Upadesa Saram - Post 32

Verse 28

किं स्वरूपमित्यात्मदर्शने |

अव्ययाभवापूर्णचित्सुखम् || २८ ||

kiṁ svarūpamityātmadarśane |

avyayābhavāpūrṇacitsukham || 28 ||

"What is the true nature?” Upon the revelation of the Self, thus?

It is immutable, birth-less, making perfectly full, Consciousness-Bliss.

In the previous verse, Maharshi proclaimed that the Self is beyond both knowledge and ignorance & there requires no external knowledge medium to know the Self which is the Seer that is always established and pulsates as “I-exist, I-exist”. 

There is a famous line often quoted in Vedantic lessons - “To define Brahman is to deny Brahman”.

The Upanishads proclaim that everything in this world becomes an object and objects can be defined or described. 

But the Subject which itself is the definer of the definitions of the objects, the describer of the descriptions can never be defined or described. 

Still, let us look into the nature of the Self  being explained here by Maharshi, which is not knowledge expressed but Maharishi's own state of existence poured. 

Avyaya or Indestructible and Abhava or Unborn

That which is subject to birth is subject to changes as well as death. Such a changing object cannot be the Self because the Self is always constant – changeless and that from which the world gets its existence. 

Hence the Self is without any birth and death. Since the Self is without birth and death, it is without any change also (that which is born is subject to change also).

We have learnt from earlier blog posts and the talk delivered on “Sai Aum” bhajan last week in Sai Centre, Brahman or THAT existed prior to the cosmic vibration AUM which means that, time and the five elements came into existence much  later. 

We all know that the entire creation is made out of the combination of five elements and all that are made out of five elements do perish at some point of time.

Thus, Brahman, which existed prior to creation, prior to five elements, which caused the five elements to emerge one by one, is BIRTH LESS as it is not bound by time, space, not created out of five elements.

Perfectly full

The Self is perfect or full. One’s own very nature is fullness or perfect being. 

The easiest way to understand this fullness is to align this SELF with the 'pure canvass' talk given by the author to some devotees couple of days before.

The canvass lesson is from Vidyaranya Swami's 'Panchadasi'.

We learnt from that talk that the pure canvass is the infinite Brahman, without any boundary, without any limitation.

So, any thing is said to be limited / apoorna only if there is anything else that exists apart from the earlier one. Since the pure canvass Brahman is infinite and each Jiva is an integral, indivisible part of the same canvass, Jiva is also infinite and complete, with nothing else existing other than the pure canvass Brahman.

Consciousness and Bliss

The inherent and natural state of the Self is Consciousness and Bliss as Maharshi says in the last few words. Consciousness is one’s own real nature because it is from “I” or “ME” that all objects gain existence. “I” alone is capable of having the independent experience - “I-exist, I-exist”. 

  

As Maharshi Himself proclaimed earlier that Consciousness alone is capable of illuminning existence, therefore my real nature is Consciousness alone. Not just Consciousness alone, it is Bliss also. 

The sorrow that we have, is not the inherent nature of the Self or “I”. Because if sorrow was the natural state, no one would want to attain happiness. But we see that people are all striving for eternal bliss. The sorrow thus, is not the real and natural state of the Self.

We have dealt with Sat and Chit adequately earlier. And this verse talks about Chit-sukham, Existence, Bliss.

One who has raised his consciousness to the ultimate level is full of Bliss. This is Bliss, Ananda or Sukha. In such a consciousness it is not possible for any pain or sorrow to exist. 

Swami Krishnananda Ji, while writing on Existence, writes 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.”

What a grand revelation from a realized Master from Hrishikesh!!

Having explained all about Ananda, it has also to be explained here that the state of Pure existence, consciousness, where one transcends all possible happiness which he can derive out of finite objects, scriptures could only express that state with the limited expression “Ananda”, otherwise, that state can never be comprehended by a sadhaka who attains liberation and exists as pure existence state.

When one exists as Jivanmukhta, he does not have any experience of even this Ananda as he transcends this Ananda as well. He just EXISTS. 

Those who accept him, feel and say that, “O, He is full of Ananda / bliss", because, at best, they can use only this expression at purest level for such an existence. However, up-to the point of realization, these three expressions SAT-CHIT-ANANDA, fills the sadhaka with enough fire, enough conviction to experience such a state. Upon realization, He exists beyond even this description of SAT-CHIT-ANANDA.

Aho!! How that state would be? Only when one reaches that state and when he sees the other one also in the same state, both would know exactly about the state of each other!

A dear brother of mine used to describe his reading in some book about a meeting of Buddha and Mahavira once, when they happened to stay at the same place one night. Throughout their stay, they did not speak a word to one another. There was no need because each one knew that the other one is in the state which is immutable, Birth-less, perfectly full, Consciousness-Bliss. 

And, what they would have communicated in that silence, the whole world put together is not capable of communicating. 

Love.