Post by Jagannāth Miśra Dās on May 7, 2024 13:15:16 GMT -6
Some Reflections On Acintya-Bheda-Abheda-Tattva.
Ironic as it may seem to reflect upon something which is inherently inconceivable, we are all nevertheless familiar with “acintya-bheda-abheda-tattva” (a simultaneous one and difference) but surprisingly most of us remain entirely (and perhaps somewhat exclusively) focused on the “bheda” (difference.) Meanwhile the “abheda” (non-difference) remains conspicuous by a lack of discussion. “bheda” is only half the story. The other half sleeps, or is nonchalantly dismissed as mayavada or sunyavada. I recently read the following review somewhere in a philosophical-yoga magazine: “….and it has been widely observed that most ISKCON and gaudiya vaisnavas in general seem to be duality-emphasizing-dvaita-vadis who have a notable tendency to disregard the abheda or advaita aspect of a tattva they claim to uphold and promote. Most members were of the conviction that the jiva and bhagavan are one; but stress that one belongs to, or is dependent on the other one (sakti-saktiman) and that everything belongs to him, rather than being him. bheda, or difference (like the difference between individuals, or the jiva and bhagavan) is all around us, and is perhaps an easier concept to appreciate than abheda; and yet it is the abheda aspect of this tattva that perhaps needs to be taught to strike a more balanced understanding. The bheda concept was, however, particularly laboured by constant reference to the two birds, the atma and the paramatma occupying the tree-like bodies of all creatures, and other such metaphors. Some other practitioners we talked to insisted that duality, or bheda, is maintained even if the jiva merges into this “one being” as the jiva perceives the oneness; and if there is a subject perceiving it, then the subject has a separate conscious existence, because it is “you” that realize “the oneness.” (end of quote.)
Nimbarka uses the term bheda-abheda alongside dvaita-advaita and saw no difference between these terms. It was Jiva Goswami who thought to add “acintya” into the equation during the post-Caitanya era. The earliest mention of bheda-abheda among Gauranga’s biographers appears in a document written in Puri in 1534.
Here are just a couple of dozen verses gathered from the Bhagavatam which perhaps seem to present the concept of abheda-tattva.
Let us try to gain a sense of he who is one in his essential nature, and the many in manifestation.
The Bhagavatam offers us “the air in the pot/and the air in the sky” metaphor around a dozen times. Here are a few examples. Suka’s last words to Pariksit in (12-5-5) “When an earthen pot is broken, the space inside the pot becomes the same as before (the creation of the pot) similarly, with the destruction of the body, the jiva attains to Brahman.” Suka had just used this same pot-metaphor in (12-4-30) when he said: “The Atman has no diversity. It is the real existence, one without a second or difference. Any apparent diversity is due to some condition, as between the space enclosed in a pot and the unlimited expanse of sky (although both one, they appear different due the enclosing condition of the pot) or between the sun and its reflections on water (although there is only one sun in the sky, there are countless reflections) or between the vital breath inside the body, and the air outside the body.” Narada, when consoling Yudhisthira regarding Dhritarastra’s demise, says in (1-13-55) “He brought about a union with the individual soul and great soul, like the little sky contained in an earthen pot entering into the great sky as soon as the pot was shattered.”
In the Uddhava Gita, when Visnu appeared as a swan before Brahma and the sages, they curiously asked the swan: “who are you?” to which the swan replied: “O holy men! How is this question “who am I” even relevant, as the Atman is in reality not many? (for only when there are many Atmans can I distinguish myself and say who I am.) Even if the question is referring to the body, it is meaningless as the bodies of all beings, including those of the devas, are made of the five elements. These elements are not separate from their ultimate cause, Brahman. Hence all bodies are the same and cannot be distinguished from one another. Whatever is grasped by the mind, words, eyes and other sense organs, all that is myself. Know that there is nothing different from me. The mind enters into the objects of the senses which leave impressions in the mind, and both the mind and the sense objects constitute the body of the jiva whose soul is verily I myself.” (Both the mind and body with which sense objects are contacted are only the limiting adjuncts which apparently clothe the Atman, who is non-different from me.)
The Avadhuta says in (11-7-51)“To those who regard the gross physical body as the Atman, the Atman, though essentially one, is regarded as different due to the different bodies wherein he abides, just as the sun, though one, but when reflected in different reflecting media, appears as many (and different) to persons of gross understanding.”
Bhisma declares in (1-9-42) “Just as the one sun shines its light in everyone’s eyes (presenting a new form to each eye) similarly, though just one being, he seems to reside separately in the hearts of all the beings he has created. Rid of the delusion of multiplicity, may I now unite with that unitary being.”
Talking to Rukmini, Balarama says in (10-54-44) “The supreme soul is one in all corporeal bodies, but mistaken as being many by the ignorant. Just as the sun (though one, is regarded as many when reflected in different vessels of water) or the sky (though one, is regarded as separate or different when circumscribed to a pitcher, or confined within a room) are looked upon as many.”
(Air is one, and cannot be dissected, but only appears to be have been separated from the vast body of air due the limiting-adjunct of the vessel that contains or confines it. The supreme spirit is one in all bodies, only ignorance makes one think of him as many.)
In (12-4-32) Sri Suka says to Pariksit: “As a cloud created by the sun is exhibited by the light of the sun, and also becomes the covering or darkness preventing the eye from viewing the sun, similarly, ego, which is evolved out of Brahman and illumined by Brahman, acts as an obstruction to the jiva (which is also part of Brahman) and becomes an obstacle preventing it from viewing Brahman.”
(The clouds, which are produced from the sun and are illumined by the sun, can obstruct sight, which is a power derived from the sun. Here it is seen how one effect of a substance can be obstructed by another effect of the same substance. In the same way, the I-sense, which is derived from Brahman and which is also revealed by Brahman, can itself be an obstruction for the jiva, which is also essentially Brahman, in realising his own nature.)
In (10-14-23) Brahma says to Govinda: “You are the only self residing in the bodies of all living beings! You are the most ancient, real, self-refulgent, infinite, the foremost eternal imperishable person of unobstructed blissfulness untainted by any blemish of maya. You are advayaḥ (one without a second) free from all limitations and immortal.”
Elsewhere in the Bhagavatam Daksa says in (6-4-30) “It is Brahman on which everything depends. From it everything is caused. It has created everything from itself with itself. Everything is for it and belongs to it. Whatever it makes or causes others to make is Brahman. It is the ultimate cause of all causes. As the primary cause it is known to proceed all other causes. It is ekam (one without a second.) It is Brahman to whom I bow.”
In (12-4-25) Suka says: “Just as clouds sometimes appear and disappear in the sky, this universe, which consists of parts and which has a beginning and an end, appears and disappears on the substratum of Brahman.”
(Being a combination of parts that have a beginning and an end this world is unreal and has no permanence. Just as clouds appear in the sky now, and disappears the next moment, so the universe appears and disappears in the changeless undifferentiated Brahman.)
The Earth praises Prithu in (4-17-32) as follows: “Creatures have their minds agitated by the power of your illusion and thus cannot comprehend your actions. You yourself created Brahma and made him create the universe, and though you are by nature one, you appear as many by the nature of your deluding potency.”
Citraketu prays to Lord Sesa in (6-16-47) as follows: “Salutations to you, O glorious Lord, who are the master and controller of the creation, maintenance and destruction of all the worlds. You are a paramahamsa whose real nature is incomprehensible to ku-yogināṁ (wicked-yogis) who entertain a notion of difference.” (You are the transcendent being who is beyond the understanding of perverse-yogis dominated by dualistic consciousness.)
In (4-7-38) the masters of yoga say to Visnu: “no one is dearer to you than he who sees no difference between himself and yourself.” In (7-15-73) it is somewhat interesting to observe that Narada recalls how he served brahmā-vādis in his previous life.
Lord Sesa replies to Citraketu in (6-16-51/52) “All the objects in the universe are myself. I am the witnessing self within all beings. I am the cause of their origin. Know the Atman to be pervading the world (as its experiencer) and the world to be spread in him (as an object of experience.) Both the worlds and the Atman are pervaded by me, and both are established in me.” Further on, in verse 57 of this chapter, the Mighty Sesa further remarks: “When the Atman forgets its identity with me, and lapses into the state of separateness, he becomes subjected to birth and death in the trans-migratory cycle.”
In (5-18-32) we find the following verse: “All creatures mobile and immobile, deities, sages, ancestors, ghosts, heaven, the sky, earth, mountains, streams, seas, planets and stars are your names only; but you are only one.”
The Lord addresses Daksa as follows in (4-7-52/54) “In me, the all comprehending and all pervading self, known as Brahman, the ignorant man sees Brahma, Rudra and other deities as different. Just as man will not consider the members of his body like the head and the limbs as different from himself, but only parts of himself, so does one who has taken refuge in me see all beings as part of me. He attains eternal peace who does not perceive any difference between the three (Brahma, Rudra and Visnu) who are one in nature, and who pervade all beings.”
Sahadeva announced in the midst of the sacrificial assembly (10-74-24) the following words: “Those who wish the fruits of their gifts to be endless, should offer them to Krishna, the soul of all beings, the perfect, the supremely peaceful, and in whose eyes nothing is different from himself.”
In (10-79-31) we read the following observation: “The all powerful Balarama imparted to them the purest and highest form of spiritual illumination, by virtue of which they realized the whole universe as grounded in the Atman, and the Atman as pervading everything.”
Another frequently used metaphor appearing dozens of times in the Bhagavatam is the “gold and products of gold.” Here is one example from (10-87-26) “Just as one seeking gold does not discard ornaments made of gold, which are modifications of gold (appearing in different forms such as ankle-bells, rings, coins, necklaces etc.) the knower of the self likewise concludes that this universe is the very self, as he, the Atman, made it and then entered into it.” In the same chapter, verse 31, we find this statement: “As bubbles are apparently formed out of the interaction of water and air, all beings appear to come into existence through prakriti and purusa (but Brahman is the only reality) and they, along with their several names and forms, merge back into you, as all rivers merge into the sea; or as all the juice collected by bees eventually dissolves into honey.”
THE END.