yajvan
05 February 2008, 03:59 PM
Hari Om
~~~~~
Namaste
I continue to be delighted by the notion of akasa (AkASa or ākāśa ), that is , pure space. Why so? it is the subtlest element yet it can be perceived all 'round us.
If we took a solid, lets say steel about 1/2 of its interatomic volume is just space. In water about 2/3rd's the volume is interatomic space. If we take the air around us as it floats in space. Air molecules can travel about 500 times its diameter before hitting another - just space. Same with our body. Sure we are made of flesh, bones, blood,fluids, but it all resides in space. Carl Sagan¹ said matter is indeed 'chiefly made of nothing'.
Yet this space is the essence for all to exist in i.e. avakāśa dātr ākāśah or that which gives room for everything to exist. This comes up (for me) as I read the Chandogya Upanishad ( Chapt 1.8.1 to 1.10.0). There is a conversation amongst 3 sadhakas. Two of the 3 are brahmana and one is not (a ksatriya). Yet they sit to talk, and the non-Brahmin yields to listen to the other two.
The discussion is on , of where things return back to -what is their source? The two brahmanas converse, yet the conclusions they come to is not on 'firm ground'. So the one brahmana, Silaka, asks the ksatriya, named Pravahana, I would like to learn from you sir.
So, Silaka asks, To what original source does this world go back (to)?
Pravahana replies, to ākāśa, for everything that has come into being originates from ākāśa and all of them disappear. Therefore it is greater than all of these ( that was mentioned by the 2 brahmanas previously; one offers svarga or heaven, and the other brahmana offers this world, as svarga's inhabitants depend on the offerings from this world for its existence i.e. yajya, oblations, etc).
Pravahana finishes by saying ākāśa indeed is the final refuge all adhere to. The word in the sloka is ākāśah parāyaṇam. So ākāśa is para - farther than , beyond , on the other or farther side of , extreme + ayana - way , progress , manner , path.
For me and this part of the Upanishad, this ākāśa is not merely compared to Brahman but is ākāśa, some say It's (His) body. For it is Brahman, Reality, Being, that allows all things to exist. And is there other space? There is cidākāśa, - the space of Consciousness. Other definitions, sure as we have discussed this on HDF. Yet this ākāśa or space, time, cause, substance, is the play-field of Brahman and is only 1/4th of his greatness.
pranams
1. Carl Sagan also gave practical comparisons... to get to this inter-atomic space he would use an example such as a pie. Take a pie and cut it in half repeatedly; Sagan points out it takes 90 cuts to get from apple pie to atom-space.
~~~~~
Namaste
I continue to be delighted by the notion of akasa (AkASa or ākāśa ), that is , pure space. Why so? it is the subtlest element yet it can be perceived all 'round us.
If we took a solid, lets say steel about 1/2 of its interatomic volume is just space. In water about 2/3rd's the volume is interatomic space. If we take the air around us as it floats in space. Air molecules can travel about 500 times its diameter before hitting another - just space. Same with our body. Sure we are made of flesh, bones, blood,fluids, but it all resides in space. Carl Sagan¹ said matter is indeed 'chiefly made of nothing'.
Yet this space is the essence for all to exist in i.e. avakāśa dātr ākāśah or that which gives room for everything to exist. This comes up (for me) as I read the Chandogya Upanishad ( Chapt 1.8.1 to 1.10.0). There is a conversation amongst 3 sadhakas. Two of the 3 are brahmana and one is not (a ksatriya). Yet they sit to talk, and the non-Brahmin yields to listen to the other two.
The discussion is on , of where things return back to -what is their source? The two brahmanas converse, yet the conclusions they come to is not on 'firm ground'. So the one brahmana, Silaka, asks the ksatriya, named Pravahana, I would like to learn from you sir.
So, Silaka asks, To what original source does this world go back (to)?
Pravahana replies, to ākāśa, for everything that has come into being originates from ākāśa and all of them disappear. Therefore it is greater than all of these ( that was mentioned by the 2 brahmanas previously; one offers svarga or heaven, and the other brahmana offers this world, as svarga's inhabitants depend on the offerings from this world for its existence i.e. yajya, oblations, etc).
Pravahana finishes by saying ākāśa indeed is the final refuge all adhere to. The word in the sloka is ākāśah parāyaṇam. So ākāśa is para - farther than , beyond , on the other or farther side of , extreme + ayana - way , progress , manner , path.
For me and this part of the Upanishad, this ākāśa is not merely compared to Brahman but is ākāśa, some say It's (His) body. For it is Brahman, Reality, Being, that allows all things to exist. And is there other space? There is cidākāśa, - the space of Consciousness. Other definitions, sure as we have discussed this on HDF. Yet this ākāśa or space, time, cause, substance, is the play-field of Brahman and is only 1/4th of his greatness.
pranams
1. Carl Sagan also gave practical comparisons... to get to this inter-atomic space he would use an example such as a pie. Take a pie and cut it in half repeatedly; Sagan points out it takes 90 cuts to get from apple pie to atom-space.