Brahmā-Rudra Saṃvāda

The Brahmā-Rudra Saṃvāda (the dialogue of Brahmā and Rudra) is told in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 350. It is part of the Nārāyaṇīya. In it Mahādeva (Bhagavān Śiva) meets Brahmā on the Vaijayasta mountain and asks whom Brahmā meditates on. Brahmā answers by describing the paramātman (the supreme Self), the four vyūhas (forms of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa) and the one way to enter Vāsudeva.

Where it stands in the Nārāyaṇīya

The Nārāyaṇīya covers Chapters 334 to 351 of the Mokshadharma Parva. This dialogue comes near its end. It follows the Apāntaratama narrative (Chapter 349) and comes before the last chapter of the Nārāyaṇīya (Chapter 351).

Before it, the Nārāyaṇīya has told of the beginnings of the Pāñcarātra teaching, Nārāyaṇa’s own showing of himself to Nārada, the Varāha piṇḍa-sṛshṭi, the Hayagrīva avatāra and the passing on of the Sāttvata dharma. This dialogue then describes the supreme paramātman and the four vyūhas in the words of Brahmā and Mahādeva, the two greatest powers below Nārāyaṇa.

The setting on Vaijayasta mountain

Brahmā meditates every day on the Vaijayasta mountain. The mountain is in the Kshīra-sāgara (the ocean of milk), either within it or on its shore. The Purāṇas place Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa in the Kshīra-sāgara, where he rests on Śesha-nāga with Lakshmī Devī.

The text says Brahmā does this nitya, daily. It is not an occasional practice but his steady sādhana (spiritual discipline). Brahmā creates and keeps the world with his four faces and his will. Even so, each day he turns his mind to the paramātman, from whom his own power to create comes.

Mahādeva comes and bows

Mahādeva comes down to the Vaijayasta mountain with his attendant bhūta-gaṇas (his host of spirits). He finds Brahmā deep in meditation. Mahādeva then bows down to Brahmā in full prostration. The Nārāyaṇīya does not rank Śiva and Brahmā against each other here.

Mahādeva then asks Brahmā a direct question: “Whom do you meditate on with this strength? Whose contemplation brings you into this state?” Bhagavān Śiva is the great yogī of the world and has great yogic power. Yet he asks to learn who is the object of Brahmā’s deepest meditation.

Brahmā describes the paramātman

Brahmā answers that he meditates on the one nirguṇa Virāṭ Purusha. He is the supreme being without guṇas (qualities). He is the single cause of all existence. He is the Virāṭ, the great cosmic Person, who holds and underlies everything that has appeared.

Brahmā tells Mahādeva what this paramātman is not. It is not bound by the guṇas. It is not limited by time. It is not made of the tattvas (principles) of Prakṛti. The four vyūhas flow from it, yet it is beyond the vyūha forms.

The Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 15, calls this being Purushottama. The Purushottama is beyond both the kshara (the 24 tattvas of Prakṛti) and the akshara (the witness Purusha, the 25th principle).

The four vyūhas

Brahmā then names the four vyūhas that flow from this paramātman.

  1. Aniruddha is the first vyūha. He is linked with ahaṃkāra (the sense of “I”), the subtlest level of the individual self.
  2. Pradyumna is the second vyūha. He is linked with manas (the mind), the creative principle of the mind.
  3. Saṅkarshaṇa is the third vyūha. He is linked with the jīva (the individual soul).
  4. Vāsudeva is the highest vyūha. He is the paramātman in its most direct vyūha form, linked with the 25th principle, the pure nirguṇa.

The four vyūhas make two orders. In the order of the world’s coming forth, the movement is from Vāsudeva through Saṅkarshaṇa and Pradyumna to Aniruddha. That is from pure consciousness, through the principle of the jīva and the principle of the mind, to the individual self. The order of moksha (liberation) is the reverse. It goes from Aniruddha through Pradyumna and Saṅkarshaṇa back to Vāsudeva. That is from the individual self, through mind and jīva, back to pure consciousness.

Only the nirguṇa enter Vāsudeva

Brahmā tells Śiva that only those who are themselves nirguṇa can enter Vāsudeva.

  • The Vāsudeva principle is itself without guṇas. A being that still carries the colour of sattva, rajas or tamas cannot join what has no colour. So the way through the vyūhas asks that the guṇas be shed one by one. Only when even sattva is gone can the jīva enter Vāsudeva.
  • The liberation of the Pāñcarātra and Sāttvata path is therefore not a rise into svarga or into a refined sattva state. It is liberation into the nirguṇa itself, a full loosening of the guṇas in the paramātman.

The Śuka-Nirvāṇa narrative (Chapters 330 to 333), which comes before the Nārāyaṇīya, shows this same liberation in the life of Śuka Maharshi. He shed tamas, then rajas, and last sattva, and reached the brahmapada (the state of Brahman).

The twenty-sixth principle

The Vasishṭha-Karāla-Janaka Saṃvāda (Chapters 302 to 308) speaks of a twenty-sixth principle. It lies beyond the twenty-fourth, the tattvas of Prakṛti, and beyond the twenty-fifth, the witness Purusha. It is the ultimate ground of all.

Sources

  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 350 (Brahmā-Rudra Saṃvāda, within the Nārāyaṇīya, Chapters 334 to 351)
  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 349 (Apāntaratama narrative) and Chapter 351 (the last chapter of the Nārāyaṇīya), for the place of the dialogue
  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 330 to 333 (Śuka-Nirvāṇa)
  • Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapters 302 to 308 (Vasishṭha-Karāla-Janaka Saṃvāda)
  • Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter 15 (Purushottama)