KAIVALYA UPANISHAD : 23&24. Swami Advaitananda.

Chinmaya Mission :

On March 7th, 2023, Pujya Swami Mitranandaji and members of Chinmaya Mission Sikkim met the Honorable Governor of Sikkim, Shri Laxman Prasad Acharya, to inform him that Chinmaya Mission has been chosen as the National Coordinator of G20 on the theme "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" by the Government of India. 

The organization is organizing a seminar on May 13th, 2023, in Sikkim, to discuss the philosophy of treating all human beings as members of the same family and working together for the greater good of humanity. 

The Governor accepted the invitation to inaugurate the seminar as the Chief Guest. 

The seminar aims to promote greater understanding and cooperation among different nations and cultures.

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Saturday, March 11, 2023. 07:30.

6. THE EXPERIENCE OF IDENTITY

(Mantras : 20-24, 5 no.)

“Advaita Anubhava Prakasha”

Mantras - 23/24: Retracing Our Steps – Apavada

Post-23&24.

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Mantras - 23/24: Retracing Our Steps – Apavada

13 

na bhoomih, aapah na, cha vahnih asti;   =  Neither Earth, nor Water, nor Fire, is there; 

14 

na cha anilah me asti na cha ambaram cha.  =   nor for Me is there Air, nor Ether.

15 

evam viditvaa   =  Realizing this (i.e. as described in verses 20-22),

paramaatma roopam  =   that he is of the nature of the Supreme Self,

16 

guhaashayam,  =  the One who is in the cavity of the heart, 

nishkalam, adviteeyam.  =   who is without parts, and without a second;

17 

samasta-saakshim,   =   who is the Witness of all, 

sad-asad viheenam;  =   beyond both the gross and subtle worlds –

18 

prayaati shuddham   =  Such a one attains the purity

paramaatma roopam.  =  which is of the nature of the Supreme Self.

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Bhashyam (Vyakyanam) :

13-14 In terse language, this summarises the spiritual practice needed of us to attain 

the state of spiritual perfection – the negation of all manifestations emanating from the 

Source, so that we may return to the Source. Indeed, it sounds simple, too simple to be true. 

But that is the core of Sadhana, the gist of every spiritual practice of all religions.

This mantram puts it down to going beyond the five great elements, subtle or gross. We 

need to transcend the three bodies – gross, subtle and causal – in order to reach this ‘Higher 

Order of Life’ and enter the realms of Immortality, the realm beyond all Karma. 

All the Sadhana we do is to free ourselves from the limitations of these five elements. In the words of Vedanta Sara, this is equivalent to the Apavada or De-superimposition process. We retrace our steps out of Samsara using the same route by which we entered into it, which was Adhyaropa or Superimposition.

We have already learnt that as we retrace our steps we are going from the gross to 

the subtle, step by step. The qualities of each element drop off one by one as we do so from 

the earth element (with 5 qualities) to space (with only one quality). When even space is 

transcended, we reach the Supreme State which is without any qualities or attributes.

15 Evam Viditva: The opening words mean “having known in this way” – the way 

that has just been described, namely, the way of Apavada or the process of negation 

described in the previous verses. Naturally, there is a lot more that may be said about the 

negation process, but that is left for seekers to follow up on. This Upanishad virtually ends 

with the present verse, its purpose having been fulfilled by logically showing us the way 

forward to the Goal of Oneness or “Kaivalya”. 

What is known by negating the elements? The elements represent the “Not-Self”. 

When negated, what is left is the Self, which is Paramatman, the Non-Dual Brahman.

What are the characteristics of Paramatman? We have been seeing them from the 

start of this section. 

A few more are given in the mantram :

16 Guhaashayam: “dwelling in the cavity” (of the heart). This expression, we have 

seen, is very popular in Vedic literature. We come across it again and again. It represents the 

very core of our being, the subtlest state of our Consciousness, that in which we are at all 

times and from which we have never come out.

Nishkalam: “without parts”. He is a homogeneous whole, like space which also has 

no parts; the word really signifies that the Paramatman is beyond time, space and object. 

Only phenomenal reality needs time space and object to measure it. The Self does not have 

this reality.

ADVITEEYAM: “Non-Duality” or “one without a second”; we have seen in the last 

verse that this is the clearest definition of the Self. It is as precise as using the word 

Satchidananda to describe It. This is the crest-jewel of Vedanta philosophy; it is the core 

description of Paramatman, from which all other descriptions may be derived.

17 Samasta Saakshim: “the Witness of all”. It is the Vedic style that the first quality 

describing the Pure Consciousness is always as the inner Witness. We have also seen that 

this is a temporary description of it with reference to our thoughts. A Witness, by definition 

has to have something to witness, which is our thought. Once we have dropped all thoughts, 

there is nothing to be witnessed any longer, and then only we speak of Pure Consciousness.

Sad-Asad-Viheenam: “beyond the gross and the subtle”; as with Witness, this 

description of Truth is with reference to our intellectual concept of creation. The gross is

physically manifest to our senses; the subtle is manifest only to our mind as thoughts. We 

start our spiritual journey with such elementary concepts, just to hang our idea of God on. 

At a certain stage they become redundant and are discarded so that we can move ahead to 

the next level of spiritual experience.

18 Prayaati Shuddham: “one attains to Purity”. And so we come to the last line of 

the Upanishad’s teaching. From the Sadhana of Negation, to the attainment of total purity 

covers the vast ground of a lifelong quest for the Divine Being. In this final line is summed up

the fascinating spiritual journey that culminates in one’s identity with the Paramatman.

There is no time lag between attaining total Purity and realizing oneself to be of the 

nature of Paramatman – the two occur simultaneously. The moment the Truth dawns, that 

moment itself the Pure Paramatman’s nature becomes the nature of the realised person.

That very moment one becomes Purity itself.

This ultimate result of the spiritual journey is that one imbibes in full measure the 

nature of that Reality, as described earlier in this mantram.

Thus ends the teaching of this Upanishad. The two remaining verses describe the 

Upasana by which the seeker can develop within him the capacity and strength needed to 

fuel this Godward journey.

Thus Ends the Principal Portion of the Teaching

*****

Next

7. THE FRUITS OF REALISATION

(Mantras -  25-26, 2 no.)

Mantra - 25: The Shata-Rudreeyam Upasana

To be continued

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