Guest guest Posted April 25, 2007 Report Share Posted April 25, 2007 SAI RAM Dear Brothers and Sisters, Atma is Pure Consciouness, immutably homogeneous and infinite. It is the only Reality, the transcendantal principle. The three prime factors of philosophy viz., God(isvara), the individual soul(jiva) and the world(prapancha) are all diversifications of that single transcendental principle. Atma is advaita in the sense that it is the substartum of the abscence of all duality (na vidyate dvitiyam yatra). It is said that maya is nothing but Prakriti in which the strand of satva is predominant and it renders rajas and tamas ineffectual. Prakriti is designated as avidya when the satva is clouded by rajas and tamas. The reflection of Consciousness in maya is Isvara and its reflection in avidya is jiva. Isvara is a blend of Consciouness or Atma and Maya. He is endowed with all auspicious attributes such as omniscience and the like. The conscious-element in Him real,while maya and the attributes projected by it are unreal. He is always aware of His identity with the conscious -element which is His essential nature;for, the latter is never concealed from Him by maya as the satva is predominant therin. He is therefore ever released. To Isvara the world is a mere appearance. The conscious -element in Isvara is represented by the all-pervading principle and is termed as Brahman or Atma. The jiva too is a blend of consciousness and avidyawhich is an aspect of prakriti wherein the satva is less predominant than rajas and tamas. Consequently, avidya conceals the conscious-element from the jiva. The latter, losing sight of its identity with the conscious -element which is its essential nature, falsely identifies itself with the psycho-physical organism of which the mind is the important factor. It is the content of the cognition'I' (ahampadartha). It is endowed with the characteristics of being an agent(kartrtva), an experiencer(boktrtva) and a knower(pramaatrtva). These three constitute what is known as bondage or samsara. As in the case of Isvara, the conscious-element is real in the case of jiva too while avidya, the psycho-physical organism and the characteristics of being an agent, etc are not real. The conscious-element in the jiva is Atma as in case of Isvara. The terms 'Brahman' and Atma represent one and the same principle, viz. the conscoius-element in Isvara and in the jiva. The word Self represents both Brahman and Atma. (to be continued) With Loving SAI RAMs, G.Balasubramanian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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