The Individual Soul

“Jivo Brahmaiva naparah” – “The individual soul is Brahman, the Totality, and nothing else.”
from Crest Jewel of Discrimination by Adi Shankara

This quote is so beautiful. Yet it can easily succumb to a simplistic understanding of something like: “I know. We are all one. I get it. What else can you tell me?”

Consider, for example, viewing this quote from the perspective that there is no space, no time, no bottom line, no relative. When Tat Wale Baba was asked why the universe manifested, he simply responded, “It didn’t.”

Or perhaps consider from Rig Veda, that Purusha has one thousand eyes.

The Individual Soul

© Michael Mamas. All rights reserved.

14 Comments

  1. I hope to understand this someday. It is beautiful just to contemplate.

  2. The funny thing about this post is, my mind does not seem to be the correct tool to grasp it.

    Yet when I read the post and settle down I notice that my heart feel nourished. Thank you.

  3. Interesting. I’d like to better understand Purusha’s thousand eyes.

  4. It must be quite something to know this from actual experience!

  5. After reading the quote, I felt expanded for a moment…the edges of my awareness gently softening…

  6. So, here is an experience I have had at some moments. If everybody who does the Surya Ram meditation is working together and humming along at Mount Soma, I will on occasion experience that there is one consciousness doing all the work, and that the one being has as if a thousand arms (meaning, all the various individuals.) Is that the same thing as Purusha with one thousand eyes? Or some other thing? Just a thing I ponder…

  7. I like being challenged to go in deeper and under-stand at a deeper level. Thanks.

  8. HYFI,
    That is certainly pointing in the right direction.

  9. Fascinating to think about…

  10. I agree with Mark that this Michael Mamas blog is beautiful to just contemplate. I appreciate HYFI’s comment.

  11. I feel like I just want to sit with that blog before my mind starts to collapse it down. Beautiful…

  12. Beautiful, intriguing, and fascinating…It feels like there is this infinite intelligence moving (interacting) all by itself. The only expression comes to mind is awe… Thank you for bringing it forth so we can feel into it!

  13. Realizing, and even experiencing the relative as an illusion goes against all my conditioning and known belief systems in my consciousness. I believe the illusion is Maya, now I have to realize it in my daily experiences that I tend to take so personally. What another person projects is their stuff and has very little to do with my truth. Thank you for the push to go deeper in our understanding of Self. Meditation retreats are AWESOME!!!

  14. Wow