Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the
words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.
We are now studying Aatmabodha. As
always, with each week, you are encouraged to review the previous teachings and
spend some time in contemplation of the meanings as the affect your life.
Please do consider purchasing the text. Remember, also, to recite the mangala charana before each study and
review the lessons before each new one.
To
help us understand the scale of the subject under discussion - Totality of
Bliss - the Guru now explains that how much one experiences of that bliss is
dependent upon the capacity of the individual.
Ao{fanNdêpSy
tSyanNdlvaiïta>,
äüa*aStartMyen
_avNTyaniNdnae=iola>.58.
Akhandaanandaruupasya
tasyaanandalavaashritaaH,
Brahmaadyaastaaratamyena
bhavantyaanandino-khilaaH ||58||
Deities like Brahma and others taste only a particle
of the unlimited bliss of Brahman, and proportionately enjoy their share of
that particle.
The
Truth is so vast even the deities cannot experience its Totality! Clearly
stated here is that each will, according to his or her suitability and standing
(from 'The Creator Form (Brahma)' all the way down to the tiniest living cell)
in the scheme of the 'reality' we currently know, only experience as much Bliss
as we can handle.
Once
the Rsis decided upon there being a need to express creation as having a
Creator, the name given was as close to the name given the formless, tasteless,
odourless, silent, immutable Totality as possible. That Totality, when being
referred to as separate from us, is called Brahmaananda, thus the Creator
became Brahma. This is the concession of the great masters to those who had
lesser intellectual capacity to their own. Such condescension is not to be
considered 'snooty or high-handed'; rather, we must understand it as the type
which a parent will offer a child who is not quite keeping up with things.
Adaptations to teaching and formation of character must be made so that the
individual can keep moving forward in their understanding and perception of the
world.
Adi
Shankara takes up this same adaptation when seeking to tempt the seeker further
up the path of knowledge and to feed the desire for more. If we are presented
at a party with a tiny square of cake, we may eat it and enjoy it and that's
that. If, then, the host comes out and asks if anyone would like more, would we
not put up our hands?!
More
than this though, we must begin to understand that any happiness which we fell
in our current condition is but the palest fraction of the joy which awaits
once we can embrace the concept that we are the
Totality. If we were to add together all the joys of all living beings,
all the joy in the universe, all the joy experienced since the moment of
creation itself up till the present moment… still the joy would be but the
merest and most miniscule fraction of the Total Bliss.
This
is what this shloka attempts to convey. It's BIG.
