Jnana Vahini - Post 14

Swami explains Brahman,

BRAHMAN

"The word Brahman is derived from the root, Brh, meaning to expand, to increase, to enlarge etc. Brhath means big, enlarged, gross, high etc. 

Purusha has its root, Pri meaning to fill, to complete. Pur means a town 'full' of inhabitants, that is to say the body, in a figurative manner of speaking. He who completes or is immanent in or who fills it, the Purusha.

When the Jnani declares, 'I am Brahman', he is uttering the truth from the reality of his experience. When the gross and the subtle are transcended, when the Manas, the Buddhi and the Prana are sublimated, that is to say, when the Self is no longer bound by feelings, thoughts, impulses and instincts, what remains is SAT only. 

(Author's note - Never should one confuse oneself with the physical identity of such a jnani who declares - Aham Brahmasmi. It is not the Ahamkara that speaks, it is the Aham, the pure SELF that roars and gives its pure identity when a jnani says - I AM BRAHMAN)

PARA BRAHMAN

Existence - pure and unalloyed, Parabrahman. 

'Paras' or 'Param' means super, beyond, above, more glorious than all. 

Parabrahman indicates the One beyond and behind everything, grander than anything in the three worlds. 

ATMAN IS ANANDA

The Taittiriya Upanishad has declared, "Through Ananda, all this is born; through Ananda all this is living; in Ananda alone, all this is merged; in Ananda all this rests". 

Like the category Brahman, the category Antaratma also is possessed of the same attributes. It is also Ananda-born, Ananda-full and Ananda-merged. 

Bhoomaa means 'limitless'. The Chandhogya Upanishad declares that Ananda inheres only in the Bhoomaa, the Eternal, the Brahman. Again, another word used by Jnanis to describe their experience of Brahman is Jyotiswarupa, meaning, 'whose nature is splendour, glory or effulgence, who is Illumination itself'. 

Ten million suns cannot equal the Splendour of the Param-Atma. The word Santhiswarupa indicates that It is Santhi Itself. In Sruthi texts like Ayam Ayma Saantho... etc., it is proclaimed that Paramatman is Prasanthi itself.

(Author's note - Swami Krishnananda speaks in a lecture, thus: -

"The bliss of God manifested itself as this world, by the bliss of God the world is sustained, and into the bliss of God the world will return one day. As we are not outside creation, we have also come from the bliss of God, and are sustained by the bliss of God. That is why we love everything. Everything is pleasurable for us because the essence of the bliss of God is present in the very ability in us to sustain ourselves. And in the end, we return to the bliss of God.

God has not created the world from sorrow; He has created it out of His bliss. The world does not proceed from sorrow to sorrow, but from bliss to bliss, if only we are agreeable to cooperate with this inclusiveness of God’s creation and set aside the egoistic exclusiveness of keeping ourselves apart from the things of the world. If you are a friend of the world, the world will be your friend, and God also is your friend.")

Oh, what an expression from this sage from Hrishikesh.

Love.