Chapter (অধ্যায়): THE VEDANTA PAGE-422Page: 422 of 537
learned one, shines in the heart of the Jnani in Samadhi. (Vivekachudamani, 408)
"Where all the changes of nature cease for ever, who is thought beyond all thoughts, who is equal to all yet having no equal, immeasurable, whom the Vedas declare, who is the essence in what we call our existence, the perfect-such a Brahman, O Sage, O learned one, shines in the heart of the Jnani in Samadhi. (Ibid.,409)
"Beyond all birth and death, the Infinite One, incomparable, like the whole universe deluged in water in Mahapralaya-water above, water beneath, water on all sides, and on the face of that water not a wave, not a ripple-silent and calm, all visions have died out, all fights and quarrels and the war of fools and saints have ceased for ever-such a Brahman, O sage, O learned one, shines in the heart of the Jnani in Samadhi." (Ibid., 410)
That also comes, and when that comes the world has vanished.
We have seen then that this Brahman, this Reality is unknown and unknowable, not in the sense of the agnostic, but because to know Him would be a blasphemy, because you are He already. We have also seen that this Brahman is not this table and yet is this table. Take off the name and form, and whatever is reality is He. He is the reality in everything.
"Thou art the woman, thou the man, thou art the boy, and the girl as well, thou the old man supporting thyself on a stick, thou art all in all in the universe." That is the theme of Advaitism. A few words more. Herein lies, we find, the explanation of the essence of things. We have seen how here alone we can take a firm stand against all the onrush of logic and scientific knowledge. Here at least reason has a firm foundation, and, at the same time, the Indian Vedantist does not curse the preceding steps; he looks back and he blesses them, and he knows that they were true, only wrongly perceived, and wrongly stated.