Atma Bodha - Post 64

Verse 54

यल्लाभान्नापरो लाभो यत्सुखान्नापरं सुखम् ।

यज्ज्ञानान्नापरं ज्ञानं तद्ब्रह्मेत्यवधारयेत् ॥ ५४॥

YAL LAABHAAN NA APAROH LAABHOH

YAT SUKHAAN NA APARAM SUKHAM

YAJ JNAANAAN NA APARAM JNAANAM

TAT BRAHMA ITI AVA DHAARAYET

[Apart from this attainment there is no other, apart from this blessedness there is no other, apart from this knowledge there is no other. Realize That (Attainment, Blessedness or Bliss, existence as that knowledge) to be Brahman.]

The realization of Self is explained here as the greatest gain, the greatest knowledge having gained which, there is no more a sense of incompleteness.

Having enjoyed the bliss of Self, none will strive for a greater bliss, having known which, there will be never any thirst to know anything more.

Something new is sought out for gained only when there is imperfection or incompleteness. It is only when there is a sense of dissatisfaction that one tries to gain more happiness or more knowledge or something higher.

A Jiva, once born, fails to know / realize that he is absolute SELF and he takes himself to be this little body, mind and intellect.

With this mistaken identity, he runs hither and thither, from pillar to post, from one relationship to another, from one attainment to another attainment, from one knowledge to another knowledge, from one source of happiness to another source of happiness.

Imperfection thus is only for the limited egoistic Jiva. When the jiva rediscovers itself to be the absolute Self or Brahman, all imperfections are understood or known to be mere illusions and all struggles are ended.

  

The great sage Yajnavalkya instructs the same import to Janaka in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV-iii-32 thus:-

“It becomes (transparent) like water, one, the witness, and without a second. This is the sphere (state) of Brahman, O Emperor”

Thus did Yajnavalkya instruct Janaka:-

“This is its supreme attainment, this is its supreme glory, this is its highest world, this is its supreme bliss. On a particle of this very bliss other beings live.”

Lord also explains such a liberated one in Gita second chapter as:

PRAJAHAATI YADAA KAAMAANSARVAANPAARTHA MANOGATAAN.H

AATMANYEVAATMANAA TUSHHTAH STHITAPRAGYASTADOCHYATE...

“When a man, satisfied in the Self alone by himself, completely casts off all the desires of the mind, then is he said to be one of steady knowledge”.

DUHKHESHHVANUDVIGNAMANAAH

SUKHESHHU VIGATASPRIHAH.

VIITARAAGABHAYAKRODHAH STHITADHIIRMUNIRUCHYATE.

“He, whose heart is not distressed in calamities, from whom all longing for pleasures has departed, who is free from attachment, fear and wrath, he is called a sage, a man of steady knowledge.”

When the absolute is realized as Self, nothing else remains to be sought after. That absoluteness or perfection or completeness, knowing which everything becomes known, is indicated here by Acharya as Brahman.

There is no greater knowledge than this knowledge of the Brahman, (or, can we say, as the knowledge as Brahman, because SELF is Pure Knowledge itself and knowledge of anything external)

There is no greater sukham (Supreme Ananda or Bliss) than the sukham realized from Atma Jnanam.

There is no greater gain in life than Brahma Jnanam.

Thus, the highest goal of any one’s life is to strive for such Atma Jnanam.

Love.