Paramarthika Satyam and Vyavaharika Ishvara

VyAvakahrika Ishvara

It is very important to understand the individual and his relationship with the vyavaharika ishvara.

Individual

I am an individual, and so are many others. When you see a child, you realise the child is an individual in his own right. He is indeed a new arrival into the world, and he is finding and learning about the world through HIS sense organs, every day. He has a certain individuality about himself, and as an individual, he is limited.

As an individual everyone is limited in terms of their capacities, and have limited knowledge, limited power and strength, limited capacities, and try to make the best out of those capacities.

Jagad

The individual jiva, is endowed with mind and a body, mind residing within the body.
This body mind, if you look at it, is a MEDIUM for the jiva to experience the jagad. Hence the jagad INCLUDES the body and the mind of the jiva to. However the difference being , the jiva has a special relationship with the specific body and mind. He is specially connected to the mind, and to its constituents.

Here the model of sukshma sharIra is essential to understand. In the sukshma sharirA, the individual carries the vAsanAs of past in the form of subtle mind, and all the subtle sense organs behind the physical sense organs.

There is also the kArana shariram, which is the cause of the other bodies, karana shariram is total ignorance only.

Now all of the mind and its constituents etc. perform actions as determined by the jiva in the intellect, and these actions have relationship with the external jagad.

DevatAs
There is a cause effect relationship of the jagad with the actions performed by jiva, and this relationship is managed by devatAs, who control the jagad. The devatAs are also conscious beings, who are also originally created by brahma, but are not equivalent to parameshvara, they need not have complete knowledge like parameshvara.

Vyavaharika ishvara or parameshvara

Parameshvara is the cause of everything, including devatas, the individuals and the jagad, he is both the maker and the material. In parameshvara there is no ignorance whatsoever, he is aware even of the ignorance of the jiva, and he also knows what the jiva doesnt know also.

Hence he is sarvajna, all knowing.

Paramarthika satyam

What we discussed so far was vyavaharika, what we observe in our life and what exists.

But vedas discuss also about paramArthika. PAramarthika means that which is More true than vyavaharika.

Per vedas, the jiva, the jagad , the devatAs and parameshvara, are all ONE non dual vastu, which appear to be different due to different upAdhis, or different appearances of name form and function.

The one vastu which is non dual, is nameless, formless, functionless.

However the important teaching is that this vastu is none other than the jivAtma himself.

The jivAtma appears to have the limitations of the 3 sharirams, but simple enquiry reveals that the jivAtma is the conscious knower, who is aware of the 3 sharirams, and is separate from the 3 bodies.

Since he is the knower, he is the non material consciousness principle, and the 3 bodies which are material in nature, gain their existence and appear to be conscious only due to the jivAtma.

This knower jiva also is a knower only w.r.t the mind, through which an object is known.
But by himself, he is pure knowledge or consciousness.

It is indeed the same jivatma, the consciousness, which is also the paramatma, which is the universal consciousness, w.r.t the upAdhi of sarvajna, all knowingness, that is the causal body of the jagad namely mAya.

Therefore if you look at the atman I, it is actually only 1.

The maya or the jagad , it doesnt have any reality of its own, and purely appears to exists only due to the existence lent by the jivatma or rather atma, which is also paramatma, which is the one non dual atma, chaitanya svarupa or brahman.

Hence atma is indeed brahman.

Differences

It is a fact that there is different names and forms.

The fact that there are names and forms, will obviously go alongwith the presence of differences.

Differences can be in terms of attributes, and also in terms of degrees of the same attribute.

For example glow is an attribute.
Shine is a degree of glow.

These differences are what make the jagad, however these differences are all existing, but share a common existence, they exist out of a common edifice, which is the attributeless being.

I am that attributeless being, which gives reality and existence to all the attributeful beings. In me there is no more or less, I am purnatvam.
When we say less glow and compare glow of a candle to a sun or star, we only look at the intensity or density of the attribute, but if you look at the truth of both, you will see the relative moreness or lessness is only in terms of the manifest attribute level differencr, but the truth of both candle light and suns light is light itself , which is fully light and in itself lacks nothing, neither is subject to growth or decline. It is pUrnah.

Parameshvara is an attributeful being, who is the cause of the universe of attributes, he manifests and withdraws the attributeful jagad into himself.

All the jivas are also within this parameshvara, but appear to have birth, death and are subject to laws of  karma.

The talk in this sphere is talk of duality or differences.

But the atman resides at the level of one being, which is the giver of being to both supreme being and the individual beings that take shape in this world, which is upheld by the supreme being.
So atma is pUrnah and this purna atma alone appears as both individual and supreme being.

The individual being itself, in that way can be considered an offshoot or a glory of the supreme being.

The individual being is an imagination of the supreme being, who manifests and pulls back the individual beings and is present as the supreme maintainer of the universe.