Atma - 0- Atmabodha-Introduction

Atmabodha Commentary by Swami Paramarthananda

About Atma Bodhah

Ātmā bōdhaḥ contains only 68 ślōkās and all of them are in अनुष्टुप् (anuṣṭup) metre which is the simplest metre in Sanskrit. Every important idea of Vēdānta is clarified through examples. This is the uniqueness of Ātmā bōdhaḥ. Almost all ślōkās have got an example. So if Ātmā bōdhaḥ is learnt by heart it will be very useful because any idea that needs to be clarified, a pithy ślōka will help. For those who have studied Tattva bōdhaḥ, this text will be a reminder and revision which will also take them further in their pursuit.
Terms Atma and Bodhah
Let’s first understand the meaning of this word Ātmā bōdhaḥ.
The term Atma
Ātmā means Ātmā – the svarūpaṁ or the very nature of everyone. Ātmā literally means the svarūpaṁ, the content, the essence. Just as मृद् (mṛd) the clay is the Ātmā of the pot, svarṇaṁ is the Ātmā of ornaments; water is the Ātmā of waves, bubbles, and ocean etc. Similarly essence of everyone is called Ātmā. Various meanings are given for the word Ātmā:

yaccāpnōti yadādattē yaccāti viṣayāniha yaccāsya santatō bhāvastasmādātmēti kīrtyatē

The word Ātmā is derived from four different roots.

• One root is आप् (āp) – to pervade. āpnōti iti Ātmā.. It is that essence which pervades everyone. Just as clay pervades all pots as their essence, Ātmā is that which pervades everyone. So yat sarvaṁ āpnōti.

• The second meaning is यत् आदत्ते (yat ādattē) – ādattē means that which resolves everything into itself – the resolver –just as clay, the essence resolves all the pots unto itself; just as water resolves all the waves unto itself; similarly Ātmā resolves every Anātmā unto itself at the time of pralayaṁ. Therefore, it is called Ātmā – ādattē–derived from the root आ- दा (ā- dā) – to take unto, to swallow, to resolve, to absorb.

• The third meaning is Atti iti Ātmā derived from the root अद् (ad) – to eat; to experience. The Ātmā is that essence that चैतन्यम् (caitanyaṁ) which experiences everything. Therefore the third meaning is the experiencer. We can also call it as the witness.

• The fourth meaning is derived from At – अत् साहत्य गमने (at sāhatya gamanē) – that which exists for ever– santatō bhāvaḥ, satataṁ asti, sadā asti – iti Ātmā. Just as pot is gone, clay is; pot is resolved, clay is; and before the birth of pot, the clay is. So the pot comes and goes but the clay ever exists. Similarly the Ātmā is that essence which exists whether the world comes or goes. So the fourth definition is Ātmā is that which ever ‘IS’, which is eternal.
Bodhah – Objective and objectless knowledge
The word bōdhaḥ means knowledge.

So now a question could be raised that Ātmā also is caitanyaṁ which is knowledge, awareness and bōdhaḥ also is knowledge and therefore, awareness. What, therefore, is the difference between Ātmā the knowledge and bōdhaḥ the knowledge? There is a difference.

Ātmā in Ātmā bōdhaḥ is of the nature of knowledge, the awareness, which ever IS i.e. eternal. This Ātmā is the pure knowledge which doesn’t have any objects. It is not the knowledge of man, it is not the knowledge of the pot; it is not the knowledge of physics or chemistry, book or river or the Sun or the moon. It is not an objective knowledge. It is knowledge without any object. We, therefore, call it object-less awareness – in Sanskrit svarūpa caitanyaṁ.

However, the word bōdhaḥ, the ātmā, with the small letter ‘a’, refers to a second type of knowledge which is an objective knowledge. Here the knowledge is not pure knowledge but the knowledge of something. This objective knowledge is always a born knowledge. It is not eternal knowledge; the svarūpa jñānaṁ which is always there. The objective knowledge is born whenever we learn something – a Janya jñānaṁ, a knowledge which has a beginning.

But how is this knowledge born?

Whenever we use an instrument of knowledge and know the object, like seeing an object through the eyes, hearing an object through the ears etc., these are all operations of a relevant instrument of knowledge. In Sanskrit we call it as a प्रमाणं (pramāṇaṁ). So when we use a pramāṇaṁ towards an object, which is called the प्रमेयं (pramēyaṁ), the image (a form or representation) of the pramēyaṁ enters through our eyes or ears and in our mind a vṛttiḥ, is formed or we can say a vṛttiḥ is born. Vṛttiḥ means a thought. It is a thought which is relevant to the object.

The process of the formation or the birth of a thought can be better understood with an example. If घटः (ghaṭaḥ) is the object of perception, the thought, the vṛttiḥ, which will be formed, will be घटाकार (ghaṭākāra vṛttiḥ). If पठ: (paṭhaḥ) is the object, पठाकार (paṭhākāra vṛttiḥ). In short, tattat viṣayaḥ ākāra vṛttiḥ jāyatē; jāyatē means born. And the moment the vṛttiḥ is born the svarūpa caitanyaṁ which is the consciousness, pervades that thought and the caitanyaṁ also seems to assume the form of the thought.

Thus, the formless awareness, by pervading a formed thought, becomes the formed awareness as it were. So ghaṭākāra vṛttiḥ is there; nirākāra or formless caitanyaṁ is there. The nirākāra caitanyaṁ pervades the ghaṭākāra vṛttiḥ and the caitanyaṁ also now appears as ghaṭākāra caitanyaṁ. And this ghaṭākāra caitanyaṁ is called ghaṭa jñānaṁ.

This ghaṭa jñānaṁ or ghaṭākāra caitanyaṁ is born only when ghaṭa vṛttiḥ is born. We, therefore, called this knowledge as vṛttiḥ jñānaṁ. So the objective knowledge is called Janya jñānaṁ or vṛttiḥ jñānaṁ. And objectless knowledge is called svarūpa jñānaṁ or ajanya jñānaṁ.

Now all of us already have Ātmā, the svarūpa jñānaṁ. And inspite of svarūpa jñānaṁ being there, people suffer from the ignorance of the self. They are saṁsārīs, bound to the wordly affairs. From this we come to know that svarūpa jñānaṁ cannot give liberation to people. Svarūpa jñānaṁ cannot give happiness to people. So it means that merely possessing svarūpa jñānaṁ is not enough. We require some other jñānaṁ. That is the knowledge about oneself is necessary.

We should have knowledge about our svarūpaṁ. That means,
ahaṁ svarūpa caintAnyaṁ asmi ahaṁ Ātmā asmi
ahaṁ sarvavyāpī asmi ahaṁ sarvasya ādātā asmi ahaṁ sarvasya attā asmi ahaṁ sarvadā asmi

What we, therefore, require now is not svarūpa jñānaṁ. What we require now is the vṛttiḥ jñānaṁ about Ātmā. We need a knowledge for which the object is subject i.e the knowledge about self. Therefore, when Śaṅkarācārya called it Ātmā bōdhaḥ– the word Ātmā refers to

the svarūpa jñānaṁ and bōdhaḥ refers to vṛttiḥ jñānaṁ about the Ātmā like ghaṭaḥ bōdhaḥ, pata bōdhaḥ – Ātmā bōdhaḥ– Ātmā viṣayaka janya jñānaṁ – Svarūpa caintAnya viṣayaka vṛtti jñānaṁ. We all already have Ātmā. But Ātmā bōdhaḥ we all do not have. And Ātmā bōdhaḥ being a Janya jñānaṁ it has to be produced by an effort. Now, Jñānaṁ itself means cētanaṁ. So svarūpa jñānaṁ is cētanaṁ. Vṛttiḥ jñānaṁ is also cētanaṁ.

So here Ātmā bōdhaḥ means Ātmā bōdhaḥ producing granthaḥ.
Theme and purpose of this work
Ignorance and its cure
Our fundamental disease is ignorance. Ignorance of oneself, ignorance of one’s complete self as revealed by ahaṁ ātmā, ahaṁ nityaḥ, ahaṁ sarvagataḥ. Put together, it would mean ahaṁ pūrṇaḥ – “I am full, I am complete”. Unfortunately, this truth is unknown. And since this pūrṇatvaṁ is unknown we have a sense of apūrṇatvaṁ.

We always miss something in life; we miss people, we miss places, we miss objects, some people may miss newspaper. Missing is a sign of apūrṇatvaṁ and this alone later becomes kāma which unfulfilled becomes krōdha and fulfilled becomes lōbha etc. They are not diseases in themselves but they are symptoms of sense of incompleteness caused by the germs of ignorance. Ignorance virus causes the the kāma krōdha flu. This is the fundamental point which is called अध्यासः (adhyāsaḥ). Adhyāsaḥ means feeling incomplete because of ignorance.

Once the diagnosis has been made, the next step is medication. Ignorance virus can be destroyed only by one medicine and that is Ātmā jñāna auṣadhaṁ.

The second point is that any treatment requires some preparation on the part of the patient. The patient must be able to withstand the treatment. Otherwise the treatment could create a worse disease. Thus any sādhanā can lead to problems if we do it without proper understanding.

It is, therefore, said that anabhyāsē viṣaṁ śāstraṁ ajīrṇē bhōjanaṁ viṣam, viṣaṁ sabhā daridrasya, durjanasya subhāṣitaṁ viṣaṁ – for an untrained person, the scriptural knowledge is poison; for a person suffering from indigestion, food would be like poison; for a poor person an assembly of persons is poison because he would feel an inferiority complex in the company of people who are all well to do; and good advice given to a wicked person, a duṣṭa puruṣaḥ will not only go unheeded but it could rebound on the person giving the advice! Likewise, śāstraṁ, if it enters into an unprepared person, it will not be digested and Vēdānta could be a problem.

As Lord Kṛṣṇā said in the Gītā –
Na buddhi-bhēdaṁ janayēd ajñānāṁ karma-saṅgināṁ. Jōṣayēt sarva-karmāṇi vidvān yuktaḥ samācaran

A wise man established in the Self should not unsettle the mind of the ignorant attached to action, but should get them to perform all their duties, duly performing his own duties.

So śāstraṁ should not be given to an unprepared mind. And that preparation is Sādhana Catuṣṭaya Sampattiḥ for the jñānaṁ operation.

So Śaṅkarācārya begins with the preparatory steps. And only those who are prepared with these four steps would be deemed to be qualified to enter the jñānaṁ which is meant to remove the ignorance.