Biography of a Thought by Pujya Swami Atmanandaji

[Guest guest]

Namaste:

 

 

Poojya Swami Atmanandaji, the founder of Vedanta Mission studied

under

the guidance of Swami Chinmayanandaji and he is a great Vedantin.Let

me take this opportunity to thank Swamiji for granting permission to

post this excellent article on Jivatma and Paramathma which describes

the basic aspects of Advaita Philosophy in very clear terms.

(Source: http://www.vmission.org/vedanta/articles/index.htm)

 

regards,

 

Ram Chandran

 

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Biography of a Thought by Pujya Swami Atmanandaji

 

……… Thought is `the' most potent, important and also the most

beautiful creation of this universe. Rest is all its play. Thought

is our capacity to be aware of something – subjective or

objective. Awareness of any thing is thought. The physical

organ which facilitates the manifestation of these thoughts is

our brain, while the constant `flow of thoughts' is called - mind.

Man is what his or her mind is. All our interests, knowledge or

experiences are different facets of this mind alone. The

Upanishads thunder that bondage & liberation too are caused

only by an ignorant & an enlightened mind respectively, and not

by anything else whatsoever.

……… To understand thought is to understand the secret of this

entire creation, and even that which lies beyond all

manifestations. To understand thought is to understand our

self – because our present identity is nothing but a product of

our minds – a mere thought, and so is this big creation too. It

is also a product of our minds – like the dream world, but with

some slightdifference. Creation is available for experience only

when mind is and fades away into oblivion when the mind goes

into unmanifest state. It will thus not be an understatement to

say that to understand thought is to understand life.

……… Before the birth of any thought exists only the potential

thinker. To be more precise let us say that before the thought

of an `object', exists thethought or awareness of `I' the

subject. All the `objective thoughts' are created & sustained by

this thinker. The moment this `thinker' is not around all

thoughts disappear. This is what we experience in our deep

sleep state. Once the thinker manifests all thoughts are

possible. The thinker out of its free will or conditionings turns

its attention on any object, and then we have `thought' of

those objects. Every thought is thus awareness exuded by the

thinker plus the info about the object of knowledge. Awareness

conditioned by the info (like its name, form etc) of any object

is a thought.

……… Every thought, thus, has two inherent components : the

`awareness' component & the `info of object' component. Out of

these the awareness aspect is constant in every thought,

while the data aspect keeps changing. Awareness is the very

nature of thinker, and like a focus light it just has to turn it on

to any object and a thought is thus born. When we maintain

awareness of an object for some time then we have the

flow-effect, and this flow of thoughts is what is commonly

called the mind. If the flow of thoughts is steady then we have

a steady mind, and if the thoughts pertain to different objects

then we have an unsteady mind. When the thinker exercises its

freedom to decide between any options, then the mind is

steady, but if it cannot decide then we have a vacillating

condition. Alongwith our capacity to be conscious of any

object we also have the great capacity to feel. This is not an

independent thought as such but an added component in any

thought. Feelings provide impetus to every thought, and are

also the heart of any cherished experience.

……… As every thought depends on us, the thinker, therefore

we are their masters. We sustain them, and in principle have

freedom to subside them as & when we wish. However this

freedom may not be experienced by most of us. This is because

while going through our various experiences of life, we

unconsciously bring about lot of conditionings, which are

encapsulated feelings about various things - in our memory

bank, and these have the power to bring about related

thoughts. Depending upon the type & intensity of conditionings

we have the whole gamut of thoughts flooding our minds.

Whoever knows the secret of the process of conditionings

knows that we are still the master, but those who are not

aware of this remain a helpless spectator of flooding thoughts,

thus bringing about a vacillating & disturbed state of mind. To

be free of our own conditionings is what the real freedom is all

about.

……… The thinker also is a thought. Here also there is the

constant component of `awareness', plus the variable

component of `our perceptions' about `I' thethinker. These

perceptions aspect constitute the so called `identity' of a

person, and it plays a very important role in the whole scheme

of things. The awareness aspect both in the subject & the

thoughts of the objects are one, and if we look at the world

from this aspect there is just one all-pervasive timeless

self-effulgent existence. The second component is the one of

change. Whoever directly percieves both these inherent

components of a thought shakes up the very basis of his or

life. Not only the world around is seen with the constant

component, but the `I' too is seen as the eternal, all-pervasive

awareness, which keeps changing its various roles. The

changed roles does not effect the basic me, and thus it really

doesn't make any difference. I see myself as the self of all. I

see myself as the very substratum on which this entire world of

change (the transient component) is dancing. This is what

self-realisation is all about. This is what moksha is all about.

Freedom from all limitations, awakening to a timeless state of

Brahman.