Some Thoughts On ATMA---17

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Sai Ram Dear Brothers and Sisters,

(continued from posting no.16)

We were discussing about the post and ghost in the earlier submission. The non-apprehension of the post causes a misapprehension of a vision of ghost. When the cause viz. misapprehension dies, the effect viz., ghost also ends. The ghost vision is considered unreal, as compared to the vision of the post.; the hallucination does not remain after the rediscovery of the post. Similarly, on account of non-apprehension of the Reality(Atma), the intellect is veiled and the mind is agitated. Consequently ,the mind projects misapprehensions on the Reality and identifying itself with them gives rise to the world of plurality. The phenomenon of projection and identification of the mind is called superimposition. With the dawn of knowledge, ignorance is removed and the concept of the pluralistic world vanishes leaving behind the Supreme Reality. The world is seemingly real to us just as the snake is real to the deluded,although it is only a rope. The Ghost is real to the frightened individual, who,in ignorance mistakes the post to be ghost. We mistake the mirage in the desert for water. The desert alone is the reality just as the rope and post are realities in the example. It is hallucination in man and the consequent illusion of the world which he entertains that exile him from his own inner kingdom of joy viz., the Atma.

 

 

Atma is pure Consciouness which enables the sense organs to perceive, the mind to feel and the intellect to think. The sense organs ,mind and intellect have no capacity to function by themselves. They are inert and insentient but when they come in contact with the Atma, they gain sentiency(

Chidabhasa). Vedanta proves that the intellect being inert is not capable of gaining Knowledge on its own. In association with Atma it acquires an apparent sentiency which is capable of knowing objects. The intellect knows certain objects and does not know others. We all know what we know and also what we do not know. Thus we are aware of both our knowledge and our ignorance. The Atma which lends its sentiency to the intellect can not in turn be illumined by the intellect. Atma is self-illuminating. Atma illumines both the thought of knowledge and ignorance of objects. It is free from the thoughts and objects.

(to be continued)

With Loving SAI RAMs,

G.Balasubramanian