Select verses 36 to 39
Verse 36
yo vijanati sakalam, jagratsvapnasusuptisu |
buddhitadvrttisadbhavam, abhavamahamityayam ||126॥
That which knows everything
that happens in the waking, dream, and deep-sleep states; That which is aware
of the presence or absence of the mind and its thoughts; That which is the
essence behind the ego; That is “This”, the Athma.
Verse 37
yah pasyati svayam sarvaṃ, yam na pasyati kaschana
|
yaschetayati buddhyadi, na tadyam chetayatyayam ||127||
That which sees all but which
no one can see; That which illumines the intellect etc., but which they cannot
illumine; That is the “Athma”.
Verse 38
prakrtivikrtibhinnah suddhabodhasvabhavah,
sadasadidamasesham bhasayannirvisesah |
vilasati paramatma jagradadhisvavasthasu,
ahamahamiti saksat saksirupena buddheh ||135||
In the
previous verse no 35, Acharya explained partly the svabhava of Athma. In these verses unfolding further he states
first in verse 36, “Athma is the one that lights up the three states of
experience – waking, dreaming, deep sleep and the distinct experiences in all
of them”. In all the three states of
experience the Athma is invariable.
That invariable presence of Athma is said as sakshi. As sakshi, it is a passive knower contributing
consciousness to every knowing act. It is a knower of the presence of mind and
its thoughts in the waking and dream state and also the absence of mind in the
deep sleep state through its mere presence. Kenopanishad(I.6) describing
Brahman, that is Athma, the Real Self, says: “That which cannot be apprehended
by the mind, but by which, they say, the mind is apprehended—That alone know as
Brahman----“. Again Brihadharanyaka
Upanishad (3.4.2) says: “You cannot see the
seer of seeing; you cannot hear the hearer of hearing; you cannot think of the
thinker of thinking; you cannot know the knower of knowing. This is your Self (Athma)that
is within all----“. Athma,
the Self, which is same as Brahman, the Paramathma, is the Pure Consciousness,
the five features of which is summarised by Swami Paramarthananda as below:
1) It is not a part, product or part of the body.
2) It is an independent entity which pervades and enlivens
the body
3) It is not limited by the boundaries of the body
4) It continues to exist/survive even after the death of
the body
5) It is not accessible after the death of the body because
of the absence of the body-medium.
Athma is
different from prakrithi, the cause and vikrithi, the effect, but
prakrithi and vikrithi are not separate from Athma. Maya is prakrithi and the
universe made of five elements is the vikrithi. Of the five elements,
three have form viz. fire, water and earth; and two elements viz. air and space
are formless. Athma, as Paramathma illumines all these elements
and elementals without itself undergoing any change. Athma is the aham
“I”, which does not undergo any change and remains the same always and not the
ego, ahamkara that is subject to change.
Even though Athma seems to play the role of seer, hearer etc.,
and that involves some kind of a change, that change is with reference to the
ego and not the Athma. Athma
illumines the ego as well just as it illumines all the three states of experience
as sakshi aham.
Verse 39
atranatmanyahamiti matih, bandha eso’sya puṃsah
prapto’jnanajjananamarana-klesasampatahetuh |
yenaivayaṃ vapuridamasat, satyamityatmabuddhya
pushyatyuksatyavati visayaih, tantubhih kosakrdvat ||137||
Due to ignorance, a person
identifies Athma, the Self with the anathma, not-Self. This is the bondage and brings in its wake the
miseries of birth and death. Through this, one considers the unreal body as Real,
identifies with it and nourishes, bathes and preserves it with the help of
sense-objects. Thereby, one becomes bound like the silk-worm in its cocoon
woven by its own threads.
Acharya answers the first
question of sishya in this verse, after talking about Athma and anathma. The first question was – What is the nature
of bondage? The eternal, unchanging Athma,
the pure Consciousness is the Real Self. The mortal, changing body-mind complex
i.e. the three-fold body is the anathma, not-Self. One in ignorance identifying one’s Self with anathma
instead of with Athma is bondage. Body by itself is not bondage, only the
mistaken identification of one’s Self with the body is the bondage. Athma and anathma are not two
parallel entities. Anathma is mithya
depending entirely on Athma. The
‘I’ sense in anathma, the gross, subtle and causal bodies, is the
mistake which is the cause of all problems, and is the bondage. The bondage which is in the form of Self-confusion
is the cause for samsara, the afflictions in the form of birth, death
etc. Looking upon the body as Self, ‘I’,
one nourishes it, anoints it and protects it, but in spite of one’s care and
attention, body falls ill, ages and grows old; making one sad. The one who thinks that he is protecting the
body with the objects is only setting a trap for himself like the
silkworm. The silkworm spins a cocoon
around itself for safety, but the very cocoon becomes the cause of its death.
Human beings weave a cocoon of objects for their protection and get trapped
into the cycle of birth and death. The Athma-buddhi
in the anathma is the bondage.
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