Atma Vichara

Lesson 19 ATMA VICHARA

How to do self enquiry? Why should one do self enquiry? Varahopanishat states that only through the knowledge of atma or anatma the cycle of samsara can be annihilated. Without it even in millions of lives one cannot break this cycle. According to Vivekachudamani—11 all actions or karmas are for chitta shuddhi not for finding self.

Only with enquiry one can realize self. Rituals can give some chitta shuddhi, but for complete chitta shuddhi one should do yogam. Struggling in samsara it is difficult to do self enquiry, for them sadhana is very important to get to self enquiry leading to moksha.

Only Brahman is real, everything else is unreal. In darkness we might see bunny’s ears and think they are horns. Yogam generates the light that takes one out of delusion. To recognize truth one needs jnana. So we can attain yogam with prana and jnanam with mind. Upadesa saram says that both mind and prana vayu are branching out of the same energy. ‘pranabandhana llina manasam, ekachitana nnasha metyatha ha’ Upadesa saram. Control the mind with respirations. The controlled mind vanishes if it becomes singe pointed.

How to make mind single pointed, eka chintana?
To make mind single pointed first we need to know the mind. Mind is a bag of thoughts. Mana: = Brahman. The tread of Brahman has many knots making the mind. If the knots are removed all that is left is Brahman. If we make a heap of the knots it becomes our world. In a quiet lake the water itself makes the ripples, it gives illusion that the ripples are moving water towards the bank.

Even though there are rough waves in the ocean the substratum is still and ocean does not move. The first wave created is the ‘I’ thought. Later, it sets forth many thoughts and the world is formed. These are called chitta vrittis. All of them arose out of aham or ego. Then came the cravings of the world and agami, sanchita and prarabda karmas came into existence. The only way out is to kill the ego, then all else is annihilated.

‘mana eva manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayo: bandhaya vishayasaktam mukti: nirvishayagm smritam’ Amrutabindupanishat 2 Mind is the cause of bandha and moksha. The ‘I’ sankalpa is the mind. From that first sankalpa all the 3 worlds, vasanas are formed creating bandha. Atma vichara means letting go of everything that arose out of I, and focus on I alone. Finally letting go of that I also.

The body is inert, it does not know anything so it cannot say I. The atma that is chaitanya, residing in the body does not say I. Then there is a third one that is saying I, it is not real. That is the mind. This mind takes over the atma and body and does all sinful acts creating dreadful sins. Suffering the results of these sins one turns towards the I and beg for release. Then I vanishes, only atma remains giving self-realization.

As long as you go around seeking mukti from the thoughts coming out of the mind there is no way out. The general trend method of meditation is, closing eyes and trying to still mind; may give some peace, but makes one drowsy. With a drowsy mind how can one attain jnana? B.G 6-13 says with body, neck and head erect without movement, not looking around, that means with open eyes, look into center of eyebrows.

A yati meditates upon the divine light in the center of eyebrows performs pranayama before meditation churning the pana and apana creating yogagni, yogam and dhyanam are inseparable. The seeker takes upadesha from Guru and reverses the respirations through the sushumna thereby attain moksha. The yogagni generated extends inspirations, making the mind sharp for atma vichara.