SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA---112

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Loving SAI RAMs,

We have seen that living as an ego, as a mere embodied self,is to live a life self-exiled from all the divine potentialities. To rediscover the Infinite Beatitude is the only satisfying end and goal of life, where alone an awakened intellect can discover a heaven of peace and as enduring existence in perfect tranquility. The Self, the Substratum of the entire universe, is symbolised by the

Vedik mantra called " OM " . Life is conceived of as 'the flow during our waking , dreaming and deep-sleep states.' The Substratum for these three states and their experiences must be something other than the three, inasmuch as their rider is always different from the ridden, the container is different from the contents. The Substratum is different from the super-impositions on it. The fourth-state, supporting and embracing the three ordinary states of consciousness in every one of us, is termed as

Turiya in the Mandukya Upanishad and Karika. The one symbol representing all these four states is called OM, and naturally, therefore, the Ultimate indicated by OM is the Self, conceived of, for the purpose of worship, as

Krishna in Srimad Bhagavatam. The Self is the essence indicated by OM and this Absolute Reality is the One theme, tacitly expressed, or implied in all the Vedas.

 

In the Bhagavad Gita, the Lord declares, " I am the goal, the supporter, the Lord, the witness, the Abode, the Shelter, the friend, the Origin, the Dissolution, the foundation, the trasure-house and the Imperisheable Seed " . The status of the Self as the very essence behind the seeming plurality of the world which is recognised by us on account of our ignorance. In fact, the world is nothing but a dreamy superimposition gathering its existence from the Reality behind it. The Self is the Substratum of the sorrow-ridden universe of multiplicity. To realise the Self calls for transcending all the choking sense of limitations. The Knowledge-Absolute by 'gaining which all becomes known' is the Self. The Self is the supporter of everything. As Absolute-Existence It lends a semblence of reality to the perceptions of the sense organs, and thus holds together the flood-of-change into-a consistent pattern ,called life. Even though the Self lends its grace to the realm of imperfections sustained and maintained by the agitations of the mind, as the Pure Awareness, It is ever beyond the sorrow and joys of the apparent and illusory Universe. In all this panaroma of expressions, though It lends Existence to them, Itself remains as a mere witness

(Sakshi). It is said that one can be considered as a true witness of an incident, " who is not in the incident, but who happened to witness it, not from too far, with neither attachment nor aversion. " The Infinte

is only a witness of the finite inasmuch as the Self is an uninterested illuminator of what is happening in the arena of the intellect, mind and the body, and in the wide expanse of the world outside.

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian