Talks No. 649:
Mr. Thompson, a very quiet young gentleman who is staying in India for some years and studying Hindu philosophy as an
earnest student, asked:
Srimad Bhagavad Gita says: 'I am the prop for Brahman.' In another place, it says: 'I am in the heart of each one.' Thus
the different aspects of the Ultimate Principle are revealed. I take it that there are three aspects, namely, 1) transcendental
2) immanent and 3) the cosmic. Is Realization to be in any one of these or in all of them? Coming to the transcendental from
the cosmic, the Vedanta discards the names and forms as being Maya. But I cannot readily appreciate it because a tree means
the trunk, branches and leaves etc., I cannot dismiss the leaves as Maya. Again the Vedanta says that the whole is Brahman
as illustrated by the gold and gold ornaments. How are we to understand the Truth?
Maharshi: The Gita says: Brahmano hi pratishtaham. If that 'aham' is known, the whole is known.
Devotee: It is the immanent aspect only.
Maharshi: You now think that you are an individual, there is the universe, and that God is beyond the cosmos. So there is the
idea of separateness. This idea must go. For God is not separate from you or the cosmos. The Gita also says:
The Self am I, O Lord of Sleep,
In every creature's heart enshrined.
The rise and noon of every form,
I am its final doom as well. (BG. X 20).
Thus God is not only in the heart of all, He is the prop of all, He is the Source of all, their abiding place and their end. All
proceed from Him, have their stay in Him and finally resolve into Him. Therefore He is not separate.
Devotee: How are we to understand this passage in the Gita:?
"This whole cosmos forms a particle in Me."
Maharshi: It does not mean that a small particle of God separates from Him and forms the Universe. His Sakti is acting; as a
result of one phase of such activity the cosmos has become manifest. Similarly, the statement in Purusha Sukta, 'All beings
form His one foot, Padosya viswa bhutani does not mean that Brahman is in four parts.
Devotee: I understand it. Brahman is not divisible.
Maharshi: So the fact is that Brahman is all and remains indivisible. He is ever realized. The man does not however know it.
He must know it. Knowledge means the overcoming of obstacles which obstruct revelation of the Eternal Truth and the
Self is the same as Brahman. The obstacles form altogether your idea of separateness as an individual. Therefore, the present
attempt will result in the truth being revealed that the Self is not separate from Brahman.
***
Arunachala Siva.