Atma Bodha - Post 32

Verse 24

प्रकाशोऽर्कस्य तोयस्य शैत्यमग्नेर्यथोष्णता ।

स्वभावः सच्चिदानन्दनित्यनिर्मलतात्मनः ॥ २४॥

PRAKAASHAH ARKASYA TOYASYA

SHAITYAM AGNEH YATHAA USHNATAA

SWABHAAVAH SACHCHIDANANDA

NITYA-NIRMALAT AATMANAH

  

(As the sun’s nature is luminosity; that of water is coolness; and that of fire is heat; so too, the nature of Existence, Knowledge and Bliss, of Eternity and Purity, are of the Self or Atman).

Knowing that the mind’s nature cannot be changed, we leave it to its own ways. We do not fight it, just ignore it. Just as the mind has its own nature, so too, the Self has its own nature which is the opposite.

Why not try to be identified with the nature of the Self instead of the mind?  This is what we are being made aware of here. Everything in creation has a nature which it has to express. The Self has the nature of being eternal, pure, Existence itself, Consciousness which is of the nature of Knowledge, and Bliss.

These are not just qualities that we are seeing in a role model outside, but they are of our very own Self. By shifting our attention to that which is stable and unchanging within us, we can break away from our mind, whose very nature it is to be changing all the time. This is the strategy which is being passed on to us in this verse. 

Sankara gives us three universally known objects whose nature cannot change, and without which they will be something else. The Example: The Sun, Water, and Fire.

It is the Swabhava of these three objects to respectively be luminous, cool and hot. Without these qualities they will not be what they are. The Self has the essential qualities mentioned above. 

If we contemplate upon these qualities, we will get closer to the Self, and thereby feel these developing in us. The Self can only be defined directly in terms of its essential nature, Satchidananda.

Let us get more deeper into the three essential nature of Atman/ our true Self.

SAT

In the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, we find a dialogue between a sage and his son, Shvetaketu.

The enquiry here is, ‘What is that knowledge by which everything becomes known?’ And to grasp the answer to this bold question, we must appreciate the concept that by knowing the cause one can know the effects.

Thus if you know clay, you know all pots made of clay (you know that all such pots are nothing but clay), by knowing iron one understands all implements made of iron, by knowing gold, all gold ornaments are understood as nothing but gold and so on. In the same way, if we enquire deeply enough, the Upanishad claims, we shall see that all existent things are nothing but existence itself or pure existence.

Sat is the term used for Pure Existence. To explain further, take the traditional example of a pot — the pot is nothing but its cause, clay; clay is nothing but its cause prithvi or the earth element, prithvi is nothing but its cause apah or the water element, and in this way we trace everything back to the primeval cause, Pure Existence or Sat.

It is Sat appearing as this world through the mysterious agency of maya. And ‘Thou, O Shvetaketu,’ says the sage, ‘art That!’ By ‘That’ of course, he means, Sat, Pure Existence. You, your mind and body, and indeed, everything you see around you, are essentially nothing but Pure Existence, appearing in multifarious forms, courtesy of maya.

Ignorance means being unaware of your Sat nature, and consequently being identified with the body-mind complex with all its attendant problems and sufferings. Enlightenment is just the reverse — being aware of yourself as Sat and being free of the body, mind and all samsara.

You are the immortal, unchanging Sat and the world is a mere shadow, the projection of maya, passing over you. This does not actually destroy the body or the world — rather you begin to see things as they really are. 

Your true Self, Sat, is not a thing, an object, among other objects of the universe. Rather It is the very existence of all things and they are not apart from It. To a jnani, each object reveals Sat.

We will take up the 2^nd essential nature- Chit, tomorrow.

Love.