Swami Sivananda Vani

[Guest guest]

ATMAN

 

The atman (self) is most ancient, hard to perceive and abides

secretly in the innermost cave of the heart or intellect. This atman

or supreme soul fills all with his radiance. This atman is

incorporeal, pure, invulnerable. He is untouched by evil. The atman

is the supreme seer and thinker, immanent and transcendental. This

atman is the immortal spirit, the common, unifying entity present in

all. You live, because the supreme atman is. You understand, because

the atman is intelligence. You enjoy, because the atman is bliss.

Atman is the reality itself it is of the nature of pure

consciousness. It is undifferentiated, pure awareness and pure

experience. Atman is secondless; it alone is; all else which appears

to be is not. Atman is the one which appears divided; the changeless

as full of change; the timeless as temporal; the infinite as

extended and fragmented in space.

 

Atman is one. It is the root, the reality itself. Atman is pure

consciousness, calm and infinite like the waveless ocean. That atman

which is impersonal, changeless, like unto space, by nature purity

itself verily, verily, that am I. The one who is the eternal, the

atman, exists. He is all in all. This atman is so mysterious that it

cannot easily be grasped. This atman can easily be grasped when the

science of the self (brahmavidya) is taught by a guru who has

attained self realisation.

 

This atman is subtler than the subtlest and so is not attained by

arguments. Like butter hidden in milk, this mysterious atman is

hidden in every being. Realise this atman by the churning of

meditation. The atman is unborn, ageless, immortal, deathless and

fearless. He who knows this atman becomes Brahman, the fearless.

Atman is Brahman absolute, infinite, the supreme being. It is

existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. It is self

delight and self knowledge. It is bodiless, formless and without

gunas, all pervading, all full, imperishable. It has neither

beginning nor end. It exists in past, present and future. It is self

existent, the source for body, mind, senses, prana, the vedas and

the universe itself. No one can deny it; it is the inner self of all

beings.