Monday, September 30, 2013

(Sep 30,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Supreme Brahman by Swami Krishnananda

The Supreme Brahman
Divine Life Society Publication:Chapter 13: The Bliss of Non-Duality – Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

In the Upanishad teaching, the unity of all things is intended, and, when it is said that by a knowledge of ‘one thing’, ‘everything’ else is known, what is intended to be conveyed is not that there is any real diversity, such as “all” things, but that there is only one thing which appears as the many things, and when this one thing is known, the many-ness of the many things will vanish. By the knowledge of the One Brahman, the whole Universe is known, not as a multifarious conglomeration of objects, but as an eternal being, one and secondless of the nature of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss), as different from name and form, which is the nature of the world.

Sage Uddalaka states that Reality is Sat, Existence. The Aitareya Upanishad says that it is Prajnana, Consciousness. Sanatkumara says that it is Sukha, Bliss. Thus, Sat-Chit-Ananda is the nature of Brahman. Names and forms are not existent independently of Sat-Chit-Ananda, but are appearances on its basis. It does not mean that there is a name and form of the world apart from Sat-Chit-Ananda. What is meant is that when we divest the Universe of its Sat-Chit-Ananda aspects, there would be no names and forms to be experienced separately, just as when we remove all the clay in the pot, there would be no separate pot to be seen. Thus, there is no creation apart from Brahman. It is that One Being that has become the many, or, rather, appears as the many. The scripture says that the One Supreme Being diversifies itself, as it were, into the various names and forms.

There was, in the beginning, only the unmanifest, or the Avyakrita, the matrix of all things, wherein all the names and forms were hidden as a tree is hidden in the seed, and hence we cannot say that the names and forms are really different from the Avyakrita, just as we cannot say that the tree is different from the seed. The names and forms are potentially present in the Avyakrita, and the two, viz., the Avyakrita and the names and forms of the world, are like the obverse and the reverse of the same coin, the Avyakrita being the cause, and the names and forms being the effect.
 
All the Jivas are subsequent to creation. Hence the causal condition of creation cannot be known by the Jivas. This Avyakrita-Sakti is having Brahman as its foundation. This cause of change is based on the Changeless, and it undergoes many modifications such as the subtle and the gross Universe of varieties. This is also called Maya (illusion), Prakriti (matrix), or Karana (cause), all meaning the same thing, denoting finally the unmanifested condition of the Universe. The director of this Sakti is Isvara, God. He is Brahman possessed of unlimited powers, the Eternal appearing as the Immanent Ruler of the temporal. He is the Lord over all things, the Controller of Maya, not affected by it in any way.

The first modification of this Avyakrita is Space (Akasa). Space has Existence; it is revealed in Consciousness, and it is the source of Joy to all living beings. These three are the aspects of Brahman in Space, but the special feature of Space is spatiality or extendedness, by which we measure distance and recognize all sorts of difference of one from the other. This latter feature is not real, while the former three characters are real. Extendedness or spatiality was non-existent prior to the manifestation of Space. It will not be there also after the dissolution of the cosmos. Metaphysically, what is not in the beginning and not in the end, is not also in the middle. That which does not persist in the three periods of time cannot be called the eternal or the real. The real is that which is continually present in all the three periods of time. Just as clay is present in the pot and all the modifications which it undergoes, so Sat-Chit-Ananda, the essential nature of Brahman, follows everything and is concomitant with all things. It persists in every form of existence, whatever be the changes that it may undergo. The true existence is revealed in the consciousness of the negation of spatiality. In profound spiritual states of meditation, Space is not felt to be existent. There is no idea even of Time or of objects. There is only a feeling of perennial bliss, because, in the spaceless condition, Sat-Chit-Ananda manifests itself. The mind is transient and, hence, its conditions, viz., pleasure and pain, also, are transient. The permanent being is the Bliss of Brahman alone.

In Space and the other four elements, Sat-Chit-Ananda is present equally, and this can be known by a careful distinction of its presence from names and forms. All things in the world are existent (Sat), are revealed (Chit), and are objects of endearment (Ananda) to someone or other, at different times. These characteristics of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss are the essence of Brahman, while the special qualities, such as confinement to a locality in space, appearance only at a particular time, etc. belong to the individuality of things. By a careful analysis of the visible world, it is possible to isolate Sat-Chit-Ananda from nama-rupa (name-and-form), the General Existence from particular appearances.

An object has five features in it. Existence, Consciousness, Bliss, Name and Form. The first three belong to what is eternal. The latter two pertain to the temporal world. This is how we should endeavor to separate Reality from appearance in all our perceptions. When we look at the waves we are just looking at the Ocean. When our mind is deeply concentrated on the depths of the Ocean, we forget the separate existence of the waves. All these things of which the Universe consists are ripples, bubbles and waves in the Ocean of Sat-Chit-Ananda. When the mind visualises an object, let it recognize in the object the profound depths of Brahman, which is its Reality, and without which it cannot be. The independent existence of names and forms is not true. Names and forms do rise and fall as waves in the Ocean.

The more one ignores the external crust of name and form, the more does one go deep into the truth of Brahman and the more is Brahman discovered in this world, and the more also is one detached from names and forms. When, by such a practice, one acquires real knowledge and is established firmly in that knowledge, one becomes a liberated soul, Jivanmukta, whether objects exist or not. This rare experience is had by the practice of Brahmabhyasa, which consists in thinking of Brahman alone always, speaking about That alone, conversing with and awakening each other on That alone, and totally depending on That alone at all times, as one’s ultimate refuge. When this practice is continued for a long time, without remission in the middle, with wholehearted devotion, then all the Vasanas, or mental impressions, of past births recede completely and get destroyed in the end, and the names and forms just appear as expressions of Brahma-Sakti (Power of Brahman).

When there is an abandonment of interest in names and forms, meditation on Brahman becomes unobstructed in every way. The obstacles being centred in the desire for contact with names and forms, there is no chance of obstacles presenting themselves when such a desire is wiped out from the mind by beholding Sat-Chit-Ananda through the names and forms. Just as a firmly seated rock is not affected by a flood of water flowing over it, so is the immovable Brahman unaffected by the variegated changes in names and forms that appear on its background.

Just as, in a mirror, which has really no holes in it to contain anything, the vast space with its contents of solid objects may be reflected, the world of names and forms is reflected, as it were, in Brahman, though the world is not really contained in Brahman, Brahman being unaffected and unattached, even as the mirror does not contain the objects within it. But, just as one cannot see the reflection of objects in a mirror without there being a mirror first and without observing the mirror even before seeing the reflection, it is impossible for one to merely see names and forms without first confronting the Existence of Brahman. When we open our eyes, we see the Existence of Brahman only,is spread out everywhere, and on this Existence the names and forms are superimposed. One thing is mistaken for another. Brahman is mistaken for a world of objects.

When Sat-Chit-Ananda is beheld through the names and forms, let the intellect be fixed on it, and let it not be again diverted to the names and forms. This is the essence of Vairagya and Abhyasa, the withdrawal from sense-perception and practice of concentration on the One Reality. Thus, Brahman is portrayed as an unworldly Existence, in the sense that the world is not contained in it, but only superimposed on it, and its essential Being is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss, and not name and form. It is in this that one should try to fix oneself. To those who have, by the continuous habituation of themselves to this practice, the feeling that there is no world outside of Brahman, the world is Brahman only appearing. (Verses 1-105)

Excerpts from:
Chapter 13: The Bliss of Non-Duality – Philosophy of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda

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