Isn’t Everything Brahman

“The Blessed Lord said: He whose mind is fixed on My personal form, always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith, is considered by Me to be most perfect.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 12.2)

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श्रीभगवानुवाच
मय्यावेश्य मनो ये मां नित्ययुक्ता उपासते ।
श्रद्धया परयोपेतास्ते मे युक्ततमा मता: ॥

śrī-bhagavān uvāca
mayy āveśya mano ye māṁ
nitya-yuktā upāsate
śraddhayā parayopetās
te me yukta-tamā matāḥ

“We learn that distinctions should be removed. The term most often used is ‘duality.’ We are deluded by the dual conditions of attachment and aversion, like and dislike. These are like pairs. It doesn’t matter what side you are on, specifically.

“If you are considering that you like something, that someone is my friend, that I must have this, you are on the side of attachment. If you fall on the opposite side, where you dislike someone, consider them to be an enemy, want nothing to do with them, and so forth, you are on the side of hatred or aversion.

“This division is a product of maya, or illusion. The proper vision sees oneness. I can see clearly when I understand Brahman. I know my true identity when I identify with Brahman, which is the spiritual energy.

“One question a person might have is why the distinction stops at objects and relationships. Why isn’t there the same duality with the division of living beings? For instance, to consider one individual different from another. A cat is distinct from a dog. A human being is separate from a lion.

“Isn’t this a flawed vision, as well? Isn’t everything Brahman? Why are we concerned with what happens? Everything is Divine. Do you see what I am saying? Why do we draw a line of separation for the playing field, so to speak, for duality?”

His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada describes this to be the last snare of maya, or the illusory energy pervading the material creation. Actually, it is the influence of maya alone which determines material living. Once the illusion ceases to influence me, it is as if I am in the spiritual world already.

The first snare of maya is the illusion of I and mine. My parents. My home. My country of origin. My chosen language for communication. My preferences. My possessions. My enjoyment. My body.

This is entirely an illusion because identity is not determined by any of these associations. The body is always changing. I could have different parents in the next iteration, the future life. And a future there will be, as the living being never ceases to exist.

न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्
नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः
अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो
न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin
nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ
ajo nityaḥ śāśvato ‘yaṁ purāṇo
na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

“For the soul there is never birth nor death. Nor, having once been, does he ever cease to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 2.20)

In this first snare of illusion, I think only of enjoying. Following the instincts for bhoga. If I enjoy too much, I try tyaga, which is giving up. Bhoga and tyaga are essentially the same within this model, as the basis for both is bodily identification.

“Lord Chaitanya instructed the mass of people in the sankhya philosophy of achintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which maintains that the Supreme Lord is simultaneously one with and different from His creation. Lord Chaitanya taught this philosophy through the chanting of the holy name of the Lord.” (Shrila Prabhupada, Chaitanya Charitamrita, Preface)

Mayavada, or the last snare, is really the same position as with the first snare. It is a different way of looking at things, but the ultimate conclusion is the same. There is no purpose to anything. In the first snare, I ignore spiritual life. I think that there is no God. Everything happens randomly. The existence is merely a set of chemicals.

असत्यम् अप्रतिष्ठं ते
जगद् आहुर् अनीश्वरम्
अपरस्पर-सम्भूतं
किम् अन्यत् काम-हैतुकम्

asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te
jagad āhur anīśvaram
aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ
kim anyat kāma-haitukam

“They say that this world is unreal, that there is no foundation and that there is no God in control. It is produced of sex desire, and has no cause other than lust.” (Lord Krishna, Bhagavad-gita, 16.8)

In the last snare, everything is God. Brahman is everything. There are no distinctions. There are no separate identities.

Let us think over this philosophy for a moment. If everyone is God, then no one is God. This means that there is no purpose to anything. To the person who claims as such, we could offer the following retort:

“If there is no difference between you and me, why am I listening to you? If the cat, the dog, the human, and every other instance of life are all the same, then I could say that you don’t exist. Am I right? Since you don’t exist, I have no reason to listen to you or your teachings. I can negate you just as easily as you negate the entire concept of simultaneous oneness and difference, as explained by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.”

The wise understand that the Mayavada philosophy is another instance of sophistry. It is not an advanced way of thinking, as even a young child can pretend that nothing exists, that there is no identity, that simply by closing the eyes everything will disappear. Rather, while the situations within the dreamlike existence might not have permanent impact, the experience is certainly real, as is the one who gave us the timeless Bhagavad-gita and other collections of transcendental knowledge.

In Closing:

To your intelligence I appeal,
Saying that you are not real.

And same applying to me,
And with everything we see.

No controller, no cause, and no God to call.
Just randomness in everything to fall.

Considered as maya’s last snare,
The wise of Divine’s form aware.