Guest guest Posted July 16, 2007 Report Share Posted July 16, 2007 Loving Sai Rams, A member has sought a clarification whether " Brahman, Atman, Self, Truth, Consciousness, Awareness, Absolute, Supreme, God are one and the same " . The answer is a big " YES " . As the Sruti says and as Swamy quotes it very often, " Truth is one, but realized people speak of it differently. " (Ekam Sat Vipraah Bahuda Vadanti). " There is no name for God as in case of human beings. Human beings can concive God only in human form. You call God by any name. God wil come running to you " , says a Tamil saint. I would like to add, " provided your devotion to God is true " . The Sruti declares that all objects are united with Brahman and all actions are dependant on Brahman. The Chandogya Upanishad proclaims, " All this is verily Brahman (Sarvam Khalu Idam Brahma). In the Bhgavad Gita we come across a sloka (4.24) which is religiously uttered everyday by most of us, notwithstanding the fact that only a few might know the significance and true purport of the Sloka. The Sloka reads like this:- Brahmarpanam Brahma Havih Brahmagnau Brahmana Hutam 1 Brahmaiva Tena Gantavyam Brahma Karma Samadhina 11 The intention of this verse is to show that the practice of seeing all things appearing diversely as the agent, the action and the instrument of action etc. as Brahman is very much a sacrifice in as much as it is a means of Self-Realization. Brahmakarmasamadhina means seeing Brahman everywhere incessantly or in other words, viewing everything as none other than Brahman. While on this, Lord Krishna has asserted through verses 16 to 19 of chapter 9 of Bhagavad Gita that the whole universe and whatever lies beyond that is nothing but God Himself. The Self is the existence everywhere,in all actions and factors constituting actions. All the methods of worship, be it Vedik ritualism, or by ritualistic adoration of the deity, or by food offerings for the ancestors--- all these methods of worship are, in a sense, nothing but the worship of the Self. Not only are all the different ritualistic prescriptions presided over by the Self, but the medicinal herbs used in the sacrifice, the clarified butter poured into the altar-of-fire, the oblation offered, the fire that is invoked, the mantras chanted--all of them are nothing but the Self alone expressed through different eqipments in different fields. The Self,is the essence of all happenings and circumstances in which the devotee attempts to adore the Eternal. The Self is not a vague imperceptible Spirit of Existence in all fields of divine activities-sans emotion, sans-relationship, sans-qualities. In order to show that there is an ardour of love that permeates the very essence of the Self everywhere, the finite relationships of the world are are mentioned by the Lord in verse 17 of chapter 9 of the Gita, " I am the father, the sustainer, the grandsire,the purifier of the world. " He also says, " I am the onething to be known " . This is the repeated assertion in all the scriptures. The Self is " that having known which, everything else becomes known " . To know the Self is to destroy the consciousness of imperfection, the finite existence , the poignant sorrows. (to be continued) G.Balasubramanian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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