The Chhandogya Upanishad - 65: Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission Mumbai

We began the study of "Logic of Spirituality" by Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayanandaji on 1st September 2024(Sunday). Its a weekly discussion group or CHYK Class for Teenagers & Youth (12yrs to 30yrs).  

The first class began with some ice-breaker games and introductions.  Then we discussed about what is logic? can logic and spirituality go together or do they contradict each other? What is spirituality?  

Some interesting discussions we had. Some said that Logic and spirituality cannot go together because spirituality is about belief and faith. Logic is about reasoning. Some said they cannot go together because spirituality is deeper or greater than logic. 

Others said they cannot go together because spirituality is in the realm of Bhavana or deeper feelings.  A few people said they can go together because there is reasoning behind spirituality also.  It was good to go deep into each of these opinions.  Logic was defined as the relationship between cause and effect.  

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Thursday 12, September 2024. 07:10.
Chapter 4: An Analysis of the Nature of the Self
Section 15: Parting Advice to the Pupil:
Mantram-1.
Post-65.

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Mantram-1 (Continued)

There is another important advice here which is likely to miss the attention of ordinary people. The study under a preceptor should be done during the period of time which one has, apart from the time one spends for the service of the Guru. The student will not be studying from morning till evening sitting with a book, completely ignoring his duty of serving the Guru. Study is secondary and is to be undergone only at other times, the time of recess, as it were, which is at his disposal after he has completed his daily duties to his Guru.

Having undergone this training for the required period under a Guru, one usually enters the household life. The life of a householder should not be one of distracted secular activity. It is not the opposite of sannyasa, as people generally think. It is like brahmacharya, one of the steps leading to sannyasa, and at the same time, is the most mature part of one's life. There is a manifoldness of duty enjoined upon the householder. His difficulties are many and, therefore, the training that he undergoes in that period is more effective, and is a greater preparation, as it were, than in any other stages. Having settled in a proper household after his period of training under a Guru is over, one should find time to be seated in a holy or sacred place and continue the study in order not to forget study, because it is the art of keeping the mind impressed with the consciousness of the goal of life. Else one will forget everything. Though one may have studied something in the earlier days, one may forget everything and the mind may get rusted. Svadhyaya is a necessary perpetual training for everyone, which is not actually the process of acquiring new knowledge, but a way of keeping the mind aware always of what it has studied, and the way of applying this knowledge in practice to attain the great goal. So svadhyaya is a permanent requisite. Always you have to be studying these great texts lest you may forget your goal. A householder has of, course, virtuous children or virtuous disciples who will receive this knowledge from him. Under him they undergo this kind of training. Thus he fulfils his obligation as a householder for the required period.

Then comes the stage of vanaprastha. Here he withdraws his senses. All the activities get centered in the Self when the senses are withdrawn. Instead of external activity, there is now internal activity. A psychological function replaces all the physical duties such as sacrifices, the panchamahayajnas. The various services that he was rendering outwardly in the world previously now become the responsibilities of his life in an internal world of self-control and withdrawal of the senses.

The great vow of the sannyasin is ahimsa, that he would never harm anyone. He is the embodiment of the great fearlessness that he extends to all living beings. No one will be afraid of seeing a sannyasin, for he will not do any harm or anything bad, as his heart has expanded beyond the limits of his own body and his family. The term anyatra tirthebhyah here used with reference to ahimsa means that it would be difficult to extend this obligation of non-injury in an unconditional manner on account of the fact that we live in a world. Various interpretations have been offered for this particular phrase. The usual meaning would be the sacrificial injunctions of the Brahmanas of the Vedas that the committing of himsa is forbidden everywhere except in prescribed places or prescribed occasions. The more generous interpretation of it, as is offered by many commentators, is that the prescribed occasions are those times or periods of activity when you are likely to commit some kind of harm to creatures inadvertently, as it were. It is not possible to live a life of such an extreme type of ahimsa on account of our not being aware many a time as to what we are doing. Of course the intention is not that you should consciously do any harm. Unconsciously harm is done. This is done particularly by the householders because of their living in a house having a kitchen with a fire place, a water place, a grinding place, a broom, etc., where insects, flies and the like are likely to be crushed and killed inadvertently. Various other occasions also are there in life which cannot be recounted here when you are likely to cause unconsciously harm to living beings. These of course are excluded, if they are unconsciously done. But they can be expiated by the intense sadhana which the sannyasin is expected to perform in the purely internal spiritual life that he lives full of proper meditation.

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Continued

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