86 - The All-Pervading Infinite Cannot Be Finitized | Swami Tattwamayananda

Bhagavad Gita | The Essence of Vedanta

-9th chapter: verses 4, 5
-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on June 11, 2021.
-4th verse: “All this is pervaded by Me in unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I don’t exist in them.”
-The infinite pervades the finite. The finite is not a creation or a product of the infinite. For example, the clay pot is pervaded by clay. Under the dualistic system, the clay pot is a product of clay. In Advaita, the clay pot is clay itself with a different form and name. Before manufacturing, it existed as clay. After it is broken, it is clay. The clay pot is only an apparent creation.
-Similarly, the phenomenal world is unreal in the absolute sense. It is real only in the relative sense.
-The word “Idam” in this verse refers to the entire phenomenal creation that we perceive with our senses of perception, senses of action, mind and reasoning power. This Idam is finite and is pervaded by Me, which is the infinite, attribute-less, transcendental, all-pervading, indescribable absolute reality.
-Just as a thread organizes the flowers in a garland, this absolute reality harmonizes and unifies everything we perceive in this world.
-We cannot conceive of a gold ornament without gold. Similarly, we cannot conceive of anything that is devoid of Atman.
-The absolute reality does not dwell exclusively in any being. All things together do not exhaust the absolute reality. It is not a numerical totality. Rather, as the essence of everything, it is the essential totality of everything. The absolute reality is infinite and cannot be exhausted in the finiteness of different beings.
-For example, pots are made of clay. Thousands of pots together do not equal the totality of clay. Clay is the cause and the pots are the effect. The effects can never be equal to the cause. Cause has the possibility of taking many effects – for example, clay can become a clay pot or a clay jar. The clay pot can never become a clay jar.
-When we become a devotee and meditate on God, then the inner divinity begins to manifest in our nature. We become humane, compassionate and broad-minded.
-God exists in everything as the inner divine principle. But that does not make the entity itself God. When we worship an image or a statue, we worship a symbol that reminds us of the all-pervading divine principle, and which helps us ultimately to connect with our own divine nature.
-When we do something wrong, there is a voice within that reminds us that it is the wrong thing to do. As we become spiritual, this voice becomes more audible and we become more inclined to listen to it.
-Those who can connect with this inner divine principle all the time become saints and eventually become non-distinct from this reality. To them, every word becomes sacred, every thought becomes meditation and life itself becomes a pilgrimage.
-In Antaryami Brahmana in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya provides this instruction: “He who dwells in this earth, water, fire, body mind complex or other gross elements – he regulates them from within, yet he is distinct from them. He knows them, but they don’t know him. He is the eternal self of all.”
-5th verse: “In reality, these things do not exist in Me. They all come forth from me, and I support them. But I do not dwell in them and I am not limited by them.”
-A jar holds and supports the water within it. God, as the support behind all beings, cannot be equated to such a jar – any such attempt to define God would be limiting the infinite. The infinite cannot be finitized.
-There are two schools of thought on cause-effect relationship in Indian philosophy. According to Arambhavada, every effect is a new creation, and the effect does not pre-exist in the cause (Asatkaryavada). For example, a cloth made of threads has a new existence that is different from the threads. According to Vedanta and Bhagavad Gita, the effect pre-exists in the cause (Satkaryavada). For example, the cloth pre-exists in the thread – it just gets a new name and form.
-Vedanta accepts Satkaryavada. The infinite appears to be finite when we look at it in association with name and form. At the highest level of experience, the world is seen as non-distinct from Brahman.