Moment to Speak

Vivarta vada , or apparent transformation, of Advaita Vedantic philosophy states that the Jagat , or the world, is Maya , an illusory manifestation of Brahman , or the Supreme Self, and not a real transformation. "brahma satyaṃ jaganmithyā jīvo brahmaiva nāparaḥ. anena vedyaṃ sacchāstramiti vedāntaḍiṇḍimaḥ" (Brahma Jnānavali Māla, verse 20) , a tersely phrased statement by Adi Shankaracharya. It stands for Brahman , or Supreme Self, the only Absolute Existence, behind all existence, which is not dependent on anything else. However, the world is an illusion, or an apparent reality; its existence is dependent on Brahman , and there is ultimately no difference between Brahman and Jivatma , or the individual self. This means Supreme Consciousness is the Ultimate Reality; the material world is transient. Avidya , or ignorance, and Maya , or the illusion, veil Brahman and project the illusory world, creating the sensual perception of multiplicity, diversity, and duality from a ...

The Samprasāda , or composure of consciousness, is a perspicacious description in Chandogya Upanishad (8.3.4) representing the state of Sushupti , or deep dreamless sleep, wherein Atman , or Self, experiences the highest bliss and is free from the turbulences of the waking and dreaming states. It rises above the body-mind complex with the affliction of attachment, agitation, and impetuosity to experience the highest serenity, perceptive peace, and Self-luminosity to realise its true nature, which is Amritam (immortal), Abhayam (fearless), and Satyam (truth), or one with Brahman , or Supreme Self. The Upanishad emphasises the shift from identifying with the transient psycho-physical system to being aware of the eternal, self-effulgent, transcendental, and imperishable Brahman , the Sat-Chit-Ananda (existence, consciousness, and bliss). It describes Samprasada as a state of supreme serenity and luminous tranquillity. While the waking state involves impurities through the senses, and ...

The Upanishads say our deepest desires aren't for objects in the phenomenal world but for the realisation that Atman is with Brahman , or the Supreme Self. In a way, our innermost longing or desire is for Atman (Self), of Atman , by Atman , and in Atman. We unknowingly seek this Sat-Chit-Ananda , or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss, every moment; however, we often overlook it due to a veil of ignorance that clouds our perception with Anrita (untruth), obstructing our ability to see things as they truly are and preventing us from realising our true Self. That veil of ignorance propels us to move outward as sense perceptions drive us towards the visibility dimension of the eye that is considered as real. However, we often fail to recognise the true reality that is hidden from our senses. The sense organs perceive information only within the limits of space, time, and causation. We tend to consider the perceived visibility as real, as per the delimitation of our compass of perception....

There is only One Consciousness, i.e., Universal Consciousness. The world looks delusive as long as we feel ourselves as separate entities circumscribed by our body-mind-intellect complex. The ocean is one existence of the waves and tides rising from it but looks different to our perception, limited by our psycho-physical complex. In reality, tides or waves are the form, and the ocean is the substance. Similarly, Existence is One only, and on the surface of the Existence, there seem to be variations of different existences of mountains, forests, rivers, deserts, atmospheres, animate, inanimate, and so on manifest in forms. It's all because we are all limited by limited adjuncts of space and time that put a limit on our sensual perceptions. We do not transcend our psycho-physical structure, and the abstract entity known as 'ego' originates solely from that structure. Knowing fully well that this psycho-physical structure is transient, we still go by the ways the 'ego...

Birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth are inevitable cycles that come one after the other in a cyclical process in the Samsara Chakra (wheel of birth and death) in the world of perishability. The conception of the world remains in the mental sense perceptual state in states of waking and dreaming, but in deep sleep state there is no perception of the world, as the senses remain inactive or in dormant state. However, in Turiya there are no states of consciousness but only non-dual pure Consciousness and realisation of Brahman, or  Supreme Self. It is an experience where the mind horizontally moves inward from the objective dimension to the subjective one to realise Atman , or Self; and vertically the consciousness level is elevated from the finite psycho-physical level of identification, transcending waking, dreaming and deep sleep to unattached and non-dual Atman , or Self, of Pure Consciousness, the infinity of infinitude. It is of Brahman , or Supreme Self, the witness to othe...

In the Upanishads, Akasha (space) and Kala (time) are not just manifest dimensions but perspicacious philosophical concerns entwined with the unmanifest one, Brahman , or Cosmic Self, or Absolute Existence. Space is the repository form of all of the phenomenal dimensions, the source of potential. The unmanifest is seen as eternal and infinite and the very fabric of consciousness, with time as movement within space, both ultimately transcended by the spaceless and timeless Atman (Self). Sage Yajnavalkya describes space as the void that surrounds all things. It is the emptiness that allows for movement and change. It is the source of all creation and the infinite potential from which all things arise. Time is the sequence of events that unfolds in the universe. It is the measure of change and movement. Time is the underlying reality that imparts order to the universe. It is the fabric of the cosmos. The movement of time is cyclical and non-linear, as it constantly repeats itself in a ...