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I am the Soul
A faint smile breaks upon the face of the Gurudev. He says, 'O Disciple! Who can know or see the one who himself sees all and knows all? We look at the substances in the world with our eyes. But there is another substance in our body which knows the eyes and sees them. And that is the atma.
Atma is swa - par prakashak. It knows itself and at the same time knows everything in the world that is to be known. Therefore, the eyes through which the world is seen, those eyes and the world both are seen with the atma. It has also been said
ज्यां दृश्य छे त्यां दृश्य-दृष्टि उभयनो दृष्टा य छे
निज - पर प्रकाशक आत्मनी चैतन्य सत्ता प्रगट छे...
Knowledge is the characteristic of atma, not of an inanimate. We, who are used to looking at the broader aspect of things, believe that 'I have seen and learnt with the eyes'. But eye is an inanimate thing. It is only a means. It does not have the capability of knowledge. An eye too can see only when there is a soul in the body, and when the utilisation of the knowledge of the atma is linked to the eye, it can see the things. The eyes saw, but it was the atma which understood. Eyes are like the window in a house. If a person standing at the window gets a view of the outside, what did the window have to do? The one who sees is the person, the window is but the means. Similarly, when we see something with the eyes, the one who experiences that 'I have seen so and so with the eyes' is the soul and eyes are merely the means. Atma sees the substances just as it sees the eyes in the body. Among all the senses of the human body, the eyes are the most powerful medium. A man standing on the peak of a mountain can see up to the far horizon with his vision. The rivers and streams, the mountains and forests, the meadows and the trees, the birds and the humans all get accommodated into those tiny pupils. Therefore, the vision is greater than the visual. The scientific laws say that when light / sunlight falls on things, they get reflected into the human eyes, and then the eyes can see them.
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