tat tvam asi – Thou art that
This is the belief of the mayavadis or the impersonalists of Advaita Vedanta philosophy.
tat tvam asi, I am that, their belief is that Brahman is the only permanent and the Supreme absolute truth, nothing is higher than Brahman, all incarnations and forms of the lord are manifestations of Brahman, Brahman is the supreme and by aham brahmasmi they declare that “I” am Brahman, meaning, that the self is the only objective, that we are all god, and Brahman is our ultimate destination, the merger with Brahman is our goal of life, to become one with god, to realize the self. Hence they believe we are all god, and thus we should realize the self to become one whole, or one with God. Brahman is everywhere and all pervading so therefore everything and everyone is God, it is their belief that only by the realization of this does one get saved and attains salvation, by merger with the impersonal featureless and formless Brahman.
However I would like to declare first and foremost that this conception by the mayavadis is limited and misguided, and therefore this series is here to remove this growing misconception of “I am God, You are God, We are God…” also I would like to establish our eternal constitutional position as the spirit souls and the eternal servants of the lord, and that the supreme absolute truth has a form a name and pastimes, he is the Supreme Person, and by this we are able to love him, and have relation with him, something that is not applicable in impersonal Brahman philosophy, however the lord is ultimately personal.
It is also explained in the Gita that impersonal Brahman is also subordinate to the complete (brahmano hi pratisthaham). Brahman is more explicitly explained in the Brahma-sutra to be like the rays of the sunshine. The impersonal Brahman is the shining rays of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman is incomplete realization of the absolute whole.
Bhagavad-Gita (2, 12)
na tv evaham jatu nasam
na tvam neme janadhipah
na caiva na bhavisyamah
sarve vayam atah param
TRANSLATION
Never was there a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings; nor in the future shall any of us cease to be.
In this verse, Lord Krishna is declaring our eternal individuality as spirit souls, he says we were always individuals, we are individuals now, and we shal remain individuals in the future, The Mayavadi theory that after liberation the individual soul, separated by the covering of maya or illusion, will merge into the impersonal Brahman and lose its individual existence is not supported herein by Lord Krsna, the supreme authority. Nor is the theory that we only think of individuality in the conditioned state supported herein.
Krsna clearly says herein that in the future also the individuality of the Lord and others, as it is confirmed in the Upanisads, will continue eternally. This statement of Krsna is authoritative because Krsna cannot be subject to illusion. If individuality is not a fact, then Krsna would not have stressed it so much–even for the future. The Mayavadi may argue that the individuality spoken of by Krsna is not spiritual, but material. Even accepting the argument that the individuality is material, then how can one distinguish Krsna’s individuality? Krsna affirms His individuality in the past and confirms His individuality in the future also. He has confirmed His individuality in many ways, and impersonal Brahman has been declared to be subordinate to Him. Krsna has maintained spiritual individuality all along; if He is accepted as an ordinary conditioned soul in individual consciousness, then His Bhagavad-gita has no value as authoritative scripture. A common man with all the four defects of human frailty is unable to teach that which is worth hearing. The Gita is above such literature. No mundane book compares with the Bhagavad-gita. When one accepts Krsna as an ordinary man, the Gita loses all importance. The Mayavadi argues that the plurality mentioned in this verse is conventional and that it refers to the body. But previous to this verse such a bodily conception is already condemned. After condemning the bodily conception of the living entities, how was it possible for Krsna to place a conventional proposition on the body again? Therefore, individuality is maintained on spiritual grounds and is thus confirmed
by great acaryas like Sri Ramanuja and others. It is clearly mentioned in many places in the Gita that this spiritual individuality is understood by those who are devotees of the Lord. Those who are envious of Krsna as the Supreme Personality of Godhead have no bona fide access to this great literature. The nondevotee’s approach to the teachings of the Gita is something like bees licking on a bottle of honey.
Brahman is just the opposite of matter. Therefore brahmi sthiti means “not on the platform of material activities.” Devotional service of the Lord is accepted in the Bhagavad-gita as the liberated stage (sa gunan samatityaitan brahma-bhuyaya kalpate). Therefore, brahmi sthiti is liberation from material bondage.
Bhagavad-Gita (10.12-14):
arjuna uvaca
param brahma param dhama
pavitram paramam bhavan
purusam sasvatam divyam
adi-devam ajam vibhum
ahus tvam rsayah sarve
devarsir naradas tatha
asito devalo vyasah
svayam caiva bravisi me
sarvam etad rtam manye
yan mam vadasi kesava
na hi te bhagavan vyaktim
vidur deva na danavah
“Arjuna said: You are the Supreme Brahman, the ultimate, the supreme abode and purifier, the Absolute Truth and the eternal Divine Person. You are the primal God, transcendental and original, and you are the unborn and all-pervading beauty. All the great sages like Narada, Asita, Devala, and Vyasa proclaim this of You, and now You Yourself are declaring it to me. O Krsna, I totally accept as truth all that You have told me. Neither the gods nor the demons, O Lord, know Thy personality.”
After hearing Bhagavad-gita from the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Arjuna accepted Krishna as param Brahma, the Supreme Brahman. Every living being is Brahman, but the supreme living being, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the Supreme Brahman. Param dhama means that He is the supreme rest or abode of everything; pavitram means that He is pure, untainted by material contamination; purusam means that He is the supreme enjoyer; sasvatam, original; divyam, transcendental; adidevam, the Supreme Personality of Godhead; ajam, the unborn; and vibhum, the greatest, the all-pervading.
Para-tattva means the Supreme Reality, who is understood by the knowers of the Supreme as Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan. Bhagavan, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the last word in the Absolute. There is nothing more than that. The Lord says, mattah parataram nanyat kincid asti dhananjaya. Impersonal Brahman is also supported by Krsna: brahmano hi pratisthaham. Therefore in all ways Krsna is the Supreme Reality.
In the Narada-pancaratra this is confirmed in
this way:
dik-kalady-anavacchinne
krsne ceto vidhaya ca
tan-mayo bhavati ksipram
jivo brahmani yojayet
“By concentrating one’s attention on the transcendental form of Krsna, who is all-pervading and beyond time and space, one becomes absorbed in thinking of Krsna and then attains the happy state of transcendental association with Him.”
Krsna consciousness is the highest stage of trance in yoga practice. This very understanding that Krsna is present as Paramatma in everyone’s heart makes the yogi faultless. The Vedas (Gopala-tapani Upanisad 1.21) confirm this inconceivable potency of the Lord as follows: eko ‘pi san bahudha yo ‘vabhati. “Although the Lord is one, He
is present in innumerable hearts as many.” Similarly, in the smrtisastra it is said:
eka eva paro visnuh
sarva-vyapi na samsayah
aisvaryad rupam ekam ca
surya-vat bahudheyate
“Visnu is one, and yet He is certainly all-pervading. By His inconceivable potency, in spite of His one form, He is present everywhere, as the sun appears in many places at once.”
In Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 7, Knowledge of the Absolute: Sloka 3.
manusyanam sahasresu
kascid yatati siddhaye
yatatam api siddhanam
kascin mam vetti tattvatah
TRANSLATION
Out of many thousands among men, one may endeavor for perfection, and of those who have achieved perfection, hardly one knows Me in truth.
There are various grades of men, and out of many thousands one may be sufficiently interested in transcendental realization to try to know what is the self, what is the body, and what is the Absolute Truth. Generally mankind is simply engaged in the animal propensities, namely eating, sleeping, defending and mating, and hardly anyone is interested in transcendental knowledge. The first six chapters of the Gita are meant for those who are interested in transcendental knowledge, in understanding the self, the Superself and the process of realization by jnana-yoga, dhyana-yoga and discrimination of the self from matter. However, Krsna can only be known by persons who are in Krsna consciousness. Other transcendentalists may achieve impersonal Brahman realization, for this is easier than understanding Krsna. Krsna is the Supreme Person, but at the same time He is beyond the knowledge of Brahman and Paramatma. The yogis and jnanis are confused in their attempts to understand Krsna, although the greatest of the impersonalists, Sripada Sankaracarya, has admitted in his Gita commentary that Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. But his followers do not accept Krsna as such, for it is very difficult to know Krsna, even though one has transcendental realization of impersonal Brahman. Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, the cause of all causes, the primeval Lord Govinda. Isvarah paramah krsnah sac-cid-anandavigrahah. anadir adir govindah sarva-karana-karanam. It is very difficult for the nondevotees to know Him. Although nondevotees declare that the path of bhakti or devotional service is very easy, they cannot practice it. If the path of bhakti is so easy, as the nondevotee class
of men proclaim, then why do they take up the difficult path? Actually the path of bhakti is not easy. The so-called path of bhakti practiced by unauthorized persons without knowledge of bhakti may be easy, but when it is practiced factually according to the rules and regulations, the speculative scholars and philosophers fall away from the path. Srila Rupa Gosvami writes in his Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu (1.2.101):
sruti-smrti-puranadipancaratra-
vidhim vina
aikantiki harer bhaktir
utpatayaiva kalpate
“Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic literatures like the Upanisads, Puranas, Narada-pancaratra, etc., is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.”
It is not possible for the Brahman-realized impersonalist or the Paramatma-realized yogi to understand Krsna the Supreme Personality of Godhead as the son of mother Yasoda or the charioteer of Arjuna. Even the great demigods are sometimes confused about Krsna (muhyanti yat surayah). Mam tu veda na kascana: “No one knows Me as I am,” the Lord says. And if one does know Him, then sa mahatma su-durlabhah. “Such a great soul is very rare.” Therefore unless one practices devotional service to the Lord, he cannot know Krsna as He is (tattvatah), even though one is a great scholar or philosopher. Only the pure devotees can know something of the inconceivable transcendental qualities in Krsna, in the cause of all causes, in His omnipotence and opulence, and in His wealth, fame, strength, beauty, knowledge and renunciation, because Krsna is benevolently inclined to His devotees. He is the last word in Brahman realization, and the devotees alone can realize Him as He is. Therefore it is said:
atah sri-krsna-namadi
na bhaved grahyam indriyaih
sevonmukhe hi jihvadau
svayam eva sphuraty adah
“No one can understand Krsna as He is by the blunt material senses. But He reveals Himself to the devotees, being pleased with them for their transcendental loving service unto Him.” (Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu 1.2.234)
What is Brahman And what is ParaBrahman?
Brahman is indestructible and eternally existing, and its constitution is not changed at any time. Beyond Brahman there is Parabrahman. Brahman refers to the living entity, and Parabrahman refers to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. The constitutional position of the living entity is different from the position he takes in the material world. In material consciousness, his nature is to try to be the lord of matter, but in spiritual (Krsna) consciousness, his position is to serve the Supreme. When the living entity is in material consciousness, he has to take on various bodies in the material world. That is called karma, or varied creation by the force of material consciousness. In Vedic literature the living entity is called jivatma and Brahman, but he is never called Parabrahman. The living entity (jivatma) takes different positions–sometimes he merges into the dark material nature and identifies himself with matter, and sometimes he identifies himself
with the superior spiritual nature. Therefore he is called the Supreme Lord’s marginal energy. According to his identification with material or spiritual nature, he receives a material or spiritual body. In material nature he may take a body from any of the 8,400,000 species of life, but in spiritual nature he has only one body. In material nature
he is sometimes manifested as a man, demigod, animal, beast, bird, etc., according to his karma. To attain material heavenly planets and enjoy their facilities, he sometimes performs sacrifices (yajna), but when his merit is exhausted, he returns to earth again in the form of a man. In the process of sacrifice, the living entity makes specific sacrifices to attain specific heavenly planets and consequently reaches them. When the merit of sacrifice is exhausted, then the living entity descends to earth in the form of rain, then takes on the form of grains, and the grains are eaten by man and transformed into semen, which impregnates a woman, and thus the living entity once again attains the human form to perform sacrifice and so repeat the same cycle. In this way, the living entity perpetually comes and goes on the material path. The Krsna conscious person, however, avoids such sacrifices. He takes directly to Krsna consciousness and thereby
prepares himself to return to Godhead. Impersonalist commentators on the Gita unreasonably assume that Brahman takes the form of jiva in the material world, and to substantiate this they refer to Chapter Fifteen, verse 7, of the Gita. But this verse also speaks of the living entity as “an eternal fragment of Myself.” The fragment of God, the living entity, may fall down into the material world, but the Supreme Lord (Acyuta) never falls down. Therefore this ssumption that the Supreme Brahman assumes the form of jiva is not acceptable. It is important to remember that in Vedic literature Brahman (the living entity) is distinguished from ParaBrahman (the Supreme Lord).
Because of the vastness of this topic, this will be thus broken up into a series of articles; this is Part One of the Bhagavad-Gita on Brahman Series, the introduction. I will continue by completing most issues relating to our relationship with God, our relationship to Brahman, and on the impersonal and personal natures of the supreme.
However I would like to summarize a few points before I end this Part:
> The supreme absolute truth is Parabrahman which is eternally in a personal state
> Our eternal position is of servants to the supreme Lord Krishna in his eternal abode,
> Our Goal is to ultimately Love God, The Supreme, Krishna and not to merge with Brahman. Merging with Brahman is temporary and we would eventually come back to suffering in this material world until we realize the personal loving aspect of the lord through his forms, his names and his pastimes. Brahman is the effulgence of the Lord, Bramhjyoti
Having thus concluded Part one on the Bhagavad-Gita Series on Advaita-Vedanta on Brahman, I would Kindly appreciate all kinds of comments, after completion of the Bhagavad-Gita Series next will be Srimad Bhagavatam, so come back regularly for updates. Thank You, Hare Krishna!
