That Brahman, The Buddha

A talk given by Phiroz Mehta at Caxton Hall on 18^th November 1953

Continued from part 1

At this point let us turn again to Yama of the Vedic tradition. Yama, it is said, chooses death. That is, he frees him-self from all bondage to the  sense life and to worldly values. He clearly understands that the cycle of births and deaths, the stream of samara, is really the stream of consciousness, of emotions and thoughts as they arise-proceed-die, arise-proceed-die, unbidden. He learns in meditation to enter profounder states of consciousness, and to master the unbidden flow of discursive thought. At last he is able, in full self-possession, to die altogether to worldly consciousness, that is, to completely stop the flow of discursive thought. This is the meaning of Yama abandoning his body and passing to the inner world. The inner world is not the world of discursive thought, however profound, nor the world of trances, nor of visions or ecstasies of any of the saints. All these belong to the sphere of mortality, for they are all constituted of uprising-procceding-dying. But when, fully conscious, the flow of discursive thought is completely stopped deliberately, then there is no uprising-proceeding-dying. This is superconsciousness, which functions in terms of “As it was in die beginning, is now and ever shall be”, all in simultaneity or wholeness; and this, wherein all discursive thought is completely stilled, and all birth and death is overleaped, is the full experience and meaning of immortality. Immortality is the experience of a mode of functioning of consciousness, a mode distinguishing so remarkable a state of consciousness that we may well call it superconsciousness. Time and space (the condition for bodily being), pain and pleasure (the touchstone of our psycho-physical life), and good and evil as we know them here, are all transcended, and you eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life.

This attainment of the superconsciousness is the meaning of Yama being granted lordship over the highest of the three heavens, and of his becoming the Lord of Death.

Whoso attains superconsciousness is a true fount and source of religion. The attainment of superconsciousness, which is the experience of the Silence, the Void, the Plenum, the Infinite, the Absolute, is the source-experience from which have emerged the teachings embodied in words like Brahman, Atman, Isvara, Godhead, God, Eternity, Immortality, Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven, etc.

The Atharva Veda (XI. 5.5.) says:

The Brahmachari, earlier born than Brahma, sprang up through fervour, robed in hot libation; From him sprang heavenly lore, the highest Brahma, and all the gods, with life that lasts for ever.

And again (XI. 8.32.):

Therefore, whoever knoweth man, regardeth him as Brahman’s self, For all the deities abide in him, as cattle in their pen.

Amongst that host of sacred singers of the song of eternal life, the great Rishis who composed the hymns of the Rig-Veda, must be numbered the true Munis, those who realized the Silence and experienced immortality here-now. The Rig-Veda says (VIII. 48.3.):

We have drunk soma and become immortal;
We have attained the light, the gods discovered.

Therefore, it is indeed woeful when anyone, spiritually dulled by the weight of mere learning, misleads those who seek truth, seek the immortal, by declaring that the Vedas, or any of the great scriptures of old, were but guesses at truth, gropings after reality, by a primitive people or by people in their spiritual infancy. It is those who have not attained superconsciousness, or who have no intuitive insight into the significance of the Silence, the Plenum, who spin out those doctrines and dogmas, often at variance amongst themselves, which bind man to the circle of mortality, whilst paying lip-service to Immortal God, and which confuse man with regard to the nature of transcendent consummation. towards which he is developing.

The realization of superconsciousness cannot be spun out into philosophic systems. Only a few statements can be made, which may inspire others to seek, or sustain those who are searching. This realization of superconsciousness is the full and true meaning of the Upanishadic phrases, “realizing the Atman”, and “knowing Brahman”, and “having ascended aloft, he became immortal.” That Vogesvara, Yajnavalkya, prince of Yogis, declared in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (III. 8. 10).

Verily, O Gargi, he who departs from this world without knowing that Imperishable is pitiable; But, O Gargi, he who departs from this world knowing that Imperishable is a brahman.

“Departs from this world” is usually understood as bodily death. But in this context there is a profounder meaning. It is the entry into profounder states of consciousness. As explained earlier, if there is loss of control in the process, one may fall asleep or go off into a trance, etc., in which case one “departs from this world” without knowing the Imperishable. But he who can successfully make the final grade and stop the flow of discursive thought deliberately, and in full., conscious control of the situation, he indeed knows the Imperishable on “departing from this world.”

Listen again to Yajnavalkya (IV. 4.14):

Verily, while we are here we may know this.
If you have known it not, heavy is the loss.
Those who know this become immortal,
But others go only to sorrow.

So we see that a real brahman is only he who knows that Imperishable, knows Brahman, and who can be at home in that Silence which is the immortal superconsciousness of eternal existence. The Mundaka Upanishad says (III. 2.9.):

He, verily, who knows that supreme Brahman becomes very Brahman … He crosses over sin, he crosses over sorrow … Liberated from the knots of the heart he becomes immortal.

The true brahman, then, is one who has become Brahman. Answering the question, “Who indeed is a brahman?”, the Vjrasuchi Upanishad tells us that whosoever a man may be:

He who has directly realised the Atman, who is directly cognizant of the Atman … which cannot be reasoned about but is known only by direct cognition… he alone is a braliman.

At its very heart; then, the teaching of the great Rishis and Munis, of all the great spiritual Teachers, as enshrined in Veda and Upanishad, Gita and Gatha, Sutta and Bible, is the teaching about the Superconsciousness, called Brahman-knowing or God-realization, and about the Path which leads to the realization of the Immortal here-now. At its very heart, all true religion is concerned with bringing a man to full fruition, first in terms of character — the Perfected Man, the Exemplar — and next in terms of the realization of superconsciousness.

Now let us turn to canto 26 of the Dhammapada:

(1) O brahman, struggle hard; dam the torrent of craving and drive away sensual pleasures. When thou hast understood how to root out the elements of being, then, O brahman, wilt thou realise the Uncreated.

(3) He for whom exist neither the six internal nor the six external states of consciousness, nor both; he who is free and fearless, him I call a brahman.

“Free and fearless” — free to attain superconsciousness by entering the deeper states of consciousness one by one, and finally stopping the flow of discursive thought; and fearless, because it requires unusual courage to take the plunge into the Void, for there is no knowing what may happen once the plunge is taken.

(29) Him I call a brahman in whom there exists no craving; who has reached correct understanding; who is free from. doubt and who has plumbed the depths of the Immortal.

“Free from doubt” — doubt that the Silence is the fullness, is the superconsciousness; the fearful mind of him who is confined within the sphere of mortality is inclined to believe that the stopping of the flow of discursive thought merely means emptiness, vacuity.

In canto 10 we have this verse:

If, like a shattered gong, thou has learnt Silence, thou hast already reached Nirvana — there is no anger within thee.

Look through the pages of the Buddha’s discourses, and you will find again and again the Buddha’s statements concerning the entering into profounder states of consciousness, culminating in what he calls the stopping of feeling, knowing and perception, which I describe as the stopping at will of the flow of discursive thought. The Buddha himself achieved this superconsciousness and could enter it as and when he pleased and remain in it as long as he pleased. This attainment, which is the same as the Upanishadic “knowing Brahman”, or “realizing the Atman”, or “ascending aloft and becoming immortal”, is precisely the very heart of the Enlightenment of the Buddha. So on the way to Gaya, the Buddha says to Upaka:

The Arahant am I, teacher supreme,
Utter Enlightenment is mine alone,
Unfever’d calm is mine, Nirvana’s peace.
I seek the Kasis’s city, there to start
my Doctrine’s wheel, a purblind world to save,
sounding the tocsin’s call to Deathlessness.

When he first addresses in the deer park of Isipatana the Five who were to be his first disciples, he categorically assures them:

The Immortal is found. I instruct, I teach the Doctrine. Going along in accordance with what is enjoined, having soon realized here and now by your own superknowledge that supreme goal of the Brahma-faring… you will abide in it.

Siddhattha Gotama, in becoming the all-enlightened Buddha had also become the true brahman, one who had become Brahman. The venerable bhikkhu, Kaccana the Great declared (M. I. 111):

The Lord has become vision, become knowledge, become dhamma, become Brahma; he is the propounder, the expounder, the bringer to the goal, the giver of the Deathless, dhamma-lord, Tathagata.

In the Agganna Sutta, the Buddha himself declares (D. 3.84):

Vasettha, these are names tantamount to Tathagata; belonging to the dhamma, and again belonging to Brahma; and again; dhamma-become, and again, Brahma-become.

And it is significant that the Buddha declares this immediately after saying:

He, Vasettha, whose faith in the Tathagata is settled, rooted, established and firm, not to be dragged down by anyone, well may he say, “I am a veritable son of the Exalted One.”

I leave it to you to think of the use of the word “son” in this statement by the Buddha in relation to the use of the word “son” in the genealogy in. St. Luke’s Gospel from Jesus to God.

Continued in part 3

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