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 Or The Unmanifest
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
|
