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The sixth sutra deals with asmita, the second of the klesha, of the five. And the sutra is:
दृ॒ग्द॒र्शनश॒क्त्योरे॒का॒त्म॒तेवा॑स्मि॒ता ॥ २.६॥
Dṛg-darśana-śaktyor ekātmatā iva asmitā
Dṛg is seer, that is the pure puruṣa, the real me, my real nature, when I am not identified with anything at all, what I am, what I will be, and what it is, that is Dṛg, the seer, the puruṣa.
Darśana is seen, an object. Just for understanding, if I see a car, I am the seer, dṛg, and I am seeing the car, darśana. Śaktyor, that is power. Power of the seer, power of the seen. Ekātmatā, one, becoming one. So that dṛg shaktihi, darśana shaktihi becomes one, that is asmita. Dṛg darśana śaktyor ekātmatā iva asmitā. Asmita is identity or blending together of the power of consciousness, the puruṣa, the seer, dṛg , with the power of cognition, the darśana and that is the asmita. Of course, the word asmi is a very positive word, which means a pure awareness of self-existent consciousness, the puruṣa, as referred in our tradition, and it is the bhāva, as it is called, and that is asmi. When that pure consciousness gets involved, gets identified, gets merged with what is seen, with what is presented in the front, we have sufficient sutras in our first chapter and that is called as asmita. So there are two processes. One is loss of awareness of its real nature and identification with the vehicles, both are happening together. The moment consciousness identifies itself with its vehicles, maybe it is a body, or the mind, or the intellect, it has fallen from its pure state and it becomes bound by the limitations of the avidyā. Or we may say that the moment a wave of avidyā falls on consciousness, its identification with its vehicles results immediately. This is how avidyā was the seed or field of asmita. Why that identification? Because of avidyā.
When we say I talk, I walk, I see, I smile, I laugh, I sleep, we are identifying with not with the real I, we are identifying that which is talking, that which is smiling, that which is sleeping, with that we identified. I am angry means I am identifying with anger. I am loving, we identified with love, loving. So this identification and completely becoming one with that, that is asmita. Ekātmatā has come. You see when one person's scooter or one person's car touches another person's scooter and car, initially their arguments will be my scooter, my car. But later on as it intensifies, it becomes you, me, my and mine. They forget the car and the scooter or they identify themselves with the scooter and the car. Why did you touch me, they say. Actually his scooter touches his car. But he says why did you touch? That is asmitā, that identification, ekātmatā.
A doctor knows everything about the body, who knows all the details of the body, inside, outside. But still he is not different from any layman in this particular field, because he also has identified himself with his own body. So that pure I, identified with the body and the mind, then identifying with outside body and the mind with the real objects, which can be material, which can be living beings. My cat, my dog, my pet. So if somebody hurts the dog, don't hurt me because I get identified with the dog. This is asmitā.
Body as a vehicle only but not to be identified as I am the body. Of course very difficult but it has to be practiced. It has to be treated as a vehicle, a tool. But that everything is that, that should be removed. And that is importance of this particular sutra.
That identification which is happening and if the question is why it is happening, avidyā is the answer given in the previous sutra. So the seeing potentiality that is the seer principle or the draṣṭā is separate from what is seen, the dṛśya. But in all of us as a common man this distinction is always forgotten and thus leads to wrong superposition of the one of these over the other.
The very common examples which we just saw earlier are that every common man has his own self being the body and every case in practical life the self is thus wrongly superimposed upon something out of what is seen. This wrong superimposition and identification leads to all the troubles in our life. In this way the kleśa of asmitā is a cause of trouble and misery. In a way this asmitā is what is usually understood by, normally as ego or ahaṅkāra.
Swami Vivekananda beautifully summarizes writing the commentary on this particular sutra. He says "that the citta or mind stuff, the buddhi, determinative faculty, the manas or the mind and the indriyas or sense organs, these are the instruments for him to see the external world and identification of the self with the instruments is what is called the ignorance, egoism. My legs, my hands, my mind, my buddhi, my intellect, my emotions, this is all ignorance. We say I am the mind, I am the thought, I am angry or I am happy. How can we be angry? And how can we hate? We should identify ourselves with the self that cannot change and if it is unchangeable, how can it be one moment happy and one moment unhappy? It is formless, infinite. What can affect it? Nothing in the universe can produce an effect on it. Yet, through avidyā we identify ourselves with all this, with the mind stuff and think we feel pleasure or pain," and this is a beautiful summing up by Swami Vivekananda on this particular sutra about the asmitā. The next sutras are also continuation of kleśas.
Oṃ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ.
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||
To Be Continued.. ---------------------------------------- These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji. Audio Link - https://youtu.be/a-vk_uKNLVM?si=68kiANaYLwPYRrvARead n Get Articles, Magazines, Books @ http://prakashan.vivekanandakendra.org
मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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