brahman, mithyA and jIva Nathan Spoon, Wednesday, February 16, 2011 03:56 AM Text Size : | | Text brahma satyam jagan mithyA jIvo brahmaiva nAparaH Translation 'brahman alone is Real; the world is mithyA; the jIva (soul) is not other than brahman.' Commentary In this teaching from shrI shaMkarAchArya, we will consider the meaning of the three key words brahman, mithyA and jIva. brahman Firstly, the word brahman is situated within the phrase 'brahman alone is Real.' And this brahman is described in two ways: as nirguNa brahman and as saguNa brahman. Importantly, nirguNa means without qualities andsaguNa means with qualities. We can not speak about brahman without qualities other than perhaps by using the word 'is.' We can also point to this brahman. But it would not be acceptable (not to mention our knowledge would be incomplete) to viewbrahman as being only nirguNa. For this reason, we can also consider, meditate upon and worship brahmanwith qualities. On this point of brahman being both with and without qualities the current Sringeri Jagadguru shrI Bharathi Thirtha explains: The paramAtman has no form, as it is said, 'He is formless, ageless and will never cease to be.' Though this is the case, He can manifest Himself in any form. Pure water has no taste but if salt is added to it, it tastes salty; sugar makes it sweet. The paramAtman is akin to pure water which can acquire different qualities. We cannot, however, describe the paramAtman as possessing a particular form. This is so, since, for example, seawater cannot be sweet even if great amounts of sugar are added to it, saltiness being its very nature. Therefore, if it were true that the paramAtman has a single form, then it must be concluded that He cannot assume any other form, in which case He will be no God. Hence, it is said that He is formless, whereby there will be no difficulty in accepting that He takes on various forms. (Inspiring Saint, K. Suresh Chandar, Sri Vidyateertha Foundation, 2002)