{"id":671,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:36","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=671"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:36","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:36","slug":"05-parabrahman-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/12-the-upanishad-volume-12\/05-parabrahman-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-05_Parabrahman.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nTHREE<\/span><\/b> <\/span><\/p>\n


\nParabrahman<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n                S<\/span>O
\nFAR <\/span><\/b>the great Transcendent Reality has been viewed
\nfrom the standpoint of the human spirit as it travels on the upward curve of
\nevolution to culminate in the Supreme. It will now be more convenient to view
\nthe Absolute from the other end of the cycle of manifestation where, in a sense,
\nevolution begins and the great Cause of phenomena stands with His face towards
\nthe Universe He will soon create. At first of course there is the Absolute,
\nunconditioned, unmanifested, unimaginable, of Whom nothing can be predicated
\nexcept negatives. But as the first step towards manifestation the Absolute \u2014
\nproduces, shall we say? let the word serve for want of a better! \u2014 produces in
\nItself a luminous Shadow of Its infinite inconceivable Being, \u2014 the image is
\ntrivial and absurd, but one can find none adequate, \u2014 which is Parabrahman or,
\nif we like so to call Him, God, the Eternal, the Supreme Spirit, the Seer,
\nWitness, Wisdom, Source, Creator, Ancient of Days. Of Him Vedanta itself can
\nonly speak in two great trilogies, subjective and objective, saccidānandam.<\/i>
\nExistence, Consciousness, Bliss; satyam, j\u00f1ānam, anantam.<\/i> Truth,
\nKnowledge, Infinity.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nSaccidānandam.<\/span><\/i> The Supreme is
\nPure Being, Absolute Existence, sat.<\/i> He is Existence because He alone
\nIs,<\/i> there being nothing else which has any ultimate reality or any being
\nindependent of His self-manifestation. And He is Absolute<\/i> Existence
\nbecause since He alone is and nothing else exists in reality, He must
\nnecessarily exist by Himself, in Himself and to Himself. There can be no cause
\nfor His existence, nor object to His existence ; nor can there be any increase
\nor diminution in Him, since increase can only come by addition from something
\nexternal and diminution by loss to something external, and there is nothing
\nexternal to Brahman. He cannot change, in any way, for then He would be subject
\nto Time and Causality; nor have parts, for then<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 16<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nHe would be subject to the law of Space. He is beyond the
\nconceptions of Space, Time and Causality which He creates phenomenally as the
\nconditions of manifestation but which cannot condition their Source.
\nParabrahman, then, is Absolute Existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Supreme is also Pure Awareness, Absolute Consciousness,
\ncit.<\/i> We must be on our guard against confusing the ultimate consciousness
\nof Brahman with our own modes of thought and knowledge, or calling Him in any
\nbut avowedly metaphorical language the Universal Omniscient Mind and by such
\nother terminology; Mind, Thought, Knowledge, Omniscience, Partial Science,
\nNescience are merely modes in which Consciousness figures under various
\nconditions and in various receptacles. But the Pure Consciousness of the Brahman
\nis a conception which transcends our modes of thinking. Philosophy has done well
\nto point out that consciousness is in its essence purely subjective. We are not
\nconscious of external objects; we are only conscious of certain perceptions and
\nimpressions in our brains which by the separate or concurrent operation of our
\nsenses we are able to externalise into name and form; and in the very nature of
\nthings and to the end of Time we cannot be conscious of anything except these
\nimpressions and perceptions. The fact is indubitable, though Materialism and
\nIdealism explain it in diametrically opposite directions. We shall eventually
\nknow that this condition is imperative precisely because consciousness is the
\nfundamental thing from which all phenomenal existence proceeds, so much so that
\nall phenomena have been called by a bold metaphor distortions or corruptions
\n(vikāras)<\/i> of the absolute consciousness. Monistic philosophers tell us
\nhowever that the true explanation is not corruption but illation (adhyāropa),<\/i>
\nfirst of the idea of not-self into the Self, and of externality into the
\ninternal, and then of fresh and ever more complex forms by the method of
\nEvolution. These metaphysical explanations it is necessary indeed to grasp, but
\neven when we have mastered their delicate distinctions, refined upon refinement
\nand brought ourselves to the verge of infinite ideas, there at least we must
\npause; we are moored to our brains and cannot in this body cut the rope in order
\nto spread our sails over the illimitable ocean.<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 17<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nIt is enough if we satisfy ourselves with some dim
\nrealisation of the fact that all sentience is ultimately self-sentience.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Upanishads tell us that Brahman is not a blind universal
\nForce working by its very nature mechanically, nor even an unconscious Cause of
\nForce; He is conscious or rather is Himself Consciousness, cit,<\/i> as well
\nas sat.<\/i> It necessarily follows that sat<\/i> and cit<\/i> are really
\nthe same; Existence is Consciousness and cannot be separated from Consciousness.
\nPhenomenally we may choose to regard existence as proceeding from sentience or
\nculminating in it or being in and by it; but culmination is only a return to a
\nconcealed source, an efflorescence already concealed in the seed. So that from
\nall these three standpoints sentience is eventually the condition of existence;
\nthey are only three different aspects of the mental necessity which forbids us
\nto imagine the great Is<\/i> as essentially unaware that He Is.<\/i> We may
\nof course choose to believe that things are the other way about, that existence
\nproceeds from insentience through sentience back again to insentience; sentience
\nis then merely a form of insentience, a delusion or temporary corruption
\n(vikāra)<\/i> of the eternal and insentient. In this case Sentience,
\nIntelligence, Mind, Thought and Knowledge, all are Maya and either insentient
\nMatter or Nothingness the only eternal reality. But the Nihilist’s negation of
\nexistence is a mere reductio ad absurdum<\/i> of all thought and reason, a
\nmetaphysical hara-kiri<\/i> by which Philosophy rips up her own bowels with
\nher own weapons. The Materialist’s conclusion of eternal insentient Matter seems
\nto stand on firmer ground; for we have certainly the observed fact that
\nevolution seems to start from inanimate matter, and consciousness presents
\nitself in matter as a thing that appears for a short time only to disappear, a
\nphenomenon or temporary seeming. To this argument also Vedanta can marshal a
\nbattalion of replies. The assertion of eternally insentient Matter (prakr<\/i><\/span>ti)<\/span><\/i>
\nwithout any permanently sentient reality (purus<\/i><\/span>a)
\nis,<\/span><\/i> to begin with, a paradox far more startling
\nthan the monistic paradox of Maya and lands us in a conclusion mentally
\ninconceivable. Nor is the materialistic conclusion indisputably proved by
\nobserved facts;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nrather facts seem to lead us to a quite different conclusion,
\nsince the existence of anything really insentient behind which there is<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 18<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nno concealed Sentience is an assumption (for we cannot even
\npositively say that inanimate things are absolutely inanimate),. and the one
\nfact we surely and indisputably know is our own sentience and animation. In the
\nworkings of inanimate Matter we everywhere see Intelligence operating by means
\nand adapting means to an end and the intelligent use of means by an unconscious
\nentity is a thing paradoxical in itself and unsupported by an atom of proof;
\nindeed the wider knowledge of the Universe attainable to Yoga actually does
\nreveal such a Universal Intelligence everywhere at work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBrahman, then, is Consciousness, and this once conceded, it
\nfollows that He must be in His transcendental reality Absolute Consciousness.
\nHis Consciousness is from itself and of itself like His existence, because there
\nis nothing separate and other than Him; not only so but it does not consist in
\nthe knowledge of one part of Himself by another, or of His parts by His whole,
\nsince His transcendental existence is one and simple, without parts. His
\nconsciousness therefore does not proceed by the same laws as our consciousness,
\ndoes not proceed by differentiating subject from object, knower from known, but
\nsimply is, by its own right of pure and unqualified existence, eternally and
\ninimitably, in a way impure and qualified existences cannot conceive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Supreme is, finally. Pure Ecstasy, Absolute Bliss,
\nānanda.<\/i> Now just as sat<\/i> and cit<\/i> are the same, so are sat<\/i>
\nand cit<\/i> not different from ānanda;<\/i> just as Existence is
\nConsciousness and cannot be separated from Consciousness, so Conscious Existence
\nis Bliss and cannot be separated from Bliss. I think we feel this even in the
\nvery finite existence and cramped consciousness of life on the material plane.
\nConscious existence at least cannot endure without pleasure; even in the most
\nmiserable sentient being there must be pleasure in existence though it appear
\nsmall as a grain of mustard seed; blank absolute misery entails suicide and
\nannihilation as its necessary and immediate consequence. The will to live, \u2014 the
\ndesire of conscious existence and the instinct of self-preservation, is no mere
\nteleological arrangement of Nature with a particular end before it, but is
\nfundamental and independent of end or object; it is merely a body and form to
\nthat pleasure of existence which is essential<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 19<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nand eternal; and it cannot be forced to give way to anything
\nbut that will to live more<\/i> fully and widely which is the source on one
\nside of all personal ambition and aspiration, on the other of all love,
\nself-sacrifice and self-conquest. Even suicide is merely a frenzied revolt
\nagainst limitation, a revolt not the less significant because it is without
\nknowledge. The pleasure of existence can consent to merge only in the greater
\npleasure of a widened existence, and religion, the aspiration towards God, is
\nsimply the fulfilment of this eternal elemental force, its desire to merge its
\nseparate and limited joy in the sheer bliss of infinite existence. The will to
\nlive individually embodies the pleasure of individual existence which is the
\nouter phenomenal self of all creatures; but the will to live infinitely can only
\nproceed straight from the transcendent, ultimate Spirit in us which is our real
\nSelf; and it is this that availeth towards immortality. Brahman, then, being
\ninfinity of conscious existence, is also infinite bliss and the bliss of Brahman
\nis necessarily absolute both in its nature and as to its object. Any mixture or
\ncoexistence with pain would imply a cause of pain either the same or other than
\nthe cause of bliss, and with the immediate admission of division, struggle,
\nopposition, of something inharmonious and self-annulling in Brahman; but
\ndivision and opposition which depend upon relation cannot exist in the unrelated
\nAbsolute. Pain is, properly considered, the result of limitation. When the
\ndesires and impulses are limited in their satisfaction or the matter, physical
\nor mental, on which they act is checked, pressed inward, divided or pulled apart
\nby some thing alien to itself, then only can pain arise. Where there is no
\nlimitation, there can be no pain. The Bliss of Brahman is therefore absolute in
\nits nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIt is no less absolute with regard to its object; for the
\nsubject and object are the same. It is inherent in His own existence and
\nconsciousness and cannot possibly have any cause within or without Him who alone
\nIs and Is without parts or division. Some would have us believe that a
\nself-existent bliss is impossible;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nthat bliss, like pain, needs an object or cause different
\nfrom the subject and therefore depends on limitation. Yet even in this material
\nor waking world any considerable and deep experience will show us that there is
\na pleasure which is independent of surroundings<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 20<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nand does not rely for its sustenance on temporary or external
\nobjects. The pleasure that depends on others is turbid, precarious and marred by
\nthe certainty of diminution and loss; it is only as one withdraws deeper and
\ndeeper into oneself that one comes nearer and nearer to the peace that passeth
\nunderstanding. An equally significant fact is to be found in the phenomena of
\nsatiety, of which this is the governing law that the less limited and the more
\nsubjective the field of pleasure, the farther is it removed from the reach of
\nsatiety and disgust. The body is rapidly sated with pleasure; the emotions, less
\nlimited and more subjective, can take in a much deeper draught of joy; the mind,
\nstill wider and more capable of internality, has a yet profounder gust and
\nuntiring faculty of assimilation; the pleasures of the intellect and higher
\nunderstanding, where we move in a very rare and wide atmosphere, seldom pall
\nand, even then, soon repair themselves; while the infinite spirit, the acme of
\nour subjectiveness, knows not any disgust of spiritual ecstasy and will be
\ncontent with nothing short of infinity in its bliss. The logical culmination of
\nthis ascending series is the transcendent and absolute Parabrahman whose bliss
\nis endless, self-existent and pure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis then is the Trinity of the Upanishads, Absolute
\nExistence; which is therefore Absolute Consciousness; which is therefore
\nAbsolute Bliss.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAnd then the second Trinity satyam j\u00f1ānam anantam. <\/i>
\nThis Trinity is not different from the first but merely its objective
\nexpression. Brahman is satyam.<\/i> Truth or Reality because Truth or Reality
\nis merely the subjective idea of existence viewed objectively. Only that which
\nfundamentally exists is real and true, and Brahman being absolute existence is
\nalso absolute truth and reality. All other things are only relatively real, not
\nindeed false in every sense since they are appearances of a Reality, but
\nimpermanent and therefore not in themselves ultimately true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBrahman is also j\u00f1ānam.<\/i> Knowledge; for Knowledge is
\nmerely the subjective idea of consciousness viewed objectively. The word
\nj\u00f1āna<\/i> as a philosophic term has an especial connotation. It is distinguished
\nfrom sam<\/i><\/span>۟۟<\/span>j\u00f1āna<\/span><\/i>
\nwhich is awareness by contact; from āj\u00f1āna<\/i> which is perception by
\nreceptive and<\/span> <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 21<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\ncentral Will and implies a command from the brain; from
\npraj\u00f1na<\/i> which is Wisdom, teleological will or knowledge with a purpose; and
\nfrom vij\u00f1āna<\/i> or knowledge by discrimination. J\u00f1āna<\/i> is knowledge
\ndirect and without the use of a medium. Brahman is absolute j\u00f1āna,<\/i> direct
\nand self-existent, without beginning, middle or end, in which the Knower is also
\nthe Knowledge and the Known.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nFinally, Brahman is anantam.<\/i> Endlessness, including
\nall kinds of Infinity. His Infinity is of course involved in His absolute
\nexistence and consciousness; but it arises directly from His absolute bliss,
\nsince bliss as we have seen, consists objectively in the absence of limitation.
\nInfinity therefore is merely the subjective idea of bliss viewed objectively. It
\nmay be otherwise expressed by the word Freedom or by the word Immortality. All
\nphenomenal things are bound by laws and limitations imposed by the triple idea
\nof Time, Space and Causality; in Brahman alone there is absolute Freedom, for He
\nhas no beginning, middle or end in Time or Space nor, being immutable, in
\nCausality. Regarded from the point of view of Time, Brahman is Eternity or
\nImmortality; regarded from the point of view of Space, He is Infinity or
\nUniversality; regarded from the point of view of Causality, He is absolute
\nFreedom. In one word He is anantam, <\/i>Endlessness, absence of Limitation. <\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 22<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THREE  Parabrahman                   SO FAR the great Transcendent Reality has been viewed from the standpoint of the human spirit as it travels on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","wpcat-14-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}