Atma Vidya
आत्मा विद्या
Light on Self
“A teaching like no other. Handed down from generation to generation from teacher to student through an unbroken chain Self-knowledge declares that long before we can even think of overcoming death, our immortality has already been won: pre-ordained by birth.”
Self Knowledge
The Proof is Already in the Pudding!
As human beings, not only do we want to live, and live forever, we want happiness to be everlasting.
What if someone told you everlasting happiness is already ours. Just by being born human, the eternal is already reached.
Would you believe it?
According to ATMA VIDYA आत्मा विद्या Self-knowledge, of the veda/upanishads, the oldest teaching of humankind, the eternal being ourselves already, means we don’t have to wait. Happiness already everlasting, just needs someone to point it out. Saying what prophets and sages have been repeating throughout the ages; that the ‘The Proof is already in the Pudding!’. That the eternal being already gained, ours already, means we not only don’t have to do anything to get, we cant escape, and every generation brings immortality with it.
Declaring that the cure for death has already arrived and we just haven’t seen it yet? That being ourselves, nothing we do can bring the eternal closer than it is already.
While religion limits the eternal to a place called heaven, that we all have to die first to get to. Self-knowledge, Atma Vidya tears this idea apart.
The eternal being all places, all times; past, present, future, must include us. Any eternity that does not, is not much of an eternity is it? And, who needs it? Advaita Vedanta points out that creation being universal and eternal already, the limitless has to include us.
All carrying nothing but the truth with us, truth being ourselves, to explode, all we need is to be introduced. Having shown us how, for countless generations, surviving through the ocean of time, Self-knowledge like the sun, explodes our universal secret and mystery.
Vedanta (meaning the end of knowledge) points out that happiness never ends and was never missing in the first pace. All that’s been missing our whole lives is ourselves. The eternal already ever gained, just needs someone knowledgeable to point it out.
Pointing out what we all carry with us and experience all day is nothing but the limitless. That experiencing nothing but the source of bliss, source of happiness, source of joy in every moment, until it is pointed out, it remains absolutely invisible. Experience being blind, someone has to point it out, or we don’t notice.
Exploding the myth of suffering, once ignorance of Self is removed, knowledge resolves the mystery of being human.
Self-knowledge cures all doubt. Proving what exists as human being is eternal, no longer a mystery to ourselves, we get the cure to end all cures (even death!). Knowing the Truth, the universe unable to hide its secret, can no longer threaten, challenge, or play tricks on us.
calling all Sons and daughters of immortality
How Can Anything Challenge You When Your Very Nature is Permanence?
Until we recognise Self by ourselves, because ignorance hides the truth, Self the only constant in our lives, is ignored. Appearing to separate us from ourselves, to remove all doubt, knowledge of the meaning of one word needs to explode.
Adding nothing and taking nothing away, Self-knowledge using the word we are most familiar with – ‘I’ – explodes the truth. In the hands of a teacher, once our ignorance of ‘I’ explodes in knowledge, the entire universe explodes.
Seeing ourselves for the first time we can’t look back.
Thinking change is the only constant in an ever fluctuating universe, we forget that, for change to occur and appear real, there has to be something changeless. That is constant; something permanent. For the unreal to appear real, and world to keep changing, there has to be something absolute: permanent. That you are that absolute, ever changeless Reality, constant, despite what keeps changing and dying, no one points out, because, few know. And few bother to find out.
Until now. No longer a forgotten teaching. Self-knowledge saves our lives.
A teaching shows me something hidden. Something so obvious, yet, no matter what, I could not see. No matter how hard I tried, there all the time, no matter where I look, I just couldn’t see it. The more I look, and farther I search, the more hidden away from the truth I get.
Until getting pointed out, I cant believe my eyes.
There all the time, try as I might, it remained a mystery.
Like mathematics teacher shows us mathematics, or mathematics could not exist for us.
Showing us the timeless reality that is ourselves, the teacher becomes the means of knowledge. Or else for us the timeless does not exist.
Knowing the difference between the eternal and ephemeral, the teacher, waking and sleeping nothing but the knowledge of Self; whose backyard is the eternal; whose neighbourhood is the infinite, for them Self is the only Reality. Only someone like that, who knows themselves as the Reality, can explode this ‘I’ and show us who we really are.
To resolve the equation, for us, the total solution has to be there. First that we being the solution bring the destination and solution with us. And, the teacher who has to point out the truth ought to be knowledgeable. Showing us that there is no such thing as the ephemeral, or impermanence, the teacher shows us not only something undying and changeless, but that I am that undying, changeless reality. Without doing a thing. That we all bring the mystery of creation with us, and solution, and me, being the secret that explodes the mystery, is not known.
Once I know myself as the deathless secret I’ve been waiting for my whole life, not even death can touch me. No more mystery, nothing the universe can throw can surprise, frighten me, nothing can impose limitation on me again. Self-knowledge points out the truth that is ‘I’. The teacher points out, already effortless, immortality is not a choice. We’ve got no option but to live and live forever.
A teaching that shows me something undying absolute, not only this, that I am that freedom everlasting, and that freedom is universal, one and the same for everyone, regardless of caste, race, sex, or creed. Surely I should get interested! Want to know more. Surely this should be all I want to know in my life and do everything in my power to get?
Already captured by Truth, we already are the cure. Captured in ‘I’ is nothing but the truth. Being in and through everything, all that is, and all that is known, so few know and fewer there are to tell us.
In the past, a drum would announce the arrival of the teacher of Vedanta. Beating in every village the Truth would be disseminated. Now modernists have translated Atma Vidya into English, no longer hidden in taboo and orthodoxy, no longer in sanskrit, Truth can be screamed from every roof and mountain top.
Once the Timeless meaning of ‘I’ explodes, exploding our human mystery once and for all, no longer mesmerised, knowledge frees us.
‘I’ is the Truth, pending discovery. ‘I’ is first name of the whole human race. The universal secret and password to the universe, once you unlock its secret everything is known. Ever present, ever fresh, ‘I’ is the PIN code that reveals and unlocks the Truth.
Truth has already arrived. All its doing is waiting to be discovered. All we have to do is show up. Once we question our existence, answering the question of the questioner, all our questions get answered. Knowledge resolves the mystery in a flash.
Hearing the truth clears all doubts and removes all confusion. Having always been the unlimited meaning of the word ‘I’, available 24/7, enquiring into one’s true self, we discover Truth was never missing. Only pending discovery. Getting lost in our idea of ourselves, missing in our lives was ourselves.
Until we feel threatened enough we don’t question.
‘I’ the master slave driver, dragging us, finally drags us into crisis. Leading us to our final destination I resolves the truth. Resolved in the knowledge of truth and truth about knowledge, I can no longer get challenged. Once our meaning is pointed out, recognising the eternal is ever present as ourselves, the ego finally lets go.
All ‘Sons and daughters of immortality’, knowing our secret we’re awake to ourselves as the Reality. Waking up, the dreamer, no more asleep to themselves, as ignorance disappears all doubts fade.
True everlasting happiness is ever pending. We make it secret by ignoring ourselves. Becoming a slave to mystery, slave to a thought, the longer we stay a secret, the longer who we are remains pending, the bigger explosion of wonderment.
Finding out we were ever pending discovery, and we couldn’t see it, leaves us utterly flabbergasted and dumbfounded.
until recently Self-knowledge was a kept secret. reserved for single men, taught only in sanskrit – barred from women and children, getting lost in taboo and orthodoxy Self-knowledge became so secret it became secret to the priests themselves. after rediscovering its methodology modernists resurrected the teaching and have translated atma vidya into English. rescuing mans oldest teaching brought back alive for everyone, including woman and children, self-knowledge, atma vidya, in india is now being taught in primary school.
advaita vedanta
ATMA VIDYA आत्मा विद्या our own experience reveals the eternally present.
Remaining absolutely still, pure, hidden and imperishable is the Absolute Truth. Indefinable – that Truth is effortlessly present as your Self is natures and creation’s best kept secret. Only in human being? No. In all the being’s. But, only human being, can resolve the mystery and know its secret. Mysterious by default, because it is not obvious, someone helps us get to know. Or not bothered, we never find out. Only when this ‘i’ is threatened enough to take action, if we’re lucky, we get to learn the truth. Or else, we don’t even bother to question. Too busy thriving and existing as individuals, obsessed with our idea of ourselves, unless the threat is real enough, threatening to take that away, we don’t bother. Ignorance being our bliss, we don’t get introduced, and life’s supreme gift and grand prize stays a secret and goes unnoticed.
Truth already existing is all of us is pending discovery. Unless we get introduced to ourselves, the universe and all its secrets remains a mystery. Shining 24/7/365 Self, the Grand Prize, and Greatest secret of all has simply to be pointed out. Outdoing all mysteries, Self is the secret of all secrets.
In order to claim the Grand prize, all a human being has ever had to do is listen. The teachings have been ongoing; the same through countless generations. Existing already as the truth, because existing is so easy; effortless unless we get in crisis, we don’t question.
As a civilisation, the crisis we are seeing is the wake up call.
Existing as something takes effort; being a rock star; professor, advocate. But to exist? What effort?
Experiencing a crisis, existence forces us to question ourselves.
Enthralled, entertained by all the changes, while we are enjoying the changes, everything is beautiful. But when we are the thing that has to change, and the reason for change, suddenly change becomes inevitable. Not so enthralling and entertaining, becoming uncomfortable, the thing in crisis and reason for the crisis being ourselves, ‘I’ being all we can hang onto, suddenly, change becomes unacceptable. Recognising the thing dragging us further and deeper into crisis is ourselves, until we resolve our conflict by resolving this’I’, and the universal mystery explodes, we know no peace.
Nature is in constant flux. But Self witnessing all never fluctuates. Invisible, always present as though hiding in the shadows, only when our existence gets challenged and life blows apart do we bother to open our minds to question and enquire.
Not a taste we can taste, a smell to be smelt or touch, not a sight to be seen, or sensation, Self the imperceptible Seer of all, the invisible absolute, unless someone points it out, remains absolutely silent. Unless someone shows us, the light of Self, in which everything shines remains an enigma.
Taking the ephemeral changing world to be real, on closer examination we discover; Self alone is Real. ‘I’alone is real. The world and everything in it being ephemeral, and our body in it, subject death, to conditions, the ravages of time, doesn’t exist.
Putting ‘I’ under the microscope, under thorough examination, ‘I’ proves to be the only constant. For absolute proof that there is something called fullness and permanence; the provenance of creation/life and completeness itself- we need look no further than ourselves.
Regardless of how conscious or unconscious you are, as human beings, already awake, consciousness is universal. Already enlightening everything, the eternal, is not even a heart beat away. Our only option and outcome being already assured, we can’t escape.
Ignorance is all that stands in the way. That this applies to everyone; consciousness being one and the same for all, one without a second, no one is excluded. Our only option and destination being ourselves, while not obvious, our goal and outcome being common is already won – already gained. Standing between us and the eternal like a rock, is ignorance.The lack of knowledge kills us. Self, never far away is the eternal outcome. There is no such thing as death. Never missing only knowledge of ourselves is missing
Should we believe it?
Show me.
If someone can prove that I am immortal, why not? Inseparably part of the unbound intelligence we call universe, already the living proof, until we accept it, ignorance holds us all captive. Being all of us, our existence arising as the result of creation, until we accept the Truth, the universe challenges us every waking dreaming, sleeping moment and we cannot escape.
If a teaching tells me that I am limited and dying; that death and change is all there is. That change is the only constant in an ever fluctuating universe and, that death alone is permanent. Is it telling me anything that I don’t know already. Not telling me anything, showing me what I already know, I don’t need a teaching for that.
A teaching shows me something I don’t know. Something I couldn’t see before.
If someone can show me the opposite of dying; that I am the immortal absolute; that in amongst everything busy dying and changing there is something deathless and eternal: constant. Showing me that I am that constant; that the ephemeral does not exist. That accomodating the ephemeral, something pure, absolutely changeless and permanent exists. Not only this; it shows beyond any shadow of a doubt, that this changeless permanence is nothing but myself already, without doing a thing – without lifting a finger. That in the entire universe, all I am missing is knowledge. Until my knowledge is complete, I am the only piece missing. If a teaching can show me this, sure I should be interested. Knock me off my feet.
The secret
TRUTH
Self-knowledge which comes at the end of the vedas as part of the upanishads, is the ultimate teaching of yoga. Atma Vidya introduces and points out one’s true Self. Removing all doubt, the teacher who knows how, uses a methodology to point out and help recognise the invisible. Unrecognisable, imperishable, yet the very content of all existence: SATCHITANANDA. The Changeless Bliss, eternally Present is oneself.
Experiencing nothing less 24/7 in every waking, sleeping, dreaming moment than the truth, until the teacher points out the Self that is ever closer than the closest, like the sun, hiding behind clouds, ignorance hides it and we never see it.
Until someone asks ignorance is our bliss. Until its not. Not an experience, Self is not a taste, not a sensation, or perception, but the very content of all sensations and perception. Not something we can see, or touch, being relative, wanting to experience it experience is blind. Already all we’re experiencing, nothing in our experience tells us the nature. To know what we are experiencing, someone needs to show us. Being all that we are experiencing, truth being nearer than the nearest, ever present, unless it is pointed out stays hidden and goes unnoticed. Remaining ever elusive and unknown, the eternal touching us 24/7, exists between two unseens. The relative and the absolute. Stuck in between, the human is creations, Gods greatest gift and best kept secret!
Blindly experiencing the Truth, ignorantly and innocently blissful, believing ideas and beliefs are all we are, taking our idea of ourselves to be reality, as though stealing the eternal, experience blinds us even further. Seeing and seeking our identity in individuality, personalising everything, as long as we take ‘what we have’ to be ‘who we are’ and ignore ourselves we can never be happy. Whoever or whatever we see as our completeness, our happiness, owns us. Our individuality owns us.
Whoever owns your identity owns the truth. As long as we don’t know ourselves, owned by everything, our identity owns us, our beliefs own us. Grandparents, ancestors, our parents own us. Stuck in our idea, a mystery to ourselves, our mystery owns us. Until ‘I’gets int crisis and we question our ideas, ignorance holds us hostage. Taking a thought we have, an idea we create of ourselves, to be who we are, enslaves us. Slaves to identity, individuality, thinking we own everything, everything; mortgage, loans, bank account owns us. Meanwhile, hidden in plain sight is the Creation’s Grand Secret and Greatest Prize and blessing.
The moment Truth is recognised, truth erupts like a volcano, and the blackhole of worries separating us from ourselves instantly evaporates. No longer living in a vacuum, free to be the free-est, life no longer a constant crisis, having always been freer than the free-est we free to get on with our lives.
The moment you hear the Truth, and knowledge takes place, finding the missing piece in the universe to be yourself, the vacuum and weight of the universe instantly lifts off your shoulders. Until then try with all your might, no matter what we throw at it, you being all thats missing, the blackhole doesn’t go away. Tied to the vacuum of ignorance, it can’t get filled and the hole just keeps getting bigger. Feeding on our ignorance, the more we throw in the vacuum, the hole just keeps getting bigger.
Until about to fall in, and get swallowed up, if we’re lucky we meet a teacher and the truth gets pointed out.
In the presence of ignorance everything; the whole universe, still a mystery is a vacuum. In its absence, no vacuums exists.
Knowledge of ‘I’ resolves the vacuum and instantly lifts the weight of the universe off our shoulders.
Crisis
The Holiest Point in Anyone's LifeTo reach the end of the crisis, crisis being holiest point in one’s life, and resolve all conflict, ignorance has to end. Knowledge of ‘I’. resolves the crisis. I being all that’s in the way and getting in crisis, the Truth of who we are just needs to be pointed out.
Who am I?
My ignorance is my bliss
Until I get lost and in a crisis my ignorance is still my bliss and my innocence still a virtue. If the crisis that comes along is mild, I think I can solve the crisis by reinventing myself. As long as I keep on reinventing myself I think I can keep on avoiding the crisis. Avoiding the truth, once the crisis gets fully blown, when I am the thing in crisis and reason for the crisis is myself – then I can no longer ignore myself. And my ignorance no longer blissful becomes a huge burden, and no longer able to ignore the truth and plead innocence, instead of a virtue innocence becomes a massive liability.
Me being the only thing in crisis, the longer I ignore the crisis, getting conflicted and full of doubt, dragging doubt onto myself ‘I’ keeps pulling me into crisis. Wanting the conflict and crisis to end and confusion to stop and crisis disappear, once the truth of who ‘I am’ is made clear, being shown and knowing the Self, makes all doubts disappear and being convinced all my insecurities and crises go away and suffering ends.
Pointing out the ‘I’ no longer a mystery and secret, the teacher unravels the mystery, and I am free.
No longer teacher, no longer student. Both roles drop out.
What we are already is the truth. What we bring with us is nothing but the truth. The solution ever available being ourselves, already nearer than the nearest, finding out that the solution is already ourselves is Self-knowledge.
The architect and reason for all my conflict and only thing in crisis being myself, means I must be the solution! To solve my problem and make it go away, all I need to acknowledge is the truth of who I am.
Like the sun burning off all the darkness in the morning, Self-knowledge burning off our ignorance, makes all the clouds disappear.
ATma Vidya
Already the Truth, already the solution, knowledge is all that’s missing Truth is the only option.
the Challenge
For society to thrive and survive we need to change our behaviour. When we no longer allow ignorance of ourselves to rule and guide humanity we reclaim the future. Already we carry nothing but the truth with us. Already the complete solution and destination. Because we don’t know it or know how, no one has pointed it out yet. So we struggle. Until we get reminded and recognise the truth of who we are, truth challenges us every moment. Every mille-second the universe challenges us life is an endless struggle. It is literally up to us. Either we survive to see the miracle that we are or ignorance wont allow us to survive. Staring into the abyss of the future, is one thing: ‘I’ – human being. For society to change and change not happen to us, we have to change.
Civilisation is in crisis. Causing all our difficulty and agony, putting us all on notice is one thing: ignorance. Relying on an idea, a notion; our individuality, something we create, we have created a virus. Taking ourselves to be something we’re not, a notion, we have turned individuality into a disease. Self-replicating the virus of individuality is killing everyone. Trying to hold onto something that doesn’t exist, believing in a lie we have become, pulls us into a blackhole. To stop the virus replicating and save future generations, all we need to recognise is the truth.
One question needs answering.
Who is ‘I’?
Once we explode the ‘I’ and discover it’s true meaning the virus of ignorance disappears and universe explodes.
I turns out to be the solution. Introducing us to ourselves, in Self-knowledge we acknowledge and recognising the source, and the virus no longer having anything to hold onto disappears. Crisis turns out to be the opportunity we have to recognise the truth. Truth is the vaccine. Truth already existing as ourselves only needs recognition, introducing: pointing out.
Self-knowledge echoing through the generations, is the oldest teaching of mankind and points out what is already waiting. Existing already yet not Self-evident, is the Truth. To be recognised it has to be pointed out. Being nothing more than the constant, permanently changeless ever existing as all of us, knowing the Eternal we reclaim the future.
The ReSolution
Until someone pulls the plug on the swamp and drains our ignorance, our secret, safely hidden is a mystery pending discovery. Blind to the eternal gem, the secret that creation has been hiding from us is ourselves. Knowledge being the only thing missing and only solution, Self is the eternal destination. To know Self is to discover life’s Greatest secret. Creation’s greatest surprise and Grand Prize explodes when someone opens the door for us and introduces us to this ‘I’.
What is us and what is waiting is so mind bogglingly simple.
Having heard about it, take whatever step necessary to secure your seat in the future.
Perhaps, creation is not yet made a crisis big enough to make you want to yield and find out its secret. Perhaps you don’t feel threatened enough to find out. But the door and meaning to your existence is open 24/7.
Climate crisis and pandemics escalating gives you a front row seat. Forced to question ourselves as a species, everything else being questionable, the one thing that is unquestionably existing is ourselves.
Looking for answers; ignorance challenges us to do the one thing that makes our life worthwhile. Answering the one question that is answerable: ‘Who am I?’ ‘What am I doing here?’
Answering ‘I’ makes all our questions and problems disappear.
Knowing yourself as the constant, permanent amidst all that is changing could well be your saviour.
THirsty
Thirsty, hungry for knowledge, desperate to end life’s crisis, looking for an oasis to quench our thirst, in Self-knowledge we discover the perpetual oasis that is ever ourselves and the search for hungerlessness is over.
YOU are the water itself
John Weddepohl