Explanation
of: Ome! Purna-madah purna-midam …
(The most important shloka of the Vedas)
BY
Dr. Ramananda Prasad, International Gita
Society, USA.
A simple translation:
Brahman is
infinite and creatures are infinite,
infinite number
of infinite
universes come out and go
into the
infinite Brahman; Brahman
still remains
infinite, or unchanged!
Ome! Purna-madah
purna-midam,
purnaat
purnam-udacha-yate
The dictionary meanings of the most important word
"Purna" in this verse are: full, whole, complete, boundless,
accomplished, powerful, infinite, limitless etc. The word limitless (Anant) has
been used to describe Brahman in the Vedas and the Upanishads. We have chosen
the word infinite for the word “Purn”
here.
Mathematically,
the word "limitless" fits better than any other word to describe the
indescribable Brahman in our opinion. Taittiriya Upanishad (verse 2.1.1)
defines Brahman as: [Satyam
(Reality), Jnaanam (Knowledge),
Anantam (Infinite)]. This Upanishad also states Brahman is that from which
everything comes, and is sustained by, and into which everything enters in the
end (verse 3.1.1).
Reading any
literal translation, a new student or any first time reader of Vedaanta can get
confused. But, as we will see, this verse is very profound. It is so profound
that someone said: Let all the Upanishads and Vedic literatures disappear from
the face of the earth, I don’t mind so long as this one verse survives and
remains engraved in the mind of even a single individual. This is not an
ordinary verse. It contains the Vedic vision, the universal Truth of oneself.
It answers the fundamental question: Who am I and how can I live a peaceful and
happy life in this world full of difficulties?
The first part
of this great mantra says that everything, known objects of the world or
unknown spirit (or Aatmaa), is nothing but the limitless Brahman. The
Bhagavad-Gita also says in verse 7.24: Everything is Brahman. There is nothing
that is not Brahman. There is Brahman only and nothing else in the universe and
that Brahman is limitless, infinite, one of a kind, and the source and sink of
the entire cosmos.
Our experience indicates that all the
objects that we see seem to be limited in space, time, and in many other ways.
Then how can everything in the universe and the world be unlimited? Aatmaa or
spirit is considered limitless, but how can visible objects, such the world and
our bodies, be called infinite? Can we call everything as infinite? The ocean
can be called limitless, but not the waves. Some waves are quite large, some
are small, but all are limited in time and space. The waves appear limited as
long as we look at the waves and the ocean as separate or "dual"
entities. If we consider the wave as part and parcel of ocean, or consider both
the ocean and the wave as water only, then the wave is limitless like the
ocean.
From a non-dualistic viewpoint if ocean
is limitless, so is the wave, because both the ocean and the wave are a single,
non-dual entity. Thus from a dualistic view
point, the wave "appears" incomplete, and limited, but is really
infinite as the ocean itself. Thus, if there is only a single entity, then the
question of one being infinite or complete and the other limited or finite does
not arise at all. If we consider we are not the body, but the
infinite spirit residing in the bodies, then, we are limitless and infinite. Duality is apparent, not real.
The
negation of duality means negation of the reality of duality, but not the
negation of appearance or experience of duality. The
experience of duality that we see in real life is apparent or relative,
called unreal in Vedaanta. From a dualistic viewpoint, a small wave is
afraid of being swallowed by the large wave and prays to the ocean for
protection from large waves. This is what prayers and worships are. From a
non-dualistic point of view, there is no such fear. Everything in the world is
an interaction, a play, a cosmic drama, only. Vedaanta acknowledges duality as
apparent—not real—experience of difference between various objects. The Unity
appears diversified. The experience of non-duality brings joy and bliss. Even a
temporary escape from duality and the experience of non-duality during Samaadhi (or super-conscious state of mind) brings bliss and peace. The
elimination of duality in Samaadhi
is temporary and beyond the reach of everyone. A complete and full
negation of the reality of duality has a permanent, wonderful, blissful,
effect on our entire psyche. It comes after the true Knowledge of the Self.
The experience
of duality does not create a problem as long as we fully understand that duality is apparent and not real.
And I am not different or separate from the world, and the world is not
different from me. Everything is Brahman only. The limitless, infinite or
non-dual Brahman also means that no entity other than Brahman exists in the
cosmos. Brahman is
both the creator and the creation. In other words, Brahman is
both the material and efficient or instrumental cause of the creation, the
cosmos. There is no other cause or existence, except Brahman.
Vedaanta cites
two beautiful examples of how one and the same entity can be both the material
and instrumental cause of creation. One example is that of the female spider
who creates its web from the material within herself. The female spider is both: the
creator and creation, the web. The entire creation, both visible
and invisible, comes out during the creative cycle and gets dissolved or drawn
into Brahman during great dissolution (see Gita 9.07). Brahman brings
the material from within, weaves the beautiful and wonderful tapestry called
the cosmos, and takes it all within again and again, just as the spider does.
Another
example is the dream world where the dreamer is both the material and instrumental cause of
his dream world. The cosmos is created as the cosmic mind’s
dream creation. When we dream, both the subject (or the creator) and the
objects, the dream world (or the creation), happen to be the dreamer himself.
The dreamer’s mind is both the material and creative cause of the dream. When
we fight a dream-war in a dream-battlefield, the warriors on both sides—the bombs,
bullets, rocky terrain, the land mines, nurses, ambulance and medical
supplies—are all none other than the dreamer himself.
Thus, the first half of this great
Upanishadic verse beautifully tells in a nutshell that the limitless Brahman is
both the material and efficient cause of creation. The creation
comes from the creator, and both the creation and the creator are infinite and
the same. There is no entity in the cosmos other than the
creator. He has become all, and He is all, and He is in all. The Creator undergoes
no real change to become the creation.
Now, what
happens to the infinite when infinite creations come out of it during creation
and goes into it during dissolution is explained in the second half of the
verse that states:
purnasya purna-maadaaya,
purnam-eva-avashi-shyate
After taking away the infinite creation from the
infinite Brahman during the creative cycle or adding infinite universes to the
infinite Brahman during the great dissolution, the infinite Brahman alone
remains in His infinite Universal form. This can be mathematically expressed
as: infinity plus or minus infinity, equals infinity. This infinite Universal
form of Krishna, the Brahman, was revealed to Arjun and is described in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita in a great
detail.
The
limitless Brahman remains unchanged even after countless universes come out of
it. What kind of change does the limitless transcendental form have to
undergo to produce limitless visible and invisible worlds? Actually, there is
no real change during the process of this transformation because nothing is
created or destroyed in the universe. It just changes form, and a name-change
goes with the new form. According to the law of conservation of energy, energy or matter can
never be created or destroyed, but only can be transformed from one form to
another; from the invisible form to the visible form and vice-versa. Much later,
Einstein came up with the same conclusion when he proposed his famous equation:
E= mc square. Thus Brahman does not undergo any intrinsic change when infinite,
visible cosmos come out of it. Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad-Gita that the
visible infinite world is just a tiny fraction of His energy (Gita 10.41-42).
Several
examples can be given of such a change. The dreamer does not undergo any change when
the objects of the dream-world come out of him. Cotton appears as cloth without
undergoing a real change. The cloth is nothing but cotton in a different form.
The gold
chain is made from gold without any real change in gold itself. Similarly, clay
becomes a pot. Clay
remains clay before the creation of the pot, during the creation of the pot,
and after the pot is destroyed. There was no pot ever; it was clay all the
time. Clay appeared as pot. Water appears as ocean, waves and bubbles; gold became a
chain; dreamer became dream objects without undergoing any real change.
Similarly, the rope
appears as a snake in the darkness of night, and the non-dual Brahman appears
as a dual world due to our mental conditioning created by the darkness of
ignorance. The visible world and all its objects are nothing but the invisible—but
not formless—Brahman only. This verse leads us to discover that I am not
this body, but the limitless spirit which I longed to be.
Thus, the
creation, an effect, is not different from its material and instrumental cause,
the imperishable Brahman (see Gita Chapters 13 and 15). The objects of
the world do not have to be eliminated, given up, or even completely negated,
as dream-objects, to see Brahman everywhere and in everything (Gita 6.30).
The chain need not be melted to see the gold in it. Similarly, one need not
leave the world to find God. In a piece of cloth, the weaver is not hidden inside the cotton or the
yarn. However, in the creation, the creator is not only the
material and the efficient cause, but He is present in every atom of the creation, in every
cell of our body (Ishaa-vaasyam idam sarvam). This is the difference between
human engineering and the cosmic engineer. The cosmic mind manifests Himself in
different forms. This is the Knowledge of transcendental science, so simple and
beautiful.
The entire
creation is His body, a divine manifestation that one must learn to love,
respect and revere. There is no sin or sinner, just different masks of the
supreme. The sinner is the one who is like an unripe mango, very sour and
bitter; while a true saint is the juicy, sweet and flavorful, like a ripe
mango.
This understanding of spirituality will bring a
fresh outlook, a refreshing breeze of fresh air of understanding persons of
other faiths, cultures, and countries. It will enrich our individual lives, it
cannot change the world overnight. It can be concluded that an understanding of
non-duality is spirituality; and duality is the partial knowledge and
understanding of the creator in any religion. This partial knowledge of the so
called religions has created conflicts and religious wars that can only be
eliminated with the Vedic science of non-dual, transcendental, metaphysical Knowledge—so
beautifully explained in the Vedic scriptures such as the Bhagavad-Gita and the
Upanishads. This single Upanishadic verse is the essence of spirituality and
the true religion. It can bring peace, understanding, and harmony in the world
and in our personal lives. One does not have to change one’s religion to become
spiritual.
From infinite Brahman, infinite
universes come out and get dissolved, but infinite Brahman remains infinite.
Like infinite number of waves come up and go down in the ocean, but ocean ever
remains the same. The ocean and the waves are, indeed, always One — that is: water.
Ome!
Shaantih …..Shaantih ……Shaantih