The Eastern Vision of the Universe - Part 4

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Dear All,

 

Part 3 of The Eastern Vision of the Universe ended with:

 

" Brahman, then is the ground in which the whole creation is woven. Everything

comes out from brahman, emerging as from a source. The text says, " As the spider

comes out with its thread or as small sparks come forth from fire, thus do all

the senses, all the world, all gods and all being come forth from that Spirit. "

It is the source. The text goes on to say, " That Atman is the satyasya satya " ,

which means " the truth of the truth " , " the real of the real. " (Brihadaranyaka

Upanishad 2:1:20) The world of the senses is real, but the atman is the reality

behind the senses. It is the source behind the sense world. In this context the

terms 'brahman' and 'atman' are interchangeable. "

 

Here then, is Part 4 of the " Eastern Vision of the Universe " by Bede Griffiths.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

The Eastern Vision of the Universe

 

(Part 4)

 

(Pg. 68} So 'brahman' is the source, 'brahman' is the ground in which everything

is woven, but 'brahman' is also the end towards which everything is moving. This

truth appears again in connection with Yajnavalkya, who had another wife called

Maitreyi. This is interesting because Yajnavalkya was going into the forest to

become a 'vanaprastha'. After an appropriate time of married life the practice

was to retire to the forest to meditate. Yajnavalkya wants to make a settlement

with Maitreyi so he says to her, " I am going away into the forest, therefore let

me make a settlement with thee. " And she said, " My Lord, if this whole earth

full of wealth belonged to me, should I be immortal by it " ? " No, " replied

Yajnavalkya, " like the life of rich people will be thy life. " In other words,

there is no hope of gaining immortality by wealth. Maitreyi responded, " What

should I do with that by which I do not become immortal? What my Lord knows,

tell me that. " Here they have gone beyond the desire for wealth, awakening to

the desire for immortality. So he accepts her, and this is what he says, " Verily

a husband is not dear that you should love the husband but that you may love the

Atman, the Spirit, the Self; therefore a husband is dear. Not for the sake of

the wife is the wife dear but for the sake of the Spirit, the Self; therefore a

wife is dear. Not for the sake of sons are sons dear, but for the sake of the

Self. " (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2:4:1-5) This means that everything that is

loved in this world has to be loved not for itself alone but for the sake of

that eternal Spirit which is manifesting in it. Brahman, or atman, is the

source, the ground and the end of all human endeavour. It is the Supreme

Reality, which embraces everything. The whole creation is pervaded by brahman

and contained within it.

 

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad goes on to say that it is impossible to speak

properly of this brahman, this atman, this purusha, for it is beyond words. This

brahman or atman is neti net, " not this, not this. " No created thing can express

brahman. It, or he, is always beyond words and beyond thought: it is the one

reality. (Pg. 69} So this is the breakthrough beyond the physical and beyond the

psychological, to the transcendent reality which embraces both the physical and

the psychological and which fills the whole creation. That is the concept of the

brahman in the Upanishads.

 

In the Chandogya Upanishad there is a description of the city of Brahman,

conceived as the human body. The 'brahman', and in a sense the whole creation,

is present in everybody and everything. So, " Within the city of Brahman, the

human body, there is a small shrine. And in that shrine there is a lotus and in

that lotus there is a small space. What exists in that small space in the heart

of the lotus, that is to be understood. " It goes on to say, " As large as is the

space which contains the whole universe, so large is that space within the

heart. Both heaven and earth are contained within it, fire and air, sun and

moon, and lightning and stars; whatever there is here in the world, and whatever

is not, all that is contained within it. " (Chandogya Upanishad 8:1) So the whole

universe is within each of us, as we saw in the last chapter. The whole universe

is contained within consciousness. When one goes beyond the outer world of the

senses where one is just part of the external universe, one discovers the inner

reality and experiences that the whole universe is within. That is the profound

insight which was reached in India at this period.

 

In a later Upanishad, the Katha Upanishad, dated at about 500 BC there is a

further understanding of this hierarchy of being. The text reads, " Beyond the

senses there are the objects, beyond the objects there is the mind, beyond the

mind there is the intellect, beyond the intellect is the great self, beyond the

great self is the Unmanifest, beyond the Unmanifest there is Purusha, the

Person. " (Katha Upanishad 3:10-11) This maps out the structure of the universe

as it was conceived at this time. First of all there are the objects of the

senses, then the senses themselves which observe the world around. (Pg. 70}

Beyond the senses there is the ‘manas’, the mind, which works through the

senses. When anything is observed, the senses register the impressions, the

sense data, but the mind interprets what the senses register. Beyond the manas

is the 'buddhi’, which is the intellect as distinguished from the reason. Thomas

Aquinas speaks of the ‘intellectus’ and the ‘ratio’, and in Greek thinking there

is a similar distinction between ‘nous’, the intellect, and ‘dianoia’, the

reason. In Sanskrit there is the buddhi, the intellect or intelligence, and the

manas, the active reason. The buddhi is the pure intelligence which opens us to

the source of reality. The manas works through the senses and is the logical,

scientific mind, but the buddhi is the higher aspect of the mind which goes not

only beyond the senses but beyond the ordinary functioning of the mind and is

open to transcendence.

 

Beyond the buddhi is the ‘mahat’, or great world, the world of the gods and the

cosmic powers. Going beyond the higher self we become aware of the world of

spirits, the psychic world, to which we belong. Beyond the physical is the

psychic and each of us is a member of that vast world, the great world or the

Great Self.

 

Beyond the mahat is the ‘avyakta’, the unmanifest. The gods, angels and powers

are all manifestations of an unmanifest which is the source from which they

come. And again, beyond the unmanifest is 'purusha’, the Person, the Supreme,

and from him everything comes. The text says, " Beyond the unmanifest there is

Purusha; beyond Purusha there is nothing. That is the goal. That is the highest

road. " At that stage we have reached the Ultimate.

 

There is a progression from the senses, through the mind, through the intellect,

and through the cosmic mind or cosmic order, to the Unmanifest. Before anything

comes to be manifest, whether physically or psychologically, it has an

unmanifest source which is rooted in the Person, the supreme cosmic Being, from

whom the whole creation comes. (Pg. 71} That is the structure of the universe as

it emerged in the Upanishads in the fifth century before Christ.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith)

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

Pgs. 68-71