A few weeks ago, we were discussing on the (possibly confusing) meaning of word atma as used in "atma or brahman is everything" and 'atma leaves the body when one dies'. In Today's 'Sai Inspires', Bhagawan has clarified this dichotomy:
To say that God is the Atma and the Cosmos is as the Body which He operates and lives in, is not correct. To assert that the Atma (God) is eternal and changeless, but the Cosmos which is His Body, can be subject to change and transformation is also not satisfying. What does it signify when it is said, “God is the Upadanakarana, that is, 'the Proximate Cause of the Cosmos'”? 'Proximate Cause' means, the cause which produced the effect. The “effect” is the “cause” in another form. It cannot be separate from the cause. Every effect that we notice is but the cause that has assumed a new form. The Cosmos is the effect, God is the Cause - these statements only stress the fact that the Cosmos is but God in another form.
- Sathya Sai Vahini.
So, to rethink our discussion in this light, when a body is formed (not born?!), the atma pre-exists it and is unchanged by the 'birth', when body is active (live) atma persists and is unchanged, and when the body ceases to be active or 'dies', even then the atma persists and remains unchanged, because, the atma is the 'proximate cause' for the body (for the individual body and the multitudes of bodies) to be formed sustained and finally dissolve. Our 'conventional' thinking of 'one-body-one-atma', and the atma being reborn time and again, is erroneous, and, is the source of all confusion.
To say that God is the Atma and the Cosmos is as the Body which He operates and lives in, is not correct. To assert that the Atma (God) is eternal and changeless, but the Cosmos which is His Body, can be subject to change and transformation is also not satisfying. What does it signify when it is said, “God is the Upadanakarana, that is, 'the Proximate Cause of the Cosmos'”? 'Proximate Cause' means, the cause which produced the effect. The “effect” is the “cause” in another form. It cannot be separate from the cause. Every effect that we notice is but the cause that has assumed a new form. The Cosmos is the effect, God is the Cause - these statements only stress the fact that the Cosmos is but God in another form.
- Sathya Sai Vahini.
So, to rethink our discussion in this light, when a body is formed (not born?!), the atma pre-exists it and is unchanged by the 'birth', when body is active (live) atma persists and is unchanged, and when the body ceases to be active or 'dies', even then the atma persists and remains unchanged, because, the atma is the 'proximate cause' for the body (for the individual body and the multitudes of bodies) to be formed sustained and finally dissolve. Our 'conventional' thinking of 'one-body-one-atma', and the atma being reborn time and again, is erroneous, and, is the source of all confusion.
1 comment:
Swami ALWAYS gives us the answers we seek, how wonderful it is to feel His presence in our midst all the time!! How very clear the explanation is!!! Thank you Gopalji, for explaining it in simpler terms.
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