The knowledge of Brahman

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/brahman2.asp
By Jayaram V
Brahman is the highest and most supreme divinity of the Hindus. Brahman is all and encompasses all. Many are the ways in which Brahman is extolled in the Upanishads. Some of the commonly found descriptions of Brahman are reproduced below. By contemplating upon these verses it is possible to develop an intuitive understanding of the true nature of Brahman.

Take the following verse for example:

Brahman is above all Gods. None could ever approach Him closely except Indra.



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What does this mean? We have of course the story of Indra, Agni and Varuna in the Kena Upanishad who were helped by Uma Haimavathi to know Brahman.

"Agni, Vayu and Indra are verily above all other gods, for they alone went nearest to Him and were the first to know Him as Brahman. And Indra of the three went nearest to Brahman and was the first to know Him as Brahman (from goddess Uma). (Kena Upanishad Chapter IV)



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That is one interpretation. Those who are interested in the mythological aspect of the story would understand it as such. But if we think deeply we can see a hidden symbolism in the verse. Indra is the lord of the senses and symbolizes the consciousness or the mind itself. And we all know how consciousness plays an important role in taking us closer to the higher self with in us. Similarly Agni symbolizes the intense desire or aspiration and Varuna knowledge or the plasticity of mind. Thus the hidden meaning of the verse suggests that control of the mind and the senses, intense yearning and right knowledge can take us closer to the realm of higher consciousness.


The ancient gurukulas encouraged students to develop this contemplative approach to the understanding of the scriptures and see the truth hidden behind the words in the verses. The verse would serve as the object of focus and Truth itself (Akshara Brahman) disguised in the form of words. Not every one would arrive at the same truth or develop the same understanding. But whatever realization or experience that comes out of such attempts would definitely bring us closer to the realization of the hidden truth within ourselves.

1. Brahman is the Reality. He is the Absolute Truth. All else is unreal and mere illusion, a mere shadow that disappears when the Sun shines.


2. Brahman is constant and fixed. He is unchangeable, immutable, permanent , incorruptible and inexhaustible. All else is transient, fleeting and changing. Since He is the only fixed factor in an every changing impermanent world, the seers advise us to make Him the center of our lives and activities

3. Brahman is eternal and timeless. Since He is the Absolute, Time does not exist in Him. The Past present and future flow in Him simultaneously. The Master of Time and Knower of all events, past., present and future, He creates Time as a part of His play and subjects us all to the motions of Time.

4. Brahman is the Creator of all. The world is his projection. He descends into the material universe and subjects Himself to the laws of nature.

5. Brahman is the sacred OM.

6. Brahman is beyond the senses, but is the mover and enjoyer of senses.

7. Brahman is the first principle. He is the Ancient. No one truly knows Him for He is without a beginning and without an end.

8. Brahman is pure love. He is described as Lord of Love.

9. Brahman is immortal. He in fact is the creator of death and the wheel of life.

10. Brahman is the law giver and law maker. He maintain Dharma and Rita (harmony). But He Himself is not subject to any laws.

11. Brahman exists in all and all exists in Him. Yet He is beyond all and different from all.

12. Brahman is Supreme Bliss. Pure Delight, which is the delight of pure love.

13. Brahman is the eternal soul, the Atman, the indweller of mortal bodies, the silent witness, the enjoyer of life and the power behind all the movements of life breath.

14. Brahman is above all Gods. None could ever approach Him closely except Indra.

15. Brahman is duality personified from the rationale point of view. But strangely in Him all conflicts and contradictions resolve themselves into perfect harmony.

16. Brahman is unified awareness, the eternal indivisible One where there is no enjoyer and the enjoyed, the knower and the known.

17. Brahman is radiance, effulgence and brilliance of thousands of suns. He is the wielder of pure energy and possessor of pure consciousness.

18. Brahman is desireless, without attachment, without vibration, complete, fulfilled, self-satisfied and self- absorbed.

19. Brahman is without sleep, dispeller of darkness, the very intelligence in man, One who is awake when we are asleep.

20. Brahman is knowledge. He is the knower of all that is, that was and that is yet to come.

21. Brahman is man Himself, the ultimate truth which every human being realizes at the end of his spiritual journey. (Isa Upanishad)


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verily, all is Brahman!

 

Wow! O8

 

very informative thank you

 

Best description I ever heard for Brahman was 'a mascroscopic tertiary brainwave coherence which took object three levels deep into changeless awareness."

 

"What this experience is cannot be described by the word of mouth. A salt doll went to fathom the sea, as it went a little down it got dissolved. ‘Became just like it.’ Who would then come back to give the account about how deep the ocean is?"

Sri Ramakrishna.

 

Problaiming Brahman is like the dissolving salt doll uttering her last dying gasps before she disintegrates.

There are states of consciousness beyong Brahman Consciousness.

 

I wonder what you think those states might be?

 

I don't think they are anything - Kalisantaranaopanishad believes that Krishna Consciousness is beyond even Brahman Consciousness.

I would ask all who discuss this topic to find a first source for it's discussion anywhere.

It's said that Badarayana of Brahmasutras discussed Brahman Consciousness. I ask anyone who has read it in Sanskrit, or transliterated exactly where it even discusses a 'state' of consciousness.

When I was getting my degree in study of the Vedas we were told, and us students of yoga came to believe that Yoga was the state of kaivalya or aloneness - the aloneness sounds lonely but in that state even the word aloneness is not. Thus there is then a state of supreme stillness.

We were then explained that Karma mimansa spoke of a state of being where not silence but rather action was the supreme reality. Karma mimansa, is further called Purva mimansa or Brahma Sutra, which we were led to believe that at that point neither stillness of yoga, nor action of karma were supreme, in that neither trumps the other. But rather both are supreme. Thus the state of Brahman Consciousness is the overriding state of being where stillness pervades all other states of action.

That's what we were told. Moreover others had greater experiences and even more fascinating fantasy worlds of states of consciousness.

The closest I ever came to experiencing any of the above is in what I said where the state of awareness is still in the midst of sctivity a few layers deep.

I do not believe in describing any of things as states of awareness because they depend upon too much specified training, and for what exactly?

 

Just wondering that's all.

It depends on what you call Brahman. In the Gita, Krishna says He is the Brahman, and also the Purushottama, which is higher than the featureless, relationless impersonal.
There's no question of the Brahman , in whatever aspect, being implicated in karma or action. Again, the Gita explains that all action is carried out by the lower prakriti, to which Brahman, Paramatman and Purushottama are transcendent.

Then again, you'd probably get more sense from a stone than from me.

 

Sorry, I have a degree in the Vedas. I assume people know that Kaivalya is the term used by Patanjali to describe his 'ultimate' and nowhere does Patanjali ever talk about 'Brahman.'

Few scriptures speak about 'Brahman.' Brahman means Brahma the Creator, established as an experience for all time. Brahman is not a thing.

In studying the Vedas - the six Darshanas, specifically, and that three dealing with experiencial cognizance of 'the Supreme,' three views of the Supreme are taken.

Patanjali=Kaivalya
Jaimini=Karma
Badarayana=Both

Thus Kaivalya and karma at once is experience of Brahman. That is, - is the experience of the Creator through all experience.

I have heard from a great and deceased guru that Brahman Consciousness is brainwave coherence three layers of activity deep.

These words you read about Brahman' are opinions. They are not Veda. They are revered by Hindus but not necessarily believed.

Not that that maeans anything. But one thing is certain - you cannot think yourself into Brahman Consciousness. It takes more than yoga even. It takes intense yoga and intense activity. One must create kaivalya and crush it and do so over and over until it cannot be crushed any longer.

Nobody who doesn't have the sidhis described in pada 3 of PJS is speaking the same nonsense as yaks on the hills.

 

No need to apologise.

But a degree in whatever won't actually give the jnana. As you say no-one can think their way into the divine consciousness.

 

True, one is not likely to think their way into divine consciousness, or they will just as easily think themselves out of it again.

On the other hand, a lifetime of training in a specific modality of thought, and not that thought of the Neo-Advaitins, the neti neti stuff that everyone knows, but instead the type of thought best laid out through Dzogchen may prevent the endlessly recursive illogic of pondering divinity which can waylay the very necessary thinking about all things which promotes those things and evolves their utilization. That is to say that it's hard to think about anything if one is always thinking about some divine here or there. But if one can be firmly planted in present all-goodness by meeting a rare teaching of such then one can peruse all things as deeply as desired knowing that they are all - all good and divine and perfect.

This is of the essence of the teaching of Brahman. Neoadvitins do not know Brahman because they are always teaching not this not that. I bring up Newadvaitaism because there has been such a deluge of Gangapapamommadadajis over the last ten years and talking to them is like talking to any cultist anywhere, the blank stare covered over with the endless cliches, spun through with an all knowing glance, and ask them to pass the pepper and they spill their drink.

 

Jesus, I must have been fucked up when I started in on this thread. What do I know of Brahman? Hahahahhahaha.

 

Thanks for share these post its a very useful for me.

 

I love what you said here my I save it to quote at another time?! :2thumbsup:

Don't ask Jesus he knows no more than the rest of us

As Sankara said,
'Brahman is supreme intelligence, devoid of attributes, form, changes or limitations. It is self-luminous and all pervading and is without a second.'

Madesh.

 

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“The goal of mankind is knowledge ... Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”

Swami Vivekananda

Madesh :2thumbsup:

 

Stay two weeks in the temple (they will welcome you, and feed you) but you have to follow routine which is rising before sunrise, chanting for a period of time, and then you get fed. The dancing and chanting is very healthy and if you stay for two weeks (I did it that twice) you will surely feel a great bliss come over you, and if you stay for while in the temple that grows into a state of bliss unequaled.