We examined the concept of ahaṅkāra in an earlier post. We saw how ahaṅkāra is at the very source of all suffering. We are sentient beings who fundamentally are free from all suffering. But ahaṅkāra, the misidentification with the body, ensures that we consider the body’s experiences as […]
The Paramātmā Sandarbha goes into great depth into the properties of the jīva. This knowledge forms part of sambandha jñāna that Śrī Jīva Goswami proffers to us for understanding the nature of our own being. His treatment is comprehensive and far more sophisticated than similar treatments in other […]
The word jnāna has the common meaning of ‘knowledge’. However, in Sanskrit usage, the word jnāna carries different meanings depending on the context. Here we examine these meanings, and how they apply to the ātmā.
As the ātman is situated in its own self during deep sleep and nothing else, i.e. it does not identify with anything external like the mind or body, one can intuit a number of intrinsic properties of the ātman through an analysis of deep sleep. In the Tattva […]
Free or not free- that is the question.
We continue to discuss the concept of Brahman and Bhagavān as explained by Śrī Jīva Goswami in the Bhagavat Sandarbha. Śrī Jīva Goswami explains that self-realization is a pre-requisite for Brahman realization. Therefore, here we first examine what it means to ‘realize the self’. The process of experience […]
First, here is a definition of free will — Free will is the capacity to make a choice independent of any external influence. If we strip the jīva of the mind, body, senses and prāṇa, what is left is the ātman. The ātman, as we have seen before, […]
Sri Jiva Goswami lists several properties of the ātman in the Paramātma Sandarbha. Pertinent to this article are its qualities of knowership and experiential capacity. The ātman has the capacity to know. The mind and intelligence, being inert, cannot know. At the same time, the ātman cannot understand […]
To understand human psychology, we have to first understand how the mind operates. The mind is classified into different categories based on function. Here we consider the functions of manas (mind), citta (the part of the mind that we are not conscious of) and buddhi (intelligence; the decision making […]
