Atma Bodha – Verses 21 to 30 – Sankara

Sri Adi Sankaracharya’s Atma Bodha 

Verse 21. Fools, because they lack in their powers of discrimination, superimpose on the Atman, which is the Absolute Existence-Knowledge, all the varied functions of the body and the senses, just as they attribute blue color and such to the sky.

Verse 22. The tremblings that belong to the waters are attributed through ignorance to the reflected moon dancing on it. Likewise, agency of action, of enjoyment and of other limitations, which really belong to the mind, are delusively understood as the nature of the Self, the Atman.

Verse 23. Attachment, desire, pleasure, pain and such, are perceived to exist so long as Buddhi or mind functions. They are not perceived in deep sleep when the mind ceases to exist. Therefore, they belong to the mind alone, and not to the Atman, the Self.

Verse 24. Just as luminosity is the nature of the Sun, coolness of water, and heat of fire, so too the nature of the Atman, the Self, is Eternity, Purity, Reality, Consciousness and Bliss.

Verse 25. By the undiscriminating blending of the two, the Existence-Knowledge aspect of the Self and the thought-wave of the intellect, there arises the notion of “I know”.

Verse 26. Atman, the Self, never does anything, and the intellect of its own accord has no capacity to experience “I know”. But the individuality in us thinks by mistake that it is the seer and the knower.

Verse 27.  Just as the person who regards a rope as a snake is overcome by fear, so also one who considers oneself as the ego is overcome by fear. The egocentric individuality in us regains fearlessness by realizing that it is not a Jiva, an individual Soul, but is itself the Supreme Soul.

Verse 28. Just as a light illumines a pot or a jar, so also the Atman, the Self, illumines the mind, and the sense organs and such. These material objects, by themselves, cannot illumine themselves, because they are inert.

Verse 29. A lit lamp does not need another lamp to illumine its light.  So too, Atman, the Self, which is Knowledge  itself, needs no other knowledge to know it.

Verse 30. By a process of negation of the conditionings, the Upadhis, through the help of the scriptural statement “It is not this, It is not this”, the oneness of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul, as indicated by the great Mahavakyas, which are the Great Proclamations, has to be realized.