SOME THOUGHTS ON ATMA----110

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Loving SAI RAMs,

The scriptures declare that Brahman pervades everything just as butter pervades milk. It has been indicated as one infinte all-pervading Reality and it is said to permeate all beings and things in the world. If this were true then why does It elude human cognition? The world comprises sentient beings .

Brahman expresses as Existence(Sat) in the inert objects and as Intelleigence(chit) and as Bliss (Ananada) in living beings. It pervades the entire universe. It exists in us just as butter exists in milk. We all know butter exists in milk and yet it is not visible to the naked eye. Similarly, Brahman is not cogniseable as such. The technique of the unfoldment of the Self perfectly coincides the method of extraction of butter from milk. As you all are aware, the process of extraction of butter starts with boiling of milk over low or medium flame or source of heat. After it is boiled sufficiently, the milk is cooled to slightly above room temperature. Into the milk so cooled, a little plain yoghurt is added and the milk is kept aside overnight away from the heat of the hearth or from the cold of the refrigerator. By early morning, the milk gets transformed into curd or yoghurt. The curd is then churned when the butter separates. The churning has to be regulated with a view to prevent the butter melting back into the curd(buttermilk). Fresh butter is extracted everyday thus and is stored in airtight containers in a referigerator until it is melted to form clarified butter(

Ghee).

 

In the above-mentioned analogy, milk represents the mind. After we experience the trials and tribulations of life,our mind settles down to a quieter life. Such quietitude could be found in our own home away from the din and roar of market place(hearth), without resorting to the solitude of and forests and snow-clad mountains(Refrigerator). When our mind is thus made receptive , a little dose of spiritual study is administered. We react though slowly. With the passage of time, our thoughts which were hitherto running into sensual fields(like the fluidity of the milk) becomes more mature(like the solidity of the curd or yoghurt). Thereafter in the early hours of the morning, our intellect must reflect upon the Truth--negate the unreal and assert the Reality(comparable to the process of churning), when Knowledge(butter) reveals itself to the seeker. The knowledge obtained must be preserved with devotion. As knowledge increases we are prepared for deeper contemplation and meditation. Thus having prepared ourself, we should meditate upon the Self and in the intensity of meditation we realize the Supreme Truth.

 

(to be continued)

G.Balasubramanian