Friday, 4 October 2024

WITNESSING THE ATMA

We have seen, heard, and read of so many upheavals in the spiritual scene and are still seeing, hearing, and reading about them. It seems like no one is exempted from the divine play. I guess that is the Divine, unbiased and not taking sides, the Supreme Judge, or does he in fact judge us? I do not think so. If he starts judging us then what is the difference between him and us? We are our own judge. We have to either judge our own actions now or after death. There is no escape.

He is the Watcher. He has set the mechanism into play and this is setting the scenes and the stage and the situations and the play into motion. If we are mere puppets in his hands what then is the motive in coming to take the stage and play out these individual roles, for we are told that we are individual Souls having come here from his abode and side to live out the experiences that we as Souls had desired. Once its desires are fulfilled it sheds the body and returns to where it came from. The cycle begins again when it builds another shed and comes within to dwell and live another life. This would only mean that we should go with the flow, and accept all that happens not as God's will but as what our Souls had intended and desired to be and experience. So we can't possibly blame God, can we?

So where does God come into the picture then? He does not, right? But if the Souls are supposed to have been a part of the whole before building this gross body and its components to live out its dreams, it would only mean that God is going through this moment and every moment, be it the misery, the hardship, the pain, the pleasure, the joy, etc living in "us". Is it then, that the Soul living in us is that which is going through all these moments, that we mistakingly think are happening to "us". 

Since we tend to relate this "us" with the gross body, where then is this "us" the moment the body is dead? What keeps it alive? This has to be something that is beyond the material plane for we have laid the material and gross body to rest. So is this the Soul then? Is the Soul keeping us alive? Is this the reason the saints are not the least perturbed, disturbed, or bothered by what happens to this dwelling knowing that there is another waiting once the job here is done? I guess when this identification with the body drops, the Soul arises. That would be Atma Darisanam or Witnessing One's Atma. When the identification with the Soul arises we know we are one with God, the ParamAtma.

So the JeevAtma in me engineered this body for its needs and purpose, came to dwell in it, and experiences the joint play that God, the ParamAtma, and its siblings that are the other Atmas or the other drops of rain, have come to put together and shower as the Divine Play. So where then is "our" part in it? The I, mine, we, ours, us, does not exist then, does it? The Ego drops of its own accord without fighting back. I guess that is the reason the saints laugh it off in the face of adversaries and danger.

We have a long way to go towards becoming a Siddha and Gnani. We are still perturbed, disturbed, and bothered, by any speech or action taken against us, or any inaction on the part of others that we wish they did. We are so concerned about this abode and dwelling even after knowing that it is temporary. We stand up for the right, condemn the wrong, and voice our opinions knowing fully that what is deemed right now might be declared unlawful later or vice versa. 

Just as the knife can be put to good use or used to cause harm, the net too is choked with good, the bad, and the ugly. If in the days of the past, we only had access to what was conveyed by eyewitnesses, these days we do not even know the source of the many news that reach our ears. It is for us to verify them. 

It is interesting to realize that just as there are two sides to a coin, while some would see the wearing of amulets and gemstones to ward off evil and bring luck and charm, having statues in vehicles, pictures in homes, and Yantras in offices, on the other hand, some might ask "If I believe in God, why do I need these protections." 

All of the former is required for beginners. These are not required as one reaches the apex of his spiritual standing. So it is only understandable that Tavayogi and the Siddhas discarded them only when they reached this state and not earlier. I guess Tavayogi must have thought that I was ready to discard these for he had me drop everything after our first meeting and the days to come. I guess he must have thought that I was ready too for the implant of his teachings. Agathiyar came later and had me drop whatever remaining attachments that I had too. He asked that I divert my attention within and look at my Soul thenceforth. The Siddhas do not see Tom, Dick, and Harry, but only the Souls in this vessel. Life is like water that is held in a vessel. We have come to fill crores of vessels and have ended up smashed and broken in doing so and returned to the earth and the other elements. What has come along in this long journey is the Atma. We are all Atmas living a life on the face of the earth. Let us see others as Souls too, and then a major portion of all our troubles will cease to be.