PHRASES IN THE GITA - 114

ॐ

PHRASES IN THE GITA - 114

अहम् आत्मा सर्व भूताशय स्थितः  ...  (अध्याय १० - श्लोक २०)
அஹம் ஆத்மா ஸர்வ பூதாஶய ஸ்திதஹ ...  (அத்யாயம் 10 - ஶ்லோகம் 20)
Aham Aatmaa Sarva Bhootaashaya Sthitah ... (Chapter 10 - Shlokam 20)

Meaning :  I am the Aatma dwelling in every life ...

I am writing this after I wrote the 116th Phrase (I am Shankara among the Rudras) ... This phrase is one more testimony to proclaim that the Bhagawad Gita is an essence of Advaita philosophy .

I am the Aatman dwelling in every life ...  If we assume that this is not the truth and this statement is just a figment of imagination , even the imagination is a beautiful one .  This imagination opens a grand vision in us .  This world is diverse with so many types of Lives .  The plant lives ... Trees , plants , weeds , creepers , cactus , grass .. Oh !  so many thousands of varieties .  Animal lives ...  aqua lives , amphibeans , animals , birds , insects , ... so many thousands of types of lives .. Humans .. blacks , whites , reds , yellows , short , tall , flat nosed , sharp nosed , etc . and so many types ...  Those who looked at these diversities and regarded all these as different caused hatred, enmity , wars , exploitation , squander , slavery , slaughter , mass annihilation and other such destructive acts ..

Only the conviction that 'All is One' , 'That in Me is the same which is in all other lives" binds me with other lives ..  This conviction acts as seed to grow concern , Love and compassion in me for other lives .

Feeling of Oneness refuses to take roots when we look at the diversities .  Only an Idea , even if it is an imaginary Idea , that there is Something , there is some inexplicable One in and behind all these diverse looking lives in the world , instills a feeling of Oneness , opens a vision of oneness in us .

The science also is gradually inching towards this thought .  Science saw the diverse world , tried to look deeper .  With subtler and subtler insight , science could see the Atom and the cell .  It split the atom and the cell and discovered the electornes .  It searched beyond the electrones and discovered the Energy .  Now , it is searching for the Cause of energy .

Our Hindu ancestors also saw the diversities .  They searched for the One in and beyond all these diversities .  They could see the Paramaatman .  They realized that a speck of the Paramaatman dwells in each of the lives .  Lives are diverse in outer form and activities , but core of all is the Paramaatman .  Many ... not at all ..  Only Two (as in Christianity .. Divine and the Devil) No .  Not even Two .  Only one .  On the strength of this Idea , the Hindus could make declarations like "Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam" (The whole world is a Family) ;  "Swadesho Bhuvana Trayam" (All the three worlds are my Home) ; "Yat Pinde Tat Brahmaande" (That which is in a small Unit is the same as that in the Cosmos) ; "Sarvam Khalvidam Brahmam" (Everything is Brahman) ; "Aham Brahmaasi" (I am The Brahman) ; "Tat Tvam Asi" (Thou are That) ; Hindus could evolve Life systems based on this Idea .  Hindu society could give birth to continuous chain of Great Rshis who could travel to various lands carrying tthis Idea and guide the respective population to lead noble living .  When everyone says , "I am different" , when every community says , "We are different" and tries to break away , the Advaiti Hindu says , "No . We are all One .  The same One dwells in all of us .  We may appear as different , diverse .  But , the single cause for every one of our actions , the single cause for every one of our so called "Uniqueness and specialities" is Him .  Not many , not even two , but Only One" .  Hindus have firmly , consistently and repeatedly declared this and tried to live on this Idea .

Here Shri Krishna is declaring the same message through the Gita , an essential treatise on Advaita .  "I am the Aatman dwelling in all lives" .