On Brahman, the common analogy is that of a "witness". It's difficult to understand because of the problem of deep sleep: If Brahman (Atman) is the witness, why don't I witness/experience my deep sleep. I know I was in deep sleep only because I wake up afresh!
Brahman has two aspects for lack of a better word that comes to mind:
- Aspect 1: It lights up the Prana/Jiva/Individual Self
- Aspect 2: It gets mirrored/reflected/borrowed by the Individual Self to light-up/enliven the embodiment/body-mind
- Aspect 1: It lights up the Prana/Jiva/Individual Self
- Aspect 2: It gets mirrored/reflected/borrowed by the Individual Self to light-up/enliven the embodiment/body-mind
VishishtAdvaita is partly correct, its only problem being that it doesn't go into the next level of depth: We the individual self are not a sparkling image of the Perfected Being (not yet), but once enlightened (and we end up as Jivamukta / Videhamukta), there is no difference.
The Witness analogy is only applicable to Aspect 1 above, and that too only during the individual self's waking and dream-sleep/REM-sleep state.
The Mind (Ego+Intellect+Manas/Memory/Thought) turns off in deep sleep (in dream-state it still is partly active). Without the Mind, the Individual Self cannot be experienced. If the Mind is off, Brahman has nothing to reflect upon.
It is the same analogy as sunlight in space: Space seems dark because there is nothing to reflect light. Come an asteroid or satellite or planet, we see it beaming in sunlight! And this is why the Witness analogy fails in the deep sleep context.
The Witness analogy definitely should be practiced during the Jagrat (waking) state and is easy to reflect upon and understand the Swapna (dream) state.
So a combination of the Sun lighting-up objects and Witness analogies should be used to appreciate Aspect 1 of Brahman.
The Mind (Ego+Intellect+Manas/Memory/Thought) turns off in deep sleep (in dream-state it still is partly active). Without the Mind, the Individual Self cannot be experienced. If the Mind is off, Brahman has nothing to reflect upon.
It is the same analogy as sunlight in space: Space seems dark because there is nothing to reflect light. Come an asteroid or satellite or planet, we see it beaming in sunlight! And this is why the Witness analogy fails in the deep sleep context.
The Witness analogy definitely should be practiced during the Jagrat (waking) state and is easy to reflect upon and understand the Swapna (dream) state.
So a combination of the Sun lighting-up objects and Witness analogies should be used to appreciate Aspect 1 of Brahman.
The Sun reflecting on objects analogy can be used to understand Aspect 2 of Brahman.
Just as the sun falling upon the mirror in a room, then gets reflected by the mirror to the rest of the room, so too does Brahman enliven the Jiva, which otherwise does not have an existence of its own (the stand taken by Advaita).
Thus the quality of the mirror (Samaras/impressions on the Jiva built up by the collective past births and current birth) determines the quality of the reflection.
Likewise, the sun getting reflected upon a number of buckets of water is an analogy to (apparent) multiplicity of Brahman. Again in this analogy, the quality of reflection depends upon the purity/turbidity of water.
Another way of looking at Aspect 2 is like the relationship of the Ocean and a Wave in the Ocean. Water in the wave is same as in the ocean. But the nature of the wave can be foamy/small/large.
Thus a combination of analogies of wave-in-water and sun's reflection-on-objects is needed to understand Aspect 2 of Brahman.
Just as the sun falling upon the mirror in a room, then gets reflected by the mirror to the rest of the room, so too does Brahman enliven the Jiva, which otherwise does not have an existence of its own (the stand taken by Advaita).
Thus the quality of the mirror (Samaras/impressions on the Jiva built up by the collective past births and current birth) determines the quality of the reflection.
Likewise, the sun getting reflected upon a number of buckets of water is an analogy to (apparent) multiplicity of Brahman. Again in this analogy, the quality of reflection depends upon the purity/turbidity of water.
Another way of looking at Aspect 2 is like the relationship of the Ocean and a Wave in the Ocean. Water in the wave is same as in the ocean. But the nature of the wave can be foamy/small/large.
Thus a combination of analogies of wave-in-water and sun's reflection-on-objects is needed to understand Aspect 2 of Brahman.
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