Paramatman
Paramātman (IAST)Translation: "the supreme Self"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: परमात्मन्
Transliteration: Paramātman
Translation: "the supreme Self; Brahman; God; the Absolute (from parama = "highest" + ātma = "Self")"
Definition: "According to Sāṅkhya, the conscious individual (Puruṣa) is called Paramātman."
The Upanishads: Volume I (Swami Nikhilananda)
"The Vedānta philosophy admits the existence of a multitude of individual souls, Jivātmās, and distinguishes these from the Supreme Soul, Paramātmā. The individual soul is attached to a body and is the victim of hunger and thirst, pain and pleasure, good and evil, and the other pairs of opposites. Limited in power and wisdom, it is entangled in the eternal round of Samsāra and seeks deliverance from it. Scriptural study, instruction from a teacher, and practice of ethical and spiritual disciplines are all meant for the benefit of bound, individual souls. The Supreme Soul, or Brahman, is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. It is eternally free, illumined, and pure.
When a man realizes Brahman, he transcends the scriptures, ethics, and the injunctions of religion; but until that moment the experiences of the embodied individual soul are real to him. As long as he sees good and evil, he must cultivate the former and shun the latter. The experience of deep sleep is real to the sleeper, but it ceases to exist when he begins to dream. Dream experiences are real to the dreamer, but become meaningless when he is awake. Likewise, waking experiences are real to the waking person, but become meaningless to him when he attains the Knowledge of Brahman.
Though the individual soul and the Supreme Soul are apparently as different from each other as "a glow-worm from the sun and a mustard seed from Mt. Everest," yet in reality they are completely identical. Each individual soul is Brahman, the Absolute. Its real nature appears to be limited by the Upādhis of the sense-organs, the mind, the Prāna, and so forth, all created by ignorance, or Avidyā. Under the influence of this cosmic illusion, which is capable of making the impossible possible, the attributeless Brahman becomes both Maheśvara, or the Supreme Lord, and the Jīva, or individual soul. The former has Māyā under his control; the latter is controlled by Māyā. The individual soul takes Māyā to be real. The Upanishads admit the empirical reality (Vyavahārika Sattvā) of the Jīva and deal with its characteristics, wanderings, and final deliverance. But it must always be remembered that the self is Ātman, one and without a second. "This is your self that is within all."
Ātman, through Māyā, has projected material forms from Itself and then entered into them as their living self—anena jivena ātmanā anupraviśya. Thus, the Upanishads speak of two souls, as it were, dwelling side by side in man: the Real Soul and the apparent soul. "Two there are who dwell within the body, in the Buddhi, the supreme Ākāśa of the heart, enjoying the sure rewards of their own actions. The knowers of Brahman describe them as light and shade..." When it is said that the Supreme Soul enjoys rewards, the statement is to be taken in a figurative sense. He does not, in reality, enjoy anything, but looks on indifferently at the activities of the other soul. The contrast between the two is made vivid in the following text: "Two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other looks on without eating. On the same tree the Puruṣa sits, grieving, immersed, bewildered by his own impotence. But when he sees the other, the Lord, contented, and knows His glory, then his grief passes away." The whole fifth chapter of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is devoted to the contrast between the Supreme Soul and the individual soul. The individual soul is endowed with desire, ego, and mind; it enjoys the fruits of its actions; it is limited and insignificant. But it wins Immortality after ridding itself of its Upādhis. Then it is recognized as identical with the infinitely great Supreme Soul. "It is not woman, it is not man, nor is it neuter. Whatever body it takes, with that it is joined. By means of thoughts, touching, seeing, and passions, the Jīva assumes successively, in various places, various forms in accordance with his deeds, just as the body grows when food and drink are poured into it. The Jīva assumes many shapes, coarse or refined, in accordance with his virtue, and having himsef caused his union with them, is seen as different beings, through the qualities of his acts and the qualities of his body.
It has already been stated that the Supreme Soul, through Māyā, assumes a limited body and becomes finite and individualized. The great mystery is that even while subjected to all the limitations and sufferings of the relative world, It does not in reality lose, even in the slightest degree, Its perfect nature. While the Jīva, compelled by the bright and dark fruits of its actions, enters on a good or bad birth, follows a course upwards or downwards, and roams about overcome by the pairs of opposites, "his immortal Self remains like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. He himself is overcome by the Guṇas of nature. Then, because he is thus overcome, he becomes bewildered, and because he is bewildered, he does not see the Creator, the holy Lord, abiding within himself. Carried along by the waves of the Guṇas, darkened in his imagination, unstable, fickle, crippled, full of desires, vacillating, sensual, disordered, and a prey to delusion, he fancies: 'This is I,' 'This is mine,' and fetters himself by his own action, as a bird by its nest.""
When a man realizes Brahman, he transcends the scriptures, ethics, and the injunctions of religion; but until that moment the experiences of the embodied individual soul are real to him. As long as he sees good and evil, he must cultivate the former and shun the latter. The experience of deep sleep is real to the sleeper, but it ceases to exist when he begins to dream. Dream experiences are real to the dreamer, but become meaningless when he is awake. Likewise, waking experiences are real to the waking person, but become meaningless to him when he attains the Knowledge of Brahman.
Though the individual soul and the Supreme Soul are apparently as different from each other as "a glow-worm from the sun and a mustard seed from Mt. Everest," yet in reality they are completely identical. Each individual soul is Brahman, the Absolute. Its real nature appears to be limited by the Upādhis of the sense-organs, the mind, the Prāna, and so forth, all created by ignorance, or Avidyā. Under the influence of this cosmic illusion, which is capable of making the impossible possible, the attributeless Brahman becomes both Maheśvara, or the Supreme Lord, and the Jīva, or individual soul. The former has Māyā under his control; the latter is controlled by Māyā. The individual soul takes Māyā to be real. The Upanishads admit the empirical reality (Vyavahārika Sattvā) of the Jīva and deal with its characteristics, wanderings, and final deliverance. But it must always be remembered that the self is Ātman, one and without a second. "This is your self that is within all."
Ātman, through Māyā, has projected material forms from Itself and then entered into them as their living self—anena jivena ātmanā anupraviśya. Thus, the Upanishads speak of two souls, as it were, dwelling side by side in man: the Real Soul and the apparent soul. "Two there are who dwell within the body, in the Buddhi, the supreme Ākāśa of the heart, enjoying the sure rewards of their own actions. The knowers of Brahman describe them as light and shade..." When it is said that the Supreme Soul enjoys rewards, the statement is to be taken in a figurative sense. He does not, in reality, enjoy anything, but looks on indifferently at the activities of the other soul. The contrast between the two is made vivid in the following text: "Two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other looks on without eating. On the same tree the Puruṣa sits, grieving, immersed, bewildered by his own impotence. But when he sees the other, the Lord, contented, and knows His glory, then his grief passes away." The whole fifth chapter of the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad is devoted to the contrast between the Supreme Soul and the individual soul. The individual soul is endowed with desire, ego, and mind; it enjoys the fruits of its actions; it is limited and insignificant. But it wins Immortality after ridding itself of its Upādhis. Then it is recognized as identical with the infinitely great Supreme Soul. "It is not woman, it is not man, nor is it neuter. Whatever body it takes, with that it is joined. By means of thoughts, touching, seeing, and passions, the Jīva assumes successively, in various places, various forms in accordance with his deeds, just as the body grows when food and drink are poured into it. The Jīva assumes many shapes, coarse or refined, in accordance with his virtue, and having himsef caused his union with them, is seen as different beings, through the qualities of his acts and the qualities of his body.
It has already been stated that the Supreme Soul, through Māyā, assumes a limited body and becomes finite and individualized. The great mystery is that even while subjected to all the limitations and sufferings of the relative world, It does not in reality lose, even in the slightest degree, Its perfect nature. While the Jīva, compelled by the bright and dark fruits of its actions, enters on a good or bad birth, follows a course upwards or downwards, and roams about overcome by the pairs of opposites, "his immortal Self remains like a drop of water on a lotus leaf. He himself is overcome by the Guṇas of nature. Then, because he is thus overcome, he becomes bewildered, and because he is bewildered, he does not see the Creator, the holy Lord, abiding within himself. Carried along by the waves of the Guṇas, darkened in his imagination, unstable, fickle, crippled, full of desires, vacillating, sensual, disordered, and a prey to delusion, he fancies: 'This is I,' 'This is mine,' and fetters himself by his own action, as a bird by its nest.""
References:
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: StateUniversity of New York Press
- Nikhilananda, Swami (1949). The Upanishads: Volume I—Katha, Iśa, Kena, and Mundaka. New York, New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. p. 87-89.
