What Is the Meaning of Paramatma?
Shankara goes on to explain how Sri Hari, the Paramatma, should be understood.
आत्मेति तूपगच्छन्ति ग्राहयन्ति च — says Brahma Sutra
That Paramatma should be known and achieved by the attitude that it is none other than one's own Atma.
Shankara explains this sutra:
आत्मेत्येवं शास्त्रोक्तलक्षणः परमात्मा प्रतिपत्तव्यः। तथा हि परमात्मप्रक्रियायां जाबाला आत्मत्वेनैवैनमभ्युपगच्छन्ति — 'त्वं वा अहमस्मि भगवो देवते, अहं वै त्वमसि' इति।
Paramatma and Atma are identical. त्वं वा अहमस्मि भगवो देवते — You are, O Lord, me. अहं वै त्वमसि — And I am you.
यदेवेह तदमुत्र यदमुत्र तदन्विह — Kathopanishad
Whatever is here is elsewhere. Whatever is elsewhere is here. It is all him — Sri Hari.
स यश्चायं पुरुषे यश्चाशसावादित्ये स एकः — Taittiriyopanishad
Whoever is in this man, he himself is in Surya. He is the only one.
तदात्मानमेवावेदहं ब्रह्मास्मीति — Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Then he realized: I myself am Brahma.
तदेतत् ब्रह्म अपूर्वं अनपरं अनन्तरं अबाह्यं अयमात्मा ब्रह्म
What is this Brahma? When we talk about the one and only God in the world, it has to be Brahma as described by Vedanta. This Brahma is what Sri Hari is.
He is apoorvam — nothing preceded him. There was nothing before him.
Anaparam — there is also nothing other than him.
He doesn’t have a cause. He doesn’t have a successor.
There is nothing outside of him. He encompasses everything. That is Brahma — Sri Hari.
स वा एष महानज आत्मा अजरोऽमरोऽमृतोऽभयो ब्रह्म
Without jara (old age), devoid of death and devoid of any fear.
एष त आत्मा अन्तर्याम्य अमृतः — This is your immortal soul, the Antaryami which controls and directs you from inside.
यन्मनसा न मनुते येनाहुर्मनो मतम्
तदेव ब्रह्म त्वं विद्धि नेदं यदिदमुपासते
Brahma is not what you are worshiping now. Brahma is not your object of worship. It cannot be something your mind can fathom and behold and define. Brahma cannot be something that your mind projects. Brahma cannot be the thought in your mind. Brahma prompts the mind. Brahma is the controller of the mind. That Brahma is Sri Hari.
We are not talking about the creator Brahma among the Trimurtis. We are talking about Brahma as in Vedanta.
तत्सत्यं स आत्मा तत्त्वमसि — That is the truth, that is Atma, and you are that.
Space is common. The same space occupies the inside of, say, a hundred pots. In one of the pots, you put dust and smoke. Does the space in the other pots get affected? Even if many jeevatmas are suffering from ignorance, the other jeevatmas are not affected by it.
यथैकस्मिन् घटाकाशे रजोधूमादिभिर्युते
नान्ये मलिनतां यान्ति दूरस्थाः कुत्रचित् क्वचित्
तथा द्वन्द्वैरनेकैस्तु जीवे च मलिने कृते
एकस्मिन्नापरे जीवा मलिनाः सन्ति कुत्रचित्
You see reflection of the Sun in five different pots filled with water. Now put dirt in one of the pots. Is the Sun affected by it? No. Is water in the other pots affected by it? No.
आकाशमेकं हि तथा घटादिषु पृथग्भवेत्
तथात्मैकोऽप्यनेकेषु जलाधारेष्विवांशुमान्
निश्चरन्ति यथा लोहपिण्डात्तप्तात्सुफुलिंगाः
सकाशादात्मनस्तद्वत् प्रभवन्ति जगन्ति हि
Just as sparks fly out of a piece of red-hot iron, the worlds come out of Paramatma.
सर्पवद्रज्जुखण्डस्तु निशायां वेश्ममध्यगः
एको हि चन्द्रो द्वौ व्योम्नि तिमिराहतचक्षुषः
A piece of rope looks like a snake in the night.
The single moon in the sky appears as two for someone with an eye disease.
आभाति परमात्मा च सर्वोपाधिषु संस्थितः
नित्योदितः स्वयंज्योतिः सर्वगः पुरुषः परः
It is the Paramatma alone who is in all beings. He is nityoditah — he doesn’t set. He is svayamjyotih — he is not dependent on any other source of light. He is sarvagah — spread everywhere.
अहङ्काराविवेकेन कर्ताहमिति मन्यते
Like the delusion created by the rope, and seeing two moons instead of one, due to ahamkara. This ahamkara is not pride or arrogance or egoism in the negative sense. This ahamkara is the perception that 'I am an individual separate from the rest of the world.'
The ignorance created by this ahamkara makes you believe that 'I am doing this' and 'I am doing that'.
मनोदृश्यमिदं द्वैतं यत्किंचित् सचराचरम्
मनसो ह्यनीभावे द्वैतं नैवोपलभ्यते
The duality — the differentiation in 'he and me', 'this and that', 'here and there' — is a creation of the mind. When the mind ceases to exist, stops working as it happens in deep sleep, the duality also disappears.
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