[Part – 42 (brih 4)]

The sages often compare death to sleep: just as we wake up and dive back into the world, we are said to be reborn (with some or no gap) after death. But this does not mean we are helplessly caught in an endless cycle of birth and rebirth, because the story of individual bondage tying us down to this cycle is ultimately provisional.

The explanation of the three states of consciousness and latent impressions (vAsanA-s) is a pedagogical tool. It helps us make sense of our apparent individuality, yet none of these states possesses an independent reality outside of Consciousness itself.

What, then, is the substratum in which these states, impressions, and actions appear?

It is Consciousness itself—our essential nature—appearing as its own reflection. Birth and death, merit and demerit, joy and sorrow are merely images in a mirror. On their own, these reflections are insentient; they borrow their existence entirely from the Original. Recognize clearly that whatever appears is none other than your true Self.  Continue reading →

[Part – 41 (brih 3)]

Shaṅkara uses the term saṁsthAnam to point to the configuration or arrangement through which a form becomes recognizable. From the standpoint of Advaita, the diverse configurations we encounter in the world constitute the structural display of the one underlying Reality. Names and forms distinguish one appearance from another, but they do not possess an independent existence apart from that Reality.

This is the essential shift in vision that the teaching seeks to bring about: from seeing a world of separate things to recognizing the one Reality appearing as all things. The forms may differ, but their apparent multiplicity does not overturn the non-dual truth.

Sage Yajñavalkya tells us that our bodies are like salt crystals—condensed forms of the essence of the Ocean of Consciousness. When salt is dissolved in water, its finite, solid form disappears, and it becomes indistinguishable from the water. Likewise, the teaching invites us to dissolve the apparently solid boundaries of the body and other objects, understood as condensations of Consciousness, back into Consciousness itself. The scripture urges us to bring about this dissolution through understanding before death puts an end to the body.  Continue reading →

[(Part – 39 (brih 1)]

The brihadAraNyaka Upanishad tells us,

ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्तदात्मानमेवावेत् । अहं ब्रह्मास्मीति । — 1.4.10, brihadAraNyaka Upanishad

Meaning: “This (self) indeed was brahman in the beginning. It knew only Itself as ‘I am brahman.’”

What appears before us in the world is not an independent material reality, but a reflection (AbhAsa) of brahman. brahman alone is the ultimate reality (vastu), and the universe is Its manifest appearance. Therefore, that which perceives is brahman, and that which is perceived is also brahman.

In daily life, the mind acts as the seer and the external world appears as the seen. The mind assigns labels and categories—spouse, family, rivers, trees—generating mental concepts (nAma) that are projected outward as solid objects (rUpa).  Continue reading →

[(Part – 38 (chAn 5)]

10.  brihadAraNyaka Upanishad 

The Upanishadic teachings are like a medicine administered to a sick patient. They help him/her to bounce back to her normal health. The Sanskrit word for “health” is “swasthata” (स्वस्थत). “swasthata” is derived from “stha” to be and “swa” in one’s normal state. Our normal healthy position gets affected, if and when we are invaded by foreign elements including alien “thoughts.” Thus far nine experts (Upanishads) have already treated us to rid us of the illness called “ignorance.” Now comes the final Specialist, brihadAraNyaka inquiring if we have come back to our normal health.  

We take it for granted that we are limited to or confined within our body-mind. That itself is our illness. It is called “ignorance.” We are not actually confined or limited to any finite form. Time and space are within me. In other words, there is no moment when we are not and there is no place where we are not present because our true nature is “Knowing.”  Our intrinsic nature is pure Knowingness (the Knowing ability) that has no form. As ‘Knowingness,’ we are formless, unbounded and all-pervasive. We are birthless and deathless. We are never “the known.” We are ever the Knower. We are eternal, immutable and indivisible.  Continue reading →