The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, 14 Aug 2023. 06:15.

Article 

Scriptures

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 

Post-6.

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Salila eko drashtadvaito bhavati, esa brahma-lokah, samrad iti. Hainam anuhasasa yajnavalkya (Bri.U. 4.3.32): 

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This is the sole seer, the sea of consciousness. Salila: Like the ocean it is. It spreads itself like the sea. Eko drashta: Single seer is that. The entire sea of consciousness, the universe, which is all seeing, is aware of itself. Eko drashta bhavati, esa brahma-lokah: This is called the supreme Brahma-loka, the region of the Absolute. Yajnavalkya tells Janaka here, in another context, esa brahma-lokah samrad iti: O your Highness! This is Brahmaloka. Esasya parama gatih: This is the goal of life. Esasya parama sampat: This is the greatest treasure that you can think of. Eso'sya paramo lokah: This is the greatest possession you can imagine. Eso'sya parama anandah: This is the supreme Bliss. With a drop of this universe of Bliss, the entire creation is sustained. All the joys of this world, of all the creation put together, are said to be one drop of this universal Brahman Bliss, the Bliss of the Absolute.

Having said this, Yajnavalkya retired. This is a famous conversation in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad called Yajnavalkya-Maitreyi Samvada: conversation between Yajnavalkya the sage and Maitreyi, his consort. No teaching can go beyond this. This is the highest pinnacle of human thought. All philosophy is crushed into the essence of this teaching. However much we may think philosophically, our mind will not go beyond this thought. Indian thought has reached its peak in this teaching of Yajnavalkya, recorded for us in his conversation with Maitreyi.

Can we attain this state? This question will arise in your mind. Why should you ask such a question? It must be attained, because it has been already declared that this is your goal, this is your aim, this is what you are asking for. Even when you are asking for the silliest joys of life, you are actually asking for this infinite Bliss – asking unknowingly, not knowing what is happening to you.

How will we get it, if we want it? Great discipline of the consciousness is necessary. At the present moment there is an outward trend of consciousness. We are extrovert sensorily, objectively, spatially and temporally. We are causation-bound, and we are living in a relativistic world – one part hanging on something else. A daily practice of the abstraction of consciousness from its involvement in the senses is to be practiced. It can be done as a natural habit of your life, if you are mature enough and your mind is strong enough – that is, it can think only in this way and there is no other way of thinking. Now why should you not think in this way, when this is the aim of life? Have you any suspicion that there is something else also in this world other than this?

Or if your mind is not strong enough that it can think only in this way, you can find a time for your own self. This analysis that we made just now should be the analysis that you to carry on during the process of this wisdom meditation. Be seated in a particular posture and deeply think over this issue. “What do I want?” One hundred questions will arise in the mind. “I want all kinds of things.” Yajnavalkya has given the answer to your question. Do you really want all kinds of things? What are those all kinds of things? “So many things, so many objects.” Do you love objects? “Yes, Sir.” Is it true that you are in fact loving the objects? Now comes Yajnavalkya to your assistance. You are not loving objects for their own sake. Neither building, nor land, nor property, nor relatives, nor people, nor any blessed thing, not even this body itself. You do not want any of this. It is the great Bliss of Universal Existence that is summoning you, and the establishment of oneself in that Consciousness is the liberation of the spirit, moksha. This is moksha yoga that Yajnavalkya speaks – the yoga of the liberation of the spirit.

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To be continued

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know the self, know the self in Nature, know the self in Jiva, Further Oneness.

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