Moment to Speak

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...

Consciousness is not bound by space-time; rather, it is the other way around. The entire universe is a collective dream. Pure consciousness is the Ultimate Reality, the substratum of the entire manifest and unmanifest existence. The Upanishads say that it is not what you have but what you are: Prajñānam Brahma , or "Consciousness is Brahman " (Aitareya Upanishad, 3.3); " Aham Brahmasmi ", or  "I am Brahman ", (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 1.4.10);     Tat Tvam Asi , or "Thou art That" (Chandogya Upanishad, 6.8.7); and Ayam Atma Brahma , or "This Self is Brahman "  (Mandukya Upanishad, 1.2). The missing link of our understanding is the veil of Avidya , or ignorance, that makes an illusionary appearance the ultimate goal. What we call "real life" is simply a longer, more stable dream, while our nightly dreams are shorter. Both are projected by the mind. Since Pure Consciousness is the ultimate subject of observation, it can never b...

It is the fallacy of the human mind, which views the forms as realities and causes one to think of his Atman , which is freed from action, name and form, as being born, living and dead, as a man sees a city to rise and fall in his delirium (Yoga-Vasistha, 3.67.14-16). The varying intellect, according to Yoga-Vasistha, erroneously conceives its unreal egoism of "I" and "mineness" as realities, from its ignorance of its unity with Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, and also from its felicity of enjoyments peculiar to its varied state. It states that the human mind suffers from a fundamental illusionary fallacy of name and form. It mistakes ephemeral physical names and forms as ultimate reality. It is forgetful of its essential nature as eternal and immortal Atman , beyond the space-time frame. It is timeless, spaceless, changeless, and free from the cycles of birth and death. Because of the mind's limitations, it superimposes these names and forms onto Jivatma , or th...

Yoga-Vasistha ( Utpatti Khanda , Chapter LXVII) defines Truth as the non-dualistic realisation that Brahman , or the Supreme Self, is the omnipresent, ultimate reality. The best way to express it, according to Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (2.3.6), is "Neti, neti" (Not this, not this). It signifies that Brahman , or the Supreme Self, cannot be described by any finite words, objects, or mental concepts, as It is beyond comprehension and reason. It expresses that Brahman is Absolute Truth and Pure Consciousness and is uncaused, unbounded, infinite, eternal, and non-dual. Absolute Truth is One only and not subject to limitations of space-time and existence. It is from Him that the transient universe manifests as well as unmanifests in a cycling process through His own will. Sage Vasistha in Yoga-Vasistha teaches Sri Rama that the objective world is Maya , or an illusion, and is guided by Prarabdha (predestination) and Purushartha (free will, or self-effort). The phenomenal world...