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!”

Thought 73: Your Buddhi

Intellect is called Buddhi in Sanskrit. Human beings alone are endowed with intellect (Buddhi). Animals do not have Buddhi. Amongst other things, Buddhi is the faculty of reasoning. The faculty of reasoning is the prerogative of man only – all other living beings are denied this. Thinking and reasoning needs skill. You have to constantly hone these skills to keep them sharp – that is, learn and practice them like any other skill such as music. You have to devote as much effort and time to it as you would to acquire any other skill.

Buddhi is also the deciding faculty within you. The other functions of Buddhi are thinking, reflecting, judging, determining, analyzing, etc. Buddhi creates the Ahankaara (doership); you think that you are a doer (perform Karma). Buddhi distinguishes between the pairs of opposites. It is the center of discrimination (the faculty of distinguishing the right from the wrong, cold from heat etc). Buddhi alone exercises judgment. It alone determines and conveys its decision to the Karmendriyas for execution. Hands, feet, organ of speech, organs of excretion and organs of sex (reproduction) are the Karmendriyas. They execute all the decisions of Buddhi.

Your mind is your background, which you gathered from your family, friends, education, religion etc. All knowledge in a person resides in the mind and Buddhi (Intellect). Actually, what you know intellectually is not the real knowledge. It is book knowledge or indirect knowledge (Paroksha Jnaanam).

Buddhi is conscious of one’s knowledge and accomplishments. To innovate, to create, to discover, to visualize, to imagine, to observe, to conclude, to inquire, to question, to assimilate, etc, are intellectual abilities. Cognition is the primary function of the Buddhi. Based on previous experience, the intellect recognizes, understands and decides the course of action – as soon as it receives the sense perceptions from the mind. It conveys the decision and the course of action to the senses and to the organs of action and to the body - through the mind, of course. That is why Buddhi is called the driver. Buddhi controls the mind and mind controls the senses and the body. This is the internal hierarchy.

The glass sheet, for instance, becomes a mirror only when you coat its bottom with silver. Then only you can see yourself in it. Otherwise, you see others through it but not yourself. Similarly, when you coat your Buddhi with Bhakti, you can see into yourself. Otherwise, you only see others - and that too, mostly you see only what is bad in them.

Intellect is essentially a survival tool. Mere survival is not the goal of human life. Even animals, which are not endowed with Buddhi, manage to survive. Man has to find fulfillment with the help of Buddhi. Spiritual process takes you “from a bundle of conclusions and beliefs to real knowledge and fulfillment”. And this real knowledge is about yourself – which is buried deep within your Buddhi. You are the Aatma – you are not your body-mind complex – which is the real knowledge. When this knowledge unfolds in you, you become fulfilled – and more importantly, you become liberated from Karma and Janma.
The next thought is about “You are the Aatma”

Thought 72: Your mind

All of us think; and we think all the time. But rarely are we conscious of our thoughts. All thoughts get generated in the mind; mind is the medium for thoughts. Mind is in fact a train of thoughts. Mind modifies itself into thoughts. These modifications do not follow any pattern – they are always random and unrelated to one another.

The tendency of the undisciplined mind is to be divided and scattered. The scattered mind is completely uncontrolled. A scattered mind cannot see clearly. It has no power of foresight. It cannot retain and learn from the experiences of the past. Experience is the basis of all knowledge. It is only when we retain what we have learnt through experience, can we progress.

Mind is described as your shadow. You cannot get rid of your shadow. Neither can you get rid of your mind. Mind follows you under all conditions - except when you are asleep. Action always happens in the present time. But mind always roams – either in the past or in the future - but never in the present (for long). This roaming results in wastage of the mental energy. When the mind is not in sync with the action, the effort is not going to be efficient.

Your body is your external personality and your mind (and Buddhi) constitutes your internal personality. Body provides the ID for your internal personality and it also transports the internal personality to wherever you wish to go.

Anything that you do with your body is driven by your mind. Without being prompted by mind, your body does not do anything. Mind is the controller of the body. Whatever you feel in your mind, for instance, your face reflects it. They say that face is the index of the mind. Some times you are sad; actually, when the mind is sad, you are sad. Sadness shows in your body postures, in your speech and in your facial expressions. Some other times, the mind is happy. When the mind is happy, you are happy. This happiness shows in your body postures, in your speech and in your facial expressions. By observing your face and other body postures, one can read the mind or what is going on in the mind. Thus, there is a connection between your mind and yourself. Some people are very good at reading the body language.

Because of the body-mind connection, if the body is healthy, mind would also be healthy – and vice versa. A healthy body houses a healthy mind. Those who have healthy minds are happy persons. This is the reason why I always say to my children, “What you put in your mind, what you put in your mouth and what you do to the body (outer gross body) determines your health and happiness.” But where is this mind in the body?

The modern man wants everything to be concrete, perceptible (visible or audible, etc) and measurable before he believes in its existence. Some things like space for instance do not conform to such norms – but we know that they exist. We know that the space exists – although we are unable to perceive it through any of the instruments (internal as well as external) that we possess.

Mind is also like the space – like space, mind also does not conform to the norms (“Concete, perceptible and measurable”) that the modern science stipulates. Neither does Aatma (Aatma is what people call the soul). If you scan your body (through Cat Scan or MRI), you will not find the mind or Buddhi. You will only find the brain – which is not the mind or the Buddhi. It is so even with the Aatma too. That is because, mind or Buddhi or Aatma are subtle – Aatma being the subtlest of the subtle (Anor Aneeyam). Subtle means not perceptible to any of your five senses (Pancha Jnaanendriyas – which are eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue) which are the only instruments we have for perception; this is because subtle substances are formless (Niraakaara). We know where the brain is located in the body – but we cannot say where the mind is located in the body. Subtle substances have no fixed location; they are all pervasive, which means that they are everywhere. For instance, space is everywhere; so is the Aatma. Mind and Buddhi are everywhere in your body. The term “Vishnu” means all pervasive; that is to say that the Lord Vishnu is available everywhere - but you cannot see him because he is “Niraakaara”; He is the subtlest of the subtle. (Anor Aneeyam). The formless Vishnu is the Brahman (Paramaatma)

All knowledge is in the mind (and in the Buddhi). Mind and Buddhi are really two aspects of the same thinking faculty. While feeling emotions or vacillating, it is called the mind. While determining the course of action or discriminating between right and wrong, it is called Buddhi.

The next thought is about “Your Buddhi”

Thought 71: Your outer body

You have an outer personality and inner personality. The outer personality is the gross physical body – which is the outer shell (actually, there are five shells concentric to one another in it). Your gross physical body is only a vehicle, which carries your inner personality - wherever you go. You are not this vehicle – you are the user of the vehicle; you use it for carrying your internal personality around. Your physical body is also your ID card – it gives you an identification, which is uniquely yours. Since every Ruupa has a Naama, your name is always identified by your gross physical body.

The world is an assortment of objects and beings – which are all names and forms (Naama-Ruupas). Every being is always identified by the Naama-Ruupa (which is the outer shell). But the interaction between persons is always between the internal personalities – and not between the Naama-Ruupas. Thus, the outer gross physical body provides a platform for the internal subtle body to interact with the outside world of names and forms.

Your inner personality is your Antahkarana (your internal instrument) – which is also known as the subtle body. The Antahkarana consists of four subtle compartments – the mind (Manas), the Chitta (memory recall faculty), the Ahamkaara (the ego, which is the doership) and the Buddhi. Mind and Buddhi essentially constitute your inner personality and the outer shell constitutes your outer personality, which is frequently mistaken as the only personality that you have.

You know the outer shell well – but you do not know the inner personality well. Your knowledge of the inner self, which is the real “You”, is even worse. Most people think that the outer shell is the “real” You. Those with a little more knowledge believe that the inner self is the mind or the Buddhi or the ego – but none of them is the real “You”.

You also have a core personality consisting of the inner self, which is the real “You”. You are the awareness dwelling in the inner core of outer shelf. This awareness or the real “You” is also called the Aatma. Aatma is the life giving force in the body-mind complex. Thus, you may or may not realize this - divinity is the core of your inner personality.

The next thought is about “Your mind”

Thought 70: The world and Man

As long as the world exists, there would be change and struggle. Man has to meet this challenge by constant adaptation and adjustment with respect to the externally changing world. Animals and trees have a knack of adapting to the changing environment and surviving.

When you do not find peace and harmony in this world, you think that there is something wrong with the world – and you think that the world needs correction. People have been trying to correct the world from times immemorial with little success. Swami Vivekananda says that it is like trying to straighten the curved tail of a dog. You may straighten it but as soon as your hands leave the tail, it becomes curved again.

The solution to this problem lies in improving, not the world, but yourself. You can find peace and harmony by purifying your inner personality. When you purify yourself, you will find the world becomes purified also. The world is a reflection of your thoughts – and if your thoughts are good, the world is good.
Life is a motion and activity (energy). A dead creature cannot move – it has no energy. The Evolution is marked by the struggle for existence – which is activity. When there is no effort and exertion, there is degradation and death.

There is always some evil and some good in every person. Evil is not the invention of the modern times. Evil and good coexisted right from the beginning of creation. And evil and good are always in conflict. All stories, in any language and in any period in history, portray this conflict between evil and good. In all these stories, you would have noticed that good always wins in the end. Otherwise who would be interested in good? If the good is allowed to be wiped out by the evil, the world will come to a bad end; a very bad end indeed.

The next thought is about “Your outer body”

Thought 69: What all you can do is to give inputs – the output will be directly proportional to it

There can never be any output without input. If you do not buy a lottery ticket, you can never win the lottery. At the same time, having a lottery ticket does not necessarily get you the jackpot. Input alone is in your control - and not the result. The Uperwala alone gives the result to every one.

It is not luck, if you hit the jackpot. It is the result of something you have done earlier. There is no such thing as luck. Everything that you get in life is a result of what you have done. You deserve both the good and bad that happen to you. No one ever gets anything in life that he or she does not deserve.

You and you alone are responsible for both good and bad that happens to you. Take responsibility for everything that happens to you – because, it is the result of what you have done earlier (in a previous Janma).

The next thought is about “The world and Man”

Thought 68: You have to put money in the bank first before you can issue a check

In normal financial transactions, we have to deposit some money in our account in the bank first, before we can issue a check. If the amount in your account is not sufficient to cover the amount for which you wrote the check, the check will not be honored by the bank – unless, of course, you have previously arranged an overdraft facility with the bank.

In human transactions too, you have to put in the bank sufficient amount first, before issuing a check. In human relations, overdrafts are seldom allowed.

However, if you first put in the bank sufficient amount, most of the times, you find people immediately recognize you for the kind of person that you are and then, they are really good to you in several ways.

When people do not behave well with you or when they are not cooperative, it means that they have no confidence in your capacity and willingness to be good to them. Once you demonstrate that you are capable of putting in their bank first, their confidence is built up and they also put enough amount into your bank. This is how the “Bank of Goodness” is started and promoted by leaders.

There could be a situation, however, when you notice, that in spite of your putting in the bank, the other person is not reacting properly. Obviously, he is one of those characters, who always wants to take from you but he is not want willing to give anything in return. In human transactions, we do not encourage one way traffic.

Having observed this person’s character, do not put any more into his account, unless the person demonstrates to your satisfaction later that he has changed completely. In general, give the benefit of doubt to the other person and put in the bank first, unless you have prior information of his miserly nature.

The next thought is about “What all you can do is to give inputs – the output will be directly proportional to it”