The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads 4.4. - Swami Krishnananda

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Saturday, January 16, 2021. 03:45. PM
Chapter 4: Cosmology 4.

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1.

We have heard people say that Acharya Sankara was against karma. There is a point in what he says, though many people do not understand what the implication of his statement is. Every action that we do normally is a movement of ignorance in the direction of an object that is there outside—apparently, but not really. How can a movement in the direction of an apparently existent something liberate us from bondage? If our activities are directed to the sublimation of individuality, and have as their purpose the universalisation of our status, that could be Karma Yoga. That is not what Acharya Sankara condemns. He condemns karma which is binding in its nature, which is born of the ignorant feeling that body is real and, therefore, everything that is associated with the body is also real.

2.

An activity that is directed to self-satisfaction of the body is bondage. That is not going to liberate us. But all that we do in this world is nothing but that. We are not doing Karma Yoga. We should not be misguided. If we are consciously directing our activity towards the efflorescence of our individuality towards the Universal, then it is Karma Yoga. On the other hand, if we merely drift like a fly from place to place, it is not Karma Yoga. Any activity involving sweating and toiling cannot be called Karma Yoga unless the consciousness is there behind it. Otherwise, it becomes an ordinary, empty, humdrum activity which is impulse-driven rather than consciousness-motivated.

3.

This distinction has to be carefully drawn. Impulse-driven activity is different from consciously directed yoga practice. And how many of us are conscious of what we are doing? We are driven by impulse only. When we are feeling hot because of the atmosphere outside, we feel like mitigating it by a contrary activity. When we are hungry, we are doing something contrary to it. Everything that we do is a contrary activity in respect of the particular experience through which we are passing. We have no idea of the basic disease behind it or the ideal that is ahead of us. But if this is clear, well, it cannot be called action. It is a movement of consciousness.

4.

So these are the five koshas, as I mentioned. The annamaya kosha is the physical body. But it is not that the physical body comes first in the process of creation; the causal body comes first. The causal hardens itself into the subtle, and the subtle becomes the gross. These three bodies are the objects of experience in the sleep, dream and waking conditions, respectively. It is the causal body that we experience in sleep, the subtle body in dream, and the physical body in waking. These three bodies are subdivided into the five koshas, or the sheaths. The innermost one is called the anandamaya kosha. The next one is called the vijnanamaya kosha. Further to it is the manomaya kosha. Then we have the pranamaya kosha, and lastly we have the grossest one, the annamaya kosha.

To be continued ....

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