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jñānāśrayo jñāna-guṇaś cetanaḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ |
na jāto nirvikāraś ca eka-rūpaḥ svarūpa-bhāk ||
aṇur nityo vyāpti-śīlaś cid-ānandātmakas tathā |
aham artho’vyayaḥ kṣetrī bhinna-rūpaḥ sanātanaḥ ||
adāhyo’cchedya akledya aśoṣyo’kṣara eva ca |
evam ādi-guṇair yuktaḥ śeṣa-bhūtaḥ parasya vai ||
ma-kāreṇocyate jīvaḥ kṣetrajñaḥ paravān sadā |
dāsa-bhūto harer eva nānyasyaiva kadācana |
(Padma-purāṇa: Uttara-khaṇḍa, 226.34–37)
“The jīva is the bearer of awareness (jñāna), endowed with the quality of awareness, conscious, beyond material energy (prakṛti), unborn, untransformable, of one form, situated in its own nature, atomic, eternal, pervasive [of the body], of the nature of consciousness (cit) and bliss (ānanda), the referent of‘I’, undecaying, the bearer of the field [i.e., the body], of distinct form [i.e., an individual distinct from all others], never-ending, unburnable, indivisible, unmoistenable, undriable, imperishable, endowed with other attributes, by nature a subsidiary of the Paramātmā, referred to by the letter m [within Om], the knower of the field [i.e., the body] (kṣetrajñā), ever dependent, and a servant of Hari alone and never of anyone else.”
Read on →: jñānāśrayo jñāna-guṇaś
ātmā nityo’vyayaḥ śuddha ekaḥ kṣetra-jña āśrayaḥ |
avikriyaḥ sva-dṛg hetur vyāpako’saṅgy anāvṛtaḥ ||
etair dvādaśabhir vidvān ātmano lakṣaṇaiḥ paraiḥ |
ahaṁ mamety asad-bhāvaṁ dehādau mohajaṁ tyajet ||
(Śrīmad Bhāgavatam: 7.7.19–20; cited in Paramātma Sandarbha: 46)
“The ātmā is eternal [i.e. indestructible], undiminishing, pure, one [i.e., singular, not an aggregate like the body], the knower of the field [i.e., endowed with capacity for awareness], the shelter [i.e., the shelter of the senses and other faculties, such as the manas and buddhi], immutable, self-witnessing [i.e., self-luminous to its own self], the cause [i.e., the cause of the universe’s emanation], pervasive [i.e., pervasive of the body], unattached, and without any covering. By means of these twelve distinguishing characteristics of the ātmā, a learned person should give up the false notions of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ related to the body and so forth [i.e., the body’s paraphernalia], which are products of delusion.”
Read on →: ātmā nityo’vyayaḥ śuddha
rātrir gamiṣyati bhaviṣyati suprabhātaṁ
bhāsvān udeṣyati hasiṣyati paṅkajaśrīḥ |
itthaṁ vicintayati koṣa-gate dvirephe
hā hanta hanta nalinīṁ gaja ujjahāra ||
(Unknown Source)
“The night shall pass, the fine dawn shall arrive, the bright sun shall rise, and the beautiful lotus shall bloom—as a bee remaining inside the whorl [of a lotus] is thinking thus, alas, alas, an elephant has uprooted the lotus.”
Read on →: rātrir gamiṣyati bhaviṣyati suprabhātaṁ
samāsaktaṁ yadā cittaṁ jantor viṣaya-gocare |
yady evaṁ brahmaṇi syāt tat ko na mucyeta bandhanāt ||
(Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad: 6.34.5)
“When a living being’s citta is fully attached to the sphere of the sense objects, if it were to become such [i.e., if it were to become instead fully attached] to Brahman, then who would not become liberated from bondage?”
Read on →: samāsaktaṁ yadā cittaṁ
ayaṁ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghu-cetasām |
udāra-caritānāṁ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam ||
(Hitopadeśa: Mitra-lābhaḥ, 71)
“‘This is mine,’ or ‘this is someone else’s,’ is the supposing of the small-minded, whereas for those of magnanimous character, the world itself is a family.”
Read on →: ayaṁ nijaḥ paro veti
aśanaṁ me vasanaṁ me jāyā me bandhu-vargo me |
iti me me kurvāṇaṁ hanti kāla-vṛko puruṣājam ||
(Mahāsubhāṣita-saṅgraha)
“‘My food, my cloth, my wife, my relations’—saying, ‘my,’ ‘my’ [continuously], this goat of a man is devoured by the wolf of time.”
Read on →: aśanaṁ me vasanaṁ me