Swami Sivananda Vani

[Guest guest]

BRAHMAN

 

Whatever has a beginning or an end is unreal. That which exists in

the past, the present and the future is real. Only Brahman exists in

these three periods of time. Hence Brahman alone is real. The reality

underlying all names and forms, the primal one from which everything

originates is Brahman, the absolute. Brahman is the soul of all joy,

all bliss. Brahman transcends phenomena. Production and destruction

are only phenomena, the jugglery of the mind or maya (illusion).

Brahman is infinite, eternal, immortal. Infinity is one ¬ only that

which is unchanging, indivisible, non¬dual, beginningless, endless,

timeless, spaceless, causeless, can be infinite. There can be no

parts, no differences, no distinctions in Brahman.

 

Brahman is self¬luminous, self¬existent, self¬contained,

self¬established, self¬revealed. Brahman illumines itself by itself;

by its nature it is ever illumined. Individual souls and the world

are unreal ¬ nothing save Brahman is eternal.

 

Immortality, knowledge, bliss ' purity, independence, perfection,

etc., constitute the very nature of Brahman. He resides in your

heart. He witnesses the activity of the buddhi (intellect). Word,

speech, mouth, may not approach Brahman. Mind also cannot go there.

Supreme Brahman is impersonal, formless, all¬pervading and subtle ¬

but he can be reached through meditation, through the eye of

intuition, by one who has purified himself and who is endowed with

the four means of salvation.

 

God cannot be seen with the physical eyes ¬ but he reveals himself to

His devotees. He is one though called by countless names. Realise the

reality of the one existence, the one life that throbs in all atoms,

in all beings ¬ the one power that creates, sustains and dissolves

this universe.

 

When the heart of the devotee is united in the Lord, no difference

between them remains.

 

Before saturating the mind with thoughts of Brahman you will have to

assimilate divine ideas first.

 

Remember this triplet always: Assimilation ¬ Saturation ¬ Realisation.