Moment to Speak

Certainty of uncertainty points out that one can be certain that the phenomenal world cannot be pinned down as either fully real or fully unreal. It remains an illusion, and it will remain so. Existence cannot be extracted from non-existence. Similarly, a mirage cannot be superimposed on water. It is dependent on an external entity for its manifestation: existence, birth, growth, decay, and absorption. Brahman , or Supreme Self, is certain in a way that cannot be perished, changed, or shaken; the world of objects, thoughts, and events is uncertain by nature. Brahman is uncaused, not subject to space and time. Its Reality is independent, ultimate, and absolute. It is Swayam-prakasa , or Self-luminous, and Swayam-jyoti , or Self-effulgent ( Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.3.1-7;  Katha Upanishad, 2.2.15; Mundaka Upanishad, 2.2.10-11; and Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 6.14).  The Upanishads illuminate that Brahman needs no external light, mind, or instrument for its own recognition....

The mind is insentient, and so is the matter. The matter is what is perceived, observed, and measured through the sensory mediums. The mind is the subtle sensory instrument powered by the medium of consciousness. The matter is the grosser element. The relationship between mind and matter is unique because it resolves the classic "body-mind complex problem" by declaring that mind and matter are not two different substances but two poles of the same phenomenal continuum. Both belong to the objective domain of Prakriti (primal matter). The mind is simply subtle matter, while the physical universe is gross matter. Neither possesses inherent consciousness. However, the apparent interplay between the mind and matter needs to be seen on the paradigm of seer and seen, or knower and known. Although they apparently look like separate entities due to Maya , or Avidya , or ignorance, they are the offshoots of the primary unmanifest Brahman , or Absolute Existence. All the apparently dis...

The substratum of the entire manifest and unmanifest is Brahman , or Pure Consciousness. That substratum is existence One only. That existence is eternal, infinite, absolute, all-encompassing, all-pervading, omniscient, and omnipotent. In Yoga-Vasistha (1.1, 3.30-35 chapters), the Triputi , or triad, of Knower (Pramata) , Knowledge (Pramana) , and Known (Prameya) , or Seer, Sight, and Seen, collapses into one Supreme Self, or Absolute Existence. There is no division. It highlights that "the belief in a knower and the known is called bondage,” and liberation occurs exclusively when the mind abandons these distinct categories to rest as the primal light beneath them.  Everything is inside and nothing outside of Him. It penetrates and leaves no void or empty space inside anything.  Any other manifestations are not independent but dependent variables of Him. From that standpoint, the world is not an independent entity; it is self-luminous and self-effulgent, inseparable from pure ...

The First Cause, or A dikaraṇa,  is inherently omniscient, omnipotent, eternal, and infinite. The First Cause from the assertion of the Upanishads is Brahman , the Supreme Self, or the Absolute Existence. That Existence is inherently all-encompassing and all-pervading. As omnipotent and omniscient, He wills and creates the creation. As all-encompassing and all-pervading, everything is inside, nothing outside of Him; and ubiquitous, He fills every space and soaks into everything, and so He is the First Cause. To enquire into the First Cause, the enquirer, according to Adi Shankaracharya, must be of a trained mind subjected to A tmanigraha , or Self-control through continuous Atmavichara , or Self-enquiry. The enquirer, he says, must learn, practise and develop virtues of discrimination (Viveka) between ephemeral and eternal; detachment (Vairagya) from sensual gratification; discipline (Śamādhi) , which includes concentration, forbearance, and mental quietude; and an intense longin...