Vivekachudamani 30 Misidentification is the Cause of Bondage - By Swami Tattwamayananda

135th verse: “Atman, as the witness, knows everything about us – our mind, emotions, senses, pranas and so on. But it cannot be known empirically by anyone. An iron piece, when heated in fire, gets red hot. The heat belongs to the fire, not the iron piece. Similarly, everything is activated by their proximity to Atman.”

Normally, we identify with the gross body. At a higher level, we identify with the subtle body – the values we believe in. Our true identity is as the Atman, which is uninvolved and the knower.

Atman is beyond verbalization. It is beyond the five methods of verbalization.

136th verse: “The Atman is never born, it never dies. It does not grow or change. It is the only eternal Absolute Reality. It survives destruction of the body, similar to space in a broken jar.“

We may imagine the space inside a pot to be distinct from the space outside the pot. However, on the pot, the two spaces merge. They are, in fact, the same. Similarly, we may imagine that we are limited to the body, when in fact, we are unlimited as the Atman.

137th verse: “This Atman is the witness of everything, of all our experiences in waking, dream and deep sleep states. It is always present in the past, present and future.”

The same experiencer is present in all three states. That is why we have memory of dream state in waking state. That is why we feel fully rested in waking state after deep sleep.

138th and 139th verses: “We imagine that this body is our true identity. This wrong identification is bondage. It is the result of ignorance. As a result, we get stuck in the ocean of samsara.  This ocean of samsara should be crossed, by attaining the highest spiritual goal.”

Sri Ramakrishna gave examples of fishes caught in fisherman’s net. After getting caught, some fishes struggle to get out and success. Some struggle to get out and fail. Some are very happy to just live in the net. Samsara is like the net that we should get out of.

A spider (or silkworm) weaves a web from material that comes out of its own body. It lives within that web and finds it difficult to get out of it. Eventually, it dies there. Samsara is like the web – we should cross it.