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/}