Hi Ramji,
I think this is a case of mistaken identity. Please could you check my logic. The “I” that I typically identify with (jiva) is the subtle body (mind, intellect, ego). But the subtle body, although fine, is not conscious. It is built from sattva (material). It is the “light” of consciousness dancing on the subtle apparatus that enlivens it. Without consciousness, this jiva does not exist (obvious).
Now, the consciousness cannot belong or be inside any individual subtle body because that would mean that there are many individuated, cut up consciousnesses. And that does not make sense; how can there be many consciousnesses? I know everyone experiences consciousness identically; there can be nothing that differentiates it.
So the idea of reflection on the subtle body makes the most sense because that means it is not going to be affected by any qualities (rajas, tamas, sattva) that individuates it. The analogy of the clay and the pot makes sense because it comes to the common denominator of what makes everything exist, what I am. It follows then that I am non-different from anything in this existence/mithya (non-duality). Q.E.D. (we write this at the end of a math proof )
Ramji: Got it in one, Judy. Gold star. Go to the head of the class!!! Now, when emotion happens bring this knowledge to the mind. The Self is not affected by the mind, just moon’s light doesn’t illumine the sun. A ray of sunlight is not affected as it travels to the moon but the light of consciousness seems to become affected when it strikes the surface of the moon because gunas are embedded in the reflecting medium. Are the few rays of sunlight that reflect on the Subtle Body different from the totality of the sun’s rays? No. Are they actually contaminated by their association with the reflecting medium, the moonlike Subtle Body? No. Can the jiva or the Self do anything about this process? No.
An individual appears as a result of this process. If a jiva appears it will disappear as it does in deep sleep only to reappear. If it appears and disappears is it real? No. It just seems to be real. This is why you shouldn’t trust your feelings. They “feel” real but they aren’t. They come and go. They are generated by Isvara, which is to say karma, the actions the Self did when it didn’t know it was incapable of action. When you understand what the Self is you don’t do actions any more with the idea that you have something to gain or lose. You lose the status of a doer, feeler, thinker, perceiver, enjoyer. The Subtle body perceives, thinks, acts and enjoys blessed by your light, but you remain unaffected. The emotions are no longer important when this knowledge is firm.
Judy: Thank you, it is beautiful Ramji. I understand now the ignorance in my message before. It is about being – correctly – oriented in the stream of life as Awareness.
Ramji: Yes, indeed. Never think you’re anything other than the satchitananda atma. Live it every minute of the day.
Love,
Ramji
