My meditation note today about Atma

Last updated on 10th April 2023

The atma is:

* the core of my being,

* changeless, 

* inseparable/undeniable/ever-present,

* ever-peaceful,

* eternal/deathless,

* a spark/tiny part of Paramatma (Supreme Being/Almighty God), the creator, sustainer & destroyer of the universe.

Footnotes:

1) I wrote a draft version of this note immediately after my meditation session today morning when I had an urge to jot it down. I have attached a picture of those jottings. Please excuse my scrawly handwriting. Note that I later improved upon the jottings before putting up this post.

2) This note is based on some experiences of mine and some beliefs based on Hindu scripture and teachings of some near-contemporary (20th and early 21st century) spiritual masters.

3) The words awareness or consciousness are implied in the phrase 'the core of my being' and so I did not want to mention them separately.

4) The atma is inseparable from 'me'.  Undeniable expresses the fact that I can never escape or detach myself from the atma (inseparable also expresses the cannot detach part). Ever-present emphasises the always there aspect of the atma. I mean, I have never experienced a state when the atma was not a part of me. I may have been deeply entwined in thought or in my physical senses/sensory experience and so not been conscious or aware of the atma then. But the moment I focus my attention towards/on the atma, I feel it (is there), and I know that it (atma) was there even when I was deeply entwined in thought/physical senses due to which I was not aware of it (atma) then.

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Given below are my comments (slightly edited) from my associated FB post:  https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/pfbid0226UNh36Xyrtq8LqAqUg5VATQz1CbMxkHp5iu92pEtAEA7oT7gvyxj31c5obkNNRKl :

In response to a comment question about Shape , form , size of Atma and where it resides after death, I wrote:

Are the questions rhetorical? Or do you want me to share my views on it?

...

Oh! I am sharing my view here, some of it (but not all of it) informed/influenced by Swami's views/teachings/revelations.

My view: Shapeless, formless, sizeless. It is a feeling, a knowing, an identification with the core part of one's being and how it is separate from other parts of one's being like mind (thoughts/memories) and body.

...

I have not had any out-of-body experience (so far, at least). So I have zero experience of what happens to the atma on death.

Hindu scripture states what happens after death but I think there are many such accounts and it is not so clear to me. What is clear is the teaching of both Hindu scripture and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba that atma does not die on bodily death, and that it either merges in Paramatma, or takes up another body. ...

But what does the atma do when it is in between leaving one body and entering another, or when it is in a sort of waiting state before merging with Paramatma? I don't have a clear idea here though some Hindu scripture and some Buddhist scripture have accounts including concepts of swarga (heaven) and naraka (hell) which the atma goes to, for some time (as per those accounts). But I am not sure whether swarga and naraka are 'real'.

...

Thanks for sharing your views and Swami's revelations.

----

Thanks for the appreciation and encouragement. Jai Sai Ram!

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20th March 2023: I shared a link to this post with Shri D.K.M. Kartha (Karthaji) which led to an email exchange between us. Karthaji was fine with the email exchange contents being shared publicly. I thank Karthaji for his interesting and knowledgeable comments.

Given below is a slightly & suitably edited version of our mail exchange:

Karthaji wrote (my responses to this mail were inline and are inline below too, identified by 'Ravi response'): 

Thanks for sharing, respected Ravi-ji!

I tried to write a comment using your link, but a message said my browser is not configured to do that.  Please feel free to post the following and use my name DKM Kartha under the post.

I was expecting to see a long piece on the lofty topic, but I realize that you are not writing a discourse, but only a summary of your own meditative experience.  There, brevity fits.

[Ravi response: It is the key part of my meditation practice which I felt may benefit some of my readers on Facebook and, to a lesser extent, blog. [I have far more interactions on Facebook than on blog.] end-Ravi-response.]

Logically, a non-believer or a western style historian of metaphysics / theology might raise an objection to the word ('undeniable' in 'The atma is' part of my post).

The objectioners might say the following (and I am being the devil's advocate here):   The existence of the Atman has been denied by the Buddhists very ably.  The materialists, western and eastern,  also have denied the Self (as distinguished from the Soul, which in several western paradigms contains elements of what our sAn*khyam calls the antahkaraNam (Mana, Buddhi, and ahan*kAram).

[Ravi response: Good to see that you distinguish between Western concept of soul and Hindu concept of Atma. I certainly do not view them as the same and I agree that western soul concept includes what HIndu scripture refers to as manas and buddhi.  end-Ravi-response.]

For them nothing that cannot be registered by the senses, or logically derived, or mathematically or experimentally proven CAN EXIST.  And they are right the Atman is not a topic of SENSATION, and the logic in its support can be refuted, and it is not a scientifically verifiable phenomenon. So, in a way, the Atman deniers are right.  Of course, I do not agree with them.

[Ravi response: I do not take an intellectual approach to my quest for experiencing and understanding my inner reality. I think the human intellect and rationality have serious limitations when it comes to understanding the underlying reality of existence (Paaramaarthik Sathyam).

As I mentioned in the footnotes of my note/post, it "is based on some experiences of mine and some beliefs based on Hindu scripture and teachings of some near-contemporary (20th and early 21st century) spiritual masters".

Atma being a deathless entity that is our reality and which is separate from the mortal body and even mind, is a key aspect of Hindu belief which is strongly reinforced by spiritual masters like Ramana Maharshi and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, whom I revere and whose teachings & revelations in this matter, I follow.

So my take on such intellectual arguments about atma is to simply avoid getting into such debates, ignore those arguments and keep steady on my path. end-Ravi-response.]

Personally, based on my meditations using a Divine Name on one of the instruments I play meditatively, the Bansuri, I will say that I have felt a steady stream of FRIENDLY COMPASSION flowing from what you and I agree to call the Atman (or JeevAtman).  And this feeling has the backing of BhagavAn SReekr^shNa -- सुहृदं सर्व भूतानाम् = I have compassionate goodwill toward every being," here the I being ParmAtman which is, in each being, nothing but the JeevAtman.

For me, this Friendliness and Compassion aspect is very important and that is why I cannot be a niRgguNa BrahmOpAsaka.  For me, every breath, every word, every drop of water, every flower, every child, every song, every cloud is a DENSE proof of the Compassion, and that is present within me sourcing from the Atman.

[Ravi response: Very interesting and well said, sir. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba (SSB) focused a lot on love and compassion. I have great regard for those teachings, and what you have said will resonate very well with the Sathya Sai devotee community ('Love All Serve All' is a key teaching of SSB).

I have always been drawn to meditation on formless absolute. Perhaps it is a purva janma (previous birth) sanksara (mental impression) that I have. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samskara_(Indian_philosophy) , "In Indian philosophy and Indian religions, samskaras or sanskaras (Sanskrit: संस्कार) are mental impressions, recollections, or psychological imprints."

After my heart attack and COVID ICU hospitalization in early 2022, while I was not afraid of death, I felt terribly limited in not being able to rise above body consciousness. After some recovery, I had the strong urge to deepen my japa-dhyana practice and try hard to achieve the ability to go beyond body consciousness (go into trance, out-of-body etc.). I have been attempting that for some months now. I have increased my stamina for japam-dhyaanam, my dhyaanam is deeper and my kundalini rising experiences are more frequent but I have not yet been able to get into trance or have some similar out-of-body experience. However, I have developed the virtue of patience to some extent. So I will continue with my efforts. end-Ravi-response.]

That is the only item I would add to your list of attributes which I (expect) is coming out of your lived experience which I respect.

[Ravi response: Noted sir. end-Ravi-response.]

SRee ParamAtmanE namah!

[Ravi response: Om Sai Ram!

I would like to add that I used the word 'undeniable' in a sense of not being able to deny the existence of Atma to myself on the basis of what I feel. I did not use it in a rational/intellectual/analytical way.

Perhaps inescapable would convey that better - meaning I simply cannot escape from the Atma. But the word 'escape' has connotations of being unhappily bonded to something. I was not comfortable with that connotation as I am not unhappy that I am 'bonded' with the Atma (I am the Atma). So I opted to use the 'undeniable' (as felt by me and not as analyzed by me) word.

(...) thank you sir for your valuable views on this.  end-Ravi-response.]

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Karthaji wrote:

Yes, please share the conversation with others.  They might gain something from it or they might give us something by way of guidance.

I agree with you that the testimony of the SENSES, DEDUCTIVE logic, experimentation, lab studies, etc. work only at the level of the VyAvahArika and PRAtibhAsika "truths."

At the PAramARthika level, we have to go by Testimony from ancient sources such as the Upanishad-s, or testimony from Reliable sAdhaka-s, and our own spiritual experience gained through your type of Guru-initiated meditation.

In the ancient systems these means of knowing are called PRatyaksham (direct sensory evidence), anumAnam(logic based deduction), SAbdam (testimony by reliable authorities).

In my instance, I have only the SAbda evidence to go by -- seers like VyAsa have taught me (and us) to believe in the existence of the Self. And the Supreme Self.  I have not had any initiation, but what my parents and my family taught me namely, nAma-japam, PurANa reading, bhajan-s and keeRtan-s, occasional pilgrimages to temples and other holy places, etc. give me a glimpse of the Divinity in myself once in a while on top of giving me peace and the energy to serve others as well as I can.  Those glimpses also heal my inner wounds and also my illnesses, I believe.  And they give me optimism when the world events darken my moods.

Like you, I do not engage in argumentation with non-believers although I discussed such topics with my two children until they reached 18 years of age. I taught them the VyAsa sentence from the MahAbhAratam -- 

तर्कोऽप्रतिष्ठ :   -- logical  hair-splitting is not useful in spiritual matters because logic is not built on rock. One logician can hammer another's position into smithereens using the same tools such as syllogism, language, casuistry, etc.

We can "know" the Atman directly only through a Guru-initiated experience and we can believe in its existence only through Vaidika pRamANa-s such as the MahAvakya-s like Iyam AtmA brahma: = इयमात्मा ब्रह्मः This Atman is in truth identical with Brahman.

परमात्मने नमः 

namastE,

[Ravi response: Thank you for your knowledgeable view, sir. Will share later on and inform you. 

... 

BTW my meditation practice is not "Guru-initiated meditation". In my meditation practice, I have certainly been guided by discourses and writings of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Ramana Maharshi, but I have not been personally initiated by any master/person. end-Ravi-response.]