In the Regeneration and Divinisation of Human Beings

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -6. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -6. It is only in deep sleep that we practically become one with the Absolute. But the presence of ignorance, the store of the potential objective forces existing in an unmanifested state, prevents us from having the experience of Brahman. The unmanifest inert condition is not Reality. Reality is dynamic Consciousness; yet, it is the highest tranquillity. It is the unimaginable fourth state, which includes and transcends the other three states. The Real sees not and knows not anything; It is seeing and knowing itself; “It, the Seer and the Knower, has no interruption of seeing and knowing, because it is Indestructible—there is nothing second to and distinct from it, for it to see and know.” “Even as a lump of salt has no distinguishable in or out, and consists through and through entirely of the essence of savour, so in truth this Self has no in and out, and consists through and ...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -5. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -5. All knowledge is a reflection of the Self-existent Reality-Consciousness, a shadow of Brahman-Intelligence. Even a master-genius in all possible branches of learning and arts ever known can have only a semblance of the absolute Wisdom-Mass reflected through his intellect which is only a feeble apology for true knowledge. Even the best inspiration of the greatest poet is only a reflection of Brahman-Knowledge. There is no intelligence, either on earth or in heaven, which can be equal to the Intelligence of the Absolute, because all differentiated beings have only partial intelligence and can never experience Brahman-Consciousness as long as they remain as individuals separated from the Whole. The mind, the intellect and the senses are, therefore, not intelligent; it is Brahman that is Intelligence and Light of lights, jyotisham jyotih. This knowing Subject is unseizable, indestr...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -4. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -4. “In truth, O Gargi, this Imperishable One alone sees, but is not seen; hears, but not heard; thinks, but is not thought; understands, but is not understood. There is no other Seer but That, no other Hearer but That, no other Thinker but That, no other Understander but That. In this Imperishable One, O Gargi, space is woven, warp and woof” (Brih. Up., III. 8. 11). It is further explained that as the ocean is the centre of all waters, the Atman as eye is the centre of all forms, as ear of all sounds, as nose of all smells, etc. The one central operation of this Self-consciousness is manifoldly termed in relation to the cognitive differences as eye, ear, etc. When the eye is directed on space, it is the Consciousness of the Real in the eye that shines, the eye is only a secondary insentient instrument. Similarly, it is so in the case of the other sense-functions. Even thinking an...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -3. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -3. “Brahman is Consciousness.” —Ait. Up., III. 3. “This Purusha is Self-luminous.” —Brih. Up., IV. 3. 9, 14. “The Self alone is its light.” —Brih. Up., IV. 3. 6. “Through what can one be conscious of Him by whom alone one is conscious of this everything? Through what can one know the Knower?” —Brih. Up., II. 4. Knowledge is not the attribute but the very stuff of Reality. It is the Essence of Existence. Hence, this Reality is unknowable as an object of knowledge. It manifests itself as the first principle in all thought and action. “He who breathes in with your prana, is the Self of yours, which is in all things. He who breathes out with your apana, breathes about with your vyana, breathes up with your udana, is the Self of yours, which is in all things.” Yajnavalkya declares with the certainty of a seer of the Truth, “You cannot see the Seer of seeing. You cannot hear th...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -2. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -2. This Universal Consciousness is not to be confused with the individual’s ego-consciousness. Rather, it is Pure Awareness. Ego-consciousness necessitates a modification in a certain fashion, and hence it is only a mode of becoming and not being in its fullness. Consciousness in the sense of Reality does not imply that outside it something must exist as its object. It is only in empirical cognition that consciousness needs an object. In the highest condition, the existence and the content of consciousness are one and the same. The Absolute knows itself without any process of knowing. Consciousness is absolute Intelligence, unlimited Self-luminosity. Even in all the states of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, swooning, etc., the Self ever remains as the indispensable and indisputable immediacy of Consciousness, a witness of all states. Unaffected and unaltered, it remains in i...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 2 -1. 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence -1. What is, then, the nature of this Absolute Existence? The inmost being in us, our own existence itself, shall solve the problem. We find that we cannot make a distinction between our being and our consciousness. To think of being as the real, and yet as different from consciousness, seems to be impossible. Just as we cannot deny being, so also we cannot deny consciousness. We can deny the objects and states of consciousness, but we can never deny consciousness itself. In every one of our attempts to do so, it asserts its existence before we even begin to think properly. Consciousness is the most positive of facts, the datum of all experience. It transcends all limits of space, time and causality. Consciousness is never limited, for the very consciousness of the fact of limitation is proof of its transcendental unlimitedness. Swami Kriashnananda To be continued  ...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-24. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 24. Existence is indivisible and is its own explanation. Existence cannot be defined since it has no specific characteristics, and since it never becomes an object of knowledge. It is the reality of the object as well as of the subject. The body, the vital energy, the senses, the mind, the intellect and even the very condition of all these objective manifestations have as their reality this supreme Existence. The realm of the knower and the known, i.e., the entire universe in all its aspects and states, is ultimately found to be based on Existence which is imperishable. The universe is a condition, a mode of experience, and this mode can have meaning only when it is rooted in Existence which is at once eternal and infinite. Existence, pure and perfect, is the Absolute, the supreme Brahman proclaimed in the Upanishads. Next : 2. Brahman as Consciousness or Intelligence Swami Krishnananda T...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-23. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 23. Existence is what is invariably present in all the processes of knowing. Everything is known to exist, though the existence of a thing may be qualified by the limiting factors which constitute the individuality of that thing. There can be no idea or knowledge, no action and no value, not even life itself, without existence. In the objective universe of names and forms there is the permanent principle of existence underlying all names and forms. Even if everything dies and is lost, the existence which supported that condition which is no more, cannot die or be lost. Since existence cannot change, there can be no death or birth for existence. Existence is eternal. The physical form of an external object is subject to transformation, and this transformation is called the process of birth and death. There is birth and death of forms, states, conditions, modes, but not of existence. E...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-22. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 22. Existence is what is invariably present in all the processes of knowing. Everything is known to exist, though the existence of a thing may be qualified by the limiting factors which constitute the individuality of that thing. There can be no idea or knowledge, no action and no value, not even life itself, without existence. \In the objective universe of names and forms there is the permanent principle of existence underlying all names and forms. Even if everything dies and is lost, the existence which supported that condition which is no more, cannot die or be lost. Since existence cannot change, there can be no death or birth for existence. Existence is eternal. The physical form of an external object is subject to transformation, and this transformation is called the process of birth and death. There is birth and death of forms, states, conditions, modes, but not of existence. Swami Krishnananda To be ...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-21. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 21. Becoming is not completeness of existence, whereas perfect Being implies Fullness. The Absolute does not grow or evolve. It is not a process stretching beyond itself. If it were so, the Absolute would be involved in space, time and causation, and would cease to be the Absolute. The Absolute is perfect Oneness and not a system of plural beings co-existing as reals with action and reaction among themselves. It is not a complex mass of relations. If the Absolute is considered as a system, then its parts must be either identical with it or different from it. If they are identical, their individualities are lost; if different, the relation between them becomes unintelligible. The Absolute can only be Being free from all kinds of differences. It must be Partless, Eternal, Homogeneous Existence, “One only without a second.” Existence is the most universal concept which leaves nothing whatsoever outside it. Swam...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-20. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 20. Thus, Being alone is the unavoidable basic experience, which is the fundamental concept in philosophy. We can think away everything, but we cannot think away that we are. Being is the very nature even of one who denies it. All constituents of our thinking, all forms of existence, all modes of knowledge, presuppose being. Being cannot lead us to non-being, for, the moment non-being is known, it becomes being itself. But being is not an object of our immediate empirical experience, for it is always a particular mode of being or, rather, becoming that is the object of our relative experience. To us, individuals, there can be no such thing as experience of existence-in-general. But eternal being is general or absolute existence which cannot be confused or identified with becoming which is a process. Brahman is not a process or a collection of many particulars, not a multitude of many fin...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-19. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 19. “The Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas serve as its meal, and death itself is its condiment.” “At the command of that Imperishable, the sun and the moon, the earth and the sky are held in their respective positions. At the command of that Imperishable, the moments, the instants, the days, the nights, the fortnights, the months, the seasons, the years, stand differentiated in their own places. At the command of that Imperishable, some rivers flow from the snowy mountains to the east, some to the west, in whatever direction each may flow. Whatever great actions one does in this world, even for thousands of years, without the knowledge of this Imperishable, is finite. Whoever dies without the knowledge of this Imperishable, is miserable” (Brih. Up.). “This Imperishable is satyam, True Being.” “Sat is the immortal and ti is the mortal. Yam is that which holds the two together” (Chh. Up., VII...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-18. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 18. “He becomes non-existent, who knows that Brahman is non-existent. Who knows that Brahman exists, is said to exist truly.” —Taitt. Up., II. 6. Not to know the Whole is to be limited to the part-consciousness which is not truly existent, which is mortal, and hence, equal to non-being in the absolute sense. To truly live is to be conscious of the Real Existence which is without the disease of transformation and death. “All creatures have Existence as their root, Existence as their abode, Existence as their sole support.” All forms are shadows of Pure Existence which alone endures in past, present and future, while the shadows perish like bubbles in the ocean. In the Real, existence and content are identical. Hence, everything is mere existence, which alone is real. “As birds resort to a tree for a resting place, even so it is to this Supreme Being that all here resort for their existence...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-17. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 17. There was neither death nor immortality, for both of these are correlates which have no valid recognition in Reality. There was neither night nor day, but That One, the source of light existed without motion and change. It existed as identical with its Power, there was no difference between temporality and eternity. Other than it there was nothing. Even the gods cannot say how this creation was caused, for even they were born after creation. That Source from which the universe sprang, That alone can sustain it, none else. That One alone knows the truth of its creation, or else, who can know it? The Real alone knows the Real. None else can know it. To know the Real is to be the Real. We cannot stand apart from it and at the same time know it. The moment we undertake the task of seeking the Real, we simultaneously start digging the grave for our separate individual existence. ...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-16. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 16. Lying, it moves everywhere.” “It is manifest and hidden.” Such metaphorical definitions of Reality point to the central meaning of its absoluteness of character. That which does everything does nothing in particular. All speculations about the nature of the Ultimate Principle finally lend themselves to the unanimous conclusion that it is eternal, infinite, unconditioned, non-dual, absolute, existence. “It is without an earlier and without a later, without an inside and without an outside, the Being of the Self of all, the Experiencer of everything.” Yajnavalkya describes the Supreme Being thus: “An Ocean, the One, the Seer, without duality it is. This is the State of Brahman. This is the supreme goal. This is the supreme prosperity. This is the supreme abode. This is the supreme bliss. On a part of this bliss other creatures are living.” “It does not become greater by good action,...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-15. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 15. “Brahman alone, the Greatest, is this whole universe.” —Mund. Up., II. 2. 11. “Verily, that Great, unborn Self, undecaying, undying, immortal, fearless, is Brahman.” The whole of Reality is not exhausted in this world-process. “Encompassing the whole universe He extends beyond it to infinity. Whatever is here is this Purusha alone, whatever was and whatever will be. He is the Lord of immortality. Such is His greatness yet the Purusha is greater still. All beings are one-fourth of Him, His three-fourths hail as the immortal beyond the dust of the earth” (Rigveda, X. 90). “Unmoving, it is swifter than the mind”, for the Real which is the Self is presupposed by all forms of thought. “The senses fall back in trying to reach it.” “Ahead of others running, it goes standing.” “It moves, and it moves not”; it is other than what is static and kinetic. “It is far, and it is ne...

Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-14. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 14. Brahmam is established “on its own Greatness, or, rather, not on greatness at all” (Chh. Up., VII. 24). It is the divisionless, partless, mass of plenitude— on what can it establish itself ? The Self-existent Brahmam is supported by nothing, for everything is supported by it. It is childish to say that it has established fame, though its Name is “Great Fame” (Svet. Up., IV. 19).  “Here, on earth, people call cows and horses, elephants and gold, servants and wives, fields and houses as constituting greatness”; but Brahmam is not of the greatness of this type, because here greatness is dependent on an external object. The greatness of Brahmam lies in its own Being, and not on anything second. Swami Krishnananda To be continued   .....

Haridwar Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-13. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 13. The truth of Being as the highest principle is ingrained in the consciousness that underlies all cogitating beings. The Maitrayani Upanishad says that Brahman is :- “One and limitless, limitless to the east, limitless to the south, limitless to the west, limitless to the north, and above and below, limitless in every direction; for it directions like east exist not, no across, no below, no above; this Paramatman is incomprehensible, infinite, unborn, not to be reasoned about” (VI. 17). Such a one cannot be a non-being. It is existence in its greatest completeness. Extreme and intense existence appears as non-existence. The extreme of positivity of the Real appears as a negation of everything. It is dark due to the excess of Light. It is imperceptible, for it alone is the perceiver. It is unknowable, for it alone is the knower. It appears to be nowhere, because it alo...

Haridwar Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1-12. 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 12. “How can being be produced from non-being?” —Chh. Up., VI. 2. 1. “The sacred teaching is that It is Being of being.” —Brih Up., II. 1. 20. It is Being that gives existence even to non-being. Being covers non-being from both sides. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (V. 5. 1), the word “satyam” is explained as constituting the three syllables ‘sa’, ‘ti’ and ‘yam’, the first and the last syllables being truth and the middle one untruth, thus, truth covering untruth from both sides, and the unreal world acquires the semblance of truth by being within the Truth which is incorruptible Being. And, further, Truth alone is said to triumph, not untruth (Mund. Up., III 1. 6), thus giving a distinct reality to what “is” as contrasted from what “is not”. That which changes is untrue and that which is constant is true. Non-being vanishes into Being which comprehends in itself the highest possi...

Haridwar Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 11. But, if anything is at all to be said about the Ideal and Goal of life of an individual, we cannot get on with such a perplexing conception of Reality. To us Reality is what can be the highest in the strict logical sense. Though Reality transcends logic and reason, philosophy cannot do so, for nothing in this world is possible without the functioning of thought in some way or the other. We are thinking beings, and to us all that is real must be intelligible. If anything is unintelligible, we can have no relations with it. The Real is, therefore, Being, rather than non-being, Consciousness, rather than unconsciousness, Bliss, rather than pain. There is no sense in non-being, for non-being also must at least “be”. Consciousness itself is being, and unless even non-being and unconsciousness are objects of consciousness, there can be no meaning in them. Swami Krishnananda To be co...

HARIDWAR Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 10. These references depict the absolutely transcendent nature of Reality. “It is not obtainable by many even to hear of, and even when heard of, it remains unknown to many. Wonderful is the declarer of it! Blessed is the obtainer of it!” The awe-inspiring Absolute is described as “soundless, touchless, formless, imperishable, tasteless, constant, odourless, beginningless, endless, higher than the high, eternal, by knowing which one is liberated from the mouth of death.” It exists in such a homogeneous and differenceless condition that “whatever is here, is there also; whatever is there, is here,” and hence the spatial nature of existence with its concomitant differentiations of time and individuality is overcome in the indivisible constitutive essence of Brahman. It, therefore, is and is-not. Swami Krishnananda To be continued   .....

HARIDWAR - - - Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 9. Brahmam cannot even be conceived of as light, for it has nothing to shine upon. Not even is it consciousness, for it is conscious of nothing. Consciousness or light in the absolute condition cannot be called as consciousness or light, for such conceptions are dualistic categories. Being as it is in itself is nothing to the individual. It is not an object of knowledge. Truth is independent, unrelated, self-existent; but there is no such thing as an independent, unrelated, self-existent quality. The only recourse to be taken is to admit the failure of the intellect in determining the nature of Reality and resort to negative propositions. “The Atman is not this, not this.” —Brih Up., IV. 5. 15. “The Atman is not that which is inwardly conscious, not outwardly conscious, not bothwise conscious, not a consciousness-mass, not conscious, not unconscious; it is unseen, unrelated,...

HARIDWAR - - - Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 8. Sat (being) is an idea in relation to asat (non-being), chit (consciousness) in relation to jada (inertness), ananda (bliss) in relation to duhkha (pain), ananta (infinitude) in relation to alpa (limitedness), prakasha (light) in relation to tamas (darkness). Every qualitative concept involves relations, and every thought creates a duality. To think Brahmam is to reduce Brahmam to the world of experience. Thought is possible only in an individualised state, but Brahmam is not an individual, and is unapproachable by an individual. Swami Krishnananda To be continued   .....

Kedarnath temple Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 7. It is “the being and the beyond, the expressed and the unexpressed, the founded and the unfounded, consciousness and unconsciousness, reality and unreality, the real, and whatever that is.” —Taitt. Up., II. 6. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (II. 3. 1) says that Brahman has two forms, “the formed and the formless, the mortal and the immortal, the existent and the moving, the real and the beyond.” There is a contrast between Brahman and the name-and-form world, the former being the beyond, the inexpressible, the foundationless, the unconscious, the unreal in relation to the latter which is empirically experienced as the being, expressible, founded, conscious, real. Logically, attribute or quality itself becomes an unsound concept when it is extended to the Absolute. A thing has an attribute only in relation to another thing. There is no meaning in saying that a substance has an ...

Rishikese :- Chapter 4: The Nature of Reality : 1 1. BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING : 6. We read of Sanatkumara leading the thought of Narada from inadequate conceptions of Truth to more adequate conceptions, until at last he asserts the supremacy of the Bhuma, the “absolutely great”, the “unlimited”, beyond which there is nothing, which comprehends all, fills all space, and is identical with the Self in us. This Bhuma is the Essential Brahman where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing else. It is Bliss and Immortality, the plenum of felicity. This is the Complete Being. Now, the conception of Reality as constituting being gives rise simultaneously to the idea of non-being. The Rigveda (X. 129. 1) says that in the beginning there was neither non-being nor being (na asad asit, no sad asit). Being was not, because there was no non-being. Non-being was not, for there was no being. Truth is a super-intellectual transcendence of the ideas...