How can atma be translated as the Supreme Lord?
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Transcript
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question from Vilas Manjari Mataji in the Ishopanishad verse 6 the word atmani is translated as supreme lord but the normal meaning of the word atma is soul isn’t it or is it is the term atma overloaded so that it can mean different things in different context yes the word atma essentially means self now what the self refers to that can vary according to time, place, circumstance so at one level if we see in the Bhagavad Gita the standard usage of the word atma is soul, soul means the person within us, who we are but then the Bhagavad Gita also uses uddhare dātmanātmānaṁ nātmānaṁ avasādayatātmai vayātmanubandhurātmai variparātmana 6.5 it says elevate yourself with the mind, Prabhupāda translates that or don’t degrade yourself with the mind the mind is the friend of the soul and the mind is the enemy also so here ātmā Prabhupāda translates as the mind, now previous ācāryas some of them translate the ātmā as the soul others translate it as the mind so both translations are acceptable and if you look at the context, the previous verse the next verses are talking about the mind bandhurātmātmanastasya so in that sense the word the translation mind also makes sense now, so the point is here we have an example of the word ātmā being translated as the mind, similarly the first word of the Isopanishad is īśāvāsyamīram sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyām jagat tena tyaktena bhuñjītā mā grudhakasya sviddhanam now in the in the eighth canto of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the prayers that Swayambhuva Manu is offering to the Supreme Lord, there is a similar verse except for the first letter being first word being changed ātmāvāsyamīram sarvaṁ yat kiñca jagatyām jagat tena tyaktena bhuñjītā mā grudhakasya sviddhanam so, the Isopanishad is clear here, īśāvāsyamīram sarvaṁ the Upanishad about the īśā and īśāvāsyamīram sarvaṁ, everything belongs to the Lord and one should take that which is one’s quota now if you look at this context Swayambhuva Manu is praying to someone clearly the context is prayers and prayers are offered to some higher being so when he is saying ātmāvāsyamīram sarvaṁ then this ātmā cannot refer to the self that means everything is owned by the self, then tena tyaktena bhuñjītā mā grudhakasya sviddhanam doesn’t make any sense in that context because if everything is owned by the self then why should we stick to our quota? if I am the self and everything belongs to the self then there is no reason for the self to be restricted, everything belongs to the self then, but then the point is ātmā here there will be an inherent contradiction in the verse if the word ātmā is said to refer to the soul so ātmā here refers to the supreme being and similarly in the Govinda Bhāṣya commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra, Baldevī Devotee on many occasions states that the word ātmā refers to the supreme lord so all this I gave from the contextual point of view at context where the word ātmā does not necessarily have to refer to the soul it can refer to the so when the ātmā is said to refer to the mind at that time, people conceive of their mind as themselves so now Baldev, Ramanujacharya his whole philosophy is based on compares God with the soul and human beings with the body so in that case, God becomes the self of the self so we are the self but our self because we are parts of Krishna so we are parts of Krishna that means our self is the self of our self is Krishna so thus is God Krishna so in that sense ātmani which is translated in the Īśopaniṣad as the supreme lord that has many other places where resonance is there and if you look at the Īśopaniṣad’s context itself so before this and after this, there are verses which clearly refer to the supreme being so here it is that lord who is supreme, that lord who is self manifested this is clearly we are not self manifested so if you look at the verses before and look at the verses after they are clearly referring to the supreme lord and therefore this verse in this verse the word ātmani from the context is more soundly translated as the as the supreme lord