The One Existence

The One Existence

There is one Infinite Eternal, Changeless Existence, the All.

From That all comes forth; to That all returns.

“One only, without a second.” (chhandogyop 6.2.1) आसीदेकमेवाद्वितीयं

That includes within Itself all that ever has been, is, and can be. As a wave rises in the ocean, a universe rises in the All. As the wave sinks again into the ocean, a universe sinks again into the All, As the ocean is water, and the wave a form or manifestation of the water, so is there one Existence, and the universe is a form, or manifestation, of the Existence. ” All this verily (is) Brahma” ब्रह्म.

This is the primary truth of Religion. Men have given to the all many different names. The name in the Sanatana Dharma is Brahma ब्रह्म. English speaking people use the name GOD adding  to make the meaning clear, God in His Own Nature.”

Sometimes the Hindu speaks of the All as Niraguna Brahma, the Brahma without attributes, or the unconditioned Brahma. This is to distinguish the unmanifested state of Brahma, the all from the manifested state, in which Brahma is called the Saguna Brahma, the Brahma with attributes, or the conditioned Brahma the Supreme Ishvara with His universe. These are called “The two states of Brahma”

द्वे वाव ब्रह्मणो रूपे मर्त्यं चामृतं च स्थितं च यच्च सच्च त्यच्च – chhandogyop

The subject is very difficult, and it is enough for a boy to understand that the Saguna Brahma is Brahma revealed not “a second,” but Brahma shining forth as The One, the Great Lord of Being, Thought and Bliss. He is the self-existent One, the Root and Cause of all beings. He is also sometimes called Purusottama, the Supreme Spirit, The Self.  

With Himself as Spirit he reveals the other side of the All, which is named Mulaprakriti, the Root of Matter. Prakriti, Matter, is that which takes form, and so can give bodies of all sorts and shapes and kinds; all that we can touch, taste, smell, see, and hear, is Matter, and a great deal more besides, which our five senses are not yet developed enough to perceive. The solids, liquids and gases of the chemist are made of Matter; all the things round us, stones, trees, animals, men, are made of Matter. But the whole of them is not Matter; inaudible, invisible, unsmellable, untastable, intangible, the Spirit is in each, an Amshah अंशः, a portion of Ishvara. We call the Matter part a Shariram शरीरम् body; or a koshah कोषः, sheath; or an Upadhih उपाधिः , vehicle ; that which embodies, clothes, or carries the Spirit.

Thus Ishvara is in everything, and it is He who gives life to all things. He is Atma आत्मा, the Self, the Immortal, the Inner Ruler, dwelling in all objects, and there is nothing that can exist apart from Him. An amshah अंशः of Him in a body of matter is called a Jiva जीव or a Jivatma जीवात्मा, a separated Self

There are some very important differences between Spirit and Matter, as well as the differences just spoken of : that the senses, when completely developed, can perceive Matter, while they cannot perceive Spirit, and that Matter takes form while Spirit is formless. It is the Spirit that is life, and that thinks, and feels, and observes, that is the “ I “ in each of us. And the Spirit is one and the same in everybody and in everything. But Matter cannot think, or feel, or observe ; it is Jadam जडं without consciousness. And it has also the tendency to be constantly dividing itself into many forms and to become many. So that Spirit and Matter are said to be the opposites one of the other ; Spirit is called the knower, the one that knows, while Matter is called the object of knowledge, that which is known.

We should try to understand these differences, and must never confuse Spirit and Matter; they are opposites, the first “pair of opposites,” out of which a universe is built up.

Just as Spirit has three qualities – Sat Chit Anandam सत् चित् आनंदं Being, Thought- Power and Bliss, so has Matter three qualities तमः रजः सत्त्वम् Tamah, Rajah, Sattvam-Inertia, Mobility, Rhythm. Inertia gives resistance and stability to Matter ; Mobility keeps Matter active, moving about ; Rhythm makes the movements regular. You may say : ” A stone does not move of itself” But science tells you that every particle in that stone particles too small for you to see is moving rapidly and regularly to and fro, is vibrating, to use the scientific term.

The Shakti शक्ती: or the Divine Power of Ishvara, which makes Matter begin to take form, is called Maya माया, and sometimes Daiviprakrtih दैवीप्रकृती, the Divine Prakrti. Shrikrishna speaks of “My Divine Prakrti ” as ” My other Prakrti, the higher, the life-element, by which the universe is upheld.”

अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृतिं विद्धि मे पराम् । जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ll Bhag 7.5

Sadhak may think of the great pair of opposites, Ishvara and mulaprakrti, standing, as it were, face to face and the Divine Power of Ishvara shining out on mulaprakrti and making the qualities, called gunah गुणाः, act on each other, sol that many forms begin to appear. This Divine power is Maya, and so Ishvara is called the Lord of Maya We must try to remember these names, and what they mean, for they cannot otherwise understand the teaching of the Bhagavadgita which every Hindu boy must try to understand. It may be well to say that the word Prakrti is generally used instead of mulaprakrti, the prefix Mula, Root, being usually left out.

ज्ञेयं यत्तत् प्रवक्ष्यामि यज्ज्ञात्वाऽमृतमश्नुते । अनादिमत्परं ब्रह्म न सत्तन्नासदुच्यते ॥

सर्वतः पाणिपादं तत् सर्वतोऽक्षिशिरोमुखम् । सर्वतः श्रुतिमल्लोके सर्वमावृत्य तिष्ठति ॥

सर्वेन्द्रियगुणाभासं सर्वेन्द्रियविवर्जितम् । असक्तं सर्वभृच्चैव निर्गुणं गुणभोक्तृ च ॥

बहिरन्तश्च भूतानामचरं चरमेव च । सूक्ष्मत्वात् तद‌विज्ञेयं दूरस्थं चान्ति च तत् ॥

अविभक्तं च भूतेषु विभक्तमिव च स्थितम। भूतभर्तृ च तज्ञेयं ग्रसिष्णु प्रभविष्णूच

 ज्योतिषामपि तज्ज्योतितमसः परमुच्यते । ज्ञानं ज्ञेयं ज्ञानगम्यं हृदि सर्वस्य विष्ठितम् ॥ bhagavadgita 13.12-17

” I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known immortality is enjoyed the beginningless supreme Brahma, called neither Being nor Not-Being.

“Everywhere That has hands and feet, everywhere eyes, heads and mouths ; all hearing, He dwelleth in the world, enveloping all ; ” Shining with all sense-faculties, without any sense ; unattached, supporting everything ; and free from qualities, enjoying qualities.

“Without and within all beings, immovable and also movable ; by a reason of his subtlety indistinguishable ; at hand and far away is That.

” Not divided amid beings and yet seated distributively. That is to be known as the supporter of beings ; He devours and He generates.

That, the Light of all lights, is said to be beyond darkness ; wisdom, the object of wisdom, by wisdom to be reached, seated in the hearts of all. “

आसीदिदं तमोभूतमप्रज्ञातमलत्तणम् । अप्रतर्क्य प्रविज्ञेयं प्रसुप्तमिव सर्वतः ॥

ततः स्वयंभूर्भगवानव्यक्तो व्यञ्जयनीदम् । महाभूतादि वृत्तौजाः प्रादुरासीत्तमोनुदः ॥

योऽसावतीन्द्रियग्राह्यः सूक्ष्मोऽव्यक्तः सनातनः। सर्वभूतमयोऽचिन्त्यः स एव स्वयमुद्बभौ ॥

This was in the form of Darkness, unknown, without marks [or homogeneous], unattainable by reasoning, unknowable, wholly, as it were, in sleep.

” Then the self-Existent, the Lord, unmanifest, (but) making manifest. This the great elements and the rest appeared with mighty power, Dispeller of Darkness.

 ” He who can be grasped by that which is beyond the senses, subtle unmanifest ancient, containing all beings, inconceivable, even He Himself shone forth.

ग्रहमात्मा गुड़ाकेश सर्वभूताशयस्थितः। ग्रहमादिश्च मध्यं च भूतानामन्त एव च ll Bhag १०.२०

“I, O Gudakesha, am the SELF, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning, the mid- dle, and also the end of all beings.”

ममैवांशो जीवलोके जीवभूतः सनातनः । मनः पष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृतिस्थानि कर्षति ॥ Bhag 15.7

“A portion of Mine own Self, transformed in the world of life into an immortal Spirit, draweth round itself the senses, of which the mind is the sixth, veiled in matter.

समं सर्वेषु भूनेषु तिष्ठन्तं परमेश्वरम् । विनश्यत्स्वविनश्यन्तं यः पश्यति स पश्यति ॥

 यदा भूत पृथग्‌भावमेवस्थमनुपश्यति । तत एव च विस्तारं ब्रह्म सम्पद्यते तदा ॥

यथा प्रकाशयत्येक कृत्स्नं लोकमिमं रविः । क्षेत्रं क्षेत्री तथा कृत्स्नं प्रकाशयति भारत ॥

“Sented equally in all beings, the supreme Ishvara, un perishing within the perishing; he who thus seeth, he seeth.

“When he preceiveth the diversified exsistence  of beings as rooted in ONE and spreading forth from It, then he reacheth Brahma.

“As the one sun illumineth the whole earth so the Lord of the field, illumineth the whole field, O Bharata.”

भूमिरापोऽनलो वायुः खं मनो बुद्धिरेव च । अहंकार इतीयं में भिन्ना प्रकृतिरष्टधा ॥

 अपरेयमितस्त्वन्यां प्रकृति विद्धि मे पराम् । जीवभूतां महाबाहो ययेदं धार्यते जगत् ॥ bhag 7.4-5

“Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Other, Mind and Reason also and Egoism-these are the eight-fold divisions of my Prakrti.

“This the inferior. Know my other Prakrti, the higher, the life-element, O mighty-armed, by which the universe is upheld.”

सत्वं रजस्तम इति गुणाः प्रकृतिसम्भवाः । निबघ्नन्ति महाबाहो देहे देहिनमव्ययम् ॥ Bhag 14.5

“Sattva, Rajas, Tamas these are the , born of Prakriti; they bind fast in the body, O great-armed one, the indestructible dweller in the body.” 

Information Referred from
Sanatan Dharma – an elementary text-book of Hindu Religion and Ethics, Published by The Board of Trustees, Central Hindu College, Banaras