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Pippalayana Instructs on the Nature of the Lord
Raja Nimi said: “Please explain to me the true nature and character of Paramatman, the Perfect Being called Narayana.”
Pippalayana said: “Narayana is the cause of creation, preservation and destruction of this universe. He is Himself without a cause. He exists in the three states of wakefulness, dream and deep sleep and also in other states as Narayana or Brahman the Eternal, or the Highest Truth. He is the power-house from which the body, senses, mind, intellect and Prana derive the force for their activities, and animated by Him alone, the body, the senses, the mind and the Prana exist and do their functions. Know Him, O king!
“Neither the mind nor speech, nor the eye nor intellect, nor Prana nor the senses comprehend It, just as the flyings parks from a glowing fire,or the flames cannot understand the fire from which they spring. Even the Vedas which spring from Brahman cannot define Brahman fully and directly. They only teach you to realise Brahman by negative epithets. Though the words are the means of knowing Brahman, though they explain His meaning, they cannot manifest Him at all. They present Him as an inference. This Atman must be admitted as Real Existence, because negative description even is impossible in the absence of real existence.
“Brahman shines as both the subtle cause and gross effect and also as that which is different from them and their cause, because it has diverse powers. Action and cause are manifest as Brahman, because Brahman of great and many powers is the cause of action and cause. The Prakriti or Maya which was one in the beginning before the creation, divided into the three qualities viz., Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. It became Sutra or the thread by the energy of action. It became Mahat by the energy of understanding. Then it became the Jivatman through Ahamkara. Brahman also shines as deities, the senses, the functions, the objects, pleasure or pain, and others.
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