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Atman and Jiva
rajaroy@ecf.toronto.edu (Roy Raja) asked:
I have been pondering over this question for many years, and still
I don't have any answer. To start with, Islam , christianity, and
judaism say that only humans have souls ( and therefore atmaa ), and
other animals and plants don't have one. Hinduism says that all living
beings including plants have atmaa. Looking from a biological point of
view, Hinduism makes more sense, because there is not much biologocally
different among animals and humans, human brain is more advanced, but
animals do have brains, and they do feel happiness and sorrow, and they
struggle to survive too.
Now comes the doubt. There is physical body, mind, and atmaa (let's
assume). According to hindu philosophy, it is not the atmaa, but the
jiva that is bound in the cycle of rebirth. Jiva is atmaa + inner body
or mind. Since atmaa can not be bound, it is due to the inner body
that I am bound. Example normally given is that of a pot in ocean.
Ocean is god, pot is body and mind, and water inside the pot is atmaa.
The pot is not letting the water inside merge with water outside. Now I
think that pot can not really be closed, because then one can divide
god, which is not possible. Since God is same all the time, its like an
open pot moving in the ocean. So when I move, whatever part of God I
occupy is essentially my atmaa. Then ofcourse I don't have the same
atmaa all the time. So basically, it is quite meaningless to have an
atmaa.
Dear Rajaji:
You have made several astute observations, but were not quite correct in
saying
"According to hindu philosophy, it is not the atmaa, but the
jiva that is bound in the cycle of rebirth. Jiva is atmaa + inner body
or mind."
What is called the Jiva is also known as prAna, it seats the Atman in
us. When the prAna goes out of the body as we die, so does the Atman
goes with it. However, it is the Atman that goes through the cycles of
rebirth, but stays unattached. In the SBG, this is described with two
words, upadrashtA (witness) and anumantA (assenter). In the taittiriya
upanishad, you will read the detail of this two functions in the context
of the three levels of human conciousness, based on the use of
sense-organs. These three states are: jAgrata, svapna and sushupta
(wakeful, dream and deep sleep states). Although I am veering a little,
please let me explain these three. These three are merely analogies
that are used to describe the stages of consciousness. In wakeful state,
we gather information using all senses of touch, sight, hearing etc. In
dream state, we do not have the use of the primary sense oragans, but
the mind, which is the leader of the senses, proxies for the organs. In
the deep sleep state, even the mind is not functional, and then there is
calm of mind, it is the state ideal for dhyAna, as it is the analogy for
the state of mindlessness.. In all these states, the Atman is the
witness. By Atman the assenter, it is meant that the inspiration to all
that we do originates in the Atman, but as these inspriations come to
us, we regularly misinterpret that in our mind, as our mind is incapable
of processing the input, just as unfamiliar inputs will be answered with
an error message by computer program.
You can see that the jiva is not the atmaa + inner body or mind. For the
rest of your question, I would say that in Hinduism, there are two ways
of addressing this question, one is the analytical process (Samkhya)
that does not require invoking the idea of God, and the other is yoga.
Which one of these two you will pick, will depend on your personal
preferences.
With best regards,
Dhruba.
