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Re: Atmaa : Do I have one ?
Vijay Sadananda Pai (vijaypai@mandolin.rice.edu) wrote:
: In article <4f0v5b$t00@babbage.ece.uc.edu>,
: N. Tiwari <ntiwari@rs3.esm.vt.edu> wrote:
: >doubt "I-ness" is meaningless. And it is this "I"
: >that we have labelled as AtmA. The root is in: "Atma".
: >The other thing that I want to point is that do not take
: >the pot analogy (as given by Kabir) too far.
: What is Kabir's pot analogy -- I'm sure the readers are
: familiar with Sankara's but may not be with Kabir's.
jal mein kumbha, kumbha mein jal
(There is a potful of water, and the
pot is itself in the water).
baahar bheeta paani
(There is water outside and inside the pot).
phoota ghata, jal jalahi samaanaa
(The pot breaks, and the two waters merge)
yeh satguru ki vaani.
(This is the voice of a true guru)
(i.e.: The guru ensures the merger of shishya
with the God.)
: >There is an
: >assumption that AtmA and ParAtmA (super AtmA) are both
: >boundless. Both infinities. Perhaps, one infinity being
: >of a higher order than the other one. And so, when you
: >take one infinity from the other, it is still an infinity.
: >The IsaUpanishad in its very first verse says something
: >strikingly similar. And that verse has mathematical as
: >well as spiritual implications. The verse goes on something
: >like:
: >om, pOrnamidam, pOrnamidasya ...
: om purnam adah purnamidam
: purnat purnam udacyate
: purnasya purnamadaya
: purnam evavasisyate
: However, note that purnam does _not_ (in and of itself) mean infinite;
: it means complete [if it were infinite, presumably the verse would be
: om anantam adah anantamidam, or something along those lines.]. That
: Complete Supreme Godhead is such that any number of completely
: self-sufficient units can emanate, yet the Complete Supreme Godhead
: still remains the same. Therefore, we can conclude that the Godhead is
: both infinite and complete; you can only infer completeness regarding
: the phenomenal emanations.
Thanks for reproducing the text, and also pointing
out the diff. between "complete" and "infinite".
--
Nachiketa Tiwari
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