The nature of Brahman

 

The very idea of finitude implies the existence of the Infinite, as does the word “unreal” Again, we have the basis of all intelligence and imagination. Again , we have the over-whelming testimony of scriptural texts, which speak of religious experiences of all seers at all times and in all places.

The Nature of Brahman cannot be expressed in words. It is the foundation of all that exists. It spreads in words, It is the foundation of all that exists. It spreads everywhere, and at the same time is nowhere in relation to anything particular. It is a paradox at once of being and non-being . There are two ways of looking at the problem: the negative way and the positive way. There is God, the Incomprehensible Absolute, and God who actually creates, works, and is the First Cause, and is known variously as the Logos or the Holy Spirit, the kalma or the Bang- I-Qadim, the Naad or the Udgit, the Naam or the Shabd. The latter terms indicate the life- principle, theWord or the power of God that is immanent and vibrates everywhere from the highest to the lowest in the universe. It is both the material and the efficient cause of the World. It is the principle of Truth and the spirit of God (God –in – action – Ekankaar).of this power of God, the Gospels tell us that , “The Light shineth in darkess and the darkness comprehendeth  it not.” This power of Brahman (Ishvara) or Godhead is the medium between Brahman and the Universe and partakes of  the Nature of both . But His oneness is not affected by self- expression into  many – Eko aham bahusiam. The two exist as reality and appearance, and the difference arises because of the limited insight in man .

 

To sum up, the supreme Reality is the basis of the world as we know it, speak it, speak of it and see it. The plurality, or diversity in unity, is the result of erroneous judgment . The plurality, or diversity in unity , is the result of  erroneous judgment.  The world is unreal but not a subjective illusion. The Absolute is in the world but the world is not the Absolute, for a shadow cannot take the place of the substance. A thing based on the real cannot be the “real” itself. The world is but the phenomenal truth and not the essential truth of the reality, or the centripetal force at the core of it.

 

The individual  self is a complexity of likes and dislikes, preference and prejudices, purpose and projects, memories and associations. The conditional jiva is essentially the unconditioned atman. This empirical self or the individual  understanding is, through ignorance of it's own real Nature, the active doer the enjoyer and the sufferer in the pure light of the atman, of which it has no knowledge nor any experience. Enclosed in the physical body, composed of five elements (ether, air, fire, water and earth), is the subtle body consisting of seventeen elements (five organs of perception: eyes, ears, nose tongue and skin; five of action: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; the five vital airs, and manas and budhi), and also the causal or seed body. The self follows the inexorable law of karma as it migrates from one body to another on the giant Wheel of life. these limiting adjuncts (the physical, mental and causal), reduce the atman to the level of a jiva (individual  consciousness), and determine it's fate, taking it into endless gyres. In the core of the jiva is the witnessing self, that merely looks on and sheds luster on the entire stage and while illuminating the ego, mind, senses and the sense objects, continues to shine in it's own light, even when the stage is cleared. It is against this illumined silver screen that the whole show takes place.

 

The attainment of the state where the atman knows itself for what it is and realizes that it is naught but Brahman, is the goal of Advaitism. This state is one of direct experience and as Shankara has made abundantly clear, it cannot be attained merely by ratiocination, the reading of scriptures or the performance of rituals. It can come only through the pursuit of yoga, and the essential thing to be remembered is that Advaitism by itself is not a yoga but, strictly speaking, represents the philosophy of yoga at it's subtlest and profoundest. Shankara, as he himself clarified, was not speaking of something new. He was engaged in the task of reformulating what had already been expressed in the Upanishads and the Gita. Endowed with an extraordinary intellect and an amazing flair for logic, he set about restating in a coherent and systematic form the insight embedded in the srutis, which in subsequent times had been confused and had led to much needless controversy. He demonstrated once and for all that any approach to Brahman which did not preach the non-pluralistic and non-dualistic reality was in it's very Nature illogical, and that Advaitism was in fact the logical conclusion of yogic thought. Implicit in this approach was the view that of all states of samadhi, the one which the individual  atman lost it's identity in the Brahman (called Nirvikalp Samadhi), was the highest. This state was to be attained here and now, and one could be free in this life ( jivan mukta). He who had plumbed beneath the phenomenal to the absolute, would never again be taken in by appearances. He was a liberated spirit, living in the light of true knowledge. Past actions might carry him onward through physical existence, but once these were exhausted, he was absorbed wholly into the Brahman, the pure cognition.

 

Shankara was indeed a remarkable man of learning and insight and his contribution to Indian thought is permanent. In carrying it to it's logical conclusion he gave it the brilliance of consistent clarity. But just as ritual and scriptures cannot be substitute for direct inner experience, likewise merely knowing that the self and the Brahman are one cannot take the place of an actual experience of this union. The philosophy of yoga is not the same thing as yoga. At best, it can only clear our thinking of it's present confusion and point out the final goal to be attained, but the rest must remain a matter of practical and personal realization through yoga.

 

 



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