Lesson on 'The Taittiriya Upanishad' - 5. Swami Krishnananda

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21/02/2020.

Post-5.

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1.

Taittiriya Upanishad 

Chapter-2.On the Bliss that is Brahmam : Brahmananda Valli -

Section-1. Brahmam is Sathyam, Jnanam, anantham .... Enunciation of the Doctrine of Sheaths -

Mantram-2.

First Line

#"Tasmat va etasmad atmana akasas sambhutah" (Tait. 2.1.2): 

"From this Universal Atman, space emanated" – as it were. 

This is something hard for us to conceive at the present moment. Space is actually the negation of the infinity of Brahman. Infinity does not mean extension or dimension – but space is extension, dimension, distance. 

So, immediately a contradiction is introduced at the very beginning of the concept of creation. God is negated, as it were, for various reasons, the moment creation is conceived, one reason being that the creation appears as an external manifestation, whereas God – Brahman – is the Universal Existence. 

We know the difference between universality and externality. The moment there is the concept of space, there is also automatically introduced into it the concept of time. We cannot separate space and time. Duration and extension go together. 

Actually, according to modern findings at least, space and time are not dead appearances, lifeless presentations before us. For us, to our common perception, spatial extension may look like a lifeless dimension which does not speak, which does not think, which has nothing to say. Time also seems to be some kind of movement which has no brain to think; it is like a machine moving like a bulldozer in some direction. 

This is what we may think with our paltry, inadequate knowledge of what space and time are. Space and time are not dead things; they are basic vibrations of the cosmos. Motion goes together with space-time. Not only according to modern scientific terminology, but also in the ancient thought of the Agama and Tantra, one may say that the concept of space-time goes together with motion, force.

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2.

#A tremendous vibration, an uncanny force is generated the moment there is the beginning of what we call creation. It is a central point that begins to vibrate – bindu, as it is called in the Agama Shastra. 

##Bindu is a point. It is not a point which is geometrical, which has a nucleus; it is a cosmic point, a centre which is everywhere with a circumference nowhere, as people generally say. It is a point that is everywhere, which is inconceivable to ordinary thought. It is a tremendous vibratory centre. Modern astronomy also seems to be hinging on this point when it concludes there was a 'big bang' when creation took place – a splitting of the cosmic atom. 

###The atom should not be considered as a little particle; it is a cosmic centre. The entire space-time arrangement is one point, like an egg – brahmanda, as it is called. A globular structure is easy to conceive, and so we call it an 'anda', a kind of egg – a cosmic egg. 

*"Tadandam abhavat haimam sahasramsh samaprabham" (Manu 1.9) says the Manusmriti: 

#"Even millions of suns cannot be equal in brilliance to that cosmic spot." 

##Therefore, it is not a point as we can geometrically imagine. 

###It is an inconceivable point.

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To be continued ....

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