impersonal Brahman described in sastra

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Below is quoted SB 10.89.51, text and purport, from the BBT edition. This is

in response to Sumeet, who in Achintya Digest Number 791 stated that Acaryas

Ramanuja and Madhva do not accept that there is any sastric evidence of the

existence of impersonal Brahman.

 

There is also of course the famous brahmeti paramatmeti verse (SB 1.2.11).

 

TEXT

dvarena cakranupathena tat tamah

param param jyotir ananta-param

samasnuvanam prasamiksya phalgunah

prataditakso pidadhe 'ksini ubhe

 

TRANSLATION

Following the Sudarsana disc, the chariot went beyond the darkness and

reached the endless spiritual light of the all pervasive brahma-jyoti. As

Arjuna beheld this glaring effulgence, his eyes hurt, and so he shut them.

 

PURPORT

After breaking through each of the eight concentric shells of the universe,

the Sudarsana disc led Lord Krsna's chariot into the limitless,

self-effulgent atmosphere of the spiritual sky. This journey by Lord Krsna

and Arjuna to Vaikuntha is also narrated in Sri Hari-vamsa, where the Lord

is quoted as telling His companion,

 

brahma-tejo-mayam divyam

mahat yad drstavan asi

aham sa bharata-srestha

mat-tejas tat sanatanam

 

"The divine expanse of Brahman effulgence you have seen is none other than

Myself, O best of the Bharatas. It is My own eternal effulgence."

 

prakrtih sa mama para

vyaktavyakta sanatani

tam pravisya bhavantiha

mukta yoga-vid-uttamah

 

"It comprises My eternal, spiritual energy, both manifest and unmanifest.

The foremost yoga experts of this world enter within it and become

liberated."

 

sa sankhyanam gatih partha

yoginam ca tapasvinam

tat param paramam brahma

sarvam vibhajate jagat

mamaiva tad ghanam tejo

jnatum arhasi bharata

 

"It is the supreme goal of the followers of Sankhya, O Partha, as well as

that of the yogis and ascetics. It is the Supreme Absolute Truth,

manifesting the varieties of the entire created cosmos. You should

understand this brahma-jyoti, O Bharata, to be My concentrated personal

effulgence."