Atman and Brahman

[sadananda]

Gummuluru Murthy wrote:

>"I AM" is the only entity that remains while in nirvikalpa samAdhi. After
>coming out of this samAdhi and getting to the body level, the jeeva wonders
>(particularly when the experience is a fleeting experience) whether what
>was experienced is real.

As I understand:

Please note that experience is not knowledge. Experience is time bound. One
can learn from experience.  Samadhi as an experience can lead to knowledge
if one has the intense discrimination, viveka to differentiate the real
from unreal.   Missunderstanding that I am this and this and this etc.,  is
at the mind-intellect level.  - hence the statement that manaeva
manushyaanam kaaranam bandha mokshayoH|  Who realizes - Atman does not need
realization.  It is ever present and luminious.  I indentify myself with
the intellect that has the notions.  Intellectal notions that I am this and
this etc., these misunderstandings have to drop out. Hence Bhagavaan Ramana
says in the Upadesha saara:
        ahami naashabhaagyahamaham taya|
        spurati hRitswayam parama purna sat||

when one inquires into the nature of oneself (inquiry can only be done with
the intellect) the false i falls, since it is false.  When the wrong
notions falls, in the very core of the personality (hRit), aham aham taya
swayam spurati - I am, I am  etc that understanding raises spontaneously.
This I am is different from the prevous notion that i am this and this
etc., since it paramam ( can not be negated any futher), purnam
(undifferentiable - sajaati vijaati swagata bhedaas not there) and sat
swaruupam (the very substratum for all).

Besides,  nirvikalpa samadhi is not necessory for the realization.  It is
realization that I am not an object but the subject that illumines all the
objects.  It involves an inquiry.  To fecilitate that inquiry, the mind
should be free and available for the inquiry.  Hence the role of karma or
bhakti etc for the purification of the mind.  It is an inquiry of either
who I am or what is real or what is the truth?

>Once samAdhi is established in the jeeva as a recurring experience,
>ajnAnam is removed. AjnAnam, once removed, cannot come back to the
>jeeva. The entity becomes an embodied jnAnam (jeevanmukta).

It is not again recurring experince that makes the difference. We are
infact all the time experinencing Braham or Atman all the time, since there
is nothing other than that.  But what is lacking is the knowledge that,
what we experince is apparent and the experiencer, I, is independent of any
experience.  Hence aJNaana is not eliminated just by repeated experience
unless an inquiry of the repeated experience takes place with proper
guidance.  Shruti through teacher can provide that guidance if the
student's mind is available.

Hari Om!
Sadananda

K. Sadananda
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Naval Research Laboratory
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