[Advaita-l] Doubt

[Anand N]

Namaste,

I too had this doubt, and I like to extend an example from the
Dakshinamurthy Stotram.
The Stotra Verse goes like this:
नानाच्छिद्रघटोदरस्थितमहादीपप्रभा भास्वरं
ज्ञानं यस्य तु चक्षुरादिकरणद्वारा वहिः स्पन्दते ।
जानामीति तमेव भान्तमनुभात्येतत्समस्तं जगत्
तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥४॥
Here is a literal translation from the internet:

Just like the light shining out from the mighty diya placed inside a holed
lantern
Similarly, knowledge is emerging out from your eyes and other senses
And by whose consciousness the entire world is functioning
Salutations to such great guru Sri Dakshinamurthy, who awakens the supreme
knowledge.
Now, I added my own Masala to this example, so that my understanding
becomes clearer. Here is my extension as follows:
If we consider a lamp placed inside an inverted pot with many holes.
Now imagine each of these holes with different sizes.
Imagine each of these holes now being covered with different coloured glass.
So if we take one hole emitting blue light as Jiva A.
Jiva A looks at different colour streams of pink , violet, green light
coming from different holes
with different intensity and sizes. So the pink stream is Jiva B, Violet
Stream is Jiva C etc.
These are the different Jivas he is interacting with.
So the Avidya Upadhi for each Jiva is the hole and the colored glass.
Jiva A experiences the rest of the world and other Jivas as they are
emitting their different coloured streams of light.
This is the multiplicity of the Jagat that we constantly see around us.
The whole pot with all the Jiva holes is the Maya Upadhi of
Ishwara/Hiranyagarbha.
The Brahman or Svaprakasha Atma is the one lamp inside. So there is no
multiplicity at all. It is
just one self-effulgent light (Self) that is illuminating everything.


Please feel free to comment/critique!

Shri Gurubhyo Namaha||
Om Namo Narayanaya||
Anand







On Sun, 2 Jan 2022 at 08:14, Kartik Vashishta via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> OM
> OM NAMAH SIVANANDAYA
>
> Revered Self,
>
> Sadar Pranam,
>
> I wish you comfort and peace. I wish you all a very happy new year.
>
> I have a doubt regarding the "self".
>
> Please help clarify this doubt.
>
> I think, that by the the grace of Guru, I understand that the "self" is in
> everything, in every subject and also in every object. I am trying to
> understand how it is the  ONE self that is in adibhauta/adiyatma/adidaiva.
>
> My logic(probably twisted) seems to suggest that I have a self and every
> other entity has a self, this self is not only inside me....nor is it only
> inside a particle of sand or an atom or an ant. I seem to think that every
> entity has/is a self and this self is different from everyone else's self.
>
> How to understand and imbibe that there is, in fact, just ONE self? And
> that, that self is Brahman...
>
> If you suggest readings, please suggest English texts. Thank you.
>
> Pranam,
>
> OM
> Kartik Vashishta
> OM
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