Levels of Reality

Theory of Emanation

FromGodhead – the Absolute

TruthDown To

Gross Matter

Only The Absolute has authentic, independent reality

Principle of Authentic Reality

•One Supreme Independent Reality

•Everything else is a Dependent Reality

•Supreme Absolute is the Material & Efficient Cause of all causes.

•E.g. Rainbow Metaphor

•“Illusion” is the notion of Extreme Independence (atyanta-bhinnam)

Dependent Realities are like focalized “attributes” of the

Supreme.

Principle of Authentic Reality

Taittiriya Upanishad

“He knew that matter is Brahman (the Godhead); he knew that life (prana) is Brahman; he knew that mind (manas) is Brahman; he knew that consciousness (vijnana) is Brahman; he knew that bliss (ananda) is Brahman”

All the other levels of being only have reality inasmuch as they partake of the nature of the Absolute. 

They are nothing but the different modes or aspects of the Absolute.

E.g. Matter is not illusion, matter is the Absolute in Its mode as matter.  Mind is not illusion, mind is the Absolute in Its mode as mind.

“By Me, in My unmanifested form, this entire universe is pervaded. All beings are in Me, but I am not in them.

And yet everything that is created does not rest in Me. Behold My mystic opulence!”

Inconceivable Simultaneous Difference and Oneness

The Bhagavad Gita

9.4-5

The Principle of Gradation (and Diversity) is inherent in Godhead

Principle of HypostasesReality consists of a series of distinct hypostases, which exist in a linear causal relationship. (Taaratamya)

Each Hypostasis is a qualitative unit of Reality, having a dynamic relationship with those Hypostases above and below it.

Godhead – Simultaneously Immanent And Transcendent

Dualistic “God” -- separate from Universe.

Psychic realities – “Good” and “Evil”

Physical reality – Mind and Matter

Principle of Qualitativeness

Every productive cause is superior to that which it produces.

Empirical Science is on the Quantitative plane (and now out of fashion).

Emanationism supports a Devolution of Spirit

Principle of Downward CausationChandogya Upanishad

"...understand that this (body) is an offshoot which has sprung up, for it could not be without a root.

And what else could its root be than food?  And in the same manner, my dear, with food as an offshoot, seek for  water as the root; with water, my dear, as an offshoot seek  for energy as the root; with energy, my dear, as an offshoot,  seek for Being as its root...”

This is opposed to the Materialist position of the Primacy of Physical Matter in terms of “Evolution”.

False “gods” versus the Supreme Absolute Truth

Principle of RelationEach higher hypostasis is “spiritual” in relation to the hypostasis below it; each lower hypostasis “material” in relation to the hypostasis above it.

Relation of ‘Creator’ and the ‘Creation’ between related hypostases.

Absolute Personality of Godhead

Demigods, etc

Psychic beings, etc

Gross material, etc

The Universal becomes Particularized, becomes a focus or form, whilst rest of the Universal holds back and constitutes

the Ground.

Principle of “Undifferentiation”Every higher hypostasis is universal and undifferentiated -  the field or ground - in relation to its subsequent hypostasis; the subsequent hypostasis is defined and limited - the focus or  figure - in relation to the preceeding hypostasis.

Form – BackgroundRupa – ShunyataConscious – Subconscious

Psychology could not explain the Meditative Experience – which transcends these dualities.

While remaining Transcendent, He is All-pervading.

Principle of Non-Diminish-mentThe Emanator is never diminished by the process of Emanation

Invocation to the Isopanisad

“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”

om pūrnam adah pūrnam idam

pūrnāt pūrnam udacyate

pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya

pūrnam evāvaśisyate

Krishna is Complete and Self-Satisfied (atma-rama)

Principle of ReflectionEvery lower hypostasis is the image of its preceding hypostasis.

This is the other aspect of the theory of archetypes; that  the pattern or blueprint of any mundane thing exists eternally in the spiritual world.

Self-Contemplating Supreme Personality of Godhead (vimarsha)

Never any “equality” between Godhead and Individual Soul

Principle of Reflection

•An image is an image of something, so that the two are distinct.

•An image is the likeness of the original (similitude)

•E.g. the sensible world is the image of an eternal archetype of model. “Spiritual Variegatedness” is different from the Material.

•The image is inferior to the archetype (principle of qualitative gradation).

•The image is dependent on the archetype for its existence.

Similitude is not proof of Godhood.

Principle of ProximityThe closer a hypostasis is to The  Absolute, the more it partakes of Its Nature.

Since the levels of being only have reality inasmuch as they partake of the nature of the Original  or Absolute, the first hypostasis is the most like the Absolute in nature.  Indeed, it is so much like the Absolute that it can itself be called the Absolute, for it is the  Absolute relative to all subsequent reality.

Vishnu-tattva

Shiva-tattva

etc

Uniqueness is a fundamental property of Universe.

Uniqueness must exist in The Absolute.

Principle of Difference / UniquenessEvery hypostasis has its own unique characteristics, which emerge in that hypostasis due to its proximity or distance from the Supreme Source.

The characteristic quality in any  natural class of beings is present in all the members of that  class, and is their common definition.

This "common definition" is the characteristic of that hypostasis. 

E.g. Soul has certain qualities (e.g. activity), Intelligence certain other qualities (e.g. intuition), and the One other qualities again (e.g. Unity).

Were it not for this law of emanation, there could be no diversity in existence, but only a monotonous uniformity.

Principle of FractalizationEach hypostasis contains, as an inner octave, all the hypostases within itself, but only after its own Nature.

Holographic Principle in Universe

Reality consists of a vast ontological continuum or "Great Chain of Being", from the highest to the lowest, in which every level shades into the level above and below it.

Yet at the same time, this "Spectrum of Being" is not continuous!  Just as at the most basic level physical energy and matter is divided into bits or quanta, which cannot be subdivided (to attempt to do so only creates more quanta).

Godhead is Ultimately Simple.

Principle of Fractalization

Beginning with a limited set number of fundamental principles, which serve as the basic archetypes or paradigms, these can then divided into sub-hypostases.

All that is needed is an insight into these basic qualities, which, like letters in a word or sentence or page, can then be brought together into any number of permutations and combinations.

E.g. Permutations in the vyuhas

“Krishna as Object of worship is one-Half, and, as the Support of His worshipper, He Himself is the other Half of the Whole. The variety of reciprocal activity of these Two Moieties constitutes the Fullness of the Divinity. Krishna is the complete realization of the Support of His worship.”

From “Humbler than a blade of grass”, by Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

< H.D.G. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

H.D.G. Bhaktivedanta Swami >

So what is Godhead?

“O conqueror of wealth [Arjuna], there is no Truth superior to Me. Everything

rests upon Me, as pearls are strung on a thread.”

Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead

The Bhagavad Gita

7.7mattah parataram nanyat

kincid asti dhananjaya mayi sarvam idam protam

sutre mani-gana iva

The Power of Love

The Object of Meditation

-Personal or Impersonal?

God appears, and God is LightTo those poor souls who dwell in Night,But does a Human Form displayTo those who dwell in realms of Day.

- William Blake

The Maha-Mantra

Haré Krishna Haré Krishna

Krishna Krishna Haré Haré

Haré Rāma Haré Rāma

Rāma Rāma Haré Haré

Harā = Divine Energy

Krishna = All-attractive

Rāma = Ocean of Bliss