Deivathin Kural Series - 5

Dated: 12-06-2006

Om Namah Sivaya.
In the last e-mail, we were talking about the space in the pot and atom. They are called the, ‘ghata-akasam and anu-akasam’. If you break the pots the space in them, becomes one with the space. The Pot-space and the outside-pot-space, were never different. Similarly in Brhmam, we have seemingly come into being, by the Maya Shakthi. Still we remain as Brhmam only. The binding factor is Maya. If that is broken, we will realize that we are the indivisible Brhmam only.
To get this experience, there are a number of successive steps of action called Upasanas. They are steps as in a ladder, that Adi Sankara has devised. As we follow these foot steps, we should have a predominant thought process - ‘that all that we see are one and the same’. Let the experience of Adwaita, happen whenever it does, but now let us keep reminding ourselves that,
‘it is all one and the same’.
Adi Sankara has told us that all should be seen as one. But in the practical world, where we see so many differences, how to see all as one or ourselves? The problem is very pronounced indeed. ( If you tell anyone, that You and Him are one, he is bound to laugh at you. Let us discuss this in more detail.)
Jagrat or Wakefulness, Swapna or Dream and Sushupti or Deep Sleep, are three states, in which, we, i.e., all living things, are all the time alternating. The Person or the Experiencer, in all the three states is the same. The dreamer, and the sleeper and the wakeful person are the same. He is the only common denominator. But there is no co-relation or connection, in the actions or experiences of dreaming and the actual world! Attitude wise also, we find a remarkable difference, between the way we react to dream situations and normal world situations. (A meek person may see himself as a war-lord in dreams, for example. Dreams are as real while they last. If you were chased by a Tiger, in the dream, your heart beat and BP are likely to go up and you may wake up with a sweat. Then you may thank your stars that it was only a dream But most importantly you do not say that while still in the dream state. Now is the important question - Can we now wake up from this wake-up-state, and see what, Periyaval is talking about ?) As the individual in dream, sleep and wakeful state, is the same, despite undergoing changes in the three states; despite the seeming differences in state, attitude, behaviour, and reactions, we have to realize that, all-this-is -the-self-same-person.
Some times we are at peace with our selves and some times we are annoyed. We know that, in both the person is the same. Depending whether we are calm or agitated, every part of our body is reacting to situations differently. Time changes youth in to old age, to such an extent, that the later one is so unrecognizable. This is in the practicable world. In the dream world, the changes can be more drastic. From one man’s mind, many people’s forms, many and varied spaces, many varied tenses such as past, present and future, emanate running into each other. Many actions we seem to perform in dreams, which we may not approve in day-to-day life. Despite all these apparent differences and disparities, the common thread in all the three states,
is the fact that, it is all happening to the self same person. When we are extremely feverish or mad, we may do things totally contrary to our established behaviour. We may end up tearing to pieces, the papers we might have written ourselves. The writer of the book and the destroyer of the book are the same.
This so called wakeful world also is a dream only. Worldly life is the evolute of the fever of Maya. If this is understood, we will realize the oneness of every thing. As in our dreams, all are created by one mind. The entire universe is the creation of one Mind. When some body tears up the book written by us, can we for a moment consider that, He is also Us only! In this transactional world, just by occupying different bodies, the truth in each does not become different. Inside everything, every individual and every person, the in dweller, is the same. When someone beats us, it is wrong to surmise that, some one else beats us. The truth is that we are beating ourselves.
If this is incorrect, there has to be something other than God or Brhmam. If so, where did he come from ? What was he or it made of ? Who made it ? So many unanswerable questions arise.
Now, we consider ourselves as animate (knowledgeable, aware,) life and others as, inanimate (lifeless, unaware’) beings. We have not created the inanimate world. Similarly the inanimate world could not have created us. How can the inanimate or Jadam do anything on its own ? Especially how can the knowledge-less, aware-less world, create the life forms, which have knowledge / awareness. The apparent inanimate world too has been evolving quite systematically. This proves the point that, both the animate and inanimate worlds are created and run by some super-power-knowledge. ( Let us call it SPK.) If that SPK has to create this world, with some material, then the question arises as to, how could that material come in to existence on it’s own ? Endless regression again! So it is safe to infer, (or at the least assume temporarily, till we are convinced,) that the same SPK could exhibit itself, as the inanimate, world. Then look at the animate world. Did we come into being on our own, as a chance event ? Each sect or sub-sect of the animate world has similar habits, characteristics, bodily construct and so on that, they could not have come in to being of their own. The animate and the inanimate world have come in to being, by the SPK only. So the Power, Knowledge, and being of the individual entities too, are from the same origin. It can not be from elsewhere, as otherwise, we again run the risk of instigating an endless regression,
The living animate world, has to get their food, clothing etc., from the inanimate world only. Every Jeeva, man or woman, have the capability, to probe and assess the world by the sense of smell, taste, see, hear and touch. They are dependent on the inanimate world for their sustenance and vice versa. Thus the animate and inanimate worlds are closely related and inter dependent. This interdependence has not been created by either. Did the Man plan that he should be getting his food, clothing, habitat etc., from the inanimate world ? Even if he plans, is that inanimate world under his control ? So the power that created them has meant them to be inter dependent. If the Jadha-Prapancham (or inanimate world) and Jeeva-Prapancham (or animate world), were the creations of different powers, their inter-dependency, could not have evolved. So the Jadham and Chaitanyam, must have been created by the same power only. Once again, the material for such creation could not have come from any other source. The truth is that by itself , it appears as so many different materials. The one seems as many. For one to exhibit itself as many, it has some special powers. That is Maya. One Super-Power-Knowledge, or SPK, or what we call, God or Brhmam, by its Maya Shakthi appears as many, says ADWAITAM.
We should develop the power or perspective to look at the entire Universe as one. If every thing is one, ourselves and others cannot be different. At such a stage, even the universe is not an object. It is also the subject. All objects would become the knower-subject. Now our hands seem to be we. Our legs seem to be we. Our body parts seem to be we. The body seems to be we. Similarly the entire universe should be seen as our self only. When this knowledge becomes our experience, whatever you are by birth, you become a total gnani or a Maha Pandita. Adi Sankara says so in Manisha Pnchakam. This knowledge or experience can be had while still in the human body.
Sambhomahadeva.