Sutras Sr No 5 Param Padam

Beyond Experience/Existence Stage…..(Sutra sr no 5)

The word “Sutra” means (a) thread (b) string (c) line (d) cord (e) aphorism (f) concise technical sentence used as a memorial rule etc. These Sutras as I have understood are the means of communication of evolved seers, and correspond mostly to the last two definitions. Hence there is this belief that they are sacred, and using these loosely by one and all is quite injudicious.   

My “Sutras” therefore, dwelling on the lofty spiritual treatises and that too in Samskrit with neither the wisdom of the seers nor the command of the medium, can qualify for being one such attempt. The defenses could be that (a) the intention is nothing but noble, (b) the use of the language of original texts which involves sustained efforts gives one a special kind of thrill, and (c) the deep-meaning essences of our texts, through short crisp sentences as a sort of a thread to “connect” with the ultimate truisms, comes out more beautifully in Samskrit.     

Thus when I find that there is this simple meaning of the word “sutra” corresponding to my urge to share and “connect” in this manner, it acts like a balm, though admittedly it is not adequate enough to negate all guilt feeling of being disrespectful. I have therefore with reluctance, chosen to retain this title for such efforts of mine, content in the feeling that if “brahmn” is beyond “form” and which cannot be described in words, there can be no harm done to its munificence, either by my poor grammar or by my maverick embellishments.    

With this pre-amble here is my fifth offering titled, “Param Padam”. This goes beyond the earlier one where the topic was about the cycle of creation, protection & samharam. Here the attempt is to capture not only the beauty of that Supreme Spirit, but the travails of the “jeeva” in its journey towards that final dissolution. Here I go:

Sutras Sr No 5. Param Padam “Beyond Experience Stage”

1.Brahmam anubhavath param.

(The Supreme spirit transcends and is beyond the stage of Experience)

2.Anubhava hethuhu jeeva shrishtihi

(Experience is the reason/cause /motive /an instrument, of “creation”) 

3.Thath Kshhanaath jeevasya parabhavam, dvaitham vaa.

(That very moment there is jeeva’s separation & duality  

4.Smiriti Brahmsham Agyaana Udayam cha.

(Simultaneously there is loss of memory and the birth of ignorance)

5.Agyanena Sakala vipareetha bhaavaanaamscha anubhavah

(It is this ignorance which makes the jeeva to experience every negative sentiment)

6.Samsaara chakra vyuhe nirodhanam, paripeedanam, gathi shoonyam cha.

(Chakra vyuh is a circular array of troops in an army, and once one is entrapped in this, escape is almost impossible. The Sutram, compares the phenomenal world to this chakra vyuh and says that the jeeva even while experiencing such sentiments   gets imprisoned/entrapped (Nirodhanam), squeezed (Paripeedanam), and loses all sense of direction: where it came from, whereto it has to go, and how to get there. (Gati shoonyam – just like gyana shoonyam we use often to describe a moron).

7. Poorna saranaagathi eva mukthi saadhanam, na anya panthaa.

8. Aparimitha Ehwara anugrahena vimochanam, smiritiparaapthi.

9.   Guhyaath guhyathamam.

(In the absence of any clue about reaching home, an unconditional surrender is the only way to get liberated from this entrapment. Through Lords immeasurable Grace, one is free and there is regaining of the lost memory. But unfortunately, when, how, in what form, & to whom He will choose to shower His grace is a “topmost secret amongst all secrets”. So instead of asking Him as to what one wants, “since He knows what I need, I trust Him to bless and take me back home” kind of paradigm is the only path that is available, none else.

10.Thathah aham brahmaasmi ithi brahma eikya visheshaanubhavam.

Once there is this Grace, one gets to the stage of experiencing “I am Him” kind of unique oneness with the Supreme Spirit /Brahman.

11.Param brahmapadam thu Ekamevaadwithiyam, Brahma eikya anubhavaath api parah.

(In texts “brahmn’ is variously described, and one of them in order to undoubtedly establish the attribute of oneness, examines three possible differentiation characteristics namely (a) within oneself (b) within its own kind and (c) within other kinds and negates each one individually and collectively, and gets the most apt description. For instance, take a mango tree; its fruits, leaves, trunks etc are its own but yet different. From trees of other kind also it is different. Similarly the soil, etc which are of entirely another kind are also different.

Each one of these differentiation is individually negated, and collectively the Brahmn is described as one with “no secondness” from any and all the three kinds; namely ekam -oneness within its own, Eh- oneness with other similar kinds, and “adwtiyam” -oneness with all different kinds, and encapsulated in that single word Ekamevaadwithiyam” , in other words it is “One” without a 2^nd either with its own, or similar or any different kinds.   

(The Sutra therefore says “Arre bhaiya, the ultimate Brahmn is even beyond this stage of “experiencing” that oneness with Him as even in this stage there is this duality of “experience and the experiencer”.

And that which transcends this and is at the “beyond stage” of experience/existence is that “Brahmn without a 2nd”.  

Ekalavya alias Vichu

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