signifies action, and refers to all actions whether of mind or body. Wherever there is activity of any kind, it is Karma. In this sense devotion, love, worship, meditation, concentration, discrimination are all Karma; as are also, for the same reason, eating, drinking, walking, talking, or performing any organic function.   Again, every action, as we are aware, is followed by reaction. No action can be separated from its result, as no cause can be absolutely disconnected from its effect.  Consequently the secondary meaning of Karma embraces all reactions or results of actions. The chain of cause and sequence, known as the "law of causation," is a