It is difficult to explain Atman in a scientific manner, because it is an experience of pure awareness. It is not an object or thing to be described, measured or assessed.
Science is relative and based on referential definition. Let me attempt to explain this.
Many concepts such as time, weight, length etc are based on a predefined reference, which we have accepted to be universal. For e.g. length is measured using a scale with centimetres or inch marks on them. We do not question if the scale is actually marked accurate. The scale might have been erroneously manufactured and could be short or long by fraction of a centimetre or inch. But we accept that this scale is accurate and assume everything else to be accurate based on the same scale. That very scale is dependent on an universal measure preserved in SI institute or some such institutions. Same goes for kilograms etc. We ignore that this itself is a human definition of measures. What if this universal reference is lost or destroyed? All scales will become irrelevant.
Take the measurement of time, it is based on earth's rotation and where you are on earth. Imagine you are 10000 km above earth, now what value does this time definition have, it loses all its significance. We know that our weight also is dependent on gravity and will change from planet to planet.
All science we know is relative and based on an accepted reference, on which we have faith.
But awareness or consciousness is an experience. For e.g. how would you define sweetness or bitterness? Or how would you describe or measure love or trustworthiness? It is difficult to explain these and the best and only way is to experience it. Anything that is known to mankind, stored in the form of codified knowledge and memory is called science. Anything that is yet to be understood is termed as miracles.
As to your friend, ask him just one question — does he believe that a planet called Saturn or Uranus exists? He just believes so because it has been drilled into our heads thru schools. We haven't bothered to find out ourselves. If we do not believe that these planets exist, we would venture out to find out for ourselves, in the process we will be methodical, use different instruments of perception like a high powered telescope, and patiently try, try and try again till we find out the planet. And if we find out something, how do we validate that this is indeed Saturn? We have to rely on someone's previous description.
These methods are what the scientists of yore (aka rishis) described as paths (dhyana, meditation etc.). If one is steadfast, diligent and sincere, he or she will definitely find out. But again, he cannot describe it in words, because the moment you describe it you are describing it with past known references which may differ in their meanings based on interpretation.
Pure awareness is termed Aprameya (as in Vishnu Sahasranama) meaning immeasurable, that which cannot be measured, quantified or described.
Hope this helps.
Anbe Sivam!d
There are two types of atman - the Supreme Arman, God, and the jiva-atma, the soul.
Consciousness is the symptom of the soul. Whenever we see a living entity we should identify a soul rather than a body.
"The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air [prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana]. The soul is situated within the heart, and it spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited." -- Mundaka Upanishad, 3.1.9
People usually identify themselves with the body and its culture, and that false identification of oneself is due to ignorance of the real self, the soul. So our real identity is as souls, and in Bhagavad Gita God offers a brilliant argument to help us realize our identity as souls, different from the body and mind.
Krishna says:
As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. (Bg. 2.13)
What Krishna is saying here, is that the body changes from childhood, to youth, to old age. But the self, or the ‘I’ within, remains the same. One's mind and intelligence change, certainly. One's thoughts, feelings and convictions change as time progresses. But it is the same inner observer who experiences these changes. The I-feeling remains constant.
So, despite the alterations of matter in the body and mind, we remain the same inner observer. And that is the eternal soul.
It is the same person, or soul, who sits in a child's body, as the one sitting in the old man's body. The person didn't change, in the sense that he remains the same observer.
His thoughts and feelings and intelligence change, but it is the same self who experiences those changes. In this way anyone can experience their own real self.
The soul, or the self, belongs to God’s marginal energy. That the soul is marginal, means it will be controlled either by spirit or matter. It will be controlled either by God, or by the body and its culture.
The choice we have is whether we want to be controlled by matter, or by God.
When one's choice is motivated by the desire to become free from the false ego, free from bodily identification, then one begins his spiritual journey back home, back to Godhead.
As long as we think we can become happy in a material body, we are in illusion, and the minute we realize we are not this body, and that the happiness of the body is ephemeral and without substance, we can achieve real happiness - the happiness of the soul.
Krishna says:
A person who is not disturbed by the incessant flow of desires -- that enter like rivers into the ocean, which is ever being filled but is always still -- can alone achieve peace, and not the man who strives to satisfy such desires. —Bg 2.70
No comments:
Post a Comment