Om pūrnamadah pūrnamidam pūrnāt pūrnamudacyate pūrnasya pūrnamādāya pūrnamevāvaśisyate
This prayer which we chant in the end of our class is a very profound prayer which contained the insight of entire vedānta teaching. Therefore let us understand it better so we can do the prayer full heartedly.
pūrnamadah - pūrnam (completeness) adah (that) - completeness is that. pūrnamidam - pūrnam (completeness) idam (this) - completeness is this.
idam (this) is refer to something immediately available for perception, something directly known, available for objectification. It is any external object which can be known by me through my means of knowledge, which is the entire world including this body, mind, sense complex. So when the verse says pūrnamidam - completeness is this, means this entire world is completeness, absolute fullness, wholeness.
adah (that) is always used to refer to something remote from the speaker in time, place or understanding, in another word it is not available for objectification. What is not available for objectification? The objectifier - the subject, which is aham - I, is the only thing not available for objectification.
However, adah - that indicates something to be known, something not yet directly known because it is remote from the knower in time, place or in term of knowledge. If that so, how can adah - that, means aham - I? Am I remote to myself? I am certainly not remote in terms of time and place, but I may be remote in term of knowledge. In fact I do not know the true nature of myself, which is fullness Brahman. This knowledge about myself only can be known through śruti, therefore this remoteness is in the term of knowledge - something that is yet to be known.
pūrnam idam - completeness is the object - world, and pūrnam adah - completeness is the subject - me. These two statements seem to have same kind of defect which fails to include the other, since the meaning of completeness can't exclude anything. Therefore this pūrnam - world has to include that pūrnam - I and vice versa. What is really being said is that there is only pūrnam. The seemingly differences of aham - I and idam - world are swallowed by pūrnam - that limitless fullness which śruti calls Brahman.
Why śruti has to do this kind of confusing statement to arrive at the truth? Why not just directly said that everything here subject and object are pūrnam alone? Because śruti needs to have agreement with our everyday experience first, where I do feel I am a distinct entity separate from the entire world. Furthermore, I don't experience completeness neither the world. It is very difficult to see how either aham - me or idam - world can be pūrnam, even more difficult to see how both can be pūrnam.
For me and the world to include each other as one non-separated whole, both must be the effect of a common cause, and that cause necessarily must be not only the material cause but also the intelligent cause. Consider an empirical example, two siblings are born from the same material cause, but they are not born of the same intelligent cause, therefore they are two different entities. But every single object in my dream is the same, non-different from each other because they come from one single material and intelligent cause which is me. They may appear many in the dream, but they are projected and resolved into one dreamer alone. In the same way, me the subject and entire world the object are seemingly different, but they are only one of the nature of sat-cit-ānanda-brahman. Therefore nothing is away from pūrnam.
pūrnāt pūrnam udacyate - from completeness, completeness comes forth.
Pūrnam - absolute limitless must necessarily be formless, because it has to include everything to be said as limitless. Any kind of form means some kind of boundary; any kind of boundary means that something is left out. Śruti reveals that what is limitless and formless is Brahman, the cause of creation is the very content of aham - I and idam - world. Therefore this complete world arises from that complete Brahman which remains complete supporting and pervading entire creation.
pūrnasya pūrnam ādāya - taking away pūrnam from pūrnam, adding pūrnam to pūrnam.
pūrnam eva avaśisyate - pūrnam alone remains.
No matter how many new creations are there, and no matter how many perished, Brahman remains untouched. This wholeness Brahman is the very meaning of aham - I, remain untouched no matter what is added or taken away from me. Because there is nothing that can be added to or taken away from absolute fullness. Any "adding to" or "taking away" is purely an appearance. All difference which can be added to or taken away is not absolute but an appearance. It is mithyā - that which makes an appearance but lacks of reality. I alone is pūrnam satyam.
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