Category Archives: Definitions

Parabrahman

Brahman, Definitions

Para Brahman

Highest Brahman

Para Brahman (Sanskrit:परब्रह्मन्) (IAST: Para Brahman) is the “Highest Brahman” that which is beyond all descriptions and conceptualisations. It is described in Hindu texts as the formless (in the sense that it is devoid of Maya) spirit (soul) that eternally pervades everything, everywhere in the universe and whatever is beyond.

Hindus conceptualize the Para Brahman in diverse ways. In the Advaita Vedanta tradition, Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without attributes) is Para Brahman. In Dvaita and Vishistadvaita Vedanta traditions, Saguna Brahman (Brahman with qualities) is Para Brahman. In Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism, Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti respectively are Para Brahman. Mahaganapati is considered as Para Brahman by the Ganapatya sect.

Etymology

Para is a Sanskrit word that means “higher” in some contexts, and “highest or supreme” in others.

Brahman connotes the Highest Universal Principle in Hinduism, the Ultimate Reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists. Brahman is a key concept found in Vedas, and extensively discussed in the early Upanishads.

Para Brahman means the “Highest Brahman”. It is found in early Advaita Vedanta literature.

Advaita Vedanta – Nirguna Brahman

Nirguna Brahman (Devanagari निर्गुण ब्रह्मन्, Nirguṇa Brahman), Brahman without form or qualities, is Para Brahman, the highest Brahman. According to Adi Shankara, Nirguna Brahman is Para Brahman, and is a state of complete knowledge of self as being identical with the transcendental Brahman, a state of mental-spiritual enlightenment (Jnana yoga). It contrasts with Saguna Brahman which is a state of loving awareness (Bhakti yoga). Advaita Vedanta non-dualistically holds that Brahman is divine, the Divine is Brahman, and this is identical to that which is Atman (one’s soul, innermost self) and nirguna (attribute-less), infinite, love, truth, knowledge, “being-consciousness-bliss”.

According to Eliot Deutsch, Nirguna Brahman is a “state of being” in which all dualistic distinctions between one’s own soul and Brahman are obliterated and are overcome. In contrast, Saguna Brahman is where the distinctions are harmonized after duality between one’s own soul and Brahman has been accepted.

Advaita describes the features of a nondualistic experience, in which a subjective experience also becomes an “object” of knowledge and a phenomenal reality. The Absolute Truth is both subject and object, so there is no qualitative difference:

  • “Learned transcendentalists who know the Absolute Truth call this nondual substance Brahman, Paramātmā or Bhagavān.” (Bhagavata Purana 1.2.11)
  • “Whoever realizes the Supreme Brahma attains to supreme felicity. That Supreme Brahma is Eternal Truth (satyam), Omniscient (jnanam), Infinite (anantam).” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.1.1)

The Upanishads state that the Supreme Brahma is Eternal, Conscious, and Blissful sat-chit-ânanda. The realisation of this truth is the same as being this truth:

  • “The One is Bliss. Whoever perceives the Blissful One, the reservoir of pleasure, becomes blissful forever.” (Taittiriya Upanishad 2.7.1-2)
  • “Verily know the Supreme One to be Bliss.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.9.28)

Vaishnavism

In Vaishnavism, Vishnu or Krishna (among other incarnations of Vishnu) is considered as Para Brahman. Vishnu in his universal form is considered to be the supreme. According to Bhagavat Purana, when Arjuna asked the true reality about Krishna, he revealed his Parabramhan form showing that he is the supreme form of souls, demons, deities and qualities, namely, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.

Shaivism

In Shaivism, Shiva is Para Brahman. Parashiva, the supreme form of Lord Shiva, is considered as Para Brahman. According to mythology, Parashiva is the single incarnation of all souls and deities. He is also depicted as the only Adipurusha or Mahadeva.

Kashmir Shaivism

Main article: Kashmir Shaivism

In Kashmir Shaivism, Svachhanda Bhairava is considered as the supreme form of Lord Shiva. Kashmir Shaivism consider Svachhanda Bhairava as Para Brahman. Kashmir Shaivism holds turiya the fourth state of consciousness as Brahman. It is neither wakefulness, dreaming, nor deep sleep. In reality, it exists in the junction between any of these three states, i.e. between waking and dreaming, between dreaming and deep sleep, and between deep sleep and waking. . In Kashmir Shaivism there exists a fifth state of consciousness called Turiyatita – the state beyond Turiya which represents Parabrahman. Turiyatita, also called the void or shunya is the state where one attains liberation otherwise known as jivanmukti or moksha.

Shaktism

In Shaktism, Mahakali Devi or Tripura Sundari the supreme form of Devi Adi parashakti, is considered to be the Para Brahman or energy of the Brahman, ultimate reality, inseparably. According to Devi Suktam and Sri Suktam in Rigveda she is the womb of all creation. Thus Mahakali is epithets is Brahmamayi, meaning “She Whose Essence is Brahman”. Parvati as Lalita Tripura Sundari Her eternal abode is called Manidvipa.

Sikhism

Parbrahm is regarded as the supreme reality in Sikhism. It is also known as “Akaal purakh” (immortal being) and is also known by mantra “Waheguru” .

Sikh scripture and the last sikh guru, Sri Guru Granth Sahib refers to Parbrahm with a variety of adjectives and nouns , such as Nirankar, Niranjan, Bhagat Vachhal , Kirpal , Dayal, Deen Dayal , Madho, Raam, Hari, Rahim, Karim, Rehman, Parvardigar, Sahib, Malik , etc…..

See also

Become a “former racist” -rjs

De-hypnotize, Definitions

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP ?

Mankind has multifarious shortcomings in its nature, one of which is RACISM. It’s an aspect of egotism – and not a very pretty one!

WE MUST – one-by-one – FERRET OUT THIS “NORMAL” QUALITY AND INVESTIGATE IT TO EXPUNGE SUCH A DAMNABLE TRAIT WITHIN US.

You’re a good person, right? Baloney! Not if you see yourself as better than the next person. Are you glad you’re not as tall, short, old, young, poor, uneducated, or black as another? This calls for excruciating honesty with yourself. Remember we’re all “just human”.

Don’t start hating yourself if you finally find it – you’ve reached a milestone: true humility. Now you can, for the first time ever, begin to work on becoming a FORMER RACIST.

It is at this juncture that I (rjs) would turn to Spirit (within), but the sole purpose of this post is to make people aware of their own participation in racism.

DrRobinStarbuck

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I heard your voice while reading this post . Never heard your voice before but I heard it now .

Natalie Van Rensburg

Let past religion go -rjs

Definitions

Before there was an Internet, people who wanted to get together with other seekers of spiritual Truth got together in abodes called churches under the rubric of religion, sharing in the cost of doing so. That is non-malevolent history. Things have changed. Why do we keep looking back, looking back, looking back and cursing our roots? Let’s just move on.

Cluttered mind vs Training -rjs

Definitions

A CLUTTERED MIND vs. TRAINING

When you know that you know that you know
And are no longer adding packets of knowledge
To an already full mind…

When you’re exercising and exorcising
Out all that opposes
What you know that you know that you know…

There’s nothing left to be done.
Not by you or anyone else.
But there are times that you must
Exert your greatest effort ever –
Just to really know that.

DrRobinStarbuck

A seeming contradiction -rjs

Definitions

MY GREATEST CONTRADICTION TO EXPLAIN (I’ve actually gotten quite okay with it) is
(1) We need do nothing VS.
(2) There is so very much that an initiate can – and i.m.o. should – do.
This is really very easy to explain but people still insist on confounding it: There’s wonderful study AND APPLICATION that can be done to fully understand the entire magnanimity of Spirit, God. This can and should take many, many years, but, so what?! It’s the application part that people try to ignore which leaves them with nothing but a word-salad. The spiritual fact that nothing needs to be done to become all that God is becomes obvious and self-evident, but learning – THROUGH LIFE EXPERIENCE is what is sorely lacking. It’s not an issue of popularity or remuneration: it’s an entirely different dimension!!!!
drrobinstarbuck

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There will be contradictions galore as we extract ourselves from the hypnotic pull of world mind.
We can’t force our exit using stubborn human will but we can simply choose to let God live our lives AS us.
The world mind wants to water down real breakthrough messages at every possible turn. Great humility is sorely needed as we cannot … I repeat, cannot … take the Kingdom of Heaven by storm.
DrRobinStarbuck

Definitions -RM

Definitions, Ramana Maharshi

🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸

  • * * Kundalini Sakti – Chinmaya Deha * * *

Yesterday morning an Andhra youth came here with his wife.
It seems he has come here after visiting the whole of the Himalayan region.

In the afternoon at 3 o’clock he
approached Bhagavan and said,
“Swami, is the manifestation of Kundalini Sakti
(a form of yogic power) possible only for those
who follow the yogic path of acquiring sakti (power) or
is it possible also for those
who follow the path of devotion (bhakti) or love (prem)?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana :
“Who does not have Kundalini Sakti?
When the real nature of that Sakti is known,
it is called Akhandakara Vritti (Plenary consciousness) or
Aham Sphurana (effulgence of ‘I’, ‘I’).
Kundalini Sakti is there for all people
whatever path they follow.
It is only a difference in name.”

Questioner: “It is said that that sakti manifests itself in
five phases, ten phases, hundred phases and a thousand
phases. Which is true – five or ten or a hundred or a
thousand?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana :
“Sakti has only one phase.
If it is said to manifest itself in several phases,
it is only a way of speaking.
The Sakti is only one.”

Questioner: “To realise the Self, some say you must
concentrate your mind on the anahatam (the 4th of the mystical
chakras [plexuses] of the body); some say on the sahasraram (a
mystical plexus in the brain with a thousand petals); and some
say on the muladharam (a mystical plexus about the organs of
generation). Which is the most important?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana :
“All are important.
Self (Atman) is everywhere in the body.
Some say you should see it in the muladharam;
some say in the anahatam and
some say in the sahasraram.
It is the same whichever it is.
But, for all of them, the place of birth
and of dissolution is anahatam only.”

Questioner: “Can a Jnani help not only those who follow
his path but also others who follow other paths?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana :
“Undoubtedly.
He can help people whatever
path they choose to follow.
It is something like this.
Suppose there is a hill.
There will be very many paths to climb it.
If he were to ask people to climb by the way he came,
some may like it and some may not.
If people who do not like it are asked to climb by that path,
and by that path only,
they will not be able to come up.
Hence a Jnani helps people following
any particular path whatever it may be.
People who are midway may not know
about the merits and demerits of other paths,
but one who has climbed the summit and sits
there observing others coming up is able to see all the paths.
He will therefore be able to tell people
who are coming up to move a little to this side or
that or to avoid a pitfall.
The goal is the same for all, you see.”

The young man was not satisfied with the replies given
by Bhagavan and again began asking questions about Kundalini Sakti and how it arises.
Bhagavan appeared unconcerned about those questions
but when they were asked repeatedly, said,

“What do I know about those paths?
Please ask those who know them well.”

Giving up the topic,the young man took up the topic of spiritual bodies (chinmaya dehas) by saying,
“My Guru gave a darshan in chinmaya rupam
(form) on such and such a day, spoke to me of this and that,”
and started speaking about the miracles performed by his
deceased Guru.

Bhagavan did not speak but kept quiet for some time.
At last the young man said,
“Is it a fact that Lord Krishna is still with his chinmaya deha (spiritual body)?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana replied with patience:
“Does chinmaya deha mean the human body?
Chinmaya means Chit-prakasa, i.e. luster of the spirit.
That light is always existent:

“ Arjuna, I am the Self seated in the heart of all beings.
I am the beginning and middle and
also the end of all beings.
Gita, X: 20

“Does that mean that
He is in the hearts of all beings with this material body?
It means He is in the hearts of all beings in the shape Aham Sphurana (effulgence of ‘I’, ‘I’).
That effulgence of the Self is known as Chit-prakasa or Chinmaya.”

Questioner: “Is the same thing said of other Mahapurushas
(great personages) or is it that Lord Krishna’s body becomes
Chinmayam and remains like that?”

Bhagavan Sri Ramana :
“Oh ! You think that that body becomes
Chinmayam and sits somewhere.
The whole world is Chinmayam.
That being so is it that one body alone has become Chinmayam?
Visions (sakshatkaras) are also like this.
People say that they descend from somewhere with a body.
That which is omnipresent you leave or ignore and
talk of karam and sakshatkaram.”

~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 18th January, 1949

Thanks Sri Ramana Maharshi Teachings. श्री रमण महर्षि के उपदेश

🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸 🌸 🌟 🌸 🙏

Exaggerated Eng. Expressions!

Definitions

F O R . Y O U R . E D I F I C A T I O N

ORDINARY ENGLISH: People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
MPOMBO: Individuals who make their abodes in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting perilous projectiles.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Twinkle, twinkle, little star
MPOMBO: Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minim.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: All that glitters is not gold.
MPOMBO: All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not truly auriferous.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Beggars are not choosers
MPOMBO: Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Dead men tell no tales
MPOMBO: Male cadavers are incapable of rendering any testimony.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Beginner’s luck
MPOMBO: Neophyte’s serendipity.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: A rolling stone gathers no moss
MPOMBO: A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of small, green, biophytic plant.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Birds of a feather flock together
MPOMBO: Members of an avian species of identical plumage tend to congregate.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Beauty is only skin deep
MPOMBO: Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.
*
ORDINARY ENGLISH: Cleanliness is next to godliness
MPOMBO: Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

Source unknown

DrRobinStarbuck

Study habits

Definitions

A R E . Y O U . H A R B O R I N G . B A D . S T U D Y . H A B I T S ?

Always wanting everything to be made easy for you? You’re mature enough to be able to grapple with higher level texts and understand their spiritual significance without trusting a third party to dumb them down for you. Try it – it’s very thrilling whenever you make a breakthrough!

If you enlist two helpers – a good dictionary (on your phone) and your Christ-mind within – you’ll have all you need. Spirit, God, will take over and be your only teacher.

When you observe your mind wandering and realize that’s not what you want to have manifested in your life, catch it and reign it in: let Spirit free you and establish you as your higher Self yearns to be.

DrRobinStarbuck

God – clarification ST & rjs

Definitions

W H E N . Y O U . H E A R . T H E . T E R M . ” G O D ” . . .

Not having been brought up in mainstream Christianity, I always felt ‘God’ was an absolute term denoting perfection and goodness to the Nth degree as my best Friend and confidant. Needless to say, hearing anything less attributed to the Eternal was unsettling at best.

Recently more and more heavily prejudiced notions have been swirling around the appelative that used to afford me such a warm and fuzzy feeling in a cold and lonely world.

Synonyms for God have been coming to the rescue as mankind remembers that we’re only talking about terminology: “Spirit” fits rather nicely, at least until the overly-religious sounding word shakes off some of its shackles!

So, while privately cherishing the true meaning behind the “G” word, my writing of late has been leaning more towards “Spirit”, “Infinity”, “Eternal”, “Allness” and “Oneness”.

Stan Tyra, a prolific writer on keeping the airways clear, has much more to say on this critically important topic:

“I often think my purpose is not to teach or add anything to anyone, but simply to pull the rug out from under our ideas about God. We are seemingly blind to the fact our ideas about God and the subsequent belief systems, have done little to demonstrate love, eliminate suffering, reduce poverty, or even end hunger and starvation. What drives me bananas is how religious organizations will spend millions upon millions of dollars on buildings, staff and programs, and then spend a few hundred dollars on turkeys to give away for Thanksgiving and call themselves generous, loving and concerned about people and hunger.

The church will denounce the killing of babies in abortion clinics, and it should, and yet seem uncaring that six million children die every year on Earth from starvation.

How much money does fundamentalist organizations spend to send missionaries all over the world to convince others to believe what they believe, while turning a blind eye to the fact 684 children per hour die of hunger. And we actually call this “Gods work?” 🤮

Upsetting the religious apple-cart is not appreciated. No one wants somebody else tampering with their sacred beliefs or ineffective systems. Even if those beliefs clearly and demonstratively don’t work, we will cling to them with both a stubborn and stupid rigidity that I personally now find shocking and appalling.

People believe what they want or need to believe in order to support their point of view. End of story. It’s truly a case of “don’t bother me with the facts.” Or “why let truth mess up a good belief system?.” We know what we know about God and we really don’t want to know anything more, bigger or outside that box. It seems that the only thing that upsets agnostics, atheists and the Christians equally is truth. We would be outraged if our children spent twelve years in school and then graduated with a first grade education. Seemingly the church finds a religious first grade awareness worthy of sainthood.”

DrRobinStarbuck