I am composing the Ātma-bodha, this treatise of the knowledge of The Self, for those who have purified themselves by austerities, who are peaceful at heart and calm, who are free from cravings and desirous of liberation.
Just as the fire is a 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 Jiva-Atman, stained by ignorance, and then disappears itself, as the powder of the Kataka-nat settles down after it has cleansed the muddy water.
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 pearl. Like bubbles in the water, the worlds 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 Visnu — 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 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, color and position are superimposed upon the Atman; as flavor, color 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 are born 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.
Avija, ignorance, which is indescribable and beginningless, is the causal body. Know for certain that the Atman is other than these three conditioning bodies. 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 color of its vicinity.
Through discrimitive 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 on the energy of vitality of consciousness: the body, senses, mind and intellect engage themselves in their respective activities — just as men work depending on the light of the sun.
Fools, because they lack in their powers of discrimination, super-impose on the Atman, the absolute existence-knowledge, all the varied functions of the body and the senses, just as they attribute blue color, 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 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 Atman.
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 the 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. The ego-centric individuality in us regains fearlessness by realizing it is not a Jiva, but is itself The Supreme Soul. Just as a lamp illumines a jar or a pot, so also the Atman illumines the mind, or 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 descrimination 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. 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 knower, 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 ego-centric 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, 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-cit-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 Visnu 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 in between.
Realize that to be Brahman which is non-dual, indivisible, one and blissful, and which is indicated in Vedanta as the immutable sub-stratum, 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 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.
Though Atman is pure-consciousness and ever-present everywhere, yet it is perceived by the eye of wisdom alone. The one whose vision is obscured by ignorance does not see it, as the blind do not see the resplendent sun. The Jiva, free from impurities, being heated in the fire of knowledge, kindled by hearing and so on, shines of itself like gold. The Atman, the sun of knowledge that rises in the sky of the heart, destroys the darkness of the ignorance, pervades and sustains all, and shines, and makes everything to shine.
One who, renouncing all activities, who is free of all the limitations of time, space and direction, worships their own Atman, which is present everywhere, which is the destroyer of heat and cold, which is bliss eternal, and stainless. Becomes all-knowing and all-pervading, and attains, thereafter, immortality.
Thus concludes Atma-Bodha