ISAVASYA UPANISHAD : - Mantram - 4.

ISAVASYA UPANISHAD :

or


VAJASANEYI    SAMHITA    UPANISHAD


Mantram-4.


Discussion-6. "Sitting,  It  goes  faster  than  those  who  run  after  It"  .......


Here  is  another  epithet  by  which  the  brilliant  word-painters  of  the  Upanishads  have  tried  to  capture  the  ever-eluding  concept  of  the  Self  in  a  network  of  their  irreplacable  words.

The  'motionless' is  thus  not  a  dull  inert  entity  which  has  no  activity  at  all.

In  fact,  it  is  beyond  both  "activity  and  inactivity."

This  idea  is  conveyed  by  stating  that  the  Self,  though  seemingly  inactive  in  its  own  Real  Nature,  seems  to  be  most  active.


Example :

The  steam  in  the  railway  engine  can  be  described  as  'motionless'   "in  its  own  real  nature."

The  water  evaporates  to  create  the  steam,  and  the  steam  moves  the engine ( train ).

Of  course,  the  train  is  being  pulled  by  the  dynamism  of  the  steam.

The  steam  can,  therefore,  be  explained  as  that  which  "goes  faster  than  those  who  run  after  it"  ---- the  bogies.




The  cause  permeates  the  effects.

The  cup  cannot  run  away  from  the  mud  ....

A  beautiful  Samskrtam  slokam  says  :  "Even  if  one  flies  for  a  million  years  with  the  wings  of  Garuda  ( mind ),  even  if  one  is  gifted  with  the  speed  swifter  than  the  mind,  one  cannot  get  to  the  end  of  the  cause (karanam).  



The  sense-organs  and  the  sense-objects  spring  from  and  exist  in  the  Self,  and  so  they  cannot,  in  their  functions,  ever  remain  totally  away  from  the  Self,  the  medium  of  their  existence,  the  field  of  all  their  activities.

Next : Discussion-7. "Matarisva" .....

To be continued  ...