These negative stories are usually of the Chandra Vansh, but are interesting nevertheless. All the stories in shadow (chhaon) are associated with the Chandra Vansh and stories in light (dhoop) with the Surya Vansh.
6
Atma
What is the exact meaning of atma? Is it soul or mind?
Atma is what makes a being alive—the ability to be conscious. It’s not related to time or space. It’s anadi (without beginning), anant (endless), nirgun (formless). Any material object can decay with time, is located in a particular space and has certain properties. The opposite of this, that which is unaffected by time, space, form, is called the soul. In Hindi, it’s called atma. The word originated from the Rig Veda.
Hinduism believes that everything has atma. Do stones have atma too?
One school believes that wherever you look, there’s paramatma. According to this, everything has an atma and atma contains everything. Another school says that there are the ajeev (non-living) and jeevit (living), and the non-living do not have an atma whereas the living do. The inanimate do not have hunger, and are merely made up of the pancha mahabhut, the five basic elements. Where there is atma there is hunger. Plants hunger for water and sunlight, and grow; animals and birds too look for food and water. They are alive and therefore there is fear of death. In this there’s an awareness of atma. Human beings have the ability to think, feel with their indriyan (senses); they have a heart and brain. Due to these characteristics, they have an atma. A computer does not have an atma because it does not have a heart or brain, it does not have feelings. However efficient a robot may be, it cannot show you sympathy or empathy; it is nirjeev or ajeev (non-living). But according to the other school, even the nirjeev have an atma.
Do all Indian religions have this concept of atma?
The Rig Veda has an interesting description of the atma. It’s actually a metaphor—some say it’s a poem—because it’s difficult to describe what is formless (nirgun). It talks of one bird watching another bird eating fruit, suggesting that our body that enjoys the pleasures of the world is the fruit-eating bird and the one that watches it is our atma. Our mann (mind) is watching our shareer (body). At one level I am watching you, the fruit-eating bird. On another level, I watch myself. Third level is: Who is observing my mann? That is atma. These are the observer and what is observed.
Observing one’s mind is called recursion in English. This ability—of seeing oneself—is present only in human beings. It arises from the atma, by which I can look at (observe) myself and the world around me without emotional attachment or interaction. Our mind feels excitement, happiness, sorrow. The atma is beyond this, separate from these emotions.
In the Upanishads (which were composed 3000 years ago, and came 1000 years after the Vedas), human beings questioned the purpose of their existence—was it just to run after food like all other living things? For bhog? The answer that emerged was that human beings are supposed to look for meaning, for atma-gyan. In Sanskrit, it’s called mimansa, that is, inquiry. In science the inquiry is about the outside world, whereas here it is about your inner life. As man went inward, first he saw the flesh, then the indriyan, then the heart (emotions) and mind (rationality). He wondered if there was something beyond this. What is it that is stable (sthir), anant (endless), anadi (has always been there) and is merely watching? The atma.
Buddha did not believe in this concept. He said everything is destructible; nothing is permanent (concept of anicca). Buddhism has unatma or anatta: that there is no atma. What we call consciousness is simply chemistry, for instance, grapes become wine and acquire alcoholic properties. So when the five elements combine, they form both the animate and the inanimate, from where consciousness arises. There’s no permanence.
These were the two big schools of thought.
A third school is that of Jains. Jainism looks at the atma as dravya (elements). The world is made up of two things—jeev (living) and ajeev (non-living). Here, they look at atma as that which makes you alive; by which your indriyan are awakened. It is not the same as in Hinduism.
Jainism has a concept of atma whereas Buddhism doesn’t?
Yes. Jainism believes that you are stuck on earth (Bhu-loka) because of your karma, which decides whether you will be born on earth or in heaven or hell. A jeev is like a balloon; your karma is the stone weighing it down. The heavier the stone, the further it will sink, to earth, and even beyond to hell. With good deeds the weight is lessened and the balloon can rise, from hell to earth, then to heaven, then to Siddha-loka where the Tirthankaras, the wisest men, are. They do not have any karma. They are completely purified beings.
Hinduism has a similar concept of rebirth?
There are similarities in many of these concepts, but intellectuals will fine-tune them as separate concepts. The Bhagavata Purana will say that atma is god. So you have it, I have it. In Hinduism the concept of jeevatma and para-atma emerges, but we don’t realize this because we are ignorant. We are confused and not looking correctly. When we do, we will know that there’s god in you and in me. That will liberate us.
There’s a story of Gajendramoksha in the Vishnu Purana. This king of elephants is strong and powerful. Once, a crocodile grabs him in a lake. He tries to free himself but is unable to. Finally, he prays to god who comes and frees him. The idea is that god is freeing you from your ignorance that attaches you to things. The bird watching the fruit-eating bird tells her to not be so taken by the fruit and to look at her too. This concept has been described in different ways by different wise people.
What’s the difference between jeevatma and paramatma?
Jeevatma is khandit, incomplete, and paramatma is akhand, complete. There are two distinct words—para-atma and paramatma. Para-atma is others. If I don’t respect you, it shows that I’ve become so arrogant that I don’t acknowledge your atma, think that you have no atma. If I acknowledge that all livings beings have the same soul inside different bodies, I’m conscious of the para-atma.
When we bring together the entire world’s atma, so that it is infinite, that is paramatma; this is akhandit, unbroken, without boundaries. Jeevatma (an individual soul) has boundaries, is caught up in karma. Paramatma is not. Krishna is paramatma, and his gopikas are jeevatma who are seeking completion. A bhakta (jeevatma) seeks god (paramatma); a khandit atma seeks the akhandit atma. In the Aadhyatma Ramayana, Rama is atma, Sita is mann or jeevatma and Ravana, who steals her away, is ahankar (ego) and Hanuman is Bhakti who unites jeevatma with paramatma. These are different stories to bring these concepts to the people.
How do you know whether someone has knowledge of atma? He will not disrespect anyone; he will not compare others; he will refrain from judging. Once when Adi Shankaracharya expounded on atma, people praised him for the wonderful lecture. When he was leaving, a Chandaal (a person who works in a crematorium) approached him. Shankaracharya’s disciples asked him to move out of the way—as many people would do even today—for they considered him impure and dirty because he dealt with dead bodies. So the Chandaal asked them, ‘Should I move my body or my atma?’ Even the Shankaracharya learnt from his.
As long as you are comparing and judging, you do not have knowledge of atma. Relationships of boss–subordinate, etc., are in the everyday, material world. In the spiritual world, whatever differences there may be, all of us have atma. When you don’t have that knowledge, feudalism arises, where people are labelled superior or inferior. If you seek meaning or purpose by comparing, and your material wealth goes to your head—like when young men say, ‘Don’t you know who my father is?’—you do not have knowledge of atma.
Adi Shankaracharya said that jeevatma and paramatma are one and the same—this is the concept of Advaita (no dualism, no division). The Madhavacharya school believed that the two are separate. That jeevatma is the bhakta or devotee and paramatma is god, thus Dvaita (two, separate). Yet another school is about bhed–abhed (separate–whole), which is Vishishtadvaita. It says a tree is paramatma (akhandit)
and fruit is jeevatma (khandit). These are different ways of explaining these concepts.
Does the concept of rebirth in Hinduism mean we have another chance or that our atma is trapped?
We can speculate on this and discuss it endlessly, but, broadly, the idea is that how will the atma know about itself when it does not have a heart or sense organs? The atma knows everything but how will it know itself? For that, it needs a body. Like we wear clothes, the atma wears a body to experience the world, which in turn gives it self-knowledge. Experience of the world is the knowledge of the hunger that drives a being to food, that instils in her the fear of death, that makes her the bird that looks for the fruit. While running after the fruit, the bhog, she forgets her primary goal. Why am I eating? To stay alive. Why should I stay alive? To experience the world. Why do I want to experience the world? To learn about the atma, which is the primary purpose.
In Kashmir Shaivism, gold is used as a symbol to explain this. We are ornaments made from gold. In one birth you are a bangle, in another, earrings, in a third, a necklace. But in all three forms, births, you are gold which has been broken and moulded into the new shape. The bangle forgets that it’s gold and gets excited by its bangle-ness. So this birth, rebirth continues until you recognize the gold (knowledge of atma). We tend to get stuck in artha (material wealth, power) and kama (pleasure) so much that we forget about moksha (liberation).
Would it be right to say that moksha is attained when there’s knowledge of atma?
Absolutely. The shramans said that only when you quit worldly matters will you acquire knowledge of atma. But, in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, they say that you can get it even while doing your daily activities. Rama is happy as a prince in the palace; he is also happy in the jungle. He does not derive his meaning from the palace. He gets it from himself. Sita is happy when she’s with Rama. She’s happy away from him too because Rama is in her heart. This means they both have atma-gyan.
Krishna too has atma-gyan. He knows that everything is transitory and therefore has no attachment to anybody or anything. He leaves Radha; Dwarka grows and collapses before him yet he remains calm.
Is this concept of aham different from atma, that only when you don’t have aham will you get atma-gyan . . . ?
Atma and aham (ego) are in a spectrum. A sheet of paper when crumpled is ahankar. As your atma-gyan increases, the creases in the paper are ironed out, which means aham is moving towards atma. In a term of yoga, Chitta Vritti Nirodha, vritti is the crumple, the knot, of the mind that has to be eased out. If your atma is knotted up like a string, the knots can be opened up only through gyan.
What’s the difference between moksha and nirvana?
Nirvana is a word in Buddhism and moksha in Hinduism. Buddhism does not have the concept of atma so nirvana is a release from your identity. Moksha is the release of atma from the material world. To obtain knowledge like the bird observing from the tree.
Christianity has the concept of soul. Are atma and soul one and the same?
Interesting question, because in English atma is often referred to as the soul. Christianity believes in one life, one soul. Here, the soul is corrupted by the Devil. Your soul is polluted because you did not obey God’s word as given in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. But there is hope, salvation, in the form of a messiah who will save you, redeem your fallen soul. This concept does not exist in Hinduism. Here, there’s rebirth; there’s no fallen soul. The soul is always pure and perfect, but covering it is a body that is tied to karma. These are two separate thought processes.
7
Haldi, Kumkum, Chandan, Bhasm
As a child, I remember seeing women throwing red-coloured powder on each other on the last day of Durga Puja. What is its significance?
It’s called sindoor khela, which means playing with sindoor, vermilion. In India, sindoor is a symbol of being married (suhaag). This ritual symbolizes the celebration of fertility, the fact that women can bear children, and enjoy grihasta jeevan (life of a householder). Only married women play this game. All these are indicated symbolically in this ritual.
We usually see only men as spiritual leaders. The idea of religion as distancing oneself from the world of illusion and attachment (maya–moh), pulling away from society is known as the Nivritti Marg. But this ritual is of the Pravritti Marg; it celebrates life, grihasti, children, womanhood.
There’s another ceremony for married women called haldi–kumkum. Tell us about it.
It’s very popular in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Very few religions have festivals of women, by women, for women. Basically, women call other women to their homes, and put haldi and kumkum on each other. It’s a home festival where they celebrate each other as in sindoor khela. They’ll put haldi, chandan, flowers on each other. Loose hair was associated with freedom. The women have now voluntarily tied their hair for grihasta jeevan, and adorn it with flowers (called ‘veni’ in Maharashtra). These objects have to be fragrant and colourful. Sometimes Devi, in the form of a pot, is worshipped. A pot is a symbol of womanhood. In the pot is kept a coconut and other symbols of prosperity like betel nut and betel leaf; a house where paan is consumed has success and happiness. So, this festival celebrates grihasta jeevan.
Haldi is yellow turmeric powder, which is an antiseptic; it signifies removing negative energy. In earlier times, women used to bathe with turmeric to give their skin a golden glow. In the Jagannath Temple in Puri, Krishna’s sister Subhadra has a yellow face and is called Haldi-mukhi (haldi-faced). The red colour of kumkum is associated with fertility, blood and life. Red is a very shubh, sumangal—auspicious and holy—colour. Mangal or Mars is also associated with the colour red. Mangalya (wellness) in the house is associated with red. In Rajasthan, a bride applies sindoor on her hands and her hand prints are put on the walls of the house. She wears a red bridal dress and walks into the house making red footprints, which too are considered shubh, a sign of Lakshmi entering the house. It may be connected with the redness of the earth. Red earth is fertile, ready to bear a crop (metaphor for children). So haldi is about protection and keeping negative energies out and red is associated with blood, and keeping positive energies in.
Once Hanuman asks Sita about the red mark on her forehead. Sita tells him she is dressing up for her husband who loves the colour red. It is also to signify her prayer for an eternal married life and to ensure her husband has a long life. Hanuman later arrives with sindoor all over his body. When Rama and Sita ask him about it, he tells him about what Sita told him. He says that because she is a devi, a small amount of sindoor will work for her, but he, a mere monkey, has to try harder.
This is a story from the Bhakti parampara where sindoor has been associated with bhakti (complete devotion). The traditional idols of Hanuman are smeared with sindoor. Warriors also used to be covered in red to show their energy (tej or rajas bhav). Over time, this red has changed into saffron (kesar), which is mostly associated with bachelorhood (brahmacharya), which is why Hanuman is mostly seen in saffron; munis, wandering ascetics, Buddhists would wear saffron as well.
When you look at a puja thali, it has elements of many colours. What are the others apart from haldi?
Apart from haldi, there’s kumkum (sindoor), abeer which is black, but ‘abeer’ also means red. There’s a white powder and gulal (pink) as well. Colours are important. It’s almost as if we are playing Holi with the gods. The colours in a puja thali are to excite the various sense organs (indriyan). Fragrant things (karpoor, chandan) for smell, different colours for the eyes, a bell for sound, prasad for taste, a lamp and its glowing light (deep) for touch. All these offerings suggest the importance of the body. You apply all these on god’s body. The atma is important but the atma sits in the chariot of the body. Deha and dehi (body and soul) are both important and must be balanced.
I’ve seen haldi, chandan and rice being used to welcome a person entering our homes.
It is haldi, kumkum and rice that are applied—in this seq
uence. Rituals do not have a direct meaning. There’s a difference between sign and symbol. Sign has only one meaning. Symbol is yantra in Sanskrit. It can mean many things. You have to reflect on a symbol. Haldi, kumkum and rice can have different meanings. Haldi is associated with male gods. In Maharashtra, in the Khandoba Temple, they throw haldi around everywhere. Kumkum is associated with female gods and you’ll find it mostly in temples of Devi. So male and female energy are brought together, and rice is the child that is born. It probably conveys that to grow anything you need two things.
Yellow is also associated with gold, that is, prosperity, and haldi is an antiseptic. Once you remove negative energy and bring in positive energy with kumkum, you get rice, the fruit of labour. In any relationship, the negative energy has to be banished, positive energy brought in, and only then will something come of it. Even in your homes, first you clean the house to keep the negativity out, then decorate it with beautiful things, which is positive energy. Only then do you find peace and happiness.
Devlok With Devdutt Pattanaik Page 4