When the Vedas and Upanishads declare that Consciousness or Atman
is actually nothing but Brahman, then why go round and round, by various
tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind. One has to realize the fact
that, the mind is in form of universe.
Trace the source of mind and realize that source is consciousness. The
mind rises from consciousness as waking or dream and subsides as deep sleep.
In Mandukya
Upanishad Brahman and Atman are defined as same:-
All indeed is this Brahman; This Atman is Brahman; He, this
Atman has four steps/quarters.
While Brahman lies behind the sum total of the objective
universe, some human minds boggle at any attempt to explain it with only the
tools provided by reason. Brahman is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond
intelligence, beyond imagination. Indeed, the highest idea is that Brahman is
beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time,
causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as
one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object.
Imagine a person who is blind from birth and has not seen
anything. Is it possible for us to explain to him the meaning of the colour
red. Is any amount of thinking or reasoning on his part ever going to make him
understand the sensation of the colour red? In a similar fashion the idea of
Brahman cannot be explained or understood through material reasoning or any
form of human communication. Brahman is like the colour red; those who can
sense it cannot explain or argue with those who have never sensed it.
BG:-Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness which
is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano
hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14.27)
In Advaita Vedanta: - Brahman is without attributes
and strictly impersonal. It can be best described as infinite Being, infinite
Consciousness and infinite Bliss. It is pure knowledge itself, similar to a
source of infinite radiance. Since the Advaitins regard Brahman to be the
Ultimate Truth, so in comparison to Brahman, every other thing, including the
material world, its distinctness, the individuality of the living creatures and
even Ishvara (the Supreme Lord) itself are all untrue. Brahman is the effulgent
cause of everything that exists and can possibly exist. Since it is beyond
human comprehension, it is without any attributes, for assigning attributes to
it would be distorting the true nature of Brahman. Advaitins believe in the
existence of both Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman; however they consider
Nirguna Brahman to be the absolute supreme truth.
FORMLESS PATH
There are certain
principles which are common to all orthodox Hindu thought, that are taken for
granted. Orthodox assumes that the
doctrine of karma is valid because they accept the experience of birth, life,
death and the world as reality.
Kabir views humanity as being caught up in illusion, searching for Ultimate
Reality in all the wrong places, always seeking It outside of ourselves in
various rituals, temples, forests and mountaintops, not realizing That for
which we seek is already hidden within us.
Without the self-knowledge or brahma
Gnana or Atma Gnana it is impossible to cross the illusory ocean of the pain
and pleasure. There no vessel to ferry
man across the ocean of illusory form, time and space except Gnana.
What is Gnana? Gnana means the full and firm realization of
truth – a realization beyond all doubts, change and contradiction.
Neither the control of breath, or regulating the breath, nor the
performance of selfless service, nor by devotion to gods and gurus, not the
performance of penance, nor pilgrimaging, nor by yoga nor by scriptural
mastery, the ignorance will not vanish. But only through non-dual wisdom the ignorance can be
eradicated. The three states are state
of ignorance. All the three states are falsehood. The formless substance and
and eternal. witness of the three states
is real and eternal.
Sri Sankara, in Bhaja Govindam says: - [Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena]
- one without knowledge does not obtain liberation
even in a hundred births, no matter which religious faith he follows.
FORMLESS PATH
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