SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA--15

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Hari OM

Atma is like the electrical energy which causes electrical gadgets to operate. Without electricity none of the gadgets can function. But their functionings do not affect electricity. Electricty produces heat in a heater but electricty is not heated by it. A lamp illumines a pot and other objects around it. These objects by themselves have no capacity to illumine themselves. They can be seen only when the lamp lights them. Atma is THE PRIME SOURCE OF ALL LIGHTS. All luminaries derive their lights from that supreme source but none of them can illuminate it. Atma is also indicated as that by which all the world comprising perceptions, emotions and thoughts are illumined. Atma is the illuminator of the perceptions in the senses, of emotions in the mind and thoughts in the intellect. Without Atma functioning through the body, mind and intellect

none of these experiences is possible. Atma is therefore the illuminator of all experiences. The Bagavad Gita calls Atma as the light of lights(

Jyotisham api jyothih). It is the illuminator of all external lights such as the sun,moon,lightning,stars, fire etc. and of all celestial lights in the shape of deities presiding over different worlds and objects. Even the power of illumination inherent in all these is only a fraction of that of the Atma. That is why Atma is said to be the light of lights ie., the illuminator of all the source of lights. The Katopanishad, the Mundakopanishad and the Svetastarava Upanishad contain a Mantra according to which" The sun can not illumine the integral Atma nor the moon nor the stars nor even the lightning can shed its lustre on It. How then this physical fire? All these reflect the light of Atma alone when It shines; and it is by the light of of Atma that all the universe is illumined"

( Na Tatra Suryo Bhati Na chandra Tarakam...........Tasya Bhasa Sarvam Idam Vibhati). More or less the same idea is contained in 15th chapter of the Bagavad Gita (Na tat bhasayate Sooryo..... and Yadadityagatam Tejo........Tattejo Viddhi Mamakam)

 

 

A question can arise whether a torch,however big in size and however powerful it might be, illumine the sun? On the contrary it is the sun that illumines the torch itself. Similarly, far from the mind in meditation, however deep and profound it be, illumining or revealing the Atma, it is the Atma that overpowers the puny light of the mind and illumines it through and through. Atma shines by itself. It shines alone inwardly like a light placed in a jar. Atma shines and causes everything to shine.

 

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian