What Is Sphurana – Something Shining As ‘I-I’ In The Heart
Day by Day with Bhagavan
Diary of Devaraja Mudaliar
March 24, 1945
What Is Sphurana – Something Shining Or Sounding As ‘I-I’ In The Heart
DM: I was reading Vichara Sangraha {Self Enquiry). I came across the statement about Sphurana, i.e., something is shining or sounding as ‘I-I’ in the heart. I have always had doubt what exactly the word Sphurana means. So I asked Bhagavan.
Bhagavan: It means that which shines or illuminates.
DM: Is it not a sound we hear?
B: Yes, we may say it is a sound we feel or become aware of.
Bhagavan also referred to the dictionary and said, “The word means ‘throbbing’, ‘springing on the memory’, ‘flashing across the mind’ . Thus both sound and light may be implied in the word Sphurana. Everything has come from light and sound.”
DM: What it is that ‘shines’? Is it the ego or the Self?
B: It is neither the one, nor the other. It is something in between the two. It is something which is a combination of the ‘I’ (Self) and the ‘I-thought’ (ego). The Self is without even this Sphurana.
Explaining how the Self is mere light and how it is both the word or sound and also that out of which word or sound originally came, Bhagavan said, “Man has three bodies (Sariras), Sthula or the gross one made of the five elements, the Sukshma or subtle one made of Manas and Prana, and the Jiva or Individual Self. Similarly even Iswara has three bodies. All the manifested universe is His sthula sarira (gross body), light and sound are His sukshma sarira (subtle body), and the Self His jiva (individual self).”
