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Chapter 1: What is Ātma-bodha and its significance in Advaita-Vedanta?
I am composing the Atma Bodha, this treatise of the knowledge of the self, 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. Just as the fire is the direct cause for cooking, so without knowledge no emancipation can be had.
Compared with all other forms of discipline, knowledge of the self is the one direct means for liberation. 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. The soul 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. Constant practice of knowledge purifies the self, the jivatman, stained by ignorance and then disappears itself. as the powder of the kataka nut settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water.
Chapter 2: How does knowledge lead to liberation according to Adi Shankara?
The world which is full of attachments, aversions, and so on, is like a dream. It appears to be real as long as it continues, but appears to be unreal when one is awake, when true wisdom dawns. The world appears to be true, so long as Brahman, the substratum, the basis of all this creation, is not realized. It is like the illusion of silver in the mother of pearls.
Like bubbles in the water, the world's rise exist and dissolve in the Supreme Self, which is the material cause and the prop of everything. All the manifested world of things and beings are projected by imagination upon the substratum, which is the eternal, all-pervading Vishnu, whose nature is existence, intelligence, just as the different ornaments are all made out of the same gold.
The all-pervading akasa appears to be diverse on account of its association with various conditionings which are different from each other. Space becomes one on the destruction of these limiting adjuncts. So also the omnipresent truth
Chapter 3: What role does ignorance play in the perception of the self?
appears to be diverse on account of its association with the various conditionings and becomes one on the destruction of these. Because of its association with different conditionings, such ideas as caste, colour and position are superimposed upon the Atman, as flavour, colour and so on are superimposed on water.
determined for each individual by their own past actions and made up of the five elements that have gone through the process of five-fold self-division and mutual combination. Aborn the gross body, the medium through which pleasure and pain are experienced. The tent of experiences. The five pranas, the ten organs and the mind and the intellect.
formed from the rudimentary elements before their five-fold division and mutual combination with one another. And this is the subtle body, the instruments of experience. Avijja, ignorance, which is indescribable and beginningless, is the causal body. Know for certain that the Atman is other than these three conditioning bodies.
Chapter 4: How can one practice self-knowledge to purify the self?
In its identification with the five sheaths, the immaculate Atman 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.
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, the bran and so on that are covering it. The Atman does not shine in everything, although it is all-pervading. It is manifest only in the inner equipment, the intellect, buddhi, just as a reflection in a clean mirror.
One should understand that the Atman is always like the king, distinct from the body, senses, mind and intellect, all of which constitute the matter, Prakriti, and is the witness of their functions. The moon appears to be running when the clouds move in the sky.
Likewise to the non-discriminating person, the Atman appears to be active when it is observed through the functions of the sense organs. 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,
Fools, because they lack in their powers of discrimination, superimpose on the hatman, 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. 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. Attachment, desire, pleasure, pain 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 hatman.
Just as luminosity is the nature of the sun, coolness of water and heat of fire, so too the nature of the Atman is eternity, purity, reality, consciousness and bliss. 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.
Atman never does anything and the intellect of its own accord has no capacity to experience I know. But the individuality in us delusorily thinks they are themselves the seer and the knower. Just as the person who regards a rope as a snake is overcome by fear, so also one considering themselves as the ego is overcome by fear.
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Chapter 5: What are the three conditioning bodies described in Ātma-bodha?
The egocentric individuality in us regains fearlessness by realizing that it is not ajiva. but is itself the Supreme Soul. Just as a lamp illumines a jar or a pot, so also the Atman illumines the mind and the sense organs. These material objects by themselves cannot illumine themselves because they are inert. A lighted lamp does not need another lamp to illumine its light.
So too Atman, which is knowledge itself, needs no other knowledge to know it. 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 Soul, as indicated by the great Mahavakyas, has to be realized. the body and so on, up to the causal body.
Ignorance, which are objects perceived, are as perishable as bubbles. Realize through discrimination that I am the pure Brahman, ever completely separate from all these. I am other than the body, and so I am free from changes such as birth, wrinkling, senility, death. I have nothing to do with the sense objects such as sound and taste, for I am without the sense organs.
I am other than the mind and hence I am free from sorrow, attachment, malice and fear. For that is without breath and without mind. Pure is the commandment of the great scripture, the Upanishads. I am without attributes and actions, eternal, without any desire and thought, without any dirt, without any change, without form, ever liberated, ever pure.
Like the space, I feel all things within and without, changeless and the same in all.
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Chapter 6: How does the Atman relate to the mind and senses?
At all times I am pure, unattached, stainless and motionless. I am verily that Supreme Brahman alone, which is eternal, pure and free, one, indivisible and non-dual, and of the nature of changeless knowledge, infinite. The impression, I am Brahman, thus created by constant practice, destroys ignorance and the agitation caused by it, just as medicine destroys disease.
sitting in a solitary place, freeing the mind from desires and controlling the senses, meditate with unswerving attention on the Atman, which is one without a second. The wise one should intelligently merge the entire world of objects in the Atman alone and constantly think of the self never as contaminated by anything like the sky.
One who has realized the Supreme discards all their identification with the objects of names and forms. Thereafter, they dwell as an embodiment of the infinite consciousness and bliss. They become the Self. There are no distinctions such as Noah, 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. 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.
The Lord of the early dawn has already looted away the thick darkness when the sun rises. The divine consciousness of the self rises when the right knowledge has already killed the darkness in the bosom. Atman is ever-present reality, yet because of ignorance it is not realized. On the destruction of ignorance, Atman is realized. It is like the missing ornament around one's neck.
A Brahman appears to be a Jiva because of ignorance, just as a post appears to be a ghost. The egocentric individuality is destroyed when the real nature of the Jiva is realized as the self. The ignorance characterized by the notions I and mine is destroyed by the knowledge produced by the realization of the true nature of the self.
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Chapter 7: What is the process of realizing the non-dual nature of Brahman?
Just as right information removes the wrong notion about the directions, The yogi of perfect realization and enlightenment sees through their eye of wisdom the entire universe in their own self and regards everything else as their own self and nothing else. Nothing whatsoever exists other than the Atman.
The tangible universe is verily Atman as pots and jars are verily made of clay and cannot be said to be anything but clay. So too, to the enlightened soul, All that is perceived is the self. A liberated one, endowed with self-knowledge, gives up the traits of their previously explained equipments, and because of their nature of Sat Chit Ananda, they verily become Brahman.
Like the worm that grows to be a wasp.
After crossing the ocean of delusion and killing the monsters of likes and dislikes, the yogi who is united with peace dwells in the glory of their own realized self. The self-abiding Jivan Mukta, relinquishing all their attachments to the illusory external happiness and satisfied with the bliss derived from the Atman, shines inwardly like a lamp placed inside a jar.
Though one lives in the conditionings, they, the contemplative one, remain ever unconcerned with anything, or they may move about like the wind, perfectly unattached. On the destruction of the conditionings, the contemplative one is totally absorbed in Vishnu, the all-pervading spirit. Like water into water, space into space, and light into light.
Realize that, to be Brahman, the attainment of which leaves nothing more to be attained, the blessedness of which leaves no other blessing to be desired, and the knowledge of which leaves nothing more to be known.
Realize that to be Brahman, which when seen leaves nothing more to be seen, which having become one is not born again in this world, and which, when knowing, leaves nothing else to be known. Realize that to be Brahman, which is existence, knowledge, bliss, absolute. Which is non-dual, infinite, eternal, and one.
And which fills all the quarters, above and below, and all that exists between.
Realize that to be Brahman, which is non-dual, indivisible, one and blissful, and which is indicated in Vedanta as the immutable substratum.
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Chapter 8: How does one attain immortality through self-realization?
Realized after the negation of all tangible objects,
Deities like Brahma and others taste only a particle of the unlimited bliss of Brahman and enjoy in proportion their share of that particle. All objects are pervaded by Brahman. All actions are possible because of Brahman. Therefore Brahman permeates everything as butter permeates milk.
Realize that to be Brahman, which is neither subtle nor gross, neither short nor long, without birth or change, without form, qualities, color and name. that by the light of which the luminous orbs like the sun and moon are illuminated, but which is not illumined by their light, realize that to be Brahman.
Pervading the entire universe outwardly and inwardly, the Supreme Brahman shines of itself, like the fire that permeates a red-hot iron ball and glows by itself.
Brahman is other than this, the universe.
There exists nothing that is not Brahman. If any object other than Brahman appears to exist, it is unreal, like the mirage.
All that is perceived or heard is Brahman and nothing else.
Attaining the knowledge of the reality, one sees the universe as the non-dual Brahman.
Existence, knowledge, bliss, absolute.
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