Sambhuti (Manifest) vs.Asambhuti (Unmanifest)

Sambhuti(Manifest) vs.Asambhuti(Unmanifest)

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये सम्भूतिमुपासते।

ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ संभूत्या रताः ॥12॥

Andham tamah pravisantiye' sambhutu-mupsate.
tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u sambhu-tyagm ratah(12)
 
"They fall into  blindening darkness who worship the Unmanifested (Prakkrti);
but  those   who  devote  themselves  to the Manifested (Hiranyagarbha) enter  into   greater darkness"(Swami Chinmayananda)

Mantras 12 to 14 are again another triple stanzas through  which  the same idea described earlier( cf.Mantras 9to11) has been brought  out for better classification,so that that every Vedantic  seeker understands   correctly what is the exact relationship between Vidya and avidya, and that they are not mutually conflicting ideas and   are  rather complimentary   to each  other, being  undertaken in  an intelligent  sequence. First, action(avidya) as dictated by  our desires,in order  to bring  us out  of our inertia (tamas)into an active mentality of sprightly  enthusiasm(rajas), and,  thereafter,  through a  pursuit of desireless activity,onecan  gainpurification of one's  mind and intellect, as  a preparation for meditation.  Lateron, through steady  and diligent meditation, the seeker gains the fulfilment of knowledge(vidya).

The  same idea is now being  described here using  another set  of words asambhuti(Unmanifest) and Sambhuti(Manifest), which we  generally understand as Impersonal  God and Personal  God  respectively.
Among  the devotays has been a lot of controversy  upon  the relative merits of worshipping or meditating upon  the  Personal and the Impersonal God. The  controversy has now come  down  to our  times as  to whether Jnana  or Bhakti  is  supreme.  To make us understand that  our controversy  is meaningless, the Upanisad here is giving   enough  thoughts  in its truth-  declarations, as Janana  and  Bhakti are not  contradictory, each in the   lap of the other  growing   stronger and  gets  more established.
 
अन्यदेवाहुः संभवादन्यदाहुरसंभवात।

इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद विचचिक्षिरे ॥13॥


Anyad-evahuh  sambhavat anad-ahur-asambhavat,
iti susruma  dhiranam  ye nastad vica-caksire(13)

"One thing theysay,is verily obtained from the worship of the manifest. Another thing,they say, from the  worship of the unmanifest;thus have we heard fromt he  wise, who have explained that to us." (Swami  Chinmayananda)

It will be seen that just as  in the  second stanza of the earlier  triplet (Mantras 9 to 11),here also the Rsi is trying  to explain that what we  generally understand by  the terms manifest and  unmanifest  are not exactly what they  connote  in the technique of Self-perfection,but the terms  have some special  significance. Further, that   such an  orientation  of the idea   has the sanction of  the entire hierarchy  of experienced  Masters   and  their  worthy  disciples.

संभूतिं च विनाशं च यस्तद वेदोभयम सह।

विनाशेन मृत्युम तीर्त्वा सम्भुत्या मृतमश्नुते ॥14॥
Sambhutim ca vinasam ca yastad  saha ,
Vinasena mrtyum  sambhutya- ' mrtam-asnute.(14)
"He  who  worships   the Impersonal  Godhead   and  the Personal Godhead  together, overcomes death through  the worship  of   the Personal and  obtains  immortality  through  the  worship of  the Impersonal."  (Swami  Chinmayamanda)

Just as  in   the last  stanza  of   the earlier triplet,  the same  ideas   are  expressed  only with   the terms  changed  from vidya  and  avidya  to the 'personal'  and  the 'impersonal' God  being used. Besides,  it   has  got its  own pregnant extra  suggestions  as  well. The  controversy between  Bhakti  and   Jnana  is  pefectly proved to  be  empty and  hollow  by the suggestions contained in this mantra.  It  is rather  suggested here that  these two  are  complimentary instead  of  being contradictory, and  are  to be practised in a sequence.  While  going up,you cannot jump  to higher  stairs without  first crossing   the lower ones.  Similarly, a  sadhak  at the initial  stage  of  his sadhana(meditation) cannot/may  find  it difficult t o concentrate  on  the  Impersonal without  first  concentrating  on  the Personal God(Ishta or Guru). Thus, devotion  to a Personal  God   with  a  form and  name  is  as  much  important  for  reaching the higher meditation, as continuous  and    intense meditation  upon  the formless Reality isnecessary  for  the greater realisation  of the Self.
 In  such  an intelligent sythesis  of  bhakti  and Jnana  together,  the  result  would be,in the Rsi's  own words, that  we will be able  to get over the sorrows  of death,meaning  the sorrows of finitude, due to our faith and  devotion  to the Lord; while our evolution  would  be  fulfilled completely as  a  result of our highe rmeditation  upon  the  formless Reality. Accoring  to Swami Chinmayananda," A mere meditation upon  the Absolute in itself,though can  give a subjective experience  of  the Self, the Jivan-mukta state cannotbe peaceful and  tranquil without the firmholdon the life-belt of  a staunch and unshakable love(prema)  and devotion(Sradha) forthe Lordofthe Heart."
"A mere Vedantic perfection  does not make a man fit to live in  the  community of men and work in the field of avidya to redeem his generation from the mental and intellectual dustbin  into which it  has  fallen. For  cultural renaissance,  the great Master   will have  to face different types of challenges in which  he  can  find his equilibrium and poiseonly  when he    is efficiently    guided and  continuously  rejuvenated by  his limitless devotion  to the Lordof his heart."Sri  Ramakrsna Parmahamsa's might  and glory  was his experience of the Self,but his life's poise and equanimity were the special blessings of his beloved Mother Kali of Daksinesvara. Sankara,the redeemer of Hinduism, shall eternally  shine out in  time and space because of  his super human perfection and  experience  of the Self, and yet he  could face his opponents along the length and breadth  of India,and carve out a renaissant India crowned  with  the best of  its  culture,because of his staunch and unquestionable faith  in the Goddess of Learning,Mother Sarada.

Swani  Chinmayananda has cited  a very satisfying explanation given by his Gurudev,Sri Svami Tapovanaji Maharaj,  about  the  terms  sambhuti  and sambhava,to recognise them as the  'birth of  a new spiritual life', and asambhuti and vinasam as  referring  to'the cessation and  destruction' - cessation of the creation of new  vasanas and  the total destruction of  the entire existing vasanas. In this sense sambhuti, asambhava and vinasam  are  all pointing  to the same spiritual condition..  They  mean the annihilation of  all  material wants and  consequent  absence  of  rebirth into this mortal plane in  order  to exhaustthe existing vasanas.  This  explanation  of sambhuti,the choosing and,therefore, the becoming ofaLife Divine,and asambhuti, the cessation of  all undivine activities pursued when living as  a helpless slave  to a thousand passions - beautifully  reconciles the  seeming contradiction in this mantra.

To  conclude, a jnani who has the devotion of a Radha alone can live the life of a true Parthasarathi and
guide the chariot of his era  to a sure success and victory over the demoniac forces of decadence ,adharma and stupor into which history has fallen.

( This  research-based  endeavour is based  on the discourses   on Ishopanisad by Swami Chinmayananda)
   
vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Vidya and Avidya(contnd)

VIDYA AND AVIDYA(CONTND.)

अन्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया न्यदेवाहुर्विद्यया।

इति शुश्रुम धीराणां ये नस्तद्विचचक्षिरे ॥10॥

Anyad-evahur-vidyaya anya-dahur-avidyaya,
iti susruma dhiranam ye nastad vica-caksire(10)

" One thing,they say,is verily obtained from Vidya,another thing they say from Avidya;thus,we have heard from the wise who explained that to us."(Swami Chinmayananda)

Here,the great Rsi  is trying to elaborate  the idea  of Vidya and Avidya, and give  it a new touch  of orientation and a revolutionary  re-statement,declaring that the popular notion about these two terms is not  all the truth.The results of vidya and avidya are different  from each  other, each of them serving a definite purpose.  Having  stated this,the Rsiimmediately addsthatthisopinionisnotaproductofofhis own intellect,but that this is what he has 'heard from the wise who explained that to us.' This is a very significant  statement,as in Hinduism we accept  some statement  only when  it has  stood  the testoftime and repeated subjective experience   of generation of sages.Hinduism,thus,is not the product of a single Prophet,but is the wisdom-declarations rising from th eexperienced  bosoms of realised Masters, which  have been relived by generations of disciple-class. A  truth that has been tested and found fit  upon  the touch-stoneof life by  repeated generations  alone  is acceptedby  the Aryan-devotees.
According to Swami  Chinmayananda,"Both vidya and avidya,in fact,are bondages.Knowledge is certainly a release from the shackles of ignorance,but the knowledge itself is a painful limitation upon the Absolute. One may get over the confusion of ignorance with knowledge but,in itself,this will find us only chained by  the limitations of knowledge.To transcend both is to reach the state of Absolute Perfection.
After  prefacing  thus,in the following stanza,we get a correct indication of the exact import and mutual relationship that is to be maintained between vidya and avidya.

विद्यां चाविद्यां च यस्तद वेदोभयम सह।

अविद्यया मृत्युं तीर्त्वा विद्ययामृतमश्नुते ॥11॥

Vidyam cavidyam ca yastad  vedo-bhayagm saha,
avidyaya  mrtyum tirtva vidyaya-mrtam-asnute(11)
" He,who knows at the same time both Vidya and Avidya,overcomes death by Avidya and obtains immortality by Vidya." (SwamiChinmayananda)

In explaining the great  theory of' 'action and inaction' the Rsis have  given  this pregnant mantra to their Aryan generations. In the firststanza,they  condemned both vidya  and avidya as guiding  us only  to a dark age when one pursues one  to  the exclusion of other.Thereafter, quoting  the  greater  Rsis  of earlier  periods, the Seer is  now  summarising how they  are  to be  pursued  in a happy  sythesis. Synthesis  of material activity(karma)and  spiritual knowledge(Jnana) has often been advocated  by  the modern  teachers of  synthesis. Here, it  is  said  that he,who combines in himself/herself both  vidya and avidya together, would overcome 'death by avidya' and obtain 'Immortality  by vidya'. 
They must be considered  as serially connected: Selfless dedicated work(Avidya) preparesone  for contemplation,and when through contemplation Vidya  is fulfilled in direct apprehension ofthe Self, thereafter the Perfect One undertakes karma as as a  sacred satisfying fulment of his realisation and spiritual  experience.
Modern environment is full  of feverish activity - social, communal, national and international,and  many among us are  the blind  advocates ofactivity. Many are leaders and many others are  the potential ones, as perceived by them.  Despite of  all  these  leaders and  their leading, the world,as such, is gasping  forward from confusion  to despair and  steadily and systematically tottering  from despair to disaster! The  diagnosis and  the cure are contained  in the secret depths of this very pregnant mantra.
Without Vidya, to act in the outer world of avidya is almost impossible,and unprofitable as well. Without knowing  the rhysthm and harmonyofthe entirecosmos which unite togetherthe plurality,toactin the world of multiplicity would add to the existing confusion prevalent  in the world. Leaders and workers are striving to bring about   unity,harmony,peaceand joy in the world, while they themselves have not realised any one of these in themselves! With an ill-adjusted instrument of disharmony and discord,no musician,however great and willing, can strike out even a single note of perfect beauty and mastery!
This Mantra says that  certainly the experienced knowledgeof the Self(Atma-jnana) would give us Eternal  Liberation and Immortal Existence; for,thereby we shall discover that  we are not the body-mind-intellect equipment   to which  belongs the irreparable change called death.Mortality is the tragic fate of the matter; Immortality is the blissful nature of the Spirit.

But having gained Vidya in this very life,we are supposed  to livei n thisworld as a liberated soul, to fulfil his self-realisation in and  around through  his  activities in the world outside.Earlier,wehave  seen in verses ssix  and  seven,that Self-realisation is not only the experience   that one's own  Self is divine,but   this realisation  can be complete only when one  realises that his one'sown Self in the Self-in-all.Unless we include and incorporate in our Self-experience the pluralistic world of imperfection also,the realisation cannot be called complete.  Rooted in  the knowledge of our own Self,the Self-realised sage or Seer becomes the most potent fator in the world to carve out for it a destiny of unquestionable brilliance and success.
No doubt, an individual who has thus worked in the world  in organising humanity and in rehabilitating  his generation in  the greater values of life, eternally comes to live in the memory  ofthe world,carving  out  for themselves to  remain, as it were,eternally on  the surface of the globe. Buddha  and Sankara,for example,as  mortals gave no easy  walk over  to .death .  These  and  greatMasters, having  worked  for the uplift  of  society,have entered  into  the warp ofthe social fabric of  the  generation  to follow  to such an extent, that posterity  could  not willingly let die their  memories  and  contribution. Besides, such  great of  realisation 'overcome death'  that   is  caused   by Ignorance(Avidya).  Death can frighten  only him  who mis -understands  himself  to be  the body,  but  to him, who has  realised that he is  the Atman, death  is only one of the  meaningless  delusory changes  in  his body - zone with  which  he maintained  a sense  of  possessiveness  during his  days  of  ignorance.

The phrase 'And obtains immortality by Vidya' is quite significant. Mortality,afterall, is  the  fate  of matter and not the destiny of the Spirit. Swami Chinmayananda has  very beautifully added,"the potmay  breakand  destroy  the pot-space; butthe 'space'in the potisneitherbroken nor overmade; it isthe all-pervading space,ever-the -same. Similarly,birth  and death,decay anddisease,bondageand liberation,sorrowand joy,  success and failure, etc.,are all experiences available only to the ego- centre,and by  themselves are but  delusion-created appearances.  This  is realised whenthe Pure  Awareness comes to flashout,as it  were, through  the matter-envelopments.  The  ego ends, where'Godhood-experience'starts." 
The mortal,minus his ego,is the Immortal Truth. When the seeker, through  meditation, transcends all his identifications with  his body,mind and intellect-  he comes to  rediscover himself/herself to be  the Pure Atman, and to him, thereafter,there can be no-rebirth nor the chain  of   Karmic effects  to bind him down 
to the wheels of samsara. Naturally,he gains,in the  language of our experience of mortality,the state of Immortality.
(To be contnd.)
Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Vidya and Avidya

VIDYA and AVIDYA

अन्धं तमः प्रविशन्ति ये विद्यामुपासते।


ततो भूय इव ते तमो य उ विद्याया रताः ॥9॥

Andham tamah pravisanti ye vidyam-upaste,
 
tatobhuyaiva tetamoyauvidyayagmratah(9)
 
"They  who  worship Avidya(rites) alone enter blindening darkness,and they,who are  engaged in Vidya(meditation)veily fall, as  though,into an even greater darkness."
 
  ' Knowlege versus  Action' has been the eternal problem with every generation of thinkersThere is an eternal lingering   doubt as  to whether  a life of action or  a life of meditation is  the ideal way  of  living. In this stanza,the Rsi has opened up  the problem,by defining this  problem of outward activity vs.inward contemplation are avidya and vidya , which also connote karma(avidya) and  upasana(vidya). Generally  speaking, those who are keeping themselves engaged exclusively in a field of ritualistic activities certainly  find themselves  reaching thicker delusions.

According to  Swami Chinmayananda," Ritualism(karma)can be undertaken only when one is whipped by desire for the fruits thereof.When the yajnas and yagas, the ritualistic portion of the Vedas, are performed with  an  ardent desire for supremacy  or for ampler sensuousness,from the Rsi's standpoint, the individual is spiritually  falling into the'blinding darkness'. Again,those who are following the path of upasana or leading  an introvert life,mediating deeply, seeking nothing but the all-pervading Reality,they seem to fall  as  though into a still greater darkness, because such of the hasty and unprepared mediators may overdo the negation aspect of the technique of meditation and  reach a destination of blind non-existence ! Here, the term'as though a greater darkness' is very significant; it is not really darkness."  However, according to Sri Sankara,vidya means jevata-jnana,leading  to the abode of the devata,and avidya is ritualistic karma, leading to the joys of heaven(pitrloka).Probably,the context here demand that we should take vidya to be 'higher meditation' and avidya to be 'all sadhanas' that  prepare one,by exhausting  one's existing  vasanas, to have  a peaceful mind that can  readily be brought to the seat of meditation.

Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/



(To be  contnd.)

The Atman(Self) Defined

 The ATMAN(SELF) DEFINED


स पर्यगाच्छक्रमकायव्रणम स्नाविर शुद्धमपापविद्धम।

कविर्मनीषी परिभुः स्वयंभूर्याथातत्थ्यतो र्थान व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यहः समाभ्यः ॥8॥
Sa paryagac-chukram-akayam-avranam
asna-viragm suddham-apapa-viddham,
kavir-manisiparibhuh svayam-bhuh yatha-tathyatab
arthan-vyadadhac-chasv-tibhyah samabhyah(8)

"He,theAtman,isall-pervading, bright,bodiless,scatheless,withoutmuscles,pure,unpiercedby evils,wise,omniscient, transcendentand self-existing.Healoneallottedtheirrespectivefunctions(duties)tothe variouseternalyears(Creators)."

Here is a complete and exhaustive definition,if not a word-painting of the Eternal, atleast as sufficient amount of data to give a sincere student/sadhak an intuitive understanding of the all-comprehensive factor called the Life or Atman. The great commentator Sankara has  frequently used  this stanza and the expression therein in his commentaries to indicate the Self  in us. 
 
That (Self) is all-pervading, radiant, bodiless, soreless, without sinews, pure, untainted by sin, the all-seer, the lord of the mind, transcendent and self-existent. That (Self) did allot in proper order to the eternal Prajapatis known as samvalsara (year) their duties.

The word paryagat means’gone abroad or went around’, which transpires that the Self went to spread itself everywhere, meaning that the Self is all-pervading and extend beyond all limitations. Sukram declares the Self to be bright, being the very light-giving principle in our intelligence. Akayam (bodiless) indicates the Self or pure life as ‘bodiless, having no connection with the matter envelopments, generally constituted of the great five sheaths. It is no more a prisoner in the body, all its identifications have ended forever. The expression ‘scatheless and without muscles’ signifies that it has no physical body at all, and, therefore, no disease can come there. The term ‘suddha’ (pure) indicates that the Atman has no causal body since it is untouched by sin. The Self is immaculate (apapa-viddham). Thus, the Atman is neither the physical nor the subtle nor the causal body, transcending them all is the Self, Eternal and Perfect.. It is positive factor with all the dynamic qualities of Life.

Swami Chinmayananda has declared the nature of the Self in following series of phrases:
The Self is the Seer-  a declaration that the Life-spark in us isthe real vitality behind our senses  with  their perceptions. In fact,if the Life-principleis removed  from the sense organs,they become impotent to register any impression of their objects.  They  function only,when oresided over by the grace of  the Self. None of the activities of perception,feeling or thinking can be  experienced  by usif we  arenot 'charged' by  the Life-principle in  us.
Omniscient-  The Self  is considered  omniscient, All- knowing(manisi). The  Self in us as  the one Consciousness   is  the eternal 'knower' in all bosoms. The Atman is  certainly  transcendent,beyond  the realm of  the  finite. Transcending  the  finite,liesthe domainof thattranscedent  Self.

Self-existing(Svambhu) -  Our intellectcan  function only in three definite fields of activity called,time,space and causality.Cause-hunting is  the  great avocation of the  intellect. However,the causation-hunting-intellect will have   to be checkmated at  some particular  point by a  great   grand supposition only   to stem the  tide of  its own wasteful flow. Thus,philosophically,we  have   to accept that there  was a first cause, which in its never-ending flow  of changes,has brouhgt about the  entire  world  of   existing plurality. But  the Ultimate Cause must,in itself, be uncaused by  any  other cause than  itself. This  is Svayambhu meaning  self-sprung,i.e.self-existing. It isnotborn  out  of 'a something',but It  is self-born, Self being the first  cause,  not  in itself the  effect  of  anycause..

  To  conclude, the stanza,while  referring  to  all  the above  qualities   to Isha,  can  also be considered   to paint  the idea of  the seeker (sadhak) wholly  becoming one  with  the Pure,  Bodiless, Luminous, Incorporeal, Immaculate,Brahman,  the Eternal Reality. The Rsi says  loudly that  it  is this Self or Pure Consciousness that is the power and strength behind the laws of  all natural phenomena, because of the unquestionable authority behaind the Lawgiver and His Law,That authority,might or  power belongs  to  the Supreme Reality, the Self.

vedrakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

A Self-realised Atman-ko mohah kah soka ekatva-manu-pasyatah

A SELF-REALISED ATMAN

यस्मिन्सर्वाणि भूतानि आत्मैवाभूद विजानतः।

तत्र को मोहः कः शोकः एकत्वमनुपश्यतः ॥7॥

Yasmin sarvanibhutaniatmaiva-bhudvijanatah,
tatra ko mohah kah soka ekatva-manu-pasyatah(7)
 
"When, to the knower,all beings have become one in his own Self(Atman),how shall he feel deluded thereafter? What  grief can there be to him  who sees oneness everywhere?"(7)
                                                                                                                    (Swami     Chinmayananda)
In the previous Mantra,the Rsi explained to us the glory  of Self-realisation  in a language of negative assertions. We were only  told that the individual will have no more any repulsion against or hatred for anything  in life. But here, the same idea  hasbeen  explained to us with more emphasis and practical assertions. A man of Self-relisation, who  has understood in his  own vital experience that he is not a  separate individual living as opposed  to others,but in his/her essential nature,he/she  is nothing  but  the harmony or unity,that underlines all seeming  discord or plurality(which  are considered  asa scum upon  the Reality). He, who has thus relised his oneness  with  the entire,can  no longer have the ordinary tossings of the mind arising out of the ordinary  psychological  tensions created  through delusion (moha)orgrief(soka).
According to Swami Chinmayananda, "grief is the  lanaguageofdelusion.The amount of grief in an individual'slifeis  directly  proportional to the amount of delusion in him/her. In his essential nature, he is All-Bliss. Unity or Harmony is Bliss. But in delusion, when he cognizes plurality and  discord, there arises  in him, the experience of grief  This  delusion creates grief,and more the delusion,more the grief.
  To  get away from grief is the goal of life sought by every   living creature, whether man  or animal.Moksha or liberation is  the  transcendence of  the individualbeyond  the frontiers  of  sorrow.  This  Mantra  exhorts  that beyond  the shores  ofsighs  and sobs,lies the land  of realisation whence  the Knower experiences in his own Self, the entire universe to be one, which is nothing but his own Real Nature.
The pot-space can  disard all his sense of limitations,imperfections and sorrows only when it rediscovers itself to be nothing but the  universal space. Each  individual wave will have  its ownsorrows  ofbirth, growth, decayand  death only when  it considers itself separate fromothers'but,on its  realisation that  it  is nothing  but the ocean in its  essential nature, all its sorrows end,an nomore shallit  have  its own delusory ideathat  it  is separatefrom others.  Where there is no delusion,there  is no  grief, as  the grief is the expression of delusion.

Thus, to conclude,   such a man/woman( Saint )of Realisation,experiencing his own Self shining  out through every  name and form,expressing Its  own dynamism through  every  circumstance,happy or sorrowful, is eternally in unison with harmony and rhythm amidst  the discordant noise  of life. To  him are  the greatest potencies,the greatest  joys,and the amplest   successes in life.Even the heaviest  sorrow cannot shake him eveen  a wee-bit.(Cf. Yasmin sthito na duhkhena gurunapi vicalyate(wherein established,he is notshakenevenby  the heaviest  sorrow- Bhagvad  Gita VI-22).
(This research-based  endeavour is based  on  Swami Chinmayananda's Discourses  on   Isha Upanisada)

Vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Ethical Values in Ishopanisad- Introduction

Introduction

Ethical Values in Ishopanisad- Introduction

ईशावास्यं इदं सर्वं यत् किञ्च जगत्यां जगत।


तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जिथाः मा गृधः कस्य स्विद् धनम् ॥1॥


Om Isavasyam-idagm sarvam yat-kinca jagatyam jagat,
 ten tyaktena bhunjitha, ma grdhah kasya svid dhanam.(Isha.I)

“All this, whatsoever moves in this  universe, including the universe itself  moving, is indwelt or pervaded or enveloped or clothed by the Lord. That renounced, thou shouldst enjoy; covet not any body's wealth."

Introduction

The Isa Upanisad (which forms the fortieth Chapter in the Vajaneya Samhita of Sukla- Yajur Veda) begins with the statement that whatever exists in this world is enveloped by the Supreme and that it is by renunciation and absence of possessiveness that the soul is saved. Isha Upanishad or Ishavasyopanishad is one of the principal Upanishads consisting of only eighteen verses, but of immense significance.  It contains a concentrated view of the essential Vedic philosophy and the choicest Ethical Values. The subject matter of the Upanishad, as of all the Upanishads, is spiritual, profound, and all comprehensive. It forms the foundation of Vedantic System of thought. It highlights the divinity of man, as well as all His manifestations in nature. It conveys to us the knowledge of the seers who have had experienced the spiritual solidarity and unity of all existence.   

This Upanishad derives its title from the opening words Isa–vasya, “God–covered.” The use of Isa (Lord)–a more personal name of the Supreme Being than Brahman, Atman or Self, the names usually found in the Upanishads–constitutes one of its peculiarities. Oneness of the Soul and God, and the value of both faith and works as means of ultimate attainment are the leading themes of this Upanishad. The general teaching of the Upanishads is that works alone, even the highest, can bring only temporary happiness and must inevitably bind a man unless through them he gains knowledge of his real Self. To help him acquire this knowledge is the aim of this and all Upanishads.

It is also considered quite auspicious to recite this Isha Upanishad, which produces not only insights into our spiritual position and identity, but also the proper energy from the sound vibrations to invoke purity in the atmosphere as well as realizations in our consciousness. It shows the way the Upanishads describe the nonmaterial aspects of the Supreme Being, as when it describes Him as ‘One who walks but does not walk’. It is a way of relating how the Lord has no material qualities, but has all spiritual qualities and characteristics. By understanding this, one can begin to perceive the spiritual truths of which the Upanishadas speak.

Vedaprakasha
http://www.ethicalvaluesinvedas.blogspot.com/

http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Yastu syarvani bhutani atmanye...

YATSU SARVANIBHUTANI ATMANYE...

                          
यस्तु सर्वाणि भूतान्यात्मनेवानुपश्यति।
Yastu syaarvâni bhûtâni âtmanye-vânupasHyati,

सर्वभूतेषु चात्मानं ततो न विजुगुप्सते ॥6॥

                            Sarva-bhûteSu câtmânam tato na viju-gupsate.(Isha. 6).

  “He who constantly sees everywhere all existence in the Self and the Self in all beings and forms, thereafter feels no hatred for anything.” (Swami Chinmayananda)

This verse explains more vividly than ever in  any other Upanishad about the state of perfect  tranquility gained by a  Self-realized  stage,and,as such, this stanza has been oft-quoted and repeated in books and heard from platforms. This is the benefit accrued to an individual by realising this uniform and all-pervading Reality behind the multiplicity and plurality that we cognise around and about  us. It is certainly worthwhile for all seekers to remember constantly  this verse with  all its implications and import in their mind. Swami Chinmayananda  has advised that " I would suggest that even those who do not know much of Samskrta would some how or other memorise  this stanza,maintaining  an association of the meaning with the sounds,and would keep it as a ready  antidote for all their inner poisons of mental agitations and intellectual  unrest.". How can the multiplicity of life delude the one who sees its unity? 

"Self-realisation  is never  complete by a mere recognition of the intrinsic  divinity or perfection  in  the Self, within which  includes the Self expressing in the pluralistic  world.To realise one's  own Self is  to realise at once its oneness with  the All-Self. To realise  the nature of a wave is  to realise not  only the nature of all waves,but the very nature  of the ocean.Life being one and unbroken, to experience  the Life-centre within us ,is to experience at once the Life-centre everywhere." The one who has  thus  realised the  core of all beings as  the core of in himself , and his own Self as the Self in every name and form,he is a sage, a prophet,a God-man,a true leader of the people,and a guiding power in the universe." (ibid).

In realising thus,,the individual gets permanently  divorced from all his mental ideas of repulsion, shrinking ,dislike,fear,hatred and such  other perversions of feelings, which arise from the  sense of  division and plurality.When all the hatred(jugapsa) has dried away from the mind,the individual  experiences  an unbroken state  of tranquility,thereafter, an all  types of circumstances, favourable or unfavourable, in his worldly existence. Sri  Aurobindo has explained( in his commentary  on Isa Upanisad) this idea vividly: "jugupsa is the feeling of repulsion caused by a sense of of want of harmony,between one'sown limited self-formation, and the contacts of external, with consequent  recoil of grief,fear,hatred, discomfort,and suffering.It  is the opposite  of attraction which  is the source of desire and  attachment.Repulsion and attraction  removed,we have samatava."  A tranquil mind is  as potent as God;the more we gain this inward tranquility(samatva),the more joyous and effective our lives become. 

Vedprakash


www.ethicalvaluesinishaopanisad.blogspot.com

The Atman's Paradox

The ATMAN'S PARADOX

तदेजति तन्नैजति तद्दूरे तद्वन्तिके।
Tadejati tannaijati tad dûre tadvantike,

तदन्तरस्य सर्वस्य तदु सर्वस्य बाह्यतः ॥5॥

tadan-tarasya sarvasya tadu sarva-syâsya bâhyata. (Isha 5). 

         "The Atman  moves and It  moves not; It is far and It is  near; 

                         It is within all this, and It  is also  outside all this".(Swami Chinmayananda)

 The  perceptions are always  relative. Similarly, viewing the motionless Spirit of Life  from and  through  the world  of agitations, the Spirit Itself looks as  though It  moves,and yet, in Its  real nature,It moves  not.
This verse reinforces the fact covered  in the last stanza that the Supreme Consciousness is 'all pervading.' It moves-  yes, the matter, vibrant with the  touch of life,flutters and trembles,sighs and sobs,moves and acts,accomplishes and enjoys. The 'ghost'shows signs with its wizardly  hands and its horrid  face grins at the deluded; but  the 'post', which is the reality behind  the 'ghost-vision' of the dusk,'That moves not.' The pure awareness  of Consciousness,the Life-principle in all beings, in its all-pervading essential nature, neither  moves nor acts.  Established  in Its own glory,It revels in Its own existence. The ocean,in relation to the waves, is surging, seething,heaving,roaring; but in its own true nature,the ocean  is not  the waves  alone,  and  it  is  tranquil and peaceful,motionless and  majestic  in its  own depth, calmness and serenity. So too,with life as such, the Atman, in its  all-pervading nature,is motionless,and It neither acts nor  works. The boat moves,but never the lake.

'It is distant and  it is near' ----This alone can be definition of All-pervading. The Indian State is all -pervading, as far as  the  frontiers of  this country define it.  Similarly,the Pure Consciousness, the Supreme Reality, being All-pervading, It is at once   near and  the most  distant.  For the enlightened ones, the Self  is  the nearest, occupying the centre of  their  own individual  personality. Nothing is, in fact,so near  to us, as  our  own Self.  But,to others the Reality is indeed very far  from their  realisation!!

In fact,   the whole Ishavasya  Upanisad  is a loud  message to the humanity at large in  general, and to the true Hindu in particular, to desist from becoming merely self-centered, to the utter neglect of his life in the  outer  world, and his relationships with the comity of nations and happening  around him.
The Self is  not only  to be realised  in the centre of  our own individual life, but is  to  be experienced as the same everywhere. Pure Consciousness is homogeneous and all-pervading and,as such, the Self cognised  here   is  the same as the  Self experienced as  revelling  there. Not  only  is  the Atman the central core of  the spirituo -physical  personality  in the seeker, but the same Consciousness  is  the  very substratum  for the entire perception of the universe.  Thus,  to consider  this Self  to be  only within and live a life of pure introversion  is a  negation of Truth, which is condemned from  the Hindu  scriptural  standpoint.

vedprakash

www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com

The Self - Atman-the Supreme Reality

The SELF- ATMAN-THE SUPREME REALITY

अनेजदैकं मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन पूर्वमर्षत।

aneja-dekaM manaso javîyo, nainad-devâ âpnuvan- pûrva-marsat,


तद्धावतो न्यानत्येति तिष्ठत तस्मिन्नपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥4॥

tad-dhâvato-'nyâna-tyeti tisthat, tasmin-napo mâtarisHvâ dadhâti.( 4).

 "The Self is the motionless one, swifter than the Mind, The devas (senses) could not overtake;It ran before  before them. Sitting, It goes faster than than  those who  ran after  It. By It ,Matarsiva(the element Air) supports the activity of all living beings"(Isha 4).(Swami Chinmayananda).

<sup>That One, though motionless, is swifter than the mind. The senses can never overtake It, for It ever goes before. Though immovable, It travels faster than those who run. By It the all–pervading air sustains all living beings. 
This verse explains the character of the Atman or Self. A finite object can be taken from one place and put in another, but it can only occupy one space at a time. The Atman, however, is present everywhere; hence, though one may run with the greatest swiftness to overtake It, already It is there before him. Even the all–pervading air must be supported by this Self, since It is infinite; and as nothing can live without breathing air, all living things must draw their life from the Cosmic Self.


We have now four continuous verses(4 to7) where description of the Supreme in terms of Its qualities of the Self has been done, which  constitute the fourth wave-of-thought. The Atman or the Self is motionless, says the Isha Upanisad, which is neither  the inability or impotency of the Supreme. It is indicative of only all pervasiveness  of the Supreme Reality. Motion is a change in time and space. The Atman cannot(and need not) move because it is all-pervading. The Reality can not and need not move anywhere because there is no spot wherein It is not already existing.The Isha asserts that the Self is swifter than the mind. The Self runs faster because the Reality in the form of existence is already there, before the mind could contemplate. In short,the Self is discussed here as All-pervading in terms of motion and speed. By denying the former and asserting the latter,the Rsis are explaining to us the Consciousness or the Self,is a factor which in Itself is 'motionless speed'. Consciousness is All-pervading,it can not move,and nothing that moves in the universe (Ishavasyamidgam sarvam) can ever move except in a medium of Consciousness.</sup>


The sense-organs cannot ovetakethe Self, as they can only perceive their objects, functioning only in the field of consciousness. The sense-organs and the sense-objects spring from and exist in the Self,and so they cannot,in their functions ever remain totally away from the Self, the medium of their existence,the field of their activities.

The Self,thus, is not only all-pervading,but it is the very substance and dynamism in all movements and the very force behind everything.Presided over by the Self alone,can allthe transactions of life take place. Self is Life; without It everything is dead and non-existent. The idea has ben more vividly brought out in the closing line of the verse, when the Rsi declares that the Matarisva(Lord of the Atmosphere- Air) supports the activities oflife,having derived its Life-force and vigour from this great and all-pervading Reality. According to Sri Sankara,Matarisvar efers to the individuality(jiva)and water(apah)here means karma. Then it would mean that all activities of all individualised personalities are always within the Self.


 ^vedprakash

^{http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/}

Results san Renunciation or Action

RESULTS OF RENUNCIATION OF ACTION

असुर्या नाम ते लोका अंधेन तमसा वृताः।
Asûryâ  nâma te lokâh andhena tamasâ vritâh,

ता स्ते प्रेत्याभिगछन्ति ये के चात्महनो जनाः ॥3॥
Tâgmste pretyâbhi-gacchanti ye ke câtma-hano janâh.  (Isha 3).

"Sunless are those worlds, and enveloped in blindering  gloom to  which  all those people , who  are slayers  of  their  own Souls go, departing  from here".(Swami Chinmayananda)

The  great Master of  Upanisad declares  here that  having been born as man, an individual (or  society or community or nation), who refuses  to  live  either the ' the life of  renunciation/meditation' (cf. verse 1)or  ' the life of intense and continuous  activity'(cf. verse 2), is  to be  considered as a suicide. Such  an  entity  must  necessarily come into  fall  into an abyss of  darkness and despair, experiencing a terrible down-turn in its cultural  and spiritual eminence. If a community is neither willing to live the higher values nor be efficient  in its constructive  material  program, such a generation should slowly decay  into darkness, having  lost its soul,  and to face the sorrows  of dark age. Such  people are considered the 'slayers of their Souls' (Atma-hanah), or  Self-destroyers, who kill the Divinity  in themselves, will go to the 'sunless worlds',when they leave their bodies

Thus, with this Mantra(verse) the third 'wave of thought' indicates brilliantly  the consequences for individual entities  without  following the 'Path of Renunciation'(verse 1) or the  alternate 'Path of Action'(verse 2) .

vedprakash
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Path of Karma (righteous deeds)

 PATH OF KARMA(RIGHTEOUS DEEDS)

कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छत समाः।

एवं त्वयि नान्यथेतो स्ति न कर्म लिप्यते नरे ॥2॥

kûrvan-neveha karmâni jijîviSec-chatagM samâH,

evaM tvayi nânya-theto'sti na karma lipyate nare.( Isha  2)

"Performing verily, work in this world  should  one  desire to live a full  hundred years. This  alone  is right, for  there is  no  other  right  path. Action  never clings to a man following this  path" (Isha.2)

For the coveted goal set  out in the first verse, the pilgrim needs  a lot of mental and intellectual calibre,a man of renunciation, with discriminating capabilities, a  strong will and an indomitable faith in himself.However,many among us  have ample  desire  for wealth, for relationships,and for glory and  recognition. The Scripture  says that  such persons having inclinations towards the world, are to practise sincerely and diligently, the life of Action. If we study the history of mankind with detachment, we observe  that noble and eternal values of life,when negated and  flouted, the generation tumbles down into wreckage, and their  revival is almost  always directly proportional to the  sincerity,intensity and strength with  which the rising generation adopts the nobler and enduring  values of  philosophical and religious  perfection.

Thus,the great Rsis have anticipated  the result of action,inaction and unaction.According  to them, unaction - a seemingly physical inactivity which wears a thick veil  covers the extreme inner activity(sattva),the latter being the   sublimest, which  attitude is  for the  seekers on the 'Path of Renunciation' and 'Knowledge'. The opposite  'Inaction' is  external and internal morbidity,inertia and sloth(tamas), which  activity kills  the  generation. Action is the dynamic and conscious work, either  to fulfil a given and known  desire,or to enjoy the very  activity itself as its own goal(rajas ). Thus,  we should  immediately take to a dynamic and conscious program of activity and  should steadily walk the 'Path of Action', and  be  dedicated  to the 'Path of Karma'.In the words  of Swami Chinmayananda, 'In case you are not  able to live the life of God-vision achieved through renunciation,then do  certainly desire  to live  a full hundred  years of productive selfless work.'

The expression, 'kurvan  eva' performing,verily,work alone'(karmani  eva), is  indeed  very important and powerful. It amounts to saying  that having been born  as  a  man, there is no other go but  to work,especially if you strongly  desire to live verily(jijiviset  eva) a full  hundred years(satagm samah eva). Thus, the Isha have glorified sweat and toil to the highest pinnacle of recognition as service. The ‘dignity of labour consists in service’ is a fact no where else so openly declared and so religiously glorified as in the Hindu scriptures. Dedicated and noble work alone can polish the animal-man to a state of true culture and right discipline. Man is not born to revel in idleness. Nature will whip the tamasic on to the road of right or wrong activity(rajas), and gradually evolve him to sattva, a state of joy with action-oriented performance. Swami Chinmayananda has opined, 'Here is a stanza, which declares that  he,who cannot afford to live the noblest life of  (total)renunciation and self-restraint,must unavoidably live  a life of intense activity,striving his best to fulfil allhis desires through sweat and toil,and must teach himself to live in appetising enthusiasm all his life- 'a full hundred years'  in the service of man and  in the glorification of the Lord."The Isha Upanisad repeats: 'Thus, it is right  for thee and not otherwise than  this.' The one who thus intensively plunges into life - eager and anxious to meet  daily challenges,and  at every turn doing his best to meet  each challenge with truth and purity as his standard of values -  to such a one,actions do not cling. Bhagavad Gita  also exhorts :'Therefore,engage yourself in doing Karma only'(BG IV-15).

'Na karma lipyate nare'(Action never taints such aman) signifies that our actions cannot affect us, if  the work  is done with a spirit of detachment,coupled with the  joy of dedication to  our work. LordKrsna alsosaysin the Gita(IV-24) that  workcan never contaminateHim,asHe works  with detachmentand total selflessness. Even otherwise, along periodofsuch activities,undertaken in a spirit ofdetachment,toalargeextentcleansesthe mind of its impurities like desires, ttachments, hatred,selfishness, jealousy,greed,etc. Such a purifiedmindalone can havethe required intellectual temperand spiritual stability topursue the pathof righteousnessthrough intense and high editation.
If one should desire to live in this world a hundred years, one should live performing Karma (righteous deeds). Thus, thou mayest live; there is no other way. By doing this, Karma (the fruits of thy actions) will not defile thee. If a man still clings to long life and earthly possessions, and is, therefore, unable to follow the path of Self–knowledge (Gnana–Nishta) as prescribed in the first verse, then he may follow the path of right action (Karma–Nishta). Karma here means actions performed without selfish motive, for the sake of the Lord alone. When a man performs actions clinging blindly to his lower desires, then his actions bind him to the plane of ignorance or the plane of birth and death; but when the same actions are performed with surrender to God, they purify and liberate him.

Thus,while the first wave of thought(in verse 1) explained to us the 'Path of Renunciation'  (tyagten bhunjitha)and realisation(Isha vasyamjagadamsarvam),the second wave(verse 2)has exhorted us to wish for a full hundred years of vigorous life,spent inloving service of man and seeking Him in and through the joys of 'selfless activities'.
( This research-based  endeavour has been attempted on Swami Chinmayananda's Discourses on Isavaya Upanisad)
vedaprakasha
www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com

Isha's Peace Invocation Prayer-Om pUrNamadah pUrNamidam...

Peace Invocation(Prayer):Isopanishad Invocation (Prayer)

ॐ पूर्ण मदः पूर्ण मिदं पूर्णात पूर्ण मुदचत्ये,


पूर्णस्य पूर्ण मादाये पूर्ण मेवावशिश्यते॥


om purnam adah purnam idam, purnat purnam udacyate


purnasya purnam adaya,purnam evavasishyate (Isha Upanisad: Invocation Prayer)

This is an innocuous looking verse for which someone once said: "Let all the Upanisads disappear from the face of the earth - I don’t mind so long as this one verse remains." In Isavasyopanisad, the text begins with this SantipAta payer : "OmpUrNamadah pUrNamidaM..." :

" That is whole; this is whole; From that whole this whole came;


From that whole, this whole removed, What remains is whole."

Idam, This;PurNam, the single noun in the verse, is a beautiful Sanskrit word which means completely filled - a filledness of which is wholeness itself, absolute fullness lacking nothing whatsoever. Adah, which means ’that’, and idam, which means ’this’, are two pronouns each of which, at the same time, refers to the single noun, pUrNam; PUrNam adah - completeness is that, PUrNam idam - completeness is this.

Adah, that, refers to something which is remote , not available for direct knowledge. Adah, refers to a jnEyavastu,a thing to be known, but remains to be known upon destruction of the remoteness.

Idam, this, refers to something not remote but present, here and now, immediately available for perception, something directly known or knowable. Traditionally, however, idam has come to have a much broader meaning. Idam indicates all driSya, all seen or known things. All adah, called ’that’ become ’this’ as soon  as their thatness, their remoteness in time, place or knowledge is destroyed. It is in this sense that the SantipAta "pUrNamadah." uses idam.

The first verse of IshAvAsyOpaniSad, following the SantipATa makes clear that idam is used in the traditional sense of all driSya, all known or knowable things:. IshAvAsyaidam sarvam yat kinca jagatyAm jagat ;. all this, whatsoever, changing in this changing world...
So when the verse says pUrNam idam, "completeness is this", what is being said is that all that one knows or is able to know is pUrNam, which means completeness, absolute fullness, wholeness.. If pUrNam is total fullness which leaves nothing out, then ’this’ cannot be used to describe pUrNam because ’this’ leaves something out. What? The subject. ’This’ leaves out aham, I, the subject.

Adah, That
Since idam, this, has been used in its traditional sense of all knowable objects, here or there, presently known or unknown, the only meaning left for ’that’ is to indicate the subject. Idam, this, stands for everything available for objectification. What is not available for objectification? The objectifier - the subject. The subject, aham,I, is the only thing not available for objectification. So, the real meaning of adah, that, as used here in contrast to idam,this, is aham, I. If that is so, how can adah, that, mean aham, I? Am I remote? I am certainly not remote in terms of time or place. I am always here right now. But perhaps I may be remote in terms of knowledge. If in fact I do not know the true nature of myself I could be a jnEyavastu, a to-be-known, in terms of knowledge. Because it is only through the revelation of shruti (scripture functioning as means of knowledge) that I can gain knowledge of my true nature, it can be said that, in general ,the truth of aham is remote in terms of knowledge - something that is yet to be known.
’That’ so used as ’I" means AtmA, the content of truth of the first person singular, a jnEya-vastu, a to-be-known, in terms of knowledge.When that knowledge is gained, I will recognize that I, AtmA, am identical with limitless Brahman - all pervasive, formless and considered the cause of the world of formful objects.

PUrNam adah - completeness is I, the subject AtmA, whose truth is Brahman, formless, limitlessness, considered creation’s cause; PUrNam idam - completeness is all objects, all things known or knowable, all formful effects, comprising creation.pUrNam, completeness, brooks no exclusion whatsoever. The   nature of pUrNam is wholeness, completeness,limitlessness.

There cannot be pUrNam plus something or pUrNam minus something. It is not possible to add or to take away from limitlessness. The nature of pUrnam being what is, ’that’ pUrNam must include ’this’ pUrNam; ’this’ pUrNam must include ’that’ pUrNam.Therefore, when it is said that aham, I, am pUrnam and idam, this,is pUrNam, what is really being said is that there is only pUrNam.

Aham, I, and idam, this, traditionally represent the two basic categories into one or the other of which everything fits. There is no third category. So if aham and idam, represent everything and each is pUrNam , then everything is pUrNam. Aham, I is pUrNam which includes the world. Idam this, is pUrNam which include me. The seeming differences of aham and idam are swallowed by pUrnam - that limitless fullness which shruti (scripture) calls Brahman.

However, my every day experience is that I am a distinct entity separate and different from idam jagat, ( this world of objects )which I perceive. My experience is that I see myself as not the same at all as idam, this. When I hold a rose in my hand and look at it, I, aham, am one thing and idam, this rose I see, is quite another. In no way is it my experience that I and the rose are the same. We seem quite distinct and separate. Because shruti tells me that I, aham, and the rose, idam, both are limitless fullness, pUrNam. Furthermore, it is not my experience that either I or the rose are, in any measure, pUrNam, completeness - limitless fullness. I seem to me to be totally apUrNah, unfull, incomplete, inadequate, limited in all sides by my fellow beings, by the elements of nature, by the lacks and deficiencies of my own body and mind. My place and space are very small; time forever crowds me; sorrow dogs my path. I can find no limitless fullness in me. No more does there seem to belimitless fullness in this rose even now wilting in my hand, pressed by time, relinquishing its space; even in its prime smaller and less sturdy than the sunflowers growing outside my window. It is my constant experience that I, aham, and all I perceive, idam, are ceaselessly mutually limiting one another. Thus, PurNam, completeness, absolute fullness, must necessarily be formless. PurNam cannot have a form because it has to include everything. Any kind of form means some kind of boundary; any kind of boundary means that something is left out - something is on the other side of the boundary. Absolute completeness requires formlessness. Sastra (scripture) reveals that what is limitless and formless is Brahman, the cause of creation, the content of aham, I. Therefore, given the nature of Brahman by shruti, I can see that pUrNam is another way for shruti to say Brahman. Brahman and pUrnam have to be identical; there can only be one limitlessness and that One is formelss pUrNam Brahman.Thus, the verse is telling me that everything is pUrNam. PurNam has to be limitless, formless Brahman.

Vedaprakasha
http://www.ethicalvaluesinishopanisad.blogspot.com/

Īsha's Resolution of the Opposites and The Principle of Īsha Upanishad

Īsha's Resolution of the Opposites and The Principle of Īsha Upanishad:

In Īsha Upanishad, there  are  certain pairs of OPPOSITES  intermingled in the eighteen verses of the Upanishad , which need resolution, in tune with the basic principle of the Upanishad.The principle  followed throughout is the uncompromising reconciliation of uncompromising extremes.  We  are confronted with the terms like the World, Enjoyment, Renunciation Action, Knowledge , the One and the Many, Birth, death,the knowlesge and  Ignorance,etc. and in later verses , a more and more secondary position has been given, exalting the opposite series, God, Renunciation, Quietism, the One, Cessation of Birth, the Knowledge until this trend of thought culminated in Illusionism and the idea of existence in the world as a snare and a meaningless burden imposed inexplicably on the soul by itself, which must be cast aside as soon as possible. It ended in a violent cutting of the knot of the great enigma.
This Upanishad tries instead to get hold of the extreme ends of the knots, disengage and place them alongside of each other in a release that will be at the same time a right placing and relation. It will not qualify or subordinate unduly any of the extremes, although it recognizes a dependence of one on the other. Renunciation is to go to the extreme, but also enjoyment is to be equally integral; Action has to be complete and ungrudging, but also freedom of the soul from its works must be absolute; Unity, utter and absolute, is the goal, but this absoluteness has to be brought to its highest term by including in it the whole infinite multiplicity of things.

So great is this scruple in the Upanishad that having so expressed itself in the formula "By the ignorance having crossed over death, by the knowledge one enjoys Immortality"(Verse  11) that life in the world might be interpreted as only a preliminary to an existence beyond, it at once rights the balance by reversing the order in the parallel formula "By dissolution having crossed over death by birth one enjoys immortality", and thus makes life itself the field of the immortal existence which is the goal and aspiration of all life. In this conclusion it agrees with the early vedic thought which believed all the worlds and existence and non-existence and death and life and immortality to be here in the embodied human being, there evolvement, there realizable and to be possessed and enjoyed, not dependent either for acquisition or enjoyment on the renunciation of life and bodily existence. This thought has never entirely passed out of Indian philosophy, but has become secondary and a side admission not strong enough to qualify seriously the increasing assertion of the extinction of mundane existence as the condition of our freedom and our sole wise and worthy aim.

The Conscious Lord and Phenomenal Nature

Phenomenal Nature is a movement of the conscious Lord. The object of the movement is to create forms of His consciousness in motion in which He as the one soul in many bodies can take up his habitation and enjoy the multiplicity and the movement with all their relations. This is also the view of the Gīta and generally accepted.

Renunciation and Enjoyment: तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जिथाः

Real integral enjoyment of all this movement and multiplicity in its truth and in its infinity depends upon an absolute renunciation; but the renunciation intended is an absolute renunciation of the principle of desire founded on the principle of egoism and not a renunciation of world-existence. This, again, is the central standpoint of the Gita, which, however, admits also the renunciation of world-existence. The general trend of Vedantic thought would accept the renunciation of desire and egoism as the essential but would hold that renunciation of egoism means the renunciation of all world-existence, for it sees desire and not Ananda as the cause of world-existence. This solution depends on the idea that desire is only a egoistic and vital deformation of the divine Ananda or delight of being from which the world is born; by expiration of ego and desire Ananda again becomes the conscious principle of existence. This substitution is the essence of the change from life in death to life in immortality. The enjoyment of the infinite delight of existence free from ego, founded on oneness of all in the Lord, is (probably) what is meant by the enjoyment of immortality.

Action in Nature and Freedom in the Soul

Actions are not inconsistent with the soul's freedom. Man is not bound by works, but only seems to be bound. He has to recover the consciousness of his inalienable freedom by recovering the consciousness of unity in the Lord, unity in himself, unity with all existence. This truth would, again, be generally admitted, but not the conclusion that is drawn from it. This done, life and works can and should be accepted in their fullness; for the manifestation of the Lord in life and works is the law of our being and the object of our world-existence.

The One Stable Brahman and the Multiple Movement

What then of the Quiescence of the Supreme Being and how is persistence in the movement compatible with that Quiescence which is generally recognized as an essential condition of the supreme Bliss?

The Quiescence and the Movement are equally one Brahman and the distinction drawn between them is only a phenomenon of our consciousness. So it is with the idea of space and time, the far and the near, the subjective and the objective, internal and external, myself and others, one and many. Brahman, the real existence, is all these things to our consciousness, but in it ineffably superior to all such practical distinctions. The movement is a phenomenon of the Quiescence, the Quiescence itself may be conceived as a Movement too rapid for the Gods, that is to say, for our various functions of consciousness to follow in its real nature. But it is no formal, material, spatial, temporal movement, and only a movement in consciousness. Knowledge sees it all as one, ignorance divides and creates oppositions where there is no opposition but simply relations of one consciousness in itself. The ego in the body says, "I am within, all else is outside; and in what is outside, this is near to me in Time and Space, that is far." All this is true in present relation; but in essence it is all one indivisible movement of Brahman which is not material movement but a way of seeing things in the one consciousness.

Being and Becoming

Everything depends on what we see, how we look at existence in our soul's view of things. Being and Becoming, One and Many are both true and are both the same thing: Being is one, Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness. We have to see the One Being, but we have not to cease to see the many Becomings, for they exist and are included in Brahman's view of Himself. Only, we must see knowledge and not with ignorance. We have to realize our true self as the one unchangeable, indivisible Brahman. We have to see all becomings as developments of the movement in our true self and this self as one inhabiting all bodies and not our body only. We have to be consciously, in our relations with this world, what we really are, —this one self becoming everything that we observe. All the movement, all energies, all forms, all happenings we must see as those of our one and real self in many existences, as the play of the Will and Knowledge and Delight of the Lord in His world-existence.

We shall then be delivered from egoism and desire and the sense of separate existence and therefore from all grief and delusion and shrinking; for all grief is born of the shrinking of the ego from the contacts of existence, its sense of fear, weakness, want, dislike, etc.; and this is born from the delusion of separate existence, the sense of being my separate ego exposed to all these contacts of so much that is not myself. Get rid of this, see oneness everywhere, be the One manifesting Himself in all creatures; ego will disappear; desire born of the sense of not being this, not having that, will disappear; the free inalienable delight of the One in His own existence will take the place of desire and its satisfactions and dissatisfactions.Immortality will be yours, death born of division will be overcome. [In the ordinary view all this would be admitted, but the practical possibility of maintaining this state of consciousness and birth in the together would be doubted.]

The Active Lord and the indifferent Akshara Brahman

The Inactive and the Active Brahman are simply two aspects of the one Self, the one Brahman, who is the Lord. It is He who has gone abroad in the movement. He maintains Himself free from all modifications in His inactive existence. The inaction is the basis of the action and exists in the action; it is His freedom from all He does and becomes and in all He does and becomes. These are the positive and negative poles of one indivisible consciousness. We embrace both in one quiescence and one movement, inseparable from each other, dependent on each other. The quiescence exists relatively to the movement, the movement to quiescence. He is beyond both. This is a different point of view from that of the identity of the Movement and Quiescence which are one in reality; it expresses rather their relation in our consciousness once they are admitted as a practical necessity of that consciousness. It is obvious that we also by becoming one with the Lord would share in this biune conscious existence. [In the ordinary view the jiva cannot exist in both at the same time; his dissolution is into the Quiescence and not into unity with the lord in the action and inaction.]

Vidya and Avidya

The knowledge of the One and the knowledge of the Many are a result of the movement of the one consciousness, which sees all things as one in their truth-idea but differentiates them in their mentality and formal becoming. If the mind (manīşhi) absorbs itself in God as the formal becoming (paribhu) and separates itself from God in the true Idea (kavi), then it loses Vidya, the knowledge of the One, and has only the knowledge of the Many which becomes no longer knowledge at all but ignorance, Avidya. This is the cause of the separate ego-sense.

Avidya is accepted by the Lord in the Mind (manīşhi) in order to develop individual relations to their utmost in all the possibilities of division and its consequences and then through these individual relations to come back individually to the knowledge of the One in all. That knowledge has remained all along unabrogated in the consciousness of the true seer or Kavi. This seer in ourselves stands back from the mental thinker; the latter, thus separated, has to conquer death and division by a developing experiences as the individual Inhabitant and finally to recover by the reunited knowledge of the One and the Many the state of Immortality. This is our proper course and not either to devote ourselves exclusively to the life of Avidya or to reject it entirely for motionless absorption in the One.

Birth and Non-Birth

The reason for this double movement of the Thinker is that we intended to realize immortality in the Birth. The self is uniform and undying and in itself always possesses immortality. It does not need to descend into Avidya and Birth to get that Immortality of Non-Birth; for it possesses it always. It descends in order to realize and possess it as the individual Brahman in the play of world-existence. It accepts Birth and Death, assumes the ego and then dissolving the ego by the recovery of unity realizes itself as the Lord, the One, and Birth as only a becoming of the Lord in mental and formal being; this becoming is now governed by the true sight of the Seer and, once this is done, becoming is no longer inconsistent with Being, birth becomes a means and not an obstacle to the enjoyment of immortality by the lord of this formal habitation. [This is the stumbling-block to the ordinary philosophies which are impregnated with the idea of the illusoriness of the world, even when they do not go the whole way with the Māyavāda; Birth, they would say, is a play of ignorance, it cannot subsist along with entire knowledge.]

This is our proper course and not to remain for ever in the chain of birth and death, nor to flee from birth into a pure non-becoming. The bondage does not consist in the physical act of becoming, but in the persistence of the ignorant sense of the separate ego. The Mind creates the chain and not the body.

Works and Knowledge

The opposition between works and knowledge exists as long as works and knowledge are only of the egoistic mental character. Mental knowledge is not true knowledge; True knowledge is that which is based on the true sight, the sight of the Seer, of Sūrya, of the Kavi. Mental thought is not knowledge, it is a golden lid placed over the face of the Truth, the Sight, the divine Ideation, the Truth-Consciousness. When that is removed, sight replaces mental thought, the all-embracing truth-ideation, mahas, veda, dŗşhti, replaces the fragmentary mental activity. True Buddhi (vijnāna) emerges from the dissipated action of the Buddhi which is all that is possible on the basis of the sense-mind, the Manas. Vijnāna leads us to pure knowledge (jnāna), pure consciousness (chit). There we realize our entire identity with the Lord in all at the very roots of our being.

But in Chit, Will and Seeing are one. Therefore in Vijnāna or truth-ideation also which comes luminously out of Chit, Will and Sight are combined and no longer as in the mind separated from each other. Therefore, when we have the sight and live in the Truth-Consciousness, our will becomes the spontaneous law of the truth in us and, knowing all its acts and their sense and objective, leads straight to the human goal, which was always the enjoyment of the Ananda, the Lord's delight in self-being, the state of immortality. In our acts also we become one with all beings and our life grows into a representation of oneness, truth and divine joy and no longer proceeds on the crooked path of egoism full of division, error and stumbling. In a word, we attain to the object of our existence which is to manifest in itself whether on earth in a terrestrial body and against the resistance of Matter or in the worlds beyond or enter beyond all world the glory of the divine Life and the divine Being.

(This  is based on ‘Īsha Upanishad’ by Sri Aurobindo, published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust)


vedaprakasha
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