SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA---94

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Loving SAI RAMs,

The scriptures declare, " Atman alone is Brahman " . The Self that is the reality behind the individual life is itself the one Infinite Self which is the substratum for the entire jagat and Isvara, as already pointed out in the earlier postings. The experience that the Self in the meditator is the Self in all names and forms, is not a different stage in the process of Self-realization. It is immediate, irresistable, and natural. From the body level, an individual perceives the 'world-of-objects', from the level of the mind, he experiences, emotions and feelings. But when the mind is transcended and the individual is deeply plunged into the intellectual sheath, there he experiences only " ideas and ideals " and the world of forms and the the feelings and emotions are totally effaced. In the deep-sleep condition, the Consciousness, functioning through the causal body, illumines the 'abscence of things'--- the things that were experienced as in the waking and dream conditions. The Self is realized on transcending the gross, the subtle and the causal bodies. Therefore, once the world interpreted to us through these vehicles, rolls away, in its place, the experience can be only be of the one Infinite Non-dual Self within and without. The unwinding of the false knots in our confused thinking is the real Sadhana. A seeker possessing an integrated personality, with his disciplined instruments of meditation must maintain in himself constantly this idea, that the Self in him is the Self every-where. The Sruti

designates such a seeker as Dheerah--one who possesses Atmaikya Buddhi. Sadhana consists in our sincere effort to unravel the existing unintelligent misconceptions under the influence of which we have been conceiving and imagining the existence of the world-of-plurality. But no sincere seeker should expect any immediate reward from his short and ineffectual attempts at meditation. This practise must be continued ceaselessly for a long period.

 

 

Purified intellects should practise, " I am the Brahman, I am not a worldly man " . The constant flow of this thought maintained in the bosom is the gateway to Supreme experience of the Atma. One of the Great Declarations (

Mahavakyas ) in the Vedas is the statement, " I am Brahman(Aham Brahmasmi). It is the roar of confirmation gurgling from the heart of a realised seeker. To come to maintain this awareness constantly in the mind

(Akhanda Vritti) is the zero hour when the ego-centric entity awakes from its long sleep of ignorance into the dawn of realisation and inner experience of its own Infinitude.

(To be continued)

G.Balasubramanian