Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01/05/2020. Mandukya Upanishad : Chapter-1. Agama Prakarana ( The Scriptural Treatise ) Sri Gaudapada's glossary : Upanishad Mantram-7. Karika Mantram-s 10 to 18. Karika Mantram-12. ====================================== Sri Gaudapada - (c. 8th century CE) (also referred as Shri Gaudapadacharya) was a very early guru in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. He is traditionally said to have been the grand-guru of the great teacher Adi Shankara, one of the most important figures in Hindu philosophy and also believed to be the founder of Shri Gaudapadacharya Math. -------------------------------- Karika Mantram - 12. Na "tmanam na params-caiva na satyam napi canrtam, prajnah kincana samvetti turyam tat sarva-drk sada. --------------------------------- Translation - by word na atmanam       = neither himself,

========================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------ 24/04/2020. Post-7. -------------------------------------------------------------- 1. In the Atharva Veda there is a Sukta called Varuna Sukta. It is available in English translation. If you have any longing, it will melt down in the fire of this inclusiveness of God-being. All these statements of the Upanishads in different places amount to one thing: that by externalizing consciousness we will achieve nothing. It is not enough if you merely internalise it also. You should neither be an extrovert nor an introvert but, if you can coin a word, an omnivert. Everywhere you perceive everything. That 'I' is not the physical 'I' with which you see the world – it is the soul observing itself in things which look like non-Self. The non-Self does not exist; but even in that so-called non-Self the Self is peeping through Its own eye. -------------------------

========================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------- 23/04/2020. Chapter :1.Introduction - 10. ---------------------------------------------------------------- *Two of the important Upanishads are the Aitareya and the Taittiriya, which are related to each other in a way, and coextensive in content—the one emphasising one aspect of the matter, and the other a coordinated theme.  #The Aitareya and the Taittiriya Upanishads speak of the same theme, but from two different points of view. ------------------------------------------------------------- *They try to answer the question of life by reference to causes. This is a very proper attitude, no doubt. We know very well that every question, when it is attempted to be answered, brings us to its causative factors.  #Why is there a disease? Why is a person sick?  **We ask questions of this kind. In reply, we try to find out the present cause of the

================================ ================================ 20/04/2020. Mandukya Upanishad : Chapter-1. Agama Prakarana ( The Scriptural Treatise ) Sri Gaudapada's glossary : Karika Mantram-s 10 to 18. Mantram-11. ================================= Sri Gaudapada - (c. 8th century CE) (also referred as Shri Gaudapadacharya) was a very early guru in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. He is traditionally said to have been the grand-guru of the great teacher Adi Shankara, one of the most important figures in Hindu philosophy and also believed to be the founder of Shri Gaudapadacharya Math. -------------------------------- Karika Mantram - 11. "karya-karana-baddhau tavishyete visva-taijasau. prajnah karana-baddhas-tu dvau tau turye na siddhytah." --------------------------------- Translation - by word karya = the effect; karana = the cause; baddhau = conditioned by; tau = are both; ishyete = concidered to be; v

====================================== -------------------------------------------------------------- 18/04/2020. Spoken on January 14th, 1973) ------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #So this is the glory of the Upanishads, the meditation on the Vaishvanara, meditation on Hiranyagarbha, meditation on Ishvara, meditation on Pranava or Omkara as cosmic vibration in its connection with Reality, all for the single purpose of Brahma-sakshatkara, or the realisation of the Supreme Being. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. #We have gathered for a discussion of the nature of meditation, the various ways that we can employ for concentrating the mind and harmonising it for the purpose of purifying it so that it may become more and more free in its operation.  ##The practice of meditation is, therefore, a very vast and elaborate technique of dealing with aspects of our consciousness in various ways and free

=============================== ---------------------------------------------------- 12/04/2020. Post-14. ------------------------------------------------- 1. #After having sufficiently undergone this discipline by which the distraction of the mind is subdued and also the impulse towards sense objects is curbed, you can become a good student of the Upanishadic philosophy. ------------------------------------------------- 2. #In the Upanishads, three disciplines are mentioned which are equivalent to what I mentioned to you as Karma, Bhakti and Jnana, namely sacrifice, austerity, and Gurupasakti, approaching a master for teaching. Sacrifice in ancient Vedic terminology meant, of course, the offering of holy oblations in sacred fire, but sacrifice may also mean offering mentally anything that you would like to dedicate to God.  ##There can be externally performed sacrifice or Yajna, or a mentally conceived Yajna or sacrifice. You can be charitable by a gesture out

=========================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10/04/2020. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Chhandogya Upanishad (Chandogya Upanishad) is considered to be one of the most ancient, if not actually the oldest, of the major Upanishads.  In its sprawling scope it includes a number of different teachings, vidya, as it seeks to illuminate the ‘secret of the veda’ for a developing humanity. 2. Sri Aurobindo provides an historical context:  “After the destruction of the conservative Kurus and Panchalas at Kurukshetra, the development of the Vedanta commenced and went on progressing till in its turn it reached its extreme and excessive development in the teachings of  Shankaracharya.  But at the period of the Chhandogya it is in its early stage of development.  The first sections of the Upanishad are taken up with an

========================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 08/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Shwetashwatara Upanishad, Chapter Six, Verse 5:   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Lo, we have beheld Him and He is the Beginning and the Cause of all Causes whereby these elements meet together and form ariseth; the past, the present and the future are this side of Him and Time hath no part in Him.  Let us worship the Ancient of Days in our own hearts who sitteth.  Let us wait upon God who must be adored, for the world is His shape and the Universe is but His becoming. (Or, We see Him to be the beginning, the Informing Cause whereby all standeth together; the past, the present and the future are this side of Him and Time hath no part in Him.  Worship ye the Adorable whose shape is the whole Universe and who hath become in the Uni

==================================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Shwetashwatara Upanishad, Chapter One, Verses 5-7:   -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #“There is One, unborn, white and black and red, who is ever bringing forth many creatures with forms and her one unborn loves and cleaves to and lies with her; another unborn abandons, when all her enjoyments have been enjoyed.  Two winged birds cling about a common tree, comrades, yoke-fellows; and one eats the sweet fruit of the tree, the other eats not, but watches.  The Soul upon a common tree is absorbed and because he is not lord, grieves and is bewildered; but when he sees and cleaves to that other who is the Lord, he knows that all is His greatness and his sorrow passes aw

=========================================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 06/04/2020. The Shwetashwatara Upanishad itself declares that it contains “the secret of the Veda”.   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Sri Aurobindo translated Chapters 4-6 of this Upanishad, which distill the essence of the Rishi’s vision that unifies the two great dicta of the Upanishads : “one without a second” and “all this is the Brahman”,  presenting thereby an integrated view of all existence as the Brahman.   2. The name itself, while attributed to a Rishi of that name, has a significance which cannot be overlooked.  Shweta (also Shveta) is translated as “white”, Ashwa means “horse”, and tara translates as to be

======================================================================== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 05/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 6 :  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “He desired, ‘Let me sacrifice more richly with richer sacrifice.’  He laboured and put forth heat of force, and of him thus laboured and heated splendour and strength came forth.  The life-forces are that splendour and strength, therefore when the life-forces go forth, the body sets about to rot, yet in his body even so mind was.” 2. #Once the process of differentiation of forms begins, it multiplies and creates the manifold creation that we experience around us.  *This is the “richer sacrifice”.  #Sacrifice is the process of aspiration, of a concentration

04/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 7 (partial) :  “He desired, ‘Let this have sacrificial capacity for me, by this let me be provided with a body.  That which has expressed power and being, that is fit for the sacrifice.  This verily is the secret of the Ashwamedha and he knoweth indeed the Ashwamedha who thus knoweth it.  He gave him free course and thought, then after a year ( a fixed period of time) he dedicated him to the self. … ” We have seen that the Ashwamedha, the traditional Horse Sacrifice, has a deep esoteric significance.  The horse in this sacrifice is equated with the universal manifestation.  There is a power of creation put forth by the Eternal to manifest through Time and Space.  It should be noted that the Sanskrit term Ashwa, generally translated as “horse” has underlying meaning, as described by Sri Aurobindo “to the Rishis meant the unknown power made up of force, strength, solidity, speed and enjoyment t

03/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 3:  “Fire divided himself into three — the sun one of the three and Vayu one of the three; this is that force of life arranged triply.  The east is his head and the northeast and the southeast are his arms.  Now the west is his seat and the southwest and the northwest are his thighs; his sides are the south and the north; heaven is his back and the middle region is his belly; this earth is his bosom.  This is he that is established in the waters wheresoever thou turn.  And as that is he established who thus knoweth.” Fire represents the creative force in manifestation.  Sri M. P. Pandit describes the triple form:  “And, says the Upanishad, this Godhead active in the form of Desire or Hunger that is Death, at the root of all creation divided Itself into three, each a God presiding over a different formulation of His force: as Aditya, the Sun (presiding over the Heavens of the Mind), Vayu (over

02/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter One, Section Two, Verse 1:   1. “Formerly there was nothing here; this was concealed by Death — by Hunger, for it is Hunger that is Death.  That created mind, and he said, ‘Let me have substance.’  He moved about working and as he worked the waters were born and he said, ‘Felicity was born to me as I worked.’  This verily is the activity in action.  Therefore felicity cometh to him who thus knoweth this soul of activity in action.” 2. Can existence arise out of “nothing”?   The Upanishad here states that while there may not have been a manifested universe that was perceptible, it existed in some form as it was “concealed by Death”.  The Eternal exists eternally.  The description of the creation of the manifestation is one example of a theme that recurs not only in other Upanishads but also in the Rig Veda:  “That One lived without breath by his self-law, there was nothing else nor aught beyond it.  In the beginning