KENOPANISHAD -1.10.4 to 8 - 1.

29/10/2018
Mantras 4 to 8
Post - 1.

Brahmam should be known to be other than what can be expressed by speech, thought of by the mind, seen by the eyes, heard by the ears, or revealed by life’s functions. The nature of Truth can be known through denials alone. We cannot call Brahmam sat, because it is the opposite of asat. It cannot be called asat, because it is the opposite of sat. It cannot be called sadasat, i.e., a combination of sat and asat, because this becomes self-contradictory. It cannot be said to be beyond sat and asat, because this is unintelligible.

Thus we are cornered in every way, and all definitions of Brahmam become impossible. The only way of ascertaining it is, therefore, to deny everything that we know through the senses or through the mind.

Brahmam is sometimes called in the Upanishads asat or non-existence, because the seers of the Upanishads wanted to make it clear that Brahmam is nothing that exists according to our conceptions of existence.

Brahman is also called many times asamprajnata or the unconscious or the unknown, because it is nothing that is known to us, and it is not knowledge as we understand knowledge to be.

It is therefore called super-being or transcendental being, super-consciousness or transcendental consciousness. It is called sat or Being because the world is asat or non-being or perishable. It is called chit or consciousness because the world is achit, jada or unconsciousness. It is called ananda because the world is Duhkha or sorrow. It is called great because everything else is small.

Thus, every characteristic which we attribute to the Divine Being is the opposite of what we experience here.

But we cannot know exactly what the Divine Being is as it is in itself.

Our knowledge of the perfected condition is the result of a logical deduction from our imperfect experiences. Its experience is admitted because nothing can be accounted for without such an admission.

It is the one factor that gives meaning to life and explains our thoughts and behaviours, speeches and actions. Brahmam, therefore, should not be mistaken to be anything that is experienced by any individual in any of its conditions. The experience of Brahmam means the destruction of individuality.

To be continued ..