Upanishads : "The cream of Vedas"

================================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 01/04/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Chapter 1, Section 1, Verse 1:  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “OM.  Dawn is the head of the horse sacrificial.  The sun is his eye, his breath is the wind, his wide open mouth is Fire, the master might universal.  Time is the self of the horse sacrificial.  Heaven is his back and the midworld his belly, earth is his footing, — the regions are his flanks and the lesser regions his ribs, the seasons his members, the months and the half months are their joints, the days and nights are his standing place, the stars his bones and the sky is the flesh of his body.  The strands are the food in his belly, the riv...

===================================================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 31/03/2020. Chapter :1.Introduction - 9. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The whole objective universe is the effect.  *Why do we call it an effect? ' ##Because the universe has a tendency to move forward through the process of evolution. We would never see one atom in this world lying static without movement. There is a motion of everything towards something of which there is no proper idea at the present moment. Rivers are flowing, the sun and the moon and the stars are active, and we are more active; the whole world is busy with doing something. The astronomical universe and the subatomic world are active, moving vibrantly.  ###All seem to be ever engaged for some purpose which they have not yet fulfilled. I...

====================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20/03/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Shwetashwatara Upanishad, Chapter Four, Verses 8-10: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “In the highest immutable Heaven where all the gods have taken up their session, there are the verses of the Rig-veda, and he who knows Him not, what shall he do with the Rik?  They who know That, lo, it is they who thus are seated.  Rhythms and sacrifices and ritual and vows, what has been and what is to be and what the Vedas declare, — the Master of Maya brings forth from that all this that is and there is another whom within it his Maya holds imprisoned.  Thou shalt know Maya to be Force of Nature and the Master of Maya to be the great Lord; this whole universe is o...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 19/03/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Shwetashwatara Upanishad, Chapter 5, Verses 3-4 : ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. “God weaveth Him one net or He weaveth Him another and He maketh it of manifold meshes and casteth it abroad in this field of the body; then He draweth it in again.  Also He created Yatis, great Seekers, and thus the Mighty Mind wielded the sceptre of His universal Lordship. (Or, and thus the Mighty Mind, the Master, exerciseth the sovereignty over all this creation [or, of all the Universe] )  The Sun riseth and driveth the world’s wain, then he blazeth illumining all the regions and above and below and the level grow one lustre, even so this glorious and shining God, ...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 17/03/2020. 7. God, the Universe and the Individual- 6. Post-6. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The distinction that is ordinarily made between Ishvara and Brahman can be traced finally to the Upanishads. Though the rigid distinction which is made between these two metaphysical principles in the official Vedanta philosophy of Shankara and his followers cannot be found in the Upanishads clearly set forth, there is no doubt that the basis for this distinction is in the Upanishads themselves. Brahman is described sometimes as Purusha-Vidha which can, without difficulty, be identified with the Divine Being constituting the three phases of Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat. The Upanish...

======================================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16/03/2020. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (The Upanishad of the Great Forest) is one of the oldest, one of the longest, and one of the most difficult to effectively understand due to the deep symbolism of its language harking back to the Vedic sages while we try to investigate its meaning by use of a logical intellectual process that eschews the type of intuitive symbolic presentation found here.  ##Sri Aurobindo translated a portion of this Upanishad from the first section, focused on an understanding of the Upanishadic view of the Horse Sacrifice (Ashwamedha).  He also provides a commentary on this section of the Upanishad which aids us in understan...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14/03/2020. Spoken on January 14th, 1973) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #These methods of meditation according to the Upanishad are not suited to common minds because they demand or require of the student a high standard of discriminative power and dispassion. The condition, the prerequisite of such a meditation is also laid down in the Upanishad itself – not in the Mandukya, but in certain other Upanishads.  *"We have to be possessed of a Nachiketas element." ##The story of Nachiketas given in the Kathopanishad is a prelude, as it were, to the requirements of a student of the Upanishads. Such intensity of the spirit of renunciation as can be gathered from the story ...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 09/03/2020. Post-13. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #When you conceive the Supreme Being, you have in the beginning a spatio-temporal imagination of that Being. God is very big, very large, very far away, very great, adorable; you offer your prostrations to that Almighty as something lovable. Even the Upanishads sometimes refers to the Supreme Absolute as the most lovable. Vanam means adorable; that Being is the most adorable. That thing which you call God, that thing which pulls your attention in its own direction, that which is the ultimate reality of things, that which is the Self of the cosmos, is the most magnificent, beloved, lovable, beautiful, most essential of all beings. ##And one ...

======================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07/03/2020. Post - 13. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is the vehicle of the teachings of this great master. Many questions were put to Yajnavalkya. One of the questions raised by a person in the audience was, “What is it that is inside and outside? What is its nature?” ##“Yes, I know that,” said Yajnavalkya. ###“What is the good of saying ‘I know that’?” said the person asking the question. “Tell me what it is. Everybody can say ‘I know that, I know that’. Let me hear what it is.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. #Then Yajnavalkya gives a descriptio...

========================================================================  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 06/03/2020. Chapter :1.Introduction - 8. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. #The reason why we feel like taking the aid of these thoughts of the Upanishadic masters in answering our questions is that they have gone to the very roots of the cause of all causes of these effects manifested as this world, this society, mankind, the efforts of mankind, etc.  ##We speak of human life, human duties and human purposes and so on, without properly paying sufficient heed to the conditioning factors that underlie these phenomena behind mankind.  ###Our minds work in a particular fashion, being conditioned by certain factors. ----------------------------------------------------...

======================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 03/03/2020. Sri Aurobindo translates Prashna Upanishad, Sixth Question, Verses 3-4 : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ “He bethought Him: ‘What shall that be in whose issuing forth I shall issue forth from the body and in his abiding I shall abide?’ Then he put forth the Life, and from the Life faith, next ether and then air, and then light, and then water, and then earth, the senses and mind and food, and from food virility and from virility askesis, and from askesis the mighty verses, and from these action, and the worlds from action and name in the worlds: in this wise were all things born from the Spirit.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...