Mr. Thompson, a very quiet young gentleman who is staying in India for some years and studying Hindu Philosophy as an earnest student, asked:
Srimad “Bhagavad Gita” says: “I am the prop for .” In another place, it says: “I am in the heart of each one.” Thus the different aspects of the Ultimate Principle are revealed. I take it that there are three aspects, namely (1) the transcendental (2) the immanent and (3) the cosmic. Is Realisation to be in any one of these or in all of them? Coming to the transcendental from the cosmic, the Vedanta discards the names and forms as being . But I cannot readily appreciate it because a tree means the trunk, branches, leaves, etc. I cannot dismiss the leaves as māyā. Again the Vedanta also says that the whole is Brahman as illustrated by gold and ornaments of gold. How are we to understand the Truth?
M.: The “Gita” says: Brahma nah pratishtoham.. If that “” is known, the whole is known.
D.: It is the immanent aspect only.
M.: You now think that you are an individual, there is the universe and that God is beyond the cosmos. So there is the idea of separateness. This idea must go. For God is not separate from you or the cosmos. The “Gita” also says:
Thus God is not only in the heart of all, He is the prop of all, He is the source of all, their abiding place and their end. All proceed from Him, have their stay in Him, and finally resolve into Him. Therefore He is not separate.
D.: How are we to understand this passage in the “Gita”:
“This whole cosmos forms a particle of Me.”
M.: It does not mean that a small particle of God separates from Him and forms the Universe. His is acting; as a result of one phase of such activity the cosmos has become manifest. Similarly, the statement in “Purusha Sukta,” Padosya viswa bhutāni (All the beings form His one foot) does not mean that is in four parts.
D.: I understand it. is certainly not divisible.
M.: So the fact is that is all and remains indivisible. He is ever realised. The man does not however know it. He must know it. Knowledge means the overcoming of obstacles which obstruct the revelation of the Eternal Truth that the Self is the same as Brahman. The obstacles form altogether your idea of separateness as an individual. Therefore the present attempt will result in the truth being revealed that the Self is not separate from Brahman.