(7) Bhaavah -One who ‘becomes’ (Bhavati iti Bhaavah) Himself into the movable and the Immovable beings and things in the world. He is the Pure Existence in all the sentient organisms and the insentient objects in the universe. Hence He is indicated by the term Bhaavah.

(8) Bhootaatmaa -He is the Aatman of all the beings: The very ‘Be’ in ill the living beings. Just as the same universal space plays in all rooms as the room-space, or in all pots as the pot-space, so the Infinite Life playing through any given vehicle is called the Aatman of the vehicle. It is well known that space everywhere is one and the same; so too, the One Reality sports as though different Aatmans. This One Universal Soul is called in Vedanta the Supreme Brahman (Para-Brahman) .In Bhaagavata, the Lord is addressed as “You are the One Self in all living creatures ever illumining all their experiences.’’ In Kathopanishad: “The One enchanting Truth that revels in every form manifesting in plurality”.

(9) Bhoota-bhaavanah -One who creates and multiplies the creatures; meaning the One, who is the cause for the birth and who is responsible for the growth of all living creatures.

Stanza 2

pootaatmaa paramaatmaa cha
muktaanaam paramaa gatih
avyayah purushah saakshee
kshetrajno akshara eva cha.

10) Poota-atmaa -One with an extremely Pure (Pootam) Essence; One who is not affected the least by the impurities of Maayaa. The Self is beyond all vaasanaas and, therefore, He cannot be affected by anyone of the manifestations of Maayaa such as thoughts of the intellect, emotions of the mind or the perceptions of the body. Immaculate is ever the Self, and so He is termed as the Pure Self (Poota-Aatmaa).

(11) Parama-atmaa -The Supreme, meaning that which transcends all limitations and imperfections of matter: in short, the Transcendental Reality. The Spirit is other than matter, and that in its presence, the vestures of matter, borrowing their dynamism from Him, play their parts rhythmically at all times. This has been the assertion found chorusly repeated in all the Upanishads and in the entire Vedantic literature. Sankara in Aatma Bodha points out that the Self is other than the three bodies and that He functions in the microcosm as a king in the nation. It was also said therein that matter borrows its energy from the Spirit and continues its activity “as the world from the Sun”.

Kathopanishad and the Geeta guide us from the outer levels of our personality, stage by stage, into the inner-most sanctum, and there, the teachers declare, is He the Infinite, transcending all, reigning in His own glory. “In short, that which remains other than the cause and effect-Maayaa and matter-is He, the Parama Aatman. In Vishnu Purana this Supreme is glorified as Maha Vishnu (Paramaatmaa)”-Vishnu Purana 6.4.10...

(12) Muktaanaam paramaa gatih -He who is the final Goal, that is reached by all the liberated souls. The limitations and bondages lived through by man are in fact the destiny of the matter vestures. Through delusion of un-understanding, we identify with them and come to suffer the consequent sense of imperfections. To liberate ourselves from the thraldom of matter is to realize the Self. Hence the Truth is defined as the Supreme Goal of the emancipated.

This ‘Goal’ to be attained is called as ‘Gati’ in Sanskrit, “The Supreme Goal” (Paramaa Gatih) would necessarily be then that Goal, having reached which, there is no return: “There where having gone, men never return, That sacred place is My seat”-Geeta Ch. 15. St. 6. In Geeta. (Ch. 8. St. 6) even more explicitly the same idea has been asserted by Sri Krishna when He says: “O Son of Kunti, having reached Me, there shall be no more any re-birth”.

Again, He defines the final Goal as “That having reached no return again” – Geeta Ch. 15, st.4.

(13) Avyaah –“Vyaya” means destruction; destruction cannot be without change; therefore, that which is “without destruction” (Avyayah) is the changeless. The Indestructible, and therefore, changeless, can never have any modifications (Parinaama). For, modification is but the death of a previous condition and the birth of a new condition. The Eternal and the Immutable (Avyayah) is the Supreme Sat-chit- aananda, and every other thing and being come under the hammer or change. The medium in which all these changes are sustained is Brahman, the Immutable. The Upanishads glorify Him as “Ajaro Amaro Avyayah”-without old age, death or change.

(14) Purushah -One who dwells in the Fort-city (Puri sete iti Purushah). Herein metaphorically the Rishis conceive our body as a fortress with nine gate-ways-“Nava Dvaarc Pure Dehee”-(Geeta Ch. 5, St. 13) -and declare the One who rules within it, like a king, is the Self.

This term can also be dissolved in two more different ways giving more and more suggestions to the nature of the Self. Thus, Purusha can mean “That which was before all creatures” -Puraa Aaseet iti Purushah or it can be “One who completes and fulfils the Existence everywhere”, meaning, without whom Existence is impossible (Poorayati iti Purushah).

This Aatman remains in the bodies of living creatures as their individuality (Jeeva) and in all the activities, physical, mental and intellectual, Aatman is not in fact involved but He is therein only an observer of all that is happening. This will become clear in the following discussion.

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