by Sri Bimal Mohanty
VOL No. 41
July. 2004

ATTEMPTS TO DESCRIBE BRAMHAN - Part 15

"Based on the lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

To find an answer, some explanations are necessary.

We have said this before that, this creation is a dynamic arrangement and there is nothing -living or apparently non-living- (not in motion or is inactive)- which is static. Constant and continuous action is the character of the creation.

When things are in motion, as any physics student will tell you, the movement is always towards a dynamic equilibrium or stabilisation. A rolling object or flowing liquid will keep moving until it reaches stable equilibrium. If the cold of the outside acts upon me I shall instinctively move towards the warmth of inside looking for my own stable position.

Even when a thought crosses the mind, the mind agitates till it finds its acceptable stability. But since everything is in action and in constant motion, these levels of stability and equilibrium are always temporary. Some other action disturbs it and we search out another level of stability. Each change of condition, as a result of the non-stop action anywhere in this creation immediately results in instability and there is an effort by all to move towards a natural dynamic equilibrium, both mental as well as physical.

This constant movement for stability or state of dynamic equilibrium is the divine law of nature. This is the power of MAyA. It is the mAyAshakti or the law of nature which we all have to obey, and which is keeping everything moving towards a position of dynamic equilibrium.

With this constant movement propelling us towards stability, we are all moving from levels and levels of temporary stability towards a position of absolute stability, to a permanent position, where all actions and motions get stilled.

Is there really a state of absolute stability?

Earlier, while discussing the Mandukya Upanishad, you may recall, the upanishad described a state of absolute stillness and called it as prapanchopasamam, the removal of all destabilizing activities or the absense of all disturbances, the state of ultimate stability.

What is that state of ultimate stability? It is the Bramhan. We may recall here also the description from the Bhagavad Gita:

sthAnur achalo’yam sanAtanah.

The supreme Bramhan is eternally stable, immovable and absolute calmness, apAra shanta, tranquility beyond limits.

So, by sheer scientific logic, our constant movement is explained as the movement towards Bramhan, Bramhan being that state of absolute stability. That is the state, where stability of understanding is so intense, that nothing has the power to shake it. Everything is understood, everything is seen, but nothing can disturb its tranquility. The related descriptions that we attribute to Him as the witness – (sakshi) -, the impassioned watcher – (drsta), non-involvement- (nirliptabhAva), etc, all flow from this concept. When you contemplate on it, you marvel at the brilliance of the beautiful minds our ancient seers possessed and their analysis of the divine scheme of things.

And who is engineering this scheme of constant movement from instability and disharmony towards stability and harmony?

It is the very nature of activities around us. The very mAyA, which we in our ignorance understood as an impediment to our progress and evolution. In fact, when properly understood, mAyA becomes our aid to progress, because movement towards stability is progress. MAyA, which is often wrongly understood as a negative aspect, truly is assisting us all the time in clarifying our consciousness and making us move towards our evolution to a higher plane of absolute tranquility and stability. MAyA as our scriptures tell us, is an aspect of the Divine itself. How can anything that is of divine origin, not have a divine purpose?

Through mAyA only the Lord cleans us, purifies our thinking, teaches us his lessons, and pushes us forward in our evolutionary progress. The spiritual evolution of man is an uncompromising truth embedded in this grand divine scheme of things, this mahayajna, the great endevour.

Attraction to Bramhan is built into our nature.

More about it we shall discuss in the next.

(TO BE CONTINUED)