Realisation is Bliss

Realisation is an act of becoming fully aware of something as fact. Most if not all are familiar with the phrase “ignorance is bliss”. Thomas Gray an 18th Century English Poet, Classical Scholar and a professor in Cambridge University coined the phrase in his poem “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.

The last two lines of the poem goes like this: “where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” It means where not knowing makes you happy it is better to stay that way i.e. if knowledge makes you unhappy better to be ignorant. While being blissfully unaware has its own advantages, our vedas and Upanishads talk about being aware and realize the eternal truth i.e. Brahman.

Taitriya upanishad says that the universe evolved from Brahman. Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth i.e. the gradual development of something.

Before looking in detail about the evolution as defined in Taitriya Upanishad let us look at the theory of evolution as explained by Charles Darwin in his book Origin of Species in 1859.

Darwin’s concluding remarks in Origin of Species “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

Modern theory of evolution follows a similar path. In their book The Grand Design (2010) Stephen Hawking and and Leonard Mlodinow explains the process of evolution, “Because gravity shapes space and time, it allows space-time to be locally stable but globally unstable. On the scale of the entire universe, the positive energy of the matter can be balanced by the negative gravitational energy and so there is no restriction on the creation of the whole universe. Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”.

Further they conclude “The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves a mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have also been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph. But the true miracle is the abstract considerations of logic lead to a unique theory that predicts and describes a vast universe full of amazing variety we see. If the theory is confirmed by observation, it will be the successful conclusion of a search going back more than 3,000 years. We will have found the grand design.”

Now let us turn to Taitriya Upanishad. The following verse explains the evolution:

तस्माद्वा एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः संभूतः । आकाशाद्वायुः । वायोरग्निः । अग्नेरापः । अद्भ्यः पृथिवी । पृथिव्या ओषधयः । ओषधीभ्योऽन्नम् । अन्नात् पुरुषः

tasmādvā etasmādātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ | ākāśādvāyuḥ | vāyoragniḥ | agnerāpaḥ | adbhyaḥ pṛthivī | pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ | oṣadhībhyo’nnam | annāt puruṣaḥ

From that (Brahman) is born ether (akasa), from akasa the air, from air the fire, from fire water, from water the earth, from earth the plants, from plants the food, from food the humans.

The first five viz. akasa, air, fire, water and earth are the five elements of nature. The plant, food and humans represent various organisms in the universe. It raises a question what is Brahman. Please read on.

The following reference gives an indication:

सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म

satyaṃ jñānamanantaṃ brahma

Meaning: Brahman is “Real, conscious and infinite”.

Brahman means to grow, expand or enlarge. It is a cosmic principle that manifests in every being in the universe.

According to Dr. Radhakrishnan the sages of the Upanishads teach Brahman as the ultimate essence of material phenomena that cannot be seen or heard, but whose nature can be known through the development of self-knowledge.

To understand and answer the question we have to look at Brighuvalli which is part of Taitriya upanishad.

Brighu asks his father varuna (Lord of Water) to teach him Brahman. Instead of explaining, Varuna set his son Brighu on the path of self-realisation through meditation.

He offered some keys to such self-realisation like Annam (food), Pranam (life), Chakshu (Sight), Shrotram (Hearing), Manas (Mind). He further explained that Brahman is the one from where beings are born, live and when they depart they enter i.e. connect everything in the universe has with Brahman is continuous. If you observe closely here Varuna explains the connection through birth, life and death i.e. creation, protection and destruction and their energies/source associated with these actions which is explained in https://goo.gl/dC5vyh

Brighu followed Varuna’s advice and started meditation. He realised food (Annam) as Brahman but continued to meditate as he wasn’t convinced. Then he realised Life/Breath (pranam) as Brahman, then Mind (Manam) as Brahman, then knowledge and intellect (Vigyanam) as Brahman and he concluded when he realised Bliss (Anandham) as Brahman.

The path followed by Brighu and his stages of realisation offers something to us. Food is the fuel for every organism. Pranam (life/breath) also refers to the quality of environment we live in. Then comes mind from which the thought process arise, then knowledge and intellect helps us to understand various principles and from such knowledge we reach a state of bliss which is a realisation of the eternal truth of the universe.

While Darwin talks about natural selection in his theory of evolution, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow explain that the law of gravity makes that the universe can and will create itself from nothing, Taitriya Upanishad refers to Brahman from whom the whole universe is evolved and Brahman is the real, conscious and infinite being without form but has a capacity to enlarge or grow.

The common thread in all are “Evolution” and “Nature”. The creation and the creator that we talk about both in Science and Hinduism is one and the same. In fact the term “vigyana” means knowledge that goes deep which is what Science is about. There is no conflict between Science and Hinduism.

Hinduism goes a step further to offer different forms of gods to simplify the abstract concept of nature which is “everything was created from nothing”. The ability to see divine in every being (different forms of god which individuals can choose) is the hallmark of Hinduism.

To conclude “ब्रह्मविदाप्नोति परम्” (brahmavidāpnoti param) which means the knower of brahman reaches supreme i.e. those who realise brahman, realise the fact that brahman manifests in every being and that realisation is being in a state of bliss (anandham).