Traditional image of Vishnu
|
Traditional image of trimurti
|
God in Hinduism.
Table of Contents.
5. God in Hinduism.
5 a. ātman and brahman,
5 a. ātman as Spirit Soul.
5 b. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and brahman
5 c. A Pantheistic Religion.
5 d. eshwara, bhagavā, deva.
5 e. Hindu Scriptures, and Kirtan Avatars.
5 f. Ram, Krishna.
5 g. A Claim of Monopoly on God?
5. God in Hinduism.
How is God understood in Hinduism, compared to Christianity? There are some important differences and similarities.
Hinduism has developed a highly elaborate and sophisticated understanding of God, to try to give form to the formless. Very many inspired people have contributed to their theology and cosmology, and their scriptures to record this. They have been adding to their scriptures for many thousands of years, building them into a vast and intricate body of teachings about God.
Eknath Easwaran gives some useful info on how Hinduism understands God, in the introduction of his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Eknath emigrated from India to USA in 1959 under the Fullbright exchange program as a professor of English literature. He remained in the West, and he founded the Blue Mountains center for meditation in Berkeley, California, in 1961. It is still in operation, still gives priority Eknath’s teaching, although he has long since passed on. He also wrote many other books too.
5 a. ātman and brahman in the Upanishads.
Brahman and ātman are important words for God in Hinduism. When we understand brahman and ātman, they tell us much about how Hinduism understands God.
Brahman and ātman are largely defined by the Upanishads. The Upanishads are an ancient collection of mystical writings, from the experiences of many sages. Each expressed their experience of enlightenment in their own words, from their own experience. They were not subsequently edited to remove differences, but rather people tried to preserve them as they were originally composed.
Thus the Upanishads are not a systematic philosophy. Rather, they are disjointed and appear to contradict each other.
But they are generally consistent on the key themes : brahman, ātman, dharma, karma, saṃsāra and moksha.
5 a. ātman and brahman.
These sages or Rishis considered Nature. Plant life grows from seed and seedling, mature, produce seed, decay, die, and then regenerate from seed. Animals also grow from birth, mature, have offspring, decay and die, and their offspring do the same. So do we humans. Also seasons come and go. Sometimes the rain is heavy, sometimes there’s drought. This is the changefulness in Nature, which is cyclical. Hinduism emphasises three aspects of this cycle : creation or beginnings, maintenance or middle, and dissolution or ending. These three phases are followed by the next cycle, which depends on the previous cycle, and much influenced by it. Also called “rebirth,” and the “fruit of karma.”
Eknath writes that these sages also discovered something changeless that is the foundation for this changeful cycling of rebirth. Eknath describes this changeless foundation as : an infinite, indivisible reality that brings together all these changeful elements of Nature, that unites all these things. A reality that is common to all of Nature’s diversity.
These sages called this reality : “brahman”, which Eknath translates as the “God head”.
Thus Hinduism defines God as the foundation of all that exists, in the world of Nature and living things. God is the essence of all. This is God as pan-theistic Deity, where God is an inseparable part of Nature and life. God is not something divorced from the forests and wildlife, the rivers and soil. God is not limited nor restricted to the heavens above.
These sages also explored our inner world of our mind, emotions, thoughts and quality of experience. These also change, and our word “emotion” contains the word “motion”. At different times, the same person seems to have different personalities.
So these sages asked the obvious question : “then where am I?” and “who am I?”
Rather than think, speculate and have opinions about this basic question, they trained themselves to go deep into meditation to find the answer. So deep that the samādhi is really an out-of-body experience. Where consciousness is utterly withdrawn from both mind and body. In this very deep samādhi, the sense of a separate ego dissolves. There is no longer a me and you, or us and them, or me and Nature out there. All sense of isolation from other people and loneliness has gone. It is a unifying or unitive experience. The consciousness in such deep samādhi is beyond time and change.
These Rishis called this highly refined consciousness ātman, commonly translated as the Self. This word ātman appears in our songs as param-ātmā and in my selections from the Bhagavād Gita.
ātmā is the nominative form of the noun ātman.
Thus Hinduism also defines God as ‘pure consciousness.” This is God as an experience, not as a prescribed religious belief.
These Hindu themes about God point to the inherent sacred-ness of the untroubled mind, and the inherent sacredness of Nature, the sacredness of Her beauty and Her special healing powers. That which is sacred is worth while seeking out, finding and then connecting to and communing with. Such holy commun-ion needs to be cultivated and strengthened, practised and become familiar with. It also needs to be protected from damaging and destructive forces. And effort is needed to make all this work.
There is a relationship between the sacredness of Mother Nature and our true inner peace and happiness. Unspoiled Nature is actually the best place for meditation practice and healthy exercise. In addition, the healing and nurturing Qualities of natural food and medicinal herbs support the body and thus indirectly the mind. When we care for our body, we also care for our mind due to the mind-body connection.
Therefore, these important Hindu themes about God can be a great encouragement to our spiritual training and purification practise. They remind us of how important spiritual training actually is. And what we are missing out when we neglect to practice, neglect our connection with Nature. For who would wish to displease God?
So let us be drawn towards Nature for our true recreation, when we can re-create our spiritual essence and our spiritual Qualities. “One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden, than any other place on Earth” (from a park bench sign in the beautiful Melbourne Botanic Gardens.) For samādhi is very healing, and quite transformative to our spiritual practice.
The Rishis described ātman and brahman as being essentially the same. They also described ātman as being the same for all people. It is a unifying Quality that we all share. Eknath Easwaran quotes Ruysbroeck, a great mystical writer of medieval Europe :
“The image of God is found essentially and personally in all people. Each person possesses it entire and undivided. In this way, we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image. This is the image of God and the Source of all in our life.” Eknath emphasises that each word is carefully chosen.
5 b. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and brahman.
This brahman is considered to be present and the foundation of all three phases of cyclical change : creation, continuation and cessation. Long ago, Hinduism gave three different Names for Deity for each of these three phases :
The trimurti can be described differently, in terms of where we come from, and where we go to, as mortal human beings, and what keeps us going during our lives.
Thus Deity is not just the Creator in Hindu thought, but also the Sustainer and the Receiver.
Hinduism also explores Deity that dwells within. Then it is called ātman, in India, and the Holy Spirit in the West. It is also known as Vāsudeva (vās = dwelling), where vāsudeva means the Deity that dwells within us all, or the Deity that we dwell within. Terry and Soraya offer a wonderful song for the mantra : om namo bhāgavate Vāsudev-āya. It has its own webpage on this website.
5 a. ātman as Spirit Soul.
Three prominent Hindu sects in Australia, the Hare Krishna sect, the Mantra Room also called the Australian School of Yoga and Meditation, and Brahma Kumaris, describe the ātman somewhat differently, as the spirit soul.
One starting point is to consider who we really are, in essence. Are we really this body, that is slowly but inevitably declining with age, and has a limited life span? Or this mind, that can be so changeful?
More importantly, are we really all those pain driven and pain filled thoughts that assail us, when we are upset? That drive us to be quite destructive to important pursuits and relationships? We really need something more reliable, stable and wholesome to identify with.
Perhaps our true Nature, in essence, is spiritual, and not really the physical body nor thoughts.
There is an excellent talk by Gayatri, the founder and manager of the Mantra Room in Westend of Brisbane, that explores this topic well. It was posted as a video on their Facebook page on Sep 1, 2020. The first line reads : “There is nothing more important than knowing who you are. It influences …” Gayatri starts by considering who we really are, in essence, and provides some helpful quotes from the Upanishads -
“I am a ‘life particle’, an ātman (spirit). I, the ātman, am an effulgent, dazzling infinitesimal ray of transcendental light, emanating from the Original Cause (note 1). Just as an individual ray of sunshine emanates from the sun globe. I am not the physical body, nor the mind. Rather, body and mind are like garments that I, the ātman, am temporarily wearing”. From Mundaka Upanishad.
The spiritual Being can be described as being encased in two ‘bodies’. First the ‘subtle material body’ which is the mind. Over that is the ‘gross physical body’, made of earth, air, fire and water (the solid, the spacious, and the fluid, and temperature). Mind is made of ‘false intelligence’ and ego. Mind is like an undergarment, body is the like outer garments.
“The ‘life particle’ or ātman is atomic in size. It can be perceived by ‘perfect intelligence’ (note 1). This ātman is located in the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body and throughout the living Being.” From the Mundaka Upanishad.
The person, the ātman, the spirit soul : this is called “the Self” in Hinduism. It spreads it life giving influence all thru our Being, thru a vast network of nadis or ‘subtle nerve channels.’ This influence makes our body completely conscious.
“As innumerable sparks emanate from a fire, similarly all individual spirit souls or ātman with their particular characteristics emanate from the Original Cause.” From the Brihada-ranyaka Upanishad.
“The ātman is part of the Original Cause (note 1), just as an individual ray of sunshine is part of the sun.” (Text not cited)
Thus the Original Cause is like the sun globe. We are not the sun globe. We are part of the Sun’s radiance.
The following quote is traditionally used as a meditative reflection, to help us to bring stillness and silence into this moment.
“ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am spirit not matter. I am not the body, nor the mind, I am the spirit Soul. This is an eternal part of the Supreme Soul (note 1). I am only temporarily in the physical body. The body is temporary, but I am eternal. ahaṁ brahmāsmi (ahaṁ = I am, brahman = spirit, -āsmi = in essence)
Gayatri then explains – “When our heart and mind are purified thru the cultivation of spiritual wisdom, then we realise and understand that we are the ātman, that is present in this body. Without the Presence of the ātman, the body cannot be alive. Consciousness is actually the ‘symptom’ of the Presence of the ātman.
The spirit soul is the attraction or attractiveness of a person. Without it, the body is entirely unattractive.”
(Note 1. Study and translation of Sanskrit does not seem to have much priority at the Mantra Room, so I can only guess that the ‘Original Cause’ might refer to Brahma, and ‘perfect intelligence’ might refer to prajñāna, which I cite in my discussion of the Heart Sutra. The ‘Supreme Soul’ might refer to param-ātma, that appears in several of our Kirtan songs.
Note 2. I have underlined several key words from Gayatri’s talk that occur elsewhere in my discussions of mantra and spiritual practice.)
5 c. A Pantheistic Religion.
This brahman is considered to be omnipresent, and the essential Quality and foundation to everyone and everything. This important Principle in Deity helps us to see the Divine in all people. This helps us cultivate respect, good will, support and tolerance for other people, for we are all manifestation of the Divine. The well known Sanskrit greeting namaste literally means “honour the Divine”, or “let’s honour the Divine in each other, let’s focus on the spiritual Qualities in each other.” namōstute is more specific, containing the word stu = you. It literally means “honour the Divine in you.”
This Principle of the Divine in all things can also help us in Nature meditation. It can represent the beauty of Mother Nature, in the sights and sounds of Nature. It can represent the beauty of the sunlit foliage, the movement of the tree tops and the sound of the wind in the trees. The beauty of the small colourful birds, and their astonishing aerial acrobats. The rush of water flowing over the stones, or the majesty of a big waterfall. The cyclic swell and crash of waves on the beach. The freshness of life giving rain.
This beauty of Nature is “in the eye of the beholder”. It is easily missed if the attention is elsewhere. It will remain undiscovered for as long as thin-king remains the master of the mind. Indeed, some level of meditative concentration or samādhi is necessary to properly connect with this beauty. So look for the beauty of largely unspoiled Nature, and focus on it. There is no need to think at this time, focus on the beauty instead.
This beauty of Mother Nature extends beyond the mere appearance to the eye. There is some kind of inherent healing Quality to unspoiled Nature, that can help us to quieten our mind and help us head towards refreshing stillness and silence. If we can perceive it, and connect to it. It is related to the healing power of natural foods and medicinal herbs, when properly chosen and taken. It’s related to the freshness of the air, and the invitation to healthy exercise when outdoors, in a garden, beach forest.
This beauty of Nature is the attraction. It is the doorway, thru which lies the beauty of samādhi or being absorbed into meditation, where the joy and healing of meditation may be found. I discuss samādhi on my webpage for Mandukya Upanishad māṇḑūkya upaniṣad.
The Principle of the Divine in Nature is really important in the ecological crisis. It helps us respect and see the importance of every element of Nature : animal and plant life, the fertility of the soil and thus soil biota, the water especially in rivers and underground, as well as sacred places in Nature. This is especially important in this modern age, where most of the original forests have been destroyed, species extinct, rivers polluted and much soil contaminated by toxic waste and salination. Even the very air is polluted where most people live. And our habits of burning fossil fuel now threaten the global climate with excessive drought, heat waves, floods and inundation of coastal lands and ocean islands.
This important pantheistic theme is beautifully expressed by Sacred Earth in their song “Ancient Mother”, on their album “Call to the Divine.” You can listen to and buy this song as a single as a download, at –
https://www.sacredearthmusic.com/listen-download
Prem uses a simple chorus -
shu mama yoyo
me you
5 d. eshwara, bhagavā and deva.
A lot more information on brahman, and other important words and Names for God in Hinduism, comes from “Understanding Hinduism”, chapter 3. This excellent treatise by Dr DC Rao is 100 pages long, and was on the Hindu American Foundation website. They used it as a primary resource to promote their religion. This treatise is now published here on this website, entitled "Hindu Themes", on four webpages.
In Hinduism, God is the Ultimate Reality, the Inner Controller, and a devotional anchor.
Hinduism presents various descriptions of ‘God’. This is to satisfy the different needs of practitioners and devotees with different temperaments and at different levels of spiritual development. The very heart of Hindu spiritual practice is captured in the teaching -
“by any means whatever, rest your mind in God’.
More on brahman.
Their most refined presentation of God is Brahman or Pure Consciousness, that has no name, no form, is indescribable and beyond the human mind. Their ancient scriptures, the Upanishads, describe Brahman as invisible, ungraspable, birthless … eternal, the source of all.” Brahman is free of all attributes since to think of Brahman as a Person is to impose limitations on that which is Infinite.
5 d. eshwara.
Their next, more substantial presentation of God is Ishwara. This has attributes : all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal and ever-free of all human limitations. To help the human mind better understand God, people “projected” these attributes onto Ishwara, but Ishwara is not separate from Pure Consciousness.
5 d. bhagavā.
Yet more substantial is Bhagavan, Bhagavati and Bhagavate. These summarise the huge variety of different Names for God, a few of which appear in our Kirtan songs. These present God as celestial, human and other beings; male and female; austere and opulent; fierce and serene; master and servant.
For Hindus regard the whole of nature as sacred. Mountains and rivers, trees, animals and plants can all be revered as manifestations of the One Supreme Reality. This proliferation of names and forms in which God has two important functions -
There is of course no limit to the list of Divine attributes. For example, the Divine Mother is described as the source of 21 attributes in each living being and Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita - “there is no end to My Divine Glories…”
Reciting the Lalita or thousand names of Vishnu are popular prayers, for each of the names is associated with a Divine attribute and helps in fostering devotion to God.
5 d. deva.
Another presentation of God is deva, which literally means “shining being.” Different devas or devatas preside over different activities. Hindus seek their blessings for that activity. Devas exist as cosmic forces as well as forces within us. They are invoked through prayer and worship as well as through a variety of yogic and tantric practices.
5 e. Hindu Scriptures, and Kirtan Avatars.
Many of the Names for Deity in our Kirtan songs are avatars of trimurti, especially of Vishnu. Avatars are Deity that have appeared in human form to guide and inspire humanity.
These avatars appear in the Hindu scriptures called the Puranas, where the many Names for Deity in our songs are presented as people, divine and/or human. The Purana scriptures help convey themes about Deity in the story form of earlier times, which was often imaginative and magical. If you Google a Name for Deity, you will probably find these stories, where the Kirtan word seems to be a character in some kind of religious theatre.
The Puranas are the scriptures read by the Hindu people. So they have great influence in modern beliefs and practices of Hinduism. The Purana scriptures, more recent than the ancient Vedas and Upanishads scriptures, are considered to “bridge the gap between the Vedas and Upanishads, and common people.”
The Vedas and Upanishads are studied by the priestly class; the Brahmins.
To properly understand the Vedas and the Upanishads, much schooling is needed.
There are four Vedas, including the Rig (Rk, Rg) Veda, which is the oldest Veda and is in archaic Sanskrit. It has over 10,000 mantras.
5 f. Ram.
Ramayana is the single most popular scripture in all of Hinduism. It tells the life story of a noble prince, Rama, who is an avatar of Vishnu. He suffers exile and many hardships while destroying powerful demons before returning to rule his kingdom for a very long time. This epic story portrays several characters who embody ideal qualities and conduct. Among them are -
5 f. Krishna.
The Bhagavad Gita is also a primary scripture for all Hindus in modern times, and is a small part of the Mahabharata scriptures.
It presents Krishna’s teachings to the warrior Arjuna and is a profound guide to living a spiritual life while being engaged in the world. The text outlines the various paths of Yoga, summarizes Upanishadic teachings on spiritual topics and offers succinct advice on how to lead a spiritually fulfilling life.
Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu that teaches the Dharma to the people, especially when spiritual knowledge has been largely forgotten.
5 g. A Claim of Monopoly on God?
Unlike other religions, Hindus do not normally seek converts. Thus it remains the religion of the people of Bharat, which we call “India,” after millennia of practice. Hindu scriptures focus on seeking the eternal, changeless Truth, and do not claim to have found an exclusive path to Truth.
Dr Rao asserts that Hindus “recoil from the proposition that there is only one legitimate form of God, rendering the worship of other forms as somehow wrong or inferior” (chap 18). For Hindus view the Supreme Reality as being beyond all description while yet open to being described in many different ways.
I would like to thank Dr DC Rao for his contribution. I recommend you study more of his treatise.
5. God in Hinduism.
5 a. ātman and brahman,
5 a. ātman as Spirit Soul.
5 b. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and brahman
5 c. A Pantheistic Religion.
5 d. eshwara, bhagavā, deva.
5 e. Hindu Scriptures, and Kirtan Avatars.
5 f. Ram, Krishna.
5 g. A Claim of Monopoly on God?
5. God in Hinduism.
How is God understood in Hinduism, compared to Christianity? There are some important differences and similarities.
Hinduism has developed a highly elaborate and sophisticated understanding of God, to try to give form to the formless. Very many inspired people have contributed to their theology and cosmology, and their scriptures to record this. They have been adding to their scriptures for many thousands of years, building them into a vast and intricate body of teachings about God.
Eknath Easwaran gives some useful info on how Hinduism understands God, in the introduction of his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Eknath emigrated from India to USA in 1959 under the Fullbright exchange program as a professor of English literature. He remained in the West, and he founded the Blue Mountains center for meditation in Berkeley, California, in 1961. It is still in operation, still gives priority Eknath’s teaching, although he has long since passed on. He also wrote many other books too.
5 a. ātman and brahman in the Upanishads.
Brahman and ātman are important words for God in Hinduism. When we understand brahman and ātman, they tell us much about how Hinduism understands God.
Brahman and ātman are largely defined by the Upanishads. The Upanishads are an ancient collection of mystical writings, from the experiences of many sages. Each expressed their experience of enlightenment in their own words, from their own experience. They were not subsequently edited to remove differences, but rather people tried to preserve them as they were originally composed.
Thus the Upanishads are not a systematic philosophy. Rather, they are disjointed and appear to contradict each other.
But they are generally consistent on the key themes : brahman, ātman, dharma, karma, saṃsāra and moksha.
5 a. ātman and brahman.
These sages or Rishis considered Nature. Plant life grows from seed and seedling, mature, produce seed, decay, die, and then regenerate from seed. Animals also grow from birth, mature, have offspring, decay and die, and their offspring do the same. So do we humans. Also seasons come and go. Sometimes the rain is heavy, sometimes there’s drought. This is the changefulness in Nature, which is cyclical. Hinduism emphasises three aspects of this cycle : creation or beginnings, maintenance or middle, and dissolution or ending. These three phases are followed by the next cycle, which depends on the previous cycle, and much influenced by it. Also called “rebirth,” and the “fruit of karma.”
Eknath writes that these sages also discovered something changeless that is the foundation for this changeful cycling of rebirth. Eknath describes this changeless foundation as : an infinite, indivisible reality that brings together all these changeful elements of Nature, that unites all these things. A reality that is common to all of Nature’s diversity.
These sages called this reality : “brahman”, which Eknath translates as the “God head”.
Thus Hinduism defines God as the foundation of all that exists, in the world of Nature and living things. God is the essence of all. This is God as pan-theistic Deity, where God is an inseparable part of Nature and life. God is not something divorced from the forests and wildlife, the rivers and soil. God is not limited nor restricted to the heavens above.
These sages also explored our inner world of our mind, emotions, thoughts and quality of experience. These also change, and our word “emotion” contains the word “motion”. At different times, the same person seems to have different personalities.
So these sages asked the obvious question : “then where am I?” and “who am I?”
Rather than think, speculate and have opinions about this basic question, they trained themselves to go deep into meditation to find the answer. So deep that the samādhi is really an out-of-body experience. Where consciousness is utterly withdrawn from both mind and body. In this very deep samādhi, the sense of a separate ego dissolves. There is no longer a me and you, or us and them, or me and Nature out there. All sense of isolation from other people and loneliness has gone. It is a unifying or unitive experience. The consciousness in such deep samādhi is beyond time and change.
These Rishis called this highly refined consciousness ātman, commonly translated as the Self. This word ātman appears in our songs as param-ātmā and in my selections from the Bhagavād Gita.
ātmā is the nominative form of the noun ātman.
Thus Hinduism also defines God as ‘pure consciousness.” This is God as an experience, not as a prescribed religious belief.
These Hindu themes about God point to the inherent sacred-ness of the untroubled mind, and the inherent sacredness of Nature, the sacredness of Her beauty and Her special healing powers. That which is sacred is worth while seeking out, finding and then connecting to and communing with. Such holy commun-ion needs to be cultivated and strengthened, practised and become familiar with. It also needs to be protected from damaging and destructive forces. And effort is needed to make all this work.
There is a relationship between the sacredness of Mother Nature and our true inner peace and happiness. Unspoiled Nature is actually the best place for meditation practice and healthy exercise. In addition, the healing and nurturing Qualities of natural food and medicinal herbs support the body and thus indirectly the mind. When we care for our body, we also care for our mind due to the mind-body connection.
Therefore, these important Hindu themes about God can be a great encouragement to our spiritual training and purification practise. They remind us of how important spiritual training actually is. And what we are missing out when we neglect to practice, neglect our connection with Nature. For who would wish to displease God?
So let us be drawn towards Nature for our true recreation, when we can re-create our spiritual essence and our spiritual Qualities. “One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden, than any other place on Earth” (from a park bench sign in the beautiful Melbourne Botanic Gardens.) For samādhi is very healing, and quite transformative to our spiritual practice.
The Rishis described ātman and brahman as being essentially the same. They also described ātman as being the same for all people. It is a unifying Quality that we all share. Eknath Easwaran quotes Ruysbroeck, a great mystical writer of medieval Europe :
“The image of God is found essentially and personally in all people. Each person possesses it entire and undivided. In this way, we are all one, intimately united in our eternal image. This is the image of God and the Source of all in our life.” Eknath emphasises that each word is carefully chosen.
5 b. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and brahman.
This brahman is considered to be present and the foundation of all three phases of cyclical change : creation, continuation and cessation. Long ago, Hinduism gave three different Names for Deity for each of these three phases :
- Brahma as the principle of creation and beginnings in Deity,
- Vishnu as the principle of support and protection in Deity, and
- Shiva as the principle of dissolution and change in Deity.
The trimurti can be described differently, in terms of where we come from, and where we go to, as mortal human beings, and what keeps us going during our lives.
- Brahma can mean the Source of all life, where we originate from at conception, and makes the foetus then infant to grow from the mixing of sexual fluids in intercourse,
- Vishnu can mean the Sustainer, what keeps us alive and healthy throughout our lives, and
- Shiva can mean the Receiver, where we go to after our body is fully worn out and dies.
Thus Deity is not just the Creator in Hindu thought, but also the Sustainer and the Receiver.
Hinduism also explores Deity that dwells within. Then it is called ātman, in India, and the Holy Spirit in the West. It is also known as Vāsudeva (vās = dwelling), where vāsudeva means the Deity that dwells within us all, or the Deity that we dwell within. Terry and Soraya offer a wonderful song for the mantra : om namo bhāgavate Vāsudev-āya. It has its own webpage on this website.
5 a. ātman as Spirit Soul.
Three prominent Hindu sects in Australia, the Hare Krishna sect, the Mantra Room also called the Australian School of Yoga and Meditation, and Brahma Kumaris, describe the ātman somewhat differently, as the spirit soul.
One starting point is to consider who we really are, in essence. Are we really this body, that is slowly but inevitably declining with age, and has a limited life span? Or this mind, that can be so changeful?
More importantly, are we really all those pain driven and pain filled thoughts that assail us, when we are upset? That drive us to be quite destructive to important pursuits and relationships? We really need something more reliable, stable and wholesome to identify with.
Perhaps our true Nature, in essence, is spiritual, and not really the physical body nor thoughts.
There is an excellent talk by Gayatri, the founder and manager of the Mantra Room in Westend of Brisbane, that explores this topic well. It was posted as a video on their Facebook page on Sep 1, 2020. The first line reads : “There is nothing more important than knowing who you are. It influences …” Gayatri starts by considering who we really are, in essence, and provides some helpful quotes from the Upanishads -
“I am a ‘life particle’, an ātman (spirit). I, the ātman, am an effulgent, dazzling infinitesimal ray of transcendental light, emanating from the Original Cause (note 1). Just as an individual ray of sunshine emanates from the sun globe. I am not the physical body, nor the mind. Rather, body and mind are like garments that I, the ātman, am temporarily wearing”. From Mundaka Upanishad.
The spiritual Being can be described as being encased in two ‘bodies’. First the ‘subtle material body’ which is the mind. Over that is the ‘gross physical body’, made of earth, air, fire and water (the solid, the spacious, and the fluid, and temperature). Mind is made of ‘false intelligence’ and ego. Mind is like an undergarment, body is the like outer garments.
“The ‘life particle’ or ātman is atomic in size. It can be perceived by ‘perfect intelligence’ (note 1). This ātman is located in the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body and throughout the living Being.” From the Mundaka Upanishad.
The person, the ātman, the spirit soul : this is called “the Self” in Hinduism. It spreads it life giving influence all thru our Being, thru a vast network of nadis or ‘subtle nerve channels.’ This influence makes our body completely conscious.
“As innumerable sparks emanate from a fire, similarly all individual spirit souls or ātman with their particular characteristics emanate from the Original Cause.” From the Brihada-ranyaka Upanishad.
“The ātman is part of the Original Cause (note 1), just as an individual ray of sunshine is part of the sun.” (Text not cited)
Thus the Original Cause is like the sun globe. We are not the sun globe. We are part of the Sun’s radiance.
The following quote is traditionally used as a meditative reflection, to help us to bring stillness and silence into this moment.
“ahaṁ brahmāsmi. I am spirit not matter. I am not the body, nor the mind, I am the spirit Soul. This is an eternal part of the Supreme Soul (note 1). I am only temporarily in the physical body. The body is temporary, but I am eternal. ahaṁ brahmāsmi (ahaṁ = I am, brahman = spirit, -āsmi = in essence)
Gayatri then explains – “When our heart and mind are purified thru the cultivation of spiritual wisdom, then we realise and understand that we are the ātman, that is present in this body. Without the Presence of the ātman, the body cannot be alive. Consciousness is actually the ‘symptom’ of the Presence of the ātman.
The spirit soul is the attraction or attractiveness of a person. Without it, the body is entirely unattractive.”
(Note 1. Study and translation of Sanskrit does not seem to have much priority at the Mantra Room, so I can only guess that the ‘Original Cause’ might refer to Brahma, and ‘perfect intelligence’ might refer to prajñāna, which I cite in my discussion of the Heart Sutra. The ‘Supreme Soul’ might refer to param-ātma, that appears in several of our Kirtan songs.
Note 2. I have underlined several key words from Gayatri’s talk that occur elsewhere in my discussions of mantra and spiritual practice.)
5 c. A Pantheistic Religion.
This brahman is considered to be omnipresent, and the essential Quality and foundation to everyone and everything. This important Principle in Deity helps us to see the Divine in all people. This helps us cultivate respect, good will, support and tolerance for other people, for we are all manifestation of the Divine. The well known Sanskrit greeting namaste literally means “honour the Divine”, or “let’s honour the Divine in each other, let’s focus on the spiritual Qualities in each other.” namōstute is more specific, containing the word stu = you. It literally means “honour the Divine in you.”
This Principle of the Divine in all things can also help us in Nature meditation. It can represent the beauty of Mother Nature, in the sights and sounds of Nature. It can represent the beauty of the sunlit foliage, the movement of the tree tops and the sound of the wind in the trees. The beauty of the small colourful birds, and their astonishing aerial acrobats. The rush of water flowing over the stones, or the majesty of a big waterfall. The cyclic swell and crash of waves on the beach. The freshness of life giving rain.
This beauty of Nature is “in the eye of the beholder”. It is easily missed if the attention is elsewhere. It will remain undiscovered for as long as thin-king remains the master of the mind. Indeed, some level of meditative concentration or samādhi is necessary to properly connect with this beauty. So look for the beauty of largely unspoiled Nature, and focus on it. There is no need to think at this time, focus on the beauty instead.
This beauty of Mother Nature extends beyond the mere appearance to the eye. There is some kind of inherent healing Quality to unspoiled Nature, that can help us to quieten our mind and help us head towards refreshing stillness and silence. If we can perceive it, and connect to it. It is related to the healing power of natural foods and medicinal herbs, when properly chosen and taken. It’s related to the freshness of the air, and the invitation to healthy exercise when outdoors, in a garden, beach forest.
This beauty of Nature is the attraction. It is the doorway, thru which lies the beauty of samādhi or being absorbed into meditation, where the joy and healing of meditation may be found. I discuss samādhi on my webpage for Mandukya Upanishad māṇḑūkya upaniṣad.
The Principle of the Divine in Nature is really important in the ecological crisis. It helps us respect and see the importance of every element of Nature : animal and plant life, the fertility of the soil and thus soil biota, the water especially in rivers and underground, as well as sacred places in Nature. This is especially important in this modern age, where most of the original forests have been destroyed, species extinct, rivers polluted and much soil contaminated by toxic waste and salination. Even the very air is polluted where most people live. And our habits of burning fossil fuel now threaten the global climate with excessive drought, heat waves, floods and inundation of coastal lands and ocean islands.
This important pantheistic theme is beautifully expressed by Sacred Earth in their song “Ancient Mother”, on their album “Call to the Divine.” You can listen to and buy this song as a single as a download, at –
https://www.sacredearthmusic.com/listen-download
Prem uses a simple chorus -
shu mama yoyo
me you
5 d. eshwara, bhagavā and deva.
A lot more information on brahman, and other important words and Names for God in Hinduism, comes from “Understanding Hinduism”, chapter 3. This excellent treatise by Dr DC Rao is 100 pages long, and was on the Hindu American Foundation website. They used it as a primary resource to promote their religion. This treatise is now published here on this website, entitled "Hindu Themes", on four webpages.
In Hinduism, God is the Ultimate Reality, the Inner Controller, and a devotional anchor.
Hinduism presents various descriptions of ‘God’. This is to satisfy the different needs of practitioners and devotees with different temperaments and at different levels of spiritual development. The very heart of Hindu spiritual practice is captured in the teaching -
“by any means whatever, rest your mind in God’.
More on brahman.
Their most refined presentation of God is Brahman or Pure Consciousness, that has no name, no form, is indescribable and beyond the human mind. Their ancient scriptures, the Upanishads, describe Brahman as invisible, ungraspable, birthless … eternal, the source of all.” Brahman is free of all attributes since to think of Brahman as a Person is to impose limitations on that which is Infinite.
5 d. eshwara.
Their next, more substantial presentation of God is Ishwara. This has attributes : all-knowing, all-powerful, eternal and ever-free of all human limitations. To help the human mind better understand God, people “projected” these attributes onto Ishwara, but Ishwara is not separate from Pure Consciousness.
5 d. bhagavā.
Yet more substantial is Bhagavan, Bhagavati and Bhagavate. These summarise the huge variety of different Names for God, a few of which appear in our Kirtan songs. These present God as celestial, human and other beings; male and female; austere and opulent; fierce and serene; master and servant.
For Hindus regard the whole of nature as sacred. Mountains and rivers, trees, animals and plants can all be revered as manifestations of the One Supreme Reality. This proliferation of names and forms in which God has two important functions -
- Persons of every temperament can find a form of God that appeals to their heart and to whom they can offer deep devotion, and
- Seeing Divinity in so many different forms supports a deep reverence for Mother Nature and all her wondrous diversity.
There is of course no limit to the list of Divine attributes. For example, the Divine Mother is described as the source of 21 attributes in each living being and Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita - “there is no end to My Divine Glories…”
Reciting the Lalita or thousand names of Vishnu are popular prayers, for each of the names is associated with a Divine attribute and helps in fostering devotion to God.
5 d. deva.
Another presentation of God is deva, which literally means “shining being.” Different devas or devatas preside over different activities. Hindus seek their blessings for that activity. Devas exist as cosmic forces as well as forces within us. They are invoked through prayer and worship as well as through a variety of yogic and tantric practices.
5 e. Hindu Scriptures, and Kirtan Avatars.
Many of the Names for Deity in our Kirtan songs are avatars of trimurti, especially of Vishnu. Avatars are Deity that have appeared in human form to guide and inspire humanity.
These avatars appear in the Hindu scriptures called the Puranas, where the many Names for Deity in our songs are presented as people, divine and/or human. The Purana scriptures help convey themes about Deity in the story form of earlier times, which was often imaginative and magical. If you Google a Name for Deity, you will probably find these stories, where the Kirtan word seems to be a character in some kind of religious theatre.
The Puranas are the scriptures read by the Hindu people. So they have great influence in modern beliefs and practices of Hinduism. The Purana scriptures, more recent than the ancient Vedas and Upanishads scriptures, are considered to “bridge the gap between the Vedas and Upanishads, and common people.”
The Vedas and Upanishads are studied by the priestly class; the Brahmins.
To properly understand the Vedas and the Upanishads, much schooling is needed.
There are four Vedas, including the Rig (Rk, Rg) Veda, which is the oldest Veda and is in archaic Sanskrit. It has over 10,000 mantras.
5 f. Ram.
Ramayana is the single most popular scripture in all of Hinduism. It tells the life story of a noble prince, Rama, who is an avatar of Vishnu. He suffers exile and many hardships while destroying powerful demons before returning to rule his kingdom for a very long time. This epic story portrays several characters who embody ideal qualities and conduct. Among them are -
- Rama himself as the ideal in every
- Sita as the ideal wife and emblem of strong womanhood;
- Hanuman as the ideal friend and servant of Rama.
5 f. Krishna.
The Bhagavad Gita is also a primary scripture for all Hindus in modern times, and is a small part of the Mahabharata scriptures.
It presents Krishna’s teachings to the warrior Arjuna and is a profound guide to living a spiritual life while being engaged in the world. The text outlines the various paths of Yoga, summarizes Upanishadic teachings on spiritual topics and offers succinct advice on how to lead a spiritually fulfilling life.
Krishna is an avatar of Vishnu that teaches the Dharma to the people, especially when spiritual knowledge has been largely forgotten.
5 g. A Claim of Monopoly on God?
Unlike other religions, Hindus do not normally seek converts. Thus it remains the religion of the people of Bharat, which we call “India,” after millennia of practice. Hindu scriptures focus on seeking the eternal, changeless Truth, and do not claim to have found an exclusive path to Truth.
Dr Rao asserts that Hindus “recoil from the proposition that there is only one legitimate form of God, rendering the worship of other forms as somehow wrong or inferior” (chap 18). For Hindus view the Supreme Reality as being beyond all description while yet open to being described in many different ways.
I would like to thank Dr DC Rao for his contribution. I recommend you study more of his treatise.
©Copyright by Mike Browning, 2021. You are permitted and encouraged to copy text from this webpage and use as you see fit, provided it is not harmful to mantra-translate.
