आत्मा-अनात्मा (self - no self)

आत्मा-अनात्मा (self- no self) 

How could we teach the mystery of creation and bondage through an example other than us when we ourselves is a great example of the mystery? How to break the ignorance? How to cross the body-mind-ego identity and realise the truth? How to move from the reflective I to the real I? There are many questions with different-confusing answers. 

Mirror has been used as an example. Imagine that the image person in the mirror is the body-mind-ego identity of the real one who is out of the mirror. The real I of the mirror in this example has a form but the real I which we are trying to realise is formless and has form (विश्वोर्तीर्ण, विश्वरूप). Can the image person realises the real person? Will it be possible for him to reach out to the real by putting all his efforts?

Buddhism helps here. It teaches that we are anatma. It calls the Chetana as Vigyan which is a flow of energy like a flame of a lamp though looks constant but changing continuously with continuous replacement of the previous. Five skandh (रूप-पदार्थ, वेदना-संवेदना, संज्ञा-विषय, संस्कार-मानसिक गठन, विज्ञान-चेतना-जागरूकता) for them are parts of the physical world. Five skandha is another way of presenting physical, subtle and causal bodies. Buddhism believes in the theory of karma and rebirth but call it भव संसरण of संस्कार, the thread of desire carried forward on the vehicle of vigyan-consciousness. Our belief of journey of birth and rebirth is through the subtle (पूर्यष्टक) body. 

Our teaching of calling ourselves Atma many times becomes a road block in leaving our body-mind-ego identity of the self. Instead of unification of all creatures and the visible world as manifestation of one Atma (विश्वरूप), we end up in differentiating ourselves with I, you and they. Our likes and dislikes remain as they are. To identify ourselves Anatma (no self) is a quick solution of the problem of leaving body-mind-ego identity. If we carefully analyse, our body-mind-ego identity is not the Atma (self) but Anatma (no self). We have also place them in the compartment of ignorance, the bodies or koshas. As soon as we accept the image person as Anatma, the bondage of I limited to the image disappears. Our borders break and we enter into the vast ocean of emptiness. Remember the journey from सकल to अकल taught in KSD. If we don’t follow any taught model of self hypnosis, the pure I or no I, reveals its identity itself. How a compressed चित्त acts and how the expanded चिति express, the realised one only can experience. What is truth and what is the play, unless one goes through the experience of realisation, the ignorance can’t go. शनैः शनैः one has to continue on the path through a process of शील (सात्विक जीवन), समाधि (meditation to resolve संदेह) and प्रज्ञा (pure intellect - pure wisdom) to overcome ignorance. It’s a process of merger of a drop into the ocean. The drop is not lost but it realises its true state, the water, of which the drop and the ocean are made. Truth is not hidden, removal of the cover-मल is the process to uncover it. Shakti-universal consciousness- विज्ञान helps. 

To start with ‘no self’ (अनात्मा) may be another way to make the process faster. 

Punamchand 

20 September 2024