The story of the ignorant prince - Chapter 4

Human beings have 3 strong desires that are universal; the desire to live, the desire to be happy and the desire to know. We saw previously how this is due to our inherent nature being that of limitless existence, happiness and consciousness. This inherent nature is called the Self or atman (आत्मन्) in Vedanta philosophy. Despite our inherent nature of satchitananda swaroopa (सत्चिदानन्द स्वरूप) why do we find ourselves to be limited, mortal, mostly unhappy, and largely ignorant? The entire teachings of Upanishads and consequently of shastra (sruthi, smrithi granthas and puranas are collectively referred to as shastra) is an answer to this question.

When one is asked to introduce oneself, one would do so on the following lines: I am Devadutta, son of Yajnadutta, 26 years old, 5’9” tall, 73 kg, working in a primary school as a teacher, I am intelligent, I am generous but short-tempered. If we analyze closely, we shall understand that one has talked about oneself only with reference to something else. Devadutta with reference to Yajnadutta is a son. With reference to his body he is 26 years old, 5’9” tall, 73 kg. With reference to the primary school, he is a teacher. With reference to his intellect, he is intelligent. With reference to his mind, he is generous and short-tempered. Free from these references who one is, is the Self or atman ((आत्मन्) and consequently anything that one identifies with as himself (body-mind-sense complex) which has limitations and is mortal is called anatma (अनात्मा).

Sastra (शास्त्र) attributes the entire misery of mankind to the conflict between being atman (of the nature of limitless existence, consciousness, happiness) and identifying oneself with anatma (which is limited and mortal) and seeks to remove this conflict by removing the ignorance one has about oneself. Consider that a prince of a vast & prosperous kingdom is kidnapped when he is a child and is raised by a tribal family and remains oblivious about his real identity. Despite being the rightful heir of immeasurable wealth, he lives a life of misery given to begging. How merely removing the ignorance about his real identity will instantly put the prince out of his misery so too would our conflict get immediately resolved when ignorance about our true nature is removed through the knowledge of the Self or atmajnanam (आत्मज्ञानं). It is because of this reason that atmajnanam (आत्मज्ञानं) is called direct knowledge or aparoksha jnanam (अपरोक्ष ज्ञानं).

For one to have any knowledge the right means of knowledge needs to be used. Prama (प्रम) denotes valid knowledge that is true to the object. Pramanam (प्रमाणम्) is the appropriate means or instrument of knowledge that needs to be used to get prama (प्रम). Pramatru (प्रमातृ) is the knower and prameya (प्रमेय) is that which is known. In Vedanta philosophy there are 6 accepted pramanas (प्रमाणम्) that are means to getting knowledge and one of 6 is the means for getting the knowledge of the Self.