study circle

Session 4

“We have slid down into the present state mainly because we have lost faith in the Atma, that omnipotence, that motivator of all, who is the warp and woof of our body and mind, our emotions and intellect. Strengthening faith in Him is the only means of realizing the highest goal of man.
You are born again and again, seeing, doing, and experiencing what you have already seen, done, and experienced. You should realize that you are born not to be born again. You should see and experience that by which you will find fulfillment.That is oneness of the Atmic principle. Once you have experienced the Atma, you do not need to experience anything else.”
--- Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai

Notes:

What is the ultimate aim of human birth? As, often mentioned by Bhagavan, man came from the Atman and he has to ultimately go back to the Atman. What does that mean? The essence of all living beings is Consciousness. Like all other beings the human organism, physically, is the condensed form of various energies, originating from the Consciousness and activated by the same Consciousness residing in him as the Atman. The body is basically inert and not only its structure but its mind, intelligence and their functioning all depend on the Atman, which uses them for Its own purpose. As Swami often says, a cloth is woven with threads, which ultimately are nothing but cotton. Of all the beings man is the only one who has the ability to know about the presence of the Atman inside him and, at the death of his energy-based body, can revert back to the Consciousness. Atman only can guide him in his life, lead him along the correct path and finally meet him at the end of the road. All others beings on earth, also taking their origin from the same Consciousness, after death perhaps go back to the energy state, and not beyond. If man does not realize the presence of the Atman which is activating his body, and that his physical activities, mind and intelligence owe their existence to the Atman, or ignores It, he is subject to all the endless problems in life and suffers.This exactly is the present state of man.The only solution to his problems, Swami says, is for man to realize the above truth and strengthen his faith in the Atman.

Why does man forget the presence of the Atman inside him? The faculty of cognition, the mind, endowed to him as to all other living beings, starts identifying itself with the particular physical body it is occupying and as a result an imaginary individual pops up and takes control of the man. We shall discuss about this ego, in deatil, on some other occasion. It is enough for the time being to realize that it is this ego that acts as a veil in front of the Atman and prevents man from knowing the latter. The effect of this is that man imagines that he is the doer of all actions, as well as the enjoyer of the ensuing fruits. As a result of this he accumulates karma, which covers his mind as an impurity. Because of this, after death, the mind is unable to merge with the Universal mind, and is reborn in a new body to get rid of this impurity. When a man is born on the earth he sees, does and experience many things in life and when reborn he again goes through the same experiences, adding a few more, as a result of his karma. During the new birth he adds more karma. The only way to break this cycle is for man to return to the state of Consciousness after death, and not to the interim energy state. In other words everytime he is born his aim has to be, to avoid rebirth.

In our prayer we pray to God, ‘Mrtyorma amrtam gamaya’, that is, ‘lead me from death to immortality.’ That does not mean that we want death to be prevented. Every living being born on the earth has to die. Hence in this prayer we are not asking that we should go on living indefinitely, but that we are not to be born again. We should, once for all merge back into the Supreme Consciousness from which we came. What is the way to achieve this? The only way, Bhagavan says is to know the Atman and merge with it. It is the real immortal sate. We also pray, to the Supreme, ‘Asatoma Sat gamaya’, that is, ‘lead me to Truth from untruth.’ Truth is something which can neither change nor get destroyed at any time. Everything that was created in the Universe is subject to change and hence is ‘asat’. Only the Atman, which is synonymous with the Supreme Consciousness, the source of all creation, is unchanging and indestructible. It is immortal, ‘Sat’.

Not to be aware of the Atman is ignorance. In is equivalent to blinding darkness. The Upanishads say that one who does not know the Atman goes to the world of the demons, which means that he lives a miserable life. So what is the remedy? Swami says: “the darkness and the light required to remove it are both inside you. All that you have to do is to go in and light that lamp.” What is this process of going in? That is meditation wherein the mind stops wandering and gets fixed on the Atman. It loses its infatuation with the physical body, resulting in the release of man from the tyranny of the ego, and the individual surrenders to the Atman.This effort is purely an individual one and no one else can make it on his behalf. Now he sees and experiences what he should and moves towards the purpose of his taking the human birth. The Atman takes back charge of the sadhak and conducts his life in the right direction. Then man realizes his oneness with the Atman. Now he does not need any other experience. He will then be automatically taken to the goal. Once he reaches that goal, known as Atmasakshatkaram or Brahmanirvanam, his journey ends. He does not return, that is, he is not born again. (To be continued)