Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 01/01/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Third Chapter, Verse 1:  ====================================================================== “Yama speaks: ‘This is an eternal Ashwattha-tree whose root is above, but its branches are downward.  It is He that is called the Bright One and Brahman, and Immortality, and in Him are all the worlds established, none goes beyond Him.  This is That thou seekest.’ “ The image of the Ashwattha-tree, representing the source and development of life, appears also in the Bhagavad Gita.  The tree, known variously as the Peepul tree, the Bodhi Tree, the Ficus religiosa, is considered to be a sacred tree in India.  The physical tree, of course, is rooted in the earth and expands upwards; but the Upanishad (and the Gita) reverse this normal order and have...

======================================================================== ====================================================================== 30/12/2019. 7. God, the Universe and the Individual- 7.3. ======================================================================= The conception of God in the Upanishads is of special significance. The God of the Upanishads is the Antaryamin, the Indwelling Presence in the Universe. This God is different from the God of the Nyaya and the Vaiseshika philosophies, who is entirely cut off from the universe of manifestation; the God of the Yoga philosophy, who has no intelligible relation to the principles of Purusha and Prakriti, and is not the ultimate goal of the aspirations of individuals; or the God of certain theistic schools, who is different from the manifested universe and the Jivas, though he is considered to be omnipresent and the existence of everything. The God or the Ishvara of the Upanishads is the Absolute-Individual, t...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 29/12/2019. POST-4. ======================================================================== 1. Brahman experience is not an object of contact; it is an identity. The object is the experiencing consciousness itself. The content of awareness becomes the awareness; existence and consciousness merge into each other. Sat becomes chit, chit becomes sat. It is not actually one thing becoming another thing; the one thing is the other thing. Existence is nothing but the consciousness of existence. When you say that you exist, you are at the same time affirming that you are conscious that you exist. You are not merely existing, minus the consciousness of existence. It is not an appendage that is added on to existence in the form of consciousness. Consciousness is not a quality or an attribute of existence, like the greenness of a leaf or...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 27/12/2019. (Spoken on January 14th, 1973) Post - 8. ======================================================================= This analysis of the three states individually experienced by every person every day is also supposed to have a cosmic counterpart, which is not very clearly set forth in the Mandukya Upanishad. The Upanishad makes the deduction that there should be a cosmic counterpart of these three states of individuals – namely, the waking, dream and sleep states. While we are individually body conscious in the waking state, the cosmic counterpart, known as the Virat, is supposed to be universally, physically conscious. Or, to explain it in another way, there is a simultaneous consciousness of all physical existences in the cosmos. This is supposed to be the cosmic counterpart of the individual, physical condition. Virat...

======================================================================= ======================================================================== 22/12/2019. POST- 9. ======================================================================== #Everybody says duty must be done, but what is duty? Work done as duty can alone purify, no other work can purify the self. It is not any kind of labour that can be regarded as Karma yoga. #Now, what is this duty that you are talking of which is going to chasten the personality of the individual, purify it? Briefly it can be called unselfish action. It is a work that you do for the benefit that may accrue to a larger dimension of reality and not merely to the localized entity called your own individual self. When you serve people, you are to bear in mind always the reason why this service is done at all. Mostly, the reason is buried underneath. We have social reasons, political reasons, economic reasons, and family considerations wh...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 20/12/2019. POST-4. ====================================================================== The Selfhood in the object attracts the Selfhood in the observer of the object. The Self pulls the Self. All love is this much. The husband does not love the wife for the sake of the wife, the wife does not love the husband for the sake of the husband, but for the sake of the Self present there. People do not love wealth for the sake of wealth, but for the sake of the Selfhood therein in a widened form. In what we call wealth, we love the Self. Whatever it be, in any part of the universe, in any context, in any location, the Self is present exclusively. The Self need not necessarily be that imagined self inside the physical body. I have already given some idea that there can be many kinds of self exteriorised outside the physical location ...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 17/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Second Chapter, Verses 7-8: ======================================================================== “For some enter a womb to the embodying of the Spirit and others follow after the Immovable: according to their deeds is their goal and after the measure of their revealed knowledge.  This that wakes in the sleepers creating desire upon desire, this Purusha, Him they call the Bright One, Him Brahman, Him Immortality, and in Him are all the worlds established: none goes beyond Him.  This is That thou seekest.” The question posed by Nachiketas constituting the third boon he had been granted by Yama required a very substantial background of understanding about the nature of existence, the soul and the universal creator, and the purpose of life.  At lo...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 16/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Second Chapter, Verses 2-3:  ======================================================================= “Lo, the Swan whose dwelling is in the purity, He is the Vasu in the inter-regions, the Sacrificer at the altar, the Guest in the vessel of the drinking: He is in man and in the Great Ones and His home is in the law, and His dwelling is in the firmament: He is all that is born of water and all that is born of earth and all that is born on the mountains.  He is the Truth and He is the Mighty One.  This is He that draws the main breath upward and casts the lower breath downward.  The Dwarf that sits in the centre, to Him all the Gods do homage.” These verses illustrate that the Divine Being pervades, permeates, embodies and constitutes all that e...

======================================================================== =============================================================== 15/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: Second Chapter, Verse 1: =============================================================== “Yama speaks: ‘The unborn who is not devious-minded has a city with eleven gates: when he takes up his abode in it, he grieves not, but when he is set free from it, that is his deliverance.  This is That thou seekest.” The divine Presence takes on forms, including the human form, to manifest Spirit in Matter.  In the human being this Presence has developed an instrument of action that includes the physical body, the vital-nervous sheath which carries the sense perceptions and impulses to action, and the mind.  The Divine does not suffer from this embodiment.  While appearing to be bound, He is always free.  When He recognises His freedom, he is able to act from...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 14/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Katha Upanishad, Second Cycle: First Chapter, Verses 14-15: ====================================================================== “As water that rains in the rough and difficult places, runs to many sides on the mountain-tops, so he that sees separate law and action of the One Spirit, follows in the track of what he sees.  But as pure water that is poured into pure water, even as it was such it remains, so is it with the soul of the thinker who knows God, O seed of Gautama.” The first image of the water running to many sides illustrates the normal action of the mind running after all the objects of the senses, constantly changing and having a dispersed action.  The mind observes and acts upon fragmented elements of difference, and the individual chases after what he sees in a phantasm...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 13/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmanandavalli, Chapter One (first part):  ======================================================================= “Hari OM.  Together may He protect us, together may He possess us, together may we make unto us strength and virility!  May our study be full to us of light and power!  May we never hate!  OM!  Peace! Peace! Peace.” “OM.  The knower of Brahman attaineth the Highest; for this is the verse that was declared of old, ‘Brahman is Truth, Brahman is Knowledge, Brahman is the Infinite, he that findeth Him hidden in the cavern heart of being; in the highest heaven of His creatures, lo, he enjoyeth all desire and he abideth with the Eternal, even with that cognisant and understanding Spirit.’ ” The Brahmanandavalli begins with an in...

======================================================================= ===================================================================== 12/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli, Chapter Ten:  ===================================================================== “I am He that moveth the Tree of the Universe and my glory is like the shoulders of a high mountain.  I am lofty and pure like sweet nectar in the strong, I am the shining riches of the world, I am the deep thinker, the deathless One who decayeth not from the beginning.  ‘This is Trishanku’s voicing of Veda and the hymn of his self-knowledge.” When the realisation comes to the seeker, he realises his oneness with the entire creation and identifies with the Brahman, the creative force and being that sets the universe in motion.  This is not an intellectual understanding, but a knowledge which takes over the entire consciousness.  The experience leads, in th...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 11/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli, Chapter Nine:  ======================================================================= “Righteousness with the study and teaching of Veda; Truth with the study and teaching of Veda; askesis with the study and teaching of Veda; self-mastery with the study and teaching of Veda.  Peace of soul with the study and teaching of Veda.  The household fires with the study and teaching of Veda.  The burnt offering with the study and teaching of Veda.  Progeny with the study and teaching of Veda.  Act of procreation (Or, Joy of the child’s mother) with the study and teaching of Veda.  Children of thy children with the study and teaching of Veda — these duties. ‘Truth is first,’ said the truth-speaker, the Rishi, son of Rathitara.  ‘As...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 10/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli, Chapter Eight :  ======================================================================== “OM is the Eternal.  OM is all this universe.  OM is the syllable of assent: saying OM! let us hear, they begin the citation.  With OM they sing the hymns of the Sama; with OM SHOM they pronounce the Shastra.  With OM the priest officiating at the sacrifice sayeth the response.  With OM Brahma beginneth creation (or, With Om the chief priest giveth sanction).  With OM one sanctioneth the burnt offering.  With OM the Brahmin ere he expound the Knowledge, crieth ‘May I attain the Eternal.’  The Eternal verily he attaineth.” A number of Upanishads focus on the syllable OM.  It is considered to be the “sound-body” of the unive...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 09/12/2019. Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Shikshavalli, Chapter 7:  ====================================================================== “Earth, sky, heaven, the quarters and the lesser quarters; Fire, Air, Sun, Moon and the Constellations; Waters, herbs of healing, trees of the forest, ether and the Self in all; these three concerning this outer creation.  Then concerning the Self.  The main breath, the middle breath, the nether breath, the upper breath and the breath pervasor; eye, ear, mind, speech and the skin; hide, flesh, muscle, bone and marrow.  Thus the Rishi divided them and said, ‘In sets of five is this universe; five and five with five and five He relateth.” The Rishi of the Upanishad does not abandon the outer world, but looks upon it in a spirit of examination and discovery....

======================================================================== ====================================================================== 08/12/2019. The term “Brahman” is used, in preference to the term “God”, because it allows connotations beyond those normally associated with the term “God”.  When we consider “God”, what is it that we think?  Many people have an anthropomorphic view of God and imagine some kingly individual sitting up in the clouds managing what we do, how we do it and judging us for our fitness to enter into heaven.  Others, of a more philosophical bent, talk about the characteristics of God as being all-knowing and all-powerful, again, with an anthropomorphic view, attributing these characteristics to God in the way we would say that an individual is “intelligent” or “strong”.   Still others reference an experience that overcomes them emotionally or physically which they attribute to being the spirit of God. When we conside...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 07/12/2019 #Armed Forces Flag Day : 7th December, 2019. https://youtu.be/zArxHZn-XCo #Hon. RM Rajnath Singh's message on #ArmedForcesFlagDay ======================================================================== Contributions to AFFD Fund : PAY ONLINE ======================================================================= KENDRIYA SAINIK BOARD SECRETARIAT Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare Ministry of Defence, Government of India http://ksb.gov.in/DonateAFFDF.htm ======================================================================== The Taittiriya Upanishad contains an enormous amount of information about the nature of the Brahman, as well as practices of concentration to attain knowledge of Brahman.  There are also a number of diverse passages that appear to be “teaching notes” or outlines of subjects...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 06/12/2019. 7. God, the Universe and the Individual -2. ======================================================================= But the position, as it is known to us, of the individual and the world does not explain all matters that arise out of this position. Thinking beings, capable of reflection, become eager to know the relation between the world and the individual. What is the cause of this world? How am I connected with the other things of the world? What is my duty here? Questions of this kind crop up in the minds of several persons. And these questions cannot be answered by anything that is the content of sense-experience. But the need for a solution of the difficulties that arise out of the appearance of the world and the individual is stringent. The solution can be arrived at by higher synthesis brought about t...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 05/12/2019. (Spoken on January 14th, 1973) Post - 7. ======================================================================= Super-consciousness, sometimes called the supramental state, the turiya, is inclusive of all that is in the three other states of consciousness. Whatever was there of worth and meaning in the condition of waking, dream or sleep is to be found in the turiya also, only freed from the tension of it. The turiya is the goal of life. It is described as : Mandukya Upanishad : Mantram-7. "Nantah-prajnam, na bahih prajnam, nobhayatah prajnam,  na prajnana-ghanam, na prajnam, naprajnam; adrstam, avyavaharayam, agrahyam, alakshanam, acintyam, avyapadesyam, ekatma-pratyaya-saram, prapanco-pasamam, santam, sivam, advaitam, caturtham manyante, sa atma, sa vijneyah." ---------------------------------...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 04/12/2019. POST- 8. ======================================================================== Usually, you must have heard, there are techniques of yoga practice known as Karma, Bhakti and Jnana; or Karma, Upasana and Jnana. Karma is activity, work, performance of any kind, discharge of one's duty, you may say. This impulsion of the mind to move always in the direction of objects outside is due to a desire that is present in the mind to grab something from outside and make good a particular lacunae that it feels in one's own self. This tragic movement of the mind in the direction of objects for the purpose of fulfillment of selfish desires can be obviated only by a certain type of activity called Karma. Karma does not mean any kind of work, but a specific kind of work. Everybody is doing some work, everybody is busy in th...

======================================================================== ======================================================================== 03/12/2019. The Taittiriya Upanishad -1. ======================================================================= Until now, we have been passing through the foundational doctrine of the Upanishads – namely, the nature of the Ultimate Reality. What is there, finally? In several ways we have been told that whatever is there, finally, can be only a single Reality and it cannot be more than one. This concept was corroborated by a famous mantra that I quoted from the Rig Veda Samhita – ekam sat: "Existence is one only." The Ultimate Being is Existence. Being and Existence mean the same thing. That which exists cannot be more than one. Everything has to exist, in some form or the other. Trees exist, stones exist, you exist, I exist, mountains exist, stars exist – all things exist. Existence is a common factor underlying ...

======================================================================== ======================================================================= 02/12/2019. 11. ====================================================================== Or if your mind is not strong enough that it can think only in this way, you can find a time for your own self. This analysis the process of this wisdom meditation. Be seated in a particular posture and deeply think over this issue. What do I want? One hundred questions will arise in the mind. “I want all kinds of things.” Yajnavalkya has given the answer to yourthat we made just now should be the analysis that you to carry on during  question. Do you really want all kinds of things? What are those all kinds of things? “So many things, so many objects.” Do you love objects? “Yes, Sir.” Is it true that you are in fact loving the objects? Now comes Yajnavalkya to your assistance. You are not loving objects for their own sake. Neither bui...