[ramakrishna] Digest Number 378

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1.Surely Thakurji meant the pot space and outside space as an analogy to make

people get some notion to hold on to about Brahman and Atman. Because in a

different context he himself says that Brahman cannot be brought into words.

He says that Vedas, Tantras, Puranas and all the texts of the world have become

like food spit out from the mouth because they are debated and discussed.

However Brahman is never that way because no one has been able to describe it in

words.

 

2.The analogy used by Thakurji for distingusihing Maya and Brahman is that of a

moving snake and a still snake. This means Maya is the energy manifested as

" Creation " - we preceive it by the 5 senses, mind and intellect. Brahman is then

unmanifested energy from which maya springs forth.

 

3. Regarding our attempts to understand Brahman, Thakurji has this to offer. A

person takes a diamond to the market and asks people how much it was worth:

A brinjal vendor says it is worth about a basket of brinjals;A rice merchant

says about a bag of rice; So does every one value it according to their own

intellect. Finally a diamond merchant values it at a million. Thakurji concludes

by saying only Brahman can know Brahman fully( can't imagine what he wanted to

convey)

 

4. Another analogy by Thakur to clarify the relationship between Brahman and

beings

 

Human body is the pot;Mind, Intellect,Senses are the water, rice and vegetables

in the pot; The heat from the stoves makes all this get cooked and Thakurji

likens the heat to Brahman. He says a person touching the cooked food will feel

the heat - in reality the heat is neither that of the pot nor that of the food.

Similarly humans do actions because of the energy that is Brahman.

 

I do not know if these measure up to the tenor of the discussion in the list on

Atman Brahman and the like which uses some axioms and abstractions.

 

But I find Thakurji's lucid explanations the guide to understanding abstract

concepts. They are like lamp posts which the mind can fall back on to get a

handle on these concepts.

 

But at the end as Thakurji reminds us " All these efforts to grasp Brahman are

like knowing a particular country by poring over its map. There is no substitute

for experiencing the country firsthand! "

 

 

regards

Sreedhar

 

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