by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 18
April.. 2002

CHAPTER Nineteen- LOOKING FOR GOD BETWEEN REAL AND UNREAL - an approach

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

But how can we even conceptualise and create an image of an unreal thing unless there is something else behind from which this very imagination, the projected image springs from? There can not be something from nothing. There has to be a source. The popular analogy which is given to explain this is the reflection of the sun in a water filled pot. The "sun" in the pot resembles the sun. It even has some of the attributes of the sun as it also illumines its surroundings. But it is far from being the real sun.

The sun in the pot is there only when the sun in the sky is there. But the opposite is not true. On the other hand the sun in the sky can still be there if there is no pot of water to reflect it. If we see the asat, the sat has to be there. If we accept the presence of the unreal, the real has to be behind it.

This is again more clearly understood taking the simple example of your reflection on water. Who causes that reflection? What is the source? It is you, standing at that time near the water that causes the reflection. The reflection is you indeed but is the reflection to be considered as the real you? Can the reflection be there if you were not there?

The principle of one, the principle of two, the principle of three and also the principle of eight.

Similarly let us take another braintwisting explanation of Bramhan. One of the most quoted dictums of our philosophy is "nityonityanam" from Kathopanishad. The one eternel in the transient, the ever permanent amongst all impermanents, the one beyond mutation amongst all that undergoes mutation, that is Bramhan.

In this, as you can see, there is a sort of differentiation sought to be made between permanent and impermanent. First we have been told that the Bramhan is that which is subject to no change, no mutation. When Arjuna asked Lord Krishna `what is Bramhan?', the Lord gave him just a one word description- aksharam Bramhan. The non mutable is Bramhan. At the same time we are asked to believe that everything being Bramhan, what is impermanent and undergoes change, is also Bramhan. Does this mean that Bramhan is as much impermanent as He is permanent?

Nitya or permanent is understood as some thing which remains as it is all the time. It is something which has no end (na iti) or does not cease to exist under all circumstances. And anitya is that which is opposite of nitya and therefore changes and ceases under certain conditions.

A critical analysis of all anitya reveals that they all are products of time, space and causation.
It appears in time and then disappears in time.

It is seen to exist within certain boundary conditions and does not exist when such conditions are not there.

And lastly there has to be a cause for its effect to take place. Some thing gives rise to something.

Opposite to this is nitya, which is not dependent on time or space or causation. In the example of your reflection in water, relatively speaking, you are nitya and your reflection is anitya.

Anitya depends on nitya to appear. It emanates from Nitya and is there only, as long as nitya supports it. Can your reflection be there if you are not there? Anitya therefore is simply the product of nitya. Anitya then becomes part and parcel of nitya, inseparable from it.