The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads 5.4. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday, March  2, 2021. 10:43. AM.
Chapter 5: Ananda Mimamsa-4.
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If that was the reality, nothing else can be the reality today. That which is real is real in the past, in the present and in the future. So even today, that law persists. When we say that the Atman alone existed, it does not mean that it existed only many years back and that today it does not exist. It is only a way of explaining things to temporal minds which cannot understand, except in a chronological or historical fashion, any narrative that is given. So, even today it is of the same nature. Thus, the Atman in us, the Self in us, even today is non-externalisable.

So the consciousness in us which is moving towards the object outside is really a non-externalisable something. Even today it is universal in nature. Our consciousness even just now is universal; it is not that it was universal only many, many aeons back. So remember this point: even just now, at this very moment, our consciousness is universal, because that is part of Reality. So when we move towards an object of sense in affection, in attraction or in love, what happens is that there is a channelisation of this universality of consciousness in a very limited manner through the avenues of the sense organs. It may be through the eyes, it may be through the ears, or it may be through the touch, etc. This channelisation of this Universal is the limitation of this Universal for the purpose of conceiving this object as something outside.

All that I told you is a kind of introduction to this main point of how happiness arises. How do we feel happy when an object comes into our possession or when we enjoy it? What happens is that the so-called externality characterising the mind at the time of its movement towards the object ceases when we possess the object. Why does the mind move towards the object outside? Because it is not ours. We are not always thinking of our own body so much as we think of another person’s body or other things, or a substance which is not yet in our possession. Love ceases when it is possessed. It enhances itself when it is not possessed. A person who has confidence that he has enough of wealth is not so much thinking of it as the one who does not have it.

So is the case with every kind of affection. Our love for a thing is intense when it is not possessed by us. But when it is already under our control, the love diminishes for the reason that love is not any more necessary under the condition of the possession of the object. The love that we feel is nothing but a movement of the mind towards the object for the purpose of grabbing it. But when we have already got it, where is the point in the mind moving towards it once again? So, the mind withdraws itself.

To be continued ...

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