Brahmanubhuti – Talk 2
(Means of Knowledge to know Brahman)
Brahman is the all-pervading reality. How do we know Brahman? What is the means of knowing Brahman? Is it possible to know Brahman, because Brahman is subtler than the subtlest? Our eyes cannot even see an atom, or a molecule. What about subtler than the subtlest? How to see? How to know?
The world what we experience and Jiva (myself), which is the experiencer, the empirical Self, and the Ishwara, the Lord, who runs the universe, all of them are appearances in Brahman. They are not absolute reality. They are relative reality. Brahman is the absolute reality. So, how to know Brahman? These realities, whether Jiva or the world or Ishwara, are unreal in an ultimate sense. Because Brahman alone is the reality. How to know Brahman who is the ultimate reality? What are the means of knowledge?
We have means of knowledge in terms of sense organs, what is called pratyaksha, what is available to the sense organs. Or we have something called, anumana, which means guess work, or tarka, logic or what you call as inference – ‘this is possible’; or intuitive knowledge; or knowledge from the scriptures. Which of these means of knowledge can give us and lead us to the experience of Brahman? Let us contemplate on each of these means of knowledge to see the limitations in them, and discard what cannot help us to lead to Brahman. Based on that, we shall see how to experience Brahman based on the valid means of knowledge in the coming talks.