Re: Is Brahman God ? or Brahman + Maya combined is God ?
namaste everyone.
Since God is understood to be personal and human in almost all religions, I think the right equation would be: God + mAyA = Brahman. Shankara's Advaita also says that Brahman first becomes Ishvara (SaguNa Brahman) and then merges with the mAyA-shakti born of himself and creates the world.
• There is a beautiful word for God in Tamizh, which is also the most popular one: kaDavuL; that is, kaDa--transcend + uL--be immanent inside, so kaDavuL is that which is transcendentally immanent; transcend also suggests infinite expansion.
• I think Viprava has a point to derive the term brahman from brah + man, where brah is to expand and man is mind. Let us also note that the Sanskrit term for a human being is manuShya, that is, man + uShya; man here means mind and uShya is from the root uSh, to burn, thus manuShya is an exact reference to the human who always has a mind 'burning' with thoughts and emotions. The wise use this capacity of the mind to burn in tapas--asterity/meditation, and enter the path of Atma-jnAnam.
• Thus, Brahman first acquired a man--mind, when he decided to brah--multiply/expand, with a view to know itself better. A human mind is a complex antaHkaraNa--inner organ, comprising the lower manas--mind, ahaMkAra--the I-sense, buddhi--intellect/wisdom part, prakRti/chitta--subtle matter colored with vAsanas, and puruSha--the transcendentally immanent Self. The Cosmic antaHkaraNa of Brahman, in the same way, comprises cosmic aggregations of these faculties.
• In the Shakti and mAyA thread, we discussed how scriptures view mAyA as an inherent part of parAshakti who is immanent in Brahman/Shiva. Since the shakti--power, of mind is to think without cessation, the mAyA-shakti (of Brahman's mind) creates the virtual reality of this world which entices the mind--and the man--into the advidyA--nescience, of associating his inner puruSha--Self, with its emanations.
• No wonder then that this universe is described, even by some scientists, to be a great cosmic thought or dream of God. The difference is that Brahman knows it as such, whereas we are yet to attain that knowledge.
• We are taught, right from our early life, to differentiate between the 'I' from the 'my/mine'. Thus, using the Self-inquiry of 'who am I' given by RamaNa MaharShi, one can intellectually know with ease, that the 'I' in us is really the Self that is Brahman.
• If we apply this teaching, then we can say that anything that Brahman emanates from himself, such as the world and mAyA-shakti, is not actually Brahman, but Brahman's. At length, however, since Brahman is prajnAnam--Cosmic Consciousness, it knows about and rejects its emanations (as neti-neti) at every point of its presence, which makes the samsAra--world process, go on. Brahman's individual selves--jIvas, however, only gradually and progressively become aware of this knowledge of I and mine--or rather Brahman and Brahman's,--which entails the guNa-karma existence of our individual selves and this world.
We align with our Self, every night, in suShupti--deep sleep. BrahmA, the creator has his own suShupti when the world gets merged in him. Brahman, in turn, has his own suShupti after the mahApraLaya, when all worlds and gods lie dormant and merged in him. Unlike Brahman and the Gods, however, only a minuscule number of jIvas have attained the state of turIya where the Self is known in conscious awareness.
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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