So, we are all Jeevathmas and not our ever changing and most certain to die bodies.
How about other stuff in this universe – what are they? According to Vishishtadvaita philosophy, there are three “thathvaas” or realities – Chit, Achit and Iisvara.
Chit refers to any soul. In another way, Chit is all entities with knowledge as their attribute. So, we humans, animals, trees are all “Chit”, since all of us are basically aathmas in different bodies.
Achit is all things which don’t have any knowledge in them – basically, inanimate objects without knowledge. Tables, Chairs, buildings, stones etc., are all “Achit”.
Iiswara is the Lord who controls the Chit as well as the Achit. Iiswara is the loving creator, master, controller and protector of the universe.
Understanding this triad of “chit-achit-Iiswara” helps us in understanding about the real “us”, this world, our boundaries and ultimately our life.
Do we have boundaries? What are they? Aren’t we supposed to be “free” individuals?
I remember a meeting long back in my old company which was addressed by a HR Manager. One of the participants asked the HR Manager – “How much freedom do we have in our work?”
The HR Manager responded – “Good Question. But think for a moment. Do you think India is a free country? Do you think we are free to take whatever decision we want to?” He proceeded to answer himself - “Even the most powerful nation in the world is not completely free to take any decision that it wants to take. There are various constraints, various stakeholders and various considerations that the country’s government has to take note of before taking any decision. No entity has complete freedom in the world. Absolute freedom only leads to anarchy.”
He proceeded as we listened in rapt attention - “Freedom is always within a context. Within the context of the roles that you play as defined in the organization, you do have freedom”.
How true of the whole universe! In this sense, we are like cows tied to a pole using a rope. The freedom that cows have is limited by the length of the rope they are tied with.
Our evergreen account-of-Karmas are the rope that ties us and determines our boundaries in this world.
Until there is balance in this account, we need to be cows tied to this world. But isn’t it bad that we’ll keep going through this cycle of birth-life-death in this world with all its constraints? Yes, it is.
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ReplyDeleteHi Mohan,
ReplyDeleteI am excited to see this blog. Do we have any Shastric references were Chit refers to Soul. To my understanding, both Jiva and Ishvara are qualitatively same but quantitively different. That is both of them are sadchitananda (Sat-> Eternal, Chit-> Consciousness and Ananda-> Bliss). Jiva is Anu(Infinitesimal) and Ishvara is Vibhu(infinite). So Sat Chit Ananda are three attributes which are common to both Jiva and Ishvara. Now when you say chit refers to Jiva, I am unable to comprehend it. Can you please explain.
Cheers,
Subbu.
Hi Subbu, To my humble understanding from upanyasams of srivaishnavic scholars: Chit basically refers to both jeevathma and paramaathma. Any entity or thathva which has "chaithanyam" (meaning knowledge as an attribute) is chit. To that extent, any aatma, be it jeevathma or Paramaathma is chit only.
ReplyDeleteBut among chit, paramaathma and jeevathma have different swaroopas and are basically different. Like, though me and a dog are living beings, we both are different.
May be I could've specified that paramathma is also chit explicitly. Qualitatively same and Quantitatively different is another topic altogether. :) We'll touch upon it at a later time may be...
Hopefully, this addresses some part of your question at least. Please feel free to comment back for any further queries.
@ Subbu, I understand the "soul or jeevathma" phrase caused this confusion - will correct it to say just "soul".
ReplyDeleteMohan, i believe the blog also needs to appeal to the masses. For ex we talked abt god and existence of god. I said it is just energy in one form or the other. You told me that the same has been mentioned in the vedas as well. Similarly you can try to explain everything in the foll way
ReplyDeleteConcept: What is the concept..for ex. existence of god.
Scientific theory: God is nothing but energy in one form or the other
Vedic explanation: what does vedas say or other texts say, and how close it is to the scientific theory.
You can probably improvise and present it in a much better way. I still feel the contents are very good. But it should appeal to all. Thats the objective.