86 - The All-Pervading Infinite Cannot Be Finitized | Swami Tattwamayananda

-9th chapter: verses 4, 5<br />-The lecture was given by Swami Tattwamayananda on June 11, 2021.<br />-4th verse: “All this is pervaded by Me in unmanifest form. All beings exist in Me, but I don’t exist in them.”<br />-The infinite pervades the finite. The finite is not a creation or a product of the infinite. For example, the clay pot is pervaded by clay. Under the dualistic system, the clay pot is a product of clay. In Advaita, the clay pot is clay itself with a different form and name. Before manufacturing, it existed as clay. After it is broken, it is clay. The clay pot is only an apparent creation.<br />-Similarly, the phenomenal world is unreal in the absolute sense. It is real only in the relative sense.<br />-The word “Idam” in this verse refers to the entire phenomenal creation that we perceive with our senses of perception, senses of action, mind and reasoning power. This Idam is finite and is pervaded by Me, which is the infinite, attribute-less, transcendental, all-pervading, indescribable absolute reality.<br />-Just as a thread organizes the flowers in a garland, this absolute reality harmonizes and unifies everything we perceive in this world.<br />-We cannot conceive of a gold ornament without gold. Similarly, we cannot conceive of anything that is devoid of Atman.<br />-The absolute reality does not dwell exclusively in any being. All things together do not exhaust the absolute reality. It is not a numerical totality. Rather, as the essence of everything, it is the essential totality of everything. The absolute reality is infinite and cannot be exhausted in the finiteness of different beings.<br />-For example, pots are made of clay. Thousands of pots together do not equal the totality of clay. Clay is the cause and the pots are the effect. The effects can never be equal to the cause. Cause has the possibility of taking many effects – for example, clay can become a clay pot or a clay jar. The clay pot can never become a clay jar.<br />-When we become a devotee and meditate on God, then the inner