|| तत्वबोध -- 39||

TB-39 Athma lakshaNam..|TB-39|

आत्मा तर्हि क:? AthmA tharhi ka:? |TB-39|

Finally.. after all these strenous inroductions to.. 
four-fold ualifactions.. a mumukshu.. gross body definitions.. subtle body definitions.. causal body definitions.. the waking state.. the dream state.. the deep sleep state..



Then food koSA.. vital air koSa.. mind koSa.. intellect koSa.. "happiness" koSa..

Then the introduction of the OWNER.. "aham" or I.. Then the introduction of the OWNED or "MY" and "MINE".

At last the casting aside of all aof the above as the "owned" states or owned objects..

Thus the student is correctly confused.. and asks this million dollar question.. What then is this AthmA?"

Here it is important ot know why the guru (and the SAstrhra as unfolded by him) has waited this far before answering this question..

I also want to stress the importance of why a clarity here will go a long way.. Most people either define AthmA as existence knowledge bliss.. and this puts us on a trip.. there are several Orkut communities dedicated to analyzing this without any basic understanding of the importance of SAsthram. Or.. The reader gets bored with study and goes on his merry way accepting that "it is good to be a materialist.. and not worry about AthmA, after all when I am gone, who knows I even came?" 

Then there are any number of paliative paths available.. starting from "pleasure" yoga..to rAja yoga.. or worship through any number of ways I think is right.. or why worship at all? or the whole thing is a humbug.

or.. I see misery & this is what I have to do to set it right. Or a "serious mumukshu" hangs in there and wants to go further This is what kRshNa says in BG very effectively.

manushyANAm sahasrEshu (among thousands of people)
kaSchith yathati sidhDhayE (very few try for "knowing" me)
yathathAm api sidhDhAnAm (among those few who even try to remove avidhyA)
kaScith (some "lucky"guy") vEththi mAm (gets to understand me) 
thathvatha: (in the "correct" way I should be undertsood)

.