FACTS OF DIFFERENCES

Existence is one only that is the basic premise, or conception, that we know, that we do not know, or that we are not capable of knowing. It's because our existences are embodied, finite, and conditioned by time, space, and causation. Whereas Existence is Plenum, Absolute, Infinite, Eternal, Imperishable, Immutable, and Immanent, as well as Transcendent, Sat-Chit-Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss), Complete, Full, Nirakara (formless), Nirguna (qualityless), and Nirvisesa (attributeless), and unconditioned by time, space, and causation. We can at best strive to realise, but that realisation cannot be expressed as expression involves identification through medium of parts. We as part cannot express the Whole, or created cannot describe the creator. The fact is that we are in forms that are subject to limited adjuncts of birth, growth, decay, death, dissolution, reincarnation, and so on. If that is so, forms are facts in a state of flux, objectification, and finitude of the finite. These are all projections of the Absolute, or Cosmic Self, and subject to conditions of time, space, and causation.

 1. Outline

Facts are by nature limited in a phenomenal world with Akāra (form), Guna (quality), Visesatā (attributes), relative, mutable, finitude of the finite, and perishability with all other attributes of Samsāra (birth, growth, decay, and death). Its identification evolves through sense perceptual cognition and a cobweb of relations intertwined by the processes of birth, growth, decay, dissolution, death, and reincarnation. The intricacies of relationships make one a multi-faceted evolution conditioned by space-time causation. Anything that we cognise is mediated through our thought manufacturing machine, the mind. The mind requires some sort of attachment to manufacture its thought as it cognises through its senses. Nothing comes in if it does not go out by way of thought or action. A person in a different objectified dimension in a certain space-time may come out to be a son/daughter, brother/sister, father/mother, uncle/aunt, husband/wife, father-in-law/mother-in-law, brother-in-law/sister-in-law, and so forth. But in every situation, each factual orientation is differentiated by the adjuncts of space, time, and causation.

Sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda elaborates precisely on the fact that the real cannot become the unreal, and the unreal cannot be real. What exactly do the terms "real" and "unreal" mean in this context? This is mostly an area of perceptional psychology, similar to seeing a rainbow when it is not really there or seeing mirage water when it is not actually present. Here's a question: are the things we view with our perceptual faculties genuine or not? Swami Vidyaranya's famous Panchadasi describes how one and the same woman/man might be the mother/father of one, the wife/husband of another, the sister-in-law/brother-in-law of a third, and so on, all of which are true realities of difference, but are not. These differences, though poignantly visible, can create hell for one and heaven for another by a mistaken annotation attached to perception, just as there is no such thing as my land and another's land, because what is today my land may become another's land tomorrow through a sale deed.

The song of the earth, as portrayed in the Srimad Bhagavatam (12.3.1-12.3.13), denies that anyone dominated it. This continues to exist today, despite the fact that many egoists believe they are the rulers and possessors of the land. Sukadeva Gosvami says, seeing the kings of this earth busy trying to conquer her, the earth herself laughed. She said: “Just see how these kings, who are actually playthings in the hands of death, are desiring to conquer me. These kings, according to the Srimad Bhagavatam, for walking on the ground does not convert it into a possession in any way. Great rulers of men, even those who are learnt, meet frustration and failure because of lust for material forms. Driven by lust, these kings place great hope and faith in the dead lump of flesh called the body, even though the material frame is as fleeting as bubbles of foam on water.

2. Scriptures

All the Vedantic scriptures vouch for inwardness to meditate upon the Self as all beings are centred in the One as It is the Self of all. One should meditate upon the Self alone, as It is the dearest to each and everyone, prophetically declares the Brihadranyaka Upanishad (4.5.6).

Accordingly, the evolving consciousness is unicentric of Self only. However, outwardness is of forms, shapes, quality, attributes, relative, mutable, finite, and perishable, along with all other attributes of Samsāra chakra (wheel of birth, growth, decay, death, and reincarnation). The evolving consciousness is multicentric of forms of body, mind, intellect, and sensual perceptions. They reflect only transience and ephemerality. Ultimately, everything, processes, and activities will move towards the centre of eternality.

The Mundaka Upanishad (3.2.8) states:

yathā nadyaḥ syandamānāḥ samudre'staṃ gacchanti nāmarūpe vihāya |

tathā vidvānnāmarūpādvimuktaḥ parātparaṃ puruṣamupaiti divyam || 3.2.8 ||

As rivers in their flowing reach their home in the ocean and cast off their names and forms, even so, one who knows is delivered from name and form and reaches the Supreme beyond the Most High, even the Divine Person. (Mundaka Upanishad, Verse 3.2.8). Adi Shankaracharya in his commentary on Mundaka Upanishad highlights that moreover, just as flowing streams such as the Ganges and the rest having reached the sea give up their distinct individuality in it, losing both their names and form, so the knower, being freed from name and form, created by ignorance, reaches the resplendent purusha above defined, who is beyond the avyakta already explained.

Acharya Prashant in his commentary on Mundaka Upanishad states that form is all that form is all we can perceive right now. The name is a reference to everything we've ever seen, heard, or stored in our memories. Form is what you perceive right now. And whatever you have experienced in the course of time, you will not only save it but also desire to remember it. The name is a technique for recalling your entire universe. So the world expresses itself to us through forms; nothing can be known, perceived, or felt unless it has a form. The world reveals itself to us via shape, and it lingers with us through names. It comes to you in form and stays with you as a name. Names and forms represent the world.

According to the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, first brahmanam of the fourth chapter, the Self manifests in human life in six forms: Prajna (consciousness), Priyam (love and the will to live), Satyam (reverence for truth, reality), Ananta (endlessness, curiosity for the eternal), Ananda (bliss, contentment), and Sthiti (the state of enduring steadfastness, calm perseverance).

The Srimad Bhagavatam (12.3.6) declares that material form is ephemeral and it is futile to run after it relentlessly. Although in the past great men and their descendants have left me, departing from this world in the same helpless way they came into it, even today foolish men are trying to conquer me.

3. Remarks

Any worldly facts are relativistic and have their abode in the objectified dimension projected outside by mind. The values (of opposites of pleasure and oain, or happiness and distress) and experiences are also relativistic. As sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda says in his commentary on the Brihadranyaka Upanishad, One should meditate upon the Self alone as what is dearest, for anything else which one may regard as dear, as external to oneself, will naturally be subject to bereavement.

Through self-enquiry and discrimination, one needs to question and discriminate between the real and the unreal. This has been clearly elaborated by Swami Sivananda. He claims that ignorance causes people to identify with their bodies, minds, life airs, and senses due to a lack of knowledge, or Avidya. They mistake these false perishable limiting adjuncts or vehicles for the pure eternal Atman, and hence are caught in the cycle of births and deaths. However, some wise people abandon this false identification, separate themselves from these limiting adjuncts through inquiry, discrimination, Anvayavyatireka Yukti, and the practice of the 'Neti-Neti' doctrine (I am not this body, I am not this Prana, I am not this mind, I am not the senses), identify themselves with the all-pervading, immortal, pure Brahmān, gain knowledge of Brahmān, and achieve immortality.

-Asutosh Satpathy