I am all-pervasive

What is the next step after disidentifying oneself with the senses? The next mantra explains.

indriyebhyaḥ param mano manasaḥ sattvamuttamam |

sattvādadhi mahānātmā mahato'vyaktamuttamam ||2-3-7||

The mind is superior to the sense organs. The intellect is superior to the mind. Mahat is superior to the intellect. The unmanifest is superior to Mahat.

This body-mind-sense-complex anātmā comprises of five layers called pañcakośa. Each layer is negated as we withdraw from each layer at a time: annamaya to prāṇamaya to manomaya to vijñānamaya to ānandamaya to ātmā. This is called pañcakośa-viveka. This process of withdrawal takes place one step at a time from the grossest to the subtlest state. The principle behind this technique is that the controller is subtler and more pervasive than the controlled. My identification needs to move from the inferior to the superior.

The steps in sequence are:

• Withdraw my identification from the body starting with the sense organs which is taught in the last mantra. Sensation through senses is present, but my mind is not disturbed by them, because mind knows that sensations are coming and going. Lord Krsna gives a very practical advice in Gītā 2.14:“ the contact between sense organs and sense objects which are the producers of heat and cold, pleasure and pain, is subject to arrival and departure. They are impermanent; thus endure them.” Therefore I should move my identification from senses to the mind, which can say over my senses, because indriyebhyaḥ param mano - the mind is superior to the sense organs.

• Only after my mind could be relatively objective about the senses, I should move to disidentify with my mind, by seeing that emotions, judgements, doubts, etc. are not me. These are the functions of the mind that constantly changing. The mind represents the doubting faculty. The intellect rationally analyzes and removes the doubt. Therefore, the intellect is stronger than the mind - manasaḥ sattvamuttamam. Thus I should identify with intellect instead of my mind.

• After that, I learn to see that individual intellect is included in the total intellect, because sattvādadhi mahānātmā - the total intellect is superior to the individual intellect. This process is important because ultimately I have to see that my nature is limitless brahman. In addition to being subtle, the mind must also expand. Brahman is both subtle and all-pervading. When we come to this stage, we identify with the limitless; there are no more adjectives of this body-mind-sense-complex that I claim to be me. This is done by understanding that the individual does not exist separately from total.

• mahato'vyaktamuttamam - the total causal body (unmanifest) is superior to the total subtle body hiraṇyagarbha. It is the subtlest in the material field. Just like the blankness in deep sleep is not the absence of things; it is the creation in the potential form. It is a state where everything in undifferentiable potential – it is not nothing. It is beyond comprehension, but it is not nothing. Just like the sleep state is the potential form of the individual, avyaktam is the potential state of totality.

Continue.

avyaktāttu paraḥ puruṣo vyāpako'liṅga eva ca |

yam jñātvā mucyate janturamṛtatvam ca gacchati ||2-3-8||

Ātmā is indeed superior to the unmanifest. It is all-pervasive and attributeless. Upon

knowing that, the mortal is free and attains immortality.

avyaktāttu paraḥ puruṣaḥ - however ātmā is subtler than unmanifest. We can objectify unmanifest blankness, but ātmā can never be objectified. Because it is aliṅga eva ca - without attributes. The attributes belong to the body-mind-senses but not to me. I am the awarer even of the blankness, which is subtler. I am called puruṣaḥ because I am the resident of the body. Not just to this body, I am also vyāpakaḥ - pervading the entire manifestation as existence, just as water pervades the ocean, wave, bubbles, spray etc. The wave’s name and form come and go, but when the wave identifies with the water, it is birthless and deathless.

yam jñātvā mucyate janturamṛtatvam ca gacchati - one who recognizes consciousness in all the living beings, is released from the notion of mortality. I am called jantu (jāyate iti jantuḥ - that which is born) because I identify with mortality. As long as I identify with the body-mind-sense-complex, I have a date of birth and death, I am healthy and sick, I am happy and sad, etc. When I know my nature is immortality, I am released from the notion of mortality. I am not released from mortality because I was never mortal. When the notion of mortality goes away, I own up to the true nature of immortality. Just as natural shine of brass is obstructed by the impurity of oxidation, similarly, my natural immortality is obstructed by the notion of mortality. Samsāra is the product of a false notion; therefore, we call it a cognitive problem. The cognitive problem should be solved cognitively. Therefore right knowledge alone removes any false notion.