The Essence of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad : 8. Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission: 

The woman's path from suffering to asceticism unfolds in the story of Lal Ded. 

Swipe to delve into the inspiring narrative of her resilience and spiritual evolution. 

================================================================

Friday, 15 Dec 2023. 07:00.
Scriptures
Upanishads
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 
Chapter -2.The Absolute and the Universe-4.
Post-8.

================================================================

2.The Absolute and the Universe-4.

This is apparently a logical contradiction, but the whole of creation is nothing but that; it is a logical contradiction, indeed; logically it has no meaning, and it cannot be deduced; but, yet, it is there. The relationship between the individual and the Absolute is not logically inferable from any kind of premise, it cannot be deduced from any kind of assumption, nor can we argue it out by any kind of inductive process. But we have to take things as they are. The whole purpose of the story of creation, given in this section of the Upanishad, is to help individuals to return to the Absolute, enable the purpose of the practice of Sadhana. It is not an explanation in the sense of a historical or chronological event that took place in some early periods of time but a practical suggestion given to individuals as to how they can reunite themselves with That from which they have been alienated in consciousness.

There is, therefore, a split of the One into two and the two becomes a multitude with the same creative urge continuing in every part of the manifested individualities; that means to say, there is a tendency to go down and down into greater and greater forms of objectivity. From the causal condition there is a descent into the subtle state and from the subtle there is a descent further into the grosser condition, which we call the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether, and everything that is constituted of these five elements. Thus, we have a cosmic integration with an implied multiplicity or, the other way round, there is a cosmic multiplicity with an implied integration or unity hidden behind it. This is the universe, in its apparent form. The Upanishad tells us that the manifestation was twofold and then it was threefold and then it was multiple. It was twofold in the sense that the Subject became the Object and the whole universe was Its own Body which it opposed to its own consciousness as that on which it contemplated as 'I-am-I'.

Then the consciousness of threefold creation came into being; the threefold creation being called, in the language of the Upanishad, the Adhibhuta, or the physical, external universe; Adhyatma, or the internal individual perceivers; and the Adhidaiva, or the connecting link between these two. The transcendent spiritual presence which connects the subject of perception with the object of perception is the Adhidaiva. There is a peculiar principle which operates between the seer and the seen, on account of which this seeing becomes possible, but that transcendent element in the process of perception and external experience is always invisible to the normal ways of consciousness. So, there is a threefold creation—the creation of the outer world or the physical universe; the individual experiences, or Jivas, or souls; and the gods, the celestials, the divinities who are the Adhidaivas presiding over everything that is external or internal. This is the threefold creation.

Immediately, the Upanishad asserts that none of these celestials is complete in itself. No part in creation can reflect the total Absolute. Yet, the whole Absolute is present in every part. This is, again, a quandary for us to contemplate. The entire completeness of the Supreme Being is present potentially in every atom of creation, and yet no atom, no part, no individual, no human being, no god, no celestial, nothing created ever, can be a vehicle for the Total Reality. The finitude of any particular manifestation is a hindrance to the reflection of the Total in it. To regard a finite object as complete in itself would be just ignorance. Here we have a corresponding enlightenment, a ray of light, thrown upon the subject in the Bhagavad-Gita, in its eighteenth chapter, where we are told that it is the lowest kind of knowledge to consider any finite object as a Total Reality in itself. 

The whole of truth or reality is not contained in any object, but the ignorance of the individual is so profound that every perception mistakes a finite object for the Total Reality. That is why there is a connection established between a particular percipient and a corresponding object under stresses of emotion, for instance, where the object is taken for the Total Reality. Whenever one gets engrossed in any particular object or a group of objects, there is a mistaken notion of the apparent presence of the Total in particulars, which is not true, says the Bhagavad-Gita. To regard one's own family as everything, to regard one's own group as everything, to regard one's own community or even nation, even mankind as a whole, as everything, is a finitude of perception, because nothing that we regard as complete is really complete. The whole of reality cannot be manifest in anything that is finite, in space or time. This is to the credit of our wisdom which always takes finitudes as  infinitudes.

================================================================

To be continued

================================================================