Our eye is considered the chief sensory organ, equally so the wisdom organ. Reason being every physical entity, the whole tangible world is seen through the eyes. Our scriptures also harp upon the aspect of the eye being principal organ for the living being. It is said so in our ancient scriptures “Sarvendriyanam Nayanam Pradhanam”.
While the eye does the function of seeing, rather beholding the surrounding phenomena and all the entities with little difference, equally, the mind cognizes and registers the fact that obtains. This is merely the external factor and process of perception that is ordinary, ever taken for granted. Inner faculty of discretion choice. and discerning filter the seen gross reality.
In this process of verification of the ambient physical reality, it is observed nothing is permanent and subject to change with the passage of the fleeting time. Some seen entities even exit, pass off, pass away, becoming extinct. Some others change with the passage of time. This change could be so deep, or so overwhelming that the original form could not even be cognized.
Despite the fleeting change, as also the gross extinction of what is seen often, the human being comprehends, cognizes, and superficially perceives what is physically seen, that is whatever his eyes witness. This continuous process takes place within the individual self.
This self again swayed by the instincts, impulses, feelings, emotions and so on, applying his little known reason to whatever is seen that is verily superficial. All this passes on continually within the given life span with little respite in the wakeful state, acquiring semi permanence. At times even falsely seen as permanent, becoming a bondage. These become temporal trappings, worldly bondages and at times even deeper preoccupations bordering obsessions which the ancients deemed as vasanas. The individual having little choice over these processes within and without.
This becomes the whole engagement and continual play for the little self, the individual who subsists, thrives, at times gets bound, suffers too in the process. He tends to assign a degree of permanence to his little pursuits while even his life time is fleeting, that passes of compulsively abandoning all that he harbored, cherished and longed for without
When the inner inquiry, in some rare thoughtful, introspective moments, begins he tends to realize nothing that he hankers after is of permanence. All phenomena, all entities, all physical acquisitions, possessions are all passing and can never be held, retained in the flow of time. Much more so, while the very life span is momentary in the infinite flow of time, ebbing away like a bubble. The quest begins for something much more true, real and that is lasting ever. Or look for the prime force behind all this momentary, time bound life and its activity(ies).
There is a greater reality than what his eyes see and grasp. There is a higher force that even conditions his sight and vision. In the much sacred Brihadaranyakopanishat, in a very instructive dialogue with the erudite, enlightened King Janaka, the wise, realized sage Yagnavalkya establishes that the self, the person can see even without the eyes. That is sight and vision are possible in the absence of the organ eye. He sees through the inner eye, deeper vision in the self, to be much more precise the light of the Athman, that is timeless, though the human body and its sensory organs are certain to be extinct in the flow of time and completion of life span.
In course of this wise interface, and the very meaningful dialect, it is established that all the functions of the sense organs can still be conducted, pursued, even in the absence of such functional organs. All the external phenomena, processes shall yet be understood and grasped if the self, the individual shall access the seamless self, the light of the Athman. To be true, precise the light of the Athman is timeless, ageless while the body is very much subject to the limited span whatever that varies in each case from individual to individual.
The activity of the human sensory apparatus and what all the naked human eyewitnesses within its domain are subject to his little, individual, egoistic self that is highly restrictive and very much confining. Added constraint being the play of the senses and the instincts which sway, if not filter, distort the seen extent or what his eyes witness. This is the lesser mortal, the limited egoistic self, farther from the true reality that is lasting and timeless.
The individual shall transcend from this little self to the higher self. The little, limited ‘I’ shall yield place to the unlimited ‘I’. These are the multiple ‘I’s referred to by AMMA in HER saying “All ‘I’ s are contained in ME” “I am all the ‘I’s pooled together”. “I AM THAT I AM” AMMA. (“Nenu Nenina Nenu” “Anni Nenulu Nenina Nenu”). This is the reality that AMMA very tersely, succinctly put forth in HER much meaningful aphorism cited here.
To elaborate AMMA is within the self, rather all the multiple selves, within the countless living beings as also the boundless, seamless, mega infinite self that is the cause, source of this entire living order and the overall existence. Equally so it (AMMA) is verily the whole expanse and the total, entire existence and the given order that subsists all around. Such infinite ‘I’ the seamless self, the soul is within and without the living order, simultaneously being in both, all round, all pervasive, all permeating, all encompassing. “Anthu Lenidi, Addu Lenidi, Anthata Avarinchi Vunnadi” AMMA to paraphrase the same in AMMA’S inimitable simple, terse prose of the vernacular Telugu.
Granting this truth, the individual shall move beyond what his eyes witness, behold, and convey in so many picturesque graphics of the tangible reality all around continually throughout his lifetime. Persuaded to look beyond, probe within and seek the timeless, ageless reality that being the larger mega self that is without limits, bounds, nor passing away in the wake of time.
The limited individual self shall graduate from the confines of what the eyes witness to the timeless, ageless truth that being the total ‘I’, “I am that I am” (“Nenu Nenina Nenu”) pronounced by AMMA. From the tangible reality he shall transcend to this eternal truth. From the limited petty self to the seamless, boundless, limitless self.
That is the transition from the individual soul to the universal soul. That being the PRAMATHMA, PARABRAHMAN and the very BRAHMAN that is all over, all the environs and the total order, overcoming the illusion (Bhranthi) caused by his mundane physical, sight, that is what the eye witnesses, rather merely beholds in limitations. “BRAHMAN IS SANS ILLUSION” (Bhranthi Lenide Brahmam”) as pronounced by AMMA.
Precisely this is the transition from the finite individual to the infinite truth timeless. That is much desirable having been born as the discrete, discerning human, seeking the final liberation in the ever loving, motherly AMMA as decreed, ‘SEEING ME IS ATTAINING” (“Nannu Choodatame Pondatam”)