Rudram - Connecting To The Supreme

As discussed earlier, Laghunyasam is the invocation of the Lord in various part of our body. The idea is to keep various parts of my body pure , guarded , governed and controlled by Divine forces. This gives me an awareness of the purity, sanctity and divinity in my own body As the prayer continues, the seeker prays for health and long life for doing the Yogic practices of uniting the body, mind and intellect (Jiva) to individual consciousnesses (Atman) and then to Absolute Reality (Brahman).

Some of the elements being invoked in the prayer are as follows:

• May Lord Agni nourish / purify my speech 
• May my speech nourish / purify my heart / emotions 
• May my heart / emotions purify  the individuality (aham) in me 
• May my individuality connect with the eternal in me (soul) 
• May the eternal in me get connected with the Absolute Reality 

• May Lord vayu nourish / purify my prana 
• May the prana nourish / purify my heart / emotions 
• May my heart / emotions purify the individuality (aham) in me 
• May my individuality connect with the eternal in me (soul) 
• May the eternal in me get connected with the Absolute Reality 

Let us try to briefly understand the various terms so as to better appreciate the magnificent prayer. 

This entire universe consisting of the known and unknown, living and non-living is nothing but the ultimate Truth or Reality or God and that is technically known as Brahman. Now Brahman has a unique so called characteristic or power called Maya because of which it is able to project this vast universe. This is very similar to us as we dream. We, with our own capability, are able to create a vast dream universe. At a cosmic level, Brahman's inherent capability of Maya or illusion, creates this vast universe.  

Just as in our dream, each character appears unique, each of us appear to be unique and distinct from one another creating a feeling of separateness or duality causing us to experience the dual nature of this vast universe. We as individuals are a combination of the body, mind/intellect and the inner illuminating force in each of us, which is the Atman or the so called individual soul. Just as the universal Brahman has the illusory power called Maya to create the so called universe, at the microcosmic level, the soul's ignorance creates the impression that all of us are separate and distinct. This is the "ego" in us. This is not to be mistaken with the common usage of the word, ego in a negative manner. Each of us because of our "ego" see ourselves as distinct and this distinct entity is the "Jiva". 

Let us recap what has happened. The universal Truth or Brahman through Maya creates the illusion of the universe with its multi-faceted nature. Further the so called Soul through its ignorance causes the appearance of ego resulting in the individual Jiva. But for anyone studying spirituality, it is apparent that the Jiva is not real. The so called Atman is nothing but the Brahman, just like space in a house is same as space outside. To distinguish, we are calling the universal space as Brahman and the individual space as Atman and we know both are the same. 

So, how does one go back to the roots? All of our worldly issues are because we have forgotten our nature. So the Jiva has to trace back its origin to Brahman through spiritual practice aided by the intellect. In this process, the first step is for the Jiva to recognize that it is the "soul" and it is due to ignorance that it believes it is separate from the soul. Knowledge is the only way to get rid of ignorance and the Rudram is a path to enable that knowledge light to drive away the dark ignorance. Once the unification of the ego with the soul occurs, the next step is the unification of the soul( Atman) with the Supreme (Brahman). The prayer is requesting the various elements to enable the Jiva to first merge with the so called Soul and then enable the Soul to merge with the Brahman as the only non-dual Truth that we all are.

Conclusion

Through an illusion (Maya), Brahman has manifest as the vast universe with so called individual souls (Atman). The soul out of ignorance has created the ego (Jiva) with body, mind and intellect to create a non-dual entity that we think we are. The Laghunyasam requests the various elements to support the seeker in first merging the individual ego into the Atman and them merging the atman into the Brahman.