Athmopadesha Shathakam (One Hundred verses of Self-Instruction)
Translation & explanation of Verse-33
Knowledge, to know its own nature here,
has become earth and the other elements;
spiraling up, back and turning round,
like a glowing twig it is ever turning.
(“Arivu nijasthithiyingarinjidaanaay
Dhara muthalaaya vibhoothiyaayi thaane
Mariyumavasthayilerimaarivattom
Thiriyumalaathasamam thirinjidunnu”)
Key message:-
In the present study of Athmopadesha Sathakam, we have learned how to go beyond time, space, names and forms. When considered from this perspective, the Self is beginningless and endless. It is not confined to any form or name. In spite of having no special attributes, every attribute that we can give to conscious life is part and parcel of it. So we may say that in order to know its own nature, the same knowledge has become all this. This is not very different in practice from the scientists’ approach.
One key characteristic of consciousness is that it alternates. At one moment, it goes back into the darkness; there is nothing, it just remains there. In the very next moment it becomes many subjective fantasies in the world of dreams. Then it wakes up and comes into the outer world of transactional awareness. Here it interacts, as if it is separate from everything else. It goes into flights of imagination and thought, experiencing all sorts of moods. Then again it enters the stillness.
Expalantion:-
Arivu = all-supporting substance Dharmi
Nijasthithi = own form and nature
Ingarinjidaanaay = to know directly
Dhara muthalaaya = the earth and the like
Vibhoothiyaay thaane = and the other elements adopting Dharma by itself
Mariyumavasthayil = spiraling up, back and turning round,
Erimaarivattom = like a glowing twig
Thiriyumalaathasamam = it is ever turning
Thirinjidunnu = swirling around.
Pure Consciousness (Athma) in order to actualize the potentials hidden within transforms itself assuming the forms of various specific manifestations such as the earth, and moves spiraling up and down and back and forth, making many apparent forms emerge, like the glowing figures of a spiraling fire-stick.
That which shines by itself in the dark is the Self. It is Pure Knowledge. To the seed lying in the earth it whispers, "Wake up, there is water, salt and nitrogen in the earth, enjoy them. Stretch your roots, there is a feast of abundance around you. Oh sprout, break the shell, pierce through the earth and come out into the open sky. Feel the warmth and glory of the sun that comes day after day, he is the nourisher of all life. You can breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. Cook your food in your leaves in the sunlight by processing the carbondioxide. Like magic out of nowhere, you can increase your girth. You can even open energy banks in the chlorophyll of the leaves, both for you and for other living creatures. Thus, you can green the earth and be the handmaid of Mother Nature to feed everyone.
The same knowledge causes a whirl in itself, turns with great speed and produces a vortex.
The same knowledge causes strange irritations in synapses of the brain so that a man picks up his pen and writes an epic like ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey of Homer’ or ‘The Mahabharatha’ of Vyasa. When it pleases, it can create a Kalidasa or a Shakespeare without the "paraphernalia" of a university. It has its own time schedule to reveal scientific truths without making the error of bringing about an Einstein before a Galileo. This knowledge puts into human brain mathematical equations which can guide the dexterity of human hands into creating devices that can go from the earth not only to the planets of the solar system, but also wander among the stars. It can take eternity to eternity and suddenly smash everything as if nothing had ever occurred.
Think of this vast universe with its starry heavens and the beautiful earth and no human eyes to see it with, no mind to appreciate its enormity and beauty; what a terrible waste it would be! A world without space and time, mass and energy, color and sound, fragrance and taste.
Concluding message:
The Guru is here comparing the wonder of what we are to a person taking a burning twig and swirling around in the darkness, making a figure eight movement representative of the movement of consciousness through its various states. There is just the one burning point where it glows, luminous, but when it is displayed about, it looks like many fiery lines and shapes. It is like writing with a pen: there is only one tiny point from which a little ink is coming, but as you write, the ink makes different formations, and each formation has a meaning of its own. Similarly, this whole universe which we see, with all its vastness, is the composition and organization coming from our own individual consciousness. No one else sees for us or knows for us. Even what are considered to be the experiences of other people have to be recycled and made our own before we can truly know them. The vastness we see is what we have created out of something so small: a tiny spark.
This is one of the greatest miracles of life, that the very creator whom we praise for having made all this universe is still sitting here and creating the very nucleus of our own being. Your nucleus and the nucleus of the universe are not two. When you attain that identity in every moment of your daily life, you become the centerpiece of the universe; your actions, your ideas and your thoughts become the very thoughts, ideas and variegations in the composition of your universe. This brings you to an ultimate identity with the creating faculty. You are at once the Absolute and the very many relatives within it. You are the one unconditional Being who is also causing the many conditional states. |