[Advaita-l] Omnipresence

[V Subrahmanian]

About the 'form' that is attributed to Brahman, here are my thoughts:

The Upanishads clearly say that Brahman is devoid of shabda, sparsha, rupa,
etc. It is also not long, short, etc.

The Upanishad also clearly states that न सन्दृशे तिष्ठति रूपमस्य न चक्षुषा
पश्यति कश्चनैनम् । हृदा मनीषा मनसाभिक्लृप्तो य एतद्विदुरमृतास्ते भवन्ति ॥ ९
॥ in the KaTha and other Upanishads.  This means: Brahman has no form and
therefore is not available to the eye for anyone. One has to 'know' It
through the special vritti of the manas. They get liberated by this
realization.

Now, why does Brahman not have any form? The reason is, rUpam, is a unique
guNa of the bhUta thejas. Of the Panchabhutas, thejas (fire) is the first
one to have this unique guNa, rUpam (which is both color and form), and the
next ones like jalam and prithvi inherit this rUpam from thejas. Brahman is
not paanchabhautika and hence cannot have rUpam.

That is why the above Upanishad states that Brahman does not have a form
and cannot be seen by the eye. RUpam is the viShaya for the
chakShurindriyam. The other statements say that Brahman is beyond the reach
of any other indriya that grasps shabda, sparsha, etc.

Even if someone were to say that Brahman has a-prAkruta rUpam, etc. still
such rUpam, etc. also should be perceptible only to the indriyas. When
someone is told that Brahman has aprAkruta rUpam, the human can only
imagine it as a viShaya for the eye and likens it to whatever he has seen.
Thus, unless one employs the eye he cannot grasp even the aprakruta rupam
that might be taught to him.  But since the Upanishads have precluded any
form to Brahman and the possibility of It being an object of perception, we
can only conclude that any form to Brahman that the Upanishads specify, are
only for upasana and not Jnana. (..hiraNya smashru, bhArUpah, etc.) And the
Upanishads do not offer any pramana for the humans gaining aprAkruta
indriyas to objectify the aprAkruta rUpa of Brahman. The divya chakShus
granted to Arjuna is not made mandatory for all in the Vedanta to have a
darshana of Bhagavan and nor is such a darshana the direct cause for
Jnana/liberation.

To contemplate on the input provided in the 11th chapter is, no doubt,
necessary in the progress in Vichara. That everything is only 'in' Brahman
and that Brahman is 'everything' is eminently brought out by this Darshana.
One can vizualise this and that is the purpose of the chapter to the
sadhaka. Swami Paramarthananda ji has put it succinctly: the sadhana is an
evolution from eka-rUpa Ishwara bhakti to vishvarUpa bhakti culminating in
arUpa Ishwara Bhakti.

Thus both logically and scripturally, there cannot be any niyata, default,
rUpam, for Brahman. The vishvarupa too is preceded by Arjuna's question: केषु
केषु च भावेषु *चिन्त्यो**ऽसि* भगवन्मया ॥ १७ ॥ in the 10th chapter, whose
extension is the 11th where the vishvarupa darshana occurs. This is
followed by the 12th chapter where the Upasaka (of the form and guNas of
Brahman) is placed opposite the Jnani, the Tattvadarshii.

Om Tat Sat






>
>