Atma, the Eternal Witness

 Within the Vedantic knowledge, the eternal witness within every living being is called the Atma. The word Atma means light or effulgence. The Atma is the very core of each individual which registers all feelings, thoughts, consciousness, and awareness. Western science has taught us that our living forms or bodies have evolved from simple one celled organisms into the complex organization of the human body as it exists today.

 Inherent in this view is that our thoughts and feelings arise as illusions from the electrical nerve activity in the brain. But the sage knows the body to be secondary and dependent on the primary spirit within. Without the spiritual Atma, the perceiver of all thoughts, feelings and sensations; the organically living form would fall down senseless in an instant. The spiritual entity is the cohesive force behind the physical organization and once the Atma withdraws from the body, disintegration begins immediately.

Unknown Author