Aug 15, 2008

Stanza-002

पूतात्मा परमात्मा च मुक्तानां परमा गतिः।
अव्यय: पुरुष: साक्षी क्षेत्रज्ञ्योक्षर एव च॥

പൂതാത്മാ പരമാത്മാ ച മുക്താനാം പരമാ ഗതി:

അവ്യയ: പുരുഷ: സാക്ഷീ ക്ഷേത്രജ്ഞ്യോക്ഷര ഏവ ച.



பூதாத்மா பரமாத்மா ச முக்தானாம் பரமா கதி:

அவ்யயப் புருஷ: சாக்ஷீ க்ஷேத்ரஞ்யோக்ஷர ஏவ ச.


ಪೂತಾತ್ಮಾ ಪರಮಾತ್ಮಾ ಚ ಮುಕ್ತ್ಹಾನಾಂ ಪರಮಾ ಗತಿ:

ಅವ್ಯಯ: ಪುರುಷ: ಸಾಕ್ಷೀ ಕ್ಷೆಥ್ರಜ್ಞಯೋಕ್ಷರ ಏವ ಚ.


పూతాత్మా పరమాత్మా చ ముక్తానాం పరమా గతి:

అవ్యయ: పురుష: సాక్షీ క్షేత్రజ్ఞ్యోక్షర ఎవ చ.

Poothaathmaa Paramaathmaa cha Mukthaanaam Paramaa Gathi:

Avyaya: Purusha: Saakshee KshethrajNyokshara Eva Cha.


10. Poota-atmaa - One with an extremely Pure (Pootam) Essence; One who is not affected the least by the impurities of Maayaa. The Self is beyond all vaasanaas and, therefore, He cannot be affected by anyone of the manifestations of Maayaa such as thoughts of the intellect, emotions of the mind or the perceptions of the body. Immaculate is ever the Self, and so He is termed as the Pure Self (Poota-Aatmaa).
11. Parama-atmaa - The Supreme, meaning that which transcends all limitations and imperfections of matter: in short, the Transcendental Reality. The Spirit is other than matter, and that in its presence, the vestures of matter, borrowing their dynamism from Him, play their parts rhythmically at all times. This has been the assertion found chorusly repeated in all the Upanishads and in the entire Vedantic literature. Sankara in Aatma Bodha points out that the Self is other than the three bodies and that He functions in the microcosm as a king in the nation. It was also said therein that matter borrows its energy from the Spirit and continues its activity “as the world from the Sun”.
Kathopanishad and the Geeta guide us from the outer levels of our personality, stage by stage, into the inner-most sanctum, and there, the teachers declare, is He the Infinite, transcending all, reigning in His own glory. “In short, that which remains other than the cause and effect-Maayaa and matter-is He, the Parama Aatman. In Vishnu Purana this Supreme is glorified as Maha Vishnu (Paramaatmaa)”-Vishnu Purana 6.4.10...
12. Muktaanaam paramaa gatih
- He who is the final Goal ("parama gathi"), that is reached by all the liberated souls ("mukta"). The limitations and bondages lived through by man are in fact the destiny of the matter vestures. Through delusion of non-understanding, we identify with them and come to suffer the consequent sense of imperfections. To liberate ourselves from the thraldom of matter is to realize the Self. Hence the Truth is defined as the Supreme Goal of the emancipated. This ‘Goal’ to be attained is called as ‘Gati’ in Sanskrit, “The Supreme Goal” (Paramaa Gatih) would necessarily be then that Goal, having reached which, there is no return: “There where having gone, men never return, That sacred place is My seat”-Geeta Ch. 15. St. 6. In Geeta. (Ch. 8. St. 6) even more explicitly the same idea has been asserted by Sri Krishna when He says: “O Son of Kunti, having reached Me, there shall be no more any re-birth”.
Again, He defines the final Goal as “That having reached no return again” – Geeta Ch. 15, st.4.
13. Avyaah“Vyaya” means destruction; destruction cannot be without change; therefore, that which is “without destruction” (Avyayah) is the changeless. The Indestructible, and therefore, changeless, can never have any modifications (Parinaama). For, modification is but the death of a previous condition and the birth of a new condition. The Eternal and the Immutable (Avyayah) is the Supreme Sat-chit-aananda, and every other thing and being come under the hammer or change. The medium in which all these changes are sustained is Brahman, the Immutable. The Upanishads glorify Him as “Ajaro Amaro Avyayah”-without old age, death or change.
14. Purushah - One who dwells in the Fort-city (Puri sete iti Purushah). Herein metaphorically the Rishis conceive our body as a fortress with nine gate-ways-“Nava Dvaarc Pure Dehee”-(Geeta Ch. 5, St. 13) - and declare the One who rules within it, like a king, is the Self. This term can also be dissolved in two more different ways giving more and more suggestions to the nature of the Self. Thus, Purusha can mean “That which was before all creatures” - Puraa Aaseet iti Purushah or it can be “One who completes and fulfils the Existence everywhere”, meaning, without whom Existence is impossible (Poorayati iti Purushah).
This Aatman remains in the bodies of living creatures as their individuality (Jeeva) and in all the activities, physical, mental and intellectual, Aatman is not in fact involved but He is therein only an observer of all that is happening. This will become clear in the following discussion.
15. Saakshee - Witness. In every day life he is a witness who without any mental reservation or personal interest observes and watches what is happening in a given field of experience. “Saakshaad Drashtari Saakshee syaad-Amarakosa. “The ‘Knower’ in every bosom is the same Supreme Self”, says Lord Krishna (Geeta Ch. 13, St. 3). Though thus Consciousness illumines everything, It is only a Witness, as It knows no change. Just as the sun illumines every thing in the world and yet the Sun is not affected by the condition of the things it is illumining, so too Vishnu, the Supreme, illumines all, without Itself undergoing any change. According to Paanini Sutras the word Saakshee is derived from “Sa +akshi”, meaning “direct perceiver”.
16. Kshetrajnah - One who knows the body and all the experiences from within the body, is the Knower-of-the- field, Kshetrajnah. As Brahmapurana would put it: Bodies are ‘fields’ and the Atman illumines them all without an effort, and therefore, is called Knower-of-the-field, "Kshetrajnah”.
17. Aksharah - lndestructible: things which are finite are necessarily conditioned by time and space; the Infinite is unconditioned, and so It is Aksharah. Since It is Indestructible, It cannot come under the methods of universal destruction arising from nature or through the wilful actions of man. “It cannot be cleaved by instruments of destruction, nor can fire burn It, nor water drench It, nor air dry It”-(Geeta Ch. 2, St. 23). It is also indicated that the Supreme Brahman is the Akshara-“Aksharam Brahma Paramam” -(Geeta Ch. 8, St. 3). Please note that in the stanza there is the extra word ‘only’ (Eva) used, indicating that Kshetrajnah is the Aksharah; there is no difference between them both: the “Knower-of-the-field” and the “field”.

Followers

Credits

Inspiration & courtesy:
Contribution of Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, Professor, Department of ECSE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, U.S.A.

Sanskrit script Courtesy:
Shri. N. Krishnamachari