Atom#3 -Musings on the Journey of the Soul

* Inspired by the Book “Autobiography of the Soul” – An Epic of the end of times (in Tamil) (Authors: Valmeegi, Agasthyar / Gnanalayam Pondy)*

I have started reading Avadhuta Gita of Swami Dattatreya, an avatar of Vishnu and also considered as the combined avatar of Brahma - Vishnu - Siva (Rudra). Swami Dattatreya is the son of Maharishi Atri and Devi Anasuya. He is the brother of Maharishi Durvasa (an amsa of Siva-Rudra), who is one of the Saptarishis in this Kaliyuga-end.

Swami Dattatreya's Avadhuta Gita is about the Atman, the eternal and omnipresent being, our true and unchanging self.  The Avadhuta asks us - Why weep, when you are the Atman itself, which suffers no dualities.

Reading the Avadhuta Gita, I begin to think that this Gita is not of the Swami (the body/mind) but of the Swami within us all, the Soul.  

Let us see the following verses from Chapter 1 and you can decide from whose perspective this Gita has been sung - 

अहमेवाव्ययोऽनन्तः शुद्धविज्ञानविग्रहः । ahamevāvyayo'nantaḥ śuddhavijñānavigrahaḥ /

सुखं दुःखं न जानामि कथं कस्यापि वर्तते ।। ७।।sukhaṁ duḥkhaṁ na jānāmi kathaṁ kasyāpi vartate //7//

I indeed am immutable and infinite - of the form of pure Intelligence.
I do not know how or in relation to whom joy and sorrow exist.

जन्म मृत्युर्न ते चित्तं बन्धमोक्षौ शुभाशुभौ । janma mṛtyurna te cittaṁ bandhamokśau śubhāśubhau /

कथं रोदिषि रे वत्स नामरूपं न ते न मे ।। १७।।  kathaṁ rodiṣi re vatsa nāmarūpaṁ na te na me //17//

For you there is neither birth nor death, for you there is no mind, for you there is neither bondage nor liberation, neither good nor evil. My child: why shed tears? Neither you nor I have name and form.

To be frank, I have not reached that high level of perception, where I have become one with the Soul. Also, I am still not sure if the Atman has no role in having good or evil intentions.

To be a Soul or not?

Is the soul there - science has not accepted the existence of soul/spirit, as there is no proof. Absence of proof is not proof of absence.  

Max Planck (1858-1947) was a great physicist and Nobel Price winner who gave us the Planck's Constant, h (as in the energy of the photon, E= h V) and established that radiation energy (as in heat emitted from any object) is emitted in discrete integral packets, called quanta - thus laying the foundations of the Quantum Physics/Mechanics way of seeing the physical world. 

In his book published in 1932 (english translation), Where Is Science Going? (with a prologue by Albert Einstein), Planck has this to say -

Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mys­tery that we are trying to solve. Music and art are, to an extent, also attempts to solve or at least to express the mystery. But to my  mind  the more we progress with either the more we are brought into harmony with all nature itself. And that is one of the great services of science to the individual.

He further says - 

As Einstein  has said, you  could not be a scientist if you did not know that the external world  existed  in   reality; but that knowledge is not gained by any process of reasoning. It  is a direct  perception  and  therefore in its nature akin to what we call Faith. It is a metaphysical belief. Now that is something which the skeptic questions in regard to religion; but it is the same in regard to science. However, there is this to be said in favor of theoretical physics, that it is a very active science and does make an appeal to the lay imagination. In that way it may to some extent, satisfy the metaphysical hunger which religion   does   not   seem   capable   of   satisfying.

Now, now - did we hear that right - faith, direct perception, metaphysical hunger.  Max Planck spoke honestly and accepted that Science is one way to understand the greater reality of this creation which cannot always be perceived with our senses and instruments.

Our saints, philosophers, rishis, siddhas who by their direct perception achieved through meditation and introspection have tried to unravel the mystery and true nature of the creation.

Most of them have come to the conclusion that All is One and One is All.

The Journey to find the Soul will continue..