Brahma Sutras
second installment
and
the topic is definition of Brahman.
जन्माद्यस्य यतः janmādyasya yataḥ
Brahman is that omniscient, omnipotent cause
from which the origin sustenance and dissolution of this world occurs.
So Brahman
is the
primal cause
from which the origin, sustenance and dissolution of this world
occurs.
So the previous sutra established that an inquiry into Brahman
should be made
as it helps
liberation.
Knowledge of Brahman leads to liberation
freedom.
What does that really mean?
It means freedom from
Karma. Ultimately,
it means freedom from the conditioned mind. It also means freedom to create
freedom, to create freedom, to evolve, freedom, to love, freedom, to know
freedom, to be independent
of the
complimentary or
opposing experience
that creates
that creates the experience of the world. So freedom from
identification with the opposites.
The sutra
goes on to be explained as
Brahman being truth, knowledge, infinity as well.
So Brahman is truth, knowledge, infinity.
Just another way of saying the same thing, the origin
and cause of
every experience and yet independent of the experiences,
truth, knowledge, infinity is also Brahman.
This is called
Svarupa Laksana,
that with that which defines Brahman in its essence,
these words, though they have different meanings in ordinary parlance,
Yet refer to the one indivisible Brahman, even as the words
say, father, son, brother, husband refer to one and the same person
according to his relationship with different individuals.
OK. So that's very classic, traditional and beautiful.
Now, let's go a little
deeper. I mean, how does this become practical?
OK.
So here is what we need to understand. OK.
That the fundamental reality is without cause
acausal,
it's the origin
and cause of every experience, but it itself has no cause, the fundamental reality.
It itself is also infinite, which we've said. And therefore
everything that is finite is a movement of the infinite.
It is without cause
it is the source of all knowledge. Knowledge comes through
both experience but also
interpretation of experience.
So it is the source of all knowing.
And because it is independent
of its finite expressions,
it is free
and because it is free it is always joyful.
OK. So here is another
possible metaphor for understanding this.
So imagine a whirlpool. OK. And the whirlpool
of course,
is made of water.
But imagine this whirlpool is constantly slightly
shifting in its pattern of behavior,
constantly endlessly eternally.
OK.
So
the whirlpool is a particular appearance of water.
Yet the water
is independent of its appearance,
the water is independent of its appearance.
Water retains water, even as the whirlpool slowly
is
constantly
shape, shifting
into new appearances.
But all the while it's water furthermore, the water doesn't lose its wateriness
in the shape shifting of the whirlpool.
It doesn't.
So the water
is independent of its production, which is
the whirlpool, the changing whirlpool. And they both exist in the eternal. Now,
both the
water in this metaphor or in this analogy,
and it's shifting
patterns of movement
exist in the eternal now.
So where does time come in?
Where does time come in?
Time? It comes in when
the water loses the memory of the water and thinks it's the whirlpool.
And then of course, because the whirlpool
experience is constantly changing,
then there's anxiety that,
you know what happened to me.
I was this, now I'm this. Now, I'm that. Now I'm that.
So that anxiety is the inability to let go of the experience.
The anxiety is
everything we call. you know, stress, anxiety, all the problems
that occur when
the whirlpool,
metaphorically speaking
loses
its memory
as
water.
It's a nice story I once heard
and there are, there's an elderly fish going in one direction,
two young fish coming in the other direction.
And the elderly fish says to the two young fish, hello, boys, how's the water?
And
they pass each other? And after a while,
one of the younger fish
looks at the other young fish and says,
what did he mean?
How's the water? What's water?
So, you see in
this example,
the finite
and identification with the finite
has led to the memory of the infinite.
And so here is a very practical, practical application of this one principle.
The
awareness, the fundamental awareness which is infinite
is independent of its finite expressions.
And so let's take an example,
a finite expression
of awareness might be fear.
But if you stand back and become
identified, not with the fear, but the awareness in
which the fear
is,
then you are independent of the fear.
And so
being grounded in the awareness of any experience
makes you independent of the experience.
And once you are independent of the experience,
then
there is knowing
that I can selectively create any experience through attention and intention.
That's knowing
that
even though I'm infinite, I'm not
affected
by the
finite expressions of myself,
they come and go
and they're always of course, complimentary up and down by contrast.
And I'm
the water that is independent of my productions
as whirlpools and eddies and rainbows and clouds and
drops and
dew drops and,
and rivers and rivers
and puddles. Those are all my productions, but
I remain independent of my productions. And then through
through sankalpa, dharma, samadhi
I choose
the experiences
I desire.
And what are those experiences? Those experiences are
always are in the direction of unity, consciousness,
always in the direction
of evolution,
truth, goodness, beauty harmony, all of that
is by choice.
And yet
even as I choose them. I stay independent of them
because
I am not affected by them.
It's like a light that shines
and
it gives rise to all these colors.
The light is shining and all these colors, all these objects, all these paintings,
but the light that shines
is resplendent and independent of its productions as color shapes and forms.
What I'm saying about light of awareness right now
is a visual
metaphor, but this applies to all the senses.
So
every sense experience is a fluctuation of that which is independent
of the fluctuation.
So while purusha
vibrates as shakti
in order to have the experience of
everyday reality,
the Purusha
remains independent of Shakti.
Knowing that the shakti
is another form of itself
The Shakti is another form of itself. Where is this purusha,
where is this infinite
eternal, timeless awareness
in love with the productions
of time. As Blake said, where is it?
It's the wrong question
where implies the location in space time to something
that
is
independent of its production of spacetime.
The closest you can get to it is right here right here
in this space that
engulfs all
its productions
as spacetime energy information and matter. All that means this
this there's all this
is chidakasha
modifying itself
as energy, information, space time
matter, bodies, brains, minds
knowers,
knowing-ness and
and
everything known
all within itself. And
this experience
this sinking into the chidakasha
is presence
and in that presence
the universe recycles, evolves.
OK. My friends, I hope
this is helpful because we'll also be going into various practices,
maybe some rituals, maybe some mantras,
maybe some more deeper
explorations of the Sutras.
As long as you are continuing to enjoy enjoying them,
I will keep
exploring them with you.
So onward with
the Brahma Sutras
not Shiva Sutras,
we've done the Shiva Sutras,
now we are on the Brahma Sutras.