Swami vivekananda

[ranjanbhandari]

The Song of the Sannyasin

By Swami Vivekananda

 

Wake up the note! The song that had its birth

Far off, where worldly taint could never reach,

In mountain caves and glades of forest deep,

Whose calm no sigh for lust or wealth or fame

Could ever dare to break: where rolled the stream

Of knowledge, truth and bliss that follows both.

Sing high that note, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Strike off thy fetters! Bonds that bind thee down,

Of shining gold, or darker, baser ore;

Love, hate--good, bad--and all the dual throng,

Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped, not free;

For fetters, though of gold, are not less strong to bind;

Then off with them, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Let darkness go; the will-o-the-wisp that leads

With blinking light to pile more gloom on gloom.

This thirst for life, for ever quench; it drags

From birth to death, and death to birth, the soul.

He conquers all who conquers self. Know this

And never yield, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

"Who sows must reap," they say, "and cause must bring

The sure effect; good, good; bad, bad; and none

Escape the law. But whoso wears a form

Must wear the chain." Too true; but far beyond

Both name and form is Atman, ever free.

Know thou are That, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

They know not truth who dream such vacant dreams

As father, mother, children, wife, and friend.

The sexless Self! whose father He? whose child?

Whose friend, whose for is He who is but One?

The Self is all in all, none else exists;

And thou art That, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

There is but One--The Free--The Knower--Self!

Without a name, without a form or stain.

In Him is Maya dreaming all this dream.

The witness, He appears as nature, soul

Know thou are That, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Where seekest thou? That freedom, friend, this world

Nor that can give. In books and temples vain

They search. Thine only is the hand that holds

The rope that drags thee on. Then cease lament

Let go thy hold, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Say, "Peace to all: From me no danger be

To aught that lives. In those that dwell on high.

In those that lowly creep, I am the Self in all!

All life both here and there, do I renounce,

All heavens and earths and hells, all hopes and fears."

Thus cut thy bonds, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Heed then no more how body lives or goes,

Its task is done. Let Karma float it down;

Let one put garlands on, another kick

This frame; say naught. No praise or blame can be

Where praiser praised, and blamer blamed are one.

Thus be thou calm, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Truth never comes where lust and fame and greed

Of gain reside. No man who thinks of woman

As his wife can ever perfect be;

Nor he who owns the least of things, nor he

Whom anger chains, can ever pass thro' Maya's gates.

So, give these up, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Have thou no home. What home can hold thee, friend?

The sky thy roof, the grass thy bed; and food

What chance may bring, well cooked or ill, judge not.

No food or drink can taint that noble Self

Which knows Itself. Like rolling river free

Thou ever be, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Few only know the truth. The rest will hate

And laugh at thee, great one; but pay no heed.

Go thou, the free, from place to place, and help

Them out of darkness, Maya's veil. Without

the fear of pain or search for pleasure, go

Beyond them both, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

Thus day by day, till Karma's power's spent

Release the soul forever. No more is birth,

Nor I, nor thou, nor God, nor man. The "I"

Has All become, the All is "I" and Bliss.

Know thou are That, Sannyasin bold! Say-- Om Tat Sat, Om

 

[Guest guest]

Jai guruji!!jai swami vivekananda jai ramakrishna paramahansa..jai kali maa..

Jai.

[Guest guest]

the concept here is if we can worship narayana in an image of stone by offering flowers fruits and prayers...the same naraayana can be worshipped in a much more tangible way by offering service , love , food and clothing to the lesser privileged.

...this is a clear misunderstanding of the most ancient archa vigraha tradition of vedic religions, god has a form, god is omnipotent, his form is not separated by his self, if his form is depicted or sculpted (by rulesand regulation of vedas) it remains his omnipotent form and it is to be worshipped. The sculpted form and the original form are the same and it is only our perverted perception that see earth, stone, metal, paint and so on. So the meaning it is not symbolic or an illusion that we create to do a better worship. My question is.. why concoct the religion for the purpose of serving mankind? it is not better to serve mankind with material helps but also with correct and not false spiritual helps to solve also the problems of the next life?

 

the representation is in the mind of the worshipper...not in the image....

--as i demonstrated this is absolutely wrong and it would be idolatry, tribal idol worshipping (the same accusations that muslims and christians make to hindus, vaishnavas, shaivites and so on.. idolatry, and idolatry means to worship something concocted by mind and not god.. exactly the thing that you are saying)

 

much like how the stone images mean krishna and ram to us.

--the raja is not god... he has no power to be entirely in his form and then in the sculpted form.... the meaning you have or you have learned about archa vigraha is against vedic tradition and very similar to the idea of some of his opponents

 

a kid can understand this concept...

--yes.. a kid can understand

[Guest guest]

Q1.How can GOD become a Jiva or vice-versa ?

...god is eternally all powerful, the whole, he is never a part or a parcel

 

.then my question is how krishna can become GOD?

..krsna is already and eternally the supreme personality of godhead... isvarah paramah krsnah, sat citananda vigraha.... krsna is the supreme lord, his form is full of eternity, consciousness and bliss

 

According to our great mahabarata he was freind and guide of pandavas , and he lived his life like a humanbeing

..yes... LIKE a human being is the right word... LIKE means that god's not a human being and he sometimes act in this way to teach us the behaviour. If you have a form.. a personality... god also have a form, a personality, he acts in all the three worlds

 

finaly,he died in a forest because of a hunter?.

....having seen all the marvellous things made by krsna and his avataras it is very easy to understand that a simple arrow in a foot cannot have killed him... so it is clear that it was a lila, a trick to get out from his activities in this planet and come back in goloka vrindavana in vaikunta

 

How God can take human form, according to your logic ?

...different, as the bible say (to make it simple) we are created with the image of god.. not that god takes the form of humans... the forms of the relative are obviously present also in the absolute, the absolute cannot be lacking of something present in the relative

 

if you can see God in krishan ...why can't you see GOD in the poor person ?

...the fact is not to imagine, the fact is to see the reality... and in the poor or rich person we can surely see our brother, but not god... krsna is to be worshipped because he's god, not because we decide to imagine that he's god. And why you are following a truth that say to you to imagine that god is in poor people? if you demonstrate that krsna as god and the poor as god are both imagination it is a problem also for you... do not worship a fantasy, worship the reality!

 

 

Your dvaita preaches dulaity,if some thing exist other than the God...

...no dvaita... gaudya vaishnavism follows acynthia beda abeda tattva... we are one with god in the sense that we both share eternity, consciousness and bliss, but we are separated by god because he is the giver of eternity, consciousness and bliss and we are the subordinated, our existence depends by him and not the opposite.. same quality but different quantity

 

We are all spark of the divine infinte fire according to bhagavad-gita...

...but this fire is divine, omnipotent, so the sparks have also a separated and different personality from the fire.. oneness and separation simultaneously

 

.so, the same applies to the poor,intelligent,rich everyone..they are all same....

..if everything is the same, why you give bread to the poors.. give it to yourself and it will be exactly the same (in your idea of reality... not mine of course)

 

I admire a poor with great heart than a very rich person without charecter...

...very basic but true.. one has not to be judged by his money

 

God is neither poor or not rich

...no... god is rich, the supreme rich, everything is his property... bhagavan

 

.it is humanbeings who tries to limit the god...

..so do not say that he's poor

 

You

can have a greatest knowledge...But it is useless until you convert it in to action Which will be useful for others.

...of course theory is to be converted in action, but action has also to be backed by a logic theory.. we are not our body, our body is surely to be helped and mantained, but soul is more important

 

so let's work for the people but let us not cheat on the spiritual plane.. otherwise our piece of bread or medicine we give to them will be like poisoned

 

And please answer me each and every concept in dvaita with Logic.

..there's no dvaita or advaita.... let us speak by logic

 

 

jaya sri bhagavan

[Guest guest]

Swamiji was not limited to only adviata or an other single concept...

 

of course you can say everything... but this is advaita pure, simple and of the cheapest brand

 

no distinction.. the poor and god are the same, all is god, worship the man and you worship god... are advaita concepts

 

and if he sometimes posed as a bhakta, the fact that he made no distictions in the two kinds of realizations says "advaita"

 

also advaitins worship in the temple personalities of god but saying that there's no distinctions between personalities of god and between them and infinitesimal jivas

 

so nothing new under the sun

 

 

[Guest guest]

The sculpted form and the original form are the same and "it is only our perverted perception that see earth, stone, metal, paint and so on......"

 

just what i said...perverted perception sees the difference even between the image of god (sculpted by the rules and regulations of the vedas ) and the poor.

 

 

"why concoct the religion for the purpose of serving mankind? it is not better to serve mankind with material helps but also with correct and not false spiritual helps to solve also the problems of the next life?"

 

concoction is nonexistent...as u said it is only the perverted perception that sees concoction of ideas. the truth is constant.

 

"as i demonstrated this is absolutely wrong and it would be idolatry, tribal idol worshipping "

 

whats wrong with idol worship? i never condemned it...and what did the poor tribals do...He who is the Lord of all doesnt He know that different children call Him by different names...reach him by different paths....y derogate tribal worshipping.

 

"the raja is not god... he has no power to be entirely in his form and then in the sculpted form"

 

it is not the raja who is the central figure in this discussion...it was the dewan and how he treated the image of the raja...and he is very much human...just like all of us.

 

"yes.. a kid can understand"

 

no...the kid misunderstood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

Sticking to ones stand is not logic.

 

 

 

This may be more applicable to you guys. Tell me how can GOD become human.

 

 

And Narayana is not daridra. Read carefully. Serving the needy pleses the god. Thats what it means. Feeding the poor, educating the poor are all direct services to god. Thats what the concept of daridra narayana means. If some one cannot understand even this basic concept, I donno how logical it is. The concept if service occupies a high space in hindu dharma. That includes Anna Dhana, Siksh Dhana and all that.

There is a tamil saying " ezayin sirripinil iraivanik kaanbom" which means we can see god in the smiles of the poor.

 

 

This is not a question on service and every branch of Vaishnavism emphasises service.

 

The question is about calling and telling human beings that we are all GOD. That is the point here.

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

the concept here is if we can worship narayana in an image of stone by offering flowers fruits and prayers...the same naraayana can be worshipped in a much more tangible way by offering service , love , food and clothing to the lesser privileged.

 

 

I do not deny this at all. Lord Narayana is antaryami and service to them is great. There is a difference between seeing GOD in human beings(Jivas), human bodies and stones is different from calling all this as GOD itself.

 

 

funnily it was swamiji who gave the most famous answer regarding the worship of stone images to the raja who ridiculed the practice. he asked the dewan to spit on the raja's image. when the dewan got scared and refused , swamiji explained how the image represented the raja himself to the dewan...much like how the stone images mean krishna and ram to us.

 

a kid can understand this concept...if anticheater , raghuraman etc cant...then either they want to prolong the conversation or are too stubborn or most probably anticheater is hating the logical and sensible way his queries are being answered and finds no way out but abuse to get his thoughts across.

 

 

All great. But it still does not explain the term used. As for image worship, seeing GOD in Jiva's etc. is alright. The question here is not about this. What anti-cheater is really asking is how can you tell people that humans are GOD.

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

Dear Anticheater,

 

Stick to logical reasonong. No need to use word like cheat etc. It is not respectful towards a great saint. I don't think Swamy Ramakrishna is an ordinary man. One can be a strong Advaiti and a great saint at the same time. The good example is Sri Ramana Maharishi, Sri Ramakrishna himself etc.

 

These souls are greater than us in every way. Even Madhvacharya bowed down humbly and respected his advaita guru.

[Guest guest]

So,These guys cann't follow their own religion....so,how they can teach others about the true religion.

anticheater,raguraman,yourfriend first try to make correct

in your own logic!,don't be kids anymore..i am like a mirror..you will see your own image in me!!

Kids!grow more,grow more!!

 

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

So,These guys cann't follow their own religion....so,how they can teach others about the true religion.

anticheater,raguraman,yourfriend first try to make correct

in your own logic!,don't be kids anymore..i am like a mirror..you will see your own image in me!!

Kids!grow more,grow more!!

 

 

I have seen many people here abusing Vaishnava acharyas. It does not matter. Anyway anticheater's question is pertinent. How can one say that a Jiva is GOD. Answer this instead of attacking and abusing a kid and posting irrelevant articles not related to this post.

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

The same question asked by you is back to you..If the same logic of your applys to everywhere....then my question is how krishna can become GOD?,(I Personaly, admire krishna as a great humanbeing not as GOD) According to our great mahabarata he was freind and guide of pandavas , and he lived his life like a humanbeing,got married, He was a person chosen by the God to preach Bhagavad-gita and finaly,he died in a forest because of a hunter?.How this can happen to krishana if he was god ?.How God can take human form, according to your logic ?.If he was god how he can die ?,Still you can say he was a exceptiion than others ,then please tell me if Krishana can become God...why the same thing will not apply for others?if you can see God in krishan ...why can't you see GOD in the poor person ?...if it is a lila...how you can say this world isn't a form of lila?.

 

 

This has been answered by anticheater very well. Lord Krishna is an avatar of Lord Narayana. Avatara of Lord means that Lord HIMSELF descends without loosing anything at anytime. In Mahabharatha, it is stated that Lord Krishna appeared besides HIS mother in the jail of Kansa. It means that Lord Krishna was not born as other children. I am not saying this. You can check mahabharatha. Even Pandavas and Karna were not born the ordinary way. Think about the Karna story. If Karna was born the ordinary way through Kunti being pregnant for nine months, how come nobody(except Lord Kirshna HIMSELF) knew it. Karna was born with Kavacha and Kundala.

 

If this is the case for Karna, then nothing needs to be said of Lord Krishna who is GOD HIMSELF and nothing needs to be said that any person will die immediately because of an arrow shot in his toe. What needs to be said of LORD HIMSELF. No wonder Lord Krishna HIMSELF says that ignorant people deride HIM when HE descends in human form.

 

Next point is that people think that Lord Krishna is limited because they see Lord Krishna's form with finite boundaries. This is again the limitation of the observer, not the observed ie Lord Krishna in this case.

[Guest guest]

I have seen many people here abusing Vaishnava acharyas. It does not matter. Anyway anticheater's question is pertinent. How can one say that a Jiva is GOD. Answer this instead of attacking and abusing a kid and posting irrelevant articles not related to this post.

??

anticheater, a kid?i don't believe.irrelevant articles??

dude these are facts about ISKCON.These people are converting religion in a to fashion show by commercialisation...when i visited one of the ISKCON temples in india , i was surprised to see sale of cake,burger inside the temple,and they made it like a market.and their crime history made us to believe that these people are biggest cheaters. My question is how can this people teach is about religion?,why these people making fun of krishna?,i don't find any logic here!!abusing? it must be answerd by anticheater.

[Raguraman]

Hared Krishna,

 

 

dude these are facts about ISKCON.These people are converting religion in a to fashion show by commercialisation...when i visited one of the ISKCON temples in india , i was surprised to see sale of cake,burger inside the temple,and they made it like a market.and their crime history made us to believe that these people are biggest cheaters. My question is how can this people teach is about religion?,why these people making fun of krishna?,i don't find any logic here!!abusing? it must be answerd by anticheater.

 

 

First point, what is the relevance of this post here with the discussion we are having here.

 

If you want to expose something regarding ISKCON organization then open another thread. Do not divert the topics here. Perhaps this is a new technique you people employ to escape one simple logical question a kid like anticheater asks.

[Guest guest]

If you are not pure,how you can preach some one other about purity?.

 

[Raguraman]

Hare Krishna,

 

 

If you are not pure,how you can preach some one other about purity?.

 

 

Another diversion tactics. Please answer how can a Jiva become GOD.

 

An individual and a kid like anticheater cannot be blamed for what happens in an organization. You cannot answer a kid's question and so all this diversion tactics and calling us even impure. Nice knowledge you are having.

[ranjanbhandari]

You told:"No need to use word like cheat etc. It is not respectful towards a great saint. I don't think Swamy Ramakrishna is an ordinary man. One can be a strong Advaiti and a great saint at the same time. The good example is Sri Ramana Maharishi, Sri Ramakrishna himself etc. These souls are greater than us in every way. Even Madhvacharya bowed down humbly and respected his advaita guru"

"All great. But it still does not explain the term used. As for image worship, seeing GOD in Jiva's etc. is alright. The question here is not about this. What anti-cheater is really asking is how can you tell people that humans are GOD. "

 

"An individual and a kid like anticheater cannot be blamed for what happens in an organization. You cannot answer a kid's question and so all this diversion tactics and calling us even impure. Nice knowledge you are having."

 

My Answer:Thanks,Raguraman i realy appreciate your words.it is just glimpses of matured thinking and a very good attitude of atleast respecting others belief.Definetly,anticheaters called these sages as cheaters, this shows his immaturity.

As much as i know no one this forum called krishna as a cheat,because everyone here respects krishnas values.

And My answer for anticheaters question is;

 

"Each soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere (limitless) but whose centre is in some body. Death is but a change of centre. God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, and whose centre is everywhere. When we get out of the limited centre of the body, we shall realize God, our true Self."

 

It is up to anticheater how he takes this answer,he has to think mature.sooner or later he will realise the Truth.

Love

Ranjan Bhandari

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ranjanbhandari]

Dear antivirus,please stop abusing someothers belief or spiritual organisation.it is not neccsary to find others fault to prove that we are right.

If you are true,right&pure there is nothing can stop you from proving truth.Sooner or later Truth wins.

Jai sri ramakrishna jai swami vivekananda.

Love,

Ranjan Bhandari.

[Guest guest]

The sculpted form and the original form are the same and "it is only our perverted perception that see earth, stone, metal, paint and so on......"

just what i said...perverted perception sees the difference even between the image of god (sculpted by the rules and regulations of the vedas ) and the poor.

--the probem is that it is not to choose a statue and give him the name of god or a devata, the fact is exactly the opposite, to know the form of god by the spiritual science and to make an image who, having the form of god .. is god. Yours is another sign of despise of the archa vigraha tradition

 

"yes.. a kid can understand"

no...the kid misunderstood.

--

[Guest guest]

how can this people teach is about religion?,why these people making fun of krishna?,i don't find any logic here!!abusing? it must be answerd by anticheater.

--the fact is that the scene you have depicted is very nice.. so huge prasadam selling!!.. the other problems of course there are, but gaudya vaishnava and vaishnava tradition is so long and ancient that some mistakes cannot obscurate it

 

i am more loyal than you... i judge with philosophy, not with gossip

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

One can be a strong Advaiti and a great saint at the same time.

--it is a contraddiction... if you convince me that i am god i do not need you more and i annihilate your existence in making me ONE with absolute.. advaita is like killing, no one exists, guru, brothers, poors, richs, god, devatas, saints, teachers... only a big lonely ME..

 

Even Madhvacharya bowed down humbly and respected his advaita guru"

--to teach the behaviour to be respectiful of superiors

 

As for image worship, seeing GOD in Jiva's etc. is alright.

--no.. it is not allright, jiva is not god, i am not god and you are not god... otherwise how can you lose the god's features or forget to be god? god is CIT.. conscious, eternally conscious.. maya is his energy, he's not subordinate to maya

 

What anti-cheater is really asking is how can you tell people that humans are GOD. "

--that is a cheat, a lie that all the false gurus claiming that they're god say.. like sai baba for xample.. "i am god!!" the disciple has some doubt.. and the cheater: "but you are also god!!".. and the poor disciple is satisfied

 

Definetly,anticheaters called these sages as cheaters, this shows his immaturity.

--but also the capacity to give demonstration... you asked me to answer all your objection... i have done, what is your answer?

 

As much as i know no one this forum called krishna as a cheat,because everyone here respects krishnas values

--if you do not respect there's logical demonstration of why krsna has to be respected... actually saying that krsna/narayana is poor it is blasphemy, not respect

 

Each soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere (limitless) but whose centre is in some body.

--the field of influence of the soul is huge.. we can be at the opposite side of the world and communicate like we are doing now.. the fact is that this huge power of the soul is not by the soul.. otherwise how can a soul fall under the power of maya? soul's power is given by god, and if the soul wants to forget god, god gives to the soul the power to forget through maya

 

God is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, and whose centre is everywhere.

--this is illogic, because if we have the individuality, also god can be an individual, a personality.. so god's centre is nowhere and somewhere simultaneously.. he's the whole and he's the person.. this is the reason why the poor, the rich, me , you we are not god.. we are inside god, we belong to him but we are not god. And the form of god is not an imagination that you indiscriminately can put on some image of your invention or a poor or a tree.. the form of god is real, like you are real

 

When we get out of the limited centre of the body, we shall realize God, our true Self.

--if your new age advaitism would be true.. you do not realize anything, to become one means to kill everyone and remain lonely and sad ... that is absurd

 

It is up to anticheater how he takes this answer,he has to think mature.sooner or later he will realise the Truth.

--my spiritual growth depends also by logical and rational answers given by the elders like you... but you are not helping me too much

 

jaya sri krsna bhagavan.... boo to the cheaters!!

[maadhav]

<< As for image worship, seeing GOD in Jiva's etc. is alright.

--no.. it is not allright, jiva is not god, i am not god and you are not god... otherwise how can you lose the god's features or forget to be god? god is CIT.. conscious, eternally conscious.. maya is his energy, he's not subordinate to maya >>

 

IshvarH sarva bhUtAnAm hridesherjuna tishthati

brAmayan sarva bhUtAni yantrArudhAni mAyayA - Kirshna (gita)

 

krishna is every where,

but jiva is jiva, and god is god per vaishnav view.

 

 

[ranjanbhandari]

Dear anticheater,

Advaita may seem like a philosophy on the outside (it is practiced as a religious stream by many Hindus), but this may very well be the place where Scientific world intersects with the Spiritual world. Many of us are aware of the Plancks equation E = hv , where E = Energy of a wave, and h = Plancks constant and v = frequency of the wavelength. With the arrival of Einstein it was also established that E = mc^2 where E = energy and m = mass of a particle and c = speed of light.

 

When we combine the two equations, we get mc^2 = hv which gives us a very interesting relation which directly relates the mass of a particle to frequency, which means anything material has an associated wavelength namely, DeBroglie waves . To sum up, matter is another form of waves which in turn is another form of energy and so on.In fact it so appears that the whole mesh of this Universe is in fact blending into that One which exhibits itself as many (namely, mass, energy, wave etc). This is where Advaita takes over to explain that everything is but the manifestation of that "One" which is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Even the concept of these fundamental waves is seen in Hindu (and consequently Advaita) belief as Aum.

 

Love

Ranjan Bhandari

 

[ranjanbhandari]

This is for anticheaters,First learn about advaita,and then comment on it.

Advaita is the Hindu or Vedantic name for the doctrine of monism. Advaita can be literally translated as adualism or non-dualism, but is generally referred to as monism. It is not the same as monotheism, which is the belief that there is only one God, as contrasted with polytheism which believes in many gods. Advaita is not even the same as pan-theism, 'all things are God'. The basic principle of Advaita is that there ARE no 'things' - there is only God. In other words, all that exists, is God - 'things' are mere appearances.

 

The basic tenets of Advaita could be stated very briefly as follows :

 

1. There is One basic underlying Reality or Source of the entire manifestation, which is variously called Brahman, Nirguna (attributeless) Brahman, Consciousness (Prajna) or just 'THAT' (Tat).

 

2. Unlike the common perception of God, in reality God is not a person - 'God' in Advaita refers to this same impersonal, indefinable force. This force cannot be accurately described in words, and so any description must be accepted with that caveat.

 

3. The Nirguna Brahman has not CREATED the manifestation of this phenomenal universe, it has BECOME the manifestation, and that too, ONLY IN APPEARANCE. In this becoming, the essential nature of Brahman remains unchanged, as Brahman is, by its very nature, changeless, this becoming is only an APPARENT becoming. The example given is that of a screen - Brahman - and the pictures projected on it - the manifestation.

 

4. 'We', as the separate individual entities that we unquestioningly take ourselves to be, are also not different from Brahman or the Source. Our sense of being separate psychological entities each with our own separate individual consciousness, IS AN ILLUSION caused by our defective way of thinking. This delusory power of our thinking is termed maya.

 

We are not even a part of Brahman in the sense of being a small part of a bigger whole. We ARE Brahman by another name.

 

Love

Ranjan Bhandari

 

 

 

[ranjanbhandari]

If we go back to the History,we will find that all the mystics and sages have been pointing to this very same philosophy from time immemorial.

 

In its most explicit form, this philosophy is found in the form of the Hindu Vedantic doctrine of Advaita. In this philosophy, there is no separate, autonomous, individual soul. There is only an illusion of a separate soul.

 

As there is no separate soul, there can be no question of either free will or of rebirth; free will and rebirth for whom? The reality of God according to this theory is that he is the Universal Consciousness, the Source or Ground of all being, and not a personal, anthropomorphic, all-powerful entity. And finally, these things are definitely not asked to be accepted on trust. The individual is encouraged to find out for himself and confirm and corroborate these findings on his own.

 

Nor does this really contradict conventional religion, even religions other than Hinduism. The apparent contradictions are because the religions or the various sages talk at different levels of reality, in consideration of the pre-existing beliefs of the listener. But when speaking at the highest level of reality, most religions as also the sages and mystics affirm this same monistic truth.

 

Several of Jesus' sayings, for example, "I and my father are one", and the teachings of Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart and St. Augustine can be clearly seen to have monistic meanings.

 

The Buddha appears to have restricted himself to the practical aspect of this same teaching, not wanting his disciples to merely speculate on its theoretical considerations and end up in sterile intellectual debates. He taught that there is no separate soul or atman, the doctrine of anatta or anatma. While refusing to speculate on the Universal Consciousness Paramatman, he asked his followers to experience it for themselves - indeed a highly scientific approach.

 

Zen and Taoism too taught much the same principles.

 

And so did Sufism. In fact, Islam is the one religion which simply refuses to speak of an anthropomorphic God, and insists that He is formless.

 

In Judaism God is called Jehovah, Yhwh or Yahweh which means 'I am that I am', clearly indicating the primary Consciousness which enables anyone to know that one exists.

Books to Reffer:

(1) The Spectrum of Consciousness, Ken Wilber, The Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Illinois, USA; 1977, reprint 1985.

 

(2) The Atman Project, Ken Wilber, The Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, U.S.A., 1989.

 

(3) The Tao of Physics, Fritjof Capra

 

(4) My View of the World, Erwin Schroedinger, London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1964).

 

(5) What is Life? and Mind and Matter, Erwin Schroedinger, London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1969).

 

(6) Phantoms in the Brain, V. S. Ramachandran (neurologist, director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, USA).

 

(7) Brilliant Disguise; Light, Matter and the Zero-Point Field by Bernard Haisch, Science & Spirit, Vol.10/Issue 3, Sep-Oct '99

 

(8) The Self-Aware Universe, Amit Goswami, 1993, G. P. Putnam's sons, New York.

 

(9) The Network of Thought, p. 70; Krishnamurti, J., KFI, 2nd Edn., © J. Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, London, 1982.

 

(10) The Perennial Philosophy, p.36, Aldous Huxley, Harper & Row, New York, 1970.

 

(11) Gospel of St. John, 17:21.

 

(12) Quoted in The Perennial Philosophy, p.206, Aldous Huxley, Harper & Row, New York, 1970

 

As Advaita can be shown to be quite scientific in temper, modern science, on its part, is closing in on this philosophy. Modern science, especially quantum mechanics, gives us a completely different world view of reality from that so far given to us by classical 'Newtonian' physics.

 

 

 

In fact, it shows that classical physics, or the world as we know it, is merely a special case scenario of the more comprehensive new physics. The world-view of modern science comes remarkably close to that of Advaita, and several books have been published correlating the theory of Advaita with modern science, see (1) to (5). Some recent scientific discoveries also correlate very well with this theory, for example, discoveries of the way the brain functions (6) and the discovery of the so-called Zero-Point Field (7).

 

The only point on which there is still confusion between science and this comprehensive, monistic spirituality, is the final question of whether there is 'something' behind all this, or whether there is 'nothing'. Religions unanimously uphold the former view - even Buddhism which some believe to be nihilistic. The Buddha said:

 

"There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, release from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible."

 

Science, however, has so far tilted towards the latter, nihilistic opinion only because of its old, classical moorings. Science has so far presupposed that materialism is the primary reality and Consciousness is an Epiphenomenon of this reality. However, this fails to explain many aspects of the modern physics, and glaring holes are now visible in this classical world-view.

 

To give just two examples, the 'quantum' jump made by an electron from one orbit to another without passing through the intervening space; and the Aspect experiment which showed that two electrons can instantaneously affect one another however far apart they are in space - a phenomenon called non-locality.

 

On the other hand, if Consciousness is taken as the primary reality, almost all the contradictions immediately resolve themselves. This is also exactly what mystics over the ages have been saying. And really, to presuppose that materialism is the primary reality, indeed, to presuppose anything and to stick to it in spite of the many contradictions that become apparent based on this presupposition, is in itself highly unscientific.

 

So the least we could do is to examine the alternative paradigm with an open mind - the alternative paradigm being identical with the main Advaitic teaching, that Consciousness, and not matter, is the primary reality and the ground of all being (8).

 

But apart from the scientific angle, our theory must also be able to satisfactorily explain the oft mentioned spiritual phenomena of Enlightenment and Liberation, and also the mystery of God. Let us see if our theory can do so.

 

If Consciousness is taken as the One Reality, then all the teachings of the sages immediately become relevant. The core of the teaching of the sages has been that Consciousness is one and that we are not separate psychological entities. The sages have always maintained that our sense of separateness is an illusion. It is only man that suffers from this unique delusion of being a separate entity, of having a soul. Occasionally, a rare human being sees through this illusion, and such a person is then said to be illumined or Enlightened.

 

What exactly is this phenomenon called Enlightenment? Let us first understand it in simple terms, and then try to explain it in the scientific, medical and psychological context. To understand what is Enlightenment, we must first understand the basic premise or contention that the sages have taught.

 

This is that Consciousness is one, and our sense of being separate psychological entities with separate individual consciousnesses is an illusion. Philosopher J. Krishnamurti said,

 

" It is not a fact that one's consciousness is totally separate from that of everybody else - that separateness is an illusion. One is the whole of mankind - not an individual consciousness. One's consciousness is the consciousness of mankind." (9).

 

This means that the separate 'we's' and 'you's' that we imagine as distinct psychological entities or as separate bits of consciousness, do not really exist as such. True, there are discrete body-mind units. But the idea of separate individual consciousnesses or individual souls inhabiting those body-mind units is a myth.

 

The Upanishads say 'Ayam aatmaa Brahman' meaning that this apparently discrete individual soul is the same as Brahman or the Universal Consciousness. Here Brahman should be understood as the one (universal) Consciousness, as the Upanishads clearly state that Consciousness is Brahman, 'Prajnanam Brahma'.

 

These two statements taken together clearly mean that Brahman is the Universal Consciousness, and the apparent individualised consciousness is really Brahman, with a superimposed illusion of separateness. Thus the separate me's and you's which we expect will survive our mortal bodies as separate entities, do not exist. The separate body-minds are animated by the one Universal Consciousness just as the consciousness of a novelist animates all the characters in his novel. Jalal-ud-din Rumi, the Turkish Sufi mystic of the middle ages, sang:

 

Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,

that we should remain in being beside thee?

 

We and our existences are really non-existence;

thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.

 

We all are lions, but lions on a banner:

because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment...

 

...Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;

our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

 

Mesnavi Book I, 599-607

 

Advaita is often misunderstood to mean that everything is an illusion. Let us be clear about this - Consciousness is not an illusion - but the psychological separateness is! Consciousness includes the sense of being alive, being aware, being able to touch, taste, see, hear, feel, sense, act. That does exist.

 

What is illusory is our idea of a 'who' that is doing all of these things - a 'who' that is expected to survive the death of the body. Touching, tasting, sensing does occur, but there is no entity, no one who touches, tastes, senses, there is no subject, there is only Subjectivity. And Absolute Subjectivity is the Universal Consciousness which is not a 'who' at all - it is impersonal.

 

". . . man's obsessive consciousness of, and insistence on being a separate self is the final and most formidable obstacle to the unitive knowledge of God. To be a self is . . . the original sin, and to die to self . . . is the final virtue." Aldous Huxley (10)

 

Now perhaps we could try to understand what the phenomenon of Enlightenment is all about. Enlightenment is the actual realisation, intuitive perception of this truth, not just belief or intellectual understanding, namely, the oneness of Consciousness and the absence of separateness. The mystic sees that he is not a separate individualised consciousness or soul, but that he is the one singular Consciousness which is also called by some God, seeing this directly for oneself is Enlightenment.

 

Jesus said, "That they all may be One; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they too may be One in us". (11)

 

We must understand that Enlightenment is not some esoteric or magical process, Enlightenment does not give a man magical powers, nor make him a superman. Enlightenment is simply the disappearance of an illusion which made him see everything from the point of view of a 'me', Enlightenment does not make a person all-knowing.

 

When the scriptures talk of spiritual knowledge that occurs upon Enlightenment, we must realise that they are not referring to any form of verbal, temporal knowledge which can be learnt or developed in time. The word knowledge here refers to the true insight, the intuitive perception which is Enlightenment.

 

Enlightenment is thus a change in perspective, a change of focus, a paradigm shift. It is a shift from the constricting, individual focus of a 'me' to a view of life in its totality, a shift from being a circle with the illusory 'me' as centre, to a circle whose circumference is everywhere and whose centre is nowhere. Thus the knowledge that comes with Enlightenment is not a temporal knowledge but is rather an intuitive insight into the way things are in their totality.

 

Love

Ranjan Bhandari