One of the most ridiculous notions in Indian circles is that divine knowledge is only for the privileged few whose Dharma is Brahmavidya or whatever and because of which they deserve an honorable place in the social hierarchy. But is this true?
I am not born in that privileged few at all but rather the son of a small businessman and many of whose relatives remain the poor rubber tappers. Because of this, is divine wisdom, Brahmavidya denied to me? Even if it not denied, do I have to study the Vedas sitting in front of Vedic Rishi with folded arms?
Certainly not. Despite by birth and despite the fact that I don't study the Vedas, I am NOT denied the Absolute Illuminations. But how is that possible?
When one tears oneself away from the naive and natural existence and manages to stand OUTSIDE it and manages to see it as a whole, an understanding of the world constituted as for him emerges. Since it is SEEN as such , it becomes also a TEXT, with the duality of structure--- the surface (appearance etc) and deep (reality etc). Here nobody can help except myself : I have to DISCONSTRUCT the naivity in which I lived and wrest out by Being from being caught fiendishly by that naivity.
And this possibility is something I have in my bosom and it has nothing to do at all either with my birth or my familiarity with Vedas Agamas and such other scriptures. I can memorise the Vedas and other scriptures and recite with impeccable intonation, contours, tones, cadences and what not. All these are useless unless I disconstruct my naivity and liberate myself from the naive naturalness. And certainly I can do this without knowing a single word from the Vedas as thousands have done in the world.
Now seeing the world as a TEXT is an important departure in the metaphysical journey. For it is at this point that the Presence and Truth of BEING begins to be grasped. For if the world is a TEXT then there must the WRITER, the Author as the Deep Structure element of the World as Text. BEING is not just simply the Brahman, the resplend principle from which emerges all and into which everything is resolved back.
BEING as the Writer of the World as TEXT and who continues to WRITE unfailingly and because of which we have the vast drama that we call the cosmos , that we call existence , is the Nimitta KaaraNan, the Agentive Cause, THAT because of which the world is and is as it is.
And because of this we also understand BEING as pancakrittiyan, HE who is the source of the Universal Praxis of production, maintenance, annihilation and all as a way of Disclosing Himself and which is opposed to Concealing.
Now this metaphysical understanding is also vital for understanding myself. For when I understand BEING as the Agent of the Universal Praxis, it also follows that I am NOT that BEING for I am totally incapable of this Universal Praxis. I am a limited person, a microscopic miscule in the vast universe, finite, imperfect, delimited and so forth. I can appropriate the Universal Praxis as such and execute various kinds of actions as for myself but I am NOT the source of these praxis - they are already there as something beyond me and because of which I am what I am -- a miserable creature researching into this and that and exulting in the little lights of illuminations that I occasionally experience.
In the light of this how are we to understand the Mahavaakkiyas such as " Aham Brahmam asmi" etc?
BEING plays a game with me : He leads me to think that I am Brahmam itself in order to transfom my humble and extremely delimited self into a radiant being, acquire a way of Being -in-the -World in which my understanding is absolutely CLEAR and Universal , where I understand everything translucently, i.e without any opacity.
It is because of an ACT of BEING that I can articulate "aham Brahman asmi" etc.
So has said Meykandar in the 13th cent. itself, the greatest philosopher of India but hardly known even in India.
Is it because he was not from that privileged few and wrote in Tamil?
Ullaganar
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