Fw: SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA----3

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----- Forwarded Message ----G Balasubramanian <gbsubviprasamhitha (AT) googl (DOT) comSent: Sunday, August 30, 2009 6:59:49 AMSOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA----3

 

Dear Friends,

The Atma is other than the three conditioning bodies(Upadhis) viz., Gross body, subtle body and causal body. Ignorance is called the causal body. It is ignorant of its own real nature(Self). Vedanta holds that the all-pervading Atman(Brahman) which is one without a second(

Ekameva Adwithiyam) is real and that the entire world of plurality is unreal. As long as Atman is not realized, the non-apprehansion of it creates the misapprehensions of a pluralistic world which we experience in the waking and dream state of consciouness. Ignorance(

Avidya) of Atman is the cause that produces the world. Hence ignorance is known as causal body.

 

Atman is the core of human personality and is something other than the above-mentioned material equipment which are by themselves inert and insentient. But when Atman functions through the sentient, human being is created. Our real nature is Atman, the Pure Consciouness. We can experience it by withdrawing our identification with the three material eqipment(bodies). The Atman appears tainted because of its association with the coveings or sheaths(

Panchakosas) surrounding it just as a crystal takes after the colour of the surrounding, say, blue cloth etc. when in contact with it.

 

Atman is immaculate. It can never be contaminated by the layers of matter enveloping it. The properties of the layers of the matter enveloping it are wrongly identified with Atman by superimposing them on the Atman. We assume ourselves to be our body, mind and intellect even though these are essentially equipment possessed by us. It must be understood clearly that the possessor and the possessed can not be one and the same. But our identification with them is so intense and deep that we have become one with them. For example, we proclaim we are joyous or sad when the mind is joyous or sad. We declare we are feeling hot or cold when our body is hot or cold. This is a pheneomenon of false identification and superimposition. Just as a colourless sheet of glass appears blue in clour when placed over a blue cloth on account of superimposition of

the blue coulour on the glass by virtue of its contact with the blue cloth, so too the Atman appears differently to the ignorant because of superimposition of material layers upon it.

 

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian