SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA---16

[Guest guest]

Hari OM

The Lord has declared in the Gita that the light in the Sun that illumines the entire solar world and the light which shines in the moon and in fire are all His(Tatejo Viddhi Mamakam).

What the Lord seeks to convey here is that whatever illuminating power is there in these luminaries those powers are only part of His own effulgence. How can a luminary illumine the very source of its light? Atma is the only source of all lights and can not be illumined by these or any other luminaries.

 

 

A light does not need another light to illuminate itself. Similarly, Atma needs no other knowledge to make itself known. Atma`s very nature is knowledge itself. We know that the light of a lamp illumines the objects around it. Without the light none of the objects can be seen. Even if all the objects are removed, the lamp continues to shine. The light of the lamp is seen without the help of any other light. Let us take the example of the lights in an auditorium. For any performance in the auditorium , the lights above illumine the artists, the musical accompaniments, audience etc. When all of them leave the auditorium after the performance is over, the light still remains there illuminating itself. Just as ,say, a dance performance takes place only in the light of the lamp, the activities of the senses, mind and ego manifest in the prescence

of the Atma. When we transcend our material equipment by exhausting our inherited tendencies

( vasanas ), Atma alone remains illuminating itself.

 

Let us understand the nature of Atma within us clearly. In the light of the Atma alone, the sense organs perceive the world of objects; the mind feeels emotions and the intellect conceives thoughts. When, howver, the body,mind and intellect are negated and the perceptions, emotions and thoughts are transcended, there are no longer any objects for the Atma to illumine. Thereafter Atma continues to illumine itself. When we realize the Atma we become one with the self-effulgen Atma. In this ultimate experience, no other knowledge or instrument of knowledge is necessary for knowing the Self. It happens in the same way a waker awakening from a dream , experiences his waking world without the help of any of the equipment of his dreaming body or the dream world.

 

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian