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dattaswami
06-02-2012, 08:16 PM
Knower of Atman
The old feelings in ‘chittam’ (storing capacity of mind)appear on the screen of the mind as a cinema. Resisting the mental activity throughsenses is Yoga as told by Patanjali (Chittavritii Nirodhah). If youresist seeing, hearing etc., the entry of external poison to the mind isstopped. But the poison was already precipitated in your chittam since severalbirths. Thus the mental activity (Chitta Vritti) is both external as well asinternal. This activity is called as ‘Sphota’. According to Sanskrit grammar,chittam has two meanings. One is the addition of poison from outside(Samjnanam) and other is digestion of already existing poison (Smaranam).

Thepoison is the bundle of worldly matters. Resistance of mental activity is to bedone by the soul, which can be affected by the poison. But a scholar (Jnani)does not resist this poison. He can digest the poison and so even takes it fromoutside. Both these activities are done by the subtle body (Sukshma Shareeram),which is made of qualities or mind. The gross body (Sthula Shareeram) is acomposite of the senses, which do actions initiated by qualities.


A ‘Jnani’ separates himself [by analysis] from these twobodies and enters the third, causal body (Karana Shareeram), which is pureawareness. He will not cross the boundaries of this third body, which is alsocalled as Atman. Such a scholar is called Sthita Prajna. ‘Prajna’ means pureawareness. ‘Sthita’ means the person who has limited himself to pure awareness.Since he takes the decision of himself to be Atman, ‘Buddhi’ (intelligence)also becomes the pure awareness. Since he decides the meaning of ‘I’ as pureawareness, the ‘Ahankara’ also becomes pure awareness. Youmust note that Prajna also means Buddhi. The remaining two internal items(Antahkaranams) are Chittam which is the C.D. or cassette of precipitatedfeelings and ‘Manas’ (mind) which are the internal screen.
The internal T.V. show goes on and the spectator (Atman) seesand enjoys the show. His gross body is his own house, which is the cinematheatre. The whole show is the subtle body and the causal body is thespectator.

The spectator has no link with the T.V. show and is onlyentertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is onlyentertained. The spectator is not disturbed by the show and is called ‘[I]Gunateeta’ by Gita (Guna GuneshuVartante…). This T.V. show initiates the senses of the gross body, which dodeeds according to the qualities of show. The Atman or spectator (I) is alsoseparated from the gross body and so is not linked to the deeds and thequalities. The soul [Atman] is detached from qualities, deeds and theircorresponding results. This does not mean that he does not receive the resultsof his deeds. The subtle and gross bodies did the deeds and so they enjoy theresults. But this soul, which is detached from these two bodies, is a spectatorof such enjoyment of the enjoyer. The soul is not the enjoyer since it is notthe doer of the deeds. The wheel that constitutes the deeds and theircorresponding results, (Karma Chakra) is also not affected, since it is relatedto the person’s subtle and gross bodies only and not to his causal body or theAtman.

The subtle and gross bodies are the ‘doer’ and ‘enjoyer’, constituting ashow for the entertainment of the causal body, which is just a spectator. Sincethe subtle body is also made of awareness, it enjoys the results through itsgross body. But an ordinary human being identifies himself with the subtle bodyand gross body, considering them as ‘I’ and therefore becomes the doer andenjoyer. But the scholar fixes his ‘I’ to the causal body alone and de-linkshimself from doer-ship and enjoyer-ship.
There are two vessels containing vibrated water. Both thevessels undergo stress due to the water vibrations. The vessel is the grossbody and water-vibrations are the subtle body. An ignorant fellow identifieshimself with the vessel and the water vibrations and so is vibrated [he feelsthat he is being vibrated] and undergoes stress.

But the scholar identifieshimself only with the water and not with the vibrations or the vessel. He isnot vibrated and has no stress. He goes on enjoying the vibrations and thestress. Even if he does a sin, he goes to hell and enjoys the punishment there.The punishment is received by his subtle and gross bodies and he, as Atman,observes the enjoyment of the punishment and gets entertainment. RamanaMaharshi got a boil [tumor] on the body due to some deed. But he confinedhimself to the soul and so was not the doer of that deed. When the boil wasoperated upon by the doctor, He observed it and His subtle body enjoyed thepain [he was operated upon without anesthesia]. But he, as Atman wasentertained in the operation. When the Gita says “Atmavantam na Karmani”,it means the Jnani enjoys the results of deeds but he is detached from suchenjoyment.



“Avashyamanu bhoktavyam…. Kalpakoti Shataih” meansthat one has to undergo the results of his deeds even after millions of birthswith interest. The doer can never escape the enjoyment of results. But in thecase of a deserving devotee, the Lord comes down as a human incarnation andenjoys his results [undergoes suffering on behalf of the devotee]. Except thisway, the doer has to enjoy his own results. But in the case of a deservingdevotee, the Lord comes down as a human incarnation and enjoys his results.Except this way, the doer has to undergo the results.

But in that path, thedevotee should not aspire for such unjust punishment of the Lord and shouldresist it, if he comes to know of it. The Lord is called ‘Datta’ for this veryreason, since He donates Himself for the sake of His devotee. When Datta enjoyssuch results, He also behaves like a Yogi. It means that He confines Himself tothe soul and His subtle and gross bodies undergo the punishments. Therefore, aYogi is just like the Lord in this aspect of spectatorship. The Lord has thepower of creation of the world while the Yogi does not. But this difference isirrelevant during the aspect of spectatorship. Therefore, this ‘Advaita’ (stateof oneness; monism) state of a liberated soul and the Lord, which was proposedby Shankara, is meaningful.


This whole universe is the gross body of the Lord and‘Hiranya Garbha’ is the subtle body of the Lord. Hiranya Garbha means thecomposite form of all the souls. Now, in the gross and subtle bodies of theLord also, a number of reactions and changes are going on like a cinema. The ‘MahaMaya’ is the Atman or the causal body of the Lord, which is only a spectator.He confines Himself to this Atman and sees the show in His subtle and grossbodies.


The path of Karma [worldly action or desire-motivated action]has no salvation because the soul is not detached from subtle and gross bodies(Bhunjanam Vaa—Gita). He cannot entertain himself by confining to hisAtman and so he resists bad qualities and bad deeds. He is very alert aboutgood deeds and always tries to enjoy the pleasures of heaven. But he oftencomes back to this world, where good and bad are mixed. He is always exposed tothe risk of falling in a trap of bad qualities and sins here. He is alwaysafraid of that and has no independence. But in the path of Jnana or knowledge,the scholar is fearless and fully independent. He is beyond both good and bad.

Both give entertainment to him equally like sweet and hot items in a meal. Thissoul has Jnana [knowledge] of Atman, has ‘Rasa’ [love] of the entertainment and‘Ananda’ [happiness] of the enjoyment of both good and bad equally. The Vedasays that such a liberated soul is characterised by these three qualities. TheLord as Rama killed Vali and as Krishna, Heenjoyed the result of that sin. But the doer and the enjoyer were only Hissubtle and gross bodies. They are and not the Lord, who was only confined tothe Atman as a spectator. Lord Krishna could see the show at the end in whichHis own sons and grandsons were killed and He was entertained by the show. WhenArjuna could not kill his grandfather, because he identified himself with hissubtle and gross bodies, the Lord taught him ‘Jnana Yoga’ by which Arjunaconfined himself to his soul and killed his grandfather and went to hell. Buthe was the spectator in killing and also while enjoying the sin in hell.


Jains [followers of Mahavir Jain] say that Krishnaalso went to hell, since He was responsible for such a cruel war. Even if thatwere correct, the Lord would have enjoyed hell as a spectator! Therefore, sucha remark on the Lord does not affect Him at all. Shankara taught about theAtman, which is the causal body in the view of ordinary human beings. When Hisown case comes, God exists in Him beyond even the Atman and so God is called asthe Maha Karana or the Cause of the causal body. When He said that He is Shiva,this word Shiva refers to God and He confined Himself only to God, just likethe Yogi confines himself to Atman. The word Shiva means auspicious and so canrefer to the Atman in the case of the Yogi. The Veda says “Ubhe Punya PapeVidhuya….”, which means that the Yogi transcends both good and bad andbecomes equal to God. The Gita also says the same “Ubhe Sukruta Dushkrute”.