BRAHMAN AND ISHWARA

Someone said:

QUOTE

"I would certainly agree with "Everything is the Self alone" but I would clarify this as: "everything is brahman" (sarvaM khalvidaM brahma). I have not come across a statement in the shruti which says 'sarvaM khalvidaM Ishvara'. My understanding of tattvamasi is 'I amThat', where That is Brahman; not Ishwara.”.

UNQUOTE

Hello there. Then what about 'IsAvAsyamidaM sarvaM' the first line and running theme of Isopanishad?

What about this statement by Shankara in Dakshinamurthi Stotram:

"He, whose eight-fold forms are the "Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether, Sun, Moon and Jeeva", and who manifests Himself as this universe of the movable and immovable objects - and besides which, the Supreme All-Pervading Lord, there exists nothing to those who reflect well upon ..... to Him, the Divine Teacher Sri Dakshinamoorthy, is this Prostration." (Translation by Sw. Chinamayanandaji)

Earth, Water and Air are representative of all that is solid, liquid and gas in creation; Fire is all that burns, Ether is space (time goes with it), Sun and Moon for all the galaxies, stars, planets and other heavenly bodies and interstellar matter, and Jeeva for all his internalizations and also all that is living which include all life forms in this universe that we know of and that we will infuture (I am including the possibility of extra-terrestrials!). That is sarvaM khalvidaM brahma or sarvaM khalvidaM Ishwara!

We need to understand the frequency at which our Vedanta teachers are communicating. Once, during a discussion on "pUrNamadaH...", Sw. Dayanandaji laughingly concluded: "What is mithyA? MithyA is satyaM". That statement shocked some of the traditionalists who stick to the very letter of the shruti.

We know that Swamiji was not going against the tenets of "pure Advaita". In fact, he was only expressing the all-encompassing message and nature of Advaita in his inimitable style. Advaita cannot be an an alienation. His views on Ishwara are therefore to be understood in that context.

If sarvamidaM (all this or this entire universe or all that is there in this universe) is brahman, then the rose is brahman, the diamond is brahman, the roach is brahman and wife is also brahman! There is nothing other than Brahman. BrahmaivedaM vishwaM.. (Mundaka Upanishad).

How can I relate to this, if I adamantly insist that Brahman is immutable, indefinable, ineffable, etc. etc.? The only way I can relate is to accept this multiplicity that confronts me as ONE AND THE SAME and operate in a manner that there is nothing other than that ONE.

Mundaka Upanishad effectively uses the spider-cobweb analogy to help us here. The material of the web is not different from the spider. The spider releases the web matter from itself and withdraws it into itself. This is the way the universe manifests from brahman and later goes into dissolution in the same brahman.

The immutable brahman of the shruti seen as manifesting as this universe is our Ishwara who pervades each and every atom of its multiplicity as Himself. This is what Isopanishad thunders!

So, when I do suryanamaskar in the morning, I am not saluting just a yellow star - an insignificant entity when compared to the other gigantic asterisms that glitter our skies. I am prostrating before Ishwara, the Lord of the Universe, who is none other than the Brahman of vedanta. When an ant or roach passes by, then that again is the Lord. Why each and every atom of my body and the trillions of microorganisms that inhabit it are verily the Lord himself. What remains other than Him? Nothing. He alone remains. Brahman alone remains. Ishwara alone remains. There is nothing other than Ishwara. That is Advaita - the way it is lived - not the way it is intellectually understood. Such living is a thrill, the pleasure of all pleasures.

Om Parashaktyai Namaha

Madathil Nair