Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Story 36 – Story of Prahlada – 8
Atma nityo avyayah shuddha ekah kshetrajna aasrayah
Avikriyah svadrik heturvyaapako asangyanaavritah
Atman or Consciousness is eternal, immutable, pure, one alone, the resider of the temple of body, substratum (support for everything), changeless, self-seer or self-conscious, cause of the world, all-pervasive, unattached and without any veil or obstacle.
Explanation
We come to the discussion of the last four characteristics of the Self which Prahlaada explains to his co-students.
Hetu – Cause of the world Even though the Self is svadrik or self-luminous and avikriyah or changeless still it is the cause of the world. Anything that is perceived has to have a cause whether the cause is a real one or an unreal one. The pot that we see has the cause of mud and the dream world that we see has the cause of the dreamer. Similarly the world that we are currently perceiving (waking world) has to have a cause. The scriptures speak about the Self or Brahman or Lord as the supreme cause of the world – that cause which is not caused. The Self is the cause behind it is the ultimate light that gives light and existence to all other things in the world. This is what we learned earlier that the Self is that light following which everything else shines. Anything which is independent and gives existence to a thing has to be the cause of the thing. Thus the Self is the supreme cause of the world. Here cause doesn’t mean that the Self undergoes any change – here cause is only with respect to the empirical status of the world. The Self is not a real cause because the world is not real but temporary and unreal. Thus the Self is the substratum or aasraya of the world while considering the world as unreal from the ultimate viewpoint. But if we see our current day experience of the world as real (empirical level), the world exists & therefore requires a real cause. This real cause is the ultimate reality of Lord – the Lord is the cause at the empirical level but is the substratum at the ultimate level as the Lord is the cause of an illusory world (and not real world). The cause of any illusion is its substratum – the cause of water seen in desert is the desert which is the substratum of the water & not a real cause.
Vyaapako – all-pervasive The scriptures proclaim the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading in and out of everything in the world. The Lord is all-pervasive and cause of the all-present space (Taittiriya Upanishad proclaims that from the Atman came aakaasha). The Lord is all-pervading because he is the cause of the world. Any cause pervades its effect even as the cause of mud pervades the effect of pot – mud is present throughout, in and out of the pot. Whatever really exists in the pot is mud alone with a name and form. Similarly whatever really exists in the name-form world is only the Lord, the ultimate reality of Consciousness.
The Lord is also all-pervasive because he alone is the ultimate reality behind the illusory world. Any illusion has the reality pervading through it even as desert pervades the water seen in the desert.
Anything that is all-pervasive alone really exists. Thus through this and the previous characteristic of the Self, Bhagavatham is pointing out that whatever really exists here is only the Lord, one without a second – there is nothing apart from the Lord. Whatever seemed to exist, whatever seems to exist and whatever might seem to exist are the Lord alone, one without a second.
Asangi – unattached Even though the Lord is the cause which is pervading the world in and out, still he is unattached to anything and everything. The Self is unattached to anything and everything because there is nothing apart from the Self. The Self is also unattached as it cannot have any relation whatsoever with the things in the world as the things in the world are unreal whereas the Self is real. The Self since it is perfect and desire-less cannot be attached to the illusory world.
Attachment arises out of desiring something & getting associated with things/people. A husband gets attached to the wife because he desires support, love etc. from the wife. The Self cannot get attached because it is without any desires and the mere witness to all activities in the world (even as the substratum of an illusion is a mere witness to the illusion – the dreamer is just a mere witness to the dream world because he is the substratum of the dream world).
Anaavritah – without any veils The Lord is not veiled by anything because he is self-luminous. The objects in the world can be veiled by darkness because they are not self-luminous and are illuminated by the Sun. But since the Lord is self-luminous, he cannot be veiled by anything.
Even though the Lord cannot be veiled by anything but he seems to be veiled by ignorance and thus becomes the ignorant jeeva getting attached to things. This is but just the play of Maya or an illusion even as a person who has forgotten his own very nature (though he can never forget his nature but still he doesn’t remember clearly). This Maya which causes a seeker to forget his own very nature of Lord and thereby veiled by avidya is anirvachaneeya or indescribable. It is just experienced due to ignorance & once the seeker surrenders completely to the ultimate reality of Lord, ignorance vanishes & the seeker realizes his own very nature of Lord.
Thus bhagavatham here through the words of “unattached” and “unveiled” is pointing to us that the jeeva (meaning we all) who considers himself as attached and veiled is in fact the ultimate reality of Lord unattached and unveiled. Knowing that I am not attached and that ajnaana cannot veil me is JNAANA or knowledge. Through this knowledge (which is paroksha or indirect) dawns intuitive experience or atma sakshatkara wherein the seeker realizes the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord & that there exists nothing but the Lord alone, one without a second.
Sankara following the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (where Yajnavalkya says to Janaka that the self is asanga or unattached) says thus in Brahmajnaanaavaleemaala
Asangoham asangoham asangoham punah punah
Sacchidananda roopoham aham eva aham avyayah
Unattached, unattached, unattached am I (thus contemplating again and again), I realize that I am immutable and of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
We thus come to the wonderful explanation of the Self through the dvadasha lakshana – we will summarize the same in the next day so that we might remember each of these characteristics through which we will be able to contemplate on the Lord thereby realizing our own very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Atma nityo avyayah shuddha ekah kshetrajna aasrayahAvikriyah svadrik heturvyaapako asangyanaavritah
Atman or Consciousness is eternal, immutable, pure, one alone, the resider of the temple of body, substratum (support for everything), changeless, self-seer or self-conscious, cause of the world, all-pervasive, unattached and without any veil or obstacle.
Explanation
We learnt in the last few days the 12 characteristics of the ultimate reality of Lord (also called as Self, Atman, Ishwara, and Brahman) through the words of Prahlaada. Let us today try to summarize the 12 characteristics of the Lord so that we may be able to contemplate on the Lord as having the 12 characteristics.
We have to constantly remember that realization of the ultimate reality of Lord alone can give us eternal bliss, that which we are seeking each and every day. There is no other way to eternal bliss. Eternal bliss is what is termed in Vedanta as moksha or liberation. Moksha is nothing but complete cessation of sorrow or sufferings. It is due to ignorance of one’s own very nature of Lord that a seeker thinks himself as the individual jeeva limited to a body-mind-intellect complex. Due to this ignorance which causes association or attachment to things and people, the seeker thinks himself as imperfect & thereby seeks perfection. Perfection is becoming infinite, eternal and all-pervasive. All these characteristics are present only in the ultimate reality of Lord who is the antaryaami or inner Self or essence of all existence (whether it be that of humans or animals or birds). If a seeker wishes to get eternal bliss and thereby to put an end to all sorrows and sufferings in the world, he has no other alternative than realizing his own very nature of Lord.
The way to realize the ultimate reality of Lord is constant contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord. If a person needs to contemplate on something, he has to know the characteristics or nature of that which he is going to contemplate. It is not possible to contemplate on something which any particulars. It is for this reason that the scriptures speak about the Lord as the cause of the world, substratum of the world, pervading the entire world etc. The Lord’s very nature is SAT, CHIT and ANANDA. But for a seeker to understand, the nature of the Lord is mentioned relative to the world and the perspective view of the seeker.
The 12 characteristics mentioned by Prahlaada thus explain the Lord in such a way that the seeker is able to easily apprehend it and thereby contemplate on the Lord.
The Lord is eternal because he is without any birth and death. Birth and death requires a witness who witnesses the birth and death. There cannot be any birth and death without any witness for the same. Birth and death is only for the body whereas the Self or the real “I” is ever present & is the witness to birth and death. Since the Lord is the ultimate reality behind everything & since he is ever present as Existence-Consciousness, he is eternal or NITYAH. As the Lord is eternal, there cannot be any changes in the Lord. The Lord is the changeless witness to all illusory activities in the world. Katha Upanishad speaks about the Atman as one alone and unaffected by activities of the world even like the Sun is unaffected by activities on Earth. Since the Lord is changeless, therefore he is immutable (without any decay) or AVYAYAH. Since the Lord is changeless, therefore there cannot be any association with anything in the world. The Lord alone is real and everything else is unreal as everything else changes (that which undergoes change is not real). As the Lord alone exists, therefore there cannot be impurity in the Lord as impurity is mixing with some other entity than itself. The Lord is also pure because he is perfect and blissful. Thus the Lord is pure or SHUDDHAH. The Lord alone exists as the real entity amidst illusory world and its entities. Thus the Lord is EKAH or one alone (Chandogya Upanishad speaks about the Lord as EKAM EVA ADVITEEYAM or one without a second). The Lord is the consciousness which resides in the temple of body or the world itself – the Lord is the knower of this temple as he is the Subject of the temple of the world. The Lord is the Subject of the entire world as he is the essence of Consciousness which illumines the world and experiences the world at the empirical level. The Lord since he is the essence of the illusory and temporary world is AASRAYAH or substratum of the world. The Lord is that upon which the world depends for its existence. Take out the Lord from the world & the world vanishes. But even when the world doesn’t exist, the Lord still exists as he is eternal (like the state of deep sleep wherein the Self alone exists & the world is not there). Since the Lord is the substratum of all illusory things, therefore he is without any activity and changeless or avikriyah. Change is possible only when activity or actions happen. Actions arise out of desire for perfection. Since the Lord is perfect, there cannot be any desire in the Lord. As there is no desire for the Lord, therefore there cannot be actions or activities either performed by the Lord or performed by somebody else & affecting the Lord. Thus the Lord is beyond all activities. The Lord as he is eternal is self-conscious & not requiring any other light for his illumination. The Lord or “I” doesn’t require any proof or light to experience its existence. Even though the Lord is svadrik (self-conscious) but still he gives consciousness to the world as its cause. As any cause is the substratum in which the illusory changing effect is seen, similarly the Lord is the cause or substratum in which the illusory world seems to exist when it is perceived. If we really analyze the world, we will find that the world is only names and forms of the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Consciousness. Any name and form is only an illusion in the entity and not real. Similarly the world is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord. As any cause pervades the effect, the Lord also pervades the world in and out. Thus there is no place in the illusory world where the Lord is not there. As the dreamer who is dreaming is present in the entire dream world (even though during dream, it is as if he is only a part of the dream), similarly the Lord is present in the entire waking world which is but a long dream. Thus the Lord is all-pervasive or vyaapaka.
As explained earlier, the Lord is unaffected by the activities in the world because he is the mere witness & substratum of the illusory world. Thus the Lord is asangi or unattached. Since the Lord is unattached to anything, therefore the Lord cannot be veiled by anything. The Lord only seems to be veiled by ignorance & thus becomes the jeeva that we all think ourselves to be. As the dreamer seems to have forgotten his nature while dreaming but realizes it after waking up, similarly we all seem to have forgotten our own very nature of Lord but will realize it once we wake up from the illusion of world. Once we wake up, we will realize that there never was any waking world nor was there any ignorance.
With this, we come to an end to the discussion of the dvadasha lakshana of the Self which was propounded by Prahlaada to his co-students. As Prahlaada realized the ultimate reality when he heard these lakshanas from Narada, similarly if we also hear this & contemplate on the Lord as having all these characteristics, we will also realize our own very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Avikriyah svadrik heturvyaapako asangyanaavritah
Atman or Consciousness is eternal, immutable, pure, one alone, the resider of the temple of body, substratum (support for everything), changeless, self-seer or self-conscious, cause of the world, all-pervasive, unattached and without any veil or obstacle.
Explanation
We come to the discussion of the last four characteristics of the Self which Prahlaada explains to his co-students.
Hetu – Cause of the world Even though the Self is svadrik or self-luminous and avikriyah or changeless still it is the cause of the world. Anything that is perceived has to have a cause whether the cause is a real one or an unreal one. The pot that we see has the cause of mud and the dream world that we see has the cause of the dreamer. Similarly the world that we are currently perceiving (waking world) has to have a cause. The scriptures speak about the Self or Brahman or Lord as the supreme cause of the world – that cause which is not caused. The Self is the cause behind it is the ultimate light that gives light and existence to all other things in the world. This is what we learned earlier that the Self is that light following which everything else shines. Anything which is independent and gives existence to a thing has to be the cause of the thing. Thus the Self is the supreme cause of the world. Here cause doesn’t mean that the Self undergoes any change – here cause is only with respect to the empirical status of the world. The Self is not a real cause because the world is not real but temporary and unreal. Thus the Self is the substratum or aasraya of the world while considering the world as unreal from the ultimate viewpoint. But if we see our current day experience of the world as real (empirical level), the world exists & therefore requires a real cause. This real cause is the ultimate reality of Lord – the Lord is the cause at the empirical level but is the substratum at the ultimate level as the Lord is the cause of an illusory world (and not real world). The cause of any illusion is its substratum – the cause of water seen in desert is the desert which is the substratum of the water & not a real cause.
Vyaapako – all-pervasive The scriptures proclaim the ultimate reality of Lord as pervading in and out of everything in the world. The Lord is all-pervasive and cause of the all-present space (Taittiriya Upanishad proclaims that from the Atman came aakaasha). The Lord is all-pervading because he is the cause of the world. Any cause pervades its effect even as the cause of mud pervades the effect of pot – mud is present throughout, in and out of the pot. Whatever really exists in the pot is mud alone with a name and form. Similarly whatever really exists in the name-form world is only the Lord, the ultimate reality of Consciousness.
The Lord is also all-pervasive because he alone is the ultimate reality behind the illusory world. Any illusion has the reality pervading through it even as desert pervades the water seen in the desert.
Anything that is all-pervasive alone really exists. Thus through this and the previous characteristic of the Self, Bhagavatham is pointing out that whatever really exists here is only the Lord, one without a second – there is nothing apart from the Lord. Whatever seemed to exist, whatever seems to exist and whatever might seem to exist are the Lord alone, one without a second.
Asangi – unattached Even though the Lord is the cause which is pervading the world in and out, still he is unattached to anything and everything. The Self is unattached to anything and everything because there is nothing apart from the Self. The Self is also unattached as it cannot have any relation whatsoever with the things in the world as the things in the world are unreal whereas the Self is real. The Self since it is perfect and desire-less cannot be attached to the illusory world.
Attachment arises out of desiring something & getting associated with things/people. A husband gets attached to the wife because he desires support, love etc. from the wife. The Self cannot get attached because it is without any desires and the mere witness to all activities in the world (even as the substratum of an illusion is a mere witness to the illusion – the dreamer is just a mere witness to the dream world because he is the substratum of the dream world).
Anaavritah – without any veils The Lord is not veiled by anything because he is self-luminous. The objects in the world can be veiled by darkness because they are not self-luminous and are illuminated by the Sun. But since the Lord is self-luminous, he cannot be veiled by anything.
Even though the Lord cannot be veiled by anything but he seems to be veiled by ignorance and thus becomes the ignorant jeeva getting attached to things. This is but just the play of Maya or an illusion even as a person who has forgotten his own very nature (though he can never forget his nature but still he doesn’t remember clearly). This Maya which causes a seeker to forget his own very nature of Lord and thereby veiled by avidya is anirvachaneeya or indescribable. It is just experienced due to ignorance & once the seeker surrenders completely to the ultimate reality of Lord, ignorance vanishes & the seeker realizes his own very nature of Lord.
Thus bhagavatham here through the words of “unattached” and “unveiled” is pointing to us that the jeeva (meaning we all) who considers himself as attached and veiled is in fact the ultimate reality of Lord unattached and unveiled. Knowing that I am not attached and that ajnaana cannot veil me is JNAANA or knowledge. Through this knowledge (which is paroksha or indirect) dawns intuitive experience or atma sakshatkara wherein the seeker realizes the ultimate reality of non-dual Lord & that there exists nothing but the Lord alone, one without a second.
Sankara following the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (where Yajnavalkya says to Janaka that the self is asanga or unattached) says thus in Brahmajnaanaavaleemaala
Asangoham asangoham asangoham punah punah
Sacchidananda roopoham aham eva aham avyayah
Unattached, unattached, unattached am I (thus contemplating again and again), I realize that I am immutable and of the nature of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss absolute.
We thus come to the wonderful explanation of the Self through the dvadasha lakshana – we will summarize the same in the next day so that we might remember each of these characteristics through which we will be able to contemplate on the Lord thereby realizing our own very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
Atma nityo avyayah shuddha ekah kshetrajna aasrayahAvikriyah svadrik heturvyaapako asangyanaavritah
Atman or Consciousness is eternal, immutable, pure, one alone, the resider of the temple of body, substratum (support for everything), changeless, self-seer or self-conscious, cause of the world, all-pervasive, unattached and without any veil or obstacle.
Explanation
We learnt in the last few days the 12 characteristics of the ultimate reality of Lord (also called as Self, Atman, Ishwara, and Brahman) through the words of Prahlaada. Let us today try to summarize the 12 characteristics of the Lord so that we may be able to contemplate on the Lord as having the 12 characteristics.
We have to constantly remember that realization of the ultimate reality of Lord alone can give us eternal bliss, that which we are seeking each and every day. There is no other way to eternal bliss. Eternal bliss is what is termed in Vedanta as moksha or liberation. Moksha is nothing but complete cessation of sorrow or sufferings. It is due to ignorance of one’s own very nature of Lord that a seeker thinks himself as the individual jeeva limited to a body-mind-intellect complex. Due to this ignorance which causes association or attachment to things and people, the seeker thinks himself as imperfect & thereby seeks perfection. Perfection is becoming infinite, eternal and all-pervasive. All these characteristics are present only in the ultimate reality of Lord who is the antaryaami or inner Self or essence of all existence (whether it be that of humans or animals or birds). If a seeker wishes to get eternal bliss and thereby to put an end to all sorrows and sufferings in the world, he has no other alternative than realizing his own very nature of Lord.
The way to realize the ultimate reality of Lord is constant contemplation of the ultimate reality of Lord. If a person needs to contemplate on something, he has to know the characteristics or nature of that which he is going to contemplate. It is not possible to contemplate on something which any particulars. It is for this reason that the scriptures speak about the Lord as the cause of the world, substratum of the world, pervading the entire world etc. The Lord’s very nature is SAT, CHIT and ANANDA. But for a seeker to understand, the nature of the Lord is mentioned relative to the world and the perspective view of the seeker.
The 12 characteristics mentioned by Prahlaada thus explain the Lord in such a way that the seeker is able to easily apprehend it and thereby contemplate on the Lord.
The Lord is eternal because he is without any birth and death. Birth and death requires a witness who witnesses the birth and death. There cannot be any birth and death without any witness for the same. Birth and death is only for the body whereas the Self or the real “I” is ever present & is the witness to birth and death. Since the Lord is the ultimate reality behind everything & since he is ever present as Existence-Consciousness, he is eternal or NITYAH. As the Lord is eternal, there cannot be any changes in the Lord. The Lord is the changeless witness to all illusory activities in the world. Katha Upanishad speaks about the Atman as one alone and unaffected by activities of the world even like the Sun is unaffected by activities on Earth. Since the Lord is changeless, therefore he is immutable (without any decay) or AVYAYAH. Since the Lord is changeless, therefore there cannot be any association with anything in the world. The Lord alone is real and everything else is unreal as everything else changes (that which undergoes change is not real). As the Lord alone exists, therefore there cannot be impurity in the Lord as impurity is mixing with some other entity than itself. The Lord is also pure because he is perfect and blissful. Thus the Lord is pure or SHUDDHAH. The Lord alone exists as the real entity amidst illusory world and its entities. Thus the Lord is EKAH or one alone (Chandogya Upanishad speaks about the Lord as EKAM EVA ADVITEEYAM or one without a second). The Lord is the consciousness which resides in the temple of body or the world itself – the Lord is the knower of this temple as he is the Subject of the temple of the world. The Lord is the Subject of the entire world as he is the essence of Consciousness which illumines the world and experiences the world at the empirical level. The Lord since he is the essence of the illusory and temporary world is AASRAYAH or substratum of the world. The Lord is that upon which the world depends for its existence. Take out the Lord from the world & the world vanishes. But even when the world doesn’t exist, the Lord still exists as he is eternal (like the state of deep sleep wherein the Self alone exists & the world is not there). Since the Lord is the substratum of all illusory things, therefore he is without any activity and changeless or avikriyah. Change is possible only when activity or actions happen. Actions arise out of desire for perfection. Since the Lord is perfect, there cannot be any desire in the Lord. As there is no desire for the Lord, therefore there cannot be actions or activities either performed by the Lord or performed by somebody else & affecting the Lord. Thus the Lord is beyond all activities. The Lord as he is eternal is self-conscious & not requiring any other light for his illumination. The Lord or “I” doesn’t require any proof or light to experience its existence. Even though the Lord is svadrik (self-conscious) but still he gives consciousness to the world as its cause. As any cause is the substratum in which the illusory changing effect is seen, similarly the Lord is the cause or substratum in which the illusory world seems to exist when it is perceived. If we really analyze the world, we will find that the world is only names and forms of the ultimate reality of Lord of the nature of Consciousness. Any name and form is only an illusion in the entity and not real. Similarly the world is only an illusion of names and forms in the ultimate reality of Lord. As any cause pervades the effect, the Lord also pervades the world in and out. Thus there is no place in the illusory world where the Lord is not there. As the dreamer who is dreaming is present in the entire dream world (even though during dream, it is as if he is only a part of the dream), similarly the Lord is present in the entire waking world which is but a long dream. Thus the Lord is all-pervasive or vyaapaka.
As explained earlier, the Lord is unaffected by the activities in the world because he is the mere witness & substratum of the illusory world. Thus the Lord is asangi or unattached. Since the Lord is unattached to anything, therefore the Lord cannot be veiled by anything. The Lord only seems to be veiled by ignorance & thus becomes the jeeva that we all think ourselves to be. As the dreamer seems to have forgotten his nature while dreaming but realizes it after waking up, similarly we all seem to have forgotten our own very nature of Lord but will realize it once we wake up from the illusion of world. Once we wake up, we will realize that there never was any waking world nor was there any ignorance.
With this, we come to an end to the discussion of the dvadasha lakshana of the Self which was propounded by Prahlaada to his co-students. As Prahlaada realized the ultimate reality when he heard these lakshanas from Narada, similarly if we also hear this & contemplate on the Lord as having all these characteristics, we will also realize our own very nature of the ultimate reality of Lord.
# posted by vedanta : 8:55 PM
