Q&A - 2

[Guest guest]

* Many times, people present Advaita in a question and answer format.

Here, I will attempt to do the same. I recommend that nobody ever take

what is said here as authority, as I am no authority. What I offer here is

only for consideration, for the opportunity for you to examine these

questions and answers yourself and see if they make sense. In the process,

much learning may take place, because in the view of jnana yoga, only

through questioning can we arrive at truth. Only through constant

questioning is ignorance cleared up. *

 

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Q: What is the relationship between human beings and Brahman?

 

A: Throughout history, many analogies have been used to describe that

relationship. Here I will use the analogy of the sky. Let us view Brahman

as a clear, brilliant blue sky, and not focus on the color but only on the

sky itself.

 

Human beings may be seen as clouds floating in the sky, and the clouds

composed of ignorance. If we look at the sky, we see different clouds

composed of varying density. Some clouds are thin and wispy, and some are

dark, dense and towering thunderheads. The only variation in human beings

is due to the density of ignorance, and this should be emphasized. There

is NO other difference between human beings but in density of ignorance,

all are of exactly the same substance. The thunderclouds may take a long

time to clear up, but the thin, wispy clouds may blow away at the slightest

wind.

 

Also, clouds themselves never affect the sky. Clouds in fact are the sky,

but they have the appearance of clouds. Yet they do not affect the sky,

because the sky is still there at the same place where the cloud is. And

when the cloud dissipates, only the sky remains. The sky is untouched by

clouds, unharmed, not in the slightest way changed or altered, no matter

how thick and dense a cloud may be.

 

Anyone can see that if you fly above a thick layer of clouds in an

airplane, the sky is still there, clear and brilliant as ever. And flying

through a layer of clouds in an airplane, the airplane is not stopped, it

is still flying through the sky, no matter how dense those clouds may be,

because the clouds are not different from the sky; the difference is only

apparent.

 

So the relationship between human beings and Brahman is similar to the

relationship between the sky and clouds. It can be seen that clouds are

temporary and always clear away eventually, but the sky remains always. We

can also see that there are different densities in clouds, owing to the

density of water vapor (but in this analogy, in the density of ignorance).

 

Human beings are no more substantial than clouds. They are simply vaporous

things, temporary and insubstantial. Yet some of them have more ignorance,

and that ignorance may take more time to clear up. If a thundercloud rains

very hard, it may clear up quite rapidly. But if it is content to remain

as it is, it will take a very long time for it to blow away and dissipate,

and may simply move around in the sky for a long time. And even some wispy

clouds may remain for a long time in that state, instead of blowing away.

But usually the density of a cloud determines how long it will take to

dissipate.

 

Eventually, all the clouds go away though, and only the single unbroken sky

remains, from horizon to horizon. The clouds have not died, but dissolved

into the sky and become what they already were.

 

Q: How can a cloud clear itself up?

 

A: It cannot. Ignorance cannot dissolve ignorance. Yet the cloud can

realize that it is really the sky, nothing else. This realization prepares

the way for the actual dissolving of the cloud -- in fact, it begins the

process. In this analogy, if a cloud realizes that it is only the sky, it

may begin to rain and shed moisture. Or the wind of Grace may come and

begin to blow that cloud away. Or, the "top layer" of the cloud may be

gradually burned away by the sun, from top to bottom, and the cloud will

eventually be gone. There are many ways that clouds dissipate, as any

weatherman will tell you. But it should be noted that clouds do not

dissolve themselves.

 

Using this analogy, we see that mere mental knowledge cannot clear away

ignorance. Shankara said "Merely saying I am Brahman, thinking it,

repeating it, cannot dissolve ignorance, for even a parrot can be trained

to repeat 'I am Brahman' over and over (and does the parrot then become

realized?). No, only through the experience of Brahman can we know

Brahman, and one way to do that is to get rid of all the gunas,

progressively, until only Sattva remains, which lights the way to

liberation. Then, even Sattva will vanish, and Brahman alone remains.

 

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"Truth is One; Sages call It by various names."

 

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