Tuesday, November 7, 2023

The City of Brahman:
Dayananda on Mundaka 2.2.7

Divye brahmapure vyomni hyeṣa ātmā pratiṣṭhitaḥ: this self-evident ātman abides in the space in buddhi, the city of Brahman. It does not mean that the buddhi is a location where ātman is seated. Buddhi is the place where ātman can be known, because ātman manifests there in the form of caitanya.

Buddhi is called brahma-pura, where Brahman exists, meaning, Brahman is recognised. Nowhere else one can recognise Brahman. Brahman exists in the buddhi as awareness in every thought as well as in the space of awareness that is free from thoughts...

Brahman is everywhere. How can one recognise it in a particular place? Where one recognises everything, there alone one has to recognise Brahman also. The buddhi is the place where everything else is recognised and Brahman also is recognised there.

~Dayananda on Mundaka 2.2.7


footnotes: 

1. Shankara on Brahmapure

pratisthital, seated: in the divye, luminous--illuminated by all the states of the intellect: brahmapure, in the city of Brahma-this being the place where Brahman is ever manifest in Its nature of Consciousness: so "the city of Brahman" means the lotus of the heart. 

Vyomni, in the space, that is within that heart: Brahman perceived as though seated there in that space within the lotus of the heart: for any going, coming, or staying, in any other sense, is impossible for One who is all-pervasive like space.

2. Chinmayananda on Brahmapure

Brahmapure – The term is to indicate the spot where Brahman or the total Self, resides. It is only figurative explanation in terms of the finite to indicate the palace of the Infinite. This land of the Self is described as luminous, because Consciousness is the very illuminator of all the objects and the illuminating principle in all the planes of consciousness.

This is considered to be located in the cave of the heart because it is there, among the vibrations of the intellect and the waves of thought, that a seeker can struggle to discover the pure Consciousness. Though seated in the heart, He is the very substance of all the activities of the body, the vital airs, the mind and the intellect.




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