What is kham brahma? What is ether? Is ether same as brahman?

Transcript

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sound and what is the concept of kama, brahman, vipanishad? Since ether is all-pervading, is it the same as impersonal brahman? Answer, no. Ether and impersonal brahman are different because ether is material and brahman is spiritual.
Although both are all-pervading, there is, there are different degrees of all-pervasiveness. Just like Brahmaji and Yamaraja are also said to be omniscient. But Brahmaji’s omniscience is within this universe.
Whereas Krishna’s omniscience is of all universes. Similarly, when we say ether is all-pervading, ether is only all-pervading within this particular universe. In another universe, there may also be ether which is all-pervading.
But beyond the whole material existence, the spiritual existence is not pervaded by ether. Whereas brahman, the brahmajyoti pervades all of existence, material and spiritual. So, brahmajyoti is the substratum where everything else exists, including all of material existence.
Prabhupada writes in one corner of the brahmajyoti where the material manifestation exists, there all the universes come about. So, in that sense, the two are substantially different. The brahman is spiritual, ether is material and ether is only all-pervading within the universes.
Whereas brahman is all-pervading beyond all the universes also, the substratum of all of existence. And space, gravity, sky, ether, sound. Sound is substantially different from ether.
Sound actually is transmitted through ether. So, just as when we have, we say that some place there is no mobile connection, internet connection is not there. What does that mean? That means there is the medium that is necessary for the transmission that is not available.
The medium can refer to maybe a proper tower or some other technology by which the satellite arrays can come till there. So, sound vibration from one place to another cannot reach because the medium is not there from this point to that point. So, the basic point is that medium is required for transmission of sound.
So, now we are talking here about the material sound that is transmitted through a cell phone but in general for the transmission of sound of any kind, there is a medium that is required. That medium may not be as of now understood by modern science but the Vedic scripture explain that there is a medium through which sound transmits and that medium is called as ether. So, now sometimes the word Khama or the word Akash may be translated as sky.
But when we talk about sky, the word sky in English has different connotations. Actually, from the scientific point of view, there is no such thing as a sky. What I look up and I see as a sky, I may see maybe a bluish spherical ceiling over my head but actually if I reach there, there is no such thing as a ceiling.
It is actually the sense of having an aerial ceiling above us is usually created by the combination of the elements that are present in the atmosphere and our eyes, their interaction. So, that is certainly not what is referred to by ether. When Prabhupada uses the word sky, generally Srila Prabhupada in his translations of unfamiliar Sanskrit words and concepts took up simple English words even if they were imperfect in conveying all the import of that particular concept.
Just like for the word avatar, Srila Prabhupada would use the word incarnation. Incarnation is not exactly an accurate word because incarnation has the word karna and karna refers to carnivorous. Karna refers to flesh.
So, incarnation refers to come in flesh literally speaking. So, that is not the understanding of avatar. Avatar comes in a transcendental form, not in a form of flesh.
But words are basically handles for concepts. If I have a big suitcase to lift, the suitcase has no handle, it will become very difficult to lift. So, the concept is like the suitcase and the word is like the handle to lift that suitcase.
So, now if both the concept and the word are unfamiliar, that means suitcase is very big and the handle is also not very convenient, then actually moving that suitcase will become almost impossible. So, similarly if the concept is unfamiliar and the word for it is also unfamiliar, things will become very incomprehensible for most people. That is why Srila Prabhupada would use familiar handles, familiar words for unfamiliar concepts and then he would give philosophical clarification which would make sure that that familiar word which is used does not lead to misunderstanding about the meaning.
So, then he will use the word incarnation, but then he will say that the incarnations do not have a material form. Like that he may use the word sky, but then in the other classes and other places he will explain to us very clearly that this actually sky is not what we in English call a sky. It refers to the substratum within the material world which allows all kinds of radiation and transmissions to take place and the transmissions which are centered on sound are all through the medium of ether.
So, ether is essentially the medium for which, medium through which sound vibration goes through. Now, that is why, now what about space and cavity? These are very general words. They can, we will have to see the context in which they are used and space can also be used sometimes roughly as a translation of ether or sky, but again there are qualifications.
But we have to understand that these words also have some English meanings which cannot apply to ether. So, ether basically, the simplest way to understand it is, it is the within the material world that which is the all-pervading substratum, all-pervading background that allows sound to get transmitted, that is ether. Khambrahma is a term that will have different meanings in different contexts.
In Vedanta Sutra, in the first chapter, Baldevidya Bhushan in his commentary Govinda Bhashya explains how various terms that normally refer to specific elements, they within the context of the Upanishads refer to the Supreme Brahman. So, for example, in the Gayatri Mantra, when we chant, the normal understanding might be, if you look at the literal Sanskrit words, we are offering respects to Suryadevi. But actually, if we look at the overall context in which this Gayatri Mantra is used, we understand that it is not just Suryadev.
Suryadev has his Aradhyadev as Suryanarayan, the form of Narayan who is the presiding deity of Sun God. And when we are offering worship, we are offering worship not just to Sun God, but to his Aradhyadev Suryanarayan. So, like that, this is an example where normally the word Surya would refer to Suryadev, but if you see the overall context, you understand that it refers not to Surya, but to Suryanarayan.
So, similarly, in the Vedanta Sutra, there are various words which might normally mean one thing, they may refer to Kham, but in the context of the Upanishads, where what is being referred to is clearly the absolute truth, it is not some contextual relative truth, then it is understood that it refers to the Khamabrahma, actually it refers to the absolute truth. So, the Khama can sometimes be said to be absolute truth in the sense that it also has some of the characteristics of the universe, the absolute truth is all, the Brahman is all-pervading everywhere, whereas the Kham is all-pervading within the universe only, but like that it has partial attributes of everything else. So, Baldev Vidyabhumi says that if you say that Kham refers entirely to the absolute truth alone, then Janmadyasteyata, it is known that the Brahma is the source of everything.
So, if Brahma is the source of everything and if it is source of everything, then it will also be the source of Khama, because Kham is also one of the things. So, if Kham itself is Brahman, then we cannot have Kham being the source of Kham. Therefore, he explains by this logic that when it is clearly said that Brahma is the source of everything including Khama, then if Kham is referred to in certain context as Khamabrahma as the absolute truth, then that Khama is referring not to the specific element Khama, but it is referring to Brahman.
And just as Khama has some of the attributes of Brahman, like all-pervadingness,