Thought 74: You are the Aatma

Vedaanta says that in addition to the external and the internal personalities, you also have a core personality – which is your Aatma. You are the Aatma, which is Awareness – which is the real “You”. Aatma vivifies your inner personality as well as your outer personality.

Your physical body and your mind and Buddhi are inanimate; as inanimate as a piece of wood. Because of the presence of the Aatma, which is the Awareness, the inanimate body-mind complex gets vivified; it comes alive. Aatma is the life principle/god principle in you. It vivifies your body so that it can act; it vivifies your mind so that it can feel; it vivifies your Buddhi so that it can think.

You are essentially divine - whether you are a sinner or a saint. Satya Sai Baaba says, “Deham is a Devaalayam”. Devaalayam is a temple wherein the idol of God is installed. Deham is your body. You are not the Deham – you are the god (Paramaatma) installed in this Deham (Devaalayam). The ancient Maharshis used to plug into this divine existence within them during their meditation/contemplation – and used to experience the divine bliss (absolute happiness). You should also recognize and respect the god installed in the form of the Aatma in your Devaalayam. Then, enjoy the “Divya Anubhuuti” (glorious ecstasy) that you experience – like the ancient Maharshis.

Aatma has nothing to do with the quality or the operations of your mind and Buddhi. Aatma is like the electricity in a refrigerator. Without the electricity, the refrigerator cannot function. Electricity is responsible for the cooling nature of the refrigerator. But it has no bearing on the quality of the operation of the refrigerator. And so it is with the Aatma too; it has nothing to do with the quality of the operations of the mind and Buddhi too. Aatma is neutral - a mere witness to the operations of the mind and Buddhi.

Aatma is related to the body-mind-intellect in the same way that the electricity is related to the electric bulb. The bulb glows only when the electricity passes through it. In this sense, your body-mind complex is like the electric bulb. The body-mind-complex is inanimate; it cannot glow all by itself. But when the Aatma glows in it, there is a scintillating expression of life in the body-mind-complex - and then, it also begins to glow. The body, the mind, the intellect are material components, while the Aatma is consciousness (Chit) principle. You are the Sat-Chit- Aatma, which is the Awareness that pervades your body-mind complex and vivifies it. This is the view of Vedaanta.

Arjuna entred the battle field at Kurukshetra in the chariot driven by Bhagavaan Krishna to fight the battle of Mahaa Bhaarata. As soon as he saw all his venerable Gurus and close relatives, who assembled there in the battlefield to fight against him, he almost collapsed; for he realised immediately that he would end up killing all of them - and this vision was most repugnant to him. Consequently, he wanted to go away from the battle field without engaging in the battle. Bhagavaan Krishna then unfolded the Gospel of Gita. Arjuna learned from this teaching by the Bhagavaan Krishna that a person is not his body-mind complex. Rather, a person is the Awareness which is present in it – and which vivifies it. Awareness cannot killed by any weapon. Even god cannot kill awareness. Now Arjuna realized that he is not killing any one – he is only killing their bodies, which are bound to die any way some day or the other.

The next thought is about “What you should know about knowledge!”