Monday, October 30, 2000
What scriptures say about Atma?
By- B.Upadhyay B.Upadhyay is a Freelance writer.
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Though Atma is associated with the body, it is unaffected by the Gunas and the Dharmas. That is to say, it has no qualities and characteristics. You are unaffected by the changes that the body undergoes when you grow from the infant to the boy, from the boy into the youth, from the youth to the middle-aged man and than to the old man. You persist, instead of all this. It is the same when the body is destroyed, the Atma persists.
The Atma does not die, the body does not stay. Do you think that your grief at their possible death will make the Atma of your opponents happy? That is an insane thought. The Atma does not derive joy or grief out of whatever happens or does not happen. It is the senses that cause joy and grief. It also happens only when they start contacts with objects, that the twin distractions, joy and grief, get produced.
For instance, when someone is saying something bad to you, you get angry with that person. But no such anger can take place if the words do not fall on your ears. The object-ward movement of the senses is the cause of grief. So Atma is free from this twin distractions, joy and grief.
Lord Krishna taught Arjuna the key science of Atmajana. He explained, the Atma does not kill, nor it dies. Those who believe that it kills or dies are unaware of its nature. "Just as a person discards clothes and wears new ones, the dweller in the body discards one body and take another. The body is to the individual what the clothes are to the body. If you understand the real nature of the Atma, then you would not give way to grief. Know this as truth and renounce this despondency, Arjuna.", said Krishna.
Developing faith in the Atma principle and loving it earnestly is the real worship. The Atma is the one and only loved one for man. Feel that it is more lovable than any object here or hereafter-that is the true adoration man can offer to God. This is what the Vedas teach.
The Vedas do not teach the acceptance of a bundle of frightfully hard rules and restrictions. They teach us that there is one who is the sovereign behind all these rules and restrictions, one who is the core of each object, each unit of energy, each particle or atom and one under whose orders alone are the five elements-ether, air, fire, water and earth. Vedas says, do love and worship the supreme.
The Vedas took form only to demonstrate and emphasise the existence of God. Those Hindus who attained the highest goal of spiritual practices have all traveled along the Vedic path teachings. The scriptures contain authentic versions of their experiences and the bliss they won. In some of the scriptures they asserted that they had the awareness of the Atma. The real goal of these people is to attain the Sthithi (the real stage). They try to reach that stage through constant practices. They also have the awareness of one's divinity. Those who desire to grasp the supreme vision of Vedantic philosophy have to understand a few fundamentals first.
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