SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA---2

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Sai Ram Dear Brothers and Sisters,

(continued from previous posting)

We create our individuality by constantly thinking, " I am the Body " , I am the Mind " and " I am the Intellect " . If this thought process is substituted with the thought , " I am the Supreme Self

(Atman) " , we begin to experience the Divinity within us. In meditation, our thought is to be held in single-pointed focus on the Self. That is the final stage of human effort. At that stage the last thought dissolves by itself. We merge with the Supreme Self. The Self in us is covered by our thoughts . To discover the Self, we have to remove all thoughts. By meditation our thoughts are removed except the one thought of the Supreme Self(

Atman). This last thought when maintained in single-pointed concentration(Dharana, Samadhi etc.) disaappears by itself. What remains is the Supreme Self.

The Spiritual Masters who have awakened to Self-Realization(Atma Satshatkar), unrelentlessly declare the Truth---Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya. It means that Brahman or Atman alone is real; the world is a myth. We can not appreciate and accept the illusory nature of this world until we gain the final experience of the Supreme Self. As along as we experience this world it will be absurd on our part to consider it as illusory. This world has to be accepted for the time being as real. While experiencing the world we must seek the Reality underlying it. As we progress seeking it, the unreality of this world will reveal itself. As long as we do not realize the non-dual Atman which is the subsratum (

Adhishtanam) of all thoughts , the world appears to be real. In the ignorant state ,that is to say, as long as we remain conditioned by ignorance, the phenomenal world appears real to us. When we realize

ATMAN, we will at once understand the transient and illusory nature of the world. In Vedanta,this is comparable to a dreamer waking up from his dream. Acharya Sankara has compared this phenomenon to the illusion of silver in an oyster shell. On a moonlit night the oyster-shells scattered all along the beach produces an illusion of silver. The illusion lasts as long as the oyster-shell is not recognised . When the real nature of the shell is understood ,the imaginary silver vanishes instantly. The shell is the substratum upon which the silver is superimposed. Without the shell the illusion can not arise. Likewise, Atman is the subsratum upon which the pluralistic world is superimposed. Without Atman the illusion of the world can not arise. The world only confirms the existence of the Supreme Atman. The unseen Atman lends an appearance of reality to an illusion founded upon it just as the unseen shell is the foundation for the illusory silver.

 

(to be continued)

With Loving SAI RAMs,

G.Balasubramanian