Maharishi Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad -3. Swami Krishnananda

10/05/2019
3.

Difficult is this to understand. The Self cannot be placed in the tree, or the sun or moon, or stars, because if the Self is in the sun, then there is no sun, there is only Self there. But then, the idea of distance may be there, persisting again and again, as an inveterate habit.

Never should this meditation be attempted by an impure mind. We are happily conversant with the proclamations of all the religions and philosophies that God is everywhere, Brahman is everywhere, but nobody says that the Self is everywhere. This is a new thing that we hear in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. We feel that the Self cannot be everywhere, It cannot be anywhere except in one's own self. This 'one's own self' is the crucial matter. That is to say, all the worlds are your own Self. Bhu-Loka, Bhuvar-Loka, Swar-Loka, Mahar-Loka, Jana-Loka, Tapo-Loka, Satya-Loka; – these widespread universal expanses of being are our Self! If you can imagine how your Self could be – that kind of imagination should be extended to all the worlds. The self will shudder, it can break into pieces, or it can melt down into the extent of the whole world in an instant. If this meditation can be continued a miracle can take place.

If anything is dear and lovable, the thing that is loved is not actually loved, it is not dear. The Self in the object is what is actually attracting. The Self in the object attracts the Self in us and then the object looks attractive. It is not the object that is attractive, because a corpse cannot attract anybody, a dead body does not attract. It is the life principle that attracts, the Selfhood in the object is attracting. The beauty and the grandeur of the life principle, it is that which attracts. Where is this Selfhood? Again the question arises – everywhere!

To be continued ..