prana and maya.......

[Guest guest]

This came to the list........

 

Last evening I attended the meditation series at the Golden Lotus

Temple of the Self Revelation Church of Absolute Monism,

located in Maryland right on the edge of Washington, D.C.

in the U.S. I was accompanied by the young daughter of my

wife's cousin, who is visiting us in the U.S. for a few weeks.

She is from Slovenia, an interesting and traditional, country.

However, she saw the Temple, which is just a few steps from our

home. Srimati, the minister, led the meditation, which referred to

a text in the Upanishads, dealing with prhana ( spelling?).

The young cousin was very interested. However, she said she

could not understand ..<snip>...Can you help or refer us to a classic

text that tries to make the notion clearer. <snip>

 

=============response===========

 

The idea of Prana is explained in various ways in some of

the upanishads. One of the translations in the

Taittiriya upanishad will call it 'life force'

Chapter 2 Lesson 3

 

"Whatever gods or men or animals exist, all of them depend on

Prana for their life".

 

Prana is also described sometimes as the

modification of the Vital energy.

 

Idea of Prana in a wider context comes

from Swami Vivekananda (it deals with concept of modification

or change):-

 

Prana is that which makes Brahman appear as all this.

It is the manifesting power of Brahman.

Naturally a question arises:-

Brahman is considered to be beyond change and modification

and without attributes (like manifesting power).

So how can anything really effect Brahman - or make Brahman manifest?

The answer from Advaita Vedanta is:-

Really speaking nothing effects Brahman.

The fact that Brahman 'appears as all this'

is just that:- 'a mere appearance' and not real.

But still the question stays: Then what is all this?

Surely there is something behind this appearance?

The answer:

The state of affairs we face is best described as

"Neither real nor unreal".

This is not escapism but can best be called realism.

Accepting this state of affairs "as it is" (not as illusion)

is the definition of Maya from Vivekananda.

 

The origins of these teachings can be traced back to

Samkhya darshan. Samkhya's Purusha evolved and became (Atman or)

Brahman in Vedanta and Samkhya's Prakriti became Maya in Vedanta.

Samkhya had the problem of resolving the tricky issue of what is

the relationship between these two absolute categories.

Advaita is able to resolve this philosophic problem using

ideas of Brahman and Maya (as neither real nor unreal).

 

It was Vivekananda who appreciated the marvellous contribution

of Kapila and his Samkhya Darshan towards the evolution of

Vedantic thinking. It was Sage Kapila who for the first time made

the important distinction between 'matter and spirit'.

This is when spirituality was born.

 

Reverence to Sage Kapil....

 

jay

Vivekananda Centre London