The Scene and The Seer

विश्व पट ब्रम्ह दोरा

This line from the Taatiche Abhang is perhaps the most well known out of the entire composition.

It carried a whole different meaning for me until now. Not a wrong meaning, just different meaning from what was gathered this morning.

The implied meaning in this line is that Bramha( Bramhan or divinity) pervades all creation. The entire creation or universe is made out of nothing but Bramhan. 

To explain this Muktabai has used the metaphor of a canvas or screen. The fabric of this large canvas is made out of numerous threads woven together. Each thread is made of the same raw material. When you look at the canvas you forget to look at the thread. When you look at the thread you don’t recognize it as the raw material. If you look at it from perspective of the raw material, say cotton, you don’t consider the composition of a cotton fiber. When we start looking at the structure of each fiber we find it is a single cell tubular structure, flat like a ribbon with a hollow central canal. While seeing its structure, we don’t recognize the molecular composition. When we go looking at the composition we find it is cellulose, with is a macromolecule made out of glucose, connected strategically by oxygen bridges and kept together with hydrogen bonds. Bottom line these molecules are made out of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms . Each of these atoms in turn are composed of a nucleus made of positively charged particles called protons and surrounding negatively charged particles called electrons. Protons are composed of three smaller particles called quarks. 2 up quarks and one down quark. Neutrons when they decay release one proton, one electron and a antineutrino. Electrons are fundamental particles without smaller particles. When we think of these small particles, we don’t think of atoms. Now at this point of time it is believed that the basic particles ( protons and electrons) were formed within a second of the big bang. 

What existed before the big bang? That’s a million dollar question! Well, that’s so for modern day scientists. The ancient philosophers( rishis) who documented the mysteries of the universe in the Shrutis ( Vedas) say Nirgun Bramhan ( attribute less reality) existed before the universe was formed. 

If we are to believe in that concept, we, who are nothing but one component of the universe, are composed of the protons and electrons that were formed immediately from Bramhan shortly after the big bang. If a block of jaggery is hammered and split into bits, each bit is still jaggery. No less essential jaggery than the original bock was before breaking into bits. Only the mass differs. Thus, by that logic, we,in the physical sense, are nothing but the source from which we were formed. 

Did the entire pre big bang entity get transformed into protons and electrons at time of the big bang? The Vedas say no. They say that Bramhan needs only a very tiny fraction of itself to be used in the manifest universe.

And even after the universe is created, Bramhan remains full in itself!

 OM purnamadah purnamidam purnaat purna mudachyate 

Purnasya purna maadaaya purnameva vashishyate !

How is it possible?

This is explained by the postulate of vivarta. Illusion! While the Unmanifest Bramhan remains full, a small fraction of it suffices to create an illusion of the universe. 

The implication of this is that the big bang itself and with it the fundamental particles that we know are also illusions. Compelling illusions. Nevertheless without their own independent reality. They lose their existence attribute when perception is put on hold.

When perception is allowed to “ perform” , the first thought that arises out of it is I, the perceiver or observer. With that is a sound, a word, that denotes the I. The second thought is the perception of a form outside of the I. Another sound or word denoting this form arises with it. The two thoughts/ sounds/ forms unite to create a joint experience. 

I stood in the living room this morning looking into the backyard and beyond, to the skies partially covered by the trees. A section was completely lit up with golden and orange hues. As I watched patiently there came a moment when the eyes caught a glimpse of a ball of intense light between the branches of the magnolia tree. I could literally observe the mind that was until then still, contained very much within me, cross the entire distance from  within me to “touch” the rising sun, and become one with the moment! With the experience. 

As soon as I recognized what had happened, I pulled the mind immediately like a sword and secured it back into its sheath! 

Ah! This is what happens every single time when something catches attention! Mind travels from the I thought to the object. And whatever drama or dance that ensues is secondary to this primary movement. 

Right after I understood this phenomenon Muktabai’s line came to mind.

विश्व पट ब्रम्ह दोरा!

Until now I was thinking I am within the manifest universe. But today I realized that until the mind escapes out of me and touches the universe I do not become part of the universe. The universe stands at a distance from me until my mind slips out. 

And the moment it slips out and becomes part of the scene, it forgets me. It forgets its home. 

And then I wondered. What is mind made of? Is it made out of matter( protons and electrons) like the universe or is it made out of the indivisible source that’s unaffected by the big bang? Which bank of the river does it belong to? 

The currency of mind is thoughts. Thoughts are believed to have a mass, though very negligible. This is because thinking involves movement( release) of neurotransmitters and firing of neurons. In this energy and matter are involved. As a form of energy signals, thoughts carry information and by extension of theory of energy and mass being interchangeable or inter convertible, thoughts may be said to have a mass. 

So the mind may be a component of the universe but what about me, minus the mind? 

This much I know by now that I exist irrespective of the I thought. Then perhaps it is just the I thought that is a component of the universe and the me that exists at all times is part of the source that never underwent modification at the big bang? Only that I thought would be the last seed I have to shed to irreversibly detach from the illusion that is the universe? 

So where does that leave Muktabai’s statement विश्व पट ब्रम्ह दोरा? 

Did Bramha indeed get woven to form the universe? Or it just lets the universe borrow its light to shine? Which also implies it lets the thoughts within the mind shine in its light since these thoughts are made out of the same raw materials as the universe. 

Is the immovable Brahman devoid of any movable energy? In other words, is movable energy only in the realm of illusion? Or, when its energy gets moving an illusion is born? Until then it’s normal mode is like our sleeping mode? And thereby both its immovable and movable states of energy can be said to be the same Bramhan, although one form is illusory, other is not? 

सगुण निर्गुण एकू गोविंदू रे , as Dnyaneshwar says.

And like Tukaram Maharaj asserts:

Anuraniya thokada, Tuka aakaashaa evadha!

Brahman is smaller than the smallest known fundamental particles as well as the totality of the manifest universe? 

Our mind is inadequate which is why when we see the universe we forget to remember the Unmanifest stuff and when we take a lens and look at the smallest things we forget the bigger picture?

Of course in trying to ask these questions and finding their answers the mind is like those ants trying to lift weights that are several thousand times their own weight! 

Does Bramhan have a sense of humor? If it/he/she does, this is a perfect scenario for a good laugh at the circus of this mind! 

And finally, while we are poking fun at this hard working ant, I mean mind, it is a commonly observed behavior how it frequently tends to look away from the stillness of the self and goes finding trouble in the illusory world outside! It reminds me of a Marathi phrase one of my aunts used to quote:

जावयाचं पोर,हरामखोर!

Daughter is considered one’s own, son is one’s own. But son-in-law or daughter-in-law come from another family. Out of that, daughter-in-law becomes part of our family, takes the family name and adopts the family traditions. In contrast, son-in-law continues to adhere to his family traditions. Our daughter becomes part of his family. In that sense, there are concepts of ours and theirs. A grandmother caring for her grandchildren may love all of them equally and wholeheartedly. Yet the children of her daughter gravitate away from their maternal family and perceive  it as another family. 

Jaawai is son-in-law. So here the grandmother is teasing the daughter’s kids, saying that the kids of the jaawai ( son -in-law) have no loyalty! जावयाचं पोर,हरामखोर! 

The mind often behaves like that. Forgets the womb it came from and identifies itself more with others with whom its relation is further off.

विश्व पट ब्रम्ह दोरा

इति वदली मुक्ताई

तिचे शब्द मोत्यापरी

मन गुंफे सरी सरी

पट की दोरा निवड होईना 

पाऊल काही पुढे जाईंना 

एकाएकी मन थबकले

गोंधळले थकले नि:शब्द जाहले 

दोरा समजे परी दिसेना

विश्व दिसे परी समजेना 

मज हे कसे अद्भुत उमजावे

पुसू विश्वा की दोरा बोले

याहून अवघड पेच मजपुढे

मी द्रुष्य विश्वी की दोऱ्यात मोडे

जरी बोल मुक्ताईचे थोडे

कोण उलगडे हे गहन कोडे