21. Pure Existence [sat],
Pure Consciousness [cit] and Pure Beatitude
[Ananda] are common not only to AkAsha [ether],
to the air, fire, water and earth, but also
to the Gods, men and animals; only names and
forms [created by mental power] render one
being distinct from the other.
This sutra is very important because
it gives us the key with which to comprehend
many things.
First of all BrahmA, as active Principle,
is present in every part of the manifest dimension,
in the smallest sub-atomic particle as in
the great sun. From this point of view we can
say it is immanent, but at the same time it is
transcendent because it operates and acts only
indirectly, outside of the play of change. Likewise
our sun is immanent and at the same time it transcends
the earth. The sun penetrates, heats and gives
life to everything on this planet, but at the
same time it is outside the phenomenal interplay
of earthly life. All emerges from the intrinsic,
infinite possibilities of Brahman and
every manifested thing, seen from the point of
view of the Atman, has no distinction
or differentiation because it is upon its substratum
that phenomena can arise. A form is a simple
fleeting energetic modification of light. But
then, what makes us create absolute distinctions
and classifications? What spurs us towards conflict,
towards the struggle for the assertion of these
distinctions?
All chemical compounds are mere electronic substance
or undifferentiated energy; what makes us believe
that the element iron must be distinct absolutely from
gold and have a different value? All compounds,
being unstable, therefore changeable, must slowly
dissolve into the undifferentiated electronic
substance whence they first emerged. There is
no instant of time in which all manifest things
do not undergo some process or some change, going
back towards their "original" condition.
How can we distinguish one electron from another? Vedanta says
that the distinction, classification and crystallization
of forms is carried out only by the sensory mind
which is unable to penetrate the synthetic mystery
of the One-without-a-second. The sensory mind
crystallizes forms, and although itself a temporal
product, it wishes to fix the time-motion
of the form, ignoring the fact that it is impossible
to detain what by its very nature cannot be restrained
and crystallized. By the time we state that a
datum is, it already changed. Man seems
to want to capture and bridle time-space and
does not realize that this desire makes him a
prisoner. The infinite classifications, the numberless
names, the possible differentiations are only
an attempt by the sensory mind to give definitions
to things, but it is inevitable that as soon
as the definitions emerge things have already
changed.
That piece of metal which we are able to grasp
cannot have an eternal configuration because
not even for one moment does it cease to
transmute. Forms are flashings that rend the
fathomless darkness.
See the recommendation for
this book.
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