Recall the words of Chandogya Upanishad that we discussed in a previous episode. It said (I am quoting only important verses)
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And this Atma thought ‘let me be many and multiply as many things’.
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It took the form of three basic elements.
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These three basic elements combined with each other in various proportions to form the material world.
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But these material entities are insentient. They can’t think, they can’t feel, nor do they have a free will of their own. Basically, they are inert.
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Atma thought ‘let me give life to these inert forms’. So, it took multiple sentient forms called ‘Jeevatma’. And these sentient forms, that we call as ‘souls’ in common parlance, entered the bodies formed out of insentient material things giving life to them.”
That is how the Atma which was one and only one in the beginning became multiple things by taking multiple forms. Though there are multiple forms, they are all one and the same since they are all the forms taken by the very same Atma. It is like the same actor taking on multiple roles as we discussed in the mind game in the previous episode. So, there is diversity but all this diversity boils down to the same Atma since each form is an Avtar of that Atma.
How could Atma do it? That is what is explained by another Upanishad namely the Mandukya Upanishad that we discussed earlier. Let us recollect the sentences from that Upanishad as well. It said in the very beginning
“All ‘this’ is OM which is indestructible. It always existed, it is what exists now and it is also the one that would exist in the future. That is because it is beyond time. It IS not just this perceptible world, but even whatever is beyond our domain of perception”.
So, this world came into existence as infinitely many forms taken by the very same Atma. So, that way, the world is nothing but Atma. There is nothing else. All that you need to do is to look beyond the names and forms. This is the Advaita which follows naturally from the Upanishadic sentences. Note the difference between this Advaita and the one propounded by Sankara which relies on the concept of Maya, not found in the Upanishads, to explain the diversity.
When we discuss about this ‘creation’ of the world, many words in our vocabulary don’t make any sense without further qualification. We said – ‘the world came into existence’. Does it mean that the world did not exist and came into existence at some point in time? No, since this world is nothing but the Atma and since this Atma is eternal, this world is also eternal in a way. But it came into existence in a specific form at some particular time. Otherwise, the words ‘in the beginning’ don’t make any sense. ‘in the beginning’ means before the Atma took multiple forms.
Since this entire world is nothing but various forms taken by the Atma itself, each of these forms, and more specifically each one of us IS Atma. That is what is meant by the Chandogya Upanishad when itsays ‘Tat Twam Asi’ – That thou art. Here the word ‘Tat’ refers to the Atma and the word ‘twam’ refers to a form taken by the Atma which is nothing but you as an individual.
If everything is Atma, then why differentiate between the Atma and the forms taken by the Atma? That is because there are some basic differences between the Atma and the forms taken by the Atma. Let us see some of them.
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Atma is beyond time. But the forms taken by the Atma are governed by space and time
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Atma is eternal, but the forms are transient. They appear and disappear.
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Atma is omnipotent and omniscient. But the forms have limited knowledge and capability.
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Atma is not governed by causality. But the forms are. It is like the roles played by the actor that are governed by the script of the drama, while the actor is not. He willingly submits himself to the script while he is playing a role. The law of causality is the script of the drama played by the Atma.
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The forms can only be in one of the three states – awake, dreaming or deep sleep state as the Mandukya Upanishad says, but not in all of them simultaneously. But the Atma is beyond all these three states. It is in an indescribable state. It is indescribable because we – that is a form - are trying to describe it in a language used by the forms that are space-time limited. That language has no words to describe the Atma.
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When seen from the point of view of the forms, there is multiplicity. Each form is unique though all of them emerged from the very same Atma and each of them are nothing but the Atma if we look beyond their form.
If all forms are nothing but the Atma itself, why is there suffering in this world? Are the forms not capable of freeing themselves from the suffering since all of them are ultimately the omnipotent Atma itself?
It is like asking why should an actor who is playing the role of an oppressed person undergo suffering? Actually, the actor is not really suffering. It is the character which is suffering and not really the actor. The actor is merely acting as if he is suffering, in tune with the script of the drama. That is what Gaudapada probably meant when he said that “in the ultimate sense there is none who is suffering”.
If that is the case, why are there spiritual practices that aim at alleviating suffering?
The reason is that we are assuming that the actor is aware that he is playing a role. What if the actor forgets that and starts identifying himself with the role? That is when he really suffers. The effort of all Upanishads is to remind the form that it is actually the Atma in the ultimate sense and it is just playacting a specific role. That is the self-realization which the form has forgotten.
Why has the form forgotten its real nature?
That is because of two things. These forms have a mind that makes them believe that they are different from what they really are. It is the mind that forces them to take the forms to be real just like the actor taking his role a bit too seriously.
The mind also enforces its clutch over the soul, over a period of time, due to the accumulated experiences – the so called Samskaras. Normally, a form finds it difficult to free itself from these Samskaras. So, the form suffers.
How does a form come out of this suffering? Let us discuss that later.
In the next episode, let me digress a bit to discuss a hilarious incident from the life of a great realized soul in our times, namely Ramana Maharshi.
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