Ātmā
Ātmā, “the Self”
Grammar: masculine noun, ātman; its nominative form is ātmā. It also serves as the reflexive “oneself”, and stands first in compounds such as ātma-jñāna (knowledge of the Self) and paramātmā (the supreme Self).
Meaning: the Self: that which is conscious in every being, different from the body, the senses, the mind and the prāṇa; one in all beings and, in truth, the Paramātmā itself.
In the scriptures: the kośa of the Agni Purāṇa gives the word ātman the meanings effort, firmness (dhṛti), buddhi, one’s own nature, Brahman and the body (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 362).
The first teaching on the ātmā in the Agni Purāṇa is Śrī Kṛshṇa‘s word to Arjuna at Kurukshetra, when Arjuna saw Bhīshma, Droṇa and the others and would not fight: there is no need to grieve, for bodies perish but the ātmā does not perish; this jīvātmā is the Paramātmā itself; know “I am the Parabrahman” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 14). In the Gītā-sāra, which “gives bhukti and mukti”, Śrī Kṛshṇa says it again: the jīva is unborn, so one should grieve neither for the dead nor for the living; the ātmā has no old age and no death and cannot be pierced. For one who is content in the ātmā there is no further duty. Some see this ātmā within by dhyāna, some by Sāṅkhya-yoga, some by Karma-yoga; and those who cannot, hear of it from others and worship it, and they too cross beyond death (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 381).
In his teaching of Brahma-vijñāna to Vasishṭha Maharshi, Agnideva says what the ātmā is not. The body is not the ātmā, for it is seen, like a pot; in sleep and in death the ātmā is known to be different from it. The senses, the manas and the buddhi are only instruments, like a lamp. Prāṇa is not the ātmā, for in deep sleep (sushupti) it has no awareness. Ahaṅkāra too is seen as separate. The ātmā, different from all these, dwells in the heart of all; it is the bhoktā (the one who experiences), and like a lamp shining at night it sees everything. The gross body is imagined through the ajñāna of the ātmā, and the ātmā alone is the cause of both the gross and the subtle bodies. Identified with the waking state it is named Viśva, with dream Taijasa, with deep sleep Prājña: these are the letters A, U and M of the praṇava. The ātmā that is truly meant by the word “aham” (I) is jñāna-svarūpa (of the nature of knowledge), the witness of waking and dream, with no ajñāna and no bondage in it. Contemplating “ayaṃ ātmā paraṃ brahma“, “this ātmā is the Parabrahman”, one becomes free (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 377).
Agnideva teaches further that dhyāna is the ātmā, freed of every upādhi (limiting adjunct), resting with the mind in the contemplation of Brahman (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 374), and that samādhi is the dhyāna in which consciousness is still as a calm ocean and only the ātmā shines. As a dirty mirror takes no reflection, one whose inner instrument has not ripened cannot gain ātma-jñāna. As one Sūrya appears as many in many vessels of water, the one ātmā appears as many. As a potter gathers clay, rod and wheel to make a pot, the ātmā gathers the karaṇas (instruments) and makes itself a body in birth after birth; it is bound by karma, and jīvas become free through jñāna. The rays of the ātmā, which is like a lamp in the heart, are endless: white, black, tawny, blue, reddish-brown and yellow-red. One ray rises upward, pierces the Sūrya-maṇḍala and goes beyond Brahmaloka, and one who goes by it reaches the highest gati; a hundred more upward rays lead to the lokas of the devas; by the dim downward rays one is born here again to taste karma. Ātma-jñāna arises from the study of the Veda, yajña, brahmacarya, tapas, śraddhā, control of the senses, fasting and truth, and the dvijas, resting in sattva, practise śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana (hearing, reflection and deep contemplation) and gain direct realisation of the ātmā. The perfected yogī gives jñāna to a disciple, gives up the body by laya-yoga and abides in his own ātmā, full of knowledge and bliss (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 376). In truth the ātmā is full of peace, full of knowledge and stainless; sorrow and ignorance belong to Prakṛti. As water touches fire only through a vessel, the ātmā takes on the dharmas of Prakṛti, such as “I” and “mine”, only by association; in truth it is different from them and imperishable (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 379).
In the Advaita Brahma-vijñāna, Bharata, carrying the palanquin of the king of Sauvīra, teaches him that the ātmā is pure, imperishable, at peace, without guṇas and beyond prakṛti; it is one and the same in all beings and neither grows nor decreases. There is no fault in saying “I” of oneself, but to say “I” of what is not the ātmā and take that for the ātmā is delusion; when the ātmā in every body is one, “who are you, who am I” has no meaning. The knowledge of the ātmā (one, all-pervading, the same everywhere, pure, without guṇas, beyond prakṛti, birthless, changeless, made of knowledge, unattached and all-powerful) is the paramārtha, the highest truth. In the same chapter Ṛtu tells his disciple Nidāgha, “The ātmā is all-pervading like ākāśa; I am the ātmā; I neither go nor come nor stay in one place”, and as one ākāśa seems different through yellow, blue and other distinctions, the one ātmā seems many to deluded sight (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 380).
In the Yama-gītā, Yama tells Naciketas that the ātmā hidden in all beings is not seen outwardly, but is seen by those who see the subtle, with a subtle buddhi. The wise one places speech in the mind, the mind in jñāna, that in the mahad-ātmā, and that in the ātmā that is at peace (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 382).
The word also stands in the rites. In the dīkshā, the guru draws the disciple’s jīva-caitanya into his own ātmā with the ātma-mantra “oṃ haṃ haṃ hāṃ ātmane namaḥ”, and at the end of each stage draws the ātmā, like a part of the moon held by Rāhu, slowly through the right nāḍī and joins it into the thread (Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 83–84, 86); in the next stage the ātmā is like the moon’s disc half freed from Rāhu, and it is placed like a drop of water on the disciple’s head, refreshing him (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 85). In the Sūrya pūjā for victory in battle, sattva, rajas and tamas, prakṛti and purusha, ātmā, antarātmā and paramātmā are worshipped, each with a mantra such as “saṃ sattvāya namaḥ” (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 148). At the abhisheka of the king, Ātmā, Āyus, Manas, Daksha, Mada, Prāṇa, Havishmat, Garishṭha, Ṛta and Satya are asked to protect him (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 219). In the teaching on speech, the ātmā, thinking things over with the buddhi, joins with the manas through the wish to speak (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 336).
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa: the Purāṇa speaks above all of ātma-vicāra, enquiry into the ātmā, and ātma-sākshātkāra, its direct realisation.
Ātma-vicāra. Bhagavān Ṛshabha teaches his sons: as long as a man does not enquire into the Self, his true nature remains covered by ajñāna; as long as ajñāna remains, he cannot escape action; as long as there is action, the vāsanās of karma remain in the mind, and because of them he takes a body again and is bound by it (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5). Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Uddhava that the sādhaka whose supreme goal is himself gives up kāmya karmas and does nishkāma karma, and that one well engaged in ātma-vicāra need not concern himself with the injunctions about karma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 10). By ātma-vicāra one casts off the illusion that the ātmā is many, purifies the mind, offers it to Śrī Kṛshṇa, the all-pervading Parameśvara, and withdraws from all karmas; and if one cannot fix the mind in Parabrahma, one offers all karmas to him without desire for fruit (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 11).
Ātma-sākshātkāra. King Pṛthu tells his people that one who washes away the impurities of the mind and takes refuge at the root of Śrī Hari’s feet gains, through vairāgya, ātma-sākshātkāra and a special strength of mind, and does not come again to this saṃsāra whose form is sorrow (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21). Ṛshabha names ātma-sākshātkāra among the eight marks of the brahmavetta, who bears the Veda, his own body (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5). The avadhūta Dattātreya tells King Yadu: “In this way vairāgya arose in me, and the lamp of ātma-sākshātkāra was lit in me; giving up attachment and ahaṅkāra, I wander in this world” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 9). For one who worships Śrī Kṛshṇa in all beings with body, speech and mind, all is Brahman; by the vidyā of ātma-sākshātkāra he sees Brahman everywhere, his doubts are shattered, and he is withdrawn from all karmas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 29). Sūta teaches that when, through śravaṇa, manana and nididhyāsana, hearing, reflection and deep meditation, the mind of itself gives up its sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa saṅkalpas and becomes still, then there is ātma-sākshātkāra, with freedom from saṃsāra, from doership and from the vāsanās of karma (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 7).
Related terms: Paramātmā · Jīvātmā · Brahman · Ātma-jñāna · Prakṛti · Purusha · Ahaṅkāra · Buddhi
Sources
- Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 14, 83–86, 148, 219, 336, 362, 374, 376–377, 379–382
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 21; Skandha 5, Chapter 5; Skandha 11, Chapters 9–11, 29; Skandha 12, Chapter 7