Updated: March 13, 2025
Brahma Sutras second installment and the topic is definition of Brahman. जन्माद्यस्य यतः
janmādyasya yataḥ जन्माद्यस्य यतः
janmādyasya yataḥ Brahman is that omniscient, omnipotent cause from which the origin sustenance and dissolution of this world occurs. So Brahman is the primal cause from which the origin, sustenance and dissolution of this world occurs. So the previous sutra established that an inquiry into Brahman should be made as it helps liberation. Knowledge of Brahman leads to liberation freedom. What does that really mean? It means freedom from Karma. Ultimately, it means freedom from the conditioned mind. It also means freedom to create freedom, to create freedom, to evolve, freedom, to love, freedom, to know freedom, to be independent of the complimentary or opposing experience that creates that creates the experience of the world.
So freedom from identification with the opposites. The sutra goes on to be explained as Brahman being truth, knowledge, infinity as well. So Brahman is truth, knowledge, infinity. Just another way of saying the same thing, the origin and cause of every experience and yet independent of the experiences, truth, knowledge, infinity is also Brahman. This is called Svarupa Laksana, that with that which defines Brahman in its essence, these words, though they have different meanings in ordinary parlance, Yet refer to the one indivisible Brahman, even as the words say, father, son, brother, husband refer to one and the same person according to his relationship with different individuals. OK. So that's very classic, traditional and beautiful. Now, let's go a little deeper. I mean, how does this become practical? OK. So here is what we need to understand. OK. That the fundamental reality is without cause acausal, it's the origin and cause of every experience, but it itself has no cause, the fundamental reality. It itself is also infinite, which we've said.
And therefore everything that is finite is a movement of the infinite. It is without cause it is the source of all knowledge. Knowledge comes through both experience but also interpretation of experience. So it is the source of all knowing. And because it is independent of its finite expressions, it is free and because it is free it is always joyful. OK. So here is another possible metaphor for understanding this. So imagine a whirlpool. OK. And the whirlpool of course, is made of water. But imagine this whirlpool is constantly slightly shifting in its pattern of behavior, constantly endlessly eternally. OK. So the whirlpool is a particular appearance of water. Yet the water is independent of its appearance, the water is independent of its appearance.
Water retains water, even as the whirlpool slowly is constantly shape, shifting into new appearances. But all the while it's water furthermore, the water doesn't lose its wateriness in the shape shifting of the whirlpool. It doesn't. So the water is independent of its production, which is the whirlpool, the changing whirlpool. And they both exist in the eternal. Now, both the water in this metaphor or in this analogy, and it's shifting patterns of movement exist in the eternal now. So where does time come in? Where does time come in? Time? It comes in when the water loses the memory of the water and thinks it's the whirlpool. And then of course, because the whirlpool experience is constantly changing, then there's anxiety that, you know what happened to me. I was this, now I'm this.
Now, I'm that. Now I'm that. So that anxiety is the inability to let go of the experience. The anxiety is everything we call. you know, stress, anxiety, all the problems that occur when the whirlpool, metaphorically speaking loses its memory as water. It's a nice story I once heard and there are, there's an elderly fish going in one direction, two young fish coming in the other direction. And the elderly fish says to the two young fish, hello, boys, how's the water? And they pass each other? And after a while, one of the younger fish looks at the other young fish and says, what did he mean? How's the water? What's water? So, you see in this example, the finite and identification with the finite has led to the memory of the infinite.
And so here is a very practical, practical application of this one principle. The awareness, the fundamental awareness which is infinite is independent of its finite expressions. And so let's take an example, a finite expression of awareness might be fear. But if you stand back and become identified, not with the fear, but the awareness in which the fear is, then you are independent of the fear. And so being grounded in the awareness of any experience makes you independent of the experience.
And once you are independent of the experience, then there is knowing that I can selectively create any experience through attention and intention. That's knowing that even though I'm infinite, I'm not affected by the finite expressions of myself, they come and go and they're always of course, complimentary up and down by contrast. And I'm the water that is independent of my productions as whirlpools and eddies and rainbows and clouds and drops and dew drops and, and rivers and rivers and puddles. Those are all my productions, but I remain independent of my productions. And then through through sankalpa, dharma, samadhi I choose the experiences I desire.
And what are those experiences? Those experiences are always are in the direction of unity, consciousness, always in the direction of evolution, truth, goodness, beauty harmony, all of that is by choice. And yet even as I choose them. I stay independent of them because I am not affected by them. It's like a light that shines and it gives rise to all these colors. The light is shining and all these colors, all these objects, all these paintings, but the light that shines is resplendent and independent of its productions as color shapes and forms. What I'm saying about light of awareness right now is a visual metaphor, but this applies to all the senses. So every sense experience is a fluctuation of that which is independent of the fluctuation. So while purusha vibrates as shakti in order to have the experience of everyday reality, the Purusha remains independent of Shakti.
Knowing that the shakti is another form of itself The Shakti is another form of itself. Where is this purusha, where is this infinite eternal, timeless awareness in love with the productions of time. As Blake said, where is it? It's the wrong question where implies the location in space time to something that is independent of its production of spacetime. The closest you can get to it is right here right here in this space that engulfs all its productions as spacetime energy information and matter. All that means this this there's all this is chidakasha modifying itself as energy, information, space time matter, bodies, brains, minds knowers, knowing-ness and and everything known all within itself. And this experience this sinking into the chidakasha is presence and in that presence the universe recycles, evolves. OK. My friends, I hope this is helpful because we'll also be going into various practices, maybe some rituals, maybe some mantras, maybe some more deeper explorations of the Sutras. As long as you are continuing to enjoy enjoying them, I will keep exploring them with you.
So onward with the Brahma Sutras not Shiva Sutras, we've done the Shiva Sutras, now we are on the Brahma Sutras..