The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad : 6. Swami Krishnananda

07/05/2019
6.

There are three aspects of this issue.

Why is it that we are pulled towards something?

1.One is what has been already told in the Bhagavadgita – gunas propel themselves toward gunas. Prakriti, as the subject, working through the sense organs, is pulled towards itself, as it were, outside, in the form of an object, which also is constituted of the very same prakriti.

That is one answer to the question of why one feels pulled or drawn towards another object.

2.The other one that I mentioned is that the consciousness that is infinite in nature is ‘infinitudinously’ – to take one’s understanding beyond ‘multitudinously’ – pulling the subject consciousness, and there is a vice versa action; subject and object pull each other.

3.The third aspect that I am mentioning is that the attractions are conditioned by certain features of the object. The Atman, the Soul, the Self, the consciousness in us is a perfect symmetry in perfection. It is the most beautiful of things. The Soul is the most beautiful thing. Nothing can be beautiful like the Soul. Nobody has seen the Soul, but if you can imagine what beauty is, if you have seen any surpassingly beautiful thing in the world – not a little beautiful thing, but enchanting, absorbing, enrapturing beauty – if you have seen that anywhere, you may say the Soul is something like that.

Now, the Soul cannot be attracted to anything unless it sees some sympathy, that is to say, unless some quality of it is also present in that object to which it is attracted. Symmetry is one of the qualities. Any kind of hotchpotch arrangement cannot attract us. We are attracted to methodological arrangement, symmetry, proportion and meaningfulness. A meaningless object cannot attract us as much as a meaningful object can.

To be continued ..