The Essence of the Aitareya and Taittiriya Upanishads-4.1. - Swami Krishnananda

 

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Friday, November 20, 2020. 01:28. PM.

Chapter 4: Cosmology 1.

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Now this is, in a different way, the subject of the Taittiriya Upanishad also, wherein we are given a cosmological treatment of the entire bondage of the soul, and the process of the liberation of the soul from this bondage. As the Aitareya told us that the one Atman alone was, nothing else external to the Atman existed, it became the many as the Universal and entered into it, and projected itself as the various divinities, became the jivas, had these experiences, etc., so does the Taittiriya Upanishad tell us.

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The original being is satyam, jnanam, anantam; or we may say satyam, jnanam, anandam—(satchidananda), where there is a simultaneous experience of everything, not a successive experience of particulars as we have today. This is the interpretation given by the commentators of the passage which reads as “saha brahmana vipaschita”. In that state of Brahman, there is an instantaneous experience of all things. Even when we use the word ‘instantaneous’, the idea of time lingers in our mind. We cannot get rid of the idea of the time factor. We think everything is experienced at the same time. This is how we think in our own temporal way. It is not a simultaneity of temporal events that is called an instantaneous experience there. It is a timeless experience, because it is spaceless Being.

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Now the Taittiriya cosmological treatment is as follows. The universe of the five elements—ether, air, fire, water, earth—is a condensation, as it were, of the Atman itself. There was a gradual descent of the Atman into greater and greater particularity, and together with it greater and greater externality. There is particularity, externality and grossening of the cause into the effect. “Tasmadva etasmad atmanah akasah sambhutah, akasat vayuh, vayor agnih, agneh apah, adbhyah prithivi,” etc. The individual being comes as a consequence of these universal manifestations of the elements. Here again, even in the Taittiriya, we stand as effects to the Universal which stands in the position of a cause, as in the case of the doctrine of the Aitareya. Though the universe is an effect of God, it is a cause of our experience. We have no control over the elements. We cannot order the earth, water, fire, air or ether to behave in this way or that way. In this sense, they are causes of our experiences. The objects precede our experience.

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To be continued ...

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