QUOTES ABOUT ATMAN

 A Psychological analysis of our worldly experience ordinarily gives us both the feeling of persistence and change. This personal experience expresses a cosmic truth. An examination of any doctrine of creation similarly reveals two fundamental concepts, those of Being and Becoming, Changelessness and Change, the One and the Many. In Sanskrit, they are called the Kutastha and Bhava or Bhavana. The first is the Spirit or Purusha or Brahman and Atman which is unlimited Being (Sat), Consciousness (Cit) and Bliss (Ananda). According to Indian notions the Atman as such is and never becomes. Its Power (Shakti) manifests as Nature, which is the subject of change. We may understand Nature in a two-fold sense: first, as the root principle or noumenal cause of the phenomenal world, that is, as the Principle of Becoming and secondly, as such World. Nature in the former sense is Mulaprakriti, which means that which exists as the root (Mula) substance of things before (Pra), creation (Kriti), and which, in association with Cit, either truly or apparently creates, maintains and destroys the Universe. This Mulaprakriti the Sharada Tilaka calls Mulabhuta Avyakta, and the Vedanta (of Shamkara to which alone I refer) Maya.

 A Sadhaka should meditate on his own Self as one and the same with Her (Taya sahitam atmanam ekibhutam vicintayet)" and so on

 away death. Indrajorsooth, by his holy disciplehood brought the light to the gods. 20. The plants, that which was and shall be, day and night, the tree, the year along with the seasons, have sprung from the Brahmakârin. 21. The earthly and the heavenly animals, the wild and the domestic, the wingless and the winged (animals), have sprung from the Brahmakârin. 2 All the creatures of Pragâpati (the creator) severally carry breath in their souls. All these the brahma, which has been brought hither in the Brahmakârin, protects. 23. This, that was set into motion by the gods, that is insurmountable, that moves shining, from it has sprung the brâhmanam (Brahmanical life), the highest brahma, and all the gods, together with immortality (amrita). 24, 25. The Brahmakârin carries the shining brahma: into this all the gods are woven. Producing in-breathing and out-breathing, as well as through-breathing; speech, mind, heart, brahma, and wisdom, do thou furnish us with sight, hearing, glory, food, semen, blood, and belly! 26. These things the Brahmakârin fashioned upon the back of the (heavenly) water. He stood in the sea kindled with tapas (creative fervour). He, when he has bathed, shines vigorously upon the earth, brown and ruddy

 Evam dhyatva tato devim so'ham atmanam arcayet

 Kali Tantra says: "Having meditated in this way, a Sadhaka should worship Devi as his own Atma, thinking I am Brahman." Kubjika Tantra says (Devi is called Kubjika because She is Kundali

 The invisible Spirit (Atma, Atman) is eternal, and the visible physical body

 The salvation of the soul is secured by union with Brahma, the supreme and eternal Atman (Self), "the power which receives back to itself again all worlds. . . . The identity of the Brahma and the Atman, of God and the Soul, is the fundamental thought of the entire doctrine of the Upanishads."

 The Tantra contains nothing like idolatry or 'worship of the doll' which we, taking the cue from the Christian missionaries, nowadays call it. This truth, the author, Arthur Avalon, has made very clear in the Introduction to his translation. The Tantra repeatedly says that one is to adore the Deity by becoming a Deity (Devata) himself. The Ishta-devata is the very self of Atman, and not separate from It; He is the receptacle of all, yet He is not contained in anything, for He is the great witness, the eternal Purusha. The true Tantrik worship is the worship in and by the mind. The less subtle form of Tantrik worship is that of the Yantra. Form is born of the Yantra. The form is made manifest by Japa, and awakened by Mantra-Shakti. Tens of millions of beautiful forms of the Mother bloom forth in the heavens of the heart of the Siddhapurusha. Devotees or aspirants of a lower order of competency (Nimna-adhikari) under the directions of the Guru adore the great Maya by making manifest'. (to themselves) one of Her various forms which can be only seen by Dhyana (meditation). That is not mere worship of the idol! if it were so, the image would not be thrown into the water; no one in that case would be so irreverent as to sink the earthen image of the Goddess in the water. The Primordial Shakti is to be awakened by Bhava, by Dhyana, by Japa and by the piercing of the six Cakras. She is all will. No one can say when and how She shows Herself and to what Sadhaka. We only know that She is, and there are Her names and forms. Wonderfully transcending is Her form :: far beyond the reach of word or