SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA----48

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SAI RAM Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

In the previous submission,we discussed about the 'fall of God to manhood'. The Lord, in self-forgetfulness, comes to identify Himself as nothing other than His own glory playing upon and through the body and mind. The manifestation of life through the matter-conditionings is called the ego-centre

(jiva). Having become, " as though " a Jiva, He finds a panting life of reckless indulgence and tearful disappointments as the only known way of life. The Infinite Knowledge, the Absolute Bliss(

Nitya Anandamaya) thus suffers on account of delusion(moha) and sorrow(dukham). The Supreme Consciouness, when it forgets Its own Real Nature, Infinite, Divine and Immaculate, tragically falls into the status of the undivine, finite, sinful ego-centre. Consciouness or Atma thus playing through tendencies

(Vasanas) in an individual bosom is the very Lord(Pragna) within the individual. The dynamised Vasanas, constituting the 'causal body', is the Lord, ruler and controller of any given individual, because, the activised tendencies command and control all the intellectual, mental and physical activities of the individual. The Consciouness or Atma is one and the same in all forms; in each bosom ,the same Atma ,expressing through its " causal Body " , lords over all the activities of the gross and subtle bodies.

 

 

 

The Infinite Atman, which is all-pervading, can never fall or rise as It is Ever-perfect, everywhere. And yet we experience all around us, the created world----- as the scriptures explain the theories of creation, the stages of the fall and the methods of rising back to the higher Divine realms of experience. The so-called fall of the God to manhood is only a seeming fall of the Infinite Oneness into the apparent plurality of the created beings. The Infinite in Its perfection has nothing to achieve. Desire is the cry of the imperfect yearning for perfection. The Self or Atma in us has come to project the vehicles of experiences, and identifying with them, has come out to play as an ego-centre. This individuality in its turn visualises a delusory world of perceptions, emotions and thoughts and projecting upon them false ideas of " I-ness " and " my-ness',vanities of " I act " and " I enjoy " , concepts of " I am Happy " , " I am unhappy " etc., the Absolute Self, in a self-deluding play, goes through the tragic career of the jiva.

 

 

 

Ego rises up when the light of the Self plays upon the " flow-of -thoughts " , the mind. Thoughts arise and gurgle forth, from the vasanas left over by the previous actions performed and experiences gained. The ego-centric individuality in one is the play of the Atma through the meshes of one`s own tendencies, and the quality and nature of the individuality are to a large extent ordered by the texture and quality of their determining tendencies

( vasanas) in the given individuality.

(to be continued)

With Loving SAI RAMs,

G.Balasubramanian