Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 01/12/2019. Chapter-1 1. Introduction-4. ======================================================================= Stretching this argument a little further, we are very fond of speaking in terms of ‘mankind’ these days—humanity. We would be happy if there were no wars, no battles, would be happy if there were no quarrels, and if there was a single government for the whole world. This is a great aspiration, no doubt; but how does this aspiration arise, unless the whole of mankind has a single purpose or aim before it?  If every individual is differentiated from every other, there cannot be such an aspiration at all. That we seek such a possibility, whether it is immediately practicable or not, is itself an indication of what humanity is basically made of. It is substantially one. But for the fact of this substantial unity o

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 24/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : First Chapter, Verses 12-13:  ======================================================================== “The Purusha who is seated in the midst of our self is no larger than the finger of a man; He is the Lord of what was and what shall be.  Him having seen one shrinks not from aught, nor abhors any.  This is That thou seekest.  The Purusha that is within us is no larger than the finger of a man; He is like a blazing fire that is without smoke, He is lord of His past and His future.  He alone is today and He alone shall be tomorrow.  This is That thou seekest.” The Spirit is One.  Due to the distractions of the objects of the senses, we fail to pay attention to and recognise the Spirit within.  These verses describe the spiritual experience of the seeker who reco

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: First Chapter, Verses 10-11:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “What is in this world, is also in the other: and what is in the other, that again is in this: who thinks he sees difference here, from death to death he goes.  Through the mind must we understand that there is nothing in this world that really varies: who thinks he sees difference here, from death to death he goes.” These verses highlight the unity of the entire creation.  The mind tends to see fragmentation, division and separation — it focuses on differentiation through its analytical processes.  This is a matter of the focus of attention.  The mind also has the c

======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : First Chapter, Verses 6-9 :  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “He is the seer that sees Him who came into being before austerity and was before the waters: deep in the heart of the creature he sees Him, for there He stands by mingling of the elements.  This is That thou seekest.  This is Aditi, the mother of the Gods, who was born through the Prana and by the mingling of the elements had her being: deep in the heart of things she has entered, there she is seated.  This is That thou seekest.  As a woman carries with care the unborn child in her womb, so is the Master of Knowledge lodged in the tinders: and day by day should men w

======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: First Chapter, Verse 3 :  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “By the Self one knows form and taste and smell, by the Self one knows sound and touch and the joy of man with woman: what is there left in this world of which the Self not knows? This is That thou seekest.” This verse explores who the “Knower” is in the process of knowing.  We experience the outer world through the perceptions of the senses which convert the impressions into nervous impulses which are received by the brain.  This is all physical instrumentation and process of action, but does not tell us “who knows” what has been experienced.  Western philosophers, suc

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle: Third Chapter, Verses 10-12:  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Than the senses the objects of sense are higher: and higher than the objects of sense is the Mind: and higher than the Mind is the faculty of knowledge: and than that the Great-Self is higher.  And higher than the Great-Self is the Unmanifest and higher than the Unmanifest is the Purusha: than the Purusha there is none higher: He is the culmination, He is the highest goal of the journey.  He is the secret Self in all existences and does not manifest Himself to the vision: yet is He seen by the seers of the subtle by a subtle and perfect understanding.” Most people

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle : Third Chapter, Verses : 3-9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Know the body for a chariot and the soul for the master of the chariot: know Reason for the charioteer and the mind for the reins only.  The senses they speak of as the steeds and the objects of sense as the paths in which they move; and One yoked with Self and the mind and the senses is the enjoyer, say the thinkers.  Now he that is without knowledge with his mind ever unapplied, his senses are to him as wild horses and will not obey their driver of the chariot.  But he that has knowledge with his mind ever applied, his senses are to him as noble steeds and they obey

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle: Third Chapter, Verses 1-2 : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Yama speaks: ‘There are two that drink deep of the truth in the world of work well-accomplished: they are lodged in the secret plane of being and in the highest kingdom of the most High is their dwelling: as of light and shade the knowers of the Brahman speak of them, and those of the five fires and those who kindle thrice the fire of Nachiketas.  May we have strength to kindle Agni Nachiketas, for he is the bridge of those who do sacrifice and he is Brahman supreme and imperishable, and the far shore of security to those who would cross this ocean.’ ” There is little

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Chapter, Second Cycle, Verses 23-25 : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The Self is not to be won by eloquent teaching, nor by brain power, nor by much learning: but only he whom this Being chooses can win Him; for to him this Self bares His body.  None who has not ceased from doing evil, or who is not calm, or not concentrated in his being, or whose mind has not been tranquillised, can by wisdom attain to Him.  He to whom the sages are as meat and heroes as food for his eating and Death is an ingredient of His banquet, how thus shall one know of Him where He abides?” It is important to recognize that instead of simply answer Nachike

====================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad First Cycle: Second Chapter, Verses 20-22 :  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Finer than the fine, huger than the huge the Self hides in the secret heart of the creature: when a man strips himself of will and is weaned from sorrow, then he beholds Him; purified from the mental elements he sees the greatness of the Self-being.  Seated He journeys far off, lying down He goes everywhere.  Who other than I is fit to know God, even Him who is rapture and the transcendence of rapture?  Realising the Bodiless in bodies, the Established in things unsettled, the Great and Omnipresent Self, the wise and steadfast soul grieves no longer.” Modern-day scie

======================================================================= --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle, First Chapter, Verses 7 to 9:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “His attendants say to Yama: ‘Fire is the Brahmin who enters as a guest the houses of men; him thus they appease.  Bring, O son of Vivasvan, (Yama, lord of death, is also the master of the Law in the world, and he is therefore the child of the Sun, luminous Master of Truth from which the Law is born.) the water of the guest-rite.  That man of little understanding in whose house a Brahmin dwells fasting, all his hope and his expectation and all he has gained and the good and truth that he has spoken and the wells he has dug and the sacrifices he has offered and all his sons

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle: Second Chapter, Verses 18-19:  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The Wise One is not born, neither does He die: He came not from anywhere, neither is He anyone: He is unborn, He is everlasting, He is ancient and sempiternal: He is not slain in the slaying of the body.  If the slayer things that he slays, if the slain thinks that he is slain, both of these have not the knowledge.  This slays not, neither is He slain.” Yama’s response to Nachiketas’ request for his third boon has thus far taken a circuitous route through practices we would call Yoga and meditation, the preparation of the body, life and mind for a shift of standpoi

======================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 13/11/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle, Second Chapter, Verses 1-4: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Yama speaks: ‘One thing is the good and quite another thing is the pleasant, and both seize upon a man with different meanings.  Of these whoso takes the good, it is well with him; he falls from the aim of life who chooses the pleasant.  The good and the pleasant come to a man and the thoughtful mind turns all around them and distinguishes.  The wise chooses out the good from the pleasant, but the dull soul chooses the pleasant rather than the getting of his good and its having.  And thou, O Nachiketas, hast looked close at the objects of desire, at pleasant things and