The Power of Atman and Maya
Question
Dhananjay,
I must bring to you one doubt which troubles the mind.
It is said that upon death the atman and the encapsulating jiva and 5 senses, along with karana sharira, vacate the body.
But isn't the atman everywhere? Is the atman not present in inanimate objects? Or is it exclusively present in living objects?
After death, many processes like decomposition and decay will occur, all of which involve shakthi which is derived from the supreme source called atman. Even the bacteria in the gut which eat the body are functioning by power of atman.
So how can the atman depart a dead body if 1) inanimate objects have atman in them and 2) processes in a dead body require the power of atman?
Kindly yours
Stanley
Answer
If a hundred pots are filled with water and kept out under the sky, a hundred Sun's are seen to be reflected in the water. Is there one Sun or a hundred?
If water in one of the pots is agitated, the Sun in that pot appears to be moving, while the Sun in the 99 others remains still as ever. Is the Sun really still or moving?
If one pot is broken, water flows out and there isn't any Sun there anymore. There appear to be 99 Suns only. Where did the other Sun go? From where did he come before?
Just as there always was one Sun alone and not many; just as that one Sun existed or ceased to exist relatively, based on the state of the pot, the Supreme being, though one, appears as many in the billions of living or non-living beings he inundates. There is not such a place anywhere in creation or beyond, which HE does not occupy. Rather, everything is IN HIM and not the other way round. When the power of that infinite is manifest through a life form, it is termed as an entity and wrongly mistaken as being separate, due to Agnyana (ignorance), while in reality, HE alone remains. This many or that many concern the viewer and not the truth, which is one & remains as it is.
When he who experiences or see's death and birth (Ego) vacates, it will remain that there is neither birth nor death, which are illusions concerning the unreal Ahamkara (Ego)
Then, he goes beyond birth and death, to the truth.
ॐ तत् सत्
(That Supreme being is the absolute truth)