Concepts of Parmatma Antaratma Anatma in Philosophy of Dada Bhagwan

Author(s): S R Bhatt
Publisher: S R Bhatt

Page 11

*Paramatma' and its synonyms are used in an entitative language they are to be understood as 'Paramatmapada'.
To start with, Paramatma, who is the same as Atma, is to be distinguished from anatma. He is saccidanada in His pure form. He is not doer and enjoyer. He is only pure witnessing consciousness. He is untouched by sattva, rajas and tamas which are the qualities of anatma or prakrti. Pure consciousness or pure knowledge is paramatma/atma (Aptvani, I, p.184). Paramatma is pure, formless and unalloyed existence. It is a state to be experienced and not to be expressed. Dadaji uses the phrase "paramartha maun' for this. (Aptavani, I, p.57). The Upanisads say, "S'anto'yamatma'. He is really speaking indescribable yet we try to describe Him by enumerating His attributes. He has infinite self-attributes but He is not different from His attributes. He is not possessor of attributes but He is attributes themselves. Only in worldly language we say that He has infinite attributes. He is indescribable and yet we refer to Him as 'Saccidananda'. He is negatively referred to as nirakara, nirvisayi,, nistraigunya, nirbhela, nirmala, niranjana, niramkari, niragrahi, nirgranthi etc. Paramatma is cidandarupa (pure knowledge and pure bliss). Earlier Adi Sankara had declared, "Cidanadarupa S'ivo'ham S'ivo 'ham". This is a sublime experience available only to the realized soul.
One can go on narrating the presence of auspicious attributes and absence of inauspicious ones in Paramatma and there will be no end to this. Kabirdas declares, “Sata samandara ki masi karun lekhani saba vanaraya. Dharati saba kagada karun Hari guna likha na jaya". This means all earthly qualities which imply finitude, impurity and limitations are not present in Him. Dadaji has used a very suggestive word 'tankotkirna' for this. Earlier Acarya Amrtacandra in his commentary on the Pravacanasara of Acarya Kundakunda described Pure Self as tankotkirna. The Pure self does not have and cannot have any of the properties of anatma or pudgala. Positively, He can be referred to as nitya, suddha, mukta, jnata, drsta, paramanandi, S'iva, Brahma, and a host of such terms. He is sarvavyapaka (omnipresent) and sarvabhutasthita (immanent in all). Dadaji says, "Pure consciousness is the same in all, in me, in you, in the grain of wheat. It is really the same, but there is difference in the coverings of all." (Aptavani, III, p.93) What a grand vision! He further says, "God is in every creature whether visible or invisible." (Ibid, I, p. 6). There is fundamental unity of all existences and therefore to know the self is to know all. Dadaji echoes the Upanisadic saying, "Ekenabrahmavijnatena sarvam vijnatam bhavati" and quotes Shrimad Rajachandra in this context. (Aptavani, III p.15) The Real can be experienced in its true form only if one harbours positive emotions and discards negatives ones. Negative emotions are detrimental, harmful, and cloudy. Positive emotions are helpful in overcoming delusion and ignorance. The disciplining of emotions therefore should be undertaken so that there can be holistic vision of the Real. Then one will experience that every thing is interconnected and interdependent. This is abhedabuddhi. If one fails to see interconnectedness and interdependence, then it is distorted vision.
Since every individual self is potentially Paramatma and can actualize the same, there is qualitative oneness and quantitative multiplicity.