The Chhandogya Upanishad - 63: Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 15, Aug 2024. 11:20.
Chapter 4: An Analysis of the Nature of the Self
Section 13: Exclamation of the Perfected Soul & Section 14: The Prayer of a Seeker for Eternal Life:
Mantras-1.
Post-63.

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Mantram- 4.13:

"Syamac-chabalam prapadye, 

sabalac-chyamam prapadye asva iva romani vidhuya papam, 

candra iva rahor-mukhat pramucya dhutva sariram, 

akrtam krtatma brahma-lokam abhisambhavami iti."

We are now about to enter into the realm of Brahma. The aspiration has gone to its zenith. So the soul speaks to itself, as it were. "I shall reach that Supreme." Literally translated the first portion of this mantra means, "From the dark blue one I go to the more defined one, and from the more defined one I go to the dark blue." Nobody can understand what these words mean if they are interpreted grammatically. The commentators say that these words refer to the state of Supreme Experience. Various commentators have different meanings to say. "From the cause I go to the subtle and from the subtle I go to the cause"-this is one meaning. Another meaning given is, "From Isvara I go to Hiranyagarbha and from Hiranyagarbha I go to Isvara." A third meaning given is, "From Brahman I go to Isvara and from Isvara I go to Brahman." "From the Universal I go to the Cause thereof, and from the Cause I go to the Universal," is still another interpretation. All these are exclamations of joy of the soul that is about to enter into the ocean of Being. And how does it go to this tremendous experience? It shakes its body and cleans it up as a horse does by shaking its body and throwing off all the dust from its hairs. This is not the literal shaking off of our physical body, but a shaking off of the entire vestures of the personality. Annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya and anandamaya-the physical, the vital, the mental, the intellectual and the causal-all these sheaths or bodies are shed automatically.

The soul now exclaims: "I shall free myself, as the moon frees itself from the darkness of the eclipse, from the mouth of Rahu. I shall be freed from the clutches of ignorance, this darkness that has been overshadowing me up to this time. I shall shake off this body which is actually not there. I have been misled into the feeling that all along it has been there. I shall free myself from this obsession. I shall become a kritatma, one who has fulfilled one's purposes. The aim of life has been attained and all my purposes have been fulfilled. There is nothing left to be done now, because that which is the ultimate purpose of all my efforts and endeavours in life has been reached. I shall attain Brahma-loka, the Supreme Abode of the Creator. I shall reach this Abode and become one with this Abode."

Comparatively later mystics also have spoken about experiences of this kind. The great saints of India like Sant Ramdas, Tukaram, Jnanesvar Maharaj, and in the West, mystics like Plotinus have explained this experience without using the word Brahma-loka. In this supernal experience, there is the consciousness of the interpenetration of things. In the words of Plotinus, everything is mirrored in everything else. It is as if everywhere we have got only mirrors to which individuals are compared. These are not physical mirrors, of course, kept in space, but non-located super-physical mirrors, if at all you can call them such, where every individual is reflected in every other individual. Everything is everywhere. This is the experience of interpenetration in Brahma-loka.

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Mantram - 1.

Akaso vai nama nama-rupayor-nirvahita, 

te yad-antara, tad-brahma, tad-amrtam, sa atma, 

prajapateh sabham vesma prapadye, 

yaso'ham bhavami brahmananam yaso rajnam yaso 

visam yaso'ham anuprapatsi sa haham yasasam 

yasah syetam adatkam adatkam syetam 

lindu mabhigam, lindu mabhigam.

The space that we see here is the cause of the differentiation of name and form. What we call the objects of sense are nothing but names and forms. They manifest on account of the presence of space and time. But what is inside space and subtler than it? And is that the Absolute? We can see space but we cannot see what is beyond space, inside space. That which is internal to even the subtlest object of perception which is space is the Atman. That is Brahman, the Absolute. This is the Immortal.

Now, there is the exclamation of the liberated soul. "This is the Atman, this is Brahman. For the sake of this realisation I enter the hall, the abode of Prajapati, the Creator."

In some Upanishads, like the Kaushitaki, we have very beautiful descriptions wherein are given realistic explanations of what things are met on the way by the soul in its ascent to Brahma-loka. The soul enters the hall of Brahma, goes to the abode of Prajapati, the Creator, and becomes the glory of every one. Your glory and my glory, all glories are one, because the 'I' enters into everyone. Whatever is the greatness of anything, that becomes 'my' greatness. Great men, geniuses, masters, scientists, artists, whoever they be, whatever greatness they have, that is 'my' greatness, because 'I' enters into their Being, 'I' gets united with their Being. And whatever they are, that 'I' myself am. That is 'my' glory. The 'I' attains everything. 'I' am the Glory of all glories. What is the Glory of the glorious people in the world? That glory has come not from them, but from something else, and that am 'I'.

"May I not enter into this womb of the mother once again," is the last prayer of the liberated soul. He shall not enter into the womb of the mother. These peculiar words mean, "May I not enter into the womb of the mother which swallows all souls into their embodiment and limits them into personalities."

This is the great wisdom of the Chhandogya Upanishad in its quintessence.

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Next- Section 15: Parting Advice to the Pupil:

Continued

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