I was replying to a mail on the internet. Suddenly the computer went off; the room became dark, noise from the air conditioner stopped. Oh God, it is electricity breakdown. This happens often in summer in the place where I live. My thought turned to electricity….
The lamps don’t glow, fans don’t rotate, TV goes blank, bell doesn’t ring! -Everything is dead without electricity. No wonder we say, “Oh God!” when electricity goes off. We can’t think of a world without electricity today. In a way discovery of electricity helps to understand the concepts explained in scriptures on God. The entire universe consists of just two things – Atma (sentient principle) and anatma (insentient matter). Atma, the life principle is like electricity without which nothing moves. The trees grow, birds fly, men walk only in the presence of Atma; just like the fans rotate, lamps glow, bells ring in the presence of electricity. We realize the importance of electricity only when the lamps stop glowing and the fans stop rotating. In the same way we wonder about life principle only when a man is dead and his body has lost its heat, his eyes cannot see, mouth cannot speak.
Kenopanishad mantra says, “Indeed Atma is the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the mind, the Speech of speech, the Prana (breath) of prana, and the Eye of the eye. The discriminative ones, who know the Atma, give up the identification with body and become immortal after leaving this world.” For the eye to see, you need the power of the eye besides light and an object. Even a dead body has an eye but it cannot see. The above mantra in Kenopanishad says Atma is the real eye behind the eye with which you see. Therefore Atma cannot be seen by your physical eyes, which are just insentient material, which exist because of the support of Atma.
Another mantra of Kenopanishad says, “Brahman is the very consciousness which one does not perceive with the eyes and by which (consciousness) one perceives the eyes”. The same electricity makes the fan rotate, heat the stove, makes the radio sing. These objects are media showing the existence of electricity. Pure electricity is not visible to our eyes. In the same way Atma the cause for our existence is not available to our sense organs. The universal electricity is indivisible but just appears to be separated in the wires into these objects. In the same way indivisible Atma (Brahman) present in jeeva (individual) appears to be different. Therefore Atma is not an object to be known, but the very subject (Self) by which all objects are known. The electric lamp reveals the existence of all objects around us as well as the existence of electricity. In the same way one should recognize Atma (consciousness) that pervades every object, which is different from the objects and reveals the objects.
The Upanishads give us the knowledge beyond the grasp of our ordinary intellect. Science is not opposed to scriptures; rather scientific discoveries help us understand the statements of scriptures. Electricity is perhaps the most important discovery thus far in human history we know. More and more such scientific discoveries take us closer to advaida (non dual) knowledge taught by the Upanishads through great Rishis and Acharyas such as Veda Vyasa and Adi Sankara. The atomic science states that the origin of all elements is the same - Energy. The source of energy (Sakti) is called Ekatma (Universal Consciousness) in scriptures and it is beyond the reach of the sense organs. Its manifestation is known to us as plurality of objects. The Upanishads, taught by a Guru, reveal the ultimate truth of the individual soul merging with the cosmic soul.
-Arasu Ramanujam
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