Spiritual Message for the Day – Brahman alone is Real by Sri Swami Sivananda
Baba Times Digest© | 21 September 2014 13.34 EST | New York Edition
Brahman alone is Real
Divine Life Society Publication: God Exists by Sri Swami Sivananda
1. Brahman is attributeless without any limiting adjunct, independent, ever free and all-full.
2. Brahman is distinct from the three bodies and the five sheaths. He is the silent witness of the three states. He transcends the three Gunas and the pairs of the opposites. He is an embodiment of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss). He is the essence. He is the source or womb for the mind, Indriyas, body and this world.
3. Brahman is Ananda-Swaroopa (nature of bliss). He is Anandamaya (made up of great happiness). He is Ananda-Ghana (full of pure joy). He is Ananda-Murti (idol of happiness). He is Ananda-Vigraha (bliss personified). He is Ananda-Sagara (ocean of happiness). He is Niratisayananda (nothing can exceed this joy). He is Parama-Ananda (supreme bliss). He is Ananta-Sukha (infinite happiness). He is Nitya-Sukha (eternal bliss). He is Akhanda-Sukha (complete joy).
4. Brahman is within and without. He is above and below. He is in front and behind. He is in all sides. He is everywhere, like the all-pervading ether. He is Chidakasa. The five attributes: Existence (Sat), Consciousness (Chit), Bliss (Ananda), Eternal (Nitya), and Fullness (Paripoorna), express Brahman in the best possible manner. Meditate on these and realise Him.
5. Behind this world show, behind this physical phenomena, behind these names and forms, behind the feelings, thoughts, emotions, sentiments, there dwells the silent witness, thy immortal Friend and real Well-wisher, the Purusha or the World-teacher, the invisible Power or Consciousness.
6. Just as one thread penetrates all flowers in a garland, so also one Self penetrates all these living beings. He is hidden in all beings and forms, like oil in seed, butter in milk, mind in brain, Prana in the body, fetus in the womb, sun behind the clouds, fire in wood, vapour in the atmosphere, salt in water, scent in flowers, sound in the gramophone-records, gold in quartz, microbes in blood.
7. Just as the light is the same in bulbs of different colours, even so the bodies and mental Bhavanas (attitudes) are different, but Atma is one in all beings.
8. Just as the sun, reflected in various pots of water, appears to be many, so also the Atman appears to be many when reflected through various minds in various bodies.
9. Just as fire is the same and only one, though it enters the fuels of various sorts, so also the Lord of the universe, who has created the world and entered into all beings, appears different because of the different bodies in which He resides.
10. Just as fire blazes forth when the ash above it is removed, Brahman shines forth when the veil of ignorance, which conceals It, is removed. Just as butter is perceived when milk is converted into curd and churned, so also Brahman is perceived through the churning of meditation. Just as hunger, thirst, pain, taste, etc., have to be experienced, but cannot be seen by the fleshy eyes, even so Brahman has to be experienced through deep meditation and Samadhi. Just as the tiny bacilli that produce cholera, typhoid, etc. cannot be seen by the naked eye, but can be seen with the help of a microscope, so also Brahman cannot be seen by the physical eyes but can be seen through the eye of intuition.
11. He who sees all, but whom no one beholds, who illumines the intellect, the sun, moon, stars and the whole universe, but whom they cannot illumine, is Brahman.
12. He sees without eyes, hears without ears, feels without skin, tastes without tongue, grasps without hand, walks without feet, smells without a nose, knows without a mind, because He is pure, all-pervading Consciousness.
13. He is formless (Nirakara), without Gunas (Nirguna), without any special characteristics (Nirvisesha), without parts (Nishkala), without limbs (Niravayava), without action (Nishkriya). He is eternal (Nitya), pure (Suddha), perfect (Siddha), free (Mukta).
14. Brahman is Truth (Satyam), Wisdom (Jnanam), Infinity (Anantam). He is Peace (Santam), Auspiciousness (Sivam), One without a second (Advaitam). He is without old age (Ajaram), immortal (Amritam), fearless (Abhayam), and the Highest (Param). He is the absolute (Kevala).
15. That place, where all speech stops, all thoughts cease, where the functions of the intellect and all organs stop, is Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.
16. Peace, God, Atma, Brahman, Freedom, Immortality, Emancipation are synonymous terms.
17. God is with form and without form, and He is above forms. He is actionless; He is the actor also. He is the manifest; He is the unmanifest. He is immanent; He is transcendent.
18. There is a living, unchanging, eternal Consciousness that underlies all names and forms, and that holds all together. That is God or Brahman.
19. Unseen He helps you with faithful hands. Unheard He hears your speech. Unknown He knows your thoughts. He is pure, all-pervading Consciousness, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
20. God's Will expresses itself everywhere as law. The law of gravitation, cohesion, relativity, cause and effect, the laws of electricity, chemistry, physics, all the psychic laws, are expressions of God's Will.
21. Brahman alone is real. Individual soul is identical with Brahman. Everything else is unreal. This is the fundamental tenet of Vedanta philosophy.
22. Brahman is not this; it is not that. The denial of attributes to Brahman does not reduce it to a void or nonentity. Brahman does not possess any attribute that belongs to Maya. It is an embodiment of Bliss and Wisdom.
23. Infinity, Eternity, Immortality and Absoluteness are the characteristics of the limitless Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.
24. The Absolute baffles the mind of even the greatest scholar. It eludes the grasp of even the mightiest intellect. It is experienced as Pure Consciousness, where intellect dies, scholarship perishes and the entire being itself is completely lost in it. All is lost, and all is found.
25. God is very close to you. He abides in your heart. Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. He is your very Self or Atma.
Excerpts from: Brahman alone is Real - God Exists
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