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Nature of Reality

CHENNAI: : The Supreme Reality is the source of the entire cosmos of insentient matter and sentient beings. In the case of the material universe creation proceeds from the Prakriti, which is the Lord's lower nature and His higher spiritual nature is present as the Self in all beings. Lord Krishna declared this truth in the Bhagavad Gita thus, "There is nothing else besides Me, Arjuna. Like clusters of yarn-beads formed on a thread, all this is threaded in Me." Hence there is only one consciousness.

In his discourse, Swami Purushottamananda said it was due to the three modes of nature (Gunas) — Sattva, Rajas and Tamas — that the non-dual consciousness appeared as the diversity, apparent to worldly experience. It is for this reason that no two individuals will be alike as the interplay of the Gunas makes variety possible. The three brothers, Vibhishana, Ravana and Kumbakarna, are examples to understand this phenomenon.

Vibhishana had a predominance of Sattva and so he parted ways with Ravana when he failed to reform his ways, and surrendered to Rama. Rajas was predominant in Ravana's case and Tamas in Kumbakarna. The rationale for their different behaviour becomes clear on the basis of the Gunas.

As man is subject to these Gunas he has to overcome them for attaining spiritual enlightenment. The Lord has assured that a spiritual aspirant can surmount it in the Gita, "This most wonderful veil (Maya), consisting of the three Gunas, is extremely difficult to break through; those, however, who constantly adore Me alone are able to cross it." While God controls Maya, man is subject to Maya. Hence His grace is necessary to conquer it.

The Gita describes creation figuratively as a tree with the roots above in God, the stem represented by the creator, Brahma, and the leaves as the Vedas. This may appear paradoxical because we are familiar only with trees having roots below and branches above. Hence this has to be understood symbolically that the Reality is the root of the entire creation. In the case of man, the Reality (the Self) functions through the instrumentality of the body, mind and the intellect. The feeling of "I" is there in the person because of identification with these faculties.

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