Sunday, July 23, 2017

Essence of Vedanta - Part 23

Dear All,
In  the previous post (Part 22), we learnt about the God that is pure existence  which is pure knowledge and not knowledge of any object. 
Excerpts from previous post (Part 22) giving the above essence is reproduced below:-
  • Vedanta extends this concept and says, “As long as properties are experienced, you have not reached the most fundamental level.” So, every property is only an emergent phenomenon. 
  • At the ultimate fundamental level, Existence would necessarily be free from any properties. 
  • As Sat does not have any properties, is has to be only one. Any change is only change of properties. So Sat has to be changeless. 
  • So, Sat is One, Infinite, All-pervading, Eternal, Changeless, Partless, Property-less, Absolute Existence.

Let us learn more on God that is pure existence now.

In several ways we have been told in all upanishads  that whatever is there, finally, can be only a single Reality and it cannot be more than one. 
This concept was corroborated by a famous mantra that I quoted from the Rig Veda Samhita – ekam sat: "Existence is one only." The Ultimate Being is Existence. Being and Existence mean the same thing. That which exists cannot be more than one.
Everything has to exist, in some form or the other. Trees exist, stones exist, you exist, I exist, mountains exist, stars exist – all things exist. Existence is a common factor underlying every modification thereof as name and form. 
Whatever be the variety that is perceivable, all this variety is, at its root, an existence of something. Something has to exist, whatever that something be. The Real cannot be non-existent, because even the concept of non-existence would be impossible unless it is related to the existence of the concept itself. 
So the Upanishads say: "This Existence is:-
  1. Supreme, 
  2. Complete, 
  3. Universal, 
  4. All-pervading, 
  5. The only Being. 
  6. Birth less and hence, death less.

It is all-pervading and filling all space, very large in its extent, it is called Brahman. That which fills, That which swells, That which expands, That which is everywhere and is all things – That is the plenum, the completeness, the fullness of Reality.
As the author clearly mentioned in an earlier posts, all the above learning may sound as mere theory till the time one experiences and exists as the above.
So, what it means to a jiva who experiences the above state of pure existence??
When one attains God realization, he transcends his body conscience, mind conscience, intellect conscience, conscience of the world around him, conscience of God with form and with no mind, he transcends all thoughts (as Swami Says, Mind is a bundle of thoughts) and is it not true, can it not be understood at least at knowledge level that such state of a realized seer would be such that:-
- The state has no beginning, no cause.
- The state is all pervading, having transcended all objects in the world.
- The state is complete, as it is no more dependent on any object in the world. 
- The state is pure existence, exactly as the state of THAT GOD ( without form, without attributes) EXISTING PRIOR TO CREATION, EXISTING AS BEYOND CREATION EVEN WHEN THE CREATION EXISTS!!!!
This state can be experienced for a fraction of a minute only and only after intense meditation on the supreme, with absolute conviction to experience and realize the supreme and above all, ONLY WITH THE GRACE OF THE SUPREME GOD!!!

Hari Aum Tatsat.