Table of contents hide 1 Is Brahman the Supreme Being? 2 The Nature of Brahman 3 Describing Brahman 4 Perceiving God: The Snake and the Rope Analogy 5 The Superposition: Is Brahman a Reality?
Every human being is unhappy; We all feel something is missing . We want more! No matter how much we possess, it is never enough. We are afraid to die; We want to live longer, healthier, look younger and accumulate more wealth. We want to increase our knowledge and awareness; We want to experience more joy and happiness . All these lead to an unbearable restlessness. Ultimately we are driven towards the search for ultimate reality ... the search for the Supreme Being.
We seek spiritual help, and it is knowledge about the existence of God, a Supreme Being, which we call "Brahman."
Is Brahman the Supreme Being?
According to Vedanta, (at the end of the Vedas) Brahman is God, the Universal Soul, the Supreme Being, and the absolute truth. The philosophy of "Advaita Vedanta" (Advaita means monism or non-dualism) based on the interpretation of Vedantas by Adi Shankaracharya, who explained the theory of the unity of all creation, summarizes the idea of "Brahman" in three short sentences:
- “Brahma Satyam
- Jagan mitya
- Jivo Brahmaiva Na Pará ”
This translates roughly as follows:
- "Only God is real,
- The world is unreal,
- The individual is none other than God ”
Brahman's Nature
This means that there is only one supreme reality, a reality called Brahman, the Supreme Being. Brahman is infinite and omnipresent, therefore, nothing can be added to him, there can be no place where he is not. Brahman is non-dual in nature, there is no place in this world, man or any creature outside of Brahman. This goes beyond all opposite pairs and descriptions.
The reality of the world is relative, as opposed to the absolute nature of Brahman. In that sense, and compared to Brahman, the world is unreal. It would be a fake reality that means, much like a dream, that has its own subjective reality, but that is illusory compared to the waking state.
The last of the three states states that the true nature of each individual is Brahman . Because of “avidya, ” that is, our original and inherent spiritual ignorance, we have forgotten our true identity and mistakenly believe that we are small and limited individuals.
Describing Brahman
Although Brahman is beyond description, the “rishis” (seers or sages) of yesteryear declared, based on his personal experience, that he can best be described as sat-chit-ananda.
- Sat, means pure and absolute existence.
- Chit, means knowledge or consciousness, pure and absolute.
- Ananda means happiness, pure and absolute.
Our true nature is of pure existence, knowledge and bliss . We have this deep knowledge of ourselves and therefore we cannot settle for being mortal or experience some kind of limitation to our existence, we have an infinite thirst for knowledge and constant yearning to experience joy.
Perceive God: The snake and the string analogy
A man, we'll call him Bob, walks at night on a dark road. Suddenly, a snake bites him on the leg, the snake is lying on the ground a few steps from him. Lying on the floor, he cries in pain, knowing that his life is probably over . You can feel the poison traveling in your bloodstream while screaming for help.
The nearby farmer hears him, and comes with a flashlight and points to the snake, and behold, when the snake turns out to be nothing more than a rope.
The overlay: Is Brahman a Reality?
This analogy illustrates the concept of overlap . Bob, due to his fear of snakes, superimposes a snake on the rope. He had been touched by a branch, and the vision of the rope was enough to create the imaginary presence of the snake and the pain of poison.
Now the question is, during the incident, was the snake real or unreal? The answer is that, subjectively, the snake was very real to Bob . However, objectively, the presence of the snake was illusory and created by Bob's mind .
In the same way, this world has its own subjective reality, but at dawn with the knowledge of Brahman, this relative reality disappears and only the absolute reality of Brahman remains, the only reality of the Supreme Being.
AUTHOR: JoT333, editor of the hermandadblanca.org family
