ARANI SERIES
Spark 31
Thursday, March 30, 2017
NEW VERSUS OLD
Another year has passed, and we have welcomed another New Year (nava-samvatsara)with the festival yesterday – Ugādi (or its other forms in different parts of India). Even as a new year comes and greets us after every 365 days, a spiritual question rises, “what is new in us?”
From the Upanishadic point of view, our true nature is timeless! It is most ancient and yet every new! Lord Krishna declares1 the Self (ātmā) to be very old (purāna) and yet never affected (na hanyate) by the laws of nature unlike the body that goes through wear and tear (hanyamāne shareere)!
The challenge before us therefore is to uncover the Pure Self that we are, and drop the identification with the false self, made of five sheaths (pancha-koshas). We have strong attachments with each of these five layers: physical (annamaya), vital air (prānamaya), mental (manomaya), intellectual (vijnānamaya) and bliss (ānandamaya)!
By using the word ‘upasankramya’, the Taittiriya Upanishad points out2 this very shedding of identification, which is like crossing five great barriers in the inner spiritual journey. Our bondage consists in this false identification only. Born of ignorance, it is an error of perception. Once we commit this error, with the body for example, we are bound to make a big issue of height, weight, looks, color of skin, fitness and so on. While they have no doubt a place in the scheme of things, we make a mountain out of a molehill. Spiritual ignorance makes us blow things out of proportion. {We invite, as another expression goes, a storm in a teacup!} While they should bother us a little here and there, the false identification makes us remain depressed for lengths of time.
We must ask therefore the question, “Who am I?” with adequate support from our scriptural study. Who can deny – our sorrow is the outcome of self-judgments? We think we have lost, and we are sorry. We think we are superior, and we feel elated. We think we are worthless, and we are miserable. The error of false identification shows in what we think, which may not be true.
The celebration of the New Year, therefore, may please be accompanied by penetrating insights into the EVER-NEW-SELF in us. Enabled by Vedānta study, and empowered by the practice of “who am I?” let us discard the old self and stay as the truth of our being.
Wish you a great New Year – outside and inside!
Swami Chidananda
Notes:
1 na hanyate hanyamāne shareere – Geeta 2.20
2 etam-annamayam-ātmānam upasankramya etc. Tai. Up. 3.10