Monday 27 April 2015

Brahman

Attaining brahman is not easy. It is not possible to attain to IT! It is not something attainable at all. Then, what do we mean by brahman? Brahman is that which pervades everything and still remain outside of it. It is the mainstay, the beginning and the end by Itself! Everything is brahman. When we mean brahman it is that primordial state when nothing existed, but everything existed, in an unmanifest seed form. It is and it is not! It is nothing in which things exist, waiting for an expression, manifest in forms, names and functions. Ultimately, IT becomes this, i me she he it they and all the paraphernalia of the objective world. Thus, the manifest world is the outcome of the 'desire' of brahmn. He desired to manifest Himself as the manifest world, The 'desire is brahmn'.
   The Self is the brahmn. The 'self', the core of the substance is thus brahmn. Then, the question arises: "If everything is brahmn, who am i?" I am; 'so'ham'; "aham brahmasmi' is the answer. The Self is brahman. If the Self, atman, is also brahman,Again, the question arises: "where is Atman and where is brahman? If the brahman is the absolute and Atman is brahman, is Atman also Absolute?" All these are quite confusing, mind bogging. It is definitely not easy, and it seems nobody knows this. Let's try to clarify the abstract absolute nothingness that holds everything in its secret store and try to know the unknowable, impossible, inexplicable as far as our mind and intellect allows and invoke the Lord for the rest.
   Atman is the 'the Self of all, the core of the substance; it is the seed in the form of a mild sort of vibration. The seed is the AUM (Om) and contains the blue print of 'what all' that is to come out in course of time, the 'kalagarbha'. Symbolically, this is the Sudarshan chakra, the wheel of Time. Everything is unmanifest in the beginning. Everything prompts out as if a magic (maya). Lord Shree Krishna says, "I am the mayavin', the magician and with the wielding of the magic wind comes the magical world! 
   The paradox of the situation is that 'brahmn only exists and noting exists'! brahman only exists in the sense that all that we see as the gross has the subtler aspects behind them and that is supported by the invisible sustaining force, brahman. Brahman manifests as Light, energy, Force, Intelligence, and has immense capacity.
  May be all these are what we attribute to brahman; brahman is attribute-less; 'brahman is nirakaara', formless. Since everything is brahman, brahman is both manifest and avyakta (unmanifest).
  The pure state of existence is brahman and it is silence, quietude, bhuman. We are all in a state of brahman when we are totally silent, totally thoughtless, totally unmoving and desireless! The moment a though arises in our mind, the state of brahman is changing to the manifest form of the objective desire-world.
  Thus anybody can realize this pure state of brahman in quietude, samadhi, a thoughtless state; it is total awareness, but quietude!
 Thus, we are no different from brahman in our pure state of existence; but, we cannot experience IT since we are immersed in the mundane world. So also, we cannot visualize brahman even when we are merged in Him/It/That. The brahman is not something to be visualized. In such a state of brahman, brahman only exists and nothing else! The visualizer and the visualized become one; the perception, the perceiver and the perceived become one!
   What all has manifest from brahman is supposed to be complete, full according to the statement'
 purnamadah purnamidam purnat purnamuduchyate| purnasya purnamadaya purnameva avashishyate|| That (brahman) is full, complete, this manifest universe is also complete; from that eternal full comes this transient, that is also essentially complete in its true nature; Everything is thus complete, full, and nothing that is defective is found in the Lord's creation! Then, what all imperfection we perceive is due to our avidya, moha, greed, and attachment. The true nature of the jiva is always sat-chit-ananda, the brahman.  
  The manifest forms of avyakta (unmanifest brahman) in both Vedanta and  Modern Science are the same. What all the scientific terms such as vibration, waves, magnetism explain in physics are presented in Vedanta as sparsha (touch/feeling) due to vibration, spandha (reflection), madhura (sweetness/attraction), etc. 
  Manifestation of brahman is in the order of: 
saguna or qualified brahman (attributes are immense);
Shiva (the Administrator of the universe), the sat, chit and ananda manifests as chit shakti- Shive, the Divine Mother (Creatrix), the creative power of Shiva; the power of Shiva are creation, sustenance, development and dissolution, withdrawal of the manifest forms and functions.
The elements and compounds that constitute the objective phenomenal world are attributed to the magical function, maya of the Creator. The names and forms vibrate on the mind screen creating an illusion of reality, while in truth, nothing exists but Shiva. Shiva only manifests in different forms everywhere. It is our avidya, ignorance, rather, knowledge covered by desire, attachment, anger and other selfish motives that create an illusory world and we believe in it as real. Just as dream world is not real, the waking world is also not real. Everything disappears in deep sleep (sushupti). We sleep as if  everything is all right in ignorance and wake up in ignorance day after day! We never realize that our true nature is brahman!
  Brahman manifests as the chit, consciousness in all that we perceive; it is consciousness that perceives. Consciousness is the be all and end  of all that exists!
  The neutrinos, the core is brahman and it is the centre; The centre exists as a bindu (point) everywhere at the centre and the periphery. It exists beyond, as well. 
 Brahman manifests as desire, resolve (sankalpa), thoughts, ideas, imagination, dreams and action. Brahman exists as proton, neutron, electron, fermion, boson, thoughtron (thoughts like electric charges/sparks), lifetron (jiva jyoti), time and space, and all that is chit and vibration of energy. Thus the Self, Atman, the life-fore, the chit-shakti, jnyan shakti, kriya shakti,prana shakti- al manifest as forms of vibrant force of brahman. 
  Now, one may ask what is not brahman?
Brahman in manifest universe is vibrant aspect of chit, consciousness; in its silent aspect, it is just 'That' or 'tyat' (Samsk.).
  Thus, the order of manifestation from nirguna parabrahman is
saguna or qualified brahmn, followed by Shiva and Shive, the hiranyagarbha (Sun and its planets?), akash, manas, prana, agni, buddhi, vayu, shabdha, akshara, pada, padartha, jala, pruthvi (the elemental objective phenomenal world) followed by jivarashis.

  There is another version in Vishnu purana, and yet another in brahmanda purana.  However, there is not much difference between the Vedantic and the modern scientific version of creation of the universe.

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