Brahman—The One Without A Second

The Atman is the soul. The soul is self-evident   It is not established by extraneous proofs. It is not possible to deny the soul because it is the very essence of the one who denies it. The soul is the basis of all kinds of knowledge, presuppositions and proofs. The soul is the innermost self. The nature of the soul is formless and non-dual.  The soul is present in the form of consciousness. 

The consciousness is within, consciousness is without; consciousness is before, consciousness is behind; consciousness is on the right, consciousness is on the left; consciousness is above and consciousness is below. Consciousness is not an object, as it is invisible, beyond the reach of the physical eyes. Consciousness is ultimate truth. And ultimate truth is Brahman. Brahman—The One Without A Second.

Upanishads declare: “Neti Neti—not this, not this, not that.” This does not mean that Brahman is a negative concept, or a metaphysical abstraction, or a nonentity, or a void. It is not another. It is all-full, infinite, changeless, self-existent, self-delight, self-knowledge and self-bliss. It is essence. It is the essence of the knower and the known.

Sage Sri, Sankara said: - The Brahman is impersonal, without Gunas or attributes (Nirguna), formless (Nirakara), (without special characteristics (Nirvisesha), immutable, eternal and non-agent (Akarta). It is above all needs and desires. It is always the Witnessing Subject. It can never become an object as it is beyond the reach of the senses. Brahman is non-dual, one without a second. It has no other beside it. It is destitute of difference, either external or internal. Brahman cannot be described, because description implies distinction. Brahman cannot be distinguished from any other than it. In Brahman, there is not the distinction of substance and attribute.

 In Mandukya Upanishad Brahman and Atman are defined as same:-

सर्वं ह्येतद् ब्रह्मायमात्मा ब्रह्म सोयमात्मा चतुष्पात् / sarvam hyetad brahmaayamaatmaa brahm soyamaatmaa chatushpaat –

Mandukya Upanishad, verse-2

Translation:

sarvam(सर्वम्)- Whole/All/Everything; hi(हि)- Really/Just/Surely/Indeed;etad(एतद्)- This here/This; brahm(ब्रह्म)- Brahm/Brahman;ayam(अयम्)- This/Here; aatmaa(आत्मा)- Atma/Atman; sah(सः)- He;ayam(अयम्)- This/Here; chatus(चतुस्)- Four/Quadruple; paat(पात्)- Step/Foot/Quarter

Fragmented Verse:

सर्वम् हि एतद् ब्रह्म अयम् आत्मा ब्रह्म सः अयम् आत्मा चतुस पात् / sarvam hi etad brahm ayama aatmaa brahm sah ayam aatmaa chatus paat

Simple Meaning:-

All indeed is this Brahman; This Atman is Brahman; He, this Atman has four steps/quarters.

While Brahman lies behind the sum total of the objective universe, some human minds boggle at any attempt to explain it with only the tools provided by reason. Brahman is beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond intelligence, beyond imagination. Indeed, the highest idea is that Brahman is beyond both existence and non-existence, transcending and including time, causation and space, and thus can never be known in the same material sense as one traditionally 'understands' a given concept or object.

Imagine a person who is blind from birth and has not seen anything. Is it possible for us to explain to him the meaning of the colour red. Is any amount of thinking or reasoning on his part ever going to make him understand the sensation of the colour red? In a similar fashion the idea of Brahman cannot be explained or understood through material reasoning or any form of human communication. Brahman is like the colour red; those who can sense it cannot explain or argue with those who have never sensed it.

Brahman is considered the all-pervading consciousness which is the basis of all the animate and inanimate entities and material. (brahmano hi pratisthaham, Bhagavad Gita 14.27)

In Advaita Vedanta: - Brahman is without attributes and strictly impersonal. It can be best described as infinite Being, infinite Consciousness and infinite Bliss. It is pure knowledge itself, similar to a source of infinite radiance. Since the Advaitins regard Brahman to be the Ultimate Truth, so in comparison to Brahman, every other thing, including the material world, its distinctness, the individuality of the living creatures and even Ishvara (the Supreme Lord) itself are all untrue. Brahman is the effulgent cause of everything that exists and can possibly exist. Since it is beyond human comprehension, it is without any attributes, for assigning attributes to it would be distorting the true nature of Brahman. Advaitins believe in the existence of both Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman; however they consider Nirguna Brahman to be the absolute supreme truth. 

Chandogya Upanishad:- One who meditates upon and realizes the self discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation--all come from the Self.

So, it clearly says the one who meditate upon the self (consciousness) discovers that everything in the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation--all come from the Self. Therefore , there is a need to know the fact that ,the true self is not physical but the soul in order to realize the fact that :  the cosmos-- energy and space, fire and water, name and form, birth and death, mind and will, word and deed, mantram and meditation--all come from the Self, which is in the form of consciousness. 

Atman is Brahman. Brahman the Absolute is alone real; this waking is unreal; and the three states are non-different from Brahman. 

The ignorance prevents one from knowing, which is beyond form, time and space.

The ignorance prevents one from knowing, which is beyond form, time and space. The form, time and space are the product of ignorance. The form, time and space are present in the form of the mind. The mind is present in the form of the universe. The universe appears as the waking or dream. Till one holds the self as ‘I’ he is in the grip of the ignorance. If the ignorance is present than the duality is present. If duality is present than the illusion is experienced as reality. If illusion is experienced as reality than one is stuck with the reality of the practical life within the practical world.  

It is not the human memory is the cause of the ignorance. The human memory is limited to form, time and space. The one which is in ignorance is not the waking entity but the formless soul. It is foolish to think you are in ignorance because you and your experience of the world are the product of ignorance.  Thus without deeper self-search it is impossible to realize ‘what is truth’ and ‘what is untruth’. Without knowing ‘what is truth’ it is impossible to know ‘what is untruth’. People are stuck with some teaching or some teacher and hold them as yard stick which is the greatest hindrance is pursuit of truth. People believe that guru or mystic or priest has got so many followers and therefore there must be some truth in their teaching, is a common fallacy accepted by the mass due to their inherited samskara or conditioning. It proves only an ignorant can find a number of greater ignorant to follow him.

That is why Buddha said: - Believe nothing because a wise man said it.  Believe nothing because it is generally held. Believe nothing because it is written. Believe nothing because it is said to be divine. Believe nothing because someone else said it. But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

A true seeker is not content with the knowledge of spiritual realities based on hearsay... he insists on the direct knowledge."

Katha Upanishad 1:2:23:-  The Soul cannot be realized through hearing scholarly explanation of the discourses, not even by the intellect.

A permanent view of world as unreal can come only after soul centric reasoning; such knowledge cannot change. Were the seeker who is sufficiently sharpness he could grasp the unreal nature of the world by soul-centric reasoning alone.  To know whole truth, one must know the whole universe, otherwise he gets only half-truth.  

The soul is the formless substance and witness of the three states. If the formless witness witnesses the waking experience and its attention is fixed to the waking experience than the waking experience is experienced as reality. If the formless witness witnesses the dream and its attention is fixed to the dream than   the dream is experienced as reality. If the attention of the soul is on itself than it is called deep sleep in waking experience, which is the states of ignorance. If the soul consciously remains in its formless non-dual true nature in the midst of waking experience through wisdom it is called self-awareness. 

The three states are an object to the formless soul, is the subject.  The three states are state of ignorance. In all the three states the soul, the innermost self is in ignorance of its own formless non-dual true nature.   This forgetfulness is cause of the ignorance. Ignorance is cause of experiencing the three states as reality. The three states are cause of experiencing the individuality as reality.  Individuality is cause of experiencing the birth, life, death and the world as reality.  The three states are one in essence. In the realm of truth the three states are non-existent.  In self-awareness, the three states are non-existent because they are one in essence.   

The seeker has to pursue this quest until his questions will be answered, until his problems will disappear and his doubts will be solved.

Doubt is the beginning of knowledge. One must verify his own ideas and concepts. He must put his imagination aside, and let the truth be verifiable by others.

The scholastic like all believers have to start with an assumption that there is some unseen Being or Power or World, and then they start to interpret this assumption. Whereas deeper self-search starts with the world, going up from the objective world to truth by inquiry and soul-centric reasoning.

No assumption, no faith, is needed in pursuit of truth, the ultimate truth demands deeper thinking. People do not want to think: it is too troublesome. Why worry about the ultimate truth, they say. This is their excuse, an alibi for being too lazy or incompetent to think. They do not want to be bothered to inquire and reason.

Reasoning is interpretable in two ways. The egocentric interpretation is to apply it only to waking experience. The soul-centric interpretation is to apply it to the three states. The latter leads to final settlement of the problems because it takes all data into consideration. 

When the ultimate truth is rightly known and one attains eternal life thereby. Through soul, the innermost self he gains strength and through its knowledge immortality.

 Not by intellectual   speculation but only by an awakening to the reality of his true existence he gets soul-centric vision. Soul, the innermost self’s nature is like state of deep sleep.

Religion, yoga and intellectualism are not the means to acquire self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana.  Without getting rid of the ignorance and trying to get self-awareness through religion and yoga is like a sleeping man trying to know what he is about, without waking up. As sleep is to waking, so is ordinary life to the state of realization.