Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01/02/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, Fourth Question, Verses 1-2 : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #“Then Gargya of the Solar race asked him: ‘Lord, what are they that slumber in this Existing and what that keep vigil?  ##Who is this god who seeth dreams or whose is this felicity?  ###Into whom do all they vanish?’  To him answered the Rishi Pippalada : ‘O Gargya, as are the rays of the sun in its setting, for they retire and all become one in yonder circle of splendour, but when he riseth again once more they walk abroad, so all the man becometh one in the highest god, even the mind.  Then indeed this being seeth not, neither heareth, nor doth he smell, nor taste, nor tou

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, Third Question, Verses 6-7:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The Spirit in the heart abideth, and in the heart there are one hundred and one nerves, and each nerve hath a hundred branch-nerves and each branch-nerve hath seventy-two thousand sub-branch-nerves: through these the breath pervasor moveth.  Of these many there is one by which the upper breath departeth that by virtue taketh to the heaven of virtue, by sin to the hell of sin, and by mingled sin and righteousness back to the world of men restoreth.” These verses make it clear that the term “breath” is used in an entirely different sense than the normal usage in the English langua

======================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, Third Question, Verses 8-12 :  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “The Sun is the main breath outside this body, for it cherisheth the eye in its rising.  The divinity in the earth, she attracteth the lower breath of man, and the ether between is the medial breath: air is the breath pervasor.  Light, the primal energy, is the upper breath: therefore when the light and heat in a man hath dwindled, his senses retire into the mind and with these he departeth into another birth.  Whatsoever be the mind of a man, with that mind he seeketh refuge with the breath when he dieth, and the breath and the upper breath lead him with the Spirit within him t

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, Third Question, Verses 1-3:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Then the Koshalan, the son of Ashwala, asked him : ‘Lord, whence is this Life born?  How cometh it into this body or how standeth by self-division?  By what departeth, or how maintaineth the outward and how the inward spiritual?’  To him answered the Rishi Pippalada: ‘Many and difficult things thou askest: but because thou art very holy, therefore will I tell thee.  Of the Spirit is this breath of Life born: even as a shadow is cast by a man, so is this Life extended in the Spirit and by the action of the Mind it entereth into this body.” There has been a long-running debate bet

======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 28/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, First Question, Verses 14-16:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Food is the Eternal Father: for of this came the seed and of the seed is the world of creatures born.  They therefore who perform the vow of the Eternal Father produce the twin creature.  But theirs is the heaven of the spirit in whom are established askesis and holiness and in whom Truth has her dwelling.  Theirs is the heaven of the Spirit, the world all spotless, in whom there is neither crookedness nor lying nor any illusion.” With the background of the earlier responses, starting with the origin of the created universe with energy and matter, and the creation of the divi

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 27/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, First Question, Verses 9-13:  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The year also is that Eternal Father and of the year there are two paths, the northern solstice and the southern.  Now they who worship God with the well dug and the oblation offered, deeming these to be righteousness, conquer their heavens of the Moon:  these return again to the world of birth.  Therefore do the souls of sages who have not yet put from them the desire of offspring, take the way of the southern solstice which is the road of the Fathers.  And this also is Matter, the Female.  But by the way of the northern solstice go the souls that have sought the Spirit through holiness and knowledge

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, first question, verses 6 – 8:  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Now when the Sun rising entereth the East, then absorbeth he the eastern breaths into his rays.  But when he illumineth the south and west and north, and below and above and all the angles of space, yea, all that is, then he taketh all the breaths into his rays.  Therefore is this fire that riseth, this Universal Male, of whom all things are the bodies, Prana the breath of existence.  This is that which was said in the Rig Veda: ‘Fire is this burning and radiant Sun, he is the One lustre and all-knowing Light, he is the highest heaven of spirits.  With a thousand rays he burne

======================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 25/01/2020. #Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, First Cycle, First Chapter, Verses 1 through 6 : -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  “Vajashravasa, desiring, gave all he had.  Now Vajashravasa had a son named Nachiketas.  As the gifts were led past, faith took possession of him who was yet a boy unwed and he pondered : ‘Cattle that have drunk their water, eaten their grass, yielded their milk, worn out their organs, of undelight are the worlds which he reaches who gives such as these.’  He said to his father, ‘Me, O my father, to whom wilt thou give?’  A second time and a third he said it, and he replied, ‘To Death I give them.’  ‘Among many I walk the first, among many I walk the midmost; some

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Third Chapter, Verse 18:  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “Thus did Nachiketas with Death for his teacher win the God-knowledge: he learned likewise the whole ordinance of Yoga: thereafter he obtained God and became void of stain and void of death.  So shall another be who comes likewise to the Science of the Spirit.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. The Katha Upanishad declares itself as a teaching for knowledge of God and the practice of Yoga.  After obtaining this teaching, the seeker, Nachiketas was able to attain God-realisa

====================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : Third Chapter, Verse 17 : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The Purusha, the Spirit within, who is no larger than the finger of a man is seated for ever in the heart of creatures: one must separate Him with patience from one’s own body as one separates from a blade of grass its main fibre.  Thou shalt know Him for the Bright Immortal, yea, for the Bright Immortal.” The divine Spirit inhabits the entire universe, including each living being.  Human beings are distracted by the apparently separate forms of the outer world and fail to recognize the divine presence either within themselves or in the world. This verse provides a meditat

======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : Third Chapter, Verse 16 :  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “A hundred and one are the nerves of the heart, and of all these only one issues out through the head of a man: by this his soul mounts up to its immortal home, but the rest lead him to all sorts and conditions of births in his passing.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Esoteric yoga psychology identifies numerous channels, called nadis, which act as the carriers of prana in the body.  Prana in this sense is not the “breath” but the energy that enlivens the being and carrie

======================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : Third Chapter, Verses 14-15: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1.  “When every desire that finds lodging in the heart of man, has been loosened from its moorings, then this mortal puts on immortality: even here he tastes God, in this human body.  Yea, when all the strings of the heart are rent asunder, even here, in this human birth, then the mortal becomes immortal.  This is the whole teaching of the Scriptures.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. When we consider the term “immortality”, it becomes clear that there is considerable confusion

======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : Third Chapter, Verses 12-13 : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  “Not with the mind has man the power to get God, no, nor through speech, nor by the eye.  Unless one says ‘He is’, how can one become sensible of Him?  One must apprehend God in the Concept ‘He is’ and also in His essential: but when he has grasped Him as the ‘Is’, then the essential of God dawns upon a man.” The Upanishads repeatedly remind us that God cannot be apprehended by the senses, through words, or the action of the mind.  All of these are powers of the external world, and by nature see and categorize everything in a fragmented manner as separate forms, bein

======================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle : Third Chapter, Verses 10-11:  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “When the five senses cease and are at rest and the mind rests with them and the higher mind ceases from its workings, that is the highest state, say thinkers.  The state unperturbed when the senses are imprisoned in the mind, of this they say ‘It is Yoga.’  Then man becomes very vigilant, for Yoga is the birth of things and their ending. (Shankara interprets, ‘as Yoga has a beginning (birth) so has it an ending’.  But this is not what the Sruti says.) 2. Particularly in the West, the concept of Yoga is associated with physical exercises of various sorts, called A

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Third Chapter, Verses 4-5: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “If in this world of men and before thy body fall from thee, thou wert able to apprehend it, then thou availest for embodiment in the worlds that He creates.  In the self one sees God as in a mirror, but as in a dream; in the world of the Fathers: and as in water one sees the surface of an object, so one sees Him in the world of the Gandharvas.  But He is seen as light and shade in the heaven of the Spirit.” Verse 4 focuses on the result of a shift to the divine standpoint while embodied in this world.  This shift makes it possible for the soul to take birth in any world

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 17/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Aitareya Upanishad, Chapter 1, Section 2 :  ======================================================================= 1. “These were the Gods that He created; they fell into this great Ocean, and Hunger and Thirst leaped upon them.  They they said to Him, ‘Command unto us an habitation that we may dwell secure and eat of food.’  He brought unto them the cow, but they said, ‘Verily, it is not sufficient for us.’  He brought unto them the horse, but they said, ‘Verily, it is not enough for us.’  He brought unto them Man, and they said, ‘O well fashioned truly!  Man indeed is well and beautifully made.’  Then the Spirit said unto them, ‘Enter ye in each according to his habitation.’  Fire became Speech and entered into the mouth; Air became Breath and entered into the nostrils; the Sun became Sigh

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 16/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Third Chapter, Verses 2-3:  ======================================================================= “All this universe of motion moves in the Prana and from the Prana also it proceeded: a mighty terror is He, yea, a thunderbolt uplifted.  Who know Him, are the immortals.  For fear of Him the Fire burns: for fear of Him the Sun gives heat: for fear of Him Indra and Vayu and Death hasten in their courses.” The Prana referred to here is not the individual Prana, or breath, but the universal Prana, the cosmic breath, the cosmic motion that vibrates in the ether and brings forth the forms and dissolves them.  The process of the manifestation involves the action of Prakriti, what is called elsewhere Para-Prakriti, the supreme Nature. The Upanishads distinguish between

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 15/01/2020. 7. God, the Universe and the Individual- 7.4. ======================================================================== 1. An attempt at attaining to the truth of experience takes us through two ideas-the subjective and the objective. The subjective idea considers things as purely mental or idealistic. The universe, according to it, is an externalised form of mind or idea. But, it will be clear that this is not a tenable position. Experience shows that the object of consciousness is not more real or more unreal than the experiencing idea or consciousness. If the idea of the perceiver is to externalise itself as something in the universe, there must be a basis for it. We have objective perception in dream-experience. We have a dream-space, a dream-time and dream-objects. It may be said that all that we perceive in drea

======================================================================= ======================================================================== 13/01/2020. Spoken on January 14th, 1973) Post-9. ======================================================================= 1. #The Vaishvanara aspect of this analysis receives a detailed and elaborate treatment in the fifth section or chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, known as the Vaishvanara Vidya, wherein the glory of the Supreme Being is described, the meditation upon which is supposed to burn up all sins. ##In an analogy of this Upanishad, as fire burns cotton into ashes leaving no residue whatsoever, meditation on Vaishvanara burns up all samskaras, all impressions of the mind, all sins and defects, and makes one Self-realised. From the description of the Vaishvanara given to us in the Chhandogya Upanishad we can also infer the conditions of Hiranyagarbha and Ishvara, which are not specifically mentioned but are implied t

======================================================================== ===================================================================== 08/01/2020. POST-10. ======================================================================= 1. So merely talking in a social sense does not bring much meaning. It has a significance that is deeper than the social cloak that it bears, namely, the essential being of each person is present in each other person also. So when you love your neighbor as yourself, you are loving that person not because that person is your neighbor in the sense of a nearby person, but because there is a nearness which is spiritual and not merely social. The person is near to me as a spiritual entity, as part of the same self that is me, rather than a nearness that is measurable by distance of yards or kilometers etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The spiritu