#Thread on “UNDERSTANDING HINDUISM 2”

If you haven’t read the 1st part of it, please read it and then only read this one.

As, I’ve mentioned earlier that Hinduism has 12 Core Concepts. Each cocepts clears the doubts that every person have.

@LostTemple7
@Sanjay_Dixit https://twitter.com/hathyogi31/status/1239531520924061697

I’m mentioning all the concepts with the doubts that it clears.

1. Atman: Who are we? What is our real self?
2. Reincarnation and Samsara: What happens after death and before birth?
3. The Law of Karma: Why is there suffering?
4. Prakriti and Guna: How does the world work?

5. Maya (Illusion): Why do this world keep trapping us in different aspects?
6. Moksha: What is the goal of life?
7. God & goddess: what is he/she like?
8. Dharma (Religious Duties): Which is the right way to act?
9. Diversity, Different Paths but how there is only one goal?

10. Scripture and Guru: who will teach and who will learn
11. Kala (Time): When did it start and when will it finish?
12. Creation: How and why was the world made?

Today, I’ll only explain the first concept, “The Atman”.

The term Atma was first mentioned in the Rig veda 10.97.11-

यदि॒मा वा॒जय॑न्न॒हमोष॑धी॒र्हस्त॑ आद॒धे ।
आ॒त्मा यक्ष्म॑स्य नश्यति पु॒रा जी॑व॒गृभो॑ यथा ॥

After that it was mentioned and explained it in Upanishads and Bhagavad Geeta.

But before moving further please note that-

Swami Vivekananda said in a lecture (book- Complete Works)
“I will not translate this word Âtman to you in English, because its idea does not exist in Europe; it is untranslatable”.

The modern attempt of German philosophers is to translate the word Atman by the word "Self"

and until that word is universally accepted, it is impossible to use it. So, call it as Self or anything, it is our Atman.

Moving further, In my last thread, I mentioned that “the pieces that comes out from the Brahman is atman”. But what is it? Something physical? Energy?

Well, Bhagavad Gita describes it the best

2:20
न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचि- न्नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः |
अजो नित्यः शाश्र्वतोSयं पुराणो न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे ।।

Meaning-
आत्मा के लिए किसी भी काल में न तो जन्म है न मृत्यु | वह न तो कभी जन्मा है, न जन्म लेता है और न जन्म लेगा।

वह अजन्मा, नित्य, शाश्र्वत तथा पुरातन है | शरीर के मारे जाने पर वह मारा नहीं जाता |

2:23
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावक: |
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुत: ।।

Meaning- Atma can’t be cut by weapons, Can’t burned by fire, cant moistened by water, cant dried by air.

In science the thing that can neither be created nor be destroyed is known as ENERGY. Lets look it as per the hindu philosophy-

Many Upanishads have described atman, but they express two distinct, somewhat divergent themes.

Some teach that Brahman is identical with Ātman (Advait vedant), while others teach that Ātman is part of Brahman but not identical to it (dvait vedant).

This ancient debate flowered into various dual and non-dual theories in Hinduism. But ‘Brahmasutra’ by Badarayana synthesized

and unified these somewhat conflicting theories, stating that “Atman and Brahman are different in some respects, particularly during the state of ignorance, but at the deepest level and in the state of self-realization, Atman and Brahman are identical.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.5, describes it further-

“That Atman is indeed Brahman. It is also identified with the intellect, the Manas (mind), and the vital breath, with the eyes and ears, with earth, water, air, and ākāśa (sky), with fire and with what is other than fire,

with desire and the absence of desire, with anger and the absence of anger, with righteousness and unrighteousness, with everything — it is identified, as is well known, with this (what is perceived) and with that As atman does and acts, so it becomes: by doing good it becomes

good, and by doing evil it becomes evil. It becomes virtuous through good acts, and vicious through evil acts. Others, however, say, "The self is identified with desire alone. What it desires, so it resolves; what it resolves, so is its deed; and what deed it does, so it reaps.

Science also believes that it is mind which is eternal however, it is atma who is eternal. Mind is just a manifestation of atma however,the body can’t work without the mind.

let me take an example of car analogy based on Katha Upanishad, in Book 1, hymns 3.3 to 3.4-

The body is compared to a car and the soul to the driver

1. A car cannot run without a driver. Similarly, the body will not work without the presence of the atma.
Just as a young child may not realise that each and every car needs a driver for it to move, without the developed

knowledge just like that one may live their entire life & die without realising that there is an ataman inside them which is driving them for libration throughout their life.

2. Driver may develop certain emotions for the car, even after knowing that it will be gone someday.

Similarly, one may develop emotions for their or someone’s else body, even after knowing that the person will be gone someday.

3. One may get arrogant about the brand of car he/she owns. Similarly, one may get arrogant about the kind of body he/she wears,knowing that it will die

B.G 2:20
वांसासि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णाति नरोSपराणि |
तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णा - न्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देहि ||

जिस प्रकार मनुष्य पुराने वस्त्रों को त्याग कर नए वस्त्र धारण करता है, उसी प्रकार आत्मा पुराने तथा व्यर्थ के शरीरों को त्याग कर नवीन भौतिक शरीर धारण करता है |

So, who you are? What is your real self?
Your name, fame, money, your karma???

All will vanished someday, only the ATMAN will live, may be in different body, may be in different form. It may get a body of human,animal or plants. THESE ARE NOT MY WORDS, ITS HINDUISM PHILOSOPHY

In next thread, i will explain some basic terms used in Hinduism like sharir, chit, manas,aham etc. If interested, have patience and wait for my next thread. You can ask related doubts by using #askhy

THANK YOU