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What is Brahman?

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
My explanation of Hinduism is evolved from my understanding of the last posuk I quote which is "And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you."
No. Hindu Gods and Goddesses are not racial or clanish. They are for all humanity. We would consider it very un-God-like if Gods were to favor one people.
A catholic mass ? A black mass ? :D
Mass, as in Physics. :D
 
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Moishe3rd

Yehudi
No. Hindu Gods and Goddesses are not racial or clanish. They are for all humanity. We would consider it very un-God-like if Gods were to favor one people.Mass, as in Physics. :D
Peachy.
But - you might try and be a less ethnocentric and a tad more for "all humanity."
My theory, whether you like it or no, was that Abraham is the Father of all of today's religious humanity.
:D
 

Aupmanyav

Be your own guru
:D. Thanks, Vinayaka. Moshe3rd, your turn!
IMHO, there is nothing wrong with being ethnocentric, only that others should be treated on equal footing.
 

Moishe3rd

Yehudi

which is a line from this song from my childhood ... ha ha !

Well done.
My response, on a daily basis, to everyone who asks: "How are you?"
Is: "Thank G-d. Life is beautiful all the time."
This engenders many, many different responses, the most common of which is "What?"
In that my response simply does not register with most people. Nobody talks this way.
About 15 years ago, a good friend of mine said in response "and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats..." continuing the song from "They're Coming to Take Me Away."
I loved that song/chant when I was a kid and I had memorized it back then but - it wasn't until my friend told me this that I realized that my "patented" response was also from that song. This makes it doubly poignant and useful for me.
You are the first person who has caught this online.
Well done.

And as I recently wrote on another post I made:
“Why, Mr. Murray? Why? Why do you persist?!”
Some people have indeed almost channeled Agent Smith in the Matrix regarding my incessant effervescent response to… well, to almost everything! Life is beautiful all the time.

In brief, the answer to "why" is:
The only way that we grow; evolve; become greater than we are, is to overcome Life's Obstacles. As a matter of fact, that is the Only way anything in G-d's Universe grows or evolves. If there are no obstacles; no ordeals; no trials in our lives,then we have no more purpose or meaning than cows, contented in their pasture, waiting to be either milked or slaughtered. A person without any ordeals in their life ought to be asking the question - "Why doesn't G-d love me?"
 

Ouroboros

Coincidentia oppositorum
namaste.gif
The Great Wiki.
Wiki is the great prophet of Google, the all knowing, all powerful, all encompassing God of Internet! Glory!
 
This, is Brahman;

beauti10.jpg


If you look deeply enough, every answer you could ever need to the question 'what is Brahman' is revealed in a flower.
 
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Rick O'Shez

Irishman bouncing off walls
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake
 

miodrag

Member
wizanda said:
Plus taking that in Hinduism this reality is known as Maya (delusion), which also happens to be a 3D graphics program; it makes a lot of sense that we might be inside a giant computer system. :cool:

Please tell me that you're not serious.

Unless you take it literally, it may be actaully a fair analogy. Samhkya calls this world a place of names, where we give some values to phenomena. In virtual reality, we give some values, some meaning, to states 1-0-1-0 etc, which ontologically does not exist. Hinduism teaches that we all have a true, original identity, as opposed to our present false identity, or ahamkara. So an analogy of having an avatar in a virtual world sounds pretty accurate from a Vedic perspective.
 

miodrag

Member

Bhagavata Purana, 1.2.11

vadanti tat tattva-vidas
tattvam yaj jnanam advayam
brahmeti paramatmeti
bhagavan iti sabdyate

Translation:
Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramatma or Bhagavan.

Notes:
* tattva-vidah means those who have knowledge (vid; veda also comes from the root vid=knowledge) about the truth, tattva (Absolute Truth in this case) and a choice of words for this expression was "learned transcendentalists";

* jnanam comes from root jna, similar to English know, Greek gno (like in gnosis) co-gnitio in Latin, znanye in Russian etc. and means knowledge;

* a-dvayam means non-dual;

* in sanskrit verse, there is no specific mention of a "substance", but it is a good choice to have in translation anyways. Sub = beneath, under; stance from Proto-Indo-European root sta = to stand. Interesting connection with English: under-stand. So, substance is used here not like in chemistry, but in a theological sense and is handy to describe what "That" (Tattva, God) is - He is truly a supporting, underlying principle of everything there is, same idea reflected in a name Vishnu - all pervading, sustainer and maintainer of all.


I would say that, according to this verse, God is One, He is only perceived from different perspectives, one being seeing Him as Brahman. We must have different perspectives, since He is too complex to comprehend from just one standpoint. Same thing with scientific approach to nature, which is so complex that we must address that same, one nature from different disciplines, like physics, chemistry, biology etc. Our understanding of nature is not only the sum of all the interdisciplinary data, but is like a synergy - all that data taken together give us a new quality, an enhanced vision of nature that goes beyond the mere sum of elements. We hope to derive that same synergy from our attempts to describe God.

You can tell the sensibility or devotional mood or spiritual realization of a person by analyzing how well he understands these perspectives and which one he prefers. You can also tell about his intelligence or the intelligence of the whole religious system, by how well it understands and presents this problem of knowing God. So, the above verse in fact better describes our position in relation to God, rather than God Himself. Like if it is more about us, then about God. God does not make distinction between those three aspects of Himself.
 

Gambit

Well-Known Member
Unless you take it literally, it may be actaully a fair analogy. Samhkya calls this world a place of names, where we give some values to phenomena. In virtual reality, we give some values, some meaning, to states 1-0-1-0 etc, which ontologically does not exist. Hinduism teaches that we all have a true, original identity, as opposed to our present false identity, or ahamkara. So an analogy of having an avatar in a virtual world sounds pretty accurate from a Vedic perspective.

He's taking it literally.
 

apophenia

Well-Known Member
Well done.
My response, on a daily basis, to everyone who asks: "How are you?"
Is: "Thank G-d. Life is beautiful all the time."
This engenders many, many different responses, the most common of which is "What?"
In that my response simply does not register with most people. Nobody talks this way.
About 15 years ago, a good friend of mine said in response "and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats..." continuing the song from "They're Coming to Take Me Away."
I loved that song/chant when I was a kid and I had memorized it back then but - it wasn't until my friend told me this that I realized that my "patented" response was also from that song. This makes it doubly poignant and useful for me.
You are the first person who has caught this online.
Well done.

And as I recently wrote on another post I made:
“Why, Mr. Murray? Why? Why do you persist?!”
Some people have indeed almost channeled Agent Smith in the Matrix regarding my incessant effervescent response to… well, to almost everything! Life is beautiful all the time.

In brief, the answer to "why" is:
The only way that we grow; evolve; become greater than we are, is to overcome Life's Obstacles. As a matter of fact, that is the Only way anything in G-d's Universe grows or evolves. If there are no obstacles; no ordeals; no trials in our lives,then we have no more purpose or meaning than cows, contented in their pasture, waiting to be either milked or slaughtered. A person without any ordeals in their life ought to be asking the question - "Why doesn't G-d love me?"

You get that :D

I also memorised the song as a kid when it was on the radio. I gave the 7" single to a friend at his birthday party. We were 10 or 11. His family were horrified. Someone in the family had been taken away ... ha ha ? :oops:
I also learned backward singing from copying the B side. Sometimes I record a phrase, reverse it, learn to sing that and record it, reverse that and I have a weird voice that sounds forwards and backwards at the same time :cool:

On the subject of synchronicities and psychism - I am on a roll lately. That happens sometimes. The more one practices pratyahara, especially interspersed with tantric practices, the more active Coincidence Control becomes. It is best to just appreciate it in a casual way, and respect it in a very deep way.

The only way that we grow; evolve; become greater than we are, is to overcome Life's Obstacles. As a matter of fact, that is the Only way anything in G-d's Universe grows or evolves. If there are no obstacles; no ordeals; no trials in our lives,then we have no more purpose or meaning than cows, contented in their pasture, waiting to be either milked or slaughtered. A person without any ordeals in their life ought to be asking the question - "Why doesn't G-d love me?"

Again, I am reminded of a verse from the Bhagavad Gita which I have quoted on other threads lately -

Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Bhagavad-gita As It Is 7.5

apareyam itas tv anyam

prakritim viddhi me param

jiva-bhutam maha-baho

yayedam dharyate jagat


SYNONYMS

apara -- inferior; iyam -- this; itah -- besides this; tu -- but; anyam -- another; prakritim -- energy; viddhi -- just try to understand; me -- My; param -- superior; jiva-bhutam -- comprising the living entities; maha-baho -- O mighty-armed one; yaya -- by whom; idam -- this; dharyate -- is utilized or exploited; jagat -- the material world.

TRANSLATION

Besides these, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises the living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature.



My view is that knowledge of Brahman and recognition of one's active nature as paraprakriti go hand in hand.
 
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Desert Snake

Veteran Member
Unless you take it literally, it may be actaully a fair analogy. Samhkya calls this world a place of names, where we give some values to phenomena. In virtual reality, we give some values, some meaning, to states 1-0-1-0 etc, which ontologically does not exist. Hinduism teaches that we all have a true, original identity, as opposed to our present false identity, or ahamkara. So an analogy of having an avatar in a virtual world sounds pretty accurate from a Vedic perspective.
My 'brahman is an emanation from Brahma' is also a good analogy.
 
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