Vision Of Truth (sad darshanam – 4)

sarvairnidAnam jagatohamashcha

vAchyaH prabhuH kashchidapAra shaktiH

chitretra lokyam cha vilokitA cha

paTaH prakAshopyabhavat sa ekaH—3

sarvaiH = by all; nidAnam = cause;  jagataH = of the world; ahamaH cha = and of ‘I’;

vAchyaH = is (popularly accepted); prabhuH kashchit = somemLord; apAra shaktiH =

limitless power; chitre = picture;  atra = here;  lokyam cha vilokitA cha = seen and the 

seer; paTaH = canvas; prakAshaH = light;  abhavat = became; saH ekaH = that one.

 

The cause of the world and the ‘I’ (individual) is popularly accepted by all to be some Lord of limitless power. Here, in this picture, that one has become the seer, seen, the canvas and the lights also.

 

Even as children, we have a curiosity to know how the universe began. If the big bang occurred in time, there would have been time and space already; even otherwise who created that dense matter that made a bang. Such curiosity to go to the root is natural to a thinking person.

 The individual is seen in the world; he has been created; some power has to do it. The individual cannot be born because of himself. Since an unborn individual cannot be the cause of himself. He cannot be created due to another individual too, since another individual also is created and someone else should have created him then. This goes on into infinite regress.

The world cannot create the individual since an insentient thing cannot give rise to a sentient one. The individual cannot be the cause of the world since he himself is born in the world. The world also cannot be the cause of itself, since, an unborn world cannot give rise to itself.

Hence, for the individual and the world to be created there has to be a cause other than the individual and the world. This third entity is God, one with limitless power. Religions hence have their own doctrines based on the three entities, individual, world and God.

This limitless power which is the cause of the individual and the world is a causeless cause; meaning it does not have a cause for itself.

It itself manifests as the manifold creation. Brahman, the self alone is the world and the individual. Anything we perceive is not different from the truth.

Truth is all around. The flower is truth, the mountain is truth, the home is truth, a boy is truth. How?

It does not mean there are many truths which have been created. It only means that one truth, the Atma, brahman itself is the basis for the appearing world.

Every object is actually ‘name +form + existence’. This existence is the truth. Every individual is a conscious entity. This consciousness, uniform throughout is the truth.

One truth, inherent and immanent through all sentient and insentient objects is the self.

Are consciousness and existence the attributes of Atma? No. They are not attributes, for, attributes exist only for objects. Atma is consciousness which is existence.

Infact, even the words consciousness and existence are used from the relative standpoint. Only in reference to the objects and sentient beings can the words existence and consciousness be used. The Atma is declared to be undefinable by the scriptures. The words existence , consciousness limitlessness etc are mere indicators. Even the word non-dual is with respect to the duality. In the truth, there is nothing else. There is only one, and that, is the truth. The appearing world of duality is just an appearance. Also, this appearance cannot happen without the substratum of the self.

This has been explained by the example of a painting. Let us imagine a painting on a canvas. There is the rising sun, a tree, a mountain, a woman (in blue clothes), a stream etc. This woman is looking at the rising sun while other women are chatting. On the canvas, the woman is nothing but ‘blue + canvas’; the sun is nothing but ‘orange + canvas’ ; the tree is ‘green + canvas’ , the stream is ‘ light blue + canvas’. Do the woman, tree, stream, sun have any existence apart from the canvas? The colors are the forms. The seer (woman), the seen (stream, tree), the light (sun) everything is just the canvas. The canvas itself is the subject and object. It itself is the insentient and the sentient, the seer and the seen. The canvas is in and through the sentient women and the insentient tree and stream. There is no woman, tree, stream and sun apart from the canvas. The canvas is apparently divided into the insentient and sentient by the usage of colors.

So also, brahman is manifested as the universe, apparently divided into the sentient beings and insentient world.

The insentient is nothing but ‘object + truth’; the sentient is nothing but the ‘being + truth’. The insentient and sentient have no existence apart from the truth.What appears is name and form. What is the basis, is the truth. The seer and the seen, everything is the truth alone. The truth itself is the subject and object. The truth is in and through the sentient and the insentient world. There is nothing apart from the truth. brahman is apparently divided into the insentient and sentient.

Hence, the triad of individual, world and the Lord is merely notional. They are appearing divisions on the eternal.