Meditation According to the Upanishads -2. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday 01,  Sep  2024, 06:15.
Article
Scriptures
Meditation According to the Upanishads -2. 
Swami Krishnananda.
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
Post-2.

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The objective analysis given to us in the Aitareya Upanishad tells us that the individual seeking freedom and salvation has come out from the Supreme Being itself; therefore, its blessedness, its final destiny, lies in the realisation of its original identity with the Supreme Being. The Atman is Consciousness, Brahman is Consciousness. 

Prajna pratistha prajnanam brahma (A.U. 3.1.3) says the Upanishad. 

This prajnana is also the essence of the individual soul. By the saman adhikarana method, or the bhauda saman adhikarana, as they call it, the recognition of a common substratum being there between two entities establishes the existence of a common factor between them. The objective side as the creative principle and the subjective side as the individual soul have a common substratum called Consciousness, and in Consciousness they are one. 

Tat tvam asi (C.U. 6.8.7), ayam a brahma (Ma.U. 1.2), prajnanam brahma (A.U. 3.3). 

These dicta of the Upanishads bring out the truth that the sides we call objective and subjective are not really bifurcated by a negation of the specific characters of objectivity and subjectivity—bhauda, as we call it. We get the saman adhikarana, or the common basis of the two. This is bhauda saman adhikarana, the realisation of a common basis by a negation of the specific attributes that have accidentally crept into the creative process.

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The subjective side is given to us in the Taittiriya Upanishad where, in the Bhriguvalli precisely, we have an analysis of the individual involucra, the sheaths, or koshas: the annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijanamaya and anandamaya koshas. Bhrigu is instructed by his father Varuna, who is also his Guru, to realise Brahman through tapas. Here tapas means knowledge, the tapas of knowledge. Gradually Bhrigu pierced through these various layers of his personality. From the physical he entered into the vital, from the vital he entered into the mental, then the intellectual, and then the blissful. 

Prano brahmeti vyajanat (T.U. 3.3.1). 

He realised finally that Bliss is Brahman, and the physical, the vital, the mental and the intellectual sheaths are not Brahman.

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Hence, by a subjective entry into our own personality we come to the depths of our being. We go to the bottommost essence of what we really are and come to realise that Bliss is Brahman. This is the essence of the soul. Ananda is our nature, not sorrow, not grief. Pain is not our essential nature; Bliss is our essential nature. So from the subjective side we get into this essence of our being, which is ananda, and from the objective side we enter into the Supreme Consciousness. The two are identified.

 Vijnnam anandam brahma (B.U. 3.9.28): 

“Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman,” says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. 

Also the Taittiriya Upanishad tells us satyam jnanam anantam brahma (T.U. 2.1.1): 

The Supreme Being is reality, intelligence and infinity. The Taittiriya tells us that Consciousness is Brahman, the Aitareya tells us that Bliss is Brahman, and the Brihadaranyaka tells us that Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman. So all this combined tells us that Brahman is Existence, Consciousness and Bliss.

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These features of analysis given in the Upanishads are brought together into a focus in the Mandukya Upanishad, which is perhaps the most important of all the Vedantic texts from the point of view of Vedantic sadhana. It is said that for the liberation of the soul, the Mandukya alone is sufficient because it gives us the quintessence of Upanishadic teaching. The external and the internal are brought together here in a universal analysis. The main method of meditation according to the Upanishads is given to us in the Mandukya Upanishad. It is very short; therefore, its analysis is difficult unless it is studied together with comparative statements made in the other Upanishads also.

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Continued

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