Re: Where to start understanding this cosmos
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté & hello
Originally Posted by
rohitsingh_81
Dear All, Namaste ! Typical Jyotish study start understanding rashi's / graha's etc but I think there is a much deeper aspect which no-one talks OR cares about. The 3 Guna's / 5 tatva's ... basic building blocks of this cosmos.
I'd like to offer a slightly different point of view for one's kind consideration. You have talked a bit of the mahābhūta-s. Yet when we look a bit broader, on a macro scale, the total constitution of reality ( of which the graha-s fit in )is made-up of:
- śuddha or ‘pure’ unqualified, undifferentiated
- a śuddha or ‘impure’ or qulified and differentiated ( the world of things)
- and then there is this śuddhāśuddha condition, or pure & impure.
Note that ‘impure’ does not designate ~dirty or bad~ ; it only means that the pure is now co-mingled with the impure of the world ( code for things, elements and the tattva-s of shape form , size, smell, touch, sight, etc.)
What of this?
The sāṃkhya¹ school recognizes 25 tattva-s ( that-ness) ; the school I align to (kaśmir śaivism ) sees the 25 but also suggests there’s 36 in total. It is just a more refined view . Within this 36 :
- 1 to 5 are pure, śuddha , unqualified
- 6 to 12 are pure-impure , śuddhāśuddha
- 13 to 36 are impure, aśuddha or ‘impure’ or qualified and differentiated ( the world of things, forms, shapes, ideas, smells, taste, etc)
Now for one that has been studying this school for a while will say , oh there’s 37 and this I would would agree as the 37th is paramaśivaḥ which contains all, is the expression of, and all-inclusive sum total of the 36 and beyond the 36. So of a person said 37 is paramaśivaḥ, I’d say yes, and above this must be 38, and I too must agree, because paramaśivaḥ is uttara , or unsurpassed, and all-inclusive at the same time.
What is my point ?
If one addresses the mahābhūta-s (earth, fire, wind, etc) as the building blocks of the cosmos per your post, one might ask what then is the building blocks of them (the mahābhūta-s) ? Well, that leads one’s investigation to the five tanmātras, and then to buddhi , ahaṃkāra , manas, the organs of cognition, organs of action etc. etc. We get more refined as we go down the list of 25 or 36 tattva-s. In fact as you have mentioned the mahābhūta-s do in fact make up the cosmos, but they’re the tip of the iceberg. they are the ~final 5~ tattva-s.
My point is the universe is not known without consciousness , it is the core of the universe. So much so it is the seen ( all the objects), the method of seeing ( our perceptive tools of cognition) and it is the seer ( the experiencer of the universe) all at the same time. This is clearly pointed out in ādi śaṅkara-ji's dṛgdṛṣya-viveka ( inquiry into the seer and the seen) & also is a key principle of the discussions in our upaniṣads.
When you ask of a deeper aspect of jyotish, it is Being/consciousness. Without it no one could take the 1st step into jyotish.
By knowing ‘that’ all else is known... this idea is a core offer of the chāndogya upaniṣad and a direct question asked in the muṇḍaka upaniṣad(1.1.3) ; once we know 'that', Being, pure consciousness, all else is known.
इतिशिवं
iti śivaṁ
terms
- sāṃkhya – note that saṃkhya = count up, reckoning ( Hence the counting of 25); it is also one of the six orthodox schoolsknown in Indian philosophy;
- It is attributed to the seer kapila-ji. If one is paying attention the śrīmad bhāgavad gītā they willnote it is the first level of knowledge kṛṣṇaḥ -jī offers to arjuna in chapter 2.
Last edited by yajvan; 15 December 2016 at 12:46 PM.
यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
because you are identical with śiva
_
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