My Pranams to all Atmajyothis; Divine lights of the Self.
Let us contemplate on the teachings of Advaita vedanta, about the nature Brahman. Why should we contemplate on the nature of Brahman? Brahman is the supreme reality; the supreme truth; the basis of all existence – the basis of our life. When we are not aware of the basis of our life, we live in ignorance. And this ignorance causes suffering. To know Brahman is the supreme goal of life. How easy or how difficult is it to know Brahman? Brahman is Self-evident – the presence of Brahman is Self-evident. The universe which we see consists of time, space, living beings, and non-living beings. Everything in this universe has some amount of dependence on the other. There is nothing in this universe which can exist without dependence. Trees are dependent on sunlight, water is dependent on rivers, rivers are dependent on oceans, and water itself is dependent on molecules of oxygen and hydrogen. Dependency is the law of nature. Without dependency, there is no life.
Brahman is Self-dependent. Brahman is not dependent on anything else. Brahman being the substratum of everything, it is Self-dependent. Everything else is dependent on Brahman, but Brahman itself is not dependent on anything else. The world consisting of living matter, living beings like us and non-living beings like stones, mountains, and rivers. Brahman is an all-pervading reality, which means it pervades living and non-living.
How does it pervade living beings? Living beings like us have Consciousness and Brahman is that Consciousness in us. The essence of non-living beings like stones and mountains is also Brahman. The essence of living beings is Consciousness and the essence of non-living beings is existence. Brahman pervades the entire Universe as Consciousness and Existence. Brahman has no parts. Everything else has parts, for example, a chair, or a car which has multiple parts. Human beings have multiple parts. But Brahman as no parts, free from all parts. The entire Universe is pervaded by one whole Brahman.
Just because Brahman is in you, in him, in her, it doesn’t mean that Brahman is fragmented. Brahman is Totality. Brahman is immutable – it doesn’t change with time. Everything else in nature keeps changing with time, and change is the law of nature. Brahman never changes. The change can be supported only if there is something changeless. The changeless Brahman supports every change in the Universe. But Brahman itself is unchanging. Everything in the Universe is just an appearance in Brahman.
Brahman is not dependent on time and space, but time and space both depend on Brahman. All living beings and non-living beings are dependent on Brahman, but Brahman is not dependent on them. Brahman is Pure Consciousness.
We acquire empirical knowledge which is related to the world and spiritual knowledge which is related to the knowledge of the Higher. Empirical knowledge is obtained through sense organs and spiritual knowledge is through scriptures and all this knowledge finally points to Brahman in the ultimate sense. It is because the changing will ultimately lead to changeless. Realizing Brahman is to know that Brahman is the essence of me as the ‘Self’ and essence of everything, and this is the way to become free from ignorance and suffering.