The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit: 10. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, 06 Dec 2023. 06:30.

Article

Scriptures

The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit

(Spoken on June 19, 1972)

Post-10.

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And also the definition is elaborated further in another mantra of the very same Upanishad: 

yada pancavatisthante jnsnsni manasa saha, buddhis ca na vicestati, tam ahuh paramam gatim (Katha 2.3.10). 

Pancavatisthante: 

Pancha is the fivefold energy of the senses – the energy of perception through the eyes, the energy of hearing, of tasting, of smelling, of touching. When all these forces are brought together into a single point of focus, what happens? There is conservation of energy. 

Yada pancavatisthante janani. 

Jnanani means jnana-indriyani. Manasa saha: 

When the indriyas come together with the mind, or rather, when the rays of the mind are drawn back and there is a doubling of the energy of the mind, the mind is weak on account of the movement of force through the senses. The mind gets strengthened on account of the withdrawing of the energy of the mind that usually gets spilt out through perception through the senses: yadā pañcāvatiṣṭhante jñānāni manasā saha. 

Not merely that, buddhis ca na vicestati: 

When the intellect does not oscillate; 

tam ahuh paramam gatim: 

when that state is attained, you have reached the Supreme State. But we know the highest condition is the non-oscillation of the understanding or the intellect. The intellect oscillates whenever there is the function of judgment or decision.

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Judgment is a logical process of dovetailing a predicate with a subject. Whenever we make a statement, give an opinion or pass a judgment, what happens is we connect the subject to the predicate. There is always a separation of two units, and then an artificial bringing together of these two units. We assume a difference between the subject and the predicate, and then try to bring the two together in logical judgment. So this is a defect of the process of ratiocination.

Hence, the intellect is not supposed to be independently a source of wisdom of the spirit. Naisa tarkena matir apaneya (Katha 1.2.9), 

says the Kathaopanishad itself. By logical argumentation, this Spirit is not to be gained because logic has its defect. The initial flaw of having to separate two units of a judgment and then having to bring them together. We break the legs, and then bring them together. This is the defect of the logic and ratiocinating process, but the intellect has not to perform these functions. It has to stand by itself as a single lamp, merely illumining but not associating itself with the activities of the senses or the mind. The senses, the mind and the intellect have to come together and form a single energy. 

That is the Supreme State – tam ahuh paramam gatim.

Also, we are told simultaneously there: 

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yada sarve pramucyante kama ye'sya hrdi sritah, atha martyo'mrto bhavaty atra brahma samasnute (Katha 2.3.14). 

These are all small verses giving a wealth of meaning, and perhaps the entire system of yoga is pressed into the few words of the mantras. 

Yada sarve pramucyante kama ye'sya hrdi sritah: 

When all the desires are liberated from the heart, what happens? 

Atha martyo'mrto bhavaty: 

The mortal becomes immortal here itself. 

Atra brahma samasnute: 

Not tatra, but atha – not far off in a distant place, tomorrow or afterwards, after death, but now. Eternity is a here and a now. It is not an after, and it is not a tomorrow. It has no space, it has no time; therefore, it is just here: atha brahma samasnute.

Now, with such elaborate descriptions of the path of the Spirit, Yama gives a sort of answer to the ultimate question: What happens to the soul when it is absorbed into the Absolute? This was the question of Nachiketas. We are led from the points mentioned in the Kathopanishad to the higher reaches given to us in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which are the crowning glory of culture, we may say, in one sense. The heights which the mind of Yajnavalkya reached are the Himalayas of the spirit, we may say. There is nothing higher than that. No human mind can conceive anything loftier than what Yajnavalkya conceived, and in a tumultuous emotion of having heard something shocking, Maitreyi queries Yajnavalkya. “What are you saying, my lord?”

There is loss of personality when the Absolute is realised. This is hinted at by Yajnavalkya after a long discourse with Maitreyi. What is meant by loss of personality? Is it a loss or a gain? We are not after losses. We are only after gains. Nobody wants to lose what one possesses. But this is a loss of what obstructs the vision of the Spirit. It is something like losing a fever or a cancer in the body. We are not a loser really; we are only a gainer. If a tumour is lost, we do not regard ourselves as losers, really speaking. We are only gaining. Health is gained but illness is lost.

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To be continued

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