"Atma sabdaath": Since the sabda or word, Atma, is used, the
"eekshathe" (mentioned in the previous sutra) or projection has to
be the function of the Atma. Fire or water is the product, the
effect of the Will. The words 'projection' or 'manifestation'
cannot be interpreted in a secondary or figurative sense (gaunah).
The Atma alone is indicated as the Primal Entity in the Sruthi or
Veda. The urge or resolution is a happening in the Atma itself,
not in any other entity. The entire cognisable Cosmos was just
Sath or Is. Whatever form It has assumed in the process of Time
and in the perimeter of Space, all of it is in reality Sath only,
that is to say, Atma! This is the lesson the Veda holds.
Nothing is inert, inactive, jada. For, we find the word Atma
being applied, once in a while, to denote even Pradhana, or
Primordial Matter, Moola Prakrithi. The Pradhana is the instrument
that fulfills the will of the Sovereign Consciousness or the
Purusha, the Overself. Being operated by Purusha, who is the
Cause, Prakrithi or Pradhana too has consciousness ascribed to
It.
The Individual or the Jivi, believing that it is divided from
the whole, the Universal, is subject to desire and despair, love
and hate, grief and joy. He is attracted by the world of Name and
Form. Such a person is characterised as 'bound', as baddha. Hence
his need for liberation is urgent. And, to be liberated he must
give up his dependence on and attachment to Prakrithi. The blind
cannot be saved by the blind. The destitute cannot be helped out
by the destitute. How can a man, himself destitute and helpless,
remove the poverty, the suffering and the pain of another? The
poor must approach the affluent, the wealthy. The blind must seek
the guidance of a person who can see. Those who are bound and
blinded by the dualities of Prakrithi have to take refuge in the
inexhaustible treasure of Compassion, Power and Wisdom, namely,
the Divine Atma. Then one can get rid of the destitution of grief,
and revel in the wealth of Ananda; one can attain the Goal of
Human Existence.
This consummation is reached, the Atmic awareness is won
through the grace of Brahman. Wherein is the Atma to be sought?
Where does the Atma reside? How can one know the Atman? Adoring
the apparently consciousness-less things too as manifestations of
the Sovereign Consciousness or Atma helps the process. The Atma
Principle can be genuinely understood only by seekers who are
grounded in the formless, attributeless Brahman. But, even the
Saguna embodiment has the Atmic Reality in full measure. There are
many examples to illustrate this Truth. Brahma Vidya is another
name for understanding and experiencing the Atma as the Brahman,
the Individual as the Universal.
Every one has the right to Brahma Vidya. And, every man passes
through four stages in this search, every day of his life. They
are, according to the Veda the waking stage, the dream stage, the
deep sleep stage and the Thuriya or the fourth. These are
demarcated as stages or even steps. In the first stage, one is
awake to the objective world and is oriented outwards. Objects in
the Universe are seen by the eye; sounds are heard; the senses are
able to smell and taste and touch. Life is lived to the fullest in
contact with society.
The five sense organs of perception, the five organs of action,
the five pranas or vital airs. The four internal instruments are:
- The Mind
- The buddhi or faculty of discrimination.
- The level of Consciousness, and
- The ego-sense.
These nineteen means of contact and impact provide man during
the waking stage the experience of grief and joy, gain and loss,
success and failures in their gross forms. Since one is identified
with the gross body complex at this stage, the experiences too are
gross.
The region of dream is different. There the self is in-faced,
Antharmukha. Reactions, responses and experiences are all
self-contained. They do not belong to the area outside of oneself.
There may be ten others sleeping in the same room; still, each one
has his own dream. One's dream experience has no relation to that
of anyone else. Each is disturbed or delighted by his own dream
only. The dreamer is unaffected by outer circumstances. In fact,
the external world is beyond one's consciousness. During the dream
stage, one creates a world out of one's mind and dwells in the
experiences it provides. Though the objects perceived are
imaginary, the feelings and emotions like joy and grief, love and
fear are as real as in the waking stage. The nineteen instruments
of contact and impact are present even during the dream. They do
not act materially or physically; they operate only through the
mind, for the mind has a luminosity that produces the pictures.
This is the reason why it is designated as Taijasa (from Tejas,
enables one to formulate etc.,). The Tejas enables one to
formulate and design any form, the sound, the taste etc., it
decides upon. The dream state is the second step or stage in the
acquisition by the self of its own awareness.
Next, Deep Sleep or Sushupti. This stage is free from even
dreams. One is lost in undisturbed sleep. The person will not be
conscious of his limbs, or of the sounds, the smells, the forms,
the tastes and the sensations of touch. All activity is subsumed
by the mind and is latent in it. All experience is absorbed into
the higher levels of consciousness, Prajnana. There is no feeling
of either separation, or identity, the particular or the
universal, the part or the whole. There is no experiencer or
experience. There is only the Atma in which he has temporarily
merged.
Then, the Thuriya or the Fourth Step. Here, the Vyakthi or
Individual is no more so. It has attained the Basic Truth of life
and of Creation - The All-pervading, All-inclusive Atma, the Peace
and Power of the one and only Atmic Empire. Those who have reached
this step have no concern any longer with the individual self. One
cannot assert either that these persons possess knowledge or that
they do not have it. For, they are ever immersed in the highest
Bliss.
The Atma in which they have merged is invisible to the eye. It
cannot be grasped or held by hand. One can only know that It
exists and that It is Goodness and nothing else. All urges that
draw one towards the objective world have to be exterminated,
before faith in the Atma can take root.
The four steps of Atmic awareness are very much akin to the
four steps in the recital of OM. The A.U.M and the ultimate Matra
are on a par with the waking, dreaming, sleeping and merging steps
already dwelt upon. The Atma is evident in the mind; in deep
sleep, it reposes in the heart; in the fourth stage it is all of
oneself.
To sum up, it can be laid down that in all stages of daily
life, in all circumstances and conditions, and in all activities
and experiences, the Atma exists in all beings. All is Atma, Atma
is All - the Cosmos is manifested as One by the One, This is what
the Sutra reveals. Without the awareness of this unity, there
cannot be joy and peace. Without joy and peace, Truth is an empty
concept. Therefore, one should know the Cosmos as full, Poorna. It
is not a void or vacuum. It is Atma Itself.