TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0315 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 4.01 | BRAHMAN AS EXISTENCE OR BEING | CONT ||

" All creatures have Existence as their root , Existence as their abode , Existence as their sole support . "

All forms are shadows of Pure Existence which alone endures in past , present and future , while the shadows perish like bubbles in the ocean .

In the Real , existence and content are identical . Hence , everything is mere existence , which alone is real .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0316 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

" As birds resort to a tree for a resting place , even so it is to this Supreme Being that all here resort for their existence . "

" Not by speech , not by mind , not by sight can it be grasped . How can it be known except by admitting that it simply ' is ' ? " . ( Katha Up , VI . 12 )

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0317 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

It is the hard Reality , " the great Terror , the raised-up Thunderbolt , through fear of which the fire burns , the sun gives heat , the wind blows , Indra showers , Death does its duty ! "

" The Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas serve as its meal , and death itself is its condiment . "

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0318 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

" At the command of that Imperishable , the sun and the moon , the earth and the sky are held in their respective positions .

At the command of that Imperishable , the moments , the instants , the days , the nights , the fortnights , the months , the seasons , the years , stand differentiated in their own places .

At the command of that Imperishable , some rivers flow from the snowy mountains to the east , some to the west , in whatever direction each may flow .

Whatever great actions one does in this world , even for thousands of years , without the knowledge of this Imperishable , is finite .

Whoever dies without the knowledge of this Imperishable , is miserable . " ( Brih . Up )

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0319 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

" This Imperishable is satyam , True Being . "

" Sat is the immortal and it is the mortal . Yam is that which holds the two together " . ( Chh . Up , VIII . 3 . 5 )

It rises above the mortal and the immortal , both of which are relative conceptions .

The highest is ritam and brihat , real and great .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0320 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Being alone is the unavoidable basic experience , which is the fundamental concept in philosophy .

We can think away everything , but we cannot think away that we are .

Being is the very nature even of one who denies it .

All constituents of our thinking , all forms of existence , all modes of knowledge , presuppose being .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0321 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Being cannot lead us to non-being , for , the moment non-being is known , it becomes being itself .

But being is not an object of our immediate empirical experience , for it is always a particular mode of being or , rather , becoming that is the object of our relative experience .

To us , individuals , there can be no such thing as experience of existence-in-general .

But eternal being is general or Absolute existence which cannot be confused or identified with becoming which is a process .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0322 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Brahman is not a process or a collection of many particulars , not a multitude of many finites .

No amount of accumulation of relatives , however vast that may be , can make up the Absolute .

An aggregate of finites can give us a huge mass of finites , but not the Infinite — spatial immensity or vastness is not infinitude .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0323 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Absolute transcends all finites , but includes everyone of them . It does not become . It is .

Becoming is not completeness of existence , whereas perfect Being implies Fullness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0324 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Absolute does not grow or evolve . It is not a process stretching beyond itself .

If it were so , the Absolute would be involved in space , time and causation , and would cease to be the Absolute .