The Atma Bodha takes us step by step into the ocean of bliss, which is the self. How does one achieve that progress? Give up all the idea that joy is got from objects that are around us, the sensations of the sense organs, the feelings that arise in the mind and the thoughts in the intellect.
All these are called objects because they can be seen objectively. They are impermanent as they come to us as experiences and thoughts that rise and fall, come and go. They appear to give us joy, but it is impermanent. A finite object, emotion or thought does not have the capacity to give us infinite joy. Moreover, when we experience happiness while enjoying an object, the sense organ is only experiencing the rise in energy levels within and that is only giving the joyous experience and not the object.
If we say a particular ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts makes us happy, while eating it, the message goes to the brain from the sensations of the tongue and corresponding secretions are released in the body that give the feeling of happiness. The ice cream thought is only a memory trigger stored in the brain by our past experience of the same process. It is not the generator or source of happiness. So to delve deeply into the self, the surface-level imagination that objects give joy should be first given up. If a diver is enamoured by the shining ripples of the ocean, how is he going to go down into the deep?
Having destroyed or cut asunder that attachment to sensations of joy caused by objects, the seeker has to constantly practice being in the bliss of the self. What does it mean? Moments happen when we experience that we are happy, no matter what happens, whether we get things we like or in the presence of people we don’t like. The central theme here is to revel in the core of our being. One has to consciously withdraw from outbound attractions. There is a logical process. First withdraw from temporary sources of pleasure. Abide in the self.
The idea is too abstract to understand. Hence the Acharya explains that the individual remains in himself, quiet, calm and peaceful like a lamp in a pot with many designs for holes. The light does not seek particular openings. It just remains by itself, shining within. And the entire pot and the surrounding is illuminated.
Likewise, the individual just exists as a shining mass of consciousness illuminating the body, mind and intellect and its perceptions, emotions and thoughts. We seek joy in objects outside because we erroneously believe that the object has a real existence of its own.