by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 36
February. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 10

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

We try to find the answer in another of our great Upanishads - the Kathopanishad.

The most important conclusion about Bramhan, that Kathoapanishad makes is that after investigating about what is reality, it finds that both the illusive creation at large and in the individual soul, there is a substratum of ever present entity which is not affected by any change.

It says:

Nityonityaanam cetanascetanaanaam

Eko bahunaam yo vidadhaati kaamaan

Tam atmastham ye anupashyanti dhiraah

Tesaam shaantih shaashvati na itaresam

Amongst everything that are impermanent in character, He is the ever present permanent entity. Amongst all consciousness by which awareness of everything rests, He is the essence of all consciousness.

He is the only one that fulfils all the needs of everyone and everything in the creation. Wise is he who realising this in his heart of hearts rests in peace, and none else. There is no alternative to this.

So the sloka begins with another of Bramhan's essential characteristics which is 'eternality' or nityataa.

In our scriptures the pairs of words like nitya - anitya, (everlasting and ever changing), sat - asat (existing and non existing) satya - mithya (true and illusory) are often used. These are often explained away in a simplistic way like 'true' and 'false'. Unfortunately this does not do justice to the esoteric meaning and deep wisdom conveyed by our seers through these words.

We say that only Bramhan is true and everything else including the entire creation around us is false. However the actual concept is that, nothing really is an absolute falsehood. All are true in a relative way. The explanation goes like this.

Earlier we said that everything has its original source as Bramhan. Bramhan is the mahatyoni or great source from which everything flows. So if anything that comes out of Bramhan is considered as false, then, Bramhan also will stand to be deemed as false. That is an absurd concept as we shall see later. So no falsehood can really be attributed to anything including Bramhan.

In that case, in order to understand Bramhan, we also have to understand this concept of falsehood, unreality etc.

In our earlier discussion we had concluded that everything, every object, every created being, every part of everything, is always engaged in action. Even within apparently inanimate objects there is action. Nothing -absolutely nothing, - is ever without action even for a moment. That is the nature of all things.

When there is action, there is invariably a change. The scientists will agree with this. Either a change of form, change of name, change of thought, or change of nature is inevitable if anything is in action. The environment around us, which was existing a little while ago, is no more the same. It has changed. The flower blossoming on the plant outside is constantly undergoing change. The celestial bodies in the sky - the stars, planets, galaxies et all have changed since we last looked at them. Even you, me, he, or she are changing and have changed. My body, my mind with its thoughts, all these are constantly changing. What you and me were only a moment back, are at this moment really different people with different bodies and different minds. Metabolically and psychologically we are continuously changing. So is the case with everything.

We easily recognise all changes over a prolonged period of time. But moment to moment changes, are not so easily understood by normal perception. But the change is taking place non-stop.

With everything changing from moment to moment, when at a particular moment we say that we are looking at such and such a person or an object or an event, the same moment that object has changed to something else. What we saw has vanished and lost for ever, never to be grasped again.

This nature of things, this impermanence is what is defined as anitya, meaning that which never has any sustainable existence. When you tell me "look at this tree", the same moment the tree that you wanted me to see has vanished. There is a changed tree, a different tree in front of me now. So relatively speaking, anything that one likes to grasp with our eyes, ears , touch or even mind is a vanishing entity. Hence we say all these are unreal, false, ever-changing. Therefore one can not prove or grasp their existence.