Class 34, Tattva Bodha

In this pivotal and deeply clarifying class, Acharya Tadany established the absolute distinction between ātmā (the consciousness principle, caitanya-svarūpam) and anātmā (the material, inert non-self), presenting every individual as a mixture of two fundamentally different components: 

(1) ātmā — the unchanging, eternal, non-material “I,” the real self, the pure subject, the witness, the experiencer; 

And (2) anātmā — the temporary, inert body-mind-sense complex (three bodies: sthūla, sūkṣma, kāraṇa), composed of matter, borrowing consciousness, serving as an object of experience and a transient instrument for transaction. 

Acharya Tadany emphasized that the body-mind-sense complex is extraordinarily valuable yet temporary — a lease we must eventually return to the elements (death is inevitable and choiceless) — and is used differently across states: physical body in waking (jāgrat), subtle body in dream (svapna), causal body in deep sleep (suṣupti), proving we are not any of these bodies since “I” remains the witness through all transitions. 

Acharya Tadany introduced dṛk-dṛśya-viveka (discrimination between seer and seen) as the key meditation practice to assimilate this truth: systematically recognize that everything experienced (external objects, body, sense organs, mind, thoughts, emotions) is an object (dṛśya), while “I” am the unchanging seer (dṛk), the subject — the principle that the subject can never become the object is a fundamental law of experience. He used powerful analogies (food becoming body yet remaining object, spectacles intimately used yet clearly object, medical tests objectifying seeing/hearing) to show even intimate parts (sense organs, mind) are objects of awareness, not the self. 

The class concluded that regular dṛk-dṛśya-viveka practice reduces identification with the temporary, increases identification with the eternal ātmā, and leads to freedom from attachment and suffering — the body is a sophisticated instrument to use wisely, not to identify with.

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