So this is a follow up post on the Atma Shatkam interpretation written previously. It generated sufficient interest amongst a group of my friends and I feel it requires a separate blog post (or two).
Before that I must admit I am enjoying this intellectual exercise. Engaging in discussions like this carries a danger of being perceived holier than thou - the last thing I want given my own fallibilities! So, just consider these posts as an intellectual exercise written to clarify my own thinking and my own benefit to begin with. So, I appreciate the feedback from my friends. That said, I am open to being corrected - if my thinking has flaws or if I have a wrong idea, do correct me. In short I am not impervious to learning:-).
My friend Deepak asks via email:
If it is consciousness, my natural next question is - what is consciousness or "Atma", I guess I have to become more spiritual to understand that... My analytical mind says consciousness = Mind and thought, but then Verse 1 rules that out - leaving me wondering what it is?
First off I don't believe that one needs to be "more spiritual" than one already is to address and/or understand these questions. Coming back to the main topic now. Consciousness by itself has been a subject of in-depth study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness gives an idea of this abstract concept. I couldn't really get a clear understanding of it. Seemed too detailed.
So what is Siva (in Sivoham = Siva + aham = I am Siva):
I may have been a bit callous in my previous post in interpreting Siva to be the eternal consciousness. I admit I don't have any expertise on Advaita to check what Sankara actually meant. However, thinking and probing the matter further and thanks to a good feedback and discussion from another friend of mine Arun (his troublemaking cynicism notwithstanding:-)), the closest we agreed was that the answer could be energy. The Shatkam does mention it somewhat in the last verse, that "I am the vitality behind the universe". So, the closest answer to "What I am?" could be energy after eliminating all what is not. The energy behind all the nature's existence and operations? And let's see why this could be so.
So, I went back to freshman Physics textbook (Feynman lectures vol 1) to refer to the chapter on conservation of energy. Quoting Feynman (bold emphasis mine):
"There is a fact, or if you wish, a law, governing all natural phenomena that
are known to date. There is no known exception to this law—it is exact so far as
we know. The law is called the conservation of energy. It states that there is a
certain quantity, which we call energy, that does not change in the manifold
changes which nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a
mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity which does not
change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything
concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate some number and when
we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again,
it is the same."
And further:
"It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what
energy is...It is an abstract thing in that it does not tell us the mechanism or
the reasons for the various formulas."
The key point is that (total) energy does not change - can neither be created nor destroyed. Now, the Atma Shatkam also in the attempt to define "Who am I?" also eliminates all those identifications that are not permanent (that can be created and destroyed). From the rudimentary knowledge of Advaita I have, it professes that anything impermanent can't be real - it is an illusion. What is real is what that does not change.
Prajnaparomita Hrudya Sutra and Atma Shatkam:
The Buddha also in his Prajnaparomita Hridaya Sutra espouses exactly the similar points as in Atma Shatkam. At some point I will dig up how tarka shastra (treatise on logic) describes what is the end point after all this elimination exercise. From this, it seems to me that energy is the end point of all this elimination exercise in finding the answer to "Who am I?". And to me it does seem logically consistent and could be explained easily now. In fact, we cannot deny that we are energy and all natural phenomena are because of this abstract concept called energy - which again no one has defined what is!
Isn't it a very enlightening and amazing feeling that we are actually the manifestation of an indestructible natural phenomenon and by being so, aren't we also invincible? Would anything else matter? Aren't we the omnipotent divine beings? Should we really look for someone up there residing in heavens to take care of us? Aren't we the ones who are in control of our destiny? Perhaps a good point to ponder...
Conclusion:
That said, probing further and further we can fall into the trap of missing the forest for trees and struggling ourselves to find the answer to "Who am I? - energy, then what is energy?..." will no more be helpful. The best we can do is to understand its manifestation and find a pattern. It may be a good intellectual exercise but of what use would it be?
So, the right question to ask is how to does this help in understanding human suffering, strife, life, death, the differences we see and relate to daily life. And this is where the question of another good friend of mine Ishita, made me thinking - which I will address in the next post.
Yoga
9/29/2011
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