Akshara: The Indestructible Reality with No Beginning or End:
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad – 3.8 | The Dialog Yajnavalkya and Gargi In the third chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, there is a profound philosophical dialog between Rishi Yajnavalkya and the revered Gargi.
- What is it that pervades the whole universe?
Gargi asks, “What exists between sky and earth, and all that is above and beyond them, in every direction?”
Yajnavalkya said, ‘Gargi, it is space.
- Gargi then asks, “If so, what is space woven into?”
Yajnavalkya explains:
“O Gargi, those who know the imperishable call it Akshara. It is in this Akshara that space is woven, both lengthwise and crosswise. By its command alone, the sun and the moon remain established in their respective positions.”
The Akshara referred to here by Yajnavalkya is that which is imperishable and beyond all change. When its true nature is realized, it becomes clear that it has neither a beginning nor an end.
What, in truth, is Akshara?
Is Akshara an object? a word? a sound?
Akshara is not to be taken as an object, as a word, as a sound. It is a divine form, without parts, without marks.
This eternal form is diffused through the whole universe. It is both the foundation of the universe and that which transcends all.
When we spiritually experience the Akshara form, we may see the universe’s expansion as its expansion and its contraction as its contraction.
How can Akshara be realized?
When a person, in the waking state, realizes their form as being without any parts or identifying characteristics, they begin to recognize their true nature as the imperishable Akshara.
In that realization, the individual identity of “I” and the boundaries associated with it, which have a beginning and an end, dissolve.
What remains is pure awareness.
To abide in that pure awareness is the state of Brahman!
Sri Gurubhyo Namaha 🙏
