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Using the pot and clay simile, Adi Sankara, Tamil Saint Tirumular and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa teaches us about Atma.
Pot is our body; when the pot breaks into pieces, the sky or vacuum or air inside it mixes with the sky or air outside. Atma is not affected by the body. One mixes with the universal Brahman. Later Tamil Siddhas described the body as a leather bag.
The second simile is a potter use the same clay to make different types of vessels. This is used for one and the same thing appears differently.
The third images is , sun is reflected in several pots filled with water. It is not the real sun; but only reflection.
This pot and clay imagery is used by Sankara in many places and that comes next to his cliché Rope and Snake.
First let us look at sayings of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa:
“In potter’s shop there are vessels of different shapes and forms- pots, jars, dishes, plates etc.—but all are made of the same clay. So God is one but He is worshiped ages and climes under different names and aspects.
The stone may remain in water for numberless years; yet the water will never penetrate it. But clay is soon soaked into mud by the contact of water. So the strong heart of the faithful does not despair in the midst of trials and persecutions, but the man of weak faith is shaken even by the most trifling cause.”
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why do Hindus break a clay pot in the Funeral procession?
Breaking the pot symbolizes the release of the soul from the physical and material bonds of the world. It signifies the dissolution of the body back into the elemental cosmos, highlighting the ephemeral nature of physical existence and the beginning of the soul’s spiritual journey.
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Jar and Air
अहङ्कारादिदेहान्ता विषयाश्च सुखादयः ।
वेद्यन्ते घटवद्येन नित्यबोधस्वरूपिणा ॥ १३0 ॥
ahaṅkārādidehāntā viṣayāśca sukhādayaḥ |
vedyante ghaṭavadyena nityabodhasvarūpiṇā || 130 ||
130. By which everything from egoism down to the body, the sense-objects and pleasure etc., is known as palpably as a jar – for It is the essence of Eternal Knowledge!
Notes:
[Compare Brihadaranyaka IV. iii. 23.]
मृत्कार्यं सकलं घटादि सततं मृन्मात्रमेवाहितं
तद्वत्सज्जनितं सदात्मकमिदं सन्मात्रमेवाखिलम् ।
यस्मान्नास्ति सतः परं किमपि तत्सत्यं स आत्मा स्वयं
तस्मात्तत्त्वमसि प्रशान्तममलं ब्रह्माद्वयं यत्परम् ॥ २५१ ॥
mṛtkāryaṃ sakalaṃ ghaṭādi satataṃ mṛnmātramevāhitaṃ
tadvatsajjanitaṃ sadātmakamidaṃ sanmātramevākhilam |
yasmānnāsti sataḥ paraṃ kimapi tatsatyaṃ sa ātmā svayaṃ
tasmāttattvamasi praśāntamamalaṃ brahmādvayaṃ yatparam || 251 ||
251. All modifications of clay, such as the jar, which are always accepted by the mind as real, are (in reality) nothing but clay. Similarly, this entire universe which is produced from the real Brahman, is Brahman Itself and nothing but That. Because there is nothing else whatever but Brahman, and That is the only self-existent Reality, our very Self, therefore art thou that serene, pure, Supreme Brahman, the One without a second.
स्वयं परिच्छेदमुपेत्य बुद्धेः
तादात्म्यदोषेण परं मृषात्मनः ।
सर्वात्मकः सन्नपि वीक्षते स्वयं
स्वतः पृथक्त्वेन मृदो घटानिव ॥ १९0 ॥
svayaṃ paricchedamupetya buddheḥ
tādātmyadoṣeṇa paraṃ mṛṣātmanaḥ |
sarvātmakaḥ sannapi vīkṣate svayaṃ
svataḥ pṛthaktvena mṛdo ghaṭāniva || 190 ||
190. Though the Self of everything that exists, this Ātman, Itself assuming the limitations of the Buddhi and wrongly identifying Itself with this totally unreal entity, looks upon Itself as something different – like earthen jars from the clay of which they are made.
Notes:
[Buddhi—here stands for the Knowledge -Sheath.
As something different—as conditioned and bound, just an ignorant man may consider earthen pots as something distinct from the earth of which they are made. The wise man knows that the difference is simply due to name and form, which are creations of the mind.]
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Tirumulaar says,
மண்ணொன்று கண்டீர் இருவகைப் பாத்திரம்
திண்ணென்று இருந்தது தீவினைச் சேர்ந்தது
விண்ணின்று நீர்விழின் மீண்டுமண் ணானாற்போல்
எண்ணின்றி மாந்தர் இறக்கின்ற வாறே.-425
440: The Eye Sees Not Itself
One clay, many the receptacles
One God, pervades species all;
The eye sees things several
Yet itself it sees not;
Thus it is, we see not the God in us.
28. குசவன் திரிகையில் ஏற்றிய மண்ணைக்
குசவன் மனத்துற்ற தெல்லாம் வனைவன்
குசவனைப் போல்எங்கள் கோல்நந்தி வேண்டில்
அசைவில் உலகம் அதுஇது வாமே.1
443: Potter Fashions as His Fancy Takes
The potter mounts the clay on the wheel
The potter fashions as he conceives
Even as the Potter our Lord Nandi is;
He sways the world, this way and that
The way His Fancy takes.
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Bhagavad Gita- Sankara’s commentary:
The verse references are to the commentary on chapter XIII of the Bhagavad Gita unless otherwise stated.
Sankara several times compares the Jiva or individual life to the reflection of the sun in water. He gives the example of water pots where there seem to be many suns. The individual soul is given life by the reflection, so to say, of the sun of Brahman in the Buddhi. In verse 1 he calls this reflection the Knower of the Field and also the inmost self, pratyag-atman. It is clear that this pratyag-atman inmost self is to be regarded as in the body-mind complex, as is specifically stated by him (15), “within the envelope of the skin”. The Field-Knower lightens up (30) everything in the field (5,6) which includes love and hate and all the other mental and physical dispositions.
Sankara states clearly (VIII.3) that the supreme Self, Brahman, is first realised as in the individual body but in its fulfilment it is the universal Self.
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And Tirumular says ,
கடம் கடம் தோறும் கதிரவன் தோன்றில்
அடங்கிட மூடில் அவற்றில் அடங்கான்
விடம் கொண்ட கண்டனும் மேவிய காயத்து
அடங்கிட நின்றதும் அப் பரிசு ஆமே.1965
2002 Sivaditya is Immanent and Transcendent
In pot to pot the sun appears,
Well may you the pots close,
Yet in them you contain him not;
So, too, when Lord that poison swallowed
This body enters,
There can you contain Him not
He pervades all.
“நீர்போலாம் ஆருயிர்கள் நீர்நிரப்பு சால்உடல்கள்
ஆர்கதிர்போன் றாண்டவனு மாம்.”
என்பதனை நினைவுகூர்க. சால் – நீர்க்குடம்.
Sky in Jar
जायते नो म्रियते न वर्धते
न क्षीयते नो विकरोति नित्यः ।
विलीयमानेऽपि वपुष्यमुष्मिन्
न लीयते कुम्भ इवाम्बरं स्वयम् ॥ १३४ ॥
na jāyate no mriyate na vardhate
na kṣīyate no vikaroti nityaḥ |
vilīyamāne’pi vapuṣyamuṣmin
na līyate kumbha ivāmbaraṃ svayam || 134 ||
134. It is neither born nor dies, It neither grows nor decays, nor does It undergo any change, being eternal. It does not cease to exist even when this body is destroyed, like the sky in a jar (after it is broken), for It is independent.
Notes:
[This Sloka refers to the six states enumerated by Yaska, which overtake every being, such as birth, existence etc. The Atman is above all change.]
पूर्वं जनेरधिमृतेरपि नायमस्ति
जातक्षणः क्षणगुणोऽनियतस्वभावः ।
नैको जडश्च घटवत्परिदृश्यमानः
स्वात्मा कथं भवति भावविकारवेत्ता ॥ १५५ ॥
pūrvaṃ janeradhimṛterapi nāyamasti
jātakṣaṇaḥ kṣaṇaguṇo’niyatasvabhāvaḥ |
naiko jaḍaśca ghaṭavatparidṛśyamānaḥ
svātmā kathaṃ bhavati bhāvavikāravettā || 155 ||
155. It does not exist prior to inception or posterior to dissolution, but lasts only for a short (intervening) period; its virtues are transient, and it is changeful by nature; it is manifold, inert, and is a sense-object, like a jar; how can it be one’s own Self, the Witness of changes in all things?
Notes:
[Manifold—not a simple, and subject to constant transformations.]
Tirumular’s wooden elephant
மரத்தை மறைத்தது மாமத யானை
மரத்தில் மறைந்தது மாமத யானை
பரத்தை மறைத்தது பார்முதல் பூதம்
பரத்தில் மறைந்தது பார்முதல் பூதம்.-2251
Sublimation of Thought
Think of wood
Image of toy-elephant recedes;
Think of toy-elephant
Image of wood recedes;
Think of elements five
Thought of Param recedes
Think of Param,
Thought of elements recedes.
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यद्विभाति सदनेकधा भ्रमान्
नामरूपगुणविक्रियात्मना ।
हेमवत्स्वयमविक्रियं सदा
ब्रह्म तत्त्वमसि भावयात्मनि ॥ २६२ ॥
yadvibhāti sadanekadhā bhramān
nāmarūpaguṇavikriyātmanā |
hemavatsvayamavikriyaṃ sadā
brahma tattvamasi bhāvayātmani || 262 ||
262. That Reality which (though One) appears variously owing to delusion, taking on names and forms, attributes and changes, Itself always unchanged, like gold in its modifications – that Brahman art thou, meditate on this in thy mind.
Again Tirumular says,
பொன்னை மறைத்தது பொன்னணி பூடணம்
பொன்னில் மறைந்தது பொன்னணி பூடணம்
தன்னை மறைத்தது தன்கரணங் களாம்
தன்னில் மறைந்தது தன்கரணங் களே–2250
2289 Way of Self-Realization Through Thought Process
Think of gold jewellery,
Thought of gold metal is not;
Think of gold metal
Thought of jewellery is not;
Think of sense organs, Self is not;
Think of Self, sense organs are not.
—subham—
Tags- Pot, Potter, Clay, Gold, jewels, Wooden elephant, Jar and Air; Clay and Pot; My Research Notes, VC- 26, Tirumular, Sankara, Paramahamsa, Breaking pot.
Tamil and Vedas 