Let there be peace among all beings of the universe. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _/\_ . .ADI SHANKARACHARY --- ATMA BODHA (1) AM composing the Atma Bodha, this treatise of the knowledge of the Self [Atman], for those who have purified themselves by austerities and are peaceful in heart and calm, who are free from cravings and are desirous of liberation. 2. Just as the fire is the direct cause for cooking, so without true knowledge no emancipation can be had. Compared with all other forms of discipline knowledge of the Self is the one direct means for liberation. 3. Action cannot destroy ignorance, for it is not in conflict with or opposed to ignorance. Knowledge does verily destroy ignorance as light destroys deep darkness. 4. The Self appears to be finite because of ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed the Self which does not admit of any multiplicity truly reveals Itself by Itself: like the sun when the clouds pass away. 5. Constant practice of knowledge purifies the Self, stained by ignorance and then disappears itself – as the powder of the ‘kataka-nut’ settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water. 6. The world which is full of attachments, aversions, etc., is like a dream. It appears to be real, as long as it continues but appears to be unreal when one is awake [i.e., when true wisdom dawns]. 7. The universe appears to be true so long as Brahman, the ultimate Reality, the substratum, the basis of all this creation, is not realised. It is like the illusion of silver in the mother-of pearl. 8. Like bubbles in the water, the worlds rise, exist and dissolve in the Supreme Self, which is the material cause and the prop of everything. 9. All the manifested world of things and beings are projected by imagination upon the substratum which is the Eternal all-pervading Reality, whose nature is existence-intelligence; just as the different ornaments are all made out of the same gold. 10. The all-pervading Void or Emptiness appears to be diverse on account of its association with various conditionings [upadhis] which are different from each other. Space becomes one on the destruction of these limiting adjuncts. So too, the omnipresent Truth appears to be diverse on account of Its association with the various upadhis and becomes one on the destruction of these upadhis. 11. Because of Its association with different conditionings such ideas as caste, colour and position are super-imposed upon the Self, as flavour, colour, etc., are super-imposed on water. 12. Determined for each individual by his own past actions and made up of the five elements – that have gone through the process of five-fold self-division and mutual combination [pancheekarana] – are born the gross-body, the medium through which pleasure and pain are experienced, the tent-of-experiences. 13. The five vital energies [pranas], the ten organs and the mind and intellect, formed from the rudimentary pure elements before their five-fold division and mutual combination with one another and this is the subtle body, the instruments-of-experience of the individual. 14. Ignorance [avidya] which is indescribable and beginningless is the causal body. Know for certain that the Self is other than these three conditioning bodies. 15. In its identification with the five-sheaths the immaculate Self appears to have borrowed their qualities upon Itself; as in the case of a crystal which appears to gather unto itself colour of its vicinity [blue cloth, etc.]. 16. Through discriminative self-analysis and logical thinking one should separate the pure Self within from the sheaths as one separates the rice from the husk, bran, etc., that are covering it. 17. The Self does not shine in everything although It is all-pervading. It is manifest only in the internal organ, the intellect: just as the reflection in a clean mirror. 18. One should understand that the Self is always like the king, distinct from the body, senses, mind and intellect, all of which constitute the causal matter; and is the witness of their functions. 19. The moon appears to be running when the clouds move in the sky. Likewise to the non-discriminating person the Self appears to be active when It is observed through the functions of the sense organs. 20. Depending upon the energy of vitality of consciousness the body, senses, mind and intellect engage themselves in their respective activities, just as men work depending upon the light of the sun. 21. Fools, because they lack in their powers of discrimination superimpose on the Self, the absolute-existence-knowledge, all the varied functions of the body and the senses, just as they attribute blue colour and the like to the sky. 22. The tremblings that belong to the waters are attributed through ignorance to the reflected moon dancing on it: likewise agency of action, of enjoyment and of other limitations [which really belong to the mind] are delusively understood as the nature of the Self. 23. Attachment, desire, pleasure, pain, etc., are perceived to exist so long as buddhi or mind functions. They are not perceived in deep sleep when the mind ceases to exist. Therefore they belong to the mind alone and not to the Self. 24. Just as luminosity is the nature of the sun, coolness of water and heat of fire, so too the nature of the Self is Eternity, purity, Reality, consciousness and bliss. 25. By the indiscriminate blending of the two – the existence-knowledge-aspect of the Self and the thought-wave of the intellect – there arises the notion of I know. 26. Self never does anything and the intellect of its own accord has no capacity to experience I know. But the individuality in us delusorily thinks he is himself the seer and the knower. 27. Just as the person who regards a rope as a snake is overcome by fear, so also one considering oneself as the ego is overcome by fear. The ego-centric individuality in us regains fearlessness by realising that It is not an ego but is Itself the Supreme Self. 28. Just as a lamp illumines a jar or a pot, so also the Self illumines the mind and the sense organs, etc. These material-objects by themselves cannot illumine themselves because they are inert. 29. A lighted-lamp does not need another lamp to illumine its light. So too, Self which is knowledge itself needs no other knowledge to know it. 30. By a process of negation of the conditionings through the help of the scriptural statement It is not this, It is not this, the oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme Self, as indicated by the great Mahavakyas, has to be realised. 31. The body, etc., up to the causal body – ignorance – which are objects perceived, are as perishable as bubbles. Realise through discrimination that I am the pure Reality ever completely separate from all these. 32. I am other than the body and so I am free from changes such as birth, wrinkling, senility, death, etc. I have nothing to do with the sense objects such as sound and taste, for I am without the sense-organs. 33. I am other than the mind and hence, I am free from sorrow, attachment, malice and fear, for He is without breath and without mind, pure, etc., is the commandment of the great scripture, the Upanishads. 34. I am without attributes and actions; Eternal without any desire and thought, without any dirt, without any change, without form, ever-liberated, ever-pure. 35. Like the space I fill all things within and without. Changeless and the same in all, at all times I am pure, unattached, stainless and motionless. 36. I am verily that Supreme Reality alone which is Eternal, pure and free, One, indivisible and non-dual and of the nature of changeless-knowledge-Infinite. 37. The impression I am Reality thus created by constant practice destroys ignorance and the agitation caused by it, just as medicine destroys disease. 38. Sitting in a solitary place, freeing the mind from desires and controlling the senses, meditate with unswerving attention on the Self which is One without-a-second. 39. The wise one should intelligently merge the entire world-of-objects in the Self alone and constantly think of the Self ever as contaminated by anything as the sky. 40. He who has realised the Supreme, discards all his identification with the objects of names and forms. [Thereafter] he dwells as an embodiment of the Infinite Consciousness and Bliss. He becomes the Self. 41. There are no distinctions such as Knower, the Knowledge and the Object of Knowledge in the Supreme Self. On account of Its being of the nature of endless Bliss, It does not admit of such distinctions within Itself. It alone shines by Itself. 42. When this the lower and the higher aspects of the Self are well churned together, the fire of knowledge is born from it, which in its mighty conflagration shall burn down all the fuel of ignorance in us. 43. The Lord of the early dawn [Aruna] himself has already looted away the thick darkness, when soon the sun rises. The divine consciousness of the Self rises when the right knowledge has already killed the darkness in the bosom. 44. Self is an ever-present Reality. Yet, because of ignorance it is not realised. On the destruction of ignorance Self is realised. It is like the missing ornament of one’s neck. . _/\_....
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 12:02:20 +0000
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