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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