Guest guest Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 Dear Brothers and Sisters, Loving SAI RAMs. A member of one of the has expressed his concern at the slowing down of the postings on the subject. Sometime back another member of another commented that not more than one posting per day be posted on this topic as he could not cope up with the speed of my posting. When I started the postings on this topic I had no idea as to how many postings will be made and as to how long it will take to complete the postings on this topic. The posting was started at the request of a member of the . Neither the concept nor the sequence of postings was clear to me. I was being guided from time to time by , most likely, Swamy Himself, who was addressing questions and eliciting clarifications through members. It has taken quite some time since the first posting was made. One member requested for a summation of the postings which has been going on. Effective from posting no.83, in the previous 4 postings(posting no.83 to 86) I could sum up more or less the first 40 postings on this topic. I shall try to hasten this process of summing up so that with Swamy`s grace I can make further progress with the topic. The term Atma is the same as Consciouness, Reality, Truth, Awareness, Absolute, Spirit, Supreme soul etc. etc. Atma and Brahman are one and the same as proclaimed by scriptures. " Truth is one but realized people call it differently " , as pronounced by Vedas. The underlying Reality behind everything is the Atma which is also the God principle. Atma is distinct from the 'soul' which is subject to reincarnation according to Hindu thought. The equivalent of 'soul' in Vedanta is sookshma sareera or subtle body of the individual ego(jiva). Soul survives death of body, whereas Atma has no body, no death and also immortal. We have also seen the relation between jiva and Isvara in one of the postings. What is jiva? The reflection of Brahman or Atma(as it were) on the Sookshmasareera or subtle body which identifies with the grossbody is caled jiva. Atma conditioned by ignorance (avidya) is called jiva by Sankaracharya. In other words jiva is conditioned Atma or a reflection of Atma in avidya. Isvara is a blend of Atma and Maya. Reflection of Atma in Maya is called Isvara. The conscious element in both Isvara and Jiva is the same viz., Atma. While the Isvara is aware of His Divinity, the jiva ,losing sight of its divinity , falsely identifies with its psycho-physical organism and is led away by the 'I' , 'Me, 'Mine etc.concepts. Scriptures indicate Atma as 'not this','not that' etc. since Atma can not be defined or described in words.Example of negative terminologies used are infinite, immutable, imperishable, without contaminations, without limits etc. etc. Scriptures also adopt a few affirmative terminologies like eternal, pure etc. etc.to indicate the Atma. Clear-cut distinction between God and man was explained in posting no.48. How the eternal Atma becomes the limited ego was also explained in posting no.49. Effect of the Gunas and Vasanas on the Atma was also brought out in posting no.50. (to be continued) G.Balasubramanian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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