Silence on Self - She who is the Self in all (Shri Lalita Sahasranam)

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>

> from: Igor

> to: Violet (for the forum)

> date: Sep 11, 2007 4:34 am (1 day ago)

> subject: Silence on Self

>

> Dear All,

>

> As i read Jagbir's post 8275 'Silence on Self' on the forum for the

> very first time i recollected a fragment from 'The Advent' (it's a

> book written by G.de Kalbermatten). I'd like to share it with you

> and just retell it because i've got this book in Russian

> translation only.

>

> One day the author of the book while riding in a train 'Hurstgreen –

> London' asked Shri Mataji a question: 'Tell me, Shri Mataji, who

> are you, in reality?' Complete profound silence covered him, his

> eyes got closed. As he opened his eyes he saw Shri Mataji looking

> at him. " That is the answer. I am Silence " .

>

>

 

 

617) She Who Is The Self In All.

 

Sri Lalita Sahasranama

C. S. Murthy, Associate Advertisers and Printers, 1989.

 

 

" According to Indian Philosophy, there are three levels in the mind: conscious,

the subconscious and the superconscious (also called unconscious), working

respectively in waking state, in dream state and dreamless sleep. In the last

state, the mind and the senses, both are sleeping and therefore senses do not

play any part. The mind is one with the non-material stuff of the universe.. In

this state distinction between the subject and the object of the seer and the

seen, disappears. The object merges into the subject itself and becomes one with

it. The nature of the subject is that of consciousness. The subject is self or

pure consciousness, eternal and changeless, nondual and Absolute. Here the soul

merges into the mind. This nondual self or Atma of the third stage is described

as of the nature of the pure existence or consciousness and bliss called

sat-chit-anand. All this universe is this Self. So God is Universal

Consciousness and Spirit of which the consciousness and spirit of each

individual is a tiny part. Spake Guru Nanak: — " God is ever Truth, Beauty,

Consciousness and Bliss. " (P. 4, A.D.)

 

The self of man is a part of God, the Supreme Spirit which is all pervasive in

living and nonliving things. It is the infinite background of all the energies

of the universe. This Supreme Spirit merges into the Universal Consciousness

pervading in the minds of the individuals. Thus the Supreme Spirit and pure

Super-consciousness both pervade the whole universe. This Immanent spirit is God

and therefore we can say that God is Supreme Spirit and Universal Consciousness,

the one ultimate of the whole universe, the Truth. "

 

Pritam Singh Gill, The Trinity of Sikhism

New Academic Publishing Co., Jullundur, India, 1990, p. 71.

 

 

" The word Atman is generally rendered here as " Soul " or " Self. " The Sanskrit

word really cannot be translated. Atman is the deathless, birthless, eternal,

and real Substance in every individual. It is the unchanging Reality behind the

changing body, sense-organs, mind, and ego. It is Spirit, which is Pure

Consciousness and is unaffected by time, space, and causality; therefore It is

limitless and One without a second. As the unchanging Reality in the individual

is called Atman, so the unchanging Reality in the universe is called Brahman.

Brahman, too, is beyond time, space, and causality and is all-pervading Spirit.

Vedanta states that Brahman and Atman are one and the same. The knowledge of

this identity or non-difference is called Self-Knowledge, which confers upon man

the boon of liberation from the bondage and suffering of the world.

 

Atman — as the jiva, or embodied soul — derives Its experience in the relative

world through three states of consciousness. In the waking state It experiences

the gross objects of the outside world; in the dream state It experiences subtle

impressions, purely mental in nature and created by the experiences of the

waking state; and in deep sleep It enjoys peace and remains as the witness of

the absence of the activities of mind and senses. In this last state It is close

to Its real nature and the subject-object relationship is absent; yet even here

the Knowledge of the Self is obscured by the veiling-power of ignorance. There

is the fourth state, called Turiya, which in reality is not a state; then Atman

is realized as Pure Consciousness without any subject-object relationship.

Turiya pervades all the three states and forms their substratum. "

 

Swami Nikhilananda, Self-Knowledge [Atmabodha], 1989, p. 118.