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By Jayaram V
Strictly speaking everything in the universe is a manifestation of
Brahman
only. Innumerable are his forms and manifestation, but He is One
and Alone, without a beginning and without an end. He pervades
everything, is hidden in everything and enveloped by all that is here
and elsewhere. In the Upanishads we come across many verses on Brahman
extolling his universal dimensions and infinity. However at the primal
level of classification, we can say that the scriptures speak of mainly
two aspects of Brahman. On the one hand we have the unmanifest Brahman
and on the other we have the manifest Brahman. The former is the pure
state of Brahman without qualities and the latter is the manifest state
of Brahman with qualities. In the manifest state we believe there
are several planes of consciousness, dimensions, time frames,
worlds or planes of existence and realities. There is the material
universe that is known to the senses and the transcendental universe
known only to the gods and beings of the highest planes. Brahman is
remote and mysterious, known only to few. No one truly knows why
and how of his manifestations, but attribute his actions and movements
to some kind of absorbed and blissful ideation. In each world he
manifests himself according to the need and the plan he works out. The Upanishads
try to explore this rather difficult subject of trying to express the
inexpressible play of Brahman by simplifying his manifestations into the following four aspects
or dimensions.
1. Non-Being
The pure Non-Being, or the unmanifest is the First principle.
Variously described as the Ancient and the one without a beginning and
without an end and the one without a second, very little indeed is
known about this Eternal, Imperishable, and the unchangeable
principle. The Upanishads are full of descriptions about It, but the
confusion they create in our minds is much more than the
clarifications they provide. The Upanishadic seers were content with
such description as " This", "That" or
"It" when they spoke of this Eternal Principle, trying to
make It comprehensible to the evolving minds of their disciples.
We are told that It is beyond all. There the mind does not go, nor
the senses, nor our understanding. It is always infront of the senses
and intelligence. It is only through personal experience perhaps one
may grasp a little about It. But even about this we are not sure.
It is doubtful whether any one can really experience something
which does not exist or which is simply non-existence or non-Being and
come back to us and describe it to us in the normal planes of thought.
"Non-existent does one become if a person knows Brahman as
Non-Being." (Taittiriya Upanishad II.6.1).
Perhaps it was why the Buddha was silent about the existence of God
and why many schools of philosophical thought arose in ancient India
questioning the very existence of God as a central controlling
universal principle.
The problem is that the human mind which is accustomed to the
language of the words and symbols cannot grasp the Absolute Truth that
cannot really be compared to anything else. Even the devas and the
gods of still higher planes have little understanding of It, as is
evident from the descriptive accounts of gods encounter with It in the
Kena Upanishad.
We do not even know why in the first place He created all this. The
explanation that He created these worlds and beings for His delight or
Ananda is too simplistic an explanation to satisfy the inquisitive
curiosity of a well developed mind. If the Absolute creates something
out of something else, be it a cause, a purpose or some reason, then
that cause, purpose or reason, would be above Him and He cannot be
called the Absolute.
If the Absolute is eternal and timeless and is not subject to any
causative principle or the dimensions of time and space, how could
there be any gap between Him and His creation? He and His creation
must have happened simultaneously, without a second, without any
distinction or differentiation.
Surely the creative process must have begun without any reason,
without any motive, almost as if it was a spontaneous process, without
the intervention of Time and space or a process at the Absolute level.
That the process of creation is spontaneous and without a cause
would perhaps rattle many religious minds, but we have no better
explanation to offer than this if we want to accept the First
Principle of the universe as the Absolute, Eternal, Infinite and Truth
Principle. (Brahman as infinite).
Perhaps there was a beginning to the process of creation but it
might never come to a permanent conclusion, as the Creative Principle
that manifested out of Him is also eternal and beyond dissolution as
we understand in the subsequent paragraphs.
2. Iswara
When God wakes up from His sleep He becomes Iswara ! In His
awakened state He exercises His creative will and sets in motion the
creative process. Thus Iswara is the creative Spirit, the Being, the
awakened Non-Being, the Saguna Brahman, the Brahman with qualities,
who exercising His will, His Power and His wisdom creates the worlds
and the world order (Rita)
He is the Truth Consciousness, the combination of knowledge and
will, the directing and causative aspect of the Universal Self. He is
the creative consciousness, who in the aspect of Purusha (the
Universal Male) joins with His other aspect Prakriti ( Divine Energy)
and brings forth the worlds and the beings. The word "Brah"
means 'to grow or to burst forth'. Thus Iswara is the Brahman who
bursts out of his own sleep (non-existence)
As the creator, sustainer and destroyer of the worlds, He is also
the Trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesa. They are but one though they
appear differently to the mortal world. They are the three qualities
of His Primal Nature (Prakriti), and the three aspects of his Will and
consciousness (Purusha), in their pure and primordial states, which
wake up as He wakes up and regulate the creation.
In the Maitri Upanishad we are given an account of the conception
of the trinity, how darkness (tamas) represented by Siva, passion
(rajas) represented by Brahma and goodness (sattva) represented by
Vishnu got differentiated from the Highest. (Maitri Upanishad V.2)
While we have no idea of what the Non-Being or the Nirakar Brahman
truly is, we have the accounts of the Upanishadic seers who through
self-contemplation realized Iswara and described Him as Sat chit
Ananda, Truth, Consciousness and Bliss. This experience becomes
possible in human beings because in the individual being, Iswara is
verily Atman.
In the Katha Upanishad says Lord Yama to the young Nachiketa
," By knowing through self-contemplation (adhyatma yoga) that
Primal Being who is difficult to be seen, who is very mysterious, who
is hidden in the cave (of ones heart) and who is situated deep (with
in one self), the wise men (dhira) leave behind both joy and sorrow.
It must be noted that there is no real distinction between Saguna
Brahman and Nirguna Brahman. They are the different states of the
Parameswara the One only Eternal Principle. When the Non-Being awakens
He becomes Iswara and when Iswara takes rest at the end of creation He
becomes Non-Being .
3. Hiranya Garbha
He is the World Soul (Mahan Atma), the Cosmic Egg, that arises out
of cosmic waters and engages Himself in the creation of forms and
beings. He is the First Born (prathamaja), who manifests forms that
are already contained in Him.
He is the Sutratman (the soul of a necklace) the thread on which
all beings and all the worlds (the world of the devas, of the
ancestors, of the humans, of the demons etc) are strung like beads in
a necklace.
While Iswara is the causative principle (karanabhutam),
Hiranyagarbha is the dynamic or the active principle (kriyabhutam or
karyabhutam). He is also called Brahma who as the creative and dynamic
principle uses the forms existing in Him and brings forth the Beings.
The word "brah" means "bursting out or bringing
forth" and "ahm" means ego. Brahma is therefore he who
brings forth many "ahms" or egos or beings into this world
using his divine power and matter and pouring life (breath) into them.
Hiranyagarbha is not an eternal being, but comes into existence at the
beginning of creation and becomes dissolved in Iswara at the end of
creation.
4. Viraj
Viraj is the manifest world, that which is created, or which is
brought forth. He is the result of the creative process set in motion
by Iswara and accomplished by Hiranyagarbha. He is the manifested
aspect of Iswara through the hands of the latter.
It is a world that is in perpetual motion and subject to illusion.
It is a reality that is different and distinct in nature from that of
Iswara or Hiranyagarbha since the interplay of the gunas, the elements
and the senses result in the formation of numerous individual beings
and ego forms (ahamkaras) who suffer from the illusion of
individuality and feelings of separateness. Viraj like Hiranyagarbha
is also subject to dissolution at the end of creation.
Suggested Further Reading
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