"That Thou Art"- Explanation(241-249)
v That Thou Art- Explanation(241-249)
v If Shruti in her maxim ”That Thou Art”, repeatedly establishes the identity of Brahman and Jeeva, indicated by the term ‘That”(Tat) and “Thou”(Twam) respectively, then stripping these terms of their relative associations, their implied … meanings are to be inculcated. For they are of contradictory attributes… like the sun and the glow-worm, the king and the servant, the ocean and the well, mount Meru and the atom(241-42) Tat and Twam words are the famous maxims(Mahavakya )of the Vedas. There Is a Consciousness which is illumining all our thoughts. That Consciousness in us is the Consciousness every where is the meaning of the pregnant statement, Tat Twam Asi .This Upanishadic declaration indicates the identity(Ekattwam)of Atman and Brahman.
v The difference between them is only created by superimposition and is not real. The conditioning in the case of Ishwara is Maya, or Mahat, etc.--and the conditionings in the case of jeeva are the five sheaths.(243) When the mind and the intellect are transcended, the jeeva merges into Ishwara. God is the Reality functioning through the total vasanas or Maya. Brahman, the Reality,, after taking the physical body, it moves from environment to environment in order to exhaust its most powerful vasanas. Any conscious act…physical, mental, or intellectual…creates vasanas. Vasanas create the world, and the world around us creates vasanas. Brahman functioning through the total vasanas is called God(Ishwara), and functioning through individual vasanas is called the jeeva. Hence, when the individual vasanas are exhausted, the individual concept also ends, and the jeeva is no more. Thus the oneness of the jeeva and Ishwara--- the individual ego and the God-- is realised, which is called God realisation.
v These two are superimpositions of Ishwara and jeeva, but when they are completed eliminated, there is neither Ishwara nor jeeva. When the kingdom of the king and the shield of the soldier are taken away, there can neither be king nor a soldier(244) One must certainly eliminate these two superimpositions by means of direct Realisation(245)
v “Neither this(gross) nor this(subtle)”… like the snake seen in the rope and like dreams, are not real, being products of the imagination. By a perfect elimination of the objective world by reasoning, one must realise the oneness underlying the jeeva and the Ishwara.(246) What is delusorily projected cannot be an actual fact. A spiritual seeker(Sadhu)having eliminated the world within and without by rational thinking(Yukti) will realise that “I, who experienced the objects, motions and thoughts through the body, mind and intellect, am the One, the Substratum, the pure consciousness”
v Therefore, the two terms (Ishvara and Jeeva) should be carefully considered through their indicative meanings in order to establish their absolute identity. Neither ”the method of total rejection”, nor “ the methods of complete retention” will suffice. One must reason by a combined process of both (247).
v Men of wisdom should give up contradictory elements on both sides and recognise the identity of Ishvara and jeeva, carefully noting that the essence of both is Knowledge Absolute. In such wise, hundreds of scriptures declare the oneness and identity of Brahman and the jeeva.(248-249) Wise men having understood the One Essence both in man and the God say that the essential core in God is the essential core in man.
Vedprakash
No comments:
Post a Comment