( ayaṁ ātmā ) āsīnaḥ dūraṁ vrajati| śayānaḥ sarvataḥ yāti| madāmadaṁ taṁ devaṁ madanyaḥ kaḥ jñātuṁ arhati ||
This is a very interesting verse from the Kathopanishad. It means - Seated He journeys far off, lying down He goes everywhere. According to Shankara Bhashyam, " Thus the âtman is both joyful and joyless and has properties mutually opposed; therefore it being impossible to know him, who else but me can know the âtman, who is joyful and joyless. It is only by persons like us of subtle intellect and learning that the âtman can be known. "
Shankara is careful to dissociate the Atman from mind and intellect. What we feel the atman is, in real life, is only the inteelect, at best. Most ordinary mortals like us, are unable to transcend beyond this sheath.
But, if we are able to free up the Atman, as a spectator, and oberve everything, from the grossest ( the body) to the subtlest, then, the Atman is in the best position to experience ( first), and then go on to be the Brhaman.
Here " shayaano" ... that is , the Atman being in Sayanam ( lying down, as it were) refers to the shutting down of the knowledge brought by the senses ( Sthoola and Sookshma- the gross and subtle) . Shankara says , only when learn to go beyond the senses and get into Atma Saakshaat kaaram, will we be able to be the Brahman, ultimately.
Reminds me of an English poem that I had read somewhere:
No longer speaking
Listening with the whole body
And with every drop of blood
Overtaken by silence
But this same silence is become speech
With the speed of darkness.
