Meditation According to the Upanishads -3. Swami Krishnananda

14/07/2019
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
3.

The objective analysis given to us in the Aitareya Upanishad tells us that the individual seeking freedom and salvation has come out from the Supreme Being Itself and, therefore, its blessedness, its final destiny lies in the realisation of its original identity with the Supreme Being. The Atman is consciousness, the Brahman is consciousness.

Prajña pratishta prajnanam brahma (Ait. 3.1.3) says the Upanishad.

This prajnana is also the essence of the individual soul. By the saman adhikarana method, or the bhauda saman adhikarana, as they call it, the recognition of a common substratum being there between two entities establishes the existence of a common factor between them. The objective side as the creative principle and the subjective side as the individual soul have a common substratum called consciousness, and in consciousness they are one.

"Tat Tvam Asi, Ayamatma Brahma, Prajnanam Brahma."

These dicta of the Upanishad bring out the truth that the sides we call objective and subjective are not really bifurcated by a negation of the specific characters of objectivity and subjectivity – bhauda, as we call it. We get the saman adhikarana, or the common basis of the two. This is bhauda saman adhikarana, the realisation of a common basis by a negation of the specific attributes that have accidently crept into the creative process.

The subjective side is given to us in the Taittiriya Upanishad where precisely in the Bhriguvalli we have an analysis of the individual involucra, the sheaths, koshas – annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnamaya and anandamaya koshas. Bhrigu is instructed by his father Varuna, who is also his Guru, to realise Brahman through tapas. Here tapas means knowledge, the tapas of knowledge.

Gradually Bhrigu pierced through these various layers of his personality. From the physical he entered into the vital, and from the vital he entered into the mental and then the intellectual and then the blissful.

Prano brahmeti vyajanat (Tait. 3.3.1).

He realised finally that bliss is Brahman; the physical, the vital, mental or intellectual sheaths are not Brahman.

So by a subjective entry into our own personality we come to the depths of our being. We go to the bottom most essence of what we really are and come to realise that bliss is Brahman. This is the essence of the soul. Anandam is our nature, not sorrow, not grief. Pain is not our essential nature; bliss is our essential nature.

So from the subjective side we get into this essence of our being, which is Anandam, and from the objective side again we enter into the supreme consciousness. The two are identified.

Vijnanam anandam brahma (Brihad. 3.9.28) :

Consciousness and bliss is Brahman, says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.

Also the Taittiriya tells us satyam jnanam-anantam brahma (Tait. 2.1.1) :

The Supreme Being is reality, intelligence and infinity. The Taittiriya tells us that consciousness is Brahman.

The Aitareya tells us that bliss is Brahman, and the Brihadaranyaka tells us that
consciousness-bliss is Brahman.

So all this combined tells us that Brahman is existence, consciousness and bliss.

To be continued ...