Brahman: The one true reality

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Note from the List Moderator: Welcome to the list and we look forward to your long and active participation in the list discussions with your insights. The weekly definitions started from the beginning of this year will be very helpful to you and the next week topic is "Brahman."

 

Hello, I would just like to introduce myself. My name is Mayank

Gupta, and I am from Canada. I have recently been interested in

Advaita Vedanta. I have posted below as to what I feel Brahman is. I

just want to apologize ahead of time for the lack of sanskrit terms as

I am limited in this area. I am still learning Advaita and would

leave to hear your thoughts and add correction or expand wherever

necessary. Below are just my thoughts and how I reflect on the one

true reality. Perhaps I may bring something forward for someone which

may have not been clear for them earlier. I find analogies to help me

the most so thats why I have included them. I hope you will take the

time to read my lengthy post. Thanks!

 

Brahman: The one true reality

 

Just like an Ocean has its waves, so too we can be seen as waves on

the cosmic wave. No matter what form the wave of the ocean takes, it

can never escape its nature which is water. It can become a small

wave, or a tidal wave, but no matter how hard it tries to sway away

from its true identity, which is water, it will always remain as water

regardless. So too we are the same, except instead of water, we can

be seen as the forms of consciousness. Everything in manifestation is

a part of the consciousness and can be none other than this. To think

otherwise, would be to think we are separate from the "ocean" from

which we are created. We are part of the eternal consciousness of

Brahman, and always will be eternally. One cannot escape Brahman but

can only change form. Changing form is the nature of Brahman. But it

will always remain so as Brahman and nothing else. To see Brahman,

please look around the room you are in, for Brahman is everything, you

are only fooled! Just as a wave of the ocean looks at the other waves

in the ocean and sees the separation, we are also led to believe that

everything is separate from us, and that Brahman is something outside

of ourselves. But we forget we are looking at Brahman straight in the

eye.

 

But how can one ever know Brahman truly without being fooled? Now,

when the wave calms and settles, it merges with the ocean and finally

knows itself as the whole of the ocean. So too as we calm and settle

our bodies and minds, we emerge with the infinite consciousness of

Brahman and know everything of manifest and non-manifest. There is no

more "I", but only "I AM THAT I AM". But to think one is separate

from Brahman in the here and now, is to say that Brahman lies outside

of us! It does not! There are NO boundaries. It is all Maya. The

Illusion of Brahman.

 

When one says they will one day come to know Brahman, they are fooled

by the concept of time. For time only exists as long as one is part

of the illusion. True one can argue that linear progression of time

seems real to them, and is valid for the illusion that we live in, but

to say that Brahman will one day be realized is a fallacy. Brahman

already exists and you are part of that dream of Brahman. Let go of

this concept of time, and understand the Brahman is in the here and

now. Time is analogous to a map. For example, Vancouver and Toronto

have two different times. One person can be in Toronto and it can be

9pm and one can be in Vancouver and it can be 6pm. Who is right??

They both are! Both these people existing right now! Time IS the same

for both of them. Its only the CONCEPT of time which has us fooled.

The Sun moves around the Earth at different "times", but in reality,

the sun only exists from moment to moment, fooling us into believing

something else! Only the NOW can exist. When one realizes this, their

wave will once again merge with the infinite consciousness in the here

and now.

 

Since time can only exist in the NOW, then this implies that Brahman

exists eternally NOW. Brahman always was, always IS, and always will

be. Brahman is the infinite consciousness from which manifestation

occurs, molding itself into various names and forms. Since Brahman is

everything, then Brahman exists as infinite possibilities. There is

no limitation for Brahman. Every possible circumstance, or objects

are existing right NOW even though we may be unaware of them. One

cannot say that Brahman will one day form something, or that one day

we will become something else. When is that one day? Everything is

already existing within Brahman in the NOW.

 

In the dream of Brahman, where manifestation takes place, or Brahman's

"arena", the laws of cause and effect apply to everything manifest.

Cause and effect are valid only for manifest things. When the wave

knows itself as everything, just as when we know ourselves as Brahman,

then cause and effect no longer applies because we are no longer bound

to the Brahman's "arena" or "dream". However, this does not mean we

have separated ourselves from it. It just implies that we have come

to the awareness of Brahman in everything. We still exist as infinite

possibilities whether manifest or non-manifest! Remember, Brahman is

non-dual. Brahman cannot be separate from anything, even when Brahman

is "realized"! For how can something be seperate from its creator?

 

When one talks about banishing the senses, body and mind, breath, and

Ego in order to realize Brahman, they are missing the whole point.

For you cannot banish something. It can only change form! Even

though radio waves are different from gamma rays, they are part of the

same electromagnetic spectrum! To become a gamma wave, one would need

to increase the frequency of the radio wave. We did not banish

anything, we only changed its form, in this case increasing the amount

of energy to produce a gamma ray. So in the same way we never banish

our senses, body, mind, breath and Ego. We simply change its form.

To say that we banished something implies that it is seperate from

Brahman. The senses, body, mind, breath, and Ego are not seperate

from Brahman and exist in there here and now. They are just FORMS of

Brahman. Nothing can exist outside of Brahman so realize that the

divinity IS you, right here and right now. Thinking otherwise would

bring about the concept of dualism, but there is no "I" and "We".

Brahman is everything. The only true reality! To know Brahman fully

without being caught up in the Maya is to merge with the infinite,

eternal ocean of consciousness once again.

 

 

Many Blessings,

 

Mayank