VEDANTA
UPANISHADS
Upanishads are not a logical treatise. They are the
quintessential spiritual experience expressed in the moment of its occurrence
in the language that presented itself. It is simple when it corresponds to our
experience, abstruse when our minds are not at it, do not sense the same experience.
As we grow and gain more experience and turn to them again, it becomes simple.
Yet Upanishads show the way and do not give a final product. Atma or Brahman as
ultimate only gives a name instead of ‘x’. It is as good as x. Its real nature
is not known. It cannot be known by reading Upanishads or even the exhaustive
commentaries. The differences in commentaries establish the mystery of what it
is.
Siddhantas
Different schools of thought have arisen in interpreting
the Upanishads.
Soul is a given for religion. It is axiomatic and admits of
no proof. It is that which experiences everything and remains as the unchanging
substratum while the body and mind change constantly.
(adopted from Kanchi Paramacharya’s upadesa)
{The individual soul is called Jivathma (soul in a living
being, note, not just of humans) and God is Paramatma (the Supreme Soul)}.
1. Dvaita: Jivatma
will always be distinct and separate from the Paramatma. When the Jivatma
attains moksha (which is the desideratum or the goal), it would enjoy infinite
bliss by worshipping the Paramatma.
2. VishishtAdvaita:
Even though the Jivatma will be a separate soul doing Bhakti toward Paramatma
in moksha, it will have the feeling of the Paramatma immanent in it as its
soul.
3.
Saiva-siddhanta: When the Sun rises, the stars do not lose their
existence; they just disappear from view, because of the luminosity of the Sun.
So also in moksha, the Jivatma, though it does not lose its existence, will
have its own little consciousness submerged in the Absolute Consciousness of
the Paramatma.
4. Advaita: is
different from all these. Moksha is not a place or a world. When the Atma is
released from the bondage of the mind, that is moksha. It may be right here and
now. One can be ‘released’ even when alive, not necessarily only after death.
Dvaita, VisishtAdvaita and Advaita are neither true nor
untrue. They are theories. Life is the truth.
Upanishads 1
Vedanta applies the method of science to spirituality.
Science proceeds from some known facts, which are self-evident, i.e. they
cannot be proved, and builds understanding and knowledge from there. Likewise,
in spirituality, soul is the self-evident reality. It cannot be proved. Vedanta
then explains its nature and relationships. It is not a cogent, logical
treatise. It is a collection of the findings of the seers. The seers are not
dialecticians. They are thatvadarsis, those that see reality as it is. It is
not clear to us because we are yet to get that perception. Being single-minded,
we can one day attain to it.
Sankara says that this word is derived by adding the
prefixes ‘upa’ (meaning near) and ‘ni’ (with certainty) to the root ‘sad’ which
means ‘to destroy’, ‘to reach’, and ‘to loosen’. Thus the meaning of the word
‘Upanishad’ is that it is the knowledge that destroys the seeds of worldly
existence such as ignorance in the case of those seekers of liberation who,
after becoming free from all desires, approach (upa sad) this knowledge.
Sankara lays down conditions for acquiring liberating
knowledge that are daunting. Gita makes it clear that the path of knowledge is
not for the run-of-the-mill (like me). Rajaji says that knowledge that is not
put to action is useless tinsel. On to useless tinsel.
Upanishads - 2
Upanishads are at the last portion of Vedas and hence
called Vedanta. It has an implied etymological meaning of ultimate knowledge.
In fact, a question asked by a guru to a disciple who
appears puffed up that he had mastered everything was, ‘What is it knowing
which everything becomes known?’ The know-all student says, ‘That is out of
syllabus.’ (We shall see it later).
Upanishads talk of no personal god except in two places in
the ten most critiqued Upanishads, and it is not a serious link to any argument
advanced in them. It is a search for truth, the basis of life. It is by
question and answer and by thought experiments. The subject matter is such that
no laboratory experiment is possible.
It is asserted that scripture is the only pramana to know
the soul and god, and also equally that scripture is no authority to know what
we can know by direct experience of worldly things. This distinction, sometimes
forgotten, is unique to Hinduism, I think.
Sri S.N.Sastri quotes Adi Sankara:
Sri Sankara says in his Bhashya on the Bhagavadgita, ch.18,
verse 66: "The validity of the Vedas holds good only with regard to
matters which cannot be known through such other valid means of knowledge as
direct perception, etc., because the validity of the Vedas lies in revealing
what is beyond direct perception. Even a hundred Vedic statements cannot become
valid if they say that fire is cold or non-luminous. If a Vedic text says that
fire is cold or non-luminous, one should assume that the intended meaning of
the text is different, for otherwise its validity cannot be maintained. One
should not interpret it in such a way as to contradict some other valid means
of knowledge".
What candour and clarity!
Upanishads – 3
A set of three texts, called prasthanatraya (प्रस्थानत्रय), is
the basis of metaphysical philosophy of Hinduism. They are the Upanishads
(Sruti श्रुतिः, original), Brahmasutras (ब्रह्मसूत्र
a
cryptic codification of the Upanishadic teachings) and Gita (Smriti स्मृति,
again based on the Upanishads). Vedas are considered apourusheya (अपौरुषेय,
anadi अनादि), coeval with Brahman. That is a call on
faith. Commentaries on these are voluminous, cared for by a handful.
Ten Upanishads have been popular among Vedantins. They are:
Isa, Kena, Kata, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittiriya,
Swetasvatara, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka.
I will give the salient points of the Upanishads, but I
must confess that apart from gaps in my understanding, a summary like this
overlooks finer points.
Upanishads – 4
An introduction to the framework under which we are called
upon to understand the Upanishads by the commentators may be useful. I owe this
to Swami Paramarthananda. My grasp is limited and I would make many mistakes.
May Swami pardon me.
Without a framework, there can be no progress in any field.
It is like a constitution. What is the sanctity for it? It is intuited and
evolved and is enriched by upright people.
Why are human beings different? That is sought to be
addressed by purusharthas (पुरुषार्थ). Dharma,
artha, kama, moksha (धर्म, अर्थ, काम
मोक्ष) are
the four purusharthas. Vedas have purva kanda and uttara kanda. Purva kanda
covers the first three purusharthas and uttarakanda covers moksha. Readers need
not be worried that they will be pushed to moksha by reading about Upanishads.
I stay rooted in wordly things despite an occasional dip in them.
It is not as though human life is skewed towards moksha.
Mokasha comes at the end. The other three are genuine pursuits. Swami
Ranganathananda: ‘Indian spiritual tradition does not frown, or look down, upon
kama, organic satisfaction or artha, wealth, which is a means to kama, but
treats them as valid pursuits, or purusharthas.’
Varnasrama Dharma is integral to vedas. It is not central
or indispensable to Vedanta, but allusions will be found.
Isavasyopanishad (ईशावास्योपनिषत्)
This Upanishad occurs in Sukla Yajur Veda. It derives its
name from the opening line.
ॐ ईशा वास्यमिदँ सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।
तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्यस्विद्धनम् ।। १
।।
1. The world is pervaded by Iswara (god). Bear it in mind
and have a spirit of renunciation. Do not covet anybody’s wealth.
God is immanant as well as transcendental. This idea will
figure throughout the Upanishads.
2. One should desire to live a full life span by doing the
prescribed acts. That is the way to attain detachment.
3. Destruction of the self leads to dark worlds.
4. Atma is one, unmoving. It precedes the mind always. It
moves, still unmoving; it is near and also far; it is inside everyone and also
outside. This is expansion of the idea that the world is pervaded by Iswara. It
also points to the unity of Atma, its indivisibility and wholeness. This idea
of Ekam and Advitiyam will be found in all uoanishads.
5. When one sees all beings in his self and himself in all
beings, one does not nurse hatred and has no scope for infatuation or grief.
This idea is reflected in Bhagavad-Gita as well.
6. Atma is everywhere (व्याप्नोति इति आत्मा),
self-evident, formless (nothing great about religions which claim to have found
this out, it was believed so thousands of years ago), invulnerable, pure and
faultless, the force behind the mind, self-formed.
Prayer for paragathi (परगति)
The Upanishad ends with a prayer (recited by believers at
the twilight of life);
‘O Sun, show me your real, auspicious form retracting your
rays. I am that who resides in your core. Let my breath, etc. mingle with the
respective elements from which they were drawn. Remember me, O Lord. Lead us up
the right path earned by good deeds and destroy the debilitating sins.’
The slokas:
हिरण्मयेन पात्रेण सत्यस्यापिहितं मुखम् । तत्त्वं
पूषन्नपावृणु सत्यधर्माय दृष्टये ॥
पूषन्नेकर्षे यम सूर्य प्राजापत्य व्यूह रश्मीन्।
समूह तेजो यत्ते रूपं कल्याणतमं तत्ते पश्यामि योऽसावसौ पुरुषः सोऽहमस्मि ॥
वायुरनिलममृत । मथेदं भस्मान्तꣳ शरीरम् । ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृतꣳ स्मर । ॐ क्रतो स्मर कृतꣳ स्मर ॥
अग्ने नय सुपथा राये अस्मान् विश्वानि देव वयुनानि
विद्वान् ।
युयोध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमेनो भूयिष्ठां ते नमउक्तिं
विधेम॥
Kenopanishad
It occurs in Sama Veda and is named after the first word of
the Upanishad.
The question is asked, ‘At whose command do the senses,
life-breath and mind function?’
Answer:
It is the ear of the ear, mind of the mind, tongue of the
tongue, the eye of the eye and the life breath of the life breath. The eye,
tongue and mind do not reach there. We do not know it as it is. Therefore, we
are at a loss of words to instruct about it. It is different from the known and
different from the unknown also. It is not that which your senses grasp, but
that because of which your senses function. That, know as Brahman. (The idea is
Brahman is not an object and its real nature is ineffable).
If you think that you have known it well, surely what you
know is slight. What you have learnt about it from the devatas is also slight.
It remains to be understood properly. The one who does not think that he has
understood well, who neither thinks that he has not understood nor understood,
knows. (The idea is that one cannot grasp it with the senses and all partial
knowledge is defective. The real knowledge is experiential and not relatable
like any ordinary experience).
A story is related to instruct that the one who knows
Brahman excels others who do not know.
Brahman is like lightning; like winking of the eye. There
often arises a fleeting feeling that the mind reaches it and feels near it. It
must be meditated upon as residing in all things.
Kenopanishad (An explanation)
Upanishads are abstruse and require commentary and the
commentators differ. I have no qualification or credentials to present their
content – knowledge and understanding, good conduct and spiritual practice.
Why do I write then?
From my school days, I used to write to understand and
teach someone if a victim was found. That is the reason I write and am thankful
that a few victims could be found.
As I said in the beginning, Upanishads are about truth. It
proceeds from religion or belief. The question is what is the driving force of
the universe? It is presumed there is such a force. That force is called
Brahman. It is not god in the ordinary sense in which we use god. The enquiry
proceeds to understand Brahman. There is however difficulty. Brahman is not
like anything else we try to know. It is not an object that can be identified
by the senses by observation and convention. It is the cause of the senses and
not the object of their perception. In Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which we shall
see later, the same idea is phrased as, ‘Who can understand that which
understands?’
Is there anyone who has understood? If the answer is
negative, there will be no further enquiry. But, the seers who have understood
have been there and they appear periodically. They validate Brahman, as it
were. Their personality rather than teaching instructs non-verbally. Jesus
inspired the apostles, Ramakrishna inspired Vivekananda, and so on.
The Upanishad defines someone who knows but it is a riddle.
That requires commentary and background, which I skip for want of clarity on my
part. In simple words, just as Brahman is not to be understood in the same
paradigm in which we understand all else, the knower of Brahman is not to be
prototyped or typecast. He neither claims to know nor not to know. His
knowledge is in his being, not in his belief or words.
Is it then that only a few can know? Thank heavens, we can
see about other things. No, everyone gets a flash if he is serious about it,
but it is fleeting. One has to progress by meditating on it.
That is the textual knowledge I am sharing. It is like
seeing the skeleton of a dinosaur in a museum. The real dinosaur I have not
seen and hence, I am falling woefully short.
Katopanishad -1
This occurs in the Kata Sakha (branch) of Krishna Yajur
Veda, and hence the name.
A story is related about Nachiketas. Nachiketas is
steadfast (दृढचित्तः) about learning Atma Vidya and
is not swayed by prospect of any wealth. The teacher is yama himself, the
dreaded god. It is an imaginative setting where the agent of mortality
instructs on immortality to one who rejects worldly wealth.
The story goes as follows.
Vajasavas performed a yagna. A yagna involves a number of
gifts. He had a son named Nachiketas. Nachiketas saw that his father was giving
away cows that were past the milch stage and quite old. That would entail the
worst of hell for the giver, thought Nachiketas. Peeved at it, he approached
his father and asked him, ‘To whom are you going to give me away?’ The father
said in anger, ‘I give you away to Yama.’
Nachiketas took leave of his father and proceeded to the
world of Yama. Yama was on tour then. Nachiketas waited for three days fasting
awaiting the return of Yama. When Yama returned, he was upset that a Brahmana
was left starving for three days and offered him three boons.
As the first boon, he seeks that his father be kind to him.
It was readily conceded. As a second boon, he wants to know the Agni worship
which entitles one for Swarga (heaven). Nachiketas asks the third boon, ‘I want
to know the destiny of Atma after it leaves the mortal frame. Opinion seems
divided on it. Please instruct me the truth about it.’
Yama tries to divert him, saying, ‘Even the gods have been
in doubt about it. It is subtle and abstruse. Asm me another boon. Do not
insist on it.’
Nachiketas is unmoved, ‘If even gods had difficulty in
knowing it, there is no one else from whom I can learn it. I need only that
knowledge.’
Yama tempts him, ‘Ask for descendants with longevity,
cattle, elephants, gold, etc. Ask for vast stretches of land you can rule over.
Get longevity for yourself. Ask for a number of Apsras ladies that serve the
gods to do your bidding. Quit the thought to know about death.’
Nachiketas replied, ‘All that you promise will one day be
yours. A man can never be satiated with material things. I am keen to know
about immortality
only.’
Impressed by the steadfastness of Nachiketas and his
unswerving desire to get to the spiritual truth, Yama instructs him.
Katopanishad - 2
We shall now see the salient aspects of Yama's advice to
Nachiketas, who confronts Death to conquer death. We shall proceed in infant
steps as it is weighty matter.
There are two things श्रेयस and प्रेयस.
Shreyas
takes its follower to great good whereas the one taking to preyas loses his
human pursuit. A courageous one prefers shreyas whereas a dumbwit chooses
preyas. Nachiketas preferred shreyas.
Atma jnanam does not strike one who is infatuated by
worldly things. He considers this world to be the only reality and proceeds
from birth to birth.
Swami Sivananda writes:
"The Pleasant vs. The Good
One is good while another is pleasant. Blessed is he who,
between them, chooses the good alone (Sreyas); but who chooses what is pleasant
(Preyas) loses the true end.
Sreyas is the good, the Supreme Self, the knowledge of
which leads to Moksha or the final emancipation.
Preyas is that which is pleasant. It is sensual pleasure.
He who treads the path of truth, who accepts the good,
attains immortality and eternal bliss; but he who chooses the pleasant, i.e.
sensual pleasures, loses the goal of life, undergoes various sorts of miseries,
sorrows and troubles, and is caught in the wheel of births and deaths.
Sreyo-Marga is the path of knowledge. Preyo-Marga is the
path of ignorance or the path of pleasure.The path of knowledge and the path of
pleasure are thrown open to a man. He can choose any path he likes. Just as the
swan separates the milk from a mixture of milk and water and drinks, milk
alone, so also the wise man separates the good in life, and follows the good
alone."
My comments:
The story shows how Nachiketas withstood the temptation of
what is sensually attractive and insisted on getting hold of the Truth. Yama
now emphasises the same point. The truth is often missed because we are carried
away by the frills. This less
on is useful not in just vedanta, but in any serious
pursuit. Much of the cross talk we have in FB or parliament is due to the noise
interference, getting away from the area of focus either to obfuscate or in
frayed temper.
Brahman or Atman
(Chapter 2 of Bhagavad Gita mirrors this)
Brahman has been meditated upon diversely. Brahman has to
be understood from a proper teacher who knows it as ‘not the other’. It is
subtle and not within the reach of logic.
It is beyond the senses, all-pervasive subtly,
well-established in the cave of buddhi, ancient, and can be realized only by
adhyatama yoga (meditation on the self). Knowing it, one transcends happiness
and grief. One who extracts it by discrimination and understands it as the
basis of dharma enjoys bliss.
Atma is not born of anything; nor is anything born of it.
It is unborn, eternal, indestructible. It neither kills nor is killed. It is
subtler than the subtlest and greater than the greatest. It resides in the
hearts of beings. One who has given up worldly desires realises it. It travels
far though stationary; it goes all over though lying; who else can realise it
except me? It is the formless within forms; the eternal within the transient;
great and omnipresent. It cannot be obtained by discourse, intelligence,
erudition. It manifests to him who meditates on it. One who is of uncontrolled
senses and bad conduct, and has not quietened the mind by proper focus, cannot
obtain it by prajnana (intelligence).
Om, in brief, is that which the Vedas adore, all
austerities are directed at, and the goal of brahmacharis (students seeking
Brahman). It is the best of holds and the highest knowledge. It is the way to
immortality.
Consider body as chariot, mind as reins. Intelligence as
charioteer, Jiva as a traveller, sense organs as horses and sense objects as
the path. The Jiva who is composite body-sense organs-mind is described as
experiencer. One with uncontrolled mind and non-discriminating intelligence
lets the horses (sense organs) go astray. One who has mind in control and
intelligence well directed has his sense organs under tight leash. The former
comes to grief and the latter attains good status.
The subtle forces that control the sense organs are
superior to sense organs; mind to those subtle forces; intelligence to mind;
atma to intelligence; avyaktam (the primordial principle) to atma; purusha to
avyaktam. Purusha is supreme. (Purusha is Brahman). It is hidden and not open
to view to all. Only those with keen spiritual insight are able to discern
Brahman.
Arise, awaken, attain knowledge seeking the best teachers.
(Swami Vivekananda popularised this. He used it to stir a
somnolent nation to spiritual renaissance).
Immortality is attained by knowing that which is beyond
sense organs, changeless, eternal, without beginning or end and is above the
principle of the world, and constant.
God has created sense organs pointing outward. Therefore,
one is glued to things external. One somewhere turns his gaze inward desirous
of immortality. He comes to grip with pratyagatma (that which we call I).
The one who sees continuity in wakeful and dream state he
realizes the atma of unparalleled greatness. Atma is living out the fruits of
past deeds and is the master of what is gone and what is to come.
Atma has manifested before the elements emanated from
Brahman and combined to form the world, and is in the hearts of all. It is that
from which the sun rises and sets, and the gods lean on. That which is here is
there. That which is there is here. It has to be reached through the mind.
There is no difference here. Purusha is of thumb size in the heart. He is the
lord of the past and future. He is the one who was yesterday and who will be
tomorrow. Just like pure water mixed with pure water becomes indistinguishable,
so does the atma of a realised Muni become.
If one, who is actually unborn and of no crooked
consciousness, thinks and realises the self, he will be freed from the bondage
of body and births. He is the sun traversing the clear sky. He is the wind that
pervades the intervening space. He is the fire in the altar of sacrifice and
other places on the earth. He is the guest at home. He is in men, gods, truth,
sky, and all beings. He is ritham and big. He makes prana to go up and apana to
go down. The gods worship him seated as a dwarf at the centre. A person is
alive not because of prana or apana, but by this underlying atma.
The jiva takes various courses after death; some are
reborn; some become flora and so on depending on their karma and jnana.
What is present when a person sleeps, building up desires
in dreams, (Atma) is pure, Brahman and immortal. In him are all the worlds
established. Nothing is beyond him. Just as fire or wind enters various bodies
assuming diverse forms, the Atma, being one, enters various bodies and assumes
different forms. Just as the sun is the eye for the whole world and is not
affected by any fault in the world, the Atma which is one for all beings is not
affected by the misery in the world. He is eternal among the mortal, the
creator of consciousness for the conscious, one and fulfiller of wishes. The
supreme bliss cannot be defined specifically. How can we grasp whether it
shines by itself or by reflection? The sun, moon, stars, lightning do not shine
there. How can the agni shine? Everything shines by that only. Everything
becomes known by it.
The fire burns because of fear of him; the sun scorches;
Indra pours down rain; the wind blows; Yama snatches away life. One who fails
to realise it is born again.
The eternal Purusha is in the heart of one, of the size of
the thumb. Just as the rain on a hill runs in various streams, the same Purusha
resides in everyone’s heart and the one who sees the difference is lost in it.
A realized soul is like pure water mingling in pure water. He is in all things.
He makes the life breath sustain life.
After death, some attain another body by being born again.
Some become plants. It is according to their acts and knowledge.
The Purusha who is awake even in sleep, materialising
several desires, is Brahman. In Him all the worlds are anchored. Nothing
transcends him. Just as fire resides in various forms in several objects, and
as air attains the form of the objects it pervades, the one inner soul resides
in all in various forms.
Just as the sun is not affected by the defects of the eyes
of the beholder, the inner soul is unaffected by the worldly afflictions.
Eternity belongs to those who see him that is eternal among
the transient, the knowledge of the intelligent and the fulfiller of the
desires of all.
That great bliss is indescribable, but is attainable here.
There does not shine the sun, the moon or the stars, leave
aside fire. Its light illumines all, no light can illumine it.
Mind is superior to the senses, intellect to the mind, the
inner soul to the intellect and the invisible original soul to the inner soul.
Purusha is the unltimate. He is all-pervading, beyond gender and qualities.
Knowing him a Jiva is liberated.
He is not susceptible to the senses. He can be attained
only by intellect and mind. Knowing him, one becomes eternal. The highest state
is when the senses of perception are anchored in the mind with no action and
intellect also is dormant. Yoga is that state where the senses are quiet. The
true state manifests to the one who has faith in it. When the desires of his
heart are extinguished, the mortal becomes immortal. Of the one hundred and one
nadis (nadi is pulse sort of), only one flows upward to the top of the head.
Travelling via that nadi, one becomes immortal. The rest of the nadis are
mortal.
The inner soul of the size of thumb resides in the heart.
One should realise it by courageous effort.
Prasnopanishad
The Upanishad is so named since six questions are raised
and answered. It occurs in Atharva Veda.
1. How are living beings created?
The progenitor (Brahma) created the twins Prana (energy and
consciousness) and Rayi (a complement to Prana required for creation). The
combination of the two facilitated creation.
Prana and Rayi are likened to life and body, growth and
decay, day and night, sunlight and shade, right and left, and consciousness and
the gross body. Prana is Purusha (Iswara or God) and Rayi is Viswam (universe).
2. How many are the deities that support the created
subjects? Which is the chief among them?
The earth, water, fire, air and ether; speech, mind, eye,
ears, etc. are the deities. Prana (life force) is the chief among them.
3. How does the life breath arise and how does it operate?
Prana (life breath) arises from Atma. It manages through
five executives. Apana (remover of air) is in charge of waste removal
(excretory orgnas) and reproductive organs (genitals). Prana itself is in
charge of the face (eyes, ears) but going out through the nostrils and the
mouth). Samana (equaliser) is established in the central region (abdomen)
taking care of distributing the offered food equally. Vyana (pervasive one)
pervades the entire body through thousands of nadis radiating from the heart.
Udana (one going up) delivers a being into the worlds his karma has reserved.
4. Which deities sleep in the person, which are awake,
which see dreams and who is the enjoyer? In what does everything stand rooted?
When the person sleeps, the deities viz. sense organs get
merged in the higher deity of mind and are dormant. The five life breaths
(prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana) are awake. In dream the deity of mind
becomes everything and sees all. When no dream is seen, there is the state of
bliss. All are rooted in the subtle Atma.
5. What is the benefit of meditating on Om?
If one meditates on the three syllables (a, u and ma) one
gets gradual liberation; if he meditates on Om integrally, he is liberated
instantly.
6. Who is the person said to have sixteen kalas (parts)?
The Atma that resides in the person is that. Just as a
river merges in the ocean, the sixteen kalas get absorbed in the Supreme Being.
(The sixteen kalas are:1. Life Principle, Prana 2. Faith, Shraddha 3-7. Five Elements, space,
air, fire, water and earth 8. Five
senses of perception and five organs of action considered as one 9. Mind 10. Food 11. Vigour viryam12.
Self-discipline, Tapas 13.Worship or prayers, mantra 14.Work, karma 15.Wisdom,
or spiritual worlds representing different states of consciousness and 16.Name
or a distinct identity.)
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Mandukya Upanishad
This belongs to Atharva Veda. Its name is explained either
as taken after the diety of the Upanishad – Varuna in the form of manduka,
frog, or because it describes reaching the fourth state of turiyam after
crossing the other three states like a frog.
All this is Brahmam. This Atma also is Brahmam.
The Atma has four quarters.
1. Waking state: It is aware of the outside world. It has 7
limbs. They are heaven as head, sun and moon as eyes, directions as ears, air
as life breath, Vedas as speech, sky as heart and earth as feet.It has nineteen
faces. They are 5 sense organs, 5 organs of action, 5 life breaths, and 4
internal organs (mind, thoughts, intellect and ego). It enjoys the gross
matter. It is called vaiswanara (or viswa).
2. Dream state: It is turned inward. It still has 7 limbs
and 19 faces as above. It enjoys in itself. It is called Taijasa.
3. Deep sleep state: It has 1 face namely mind (chittham).
It desires nothing, and dreams nothing (no external or internal engagement). It
is alone as ordinary consciousness. It is in total bliss and enjoys the bliss.
It is called Pragna. He is the lord of all, knows all, conducts all life from
within, and the source, manifestation and resolution of all.
4. This is the crux of this Upanishad and the entire
Vedanta.
The fourth state is known as chaturtha or turiya. Turiya
has no consciousness of the external or internal. He does not have
consciousness of anything intermediate between the two. He is not of the nature
of consciousness. He is not of the nature of non-consciousness. He is unseen,
indescribable, incapable of being grasped, undefinable, unthinkable, incapable
of being elucidated upon, capable of being understood from the standpoint that
Atma is One, real beyond the appearance of the manifested gross world, tranquil,
auspicious, Advaitam (non-dual). He is Atma and he has to be understood.
The atma is Om when denoted by a single letter. When its
parts are considered they are the quarters. A, U, M denote the three states
waking, dreaming and deep sleep.
A is, because of its omnipresence, vaiswanara, which is the
abode of the wakng state; one who realises this attains fulfilment of his
desires and becomes the first (best).
U is, because of its uplifting nature and duality,
thaijasa, the abode of dreaming state. The one who realises it attains wisdom
and equanimity. In his lineage no one will be born without Brahma-jnana.
M is, because of its measuring nature and hiding everything
in it, pragna, the abode of deep sleep. The one who realises it becomes capable
of understanding everything and holding it confidential.
The fourth, the unexpressed, is non-transactional, in the
illusory nature of the universe, auspicious, non-dual, is without matra
(symbol). The one who realises it knows Atma as Atma by Atma.
Mandukya Upanishad (MU)
An attempt to paraphrase.
Upanishads are abstruse and do not yield meaning just by
reading. It requires interpretation and explanation with a framework.
MU is compact and a principal source of Advaita.
The upanishads try to get to the truth from the observed
world and phenomena, not by quoting some mysterious authority. It is appealing
because of that, but it does not become final. As it is not direct and
logically watertight, and the words used have ambiguity, there is difference in
the way it has been understood by acharyas.
MU deduces the nature of the world by our states of
consciousness, which is a matter of direct and daily experience. Much of modern
science veers to the view that consciousness is the basic unit of existence.
Science is trying to understand consciousness.
MU draws attention to three states, waking, dreaming and
deep sleep. The same person (atma) is present in all the states. Otherwise,
when we wake up we will not be what we were before going to sleep. The
difference in the three states is analysed.
In the waking state, the person is looking outward, with
the senses being engaged in the world of experience.
In the dream state, the person is looking inward. The
senses and mind are engaged but not with the actual world.
In the deep sleep state, the person is in pure
consciousness, with sense organs and mind having withdrawn. (on waking up from
such sleep, one says he slept happily).
There is a fourth state, which is in fact present all the
time, which is identified with atman, which explains the unity of a person. It
is described in terms that require detailed explanation.
Om is identified with Brahman in Upanishads. MU explains
the above consciousness-based explanation in terms of Om. Om is in fact a
conjunction of a, u and m. A is likened to waking state, U to dream state, and
M to deep sleep state. The combined sound is compared to the fourth state
(Turiya).
August 31, 2016
Mundaka Upanishad
Mundaka means cleanshaven head, the name of the upanishad
possibly signifying detachment necessary for jnana. The Upanishad occurs in
Atharva Veda.
‘Knowing which does everything become known?’
All worldly knowledge is considered ‘apara vidya.’
Knowledge of the imperishable (akshara) is ‘para vidya.’ Interestingly, Vedic
knowledge also is apara vidya. That includes the four Vedas, and Vedangas viz.
siksha (pronunciation); kalpa (usage of mantras); vyakaranam (grammar);
niruktham (etymology); chandam (methodology); jyothisham (astrology).
The imperishable is imperceptible, it cannot be contained,
it has no place of birth, it has no varna, no eyes or ears, no hands or legs,
it is eternal and omnipresent, all-pervasive, extremely subtle, suffers no
diminution, it is the source of everything. The wise seek and attain it.
Just as the web is drawn from out of the spider’s body, the
vegetation grows on the earth and hair grows on the body of beings, so does the
universe rise from the Akshara Brahmam.
Brahmam expands by tapas. Food manifests then, and from
food are manifested life, mind, elements, action and their fruits.
The Hiranyagarbha (conscious principle of the created
world) and inert matter arise from him who is intelligent and omniscient, who
is jnana in substance, who is penance.
Just as thousands of sparks emanate from fire, various
forms of life are born from and are merged in Para Brahmam. From him only arise
life breath, mind, sense organs, ether, air, fire, water, and the earth that
supports all. The One for whom Agni is the head, moon and sun are eyes, the
directions are the ears, the famous Vedas are the speech, air is life breath,
the entire universe is the mind, and from whose feet the earth was born, is the
inner soul of all creation.
From Him arose Agni whose samit (firewood) is Surya; from
moon comes rain; from it the plants. The man pours retas into woman and human
creation takes place. All are from the Parama Purusha.
From Him the four Veads, sacrifices, time and all worlds
have been born. All gods and other creatures have come from him. From Him have
come the seven life breaths, the seven flames, the seven Homas, and the seven
worlds. From Him the oceans, mountains, rivers, flora and the life principle
have emerged.
The Supreme Being is resplendent, formless, alike inside
and outside, unborn, devoid of life breath and mind, pure, and is above the
supreme Akshara Brahman also. (Brahman is nirguna, but in the context of the
manifested world, it appears as saguna according to Advaita).
Purusha (Para Brahma) is all this universe. Action is
penance. Brahmam is the supreme nectar. The one who knows it overcomes
ignorance.
The consciousness seated hidden deep inside is the ultimate
goal. Movement, life breath and winking of the eye are all dedicated to it.
Know that which is ‘sat’ (unmanifest Brahman) and ‘asat’ (manifested world),
the best attainment for all beings, supreme, and beyond sensory experience.
That which is self-luminous, subtler that the atom, in
which he worlds are rooted and the beings of the worlds live, that is Akshara
Brahman; that is life breath, speech, mind and truth. That is nectar and the
goal.
Brahman is inside the golden sheath (intellect) blemishless
and without parts. That is pure, the effulgence of all lustrous bodies. Those
who know it as such are the wise.
The sun does not shine there, nor the moon, nor the stars,
nor lightning, what to say of Agni? Everything shines after Him whose
effulgence imparts lustre to all lustrous bodies.
This immortal Brahman is to the east, west, south and
north, up and down. This superior world is itself only Brahman.
One desirous of knowing Brahman must examine the objects of
the world that are gained by action and understand that the action-less Brahman
cannot be attained by any action; one must become detached. He must seek a
knowledgeable guru to realise Brahman and obtain salvation. To that seeker who
has approached properly, with peace of mind, having restrained sense organs and
organs of action, the guru will impart the knowledge of Brahman.
Take the powerful missile, the bow of the teaching of
Upanishad, fix the arrow of your self sharpened by meditation and pull with the
string, the mind filled with feeling saturated with IT (Brahman), and aim at
Akshara Brahman.
Pranava (Om) is bow; self is the arrow; Brahman is the aim.
One must be unwavering in the aim and then one will attain the merged status
with IT like the arrow witht the target.
Know him only to be the unique Atma, in whom the earth, the
sky and the mind are woven with all life. Leave all else.
The ‘nadis’ converge in Brahman like the spokes of a wheel.
He moves inside appearing variously. Meditate on Atma as Om. May you be
blessed, being seekers of the other shore away from ignorance.
The one who knows both the ordinary (manifested world) and
the extraordinary (the cause and support of the world) resides in our hearts.
He is in the form of mind, leading the life breath and the body, established in
the material (physical body) and intellect. The courageous see in intelligent
experience that which is shines as personification of bliss and as deathless.
Once that immanemt and transcendant reality is seen, the knots of the heart are
untied, all doubts are cut off and the worldly actions atrophy.
Two pretty-winged birds were inseparable, equal in all
respects, lived together on the same tree. One of them eats a tasty fruit of
the tree while the other just looks on without partaking in it. Though both
have perched on the same tree, one is sunk in spirit, infatuated and sorrowful,
having lost its wit. When it turns its eye on the other which is autonomous,
high in spirit, it realises that that loftiness of spirit is its own too and
comes out of sorrow.
When the one with the power of discernment realises the
golden-coloured Supreme being, the lord, the creator, the one whose origin is
Brahman, that scholar is emancipated from virtue and vice and, becomes
impeccable and attains parity with the Supreme.
A scholar who identifies the life breath of all living
beings with this Person quits arguments. He plays with Atma, is involved in
Atma, is engaged with Atma and is the knower of Brahman.
That Atma is within the body full of effulgence, pure, and
is seen by the seers who are free from contamination. It is obtained by truth,
penance, true knowledge, and celibacy.
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं.
Truth alone triumphs, not untruth. The way to divinity is
paved with truth. The seers with fulfilled desires proceed in that route to the
ultimate abode of truth.
IT (Brahman or Truth) is big, divine, of unthinkable form,
subtler than the subtlest, farther than the farthest, yet near in the heart of
seers.
IT cannot be grasped by the eyes, speech or other sense
organs, nor by the gods, nor by penance, nor by action. One who has pure mind
sees IT which is without parts, by clarity of wisdom and meditation.
The life breath has entered into IT in fivefold ways; the
sense organs and mind of people are woven into IT. IT is atomic (subtle). IT
has to be understood by the mind. The Atma is subtle. It has to be understood
by mind. In pure heart, it shines of its own accord.
A clear-headed one obtains the worlds and enjoyment he puts
his mind on. Therefore one desirous of great fortune must worship Atmajnani.
The jnani knows the Supreme Brahman, the substratum of the
world shining as pure self-luminous being. Those who worship the jnani become
liberated.
A person continues to another birth to fulfil such desires
that occupy his thoughts in this birth. The one who has crossed such thoughts
and lives as Atma has no lingering desire.
This Atma cannot be obtained by discourse, intellect or
erudition. It can be realized only by im who meditates on it exclusively; it
manifests to him of its own.
This Atma cannot be obtained by the weak, the proud, or by
penance that is not dissociated from desires. Atma enters the heart of one who
attains jnana by proper means.
The seers who attained the Atman have autonomy in that
knowledge, become Atman, are devoid of desires, tranquil; they who have
controlled their senses and are courageous, see the Supreme everywhere and
become one with that Atman and enter everything.
The seers who are endowed with a pure mind, who have
attained certainty of realization of Atman by Vedanta and experience, exult in
the nectarine Brahman experience and are severed from worldly ties in the end.
At the last moment, the kalas (parts) return to their base; the senses return
to their supporting deities; the deeds, the Atman that is knowledge personified
become merged one with the changeless Supreme. Just as the rivers get
extinguished on mingling into the ocean losing their name and form, the knowledgeable
one is freed from the name and form and attains the Supreme Person who is
divine. The one who knows the Supreme Brahman becomes Brahman himself. In his
lineage, no one will be born who is devoid of Brahma jnana. He crosses sorrow,
sin and is liberated from from the knots of heart and becomes immortal.
Summary of Mundakopanishad:
‘Knowing which does everything become known?’
There are two types of knowledge, knowledge of the observed
world and of the unseen cause. The latter is superior.
This world is manifested just as the web is woven by the
spider, the flora germinate from the earth and hair grows on body, from the
unseen cause. Just as sparks proceed from fire, the universe has emanated from
him.
It is possible to attain several benefits by action, but
all of it is perishable.
Knowledge of imperishable Brahman (unseen cause) is
supreme. A person desirous of emancipation must seek a Guru for obtaining that
knowledge.
Brahman is radiant, but formless. He is inside and outside,
but unborn. He has no life breath and mind. He is pure, beyond the imperishable
(god as conceived by human mind), the inner soul of all creation.
The way to emancipation is: Take the bow of Om (upasana,
meditation), and aim the arrow of Atma on the Supreme with the mind filled with
thoughts of Brahman, and merge into the Brahman.
Once that immanent and transcendant entity is realized, the
knots in the mind unravel, doubts disappear and karma dissolves.
Two birds are perched on a tree. One eats the fruits. The
other is just watching. The tree is the body. The bird eating is Atman. The
fruit is karma (action). The watchful bird is Brahman.
Truth only triumphs. Brahman is attained by truth. The
other requisites are celibacy (disengagement from sense objects), jnana (clear
perception), and penance (diligent effort and contemplation).
A man with desires takes birth again again chasing their
fulfilment. A jnani on the other hand has conquered desires. He is freed from
the cycle of births. Like rivers merge into the sea indistinguishably, he
becomes one with Brahman. He is past sorrow, sin and death.
सत्यमेव जयते नानृतं.
Truth alone triumphs, not untruth.
Taittitriya Upanishad
An Overview
Seeksha Valli
While leaving the Gurukulam (Academy), the Guru advises the
sishya (student) what is like a convocation address, which defines in a way
Sanatana Dharma:
“Speak the truth and observe dharma.
Do not neglect learning (learning is a continuous process).
Give unto Guru his dues. Do not snap the lineage.
Swerve not from truth; swerve not from dharma; swerve not
from good efforts; swerve not from celebration of values; swerve not from
learning and teaching. (Sharing our knowledge is a bounden duty.)
Swerve not from the rituals for god and manes. Respect your
mother; respect your father; respect your teacher; respect your guests.
Blemishless acts have to be honoured, not others. Those which are good deeds on
our part must be followed, not others.
Where there are Brahmanas superior to you, you should
listen respectfully to them who must be seated on the dais.
Gift must be given with earnestness; not high-handedly;
must be given liberally; must be given with humility; must be given with fear
(that nothing amiss is there); must be given with good will.
If you have doubt on the proper deed or conduct, you must
follow what is observed by Brahmanas who have the power to enquire into such
matters, conduct themselves with propriety, not subject to others’ control,
free from cruel tendencies, and steadfast in adherence to dharma.
This is the command and this is the instruction. This is
the secret of the Vedas. This is the scriptural injunction. This has to be
followed.”
Ananda Valli
The one who knows Brahman attains the best.
Truth (Satyam), knowledge (jnanam), infinity (anantam) is
Brahman.
The one who knows Brahman residing in the recess of his
heart merges with Brahman who is witness to everything, and experiences all
bliss. From that Brahman which is the same as this Atman, the ether arose; from
ether air; from air fire; from fire water; and from water the earth; from the
earth the plants; from the plants food; from food man. Man is made of the
essence of food.
The earthly subjects are born from food only and survive on
food only. In the end they become food. Food came before all other creation.
Therefore it is a precious medicine (oushadham) for all.
The Atman inside in the form of Prana (life breath) is
different from the form of Anna. Prana is vital to devas, men and animals, and
is the basis of longevity.
The Atma in the form of mind is within the Prana and is
different from it. Even words fail to express its full potential. The one who
attains Brahmananda with the aid of mind fears nothing.
Behind the Atma in the form of mind is Atma in the form of
Vijnana. Vijnanam is what prompts sacrifice and other acts. All the gods
consider Vigananam as the primordial Brahma. The one who knows Vijnanam as
Brahma and is steadfast in that faith, is freed from sins and enjoys supreme
bliss.
There is the Atma in the form of Ananda within Vijnana,
different from it. The one who considers Brahman as non-existent, he becomes
‘asat’ (goes astray). The one who understands that Brahman exists becomes
‘sat’.
He (Atma – Brahman) willed to expand and become nama-rupa
(name and form). It did penance. It created all that is and entered it. It was
both formless and in form. It was both with qualities and without qualities. It
occupied space and was without space. It was both chit (consciousness) and
achit (without consciousness). It was both existence and non-existence. It is
everything that is and is known as Satyam.
It was asat (without name and form) in the beginning and
‘sat’ (name and form) was born later. It created itself. Hence, it is called
self-made. The one who is self-made is ‘rasa’ (the essence) and the possession
of rasa makes him blissful. Without that Ananda (rasa-maya Atma) nothing can
function. It is the one that gives Ananda to everyone. When a person is focused
on IT which has no body, shape or pointer, he becomes fearless. When a person
sees difference form IT, he is seized of the fear of birth and death, no matter
how learned he is.
For fear of the Supreme Being, the wind blows, the sun
rises, Agni and Indra do their duties, Yama functions.
The dimension of Brahmanadam is as follows. The measure of
human happiness is that of a young man - good, learned, of the caliber of a
leader, able-bodied and owning the earth with all prosperity. It is for one who
is well-versed in scriptural knowledge and is not overpowered by desires. The
happiness of a human Gandharva is a hundred times human happiness, that of a
divine Gandharva a hundred times that of a human Gandharva, that of manes a
hundred times that of a divine Gandharva, that of born Devas a hundred times
that of manes, that of one who has attained devatva by good deeds is a hundred
times that of a born deva, that of prominent devas a hundred times that of a
realized deva, that of Indra a hundred times that of prominent devas, that of
Brhaspathi a hundred times that of Indra, that of Prajapathi a hundred times
that of Brhaspathi, that of Brahma a hundred times that of Prajapathi. This
magnitude of Ananda is attained by one who is well-versed in scriptural
knowledge and is not overpowered by desires.
The one who is in this Purusha is the same as one who is in
the sun. The liberated one who has come upon this wisdom attains Atma which is
Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vijnanamaya and Anandamaya.
The one who knows that Brahmananda – which the words or
mind cannot reach, never bothers about punya or papa, and is at one with Atma.
In sum, this section sets forth the five sheaths that
envelop Atma, and indicates how knowledge of Atma gives infinite bliss.
Bhrgu Valli
Bhrgu approached his father, Varuna, and requested him to
teach him about Brahman.
Varuna replied: “Brahman is Annam (food), Prana (breath),
eye, ear, mind and speech. Know that to be Brahman from which all this has
arisen, that in which all those that are born live and that in which in the end
all this collapses.”
Varuna asks Bhrgu to do penance and find out about Brahman.
Bhrgu did penance and came to the conclusion:
“Annam is Brahman, for from food do all these arise, live
by food and merge in food.”
Bhrgu again requested Varuna to teach him and Varuna
instructs him to do more penance.
Bhrgu comes up successively with the ideas that Prana is
Brahman, Mind is Brahman, Vijnana is Brahman and finally Ananda is Brahman.
Varuna who instructs Bhrgu to do more penance each time, without approving or
disapproving the conclusion of Bhrgu, keeps quiet after Bhrgu identifies Ananda
as Brahman.
It may be noted that the five sheaths set forth in the
previous section are equated with Brahman here, but ultimately it is Ananda
which defines Brahman substantially.
One should not talk ill of Annam. That is a vow. Annam is
Prana. The body is the consumer of Annam. The body is set in Prana and Prana in
body. The one who appreciates this is bestowed with Annam and enjoyer of Annam,
and becomes prosperous.
Do not waste Annam. That is a vow.
Water is Annam. Fire is consumer of Annam. Fire is set in
water and water in fire. Thus Annam is set in Annnam. The one who appreciates
this is bestowed with Annam and enjoyer of Annam, and becomes prosperous.
Grow more Annam. That is a vow. The earth is Annam. The
ether is consumer of Annam. The ether is set in earth and the earth in ether.
Thus Annam is set in Annnam. The one who appreciates this is bestowed with
Annam and enjoyer of Annam, and becomes prosperous.
One must ever be ready to feed the guests. The way one
feeds the guest determines availability of food to him.
From Sri Sivananda:
“Brahman resides in speech as preserver, as acquirer and
preserver in Prana and Apana, as action in the hands, as motion in the feet, as
discharge in the anus, as satisfaction in the rain, as power in the lightning,
as fame in cattle, as light in the stars, as offspring, immortality and joy in
the generative organ, as all in the Akasa.
Meditator upon that (Brahman) as support becomes
well-supported and will possess all means of living such as food and clothing.
Meditator upon that as the great becomes great Meditator upon that as mind
becomes thoughtful. Meditator upon that as adoration gets all desires
fulfilled. Meditator upon that as the supreme becomes the presence of
supremacy. Meditator upon that as the destructive aspect gets his enemies who
hate him and rivals whom he does not like annihilated.
He who is in man and he who is in the sun both are the
same. He who knows thus, departing from this world, and attaining the Annamaya
self, then attaining the Pranamaya self, then attaining the Manomaya self, then
attaining the Vijnanamaya self, then attaining the Anandamaya self, eating what
he likes and assuming forms according to his wishes, travels through the world,
and sits singing the following Sama song:
‘O wonderful! I am the food, I am the food, I am the food;
I am the eater of food, I am the eater of food, I am the eater of food. I am
the author of fame, I am the author of fame. I am the author of fame. I am the
first born of the True. Prior to the gods, I am the centre of all immortality.
Whoever gives me, he surely does save. I, the food, eats him who eats food. I
have conquered all this world. I am luminous like the sun. He who knows thus
attains the aforesaid results.’
This is the Upanishad.
This is the Jivanmukta's song of unity with all. The sage
expresses his experience of oneness.”
Chandogya Upanishad (CU)
(Source: Swami Paramarthananda’s discourse as understood by
me)
Mahavakyam talks of something which is intimately
experienced all the time i.e. myself.
तत्वमसि is the Mahavakya of CU, which
is perhaps the most popular. The instruction of Uddalaka Aruni to Svetaketu,
along with that of Yagnavalkya to Maitreyi in BU, form the main planks of Advaita.
Nowhere here, nor for that matter in the principal Upanishads, is there mention
of a deity in the context of jnanam and realisation.
VisishtAdvaita says that तत्वमसि is अर्थवाद
(glorification)
not तात्पर्यं (reality).
It is tatparyam only:
1. It comes at the end of five chapters. ब्रह्मन्
is
a serious subject.
2. It is repeated nine times and it shows seriousness.
3. अपूर्वता: Any pramana should give
knowledge inaccessible to any other pramana. Tatvami is unique revelation.
4. It is फलं- fruit.
Whenever fruit is given, it must be serious.
5. Logic. एकविज्ञानेन सर्वविज्ञानं.
कारणज्ञानेन कार्यं ज्ञानं भवति. By knowing one, everything
becomes known. By knowing the cause the effect becomes known.
There are several other passages in CU that expressly
suggest Advaita, some of which follow.
1. सर्वं
खल्विदं ब्रह्म (All this is Brahman indeed.)
2. प्राणो
ब्रह्म कं ब्रह्म खं ब्रह्म
(The prana is Brahman, ka (joy) is Brahman, kha (the
akasha) is Brahman.)
3. य
एषोऽक्षिणि पुरुषो दृश्यत एष आत्मेति होवाचैतदमृतमभयमेतद्ब्रह्मेति
(He said: "The person that is seen in the eye-that is
the Self. This is the immortal, the fearless; this is Brahman.")
4. यथा
सोम्यैकेन मृत्पिण्डेन सर्वं मृन्मयं विज्ञात स्याद्वाचारम्भणं विकारो नामधेयं
मृत्तिकेत्येव सत्यम्॥
(Just as, my dear, by one clod of clay all that is made of
clay is known, the modification being only a name, arising from speech, while
the truth is that all is clay.)
5. अथ
य एष संप्रसादोऽस्माच्छरीरात्समुत्थाय परं ज्योतिरुपसंपद्य स्वेन
रूपेणाभिनिष्पद्यत एष आत्मेति होवाचतदमृतमभयमेतद्ब्रह्मेति तस्य ह वा एतस्य
ब्रह्मणो नाम सत्यमिति॥
(Now, this serene being, after rising from this physical
body and attaining the Highest Light, reaches his own true form. This is the
Self." Thus he (i.e. the teacher, questioned by his pupils) spoke.
Continuing, he said: "This is the immortal, the fearless. This is Brahman.
And of this Brahman the name is Satyam, the True.)
Chandogya Upanishad -1
Excerpts with amateur comments
Svetaketu (son): “Through which the
unheard of becomes heard, the unthought of becomes thought of, the unknown
becomes known?”
Uddalaka Aruni (father): “Just as by
knowing the clay, things made of clay become known. Just as knowing gold, gold
ornaments become known. Just as by knowing iron, things made of iron are known.
All transformation has speech as basis, and it is name only. Clay (gold, iron)
is the reality.”
The world is the basis to intuit
Brahman, the reality. World is a perishable form defined by sense experience.
Brahman is the reality ever present. This implies world as illusion, but is a
projection of Brahman, not of emptiness. One must understand this concept
carefully. The world as we see it through our mind and its longings and
associations is illusory (transient, evanescent), but one who can rise above
the trappings of mind will see Brahman.
That, to my mind is the essential
difference for Vedanta from Buddhism. There is no way to come to know of
Brahman except through the scripture, whIch Buddha shunned. We know Brahman by
enquiry, questioning, experience, and knowing Brahman, we realise we are
Brahman.
Chandogya Upanishad -2
Excerpts with amateur comments
Uddalaka Aruni: “Son, in the beginning
this was Existence alone, One only, without a second. Some say that existence
came from non-existence. How can that be? How can existence spring from
non-existence?”
This is the crux of Vedanta. Brahman
is the sole reality and anything else is appearance only. It is one. That is,
it is Whole, with no parts. It is Existence. It has no second. The definition
of Brahman is basically Existence which pervades all that that exists. As it
has no parts, individual souls are an illusion. Realisation is finding the
cosmic identity – that we are verily that Brahman and the separateness is
accidental, erroneous, erasible. Ekam and Advitiyam impress the stamp of Advaita
as the core message of the Upanishads.
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Vedic Mathematics:
This is Full; that is Full. Full comes out of Full. Taking
Full out of Full, Full itself remains.
Substitute 0 for Full and the equation holds.
x = 0. y = 0. 0 comes out of 0. 0-0=0.
It looks blasphemous, but some truth lurks there. An
atheist is right. There is no God outside the world.
It holds for infinity also. A theist is right. God is
infinity and the world is also infinite.
0 and infinity are two numbers that defy understanding. So
is God.
The couplet justifies Advaita. ‘That’ is ‘Brahman’ (unseen)
in Vedanta and ‘this’ is the world (seen). Both are Full. Brahman appears as
the world (Full comes out of Full). Then what happened to Brahman? It is intact
(Taking Full out of Full, Full itself remains). Clinches the issue. There is
nothing but Brahman always. Only IT IS. The world is a facade, a smokescreen, a
veil, a mistaken identity.
VEDANTA (UPANISHADS) AT A GLANCE
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance - 1
Vedas form the basis. Vedanta is what comes at the end of
Vedas. The four Vedas and the ten principal Upanishads are organised as given
in the chart below.
(Page 1 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 2
The metaphysics of Vednata has been built around what is
called prasthanatraya (system of three).
The three are:
Jnanakanda of Sruti – Upanishads,
Brahmasutras (555 aphorisms) and
Bhagavadgita (700 verses).
The latter two are in Smrti. Itihasas, Puranas and other
philosophic works also form Smrti.
Sruti is what has been heard (intuited) and set down
-Vedas. Smrti is what is remembered and related. Sruti is the basic pramanam
(source).
(Page 2 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 3
Any serious treatise must have a purpose. Vedanta is a
treatise on life. What is the purpose (Purushartha) of life? In what way are we
different from animals? Purusharthas are the postulates for this.
Four purusharthas have been identified: Dharma, Artha,
Kama, Moksha.
The list and order are thoughtful. Vedic wisdom encompassed
living this life well and seeing a spiritual connection and awakening. Dharma –
duty and morals, action and social order, form the basis for humanly conceived
life in society. Artha or means and resources are vital for the process and
must come from effort based on dharma. Kama is a legitimate human need and
comes after securing a dharmic foothold and earning. Now, many may stop here as
Thiruvalluvar has done. But, the entire theme of Vedas is to find that which is
imperishable and the way to realizing it while living. Moksha – liberation-
comes at the end as do Upanishads at the end of Vedas.
(Page 3 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 4
Upanishads provide the Sruti basis for doctrinal Hinduism.
Brahma Sutras and Gita are Smrtis that are codificatory and expository.
Upanishads are like constitution and Smrti has to be interpreted in accordance
with Sruti. That is what the Acharyas have done, but have taken liberty in
interpreting Sruti.
Ramayana and Mahabharata provide allegorical presentation
in story form as story goes into the heart smoothly. Rama is the ‘Purusha’ of
Vedas and Ramayana is Veda, says a sloka:
veda vedye pare pumsi jate dasharathatmaje |
vedah prachetasadasid sakshad ramayanatmana ||
Mahabharata contains the entire Vedas and is called
‘panchamo Veda’ – the fifth Veda. It is so comprehensive that it is said, ‘If
you do not find anything in MB, you will not find it anywhere else.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 5
People are of two types. Some prefer श्रेयस् (the
bliss of knowing the truth) and many prefer प्रेयस् (worldly
pleasures). In other words they are called Atmaramas (those that are interested
in Atma) and Indriyaramas (those that are interested in sense gratification).
The knowledge of truth is called परा विद्या (transcendental
knowledge). All other knowledge including that of scriptural texts is अपरा
विद्या (knowledge
of the impermanent). The perishables like the body and the world are ksharam
and the imperishable Atma is aksharam. (The scriptures are perishable, the
truth they point to is imperishable). Worldly knowledge does not lead to
spiritual knowledge or realization.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 6
The path to truth is an arduous one. Only those with
remarkable courage (dhira) travel on it.
Good and pure life is a pre-requisite for enquiry into
truth. It is not possible to go from अधर्म (unrighteousness)
to अध्यात्मा (self-realisation).
Truth is not attained by discourse, intellect or extensive
learning. It is attained by intense yearning and grace. It requires well
founded knowledge, disengagement from sense objects, and austerity. Learning the scripture by listening to a
realized person, getting all doubts clarified and single-minded meditation and
internalization of knowledge thus obtained enable an insight to truth.
Knowledge is the only successful path to realise Brahman the Truth.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 7
The perishable (ksharam) consists of 24 principles
constituting prakrti .The 25th is Purusha (the consciousness, aksharam,
imperishable). (Sankhya philosophy).
The twenty-four:
5 elements – पञ्चभूतानि (ether,
air, fire, water and earth आकाशः, वायुः, तेजः, आपः, पृर्थ्वी)
5 sense organs – पञ्च ज्ञानेन्द्रियाणि (eyes,
ears, nose, tongue, skin चक्षुः, श्रोत्रं, जिह्रा, घ्राणम्
त्वक्)
5 organs of action – पञ्च कर्मेन्द्रियाणि (speech,
hand, legs, genitals, anus वाक्, पाणिः
पादः,
पायुः, उपस्थः)
4 internal organs – अन्तःकरण (ego,
intellect, memory and mind अहङ्कारः महत् चित्तम् मनः)
5 breaths – प्राणाः (prana,
apana, vyana, udana, samana प्राण, अपानः, व्यानः, उदानः, समानः).
(Page 5 and 6 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 8
The ascending hierarchy of human faculties is: senses,
mind, intellect, Atma. Atma is self-luminous and enables functioning of the
lower faculties. A good life is one where the intellect steadies the mind and
employs the senses in a controlled fashion, like a charioteer holds the reins
and drives the horses in the desired path.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance
A digression
Creation – 1
The Babylonian story of creation consists of seven tablets
(one for each day of creation). It came down to Babylonia and Assyria from
Sumeria.
“In the (beginning before earth, heaven existed).. Apsu the
Ocean, who first was their father, and Tiamat, Chaos, who gave birth to them
all, mingled the waters in one.” (Apsu is close aapa, water in Samskrtam).
Things slowly began to grow and take form; but suddenly the monster-goddess
Tiamat set out to destroy all other gods, and to make herself- Chaos – supreme.
.. Then another god, Marduk, slew Tiamat with her own medicine by casting a
hurricane of wind into her mouth as she opened it to swallow him; then he
thrust his lance into Tiamat’s wind-swollen paunch, and the goddess of Chaos
blew up. Marduk, ‘recovering his calm’, split the dead Tiamat into two
longitudinal halves; ‘then he hung up one on high, which became the heavens;
the other half he spread out under his feet to form the earth.’
(Will Durant in The Story of Civilisation)
Creation – 2
In the Old Testament, creation is described in the first
book called ‘Genesis’. The creation was in the following order: heaven, earth,
light, water, sky, land, vegetation, sun and moon, stars, living creatures in
water, birds, living creatures in land; then he created man in his image to be
the master of the other created living beings. God completed his work by the
seventh day. He took rest on the seventh day.
The account in OT is at:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201...
(In lighter vein: A person remarked how God had completed
the creation of the world within seven days to drive home the point for hard
work. The listener retorted, ‘See, that is why it is in such a mess.’)
In the New Testament:
St. John:
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was
made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’
Creation -3
Bhagavatham.
The Supreme Lord willed to manifest as the manifold world.
The energy with which he built this world is called mâyâ. With the effect of
Eternal Time [kâla] upon the three gunas, satva, rajas and tamas, Mahat-tattva
came about. Purusha, (supreme being), impressed on Mahat virility (creative
power) and it acquired the power to expand into universes.
Mahat-tattva gave rise to ego or consciousness, and
division of cause, result and agent, as also the five elements, senses and
mind. Satva guna gave rise to godliness, tejas to organs of sense and action
and tamas to gross matter. The association of time and maya created space. From
space (sound), air (touch) arose; from air fire (form), from fire water (taste)
and from water earth (smell).
The Lord infused dynamism into the creation with the help
of Sakthi (energy). The energy entered all the twenty-three elements (the five
elements- earth, water, fire, air and space- and their qualities –smell, taste,
form, touch and sound- , the five organs of action -arms, legs and genital- and
the senses – nose, tongue, eye, skin and ear- and the three forms of individual
consciousness - mind, intelligence and ego).
Hiranyagarbha came out of Mahat thus, possessed of the
combined seed of all beings or all creation. Hiranyagarbha resided for a
thousand celestial years [one such year is a 360 years to man] within the
egg-shaped universe on water.
Hiranyagarbha consisted of âdhyâtmika (the self with its
senses and mind],âdhidaivika (divine forces) and âdhibhautika (the gross
elements).
Mouth manifested from the god of fire as the organ of
speech, palate from Varuna as the organ of taste, the nostrils from the two
Asvinî Kumâras as the organ of smell, eyes from Tvashthâ as the organ of sight,
skin from Anila as the organ to sense touch, and ears from the Digdevatâs as
the organ of hearing by which sounds are perceived. When the genitals appeared,
Brahmâ, the progenitor, took his position with the function of semen. Anus drew
power from Mitra for evacuation, hands from Indra,legs from Vishnu, brain from
Brahmâ, heart from the moon, and awareness from Rudra. The spiritual essence of
goodness manifested finally with the power of consciousness by means of which
one cultivates wisdom.
From the head of
Hiranyagarbha, the heavenly worlds manifested, and the earthly places from his
legs; the sky from abdomen. The gods occupied the heavens, human beings the
earth, and the associates of Rudra the navel of the Lord - situated in between.
Brahmins sprang from
the mouth and became the recognized teachers and spiritual spokesmen;
kshatriyas from the arms as wielders of power and rulers; vaisyas from the
thighs as producers and distributors of the means of livelihood; and sudras
from the legs for the service of all.
Before creation, the three worlds were submerged in the
waters. Vishnu was lying down there upon the snake Ananta. In due course of
time (which was eons), a lotus bud appeared from the navel of Vishnu. Brahmâ
manifested on the lotus.He could not discern the world and looked around in the
four directions. He thus received his four heads. In bewilderment, he wondered,
‘Who am I and where does this lotus emanate from?’ Failing in his efforts to
unravel the mystery, he went into meditation. After a long time, he saw Vishnu.
He prayed to Vishnu for creative energy. Vishnu appeared to Brahma and assured
him, ‘You have the depth of all Vedic wisdom. Do penance and undertake
creation.’
Brahmâ engaged himself in penance for a hundred celestial
years. He then saw the lotus and the water surrounding it were moved by Time.
He took in the wind along with the water. He resolved to bring back to life all
the worlds merged in him in the past. He entered the whirl of the lotus and
divided the Mahat in three main divisions and further into fourteen
subdivisions.
Mahat-tattvawas the first to come in complete form from the
Lord.. The second was ego, from which proceeded material knowledge and
activities. The third was the elements and their characteristics. The fourth
was sense of perception. The fifth was the mind and the devas. The sixth was
the tamas, darkness that hides true knowledge. These were the primary creation.
The derived forms follow. The seventh was the six kinds of
beings who do not move around viz. plants, herbs, creepers, the pipe-plants,
creepers without support and trees. The eighth was the species of lower animals
like cow, goat, buffalo, antelope, hog, gavaya [a type of oxen], deer, sheep,
camel, ass, horse, mule, gaura, s'arabha-bison, wild cow, dog, jackal, fox,
tiger, cat, rabbit, sajâru-porcupine, lion, monkey, elephant, tortoise, iguana
alligator, heron, vulture, crane, hawk, bhâsa[another kind of vulture],
bhallûka, peacock, swan, sârasa[indian crane], chakravâka, crow, owl and other
birds. The ninth was the humans and demigods.
The gods were of eight kinds: (1) self-realized souls, (2)
forefathers, (3) atheists, (4) celestial beings, angels and saints, (5)
protectors and the giants, (6) celestial singers, (7) spirits of guidance in
what is good and bad, and (8) superhuman beings.
Division of time:Two paramanus constitute an anu;three anus
trasarenu, (of which one is reminded by a beam of sunlight falling through a
lattice window in which one sees something [a dust-particle] going up in the
sky); three trasarenus truthi (1/16.875 of a second); one hundred trasarenus a
vedha; three vedhas a lava;. three lavasa nimesha; three nimeshas a kshana;
five kshanas a kâshthhâ; fifteen kashthas a laghu; fifteen laghus a nâdikâ; two
nadikas a muhûrta; six muhurtas a yâma; four yamas in day and four in night a
day; fifteen days a pakshah; two paksha a month; two months a season; six
seasons (hemanta, s'is'ira, vasanta, grîshma, varshâ and s'arad) a vatsara.
A vatsara is one day of the gods. 360 such days form one
celestial year.
There are four yugas Satya (4800 celestial years), Treta
(3600), dwapara (2400) and Kali (120). The four yugas make a mahayuga. The
transitional periods at the beginning and end of each yuga cover several
hundreds of god years. One thousand mahâ-]yugas constitute one day of Brahmâ
(4.32 billion years) and his night is as long when he goes asleep.
There are fourteen Manus and each Manu enjoys a time of
living of a little more than seventy-one mahâ-]yugas. After the end of each
Manu, the next one appears as also simultaneously his descendants, the seven
sages, the God-conscious ones and the king of the gods [Indra] together with
all those who follow them.
At the end of the day of Brahmā, Time arrests its
manifestation The sun, the moon and all three worlds disappear then. Pralya
occurs.
A hundred years of Brahma consists of two two parârdhas (2
times 155.5 trillion human years). The first half (Brahma kalapa) has passed
and now in this age we have begun with the second half (Padma kalpa) when
Brâhma appeared at the end of the lotus sprout from the navel of Vishnu.
As a combination of the basic elements and their transformations this manifest universe
has expanded to a diameter of half a billion yoyana. The space occupied by the
infinitesimal particles of the primal ether, pradhâna,expanded tenfold.
Creation -4
Now let us look at what the current scientific view on
genesis is.
Paul Shestople:
The current model of how the Universe formed is known as
the Big Bang theory.
At some time in the distant past there was nothing. A
process known as vacuum fluctuation created what astrophysicists call a
singularity. From that singularity, which was about the size of a dime, our
Universe was born.
Physical laws as we know them did not exist due to the
presence of incredibly large amounts of energy, in the form of photons. Some of
the photons became quarks, and then the quarks formed neutrons and protons.
Eventually huge numbers of Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium nuclei formed.
After some period of time following the big bang, gravity
condensed clumps of matter together. The clumps were gravitationally pulled
towards other clumps and eventually formed galaxies. Since they formed from
matter that was moving rapidly, they also move rapidly. Our Universe is thus
expanding. Eventually, however, the expansion will slow, stop, and then the
Universe will begin to contract. The contraction will continue until all of the
mass of the Universe is contained in a singularity, a process known as the big
crunch. The singularity then undergoes a big bang, and the process begins
afresh. This is probably not the case, but it does explain what happened before
the big bang.
Creation - 5
(Excerpts from Ardor by Roberto Calasso)
Life and Dissolution:
At the beginning of the Veda, however much we look, we find
never a ‘void’ but something ‘full,’ ‘purna,’ or a ‘superabundance,’ ‘bhuman’:
something that overflows and, by overflowing, makes the world exist, since
every life implies a boundless source of surplus.
RigVeda:
“Neither non-being existed then, nor being. The space of
the air did not exist, nor the firmament beyond. What moved powerfully? Where?
Under whose gaze? Was it the water, unfathomably deep?” “Who knows, in fact,
who could declare here from where this secondary creation of our world. But who
knows from where this emerged, if it had been established or not, he who
oversees from the highest heavens, only he knows, or perhaps not even he.”
(Translation by Renou)
Asat is a place where at the beginning energy is burning.
.. As for asat, more than non-being, it appears to be closer to something one
might call the‘unmanifest.’ Creatures appear thanks to the superabundance in
Prajapati. Every life in its raw state is an amalgam of non-being, darkness,
and death. (asat, tamas and mrtyu).Life is an asset that death has left in
trust for all humans (to be used while it lasts).Death is not an intrinsic part
of divinity, but an intrinsic part of creation...a life freed from the
constraint of meaning. ..the mutual penetration of opposites makes life
possible.
Creation 6
In Vishnusahasranamam, two names appear together ‘Sat’ and
‘Asat’
‘Sat’ is nirguna brahman and ‘Asat’ is the manifested
world, which is an act of maya (inexplicable).
C.U. says ‘Sadeva somya idamgra aaseet’. It was only ‘Sat’
in the beginning, implying creation as incidental and Sat as continuing.
However, T.U. says ‘Asadvaa idamagra aaseet. Tato vai sadajaayata.’ Here, the
interpretation is that ‘Asat’ is the unmanifest form and ‘Sat’ the manifest
from. The other passages in the same Upanishad make it clear that Brahman is
‘Sat’ and ‘Nityam’.
Creation is not intelligible to our ordinary intellect.
Tentative propositions have been put forward in the Upanishads, sometimes
differing from each other indicating that it is only a suggestion. It is
convenient to consider manifestation as having proceeded from the subtle to the
gross step-wise, and even life having emanated from matter (cf. T.U., prceding
science by two millennia.) The account of creation in the Upanishads is not
their main concern; nature of reality is. Also, creation is not a one time
affair in Vedic milieu as in Judaic tradition.
The confusion often arises from the point of view of
absolute negation of the world and its manifestation. In my understanding,
Vedanta does not outright dismiss the world as a fiction.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 9
Creation
The world came from Brahman like the web from the spider,
vegetation from the earth and hair from the body. The three similes convey
three ideas. The spider simile conveys that the world did not come anew, but
from Brahman which is ever-existent. The vegetation simile conveys that what
was in potential form (seed) became manifest (as vegetation with inputs from
earth). The hair simile conveys that the inanimate universe (hair) came from
the animate Brahman (body).
First food (matter) arose. From food came life. (That is
what science also says). Senses, mind, ether, air, fire, water and earth
evolved.
Why did creation take place? Brahman willed it and it
happened, it is said. Some say it is for the enjoyment of Brahman and yet
others that it is his sport. But, it is his svabhava (nature), there is no
question of desire for one who has all desires satisfied.
Commentators have developed on this model:
Brahman is changeless reality. (We will see later more
about Brahman). In conjunction with Maya (an unknown), it is called
Aksharabrahma. Aksharabrahma is ready to manifest. From it, the sukshma-bhuta
srshti emanates. The five elements are in subtle form. Then, pancheekaranam
tales place, i.e. the five gross elements take shape. In pralaya, it follows
the reverse order.
It is called Hiranyagarbha when it has attachment to
sukshma-bhuta, and Virat, when attached to sthula-bhuta. So we have
aksharabrahma evolving into Hiranyagarbha and Virat. All these three are
associated with Maya (i.e., we do not really know why it happens).
It is also described as karana-sarira (causal body),
sukshma=sarira (subtle body) and sthula-sarira (gross body).
These ideas have been developed to explain the difference
between the observed world, which is subject to vikara (change) and the
observing soul, which is nirvikara (changeless). We will see that idea by and
by.
Creation
Advaita
In Advaita, the very creation along with the cause behind
creation (i.e. the law of causality) and the very process of creation i.e. the
‘how’ part, which is again within the causality framework (by suggesting what
comes first and what proceeds by giving purva & para labels based on
space-time / desa-kāla construct) is all within the adhyasa (superimposition) /
Avidyā (ignorance) only. The point one must always note is that adhyasa/Avidyā
exists only from the viewpoint of adhyasa/Avidyā only.
The snake in a rope exists (appears) only from the
viewpoint of ignorance. And the vyavahara with such snake (i.e. staying away
from it, getting frightened, etc.) are also valid only as long as the
perception ‘as snake’ is valid.
Th*erefore to that which ultimately doesn’t exist, there is
no need to establish a firm theory (strictly speaking it is not possible to
establish a theory which is "ultimately correct"). If anyone attempts
to give it a theory (be it other philosophers or scientists), because the very
creation is not an absolute entity, such theory will also be valid only within
adhyasa/Avidyā framework only.
Whenever upanishads talk about creation they talk with a
single aim to show that world is not independent of Brahman. The purpose is to
show that there isn’t anything independent of Brahman. But the aim is not to
either prove the existence of world or the process of creation of world.
Since the sastra’s intended purpose is to teach to the
seeker who is having the viewpoint of adhyasa, the teaching starts from the
viewpoint of adhyasa. That much only. That is the only reason to touch upon
topic of creation. It is a journey from that which is currently known to the
seeker (i.e. world) to that which is currently unknown to the seeker (i.e.
Brahman).
Māyā according to Bhagavatpāda is the avyakta namarupa
(unmanifest name & form) and the process of creation is avyakta namarupa
becoming vyakta namarupa (manifest name & form). It is only a stop gap
explanation where the target is not to 'firmly establish' process of creation
but the target is always to sublate the very notions of 'created world' and
'creation' into the source/substratum of such notions.
Ultimately there is no creation and none created. If people
cannot comprehend this truth it is fine, I hope they will eventually grasp it
through their sraddha on sastra and unbiased vichara (based on sruti aviruddha
tarka) which is carried out with the right qualification (vairagya etc.).
Before that, there is no point in getting digressed and
unnecessarily carried away by asking questions like "who is writing in
facebook if there is no creation ?" etc. They serve no purpose as it will
be nothing but sushka tarka which most of the times dvaitins take up. Creation
need not be inferred (even as a temporary truth) based on a logic that somebody
is posting a comment on facebook and therefore there is creation. That is a
weak argument. Holding on to such weak arguments is demonstrating our love
& attachment to law of causality. The sooner the seeker understands the
mithyattvam of causality the better.
The teaching about creation has a place in Advaita Vedanta.
No doubt. But it is not in a way to uphold creation (which by itself is only an
ignorant notion, says sastra). The teaching about creation is instead a tool to
test the very notion that we hold to (i.e. world is an independent reality)
through upanishad based vichara and help ourselves to understand the
mithyAttvam of such notion.
Brahman alone is real. All Reality is to Brahman alone. The
aim of upanishad vichara is to intuitively grasp this truth.
Bhagavatpada says in Māṇḍūkya Karika bhashyam 1.7:
न तु परमार्थचिन्तकानां सृष्टौ आदरः
"" Those who think of the supreme Reality have no
interest in questions regarding Creation ""
This is not to say ignore law of causality. Law of
causality surely works within its intended domain and most importantly as long
as the belief in causality is strong. No doubt. But for the matter of highest
truth in Vedanta, the correct approach lies in thoroughly testing the law of
causality. The more thorough and unbiased the vichara gets, the more firm
becomes the conviction on the mithyattvam of causality.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 10
A construction closely allied to conceptualisation of
creation is about कोशः – layer or form. There are five
layers
(1) अन्नमय (food/matter)
(2) प्राणमय (breath)
(3) मनोमय (mind)
(4) विज्ञानमय (knowledge)
and
(5) आनन्दमय (autonomy).
The first is the physical body – स्थूलशरीर (gross
body, nourished by food, and part of the food cycle).
The second includes the five प्राणs and
five कर्मेद्रियs (organs of action)
The third includes mind and five ज्ञानेन्द्रियs
(sense organs).
The fourth includes बुद्धि (intellect)
and the five ज्ञानेन्द्रियs (overlap with mind).
The second to fourth represent the सूक्ष्मशरीर (subtle
body).
The fifth is कारणशरीर (causal
body आत्मा).
(Page 11 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance - 11
There is no proof for the soul, but careful study of our
states of wakefulness and sleep may point to it.
We go through three states:
1. Wakeful. Here we have psychosomatic experience; both
body (स्थूलशरीर - gross body) and mind (सूक्ष्मशरीर
- subtle
body) are functional. In this state we are called वैश्वानर vaiswanara.
2. Dreaming: Here it is psychic. Only mind (subtle body) is
in action. We are called तैजस-taijasa.
3. Deep sleep: Here both body and mind are dormant. We are
called प्राज्ञ-pragna. That is, merely
consciousness (कारणशरीर- causal body) is there with
body and mind at rest.
4. Now, Vedanta introduces a fourth called तुरीयं
turiya
- literally, the fourth, for want of a better term. Vedanta says that Turiya is
not a separate state, but the real state ever present in vaiswanra, taijasa and
pragna. That is what we identify with by 'I' the non-changing entity, while the
body and mind (and intellect too) are constantly changing as is easy to
discern.
(Page 9-11 of file:///F:/VedasInPictures.pdf )
(We will see later, meditation on OM (AUM) based on this,
and also the defining and stunning definition of Atma.)
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 12
OM or AUM is a sacred mantra that is integral to Vedas. It
consists of three
sounds अ (A,
there is no exact English alphabet) उ (U with
just the vowel sound) म् (M).
A is equated to Vaiswanara (wakeful state); U to Taijasa
(dream state); and M to Pragna (deep sleep state). The silence or the constant
pitch (sruti) is Turiya. One must mediate on AUM with this idea.
Swami Sarvapriyananda gives a lucid discourse on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZVTuI-rfX4
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance – 13
Vedanta is about Atma and Brahman.
Atma is unborn, eternal, constant, ancient, and does not
die with the body. It is subtler than the subtlest and greater than the
greatest.
Brahman (the supreme truth) is not an object – it is not
perceptible to the senses, but is the enabler of the senses. It is near, and
yet far; it is stationary, and yet moves; it is inside everyone, and yet
outside everyone.
Brahman, the supreme truth, is सत् (existence),
चित् (awareness)
and अनन्त or आनन्द (limitlessness
or bliss). It has been alone without anything else besides. For some
inexplicable reason, it manifests in multiplicity and variety. The
manifestation of Brahman as world occurs by association with the three gunas सत्व
(purity
and tranquillity) रजस् (emotion and activity) and तमस्
(stupor
and inactivity), in a manner of speaking.
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance - 14
Mahavakyas
The Mahavakyas define Advaita.
The search for the meaning of life and its continuity has
engaged human thought ever since it had leisure after the struggle for
survival.
The concept of god, unseen and undefined, has not satisfied
minds that looked for firmer basis for belief.
The Upanishads are the culmination of Indian thought on the
subject. They try to analyse the evidence by thought experiments to deduce what
the basic nature of life could be. They appear to converge on one point of
uniqueness of the basic nature – something that does not go through birth,
death and change. They also have captured the nature of the world revealed to
us by our senses – which are always pointed outwards – as changing and
evanescent. They directed the gaze inwards by blinkering the senses in a manner
of speaking. Their findings fill the pages of Upanishads.
The sum and substance of their finding is that the
uniqueness of the basic nature of life is such that all multiplicity is
untenable before it. Such a discovery leads to a quietude that gives greater
understanding or Ananda. Ananda is not joy or happiness or bliss,
super-happiness. That cannot be. If bliss is super-happiness, an emotional
state, it must have an opposite, and Brahman whose state is Ananda is held to
be above the opposites. Ananda is mere ‘satisfaction’ in ‘awareness’ of ‘being’
(Sachidanada!). It is absence of needs and becoming.
That to my mind is what the Mahavakyas are about.
It is highly theoretical and its truth or otherwise is open
to question, enquiry and satisfaction by each individual. It looks more refined
than assumptions of a travelling soul with resting or roasting places or the
benevolence of a superior soul conferring unimaginable blessings.
These statements apply to the unseen, but seeing, soul, not
to the embodied persons. I, Chellappa, am nor Brahman and can never be. I, the
nameless and formless, is Brahman.
The guru, a realised soul, does not see the world. The job
of improving the world is a wild goose chase. If you think that I am a cynic
(which will not be wrong), look at the great men who tried it and the result.
One guru compared improving the world to straightening a dog's tail. While the
effort to improve the world must go on in the mythical realm if we believe Advaita,
an individual must try something more feasible. viz. improving himself. A guru
helps him in that. Sankara did not attempt to improve the world. He addressed
individuals. There have been other Acharyas who tried that noble mission. I
will leave it there.
It appears that the grand truth is contained in Mahavakyas
which assert the oneness and indivisibility of the soul. One from each Veda is
taken as exemplar and they are:
Rig Veda: प्रज्ञानं ब्रह्म Consciousness
is Brahman.
Yajur Veda: अहं ब्रह्माsस्मि
I
am Brahman
Sama Veda: तत्वमसि you
are that (Brahman)
Atharva Veda: अयमात्मा ब्रह्म This
soul is Brahman.
The Mahavakyas point to non-duality, but they cannot be
taken literally. Duality is eternal, but as we mature, we must realise that
externality of god is an invalid assumption.
The four mahavakyas are explained by Nochur Sri
Venkataraman thus.
(i) Rig Veda: प्रज्ञानं
ब्रह्म Consciousness
is Brahman.
(ii) Yajur Veda: अहं
ब्रह्मास्मि. ‘I’ the experiencer is consciousness and is Brahman.
(iii) Sama Veda: तत्वमसि.
What
about a second person we encounter? ‘You are also that (Brahman).’
(iv) Atharva Veda:
अयमात्मा
ब्रह्म. What
about others? Everything is Atma and is Brahman.
It is imagination of the exponent, but tries to take us one
step at a time to the conclusion that the sat of Vedanta (‘is’ness which is
all-pervasive) is universal and by corollary the multiplicity we encounter at *the
level of sense perception is ephemeral.
The equivalence of the individual and the universal, as
implied in the mahavakyas, is not at the level of the embodied jiva, the body
being perishable, non-renewably – even rebirth is in another synthesis of the
gross elements. ‘I am Brahman’ is not ‘Chellappa is Brahman.’ This must be true
of all that were born, call them what you will.
Apart from the four most quoted Mahavakyas, one each from
each Veda, several passages in Vedanta lend weight to Advaita as the dominant
theme of Vedanta. I quote some taking a cue from the discourses of Swami
Paramrthananda.
द्वीतीयाद्वै भयं भवति.
(Fear arises only from a second.)
स यत्रैतत्स्वप्न्यया चरति ते हास्य लोकास्तदुतेव
महाराजो भवत्युतेव महाब्राह्मण उतेवोच्चावचं निगच्छति स यथा महाराजो
जानपदान्गृहीत्वा स्वे जनपदे यथाकामं
Here उतेव (as
though) shows the condition as unreal. There is no direct expression of mithya
in the ten Upanishads as I understand. Sankara uses the ‘iva’ to derive mithya
of the ‘assumed’ or ‘superimposed’ positions.
सत्यस्य सत्यइति; प्राणा वै सत्यम्, तेषामेष
सत्यम्
The universe is satyam (vyaavahaarika satyam, not in so
many words, but inferable) and Brahman is satyasya satyam (paaramaartika satyam).
This interpretation makes clear the idea of mithya. Mithya is not what does not
exist, but that with transient existence predicated upon the ever present
satyam – REALITY.
इदं सर्वं यदयमात्मा.
(All this is that which is Atma).
अयमात्मा ब्रह्म सर्वानुभूः । इत्यनुशासनम् ॥
{This Atma which experiences everything is Brahma. This is
the instruction (of all Vedanta)}
यत्साक्षादपरोक्षाद्ब्रह्म य आत्मा सर्वान्तरस्तं मे
व्याचक्ष्व इत्येष त आत्मा सर्वान्तरः
(‘Tell me precisely about the Brahman that is immediate and
direct- the self that is within all.’ ‘This is your self that is within all.’)
Incidentally, we have the best definition of Brahman. That
which seemingly functions as Jiva is Brahman.
नान्यदतोऽस्ति द्रष्टृ नान्यदतोस्ति श्रोतृ
नान्यदतोऽस्ति मन्तृ नान्यदतोऽस्ति विज्ञातृ
(There is no other seer than It, there is no other hearer
than It, there is no other thinker than It, there is no other knower than It.)
असंगो ह्ययं पुरुष इति
(This Purusha is unattached.)
This is unqualified. It refutes visishtAdvaita.
ता वा अस्यैता हिता नाम नाड्यो यथा केशः सहस्रधा
भिन्नस्तावताऽणिम्ना तिष्ठन्ति शुक्लस्य नीलस्य पिङ्गलस्य हरितस्य लोहितस्य पूर्णा
अथ यत्रैनं घ्नन्तीव जिनन्तीव हस्तीव विच्छाययति गर्तमिव पतति यदेव जाग्रद्भयं
पश्यति तदत्राविद्यया मन्यतेऽथ यत्र देव इव राजेवाहमेवेद सर्वोऽस्मीति मन्यते
सोऽस्य परमो लोकः॥
(There are in his body nerves (nadis) called hita, which
are fine as a hair divided into a thousand parts and are filled with white,
blue, brown, green and red fluids. They are the seat of the subtle body, which
is the storehouse of impressions. Now, when he feels as if he were being killed
or overpowered, or being chased by an elephant, or falling into a pit, in
short, when he fancies at that time, thorough ignorance, whatever frightful
thing he has expericned in the waking state, that is the dream state. So also,
when he thinks he is a god, as it were, or a king, as it were, or thinks:
"This universe is myself and I am all’: that is his highest state.”)
‘इव’ in ‘घ्नन्तीव जिनन्तीव
हस्तीव विच्छाययति गर्तमिव .. देव इव’ denoted Maya. Note that there
is no ‘इव’ after ‘मन्यते’ because
it denotes the true state.
न तु तद्द्वितीयमस्ति ततोsन्यद्विभक्तं
यद्विजानीयात्
There is not that second entity differentiated from it
which it can know.
Actually, it is the eigth in a row of such statements – the
previous seven covering seeing, smelling, tasting, speaking, hearing, thinking
and touching, covering all senses and mind. In effect, the senses, mind and
intellect cannot grasp that unique truth which has no second. The whole
section, svayam-jyotir-brahmanam esp. 21-34, is a categorical assertion of Advaita.
स वा अयमात्मा ब्रह्म विज्ञानमयो मनोमयः
प्राणमयश्चक्षुर्मयः श्रोत्रमय पृथिवीमय आपोमयो वायुमय आकाशमयस्तेजोमयोऽतेजोमयः
काममयोऽकाममयः क्रोधमयोऽक्रोधमयो धर्ममयोऽधर्ममयः सर्वमयस्तद्यदेतदिदमयोऽदोमय इति
(This same self is verily Brahman, as also associated with
the intellect, the mind, the vital breath, the eyes, the ears, the earth, the
water, the air, the ether, the fire, what is other than the fire, desire,
absence of desire, anger, and absence of anger, righteousness, and
unrighteousness, with all. That it is that which is associated with what is
perceived and with what is inferred.)
अथाकामयमानोयोऽकामो निष्काम आप्तकामो आत्मकाम न तस्य
प्राणा उत्क्रामन्ति ब्रह्मैव सन्ब्रह्माप्येति॥
(The man who has no desire- one i without desire, whom
desires have left, whose objects of desire have been realised, whose only
object of desire is the Self- his organs do not go out. Being Brahman himself,
he is merged in Brahman.)
This describes jivan-mukti. ‘Brahmaiva san’ dentes that he
is ever Brahman, he does not become or attain that state. Logically, the
difference that is noticed is mithya.
यदा सर्वे प्रमुच्यन्ते कामा येऽस्य हृदि श्रिताः ।
अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्यत्र ब्रह्म समश्नुते ॥
(When all desires that abide in the heart of a man leave,
then the mortal man becomes immortal and realises Brahman here itself.)
This also describes jivan-mukta, ‘atra’ in भवत्यत्र
clinces
the issue of jivan-mukta state.
अथायमशरीरोsमृतः प्राणो ब्रह्मैव
तेज एव.
(Then the self becomes disembodied and immortal, the
Supreme Self, Brahman, the Light of pure Intelligence.)
अयमात्मानन्तरोऽबाह्यः कृत्स्नः प्रज्ञानघन एव
(This self has neither inside nor outside and is but a
homogeneous mass of consciousness throughout.)
Vedanta (Upanishads) at a glance - 15
From Swami Parmarthananda’s discourse (transcript by two
disciples) on Gita:
Vedantic study brings out a self-correction.
Self-correction brings about the correction in the way you look at the world.
And if there is a change in the way you look at the world, there is a change in
your response to life’s situation. In fact, samsara is wrong response to life’s
situations. Wrong response is calling the situations problems. In fact, most of
the problems we call problems are what: situations. Summer is hot – is it a
problem or situation? Will summer be cool? Summer will be hot only. Winter will
be cold only. When you get old, all the joints will be quivering only. So most
of the complaint that we give are simple natural situations in life
வேதாந்தத்தின் சாரம் யார் சொல்வது சரி என்பதல்ல. நாமே
புத்தியால் விசாரித்து மனதால் உணர்ந்து ஆத்மார்த்தமாக உண்மையைப்
புரிந்துகொள்வதுதான். அது தேறும் வரை அஞ்ஞானத்தில் உழல வேண்டும்.
The essence
of Vedanta is not whose exposition is right. We have to enquire with our
intellect, imbibe by our mind and realise truth in our being. Until then we
have to struggle in ajnanam.
Vedanta in vernacular
In ordinary parlance, Vedantic truths have percolated in a
rather worldly sense.
அதுக்கு அஞ்ஞானமே இல்லே. (That
boy/girl has no ajnanam.)
Ajnanam is used in the sense of attachment. The state of jnana
denotes detachment.
எம்ப்ரும்மம் மாதிரி இருக்கான். (He is
like Brahman – means, that he is wooden.)
Brahman is unmoved by transactions which are insubstantial
(mithya).
ब्रह्म (written as Brahman, to
distinguish it from the creator)
What
is Brahman?
That
is the content of the Upanishads, Brahma Sutra and the voluminous commentaries.
It will be foolhardy to attempt an answer in a short compass. But, hopefully it
serves as a stimulus.
Brahman
is Atma आत्मा – that which pervades
everything.
Brahman
is Reality (सत् Sat). That is the basic
idea. Sat denotes ‘existence’. Everything that exists has ‘existence’ – this
understanding pervades all – animate or inanimate. This idea runs through the
Upanishads explicitly or subtly.
It
is unique एकं (nothing can be said in
comparison and hence all expressions citing examples have to be taken with
reservation) and exclusive अद्वितीयम् (it
has no second, no parallel).
The
first idea is that it is all-inclusive; the second idea is that it is different
from what we experience with our senses.
The
rather fully developed idea is that it is सत्यं ज्ञानं अनन्तम् or सत्-चित्-आनन्द. To
Sat are added Chit (consciousness) and Ananta (infinite) or Ananda (bliss).
They are not three distinct qualities as explained analytically, but a
composite whole without division.
Brahman
is the knower (experiencer, subject) विज्ञाता.
Brahman
is autonomous पूर्णम्.
It
is beyond senses तत्,
सः – indicating its
incomprehensibility by ordinary means.
Brahman
is that knowing which everything becomes known.
कस्मिन्नु भगवो विज्ञाते सर्वमिदं विज्ञातं भवतीति ।। (Knowing which all this
becomes known?) येनाश्रुतं श्रुतं भवत्यमतं मतमविज्ञातं विज्ञातं (By which the unkeard
becomes heard, unthought becomes thought and unknown becomes known).
Brahman
is that from which all this has arisen (it denotes manifestation of what was
potential rather than creation of something new altogether), in which the
manifested things inhere and in which they collapse eventually. (यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । येन जातानि जीवन्ति । यत् प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति । तद्विजिज्ञासस्व । तद् ब्रह्मेति ॥)
Brahman
is अन्नं (food, matter), प्राणः (breath
or life which graduates from food), मनः (mind which develops in
the well evolved life) and आनन्दः (bliss – state of
realization, not mundane happiness).
Symbolically,
Brahman is represented by AUM ॐ, which signifies the
four states of wakefulness, dream, deep sleep, and turiyam – the underlying
state of pure consciousness where differences observed have dissolved.
Knowledge
of Brahman is experiential not a linear result of intellect or dialectics.
Knowing what Atma is Atmajnanam. That is the whole
substance of Vedanta.
Atma is not that which senses can reveal, but that because
of which senses function. (Kenopanishad).
The opening stanza of Narayaneeyam describes Krishna, the
presiding deity of Guruvayur as Brahma Tatvam – (1) it is ‘kaladesavadhibyam
nirmuktam – beyond space-time; (2) nityamuktam – ever free; (3) aspashtam
nigamasatasahasrena nirbhasyamanam – not capable of being clearly elucidated by
a thousand scriptures.
Atma and Brahman are the same.
But all this can’t still give us a definite idea of Atma.
Only sravanam, mananam and nidhidhyasanam can. (Br. U)
turned into an instruction manual by Sankara.
The jnani cannot describe it. He can only show the path to
it.
In Tamizh there is a saying:
கண்டவர் விண்டதில்லை; விண்டவர்
கண்டதில்லை.
The one who has realized has not spoken; the one who is
speaking has not realized.
If there can be a one line answer, Vedanta must have set at
rest all churning minds.
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