Atman- The Soul Eternal
Atman is the immortal aspect of the mortal existence, which is hidden in
every object of creation
including man. It is the microcosm, representing the macrocosm in each
of us, imparting to us divine
qualities and possibilities and providing us with the reason to exist and
experience the pains and
pleasures of earthly life.
It is Brahman Itself, the very Self which descends down into the elements
of nature through
self-projection and participates Itself in the game of self-induced illusion
and pure Delight. But bound
by the senses and limited by the sensory knowledge and sensory perceptions,
we do not perceive the
truth. "The self-existent Lord pierced the senses to make them turn outward.
Thus we look to the
external world and see not the Self with in us."
The Self is thus the silent partner in all our deeds and experiences, the
observer and the indweller of
all embodied beings. Its nature cannot be explained or described in human
language adequately, as it
is beyond the senses and the mind. "There the eyes cannot travel, nor speech
nor mind. Nor do we
know how to explain it to the disciples. It is other than the known and
beyond the unknown."
It can only be experienced when all the sensory activity ceases to impact
the mind and when the
mind itself is freed from the movement of thoughts and sense objects and
the torment of desires,
which are the prime cause of all human activity and suffering. The experience
comes " When the mind
and the five senses are stilled and when the intellect is stilled ....They
say that Yoga is complete
stillness in which one enters that state of Oneness."
Although it is described as the flame of the size of thumb which is said
to exist between the eye
brows physically , or in the heart of all emotionally , its exact location
is uncertain. It has no physical
or mental dimensions as such, other than as a mere reflection or an idea
in the mind. But
unquestionably He exists and He alone is real. All else is false and withers
away, crushed by the
weight of sins and pressures of time.
We are told, "The adorable one is seated in the heart and rules the breath
of life. All the senses pay
homage to him. When He breaks out of the body in freedom from the bonds
of flesh, what else
remains? This Self is Supreme." We are also told , "Above the senses is
the mind, above the mind the
intellect, above that is the ego and above the ego is the unmanifest cause.
And beyond is Brahman,
omnipresent and without attributes."
The ego is Atman's poor cousin, the false center, which assumes the position
of control and
ownership, where as in actual reality it is a mere reflection, a product
of illusion and a mental
projection, born out of sensory experiences and the accumulation of memories
and thoughts. While
the basis of Atman is reality, permanence and Bliss, the nature of ego
is illusion, impermanence and
suffering.
The ego of a living being is permanently situated in ignorance and gloom
and needs to be rescued
from eternal doom and damnation by the indwelling Atman. The ego is a false
reflection of it. The
Katha Upanishad explains the relative status of the two selves in this
manner, "There are two selves,
the separate ego and the indivisible Atman. When one raises above I, me
and mine, the Atman
reveals Itself as the real Self."
The Mundaka Upanishad is more explicit and poetic, "Like two birds perched
on the same tree,
intimate friends, the ego and the self, dwell in the same body. The former
eats the sweet and sour
fruits of life, while the later looks on with detachment.".
This symbolism is further expanded in this verse of the Katha Upanishad,
"Know the Self as the Lord
of Chariot, the body as the chariot itself, the buddhi as the charioteer
and the mind as reins. The
senses are said to be the horses and selfish desires as the roads they
(the senses) travel. When the
Self is confused with the body , mind and senses, they say that he appears
to enjoy pleasures and
suffer sorrow."
Although Atman is located in all of us, we cannot know It or understand
It adequately with our
ordinary awareness. "There no eye can penetrate, no voice, no mind. Nor
do we know how to
understand it or preach it." In the Kena Upanishad the teacher explain
the difficulty to the students
in the following words, "If you think that you know the Self you know not."
And the student admits," I
do not think I know the Self, nor can I say I know Him not."
And in the Katha Upanishad, Yama, the Lord of Death explains to Nachiketa,"
The Self cannot be
known through the study of scriptures, nor thorough intellect nor through
hearing learned
discourses. It can be attained only by those whom the Self chooses." He
reemphasizes the same
point again else where.
The problem is further explained and the way to reach Atman is also suggested
to the students in the
Kena Upanishad, " The ignorant thinks that the Self can be known by the
intellect, but the
enlightened one knows that He is beyond the duality of the knower and the
known."
The idea is that Atman cannot be realized by the ordinary consciousness,
where the senses are
active and where there is the interference of the mind in the process of
awareness. There cannot be
an experience of Atman where there is this gulf of "knowing" between the
knower and the known. He
who knows It, knows It not really.
It is the mind and the senses which stand between the two poles of reality,
the knower and the
known, and prevent the ordinary consciousness from realizing the true nature
of Atman . The mind is
thus an imperfect instrument with an inherent inability to understand and
realize Atman. "The truth of
Self cannot come from him who has not realized that he is the Self. The
intellect cannot reveal the
Self beyond its duality of subject and object."
But how does one realize the Atman? What is the process? "The self cannot
be known by he who
does not desist himself from unrighteous ways, does not control his senses,
nor stills his mind and
does not practice meditation," explains Yama to Nachiketa and also adds,
"This awakening you have
known comes not through logic and scholarship, but from close association
with a realized teacher."
But mere association with a teacher may not again be helpful, unless there
is an inner and deep
commitment to know the truth. "The Self cannot be known through the study
of the scriptures, nor
through intellect, nor through learned discourses. The self can be attained
by only those whom the
Self chooses. Verily to them does the Self reveals Itself."
The connection between the outer and the inner worlds is not direct and
straight. There are many
intermittent stages to pass through and conditions to achieve and obstacles
to over come before
reaching the final goal. In Mandukya Upanishad, we are told that the self
is four fold :
1) the wakeful Vaishwanara, the Universal Male (the ego),
2) the dreaming Taijasa, the enjoyer of subtle objects and the Lord of the luminous mind, (the astral),
3)the mysterious Pragna, the deep Sleeper and the Lord of Wisdom and
4) Atman the eternal, the Incommunicable, the end of phenomena, Brahman Itself.
Perhaps this may not be the entire truth for so mysterious is the inward
journey and so inadequately
is equipped the human mind to record the experiences of the spirit, that
there may be deeper and
other planes of consciousness between the wakeful state and the Atman,
about whom we have yet
to gain knowledge.
But what about the ultimate experience? what happens when one reaches there?
No one seems to
explain that experience accurately and to our complete satisfaction. It
is beyond human language, for
our words do not carry the intensity and luminosity of that transcendent
experience.
At the same time the delight of the experience cannot be contained in the
secret caves of the heart,
as it gushes forth with the thundering sounds of pure joy into open. Thus
for the benefit of the
posterity and the ordinary, the experiences show themselves in some feeble
analogies and vague
symbolism.
In the Isa Upanishad we come across one such instance. The seeker first
prays to Brahman, " The
face of truth is hidden behind your golden lid, O Sun. May you remove the
lid so that I may see the
golden Truth !" And when the request is granted and the splendor manifests
Itself in him he,
submerged in pure bliss, lets out these words, "In truth I am Him."
Perhaps that is the ultimate Truth a person can discover in his or her
spiritual journey, the Truth that
remains hidden behind the golden lid eager to show its resplendent golden
face while we struggle and
strive in the mortal world with vague yearnings and uncertain future.
BRAHMAN: the Highest God
Brahman is the central theme of almost all the Upanishads. Brahman is the
indescribable,
inexhaustible, omniscient, omnipresent, original, first, eternal and absolute
principle who is without a
beginning, without an end , who is hidden in all and who is the cause,
source, material and effect of
all creation known, unknown and yet to happen in the entire universe.
He is the incomprehensible, unapproachable radiant being whom the ordinary
senses and ordinary
intellect cannot fathom grasp or able to describe even with partial success.
He is the mysterious
Being totally out of the reach of all sensory activity, rationale effort
and mere intellectual, decorative
and pompous endeavor.
The Upanishads describe Him as the One and indivisible, eternal universal
self, who is present in all
and in whom all are present. Generally unknown and mysterious to the ordinary
masses, Brahman of
the Upanishads remained mostly confined to the meditative minds of the
ancient seers who
considered Him to be too sacred and esoteric to be brought out and dissected
amidst public glare.
Though impassioned and above the ordinary feelings of the mind, the masters
of the Upanishads some
times could not suppress the glory, the emotion, the passion and the poetry
that accompanied the
vast and utterly delightful , inner experience of His vast vision. In the
Mundaka Upanishad the mind
explodes to reverberate with this verse," Imperishable is the Lord of love,
as from a blazing fire
thousands of sparks leap forth, so millions of beings arise from Him and
return to Him." Again in the
Katha Upanishad we come across a very poetic and emphatic expression, "In
His robe are woven
heaven and earth, mind and body...He is the bridge from death to deathless
life."
The Brahman of the Upanishads is not meant for the ordinary or the ignorant
souls, who are
accustomed to seek spiritual solace through ritualistic practices and rationalization
of knowledge.
Discipline, determination, guidance form a self-realized soul, purity of
mind, mastery of the senses,
self-control and desireless actions are some of the pre-requisites needed
to achieve even a
semblance of success on this path. Only the strong of the heart and pure
of the mind can think of
dislodging layer after layer of illusion and ignorance that surrounds him
and see the golden light of
Truth beckoning from beyond.
He is not like the other gods either. He is incomprehensible even to almost
all the gods. And He
chooses not to be worshipped in the temples and other places of worship
but in one's heart and mind
as the indweller of the material body and master of the senses, the charioteer.
He is too remote and
incomprehensible to be revered and approached with personal supplications
although He is the
deepest and the highest vision mankind could ever conceive of or attain.
The weak and the timid stand no chance to approach Him even remotely, except
through some
circuitous route. For the materialistic and the otherworldly who excel
in the art of converting
everything and anything into a source of personal gain, He does not offer
any attraction, solace or
security as a personal God.
That is why we do not see any temples or forms of ritualistic worship existing
for Brahman either at
present or in the past. We only hear of fire sacrifice, later to be called
Nachiketa fire, to attain Him,
which was taught to the young Nachiketa by Lord of Death, but lost in the
course of time to us.
Perhaps the sacrifice was more a meditative or spiritual practice involving
the sacrifice of soul
consciousness than a ritual worship.
Whatever it is, the fact is that Brahman of the Upanishads is more appealing
to the seekers of Truth
and Knowledge than seekers of material gains. Even during the Islamic rule
when the principles of
monotheism challenged the very foundations of Hinduism , Brahman was never
brought into the glare
of public debate to challenge the invading and overwhelming ideas of the
monotheistic foreign
theology.
And even during the period of the Bhakti movement , when the path of devotion
assumed unparalleled
importance in the medieval Hindu society, Brahman was somehow not made
the center of direct
worship in the form of Brahman as such. He became the personal God with
a name and form, but as
Brahman remained out side the preview of the Bhakti movement.
Perhaps the exclusion was so evident and seemingly so intentional that
even Lord Brahma, the first
among the Trinity and the first among the created, was also simultaneously
excluded from the
ritualistic worship, probably for the similarity in names. Very few temples
exist for this god even today
in India, probably as He is seen more as a source of intelligence and creativity
than of material
wealth.
Some Upanishads do describe Brahman as the Lord of Love. It is a description
born out of pure
personal experience of a seeker of truth, not from a devotee's imaginative
and self-induced emotional
energy. The description and approach, therefore, is more philosophical
and impressionably revelatory
in its approach than feverishly emotional or reverently devotional. The
reason was not difficult to
understand.
Brahman was too remote, indifferent, disinterested, too vast a principle
to be reduced into meaningful
and intellectually satisfying forms and shapes and worshipped as such.
Existing beyond all the surface
activities of illusory life, he was like the remote star, heard but rarely
seen, seen but vaguely
remembered, remembered but rarely explicable, unlike the daily sun that
traversed across the sky
spreading its splendor in all directions and appealing to the common man
with its intensity, visible
luminosity and comforting him with its assuring and predictable routine.
Hidden, however, in the practice of Bhakti was the inherent and inviolable
belief that the aim of all
devotion was the attainment of the Supreme Self, though the path chosen
for the purpose was
circuitous and symbolic, rarely suggestive of any direct involvement of
the eternal Brahman Himself in
His original formless condition. Since the mind could only comprehend and
derive inspiration in a
language that it can understand and interpret, the Saguna Brahman, Iswara
in the form of various
manifestations became the object of devotion and personal worship.
But the same was not true of the formless Nirguna Brahman, beyond duality
and activity. Ignoring the
citadels of human civilization, He, the Absolute, continued to remain in
the hearts of His spiritual
aspirants, away from the din of materialistic life. He remained confined
even as of today, to a few
illumined minds, guiding them in His mysterious and invisible ways through
the minds of self-realized
souls, who have been too spiritualistic and disinterested in worldly life
to consider any thing other
than self as a matter of spiritual interest.
The ancient seers described Brahman as the One eternal principle, the unity
behind all, the
connecting principle, the light shining through all. But at the same time
they also referred to him
variously as almost every thing. He was thus One and the many, the finite
and the infinite, the center
as well as the circumference, the enjoyer as well the enjoyer, the hidden
as well as the manifest, in a
nut shell, every thing and any thing that we can conceive of or imagine
or perhaps much more than
that. Incomprehensible even to the gods, as Kena Upanishad narrates, He
stands above all, tall and
mysterious, almost incommunicable except through personal experience and
inner voyage.
As a formless Being He was the Nirguna Brahman, the unqualified principle
totally beyond the reach of
all levels of intelligence. Assuming myriad forms He becomes Saguna Brahman,
the one with attributes
and qualifications. In this capacity as the formless and the One with form,
He becomes all the
multiplicity in this vast universe. He becomes everything and also nothing.
Thus He is the day and
night, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, the river and the ocean,
the sky and the earth,
the sound and the silence, the smallest as well as biggest of all and also
the abyss of the mysterious
nothingness.
The attributes are many and repetitively suggestive of His universality
and His unquestionable
supremacy. This existence of the duality and the myriad contradictions
inherent in the creation of life
are the riddles which the minds of the disciples were expected to understand
and assimilate till all the
confusion and contradiction becomes reduced to one harmonious and meaningful
mass of Truth.
In the Katha Upanishad we come across this explanation of Brahman being
compared to the
Aswaththa tree in reverse ,whose roots are above and the branches spread
down below. "Its pure
root is Brahman from whom the world draws nourishment and whom none can
surpass." Actually this is
an analogy drawn from the Sun whose base is above and whose rays spread
downwards in thousand
directions.
Myriad are the ways in which Brahman is described in the Upanishads. The
verses strenuously struggle
to explain the novice students of spiritual practice the immensity of the
object of their meditation.
heirs is a feeling of respect and reverence mixed with fear and awe. Even
the gods seems to be not
very comfortable with this concept of an unknown, mysterious and unfathomable
God. The Lord of
death explains to the young Nachiketa, "In fear of Him the fire burns,
the sun shines, the clouds rain
and the winds blow. In fear of Him death stalks about to kill."
He is the creator, the life giver and also the reliever of the devoted
and determined from Bondage.
The manifest universe is his creation. He created it through Self-projection,
out of Ananda, pure
Delight. The process of creation is not very explicitly mentioned but one
can draw some inferences
from verses such as this, "The deathless Self meditated upon Himself and
projected the universe as
an evolutionary energy. From this energy developed life, the mind, the
elements, and the world of
karma."
This is not the God who can be supplicated with rituals and sacrifices.
The Upanishadic seers did not
show much respect to the outer aspects of religious practice. The rituals
according to them
constituted the lower knowledge. "Such rituals," declares Mundaka Upanishad,
" are unsafe rafts for
crossing the sea of worldly life, of birth and death. Doomed to shipwreck
are they who try to cross
the sea of worldly life on these poor rafts." The argument does not end
here. It goes on," Ignorant of
their ignorance, yet wise in their estimate, these deluded men proud of
their learning go round and
round like the blind, led by the blind. Living in darkness, immature unaware
of any higher good or goal,
they fall again and again into the sea."
Please read the concluding part of the essay on Brahman from the link provided below.
Brahman in the Upanishads- Part II
Many are the ways in which Brahman is extolled in the Upanishads. The following
are a few most
commonly found descriptions, by meditating upon which one may develop some
understanding of this
vast Phenomenon.
1. Brahman is the Reality. He is the Absolute Truth. All else is unreal
and mere illusion, a mere shadow
that disappears when the Sun shines.
2. Brahman is constant and fixed. He is unchangeable, immutable, permanent
, incorruptible and
inexhaustible. All else is transient, fleeting and changing. Since He is
the only fixed factor in an every
changing impermanent world, the seers advise us to make Him the center
of our lives and activities
3. Brahman is eternal and timeless. Since He is the Absolute, Time does
not exist in Him. The Past
present and future flow in Him simultaneously. The Master of Time and Knower
of all events, past.,
present and future, He creates Time as a part of His play and subjects
us all to the motions of Time.
4. Brahman is the Creator of all. The world is his projection. He descends
into the material universe
and subjects Himself to the laws of nature.
5. Brahman is the sacred OM.
6. Brahman is beyond the senses, but is the mover and enjoyer of senses.
7. Brahman is the first principle. He is the Ancient. No one truly knows
Him for He is without a
beginning and without an end.
8. Brahman is pure love. He is described as Lord of Love.
9. Brahman is immortal. He in fact is the creator of death and the wheel of life.
10. Brahman is the law giver and law maker. He maintain Dharma and Rita
(harmony). But He Himself is
not subject to any laws.
11. Brahman exists in all and all exists in Him. Yet He is beyond all and different from all.
12. Brahman is Supreme Bliss. Pure Delight, which is the delight of pure love.
13. Brahman is the eternal soul, the Atman, the indweller of mortal bodies,
the silent witness, the
enjoyer of life and the power behind all the movements of life breath.
14. Brahman is above all Gods. None could ever approach Him closely except Indra.
15. Brahman is duality personified from the rationale point of view. But
strangely in Him all conflicts
and contradictions resolve themselves into perfect harmony.
16. Brahman is unified awareness, the eternal indivisible One where there
is no enjoyer and the
enjoyed, the knower and the known.
17. Brahman is radiance, effulgence and brilliance of thousands of suns.
He is the wielder of pure
energy and possessor of pure consciousness.
18. Brahman is desireless, without attachment, without vibration, complete,
fulfilled, self-satisfied and
self- absorbed.
19. Brahman is without sleep, dispeller of darkness, the very intelligence
in man, One who is awake
when we are asleep.
20. Brahman is knowledge. He is the knower of all that is, that was and that is yet to come.
21. Brahman is man Himself, the ultimate truth which every human being
realizes at the end of his
spiritual journey. (Isa Upanishad)
Hinduism: Belief in One God
The Hindus believe in many gods and goddesses. At the same time they also
believe in the existence
on one Supreme God, whom they call variously as Paramatma (Supreme Self),
Parameshwar (Supreme
Lord), Parampita (Supreme Father). Iswara, Maheswara, Bhagawan, Purusha,
Purushottama,
Hiranyagarbha and so on.
God is one, but also many. He manifests Himself in innumerable forms and
shapes. As Purusha
(Universal Male), He enters Prakriti (Nature, Matter or Divine Energy)
and brings forth the numerous
worlds and beings into existence. He upholds His entire creation with His
unlimited powers.
He is both the Known and the Unknown, the Being as well as the Non-Being,
Reality as well as
Unreality. As the Unknown, He is rarely known and worshipped for difficult
and painful is the path for
those who choose to worship Him as the Unmanifest (The Bhagavad-Gita XII.6).
He exists in all and all beings exist in him. There is nothing other than
Him, and there is nothing that is
outside of Him. He is Imperishable, unknowable, immortal, infinite, without
a beginning and without an
end. All the same when worshipped with intense devotion and unshakeable
faith, He responds to the
calls of His devotees and comes to their aid and rescue.
All the gods and goddess are His manifestations only. In His female aspect
He is Shakti, who as the
Divine Universal Mother assists the whole creation to proceed through the
process of evolution in Her
own mysterious ways.
The relationship between man and God is purely personal and each can approach
Him in his own way.
There are no fixed rules and no central controlling authority on the subject
of do's and don'ts. There
are of course scriptures and Smritis but whether to follow them or not
is purely an individual choice.
The concept of monotheism is not new to Hinduism. It is as old as the Vedas
themselves. References
to One indivisible and mysterious God are found in the Rigveda itself.
The concept is the central
theme of all the Upanishads in which He is variously referred as Brahman,
Iswara, Hiranyagarbha, Asat
etc.
While the students of Upanishads tried to understand Him through the path
of knowledge and there
by made it the exclusive domain of a few enlightened persons, the bhakti
marg or the path of
devotion brought Him closer to the masses. The One Imperishable and Ancient
Being was no more a
God of remote heights, but down to the earth, ready to help His needy devotees
and willing to
perform miracles if necessary.
The rise of tantric cults added a new dimension to our understanding of
Him. To the tantric
worshippers the Supreme Self is the Universal Mother. Purusha is subordinate
to Her and willing to
play a secondary role in Her creation. By Himself He cannot initiate creation
unless He joins with His
Shakti.
On the abstract level He is satchitananda. Truth, Consciousness and Bliss.
He is the inhabitant of the
whole world. There is nothing that is outside of Him or without Him. He
exists in the individual being as
Atman, the Enjoyer who delights in Himself, without undergoing any change,
but willing to participate
in the cycle of births and deaths and bear witness to all the illusions
of life.
He can be realized in many ways, which broadly fall into three main categories:
the path of
knowledge, the path of devotion and the path of renunciation. Of this the
middle one is the best, the
first one is very difficult and the third one requires immense sacrifice
and inner purification. In the
Bhagavad-Gita we come across the path of action which combines the rest
of the three into one
integrated whole in which a devotee has to live his life with a sense of
supreme sacrifice, performing
his actions with detachment, without any desire for the fruit of actions
and offering them to God with
pure devotion and total surrender.
Hindus have a very broader approach to the concept of God. The names that
people give to Him are
just mere reference points for the sake of our understanding. How can He
have names, who is
actually beyond all words and thoughts? He represent the loftiest ideal
which mankind can aspire to
achieve. He is the goal and reaching Him in our individual ways is the
very purpose of our lives. Those
who quarrel on his name are blind men who grope in darkness and go to the
worlds of ignorance.
Truly the Brahman of Hinduism represents the Highest principle which the
human mind can ever
conceive of. He is not God of just one world or a few worlds, but represents
the entire known and
unknown Universe as well as the past, the present and the future that is
yet to come.
Difficulties in Understanding Brahman
Any attempt to explain Brahman to the satisfaction of a mind that is driven
by reason and familiar
with the concretization thought is fraught with enormous difficulties,
because that which is
inexplicable cannot be explained by any amount of reasoning and logic.
Brahman is beyond the
senses, beyond the mind, beyond our intelligence and dreams. Then how can
It be explained to the
satisfaction of an intellectual and curious mind? The Rigvedic seers themselves
had this problem in
their mind when they called Him vaguely as "IT" or "This" or "That"
The difficulty in understanding and knowing Brahman is well explained in
the Kena Upanishad. Even
gods are not free from their ignorance of Brahman (II.2.1). All that we
can understand about Brahman
is that we cannot understand It. Even after prolonged spiritual practice
and meditation, one cannot
even conclude whether one knows it or not. If a person thinks that he knows
It, he does not know
that he does not know. To whomsoever It is not known, It is known to him.
But to whomsoever it is
known, is not known to him. It is not understood by those who understand
it and understood by
those who do not understand it. It can be known only when one experiences
directly at all levels of
consciousness. (II. 2. 2-4).
Trying to worship Brahman incorrectly and ignorantly without knowing the
right approach can also
result in great difficulties for a person who is on the path to salvation.
The Isa Upanishad warns the
students of Brahman not to take sides while approaching Brahman. Those
who worship the unmanifest
(asambhutim) enter blinding darkness and those who worship the manifest
only (sambhutim) enter into
greater darkness. The right approach is to worship both and realize one
through the other.
Even an enlightened seer like Yagnavalkya had difficulties in explaining
the nature of Brahman and his
creation. While speaking to Sakalya in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, he declares,
" That Self is not this,
not this. It is incomprehensible for it is not comprehended." When Gargi
Vacaknavi asks him too many
questions, in the same Upanishad he expresses his irritation saying, "
Gargi, do not question too much.
Otherwise your head may fall off. You are asking so many questions about
a divinity about whom we
are not expected to ask many questions."
Else where in the same Upanishad he resorts to negative terminology to
explain the inexplicable using
such words as aksaram (imperishable), asthulam (not gross), ananu (not
subtle), ahrasvam (nor
short), adirgham (not long), achchayam (not shadow), atamah (not tamasic)
and so on
(Brihadaranyaka III.8.8).
What is the original state of Brahman? Even the seers do not seem to have
an answer. Uddalaka Aruni
tells Svetaketu in Chandogya Upanishad, that in the beginning the Being
was alone, one only, one
without a second and in the next moment changes his statement stating that
according to some in
the beginning the non-Being was alone, without a second and that from that
non-Being being was
produced. (VI.2.1)
Aspects of Brahman
In the Upanishads we come across the following four aspects of Brahman.
1. Non-Being : The pure Non-Being, or the unmanifest is the First principle.
Variously described as
the Ancient and the one without a beginning and without an end and the
one without a second, very
little indeed is known about this Eternal, Imperishable, and the unchangeable
principle. The
Upanishads are full of descriptions about It, but the confusion they create
in our minds is much more
than the clarifications they provide. The Upanishadic seers were content
with such description as "
This", "That" or "It" when they spoke of this Eternal Principle, trying
to make It comprehensible to the
evolving minds of their disciples.
We are told that It is beyond all. There the mind does not go, nor the
senses, nor our understanding.
It is always infront of the senses and intelligence. It is only through
personal experience perhaps one
may grasp a little about It. But even about this we are not sure.
It is doubtful whether any one can really experience something which does
not exist or which is simply
non-existence or non-Being and come back to us and describe it to us in
the normal planes of
thought. "Non-existent does one become if a person knows Brahman as Non-Being."
(Taittiriya
Upanishad II.6.1).
Perhaps it was why the Buddha was silent about the existence of God and
why many schools of
philosophical thought arose in ancient India questioning the very existence
of God as a central
controlling universal principle.
The problem is that the human mind which is accustomed to the language
of the words and symbols
cannot grasp the Absolute Truth that cannot really be compared to anything
else. Even the devas
and the gods of still higher planes have little understanding of It, as
is evident from the descriptive
accounts of gods encounter with It in the Kena Upanishad.
We do not even know why in the first place He created all this. The explanation
that He created
these worlds and beings for His delight or Ananda is too simplistic an
explanation to satisfy the
inquisitive curiosity of a well developed mind. If the Absolute creates
something out of something
else, be it a cause, a purpose or some reason, then that cause, purpose
or reason, would be above
Him and He cannot be called the Absolute.
If the Absolute is eternal and timeless and is not subject to any causative
principle or the dimensions
of time and space, how could there be any gap between Him and His creation?
He and His creation
must have happened simultaneously, without a second, without any distinction
or differentiation.
Surely the creative process must have begun without any reason, without
any motive, almost as if it
was a spontaneous process, without the intervention of Time and space or
a process at the Absolute
level.
That the process of creation is spontaneous and without a cause would perhaps
rattle many religious
minds, but we have no better explanation to offer than this if we want
to accept the First Principle of
the universe as the Absolute, Eternal, Infinite and Truth Principle. (Brahman
as infinite).
Perhaps there was a beginning to the process of creation but it might never
come to a permanent
conclusion, as the Creative Principle that manifested out of Him is also
eternal and beyond dissolution
as we understand in the subsequent paragraphs.
Iswara: When God wakes up from His sleep He becomes Iswara ! In His awakened
state He exercises
His creative will and sets in motion the creative process. Thus Iswara
is the creative Spirit, the Being,
the awakened Non-Being, the Saguna Brahman, the Brahman with qualities,
who exercising His will, His
Power and His wisdom creates the worlds and the world order (Rita)
He is the Truth Consciousness, the combination of knowledge and will, the
directing and causative
aspect of the Universal Self. He is the creative consciousness, who in
the aspect of Purusha (the
Universal Male) joins with His other aspect Prakriti ( Divine Energy) and
brings forth the worlds and
the beings. The word "Brah" means 'to grow or to burst forth'. Thus Iswara
is the Brahman who bursts
out of his own sleep (non-existence)
As the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the worlds, He is also the Trinity,
Brahma, Vishnu and
Mahesa. They are but one though they appear differently to the mortal world.
They are the three
qualities of His Primal Nature (Prakriti), and the three aspects of his
Will and consciousness (Purusha),
in their pure and primordial states, which wake up as He wakes up and regulate
the creation.
In the Maitri Upanishad we are given an account of the conception of the
trinity, how darkness
(tamas) represented by Siva, passion (rajas) represented by Brahma and
goodness (sattva)
represented by Vishnu got differentiated from the Highest. (Maitri Upanishad
V.2)
While we have no idea of what the Non-Being or the Nirakar Brahman truly
is, we have the accounts
of the Upanishadic seers who through self-contemplation realized Iswara
and described Him as Sat
chit Ananda, Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. This experience becomes possible
in human beings
because in the individual being, Iswara is verily Atman.
In the Katha Upanishad says Lord Yama to the young Nachiketa ," By knowing
through
self-contemplation (adhyatma yoga) that Primal Being who is difficult to
be seen, who is very
mysterious, who is hidden in the cave (of ones heart) and who is situated
deep (with in one self), the
wise men (dhira) leave behind both joy and sorrow.
It must be noted that there is no real distinction between Saguna Brahman
and Nirguna Brahman.
They are the different states of the Parameswara the One only Eternal Principle.
When the Non-Being
awakens He becomes Iswara and when Iswara takes rest at the end of creation
He becomes
Non-Being .
Hiranya Garbha: He is the World Soul (Mahan Atma), the Cosmic Egg, that
arises out of cosmic
waters and engages Himself in the creation of forms and beings. He is the
First Born (prathamaja),
who manifests forms that are already contained in Him.
He is the Sutratman (the soul of a necklace) the thread on which all beings
and all the worlds (the
world of the devas, of the ancestors, of the humans, of the demons etc)
are strung like beads in a
necklace.
While Iswara is the causative principle (karanabhutam), Hiranyagarbha is
the dynamic or the active
principle (kriyabhutam or karyabhutam). He is also called Brahma who as
the creative and dynamic
principle uses the forms existing in Him and brings forth the Beings.
The word "brah" means "bursting out or bringing forth" and "ahm" means
ego. Brahma is therefore he
who brings forth many "ahms" or egos or beings into this world using his
divine power and matter and
pouring life (breath) into them. Hiranyagarbha is not an eternal being,
but comes into existence at the
beginning of creation and becomes dissolved in Iswara at the end of creation.
Viraj: Viraj is the manifest world, that which is created, or which is
brought forth. He is the result of
the creative process set in motion by Iswara and accomplished by Hiranyagarbha.
He is the
manifested aspect of Iswara through the hands of the latter.
It is a world that is in perpetual motion and subject to illusion. It is
a reality that is different and
distinct in nature from that of Iswara or Hiranyagarbha since the interplay
of the gunas, the elements
and the senses result in the formation of numerous individual beings and
ego forms (ahamkaras) who
suffer from the illusion of individuality and feelings of separateness.
Viraj like Hiranyagarbha is also
subject to dissolution at the end of creation.
The 24 Principles of Creation & Samkhya Yoga
Hinduism owes a great deal to the Samkhya school of philosophy, which influenced
the minds of many
great scholars in ancient India. Though it started with an atheistic note
on the nature of creation and
existence of God, its fundamental philosophy was gradually absorbed into
the main stream of Hinduism
with some suitable modifications.
According to the Samkhya philosophy, Prakriti is the unmanifest, primal
resource, the sum total of the
universal energy that manifests itself in various material forms in different
planes. The creative
process (Shristi) begins, when Purusha, the individual soul enters
and becomes established in it. Out
of this process evolve 24 principles, which are:
Mahat: the great principle (1)
Buddhi: the discriminating, reasoning and causative intelligence (2)
Ahamkara: the ego-principle (3)
Manas: the mind or the sixth sense (4)
Panchendiryas: the five sense organs (9)
Five karmendriyas: the five organs of action (14)
Five tanmantras: the five subtle elements (19)
Five Mahabhutas: the five gross elements (earth, water, air, fire and ether)(24)
These are the evolutes. The Mahat (the Great One), is the first to emerge
in this process of
evolution. The Mahat is Prakriti or the primordial nature in its
dynamic aspect. From the Mahat
evolves buddhi and Manas. Buddhi is the principle of intelligence or the
discriminating awareness and
Manas is the mind stuff consisting of pure consciousness. From Buddhi evolve
ahmkara or the feeling
of individuality and separation and the five tanmantras of sound, touch
smell, form or color and
taste.
The rest of the principles arise from from Manas, which are the five senses,
the five organs of actions
and the five gross elements. These are the 24 evolutes and together with
the Purusha (individual
soul) who joins with Prakriti to initiate this process, the number becomes
25.
As one European commentator pointed out, Samkhya is "the most significant
system of philosophy
that India has produced." Its popularity in ancient India can be gauged
from the fact the epic, the
Mahabharata, Manusmriti, the Puranas and the Bhagavad gita describe its
main features though with
some variations and sometimes without making a direct reference to this
school.
The Samkhya school was founded by Kapila, who lived in very ancient times,
even before the
composition of some of the principal Upanishads such as the Svetavatara,
Katha, Prashna and
Maitrayani Upanishads. A comprehensive treatment of the subject can be
found in an ancient
scripture called the Samkhyakarika, ascribed historically to Isvarakrishna,
who probably lived in the
third century A.D. This scripture became more prominent with a commentary
written on it by
Gaudapada, who is probably different from the Gaudapada of Mandukyopanishad
and who lived around
8th Century A.D.
The greatness of Samkyha lies in the fact that the evolution of life on
earth is depicted not as miracle
work of God, but as a creative process passing through different phases
of change and
transformation.
Infact the original Samkhya did not accept the idea of an Absolute Principle
or God behind creation.
The individual soul or Purusha is the eternal principle which joins with
Prakriti, another eternal principle
to establish its presence in the material world. The individual soul is
immortal. It exists prior to the
emergence of other principles and will continue to exist even after the
rest disappear.
The Bhagavad gita picks up the basic aspects of Samkhya, but adds the principle
of Supreme Self or
Universal Purusha as the cause of all creation.
According to the Bhagavad gita, the Purusha enters the Prakriti and manifests
the entire creation. At
the human level, the purusha is compared symbolically with a man and the
Prakriti with a woman. At
the microcosmic level a union between the two indeed leads to the creation
of a new being, which
can be compared to the Hiranyagarbha (the golden embryo) at the microcosmic
level.
The concept of Prakriti as the source of material evolution, probably led
to the popularity of the
worship of Mother Goddess and led subsequently to the emergence of Tantricism
during the post
Gupta perod.
In the Upanishads we come across the following four aspects of Brahman.
1. Non-Being : The pure Non-Being, or the unmanifest is the First principle.
Variously described as
the Ancient and the one without a beginning and without an end and the
one without a second, very
little indeed is known about this Eternal, Imperishable, and the unchangeable
principle. The
Upanishads are full of descriptions about It, but the confusion they create
in our minds is much more
than the clarifications they provide. The Upanishadic seers were content
with such description as "
This", "That" or "It" when they spoke of this Eternal Principle, trying
to make It comprehensible to the
evolving minds of their disciples.
We are told that It is beyond all. There the mind does not go, nor the
senses, nor our understanding.
It is always infront of the senses and intelligence. It is only through
personal experience perhaps one
may grasp a little about It. But even about this we are not sure.
It is doubtful whether any one can really experience something which does
not exist or which is simply
non-existence or non-Being and come back to us and describe it to us in
the normal planes of
thought. "Non-existent does one become if a person knows Brahman as Non-Being."
(Taittiriya
Upanishad II.6.1).
Perhaps it was why the Buddha was silent about the existence of God and
why many schools of
philosophical thought arose in ancient India questioning the very existence
of God as a central
controlling universal principle.
The problem is that the human mind which is accustomed to the language
of the words and symbols
cannot grasp the Absolute Truth that cannot really be compared to anything
else. Even the devas
and the gods of still higher planes have little understanding of It, as
is evident from the descriptive
accounts of gods encounter with It in the Kena Upanishad.
We do not even know why in the first place He created all this. The explanation
that He created
these worlds and beings for His delight or Ananda is too simplistic an
explanation to satisfy the
inquisitive curiosity of a well developed mind. If the Absolute creates
something out of something
else, be it a cause, a purpose or some reason, then that cause, purpose
or reason, would be above
Him and He cannot be called the Absolute.
If the Absolute is eternal and timeless and is not subject to any causative
principle or the dimensions
of time and space, how could there be any gap between Him and His creation?
He and His creation
must have happened simultaneously, without a second, without any distinction
or differentiation.
Surely the creative process must have begun without any reason, without
any motive, almost as if it
was a spontaneous process, without the intervention of Time and space or
a process at the Absolute
level.
That the process of creation is spontaneous and without a cause would perhaps
rattle many religious
minds, but we have no better explanation to offer than this if we want
to accept the First Principle of
the universe as the Absolute, Eternal, Infinite and Truth Principle. (Brahman
as infinite).
Perhaps there was a beginning to the process of creation but it might never
come to a permanent
conclusion, as the Creative Principle that manifested out of Him is also
eternal and beyond dissolution
as we understand in the subsequent paragraphs.
Iswara: When God wakes up from His sleep He becomes Iswara ! In His awakened
state He exercises
His creative will and sets in motion the creative process. Thus Iswara
is the creative Spirit, the Being,
the awakened Non-Being, the Saguna Brahman, the Brahman with qualities,
who exercising His will, His
Power and His wisdom creates the worlds and the world order (Rita)
He is the Truth Consciousness, the combination of knowledge and will, the
directing and causative
aspect of the Universal Self. He is the creative consciousness, who in
the aspect of Purusha (the
Universal Male) joins with His other aspect Prakriti ( Divine Energy) and
brings forth the worlds and
the beings. The word "Brah" means 'to grow or to burst forth'. Thus Iswara
is the Brahman who bursts
out of his own sleep (non-existence)
As the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the worlds, He is also the Trinity,
Brahma, Vishnu and
Mahesa. They are but one though they appear differently to the mortal world.
They are the three
qualities of His Primal Nature (Prakriti), and the three aspects of his
Will and consciousness (Purusha),
in their pure and primordial states, which wake up as He wakes up and regulate
the creation.
In the Maitri Upanishad we are given an account of the conception of the
trinity, how darkness
(tamas) represented by Siva, passion (rajas) represented by Brahma and
goodness (sattva)
represented by Vishnu got differentiated from the Highest. (Maitri Upanishad
V.2)
While we have no idea of what the Non-Being or the Nirakar Brahman truly
is, we have the accounts
of the Upanishadic seers who through self-contemplation realized Iswara
and described Him as Sat
chit Ananda, Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. This experience becomes possible
in human beings
because in the individual being, Iswara is verily Atman.
In the Katha Upanishad says Lord Yama to the young Nachiketa ," By knowing
through
self-contemplation (adhyatma yoga) that Primal Being who is difficult to
be seen, who is very
mysterious, who is hidden in the cave (of ones heart) and who is situated
deep (with in one self), the
wise men (dhira) leave behind both joy and sorrow.
It must be noted that there is no real distinction between Saguna Brahman
and Nirguna Brahman.
They are the different states of the Parameswara the One only Eternal Principle.
When the Non-Being
awakens He becomes Iswara and when Iswara takes rest at the end of creation
He becomes
Non-Being .
Hiranya Garbha: He is the World Soul (Mahan Atma), the Cosmic Egg, that
arises out of cosmic
waters and engages Himself in the creation of forms and beings. He is the
First Born (prathamaja),
who manifests forms that are already contained in Him.
He is the Sutratman (the soul of a necklace) the thread on which all beings
and all the worlds (the
world of the devas, of the ancestors, of the humans, of the demons etc)
are strung like beads in a
necklace.
While Iswara is the causative principle (karanabhutam), Hiranyagarbha is
the dynamic or the active
principle (kriyabhutam or karyabhutam). He is also called Brahma who as
the creative and dynamic
principle uses the forms existing in Him and brings forth the Beings.
The word "brah" means "bursting out or bringing forth" and "ahm" means
ego. Brahma is therefore he
who brings forth many "ahms" or egos or beings into this world using his
divine power and matter and
pouring life (breath) into them. Hiranyagarbha is not an eternal being,
but comes into existence at the
beginning of creation and becomes dissolved in Iswara at the end of creation.
Viraj: Viraj is the manifest world, that which is created, or which is
brought forth. He is the result of
the creative process set in motion by Iswara and accomplished by Hiranyagarbha.
He is the
manifested aspect of Iswara through the hands of the latter.
It is a world that is in perpetual motion and subject to illusion. It is
a reality that is different and
distinct in nature from that of Iswara or Hiranyagarbha since the interplay
of the gunas, the elements
and the senses result in the formation of numerous individual beings and
ego forms (ahamkaras) who
suffer from the illusion of individuality and feelings of separateness.
Viraj like Hiranyagarbha is also
subject to dissolution at the end of creation.
The qualities of Shakti (Divine Power)
The Svetavatara Upanishad describes the qualities of the manifest creation
inhabited by the divine
power of God (devatma-shakti). Unlike the Prakriti of the Samkhya school,
the Shakti that is
described here is not independent of Brahman but an aspect of Him. The
Upanishad describes the
qualities of the manifested creation in the following manner (I.4):
" We know Him with one hub, three divisions, sixteen ends, sixteen supports
(spokes), six sets of
eight each, whose one noose has innumerable forms, whose paths are distinguished
as three and
whose delusion arises out of two causes."
The symbolism is explained below:
One hub: The One Creative Principle, called Iswara
Three Divisions: The three qualities namely sattva, rajas and tamas (Vishnu, Brahma and Mahesa)
Sixteen Ends: The five gross elements ( mahabhutas), the five sense organs
(jnanedriyas), the five
organs of action (karmendriyas) and the mind (manas).
Fifty supports: They are the five viparyayas (ignorance, infatuation, love,
anger and fear), the 28
weaknesses , nine opposites of happiness (tushti) and eight opposites of
perfections ( siddhis).
Twenty counter supports: They are the five sense organs, five organs of action and their objects.
Six sets of eight each: They are 1. Prakriti with its eight principles
of gross elements, mind, buddhi
and ego-sense, 2. eight types of minerals (dhatus) found in the body, 3.
eight types of wealth or
abundance (aisvarya), 4. eight types of feelings or mental states (bhava),
5. the eight types of
gods (devas), and 6. eight qualities of the self (atma guna).
The one noose with innumerable forms: It is the desire or kama which manifests
itself in many
forms and holds the beings in bondage.
The three paths: These are the three paths to salvation namely, the path
of knowledge (gnanamarg)
, the path of devotion (bhaktimarg) and the path of action (karmamarg).
The two causes of delusion: They are the good actions and bad actions performed
with desire
which lead to delusion only.
The subsequent verse speaks of Brahman as a river of five streams flowing
from five terrifying and
crooked sources, whose vital breaths are five, who is at the root of the
five perceptions, five whirl
pools, five pains that are divided into five branches of fifty each. The
five streams are perceptions
flowing from the five sensory organs, the five vital breaths are the five
types of prana that flows in
the body, the five whirlpools are the five types of mental afflictions
caused due to ignorance, desire
etc.