thathva thrayam – chith – Who am I?

sri:
srimathE rAmAnujAya nama:
srimadh varavaramunayE nama:
sri vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:

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Understanding the chith (Athma) thathvam through the teachings of the wise men

• Everyone is curious to understand the true
  nature of the soul, matter and God.
• Across many civilizations, the quest to
  understand these three entities is seen as the common thread amongst the
  intellectuals.
• sanAthana dharmam, which is based on vEdham,
  vEdhAntham, smruthis, purANams and ithihAsams, beautifully explains the
  true knowledge about jIvAthmA (the soul), prakruthi (matter) and ISwara
  (God).
• SrIman nArAyaNan (as gIthAchAryan), nammAzhwAr, emperumAnAr, piLLai lOkAchAryar and maNavALa mAmunigaL have all explained the nature of these three entities through
  their divine words in various granthams.
• Specifically, piLLai lOkAchAryar‘s thathva thrayam and mAmunigaL‘s excellent commentary for that is a crystal clear exposition of
  all the three thathvams namely chith (soul), achith (matter) and Ishwara
  (God).
• Without understanding the true nature of the
  Soul/Self, one’s spiritual progress will be very limited.
• Let us start with having a deep understanding
  of the Soul first.

• The soul is different from body, senses, mind,
  vital air and intellect.
• By nature, the soul is 
  • animate/luminous – one that realises its own
    existence and self-effulgent
  • blissful – naturally joyful
  • eternal – neither created nor destroyed
  • unmanifest – invisible to external eyes
  • atomic – most miniscule
  • incomprehensible – beyond the comprehension
    of our senses
  • indivisible – not consisting of any parts
  • unchangeable – does not undergo any change
  • abode of knowledge
  • controlled by bhagavAn up-held by bhagavAn
  • subservient to bhagavAn

• body etc are seen different as “my
  body”, “my senses”, “my mind”, etc., indicating
  “my” as the soul. The soul is referred to as “I” while
  the body, mind, etc are referred to as “mine”.
• While soul is always perceived, body, etc.,
  are sometimes perceived and other times not.
• For example, when we are sleeping, the soul is
  still conscious but the body is not perceived in that state. And, when we
  wake up, being the consciousness, we fully realise who we are immediately,
  due to the continuous perception of the soul.
• In an individual’s case, the soul is one, but
  the combination of body, senses, mind etc. are many.

• But even if there is any doubt in these
  logical explanations which can be understood by anyone, since SAsthram
  says that soul is different from body, etc., we have to accept that. Since
  SAsthram is eternal, not created by any individual and defectless, the
  principles established by SAsthram need to be accepted fully.

• bhagavAn explains the nature of soul and the body in the second chapter of
  bhagavath gIthA in great detail.
• In the 13th slOkam, he says “Just like
  the embodied soul goes through the different stages of body like
  infanthood, childhood, manhood etc., at the time of death, the soul
  acquires another body. The one who has understood the nature of soul is
  not bewildered by this change”.
• In the 22nd slOkam, he says “Just like we
  get new clothes when the old clothes are worn out, the soul accepts a new
  body after the death of existing body”.

• Being the abode of knowledge, soul is called
  the knower.
• AthmA is not mere knowledge, he is knower,
  since SAsthram declares as such.
• Knowledge automatically leads to action and
  enjoying the result of the action since doing and enjoying the results are
  different manifestations of knowledge.
• The soul is influenced by the three modes of
  material nature (sathvam, rajas, thamas – goodness, passion, ignorance) in
  this material world and acts accordingly.
• The soul is given independence by bhagavAn to choose its  own path.
• But bhagavAn being the ultimate authority,
  without his approval nothing happens.
• In every action, the soul is given the choice
  of selecting the course of action. bhagavAn first stays as witness, and
  then allows the particular choice of the soul.
• Subsequently, depending on the choice (the
  action being in accordance with SAsthram or against SAsthram), bhagavAn
  assists the soul to proceed with the action. Thus bhagavAn is the ultimate
  authority of any action by the soul but lets the soul decide the course of
  action to ensure that each soul becomes responsible for its action.
• There are special cases when bhagavAn fully
  takes control of the soul’s life and actions for specific reasons.

• The soul is fully controlled by bhagavAn. This means all actions of the soul are to be sanctioned by
  bhagavAn.
• Just like all actions of the body are
  controlled by the soul, all actions of the soul are controlled by the
  in-dwelling super-soul which is bhagavAn.
• Still, bhagavAn gives independence to the soul
  to choose the course of action since soul has knowledge which can be used
  in decision making.
• Otherwise, SAsthram will become meaningless.
• Controlled, upheld by bhagavAn and being
  subservient to him
• SAsthram is meant for the soul to learn,
  understand and distinguish between different actions and their merits and
  demerits and follow the best course of action.
• So, for a soul’s actions, Bhagavan remains in
  the following states
  • Witness – Being passive when soul takes the
    first attempt in all actions
  • Allower – permits soul’s actions after the
    soul decides on a particular course
  • Inducer – Once soul starts an action,
    BhagavAn induces further actions based on this first attempt (in this
    particular action)

• The soul is upheld by bhagavAn. Upheld by him means, the soul loses its identity/purpose of
  existence, when it lacks proper understanding of:
  • the connection between the self and bhagavAn
  • the divine nature of bhagavAn
  • the divine qualities of bhagavAn
• The soul is always subservient to bhagavAn who
  is the focus of everything.
• This means the soul is supposed to always look
  out to please bhagavAn without any personal interests similar to achith
  entities such as sandalwood, flowers etc which exist purely for the pleasure
  of the consumer.
• Finally, AthmA (soul) is never separated from
  bhagavAn.

• Souls are innumerable.
• There are three types of souls namely
  • bhadhdha AthmAs
    • These are the bound souls who have been in
      samsAram (material world) since time immemorial
    • They are going through the cycle of birth
      and death due to ignorance which leads to virtues/vices.
    • All souls who have not realized their real
      nature come under this category.
    • They lack the understanding of soul and most
      often consider themselves to be the body, senses, etc. 
    • There are also the other badhdhas who
      consider the self as fully independent and act accordingly.

• Just like water (which is naturally cool),
  when it comes into contact with a container which is heated by fire,
  becomes hot, bhadhdha AthmAs who are in contact with matter, are covered
  by ignorance, karma, etc.
• When the attachment to matter is given up,
  ignorance etc are gone.
• Each of the 3 types of souls namely bhadhdha,
  muktha and nithya, are innumerable in count.
• Some (who misunderstand the principle of
  adhvaitham that is found in SAsthram) preach the concept of a single soul
  which confuses itself to be many due to being covered by ignorance. But
  this is against plain logic and SAsthram.
• If there is only one soul, when one person is
  happy, another person should not be sad.
• Since, both are opposite to each other and
  cannot exist in the same person at the same time.
• Also, since SAsthram says that some have
  become mukthas and some are still samsAris, some are AchAryan and others
  are sishyas, there must be many AthmAs.
• It will also contradict with the statements in
  SAsthram which discuss existence of many AthmAs.
• Even in the state of mOksham, there are
  innumerable souls.
• Now, we may have a doubt – if AthmAs in
  paramapadam will be different, since they do not have different levels
  like anger, jealousy etc, as we see in this material world.
• Though qualitatively all AthmAs will be the
  same in that state, just like multiple pots which have the exact
  measurement and weight will still be different from each other, AthmAs
  that are qualitatively the same in paramapadham will still be different
  from each other.
• Thus, it is understood clearly that, there
  exist innumerable souls both in this material world and the spiritual
  world.

• Let us understand the two types of gyAnam
  • dharmi gyAnam – the consciousness
  • dharma bhUtha gyAnam – knowledge.
• The true (unique) nature of an AthmA
  (irrespective of bhadhdha, muktha, nithya) is
  • SEshathvam – being the one who is secondary
    (subservient) to bhagavAn and
  • gyAthruthvam – being knowledgable.
• Both are essential qualities.
• Being knowledgable differentiates it from
  achith (matter).
• Being subservient to bhagavAn differentiates
  it from bhagavAn (God).
• While AthmA itself is a product of knowledge
  (dharmi gyAnam – svarUpam/nature), AthmA also has knowledge (dharma bhUtha
  gyAnam – guNam/attribute).
• The difference is – the dharmi gyAnam is the
  consciousness that constantly indicates the existence to self (atomic –
  never changing).
• The dharma bhUtha gyAnam is the one that
  enlightens the soul with external objects (all pervading – constantly
  changing due to contraction and expansion of knowledge).
• For the nithyas, their knowledge is fully
  expanded.
• For mukthas, their knowledge was once limited
  but now fully expanded.
• For bhadhdhas who are in material world, their
  knowledge is limited.
• Even though knowledge is eternal quality of
  the soul, the contraction and expansion of knowledge is due to the fact
  that knowledge is received through senses.
• Senses are at times active and at times
  inactive.
• So, dharma bhUtha gyAnam (knowledge) can
  increase or decrease accordingly.

• The naturally blissful state of AthmA is
  discussed here.
• When knowledge fully expands, that leads to
  the blissful state of AthmA.
• When we are faced with poison or weapons
  (anything perceived as unfavourable to body, mind, etc), that leads to
  sorrow.
• But that is because
  • we are confusing the soul with the body – if
    we understand that the weapon can only affect the body, we will not feel
    any sorrow.
  • our own karma which leads us to be fearful
  • we do not have the full understanding that
    everything is pervaded by bhagavAn (even those weapons) – prahlAdhAzhwAn
    had fully realized that bhagavAn is every where and did not protest when
    he was threatened by snakes, elephant or fire. He was unaffected by any
    of them.

• Since everything is pervaded by god,
  everything is favourable only.
• The unfavourable nature is seen only because
  of our own misunderstandings.
• If there is any other reason for something
  being favourable, for the same person, the same material will not be
  favourable at some point of time and unfavourable at some other time.
• For example, hot water is favourable in cold
  weather but unfavourable in hot weather – so hot water is not
  naturally good or bad – it is the perception of the consumer and the
  environment which are all based on bodily thoughts.
• Once we see everything in relationship with
  God, we will naturally feel blissful.

srImathE ramyajAmAthru munIndhrAya mahAthmanE
srIrangavAsinE bhUyAth nithyasrI nithya mangaLAm

mangaLAsAsana parair madhAchArya purOgamai
sarvaischa pUrvair AchAryai satkruthAyAsthu mangaLam 

Up next,  We will see in detail about achith thathvam (matter).

adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan

Sources: thathva thrayam, bhagavath gIthA bhAshyam

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