Guest guest Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Hari Om The key to sucessful self-realization is to maintain a purified understanding, "I am Brahman " and through that understanding realise our own Self which is Knowledge Absolute. Such an understanding of of one`s Real Nature should not be a just a passing experience. It should be a constant experience or Knowledge. Presently, we have the constant knowledge that "I am the Body" or I am the intellect. The constant knowledge we are talking about is the knowledge that " I am the Pure Consciouness." We need to negate the body as not Self. The Self is not subjected to birth, old age , senility , death etc,. Since Atma does not have sense organs , it is not attracted by sense objects. Atma is the enlivening factor which vitalises the body and sense organs. It is different from them and has none of their qualities. The physical body undergoes the metamorphosic changes viz., birth, growth, disease, decay and death. These changes pertain only to the body and not to the Atma which serves as the changeless Substartum, with reference to which alone these changes are possible. Just as the movement of a train can be ascertained only by looking closely at the stationary railway platform or at the electric poles standing by the the side of the track, the changes in the body and senses can be ascertained only with refence to the changeless Atma. Atma is often likened in Vedanta to an anvil which a blacksmith uses for hammering out different forms and shapes of metals. Despite all the beatings and hammerings, the anvil remains unaffected. Likewise Atma remains unaffected by things happening around it. Atma is indestructible ( Avinasi) and immutable ( Avyayam). In the second chapter of Bagavad Gita ,Lord Krishna says ,"all bodies are unreal and perishable (Ime Deahah Antavantah). Though unreal, they appear as real on account of our ignorance. They have no real existence and their destruction is therefore inevitable. Atma has no birth or death. It is never born nor itdies. nor it comes into existence only after being born since it is unborn,eternal,everlasting and ancient. Even though the body perishes the Atma does not .( Na Jayate mriyate va kadachit na ayam bhutva Bhavita va na Bhuyah. Ajo nityah Saswatoyam Puranao na Hanyate hanya mane sareere) as the Lord puts it. It is unborn and yet it is born in various ways, declares the Purusha sooktam.( Ajayamano Bahuda Vijayate0. ( to be continued) G.Balasubramanian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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