What is Atmajnaanam

[dattaswami]

What is Atmajnaanam

The ultimate conclusion of the meaning of the word Atman is only an individual human being, which is composite of body and soul. The meaning of the word Atman is very very important in spiritual knowledge because this word misled several people. The word Atmajnaanam is very important because by achieving this, one gets the salvation. People think that the word Atmajnaanam means the knowledge of self and start analyzing the soul leaving the body. Such analysis is based on the error that Atman is confined to self only. Even if you realize that Atman stands for both self and body and go on analyzing the self and body, you will not get the salvation. No doubt the Atman stands for both self and body. But, the word Atmajnaanam does not mean the analysis of self and body. It only means the analysis of identification of a specific human being, which is the composite of both self and body that is pervaded by the unimaginable God (Human incarnation).

 

Here, the word knowledge means the identification of that specific human being pervaded by the unimaginable God, which exists in this world of humanity like a specific water drop in the ocean. The word knowledge stands for only the identification knowledge of the specific human being immersed in this vast humanity and it does not mean the analysis of any human being. If somebody says “do you have any knowledge of that fellow?”, it only means the knowledge of whereabouts of that fellow. It does not mean the knowledge of anatomy of that fellow, which is as good as the anatomy of any fellow.