Sanatana Dharma in simple terms – 2

Sri:

Brahman the Supreme Being

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Before we go to the subject matter of this article following up on the previous one, let me state a few points of clarification based on some comments received.

Sanatana Dharma is a ‘religion’ with plurality of traditions, practices and schools of thought. That is its strength and beauty! But it does not mean that there is no underlying thread connecting them. One of the goals of this series is to give a big picture of it based on the commonalities and thus to simplify without distorting. Core concepts such as atma, Paramatma, prakriti, samsaara, dharma, karma, yoga, dhyaana, bhakti, moksha and many more are present in all its systems, even if with variations in their interpretations. In fact, several of these concepts are also present in many offshoot systems of Sanatana Dharma.

The explanations that I will be presenting in these articles will generally apply to most of the schools, although not always all. Whenever there are major differences, I will try to point them out. In general, I will provide definitions and explanations that conform to scriptures and present them in a way that appeals as much as possible to logic and ‘scientific’ reasoning at the same time. I feel the last point is important because only if we understand things in our system of logic then can we also go beyond it, if and when required. Otherwise it will become a system in which we are given concepts without proper explanations.

Note: I will use the terms Sanatana Dharma and Hinduism interchangeably. Please see my reply to a comment last time. I take the opportunity to thank the reader for the question.

Let us briefly recall what we learnt last time. Reality is apprehended through three means – pratyaksham (perception), anumaanam (inference), and shabdam (words or oral transmission).

Shabdam is formed of words of an aapta (trustworthy) person. Vedas are words of Paramatma ‘revealed to’ or ‘picked up by’ the rishi-ka-s[1] or jnaanis (‘wise’) in their experience of the Supreme through dhyaanam (unceasing meditation). The Sanskrit root word ‘vid’ means ‘to know’ (‘knowledge’ in the noun form).

This jnaanam (knowledge, spiritual wisdom) captured by the rishi-ka-s is eternal, and even Paramatma is not the author but only the storing place so to speak! That is why Paramatma is called the ‘universal consciousness’. Thus our systems state that the Vedas have no author and call them apaurusheya (not authored by any purusha or being). [Thank you to the reader who brought out this point in a comment.]

A worldly example which may come close is that of physical laws such as gravity. When Earth’s gravity was discovered, it didn’t mean that it didn’t exist before. It was already there but was ‘realised’ by a ‘captive mind’ and became ‘human’ knowledge through experience and subsequent experiments. In our case, the rishi-ka-s ‘grasped’ the knowledge about the Ultimate Reality, transmitted it to their ‘disciples’ who in turn also ‘realised’ it and the ‘spiritual experiment’ goes on. We leave the analogy here for lack of space.

Thus, it is widely accepted in our systems that the philosophical knowledge contained in the Vedas is self-valid, as it is the Eternal Truth apprehended by ‘captive beings’ and no other pramaanam negates it.

Question 1: Suppose shabdam seems to contradict pratyaksham. Which one do we take?

[I am giving the questions within the text rather than at the end to integrate them better into the discussion. Note that the questions are not to test, but to make the reader think a bit more on the same topic.]

Now, let us turn to the subjects that were left open last time for the next article. They concerned Paramatma and atma. I will take the first one for this article.

Note: At times, I may cite some original texts in Sanskrit to give some basis for what is said. If any reader finds these texts hard to read and understand, they can skip them and just go to the explanations in English. It will not affect the overall understanding.

Is there a Supreme Being?

The short answer is yes. [Some early schools do not admit this concept but other early schools as well as current systems do, based on the spiritual knowledge in the Vedas.]

How do we know about the Supreme Being?

From the Vedas (recall: words of rishi-ka-s who experienced the Ultimate Reality). A more precise answer: from the philosophical part of the Vedas, called the Upanishads, which contains the words of ‘spiritually realised’ rishi-ka-s.

In the Upanishads, the Supreme Being, the Ultimate Reality is mostly called Brahman. The Sanskrit root word of Brahman is ‘brh’ – that which grows or causes to grow.

Brahman is of neuter gender, so we will use the pronoun ‘It’. Let us not misunderstand it as lack of respect. We will start all names of the Supreme with a capital letter. It is also called Atma or Sat.  The term Paramatma is also used, especially when It needs to be differentiated from the individual atma (see next article!). We will use all these terms interchangeably, along with ‘Supreme Being’, ‘Ultimate Reality’, ‘Supreme Reality’ or ‘Supreme’ in English. We will try to avoid using God, as the definition of God is different in other religions and it may be confusing to use the same word to denote different concepts.

As I said before, the rishi-ka-s of ancient times (and a few even now) ‘experienced’ Brahman the Supreme and described their experiences to their disciples so that the knowledge about Brahman is preserved and transmitted. Since all transmission was oral, another term for Vedas is Shruti, meaning ‘that which is heard’. But the rishi-ka-s also didn’t ‘invent’ the knowledge. The knowledge obtained through their experiences already existed…it became manifest in their experience. Thus the Vedas contain an Eternal Knowledge, and the system based on the Vedas is ‘sanatana’ (meaning ‘eternal’).

How can the Supreme Being be described?

Nobody can describe It fully. The Upanishads themselves state

यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते । अप्राप्य मनसा सह ।
Yato vacho nivartanté apraapya manasa saha! 

(That which is beyond the reach of words and mind) (Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmananda valli).

Most schools agree that the following two statements, found in the Upanishads, define Brahman:

1. सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।
   satyam jnaanam anantam bramha

(Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmananda valli).

 Brahman is

• satyam (ever-existing),
• jnaanam (is made up of consciousness, awareness, knowledge – jnaanam), and
• anantam (infinite – unlimited by space, time and object).

Scholars normally add two other aspects to the above definition, based on Upanishads too-  

• aanandam (bliss) and
• amalam (defect-less, perfect).

Brahman’s existence is unconditional, that is, It does not depend on anything for Its existence. It exists by Itself and is eternal.

Brahman (as consciousness) pervades everything that exists; this all-pervasive property is called being vibhu.

Thus Brahman is the eternal, all-knowing, all-pervading, infinite consciousness.

2. यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते ।
   येन जातानि जीवन्ति ।
   यत्प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति । तद्विजिज्ञासस्व । तद्ब्रह्मेति ।

Yato vaa imaani bhutaani jaayante ; yena jaatani jivanti ; yat prayanty abisam vishanti tad vijijnaasasva tad brahmeti

(Taittiriya Upanishad, Bhrigu valli).

Brahman is that from which the universe has come, that which sustains it and that into which it will be absorbed, as well as the one which grants liberation from ‘birth’.

As mentioned earlier, the above characteristics are generally agreed upon by most schools as defining characteristics although some make a slight distinction between the two points, but we may not go into that now.

As for other ‘non-definitional’ characteristics of Brahman, the Vedas say that Its qualities are innumerable. However, the following eight are often highlighted in many Upanishads and it is useful to enumerate them here while describing Brahman.

य आत्मापहतपाप्मा विजरो विमृत्युर्विशोको
विजिघत्सोऽपिपासः सत्यकामः सत्यसंकल्पः

ya atma apahata paapma vijaro vimrrtuh vishoko vijighitso apipaasah satyakaama satyasankalpa (Chandogya Upanishad).

In other words: This Atma (Brahman[2]) is free from evil, free from old age, free from death, free from grief, free from hunger, free from thirst, whose desires are true, whose thoughts are true.

Basically, the first six qualities denote its eternal unchanging nature. The last two state that whatever It wills (desires, ‘thinks’) happens and happens instantaneously. We can even interpret it from another angle and say that all that happens is Its will. So It doesn’t desire anything for Itself, that is, It has no desires.

Question 2: If everything happens due to Brahman’s will, then how does our free will work?

What is the experience of Brahman (Paramatma) like? It is infinitely blissful. It is a spiritual intuitive experience, not one of sense organs, mind or intellect. Brahman can be experienced through unceasing deep meditation (dhyaana, upaasana). We will hopefully have the occasion to elaborate on this later.

Who has this experience? The individual atma (jivatma). We will discuss jivatma next time.

Remark: For people who belong to a particular school of thought, the distinction between Paramatma and jivatma may be a point of debate. But this discussion can be had later, as it is not relevant at this level of understanding of the nature of Brahman which is common across the main Vedic schools of thought, as well as from the point of view of a practical (empirical) experience of an individual. All prominent schools agree that consciousness is ‘felt’ in all individual beings (jivas).

Although one can never finish learning about Brahman, let us stop here for this article. So, what did we learn? In short,

• Brahman is eternal, full of consciousness, infinite, and
• Is the cause of the universe.

A natural question that can come up in one’s mind is ‘how is Brahman the cause of the universe’. Vedas have a fascinating account of it. We will reserve it for another time. An advance flavour for some intellectual stimulation 😊: the description conforms to the etymological meaning of Brahman – that which grows. Brahman is the Supreme Force that expands into the universe and more. Hence all-pervading! Also ‘ruling’ from within! How? Well, let us not jump too much ahead in our enthusiasm and come back to all this later.

A last word on the practicality of this learning. If Brahman is the Supreme Force from which the universe has come about, pervading and sustaining it, then we may have a question at our micro level: is it possible to make this force act favourably to us? Well, we cannot really ‘order’ Brahman, but if we are genuinely interested in spiritual progress and truly seek to ‘know’ Brahman, then Brahman Itself will ‘happily’ guide us in the right path out of compassion and interest. Isn’t that even better than we asking Brahman for things, as we don’t have the big picture and we may not even know what is best for us given the circumstances? Let us ponder over it.

In the next article, we will discuss who we are … that is, the individual atmas.

Answers to questions from the previous article:

1. What could an atma desire? This question was probably asked too early on as we are still learning about atmas. But I was happy to see answers which were pertinent. Mostly people have taken atma as the individual atma, that is the sense in which the question was asked. It was supposed to lead up to this article but I see that we are still not on the subject of jivatma yet (next time!), as we had quite a bit of things to say about Paramatma this time. I think one can generally say, fulfilment in this life and liberation or some sort of a blissful union with Paramatma after this life.
2. An aapta person in one’s life. It was an open question. I thank the people who answered. Parents and guru/acharya are apt answers !

References (mentioned in the article):

1. Taittiriya Upanishad
2. Chandogya Upanishad 

[1] I use rishi-ka-s to include rishis and rishikas (feminine gender).

[2] That the atma here is Brahman is evident from the context in which it is referred to in the Upanishad and is agreed upon by all commentators.