Atma Bodha - Post 73

Verse 63

जगद्विलक्षणं ब्रह्म ब्रह्मणोऽन्यन्न किंचन ।

ब्रह्मान्यद्भाति चेन्मिथ्या यथा मरुमरीचिका ॥ ६३॥

JAGAT VILAKSHANAM BRAHMA

BRAHMANA ANYAT NA KINCHANA.

BRAHMA ANYAT BHAATI CENMITHYAA

YATHAA MARUMARIICHIKAA

[Brahman is other than this, the universe. There exists nothing that is not Brahman. If any object other than Brahman appears to exist, it is unreal like the mirage.]

In the previous slokas, Acharya explained that Brahman is the substratum of the entire creation, here in this verse, we learn that the Brahman is ever uncontaminated by the world as the world is illusory and Brahman is ever existent.

Acharya here is explaining that Brahman is that which is different from this word, but it is not to be taken that the world and Brahman exist differently, Difference is pointed out only w.r.t. their existence, i.e. world is unreal and Brahman is real, hence Brahman is different from the illusory world; it is its very substratum.

Hence Acharya immediately follows that whatever exists is but Brahman alone and there is nothing apart from Brahman. Thus the world that is perceived has to be illusory, like a mirage in desert.

The absoluteness of Brahman is explained in shruti is different ways. As Chandogya Upanishad explains this in 6th chapter as:

SADEVA SOMYEDAMAGRA AASIIDEKAMEVAADVITIIYAM.H

TADDHAIKA  AAHURASADEVEDAMAGRA AASIIDEKAMEVAADVITIIYAM

TASMAADASATAH SAJJAAYATA

‘In the beginning, dear boy, this was Being alone, one only, without a second. Some say that, in the beginning, this was Non-being alone, one only, without a second. From that Non-being arose Being.’

Brihadaranyaka Upaniahad also explains this in 4.3.23 as:

YAD VAI TAN NA PAŚYATI, PAŚYAN VAI TAN NA PAŚYATI  NA HI DRA..UR D...ER VIPARILOPO

VIDYATE, AVIN.ŚITV.T; NA TU TAD DVITIYAM ASTI, TATO’NYAD VIBHAKTAM YAT PAŚYET.

That it does not see in that state is because, though seeing then, it does not see; for the vision of the witness can never be lost, because it is imperishable. But there is not that second thing separate from it which it can see.

Marumrichika- The Mirage simile

In the mirage which appears while one walks in a desert on a hot day, actually only desert exists. The ignorant sees the water pools in a desert, known as the mirage.

Once a deluded mind has seen the mirage, it can multiply its mis apprehension and see the mirage having the waves and even the sun reflecting on the water surface and so on.

The mirage is different from the desert and yet, without the desert, the mirage cannot exist. And the mirage water cannot wet even an iota of the desert land.

Just as how the waters of mirage do not wet the sands of desert, similarly, the world of duality consisting of various names and forms can never affect or change the absolute consciousness.

It is only the ignorant who mistake the water and assume it to really exist while the wise ones know only the substratum as real and all the duality as only an illusion. A deluded mind alone sees the waters in a desert and apprehends them to be real, similarly it is only due to the ignorance that one sees the duality in the ever existent Self.

Let us recapitulate the simile once again.

Ø The desert is sand, and the mirage is water.

Ø We know that in a desert there is nothing but sand alone.

Ø If you see anything else in a desert besides sand, it has to be false, it simply cannot be true.

Now let us apply this lovely simile to the desert of the Vedantic world:

Ø The desert sands stand for Brahman. The world of objects is the mirage that appears as ‘water’.

Ø The preceptor tells us that Brahman alone is real. Nothing else is real. This is exactly the case with the desert sands.

  

Ø  If we see the ‘water’ of worldliness then that can only mean one thing. We have accepted as real something which is unreal, which only appears to be real.

 

Acharya Sankara has chosen this simile and explained in a way that this revelation can never be argued / can never be unaccepted by any school of thought. Glory to Sankara!

This is what Vedanta says about this world of names and forms. It does not say that they do not exist, but it says that their existence is temporary, until knowledge dawns and then it is seen clearly that Brahman alone exists.

Thus all duality perceived has to be known as an illusion alone. This sloka can be beautifully summarized by Acharya Gaudapada’s Mandukaya Karaika’s sloka 1.17 as:

PRAPAJNCHO YADI VIDYETA NIVARTETA NA SA.NSHAYAH

MAAYAAMAATRAMIDAM DVAITAMADVAITAM PARAMAARTHATAH

If a phenomenal world were to exist, it should, no doubt, cease to be. This duality is but an illusion; in reality it is non-dual.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 72

Verse 62

स्वयमन्तर्बहिर्व्याप्य भासयन्नखिलं जगत् ।

ब्रह्म प्रकाशते वह्निप्रतप्तायसपिण्डवत् ॥ ६२॥

SVAYAM ANTARBAHIRVYAAPYA

BHAASAYANN AKHILAM JAGATH

BRAHMA PRAKAASHATE VANHI

PRA TAPTAA YASA PINDAVAT

[Pervading the entire universe outwardly and inwardly the Supreme Brahman shines of Itself like the fire that permeates a red-hot iron-ball and glows by itself.]

In the previous sloka, Acharya explained Brahman as devoid of all qualities, such nirvishesha Brahman is described here as Self illumining. It is that because of which even the sun and moon are illumined. That is to be known as Brahman.

Brahman is Consciousness absolute, and it is only because of

this Consciousness that all objects of the world are known. All the creations including the celestial bodies are illumined only because of the consciousness. Thus even the Sun and moon that illumine the different worlds would not exist apart and independent of this all pervading consciousness.

Hence Acharya is here explaining that everything derives their power from Brahman while Brahman is independent of everything and needs no external illumination.

That which illumines all others cannot be illuminated by anything other than itself. Brahman is ever the illuminator and illumines itself. As we learnt from the examples in previous slokas, unattached and unaffected like the street lamp, Brahman is the light of all lights and the illuminator of all illuminations.

The famous sloka of Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.10 proclaims this as:

NA TATRA SUURYO BHAATI NA CHANDRATAARAKAM

NEMAA VIDYUTO BHAANTI KUTO.AYAMAGNIH

TAMEVA BHAANTAMANUBHAATI SARVAM

TASYA BHAASAA SARVAMIDAM VIBHAATI

There the sun does not shine, nor the moon or the stars; nor do these flashes of lightning shine there. How can this fire do so? Everything shines according as He does so; by His light all this shines diversely.

The same is also explained by Lord in many places in Gita such as in 15.6:

NA TADBHAASAYATE SUURYO NA SHASHAAN^KO NA PAAVAKAH .

YADGATVAA NA NIVARTANTE TADDHAAMA PARAMAM MAMA ..

That the sun illumines not, nor the moon, nor fire; That is My Supreme Abode, to which having gone none return.

Thus Brahman is that truth which shines of itself and penetrates the entire world of creation. It is not something other than the world of creation, for it exists in and through all as the Consciousness. Acharya gives the example of a fire ball to state this.

Brahman is infinite, all pervading and self illumining while the objects of the world are insentient, dependent and illusory, thus opposite in nature.

Gita says the same in 15.12 as:

YADAADITYAGATAM TEJO JAGADBHAASAYATE.AKHILAM.H .

YACHCHANDRAMASI YACHCHAAGNAU TATTEJO VIDDHI MAAMAKAM.H

That light which residing in the sun illumines the whole world, that which is in the moon and in the fire, that light do thou know to be Mine.

How then can one perceive existence - consciousness which is verily Brahman in these?

Answer is given with the simile - “Vanhi Prataptayah Pindavat”, The Red-hot Iron Ball.

A cold iron ball is a dull, unattractive object. However, in the presence of great heat, it cannot help but glow. We cannot see heat but we see its effect on a ball of iron.

An iron ball when in contact with fire for a long time comes to glow as fire itself, similarly, even though the insentient objects seem to exist only due to Brahman.

Iron though black in color and cold to touch, acquire the redness and heat due to fire. So too the inert and insentient matter like the sun and moon also acquire their illuminating power only due to Brahman.

The iron ball represents creation, and the heat represents the Self. It is the Self that imparts vibrancy and a glow in all creation.

Love.

Atma Bodha - Post 71

Verse 61

यद्भासा भास्यतेऽर्कादि भास्यैर्यत्तु न भास्यते ।

येन सर्वमिदं भाति तद्ब्रह्मेत्यवधारयेत् ॥ ६१॥

YAD BHAASAA BHAASYATE ARKAADI

BHAASYAIH YAH TU NA BHAASYATE

YENA SARVAM IDAM BHAATI

TAT BRAHMA ITI AVA-DHAARAYET

[That by the light of which, the luminous orbs like the sun and the moon are illumined, but that which is not illumined by their light - realize that to be Brahman.]

We are now entering the concluding phase of the text. The nature of the Self is so completely different from anything that we experience in this physical world, that we can hardly reach it through words. Yet that is what we are attempting through various analogies and similes.

Sankara leaves us with a few final glittering similes with which he attempts to express the inexpressible. These analogies, taken from our experience of the world, take us pretty close to the Truth.

1) We know the sun as the source of all illumination in this world. The moon reflects the light of the sun at night, and so also becomes one of the sources of illumination. Their luminosity, however, is only at the physical level.

2) The second Pada switches over to the philosophical meaning of the word ‘Luminous’ or ‘Illuminate’, where it means “being aware” or “to know”, and we use the capital letter to differentiate it from its ordinary use.

These two great external sources of light are of no help in Illuminating the Self. In fact, they can be known to us only by the Light of the Self.

“BY WHICH ALL THIS SHINES”

3(i) As Knowers through Consciousness: Not only the sun and the moon but all other things, even abstract things, are available to us only because of Consciousness. Awareness or the conscious-principle in us enables us to know.

  

3(ii) As vehicles of Consciousness: We contribute to the existence of all things known to us. Were it not for our Consciousness, we would not even know of their existence. An object becomes known only if I shed my light of consciousness on it, through my mind.

The mind serves only as a ‘conduit’ for my consciousness to flow to the object and bring it to my awareness. Viewed this way, what is the sun? It is a modification of the mind. The mind appears and sets in consciousness. It is ‘Me’ the Self that gives existence to my mind, and thus to the sun. In this sense, it is ‘Me’ that makes my whole world alive.

3(iii) As Mirrors of Consciousness:. When we use a mirror to reflect the sunlight to some other place nearby, the sun does not shine there directly, but through the mirror it reached there.

So also, in the realm of Consciousness, we are the mirrors that are reflecting Consciousness to the sun and the moon (or any other object for that matter), and by doing so we become aware of their existence and their nature. Thus, all things become known to us because of Consciousness.  

3(iv) As Flow of Consciousness: The eye sees the sun, but the sun does not know it. The mind sees through the eye, but the eye does not know it. Consciousness flows through the mind, but the ignorant mind does not know it. Consciousness illumines the intellect, intellect illumines  the mind,  mind illumines the eye, which then illumines the sun. In short, this is the sequence of the flow of Consciousness:

CONSCIOUSNESS>>INTELLECT>>MIND>>SENSES (EYE)>>OBJECT

Consciousness Must be All-Pervading: The verse “Na Tatra Sooryo Bhaati Na Chandra Taarakam” means exactly the same as this verse. If any part of the above chain in the flow of consciousness is removed, we will not see the sun. The message is Consciousness is Brahman; It is all-pervading.

That which illumines all others, which cannot be illumined by anything other than itself, is ever the Self Luminuous consciousness.

In the above flow of CONSCIOUSNESS>>INTELLECT>>MIND>>SENSES (EYE)>>OBJECT, even  prior to human species emerging on this earth, even before intellect ever came into existence at cosmic level  or at individual level, that which eternally existed is the SELF LUMINOUS CONSCIOUSNESS!!.

The essence of this verse is dealt in the first verse of Drik Drsya Viveka .

1	Roopam drishyam lochanam drik,	Form is the seen, the eye is the seer;
2	tat drishyam drik tu maanasam;	that eye is the seen, and mind is its seer;
3	Drishyaa dhee-vrittayah saakshee	of the thoughts in the mind, the Inner Witness
4	drik eva na tu drishyate.	alone is the Seer, and is never the seen.

This verse is taken up by the author in detail in spiritual sessions. It is said that one who has absorbed this one verse and takes up this one verse for meditation, can realize Brahman through intense contemplation on this single verse in Vedanta.

To conclude, the Seer, which illumines the intellect, and intellect illumines mind, mind illumines senses and senses experience the objects, (that seer) eternally exists as SEER, THE WITNESS CONSCIOUSNESS BECAUSE THERE IS NO SEER EXISTING PRIOR TO IT WHICH CAN SEE THIS WITNESS CONSCIOUSNESS.

Exactly the same essence is given by Sankara in the above verse-"That which illumines all other things but which has nothing else to illumine it - realize THAT as Brahman".

Love.