Moment to Speak

T he concept "I am not the doer" relates to how actions are perceived within the Upanishadic philosophical framework of what Adi Shankaracharya asserts, oneness of Atman (Self) and Brahman (Cosmic Self, or Absolute Existence). The Mandukya Upanishad (1.2) states unequivocally, Ayam Atma Brahma , or meaning, This Self is Brahman . It signifies that the true Self (Atman) does not perform actions. Instead, it is a witness – consciousness , uninvolved in the actions and the consequent results thereof. Actions are considered being carried out by the ego, evolving from the elements of Prakriti (nature's field of activities) intertwined with the body-mind-intellect complex and trayi-gunas ( Sattva -purity, or goodness; Rajas -passion, or activity; and Tamas -ignorance, or darkness). Non-doership is not about ceasing action but about changing one's identification from the transitory body-mind-intellect complex of Prakriti  to Atman , the imperishable, infinite, unmov...

Cosmic ideation is the thought, or ideas germinating from Cosmic Mind (Hiranyagarbha) of Cosmic Self, or Brahman , the Supreme Being. This ever-agitated mind, Swami Sivananda explains, having come into existence out of the ineffable Brahman , creates the universe according to its own Sankalpa (thoughts). He avers that the play of the mind arising out of Chaitanya (pure consciousness) constitutes this universe. Mind is Maya (illusion). Maya is the mind. The workings of the mind are nothing but the workings of Maya itself. Attraction or attachment in the mind towards forms is Maya . Identifying one's own self with the mind is considered Maya . There are two powers associated with Maya – Avarana-shakti (the veiling power, or the power of concealment, or the power of illusion or ignorance that obscures the true nature of reality) and Vikshepa-shakti (the power of projection that superimposes the world over the Atman , or the power that causes distraction and dispersal, often...

Self is I am That, which is the underlying essence of Brahman of unmanifest consciousness, Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss), or Satyaṃ Jnananam Anantam Brahma (Real-Consciousness-Infinite). Self is "I am That", which is unalloyed, unattached, unbounded, unconditioned, unfathomed, uncaused, spotless, eternal, self-effulgent, pure consciousness, and pure essence of Cosmic-Self. Sage Ashtavakra ( Ashtavakra Gita , 2.1-3) affirms with King Janaka that I am truly spotless and at peace — an awareness beyond natural causality. Delusion has plagued me all this time. As I alone give light to this body, so I do to the world. As a result, the whole world is mine, or alternatively, nothing is. Now, through some divine intervention, my true self emerges as I relinquish my physical body and everything else. Sage Ashtavakra ( Ashtavakra Gita , 1.11-18) asserts that if one considers oneself to be free, one is free, and if one thinks of oneself as bound, one is bound. This...

Avidya , or ignorance and illusion, is to live with desires and dualities. The mind is a thought-manufacturing machine that manufactures thoughts to intensify desires through sensual pleasures to an insatiable level. Avidya generates states of opposites—happiness and distress, hot and cold, light and darkness, prosperity and poverty, etc.—and never lands in a state of unity. Vidya is the knowledge of unity through the extirpation of desires and dualities, affirms Yoga-Vasistha (Ch. CXIII). In the Srimad Bhagavad Gita (14.5-14.27), Avidya refers to a state of ignorance or nescience that leads to attachment, illusion, and the cycle of birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita describes Avidya as the root cause of suffering and bondage, contrasting with Vidya , or knowledge. Avidya obscures our true nature and the nature of reality, leading to a false sense of self and an attachment to the material world. Ignorance (Tamas) is a state of delusion and a primary impediment to spiritual adv...

Atman (inner spirit, or Self) is transcendental, Self-caused, Self-effulgent, Self-luminescent, uncaused, unborn, undependent on external sources, unborn, undying, unchanging, and ultimately one with Brahman , or the Cosmic Self, or the Ultimate Reality. Atman is self-existent and the source of its own awareness; no outside force can create it. It is the Ultimate Reality and the essence of consciousness. It is beyond the perceptions of mind and senses. If reality is one, then everything we perceive in the temporal dimensions can be wrong or non-existent. It is because there is no duality, as existence is eternal, imperishable, One and Absolute only. Rest is an illusion, a reflection of the world's transience, seen through our senses. It is better, as Yoga-Vasistha (3.114.42) teaches, to distrust the delusions of this world and disbelieve the blueness of the sky than to labour under the errors of their reality. bhramasya jāgatasyāsya jātasyākāśavarṇavat | apunaḥsmaraṇaṃ man...

Self-opinionated people guided by the sense organs dwell in the ovary of the body-mind-intellect system. Those individuals, Sage Ashtavakra ( Ashtavakra Gita , 1.8-9) proclaims, have succumbed to the "self-opinion" of 'I am the doer' and are engulfed in the forest of ignorance. Sage Ashtavakra argues that these individuals should embrace the belief that 'I am not the doer', fuelled by the knowledge that 'I am the one pure awareness', leading to happiness and freedom from distress. However, these self-opinionated people remain confined to the idea that 'I am the doer,' with characteristics of what the Srimad Bhagavad Gita (16.4-15) says are hypocrisy, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, and ignorance. Such qualities are the cause for their continuing destiny of bondage in the Samsara Chakra (wheel of birth and death), as they possess neither purity nor noble conduct nor even truthfulness. The world for them, the Bhagavad Gita contends, is...

Visible is not Real nor Real is visible in this phenomenal world. The Real is One, indivisible, eternal, infinite, imperishable, and in Absolute Existence. Identity is one and indivisible, i.e., Awareness Alone. The underlying essence of Reality is consciousness. Consciousness is Awareness, the Ultimate Reality. It is not a mere characteristic of the individual but the fundamental, all-pervading essence of Reality, the source of our identity and the universe itself. The Upanishads posit that it is the underlying reality —the Brahmān , the Cosmic Self— from which the universe and all beings emerge. I am the one pure awareness, declares Sage Ashtavakra ( Ashtavakra Gita , 1.9) during his discourses with sage King Janaka. It is when one is aware of his own Self,  beyond the body-mind-intellect system, and in one with the Brahmān , the Universal Self, or the Cosmic Self. As a fundamental aspect of Reality, it is not a product of the body-mind-intellect system; rather, it transcends t...