(Explanatory note at the bottom)
Infinite Eternal, Changeless Existence, the All. From That all comes forth ; to That all returns.
“One only, without a second.” 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) Brahman.”
This is the primary truth of Religion. Men have given to the All many different names. The name in the Sanatana Dharma is Brahman. 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 Nirguna Brahman, the Brahman without attributes, or the unconditioned Brahman. This is to distinguish the unmanifested state of Brahman, the All, from the manifested state, in which Brahman is called the Sguna Brahman, the Brahman with attributes, or the conditioned Brahman the Supreme Ishvara with His universe.
These are called: “the two states of Brahman” The subject is very difficult, and it is enough for a boy to understand that the Sguna Brahman is Brahman revealed not “a second,” but Brahman 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, a portion, of Ishvara. We call the Matter part, a body ; or a sheath ; or a 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, the Self, the Immortal, the Inner Ruler, dwelling in all objects, and there is nothing that can exist apart from Him. An “amshah”, a part, of Him in a body of matter is called a Jiva, or a Jivatmsi, 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” – 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. Students 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 Ananda, Being, Thought- Power and Bliss, so has Matter three qualities 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 Shaktih, or the Divine Power of Ishvara, which makes Matter begin to take form, is called Maya, and sometimes “Daivi-prakrtih”, the Divine Prakrti. Shri Krshna speaks of ” My Divine Prakrti ” as ” My other Prakrti, the higher, the life-element, by which the universe is upheld.”
The student 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, act on each other, so that many forms begin to appear. This Divine power is Maya, and so Ishvara is called the Lord of Maya. Even young students must try to remember these names, and what they mean, for they cannot otherwise understand the teaching of the Bhagavad Gita 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.
(Quotes of authorities translated from Sanskrit):
“I will declare that which ought to be known, that which being known immortality is enjoyed – the beginningless supreme Brahman, 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. “Bhagavad Gita, xiii,12
“Not divided amid beings and yet seated distributively. That is to be known as tbe 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.
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.” Manu Smriti i 5, 6, 7.
I, O Gudakesha, am the Self, seated in the heart of all beings ; I am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.” (Bhagavat Gita X-20)
” There are two Purushas in this world, the destructible and the indestructible ; the destructible is all beings, the unchanging is called the indestructible.
“The highest Purusha is verily another, declared as the Supreme Self ; He who pervading all, sustaineth the three worlds, the indestructible Ishvara.
“Since I excel the destructible, and am more excellent also than the indestructible, in the world and in the Veda I am proclaimed Prushottama.” (Gita X-16)
” 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.
” Seated equally in all beings, the supreme Ishvara, unperishing within the perishing ; he who thus seeih, he seeth.
“When he preceiveth the diversified exsistence of beings as rooted in One and spreading forth from It, then he reacheth Brahman.
“As the one sun illumineth the whole earth so the Lord of the field, illumineth the whole field, O Bharatha”
“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, mighty-armed, by which the universe is upheld.”
“Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, these are the Gunas, born of Prakriti ; they bind fast in the body, great-armed one, the indestructible dweller in the body.”
(Explanatory note: India, that is Bharat, is 80% Hindu. The very name Bharat is Hindu, as it is etymologically derived from the historical King “Bharat”. Indian civilization is the mother of Asian civilization. Almost entire Asia still carries this civilization in its blood, except in a few pockets of Asia where the Abrahmic religions have been able to make their inroads, primarily by the force of sword and by means of duping the innocent. Buddha is not an alien to but a part of this great civilization. This civilization is founded on the pillars of an ultimate one infinite force or law, which is manifested in many forms with the same essence. This civilization is aware of the evolutionary rebirth of each of these forms and enjoins a duty on sentient beings to do good karma, to reap its good or bad fruits according to what karma one did. This civilization has a profound literature that teaches humans what is right and what is wrong for them to do and makes them aware of the existence of invisible worlds of forces – good Devas and evil forces – that may give them a helping hand or obstruct them in their onward evolutionary journey to merge in that ultimate one force. India is overwhelmingly Hindu and it civilization is Hindu in essence, which has multiple branches of streams falling into it. It is highly elastic and amazingly accommodative. Like an old shoot with deep roots in the ground, instead of die-away, it is slowly spreading out around the world even in this 21st century. But how to put this civilization in a few words, with authenticity and completeness is a big problem. Here, we have found an amazing book that solves this problem. We are reproducing some parts of this book in this series of articles. This book is prepared and published by the “Board of Trustees, Central Hindu College, Benares” in 1916 under the title, “Sanatan Dharma – An Elementary Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics.” Benaras has been the seat of Hindu learning since ancient times and the board of trustees of this Central Hindu college was composed of persons who were highly learned in Hindu Shashtras. They were the epitome of knowledge in Hinduism. This book explains in concise form with authenticity what this civilization is. In this age of info revolution, all religions followed by humanity for one’s mental peace and relation with Divine are available online. It is wise on one’s part to know Indian civilization also and compare it with others, and choose the one that looks logical and better.)