Meditation According to the Upanishads - 2. Swami Krishnananda

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Sunday, January 24, 2021. 10:05. AM.
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
Post-2.

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Now, is it so? Is it a fact, or is there something else, a deeper truth standing between the soul and God? The Aitareya Upanishad tells us that this is not the whole truth. The objective analysis given to us in this Upanishad in the process of creation, the description of the way in which the universe has evolved, tells us that everything has come from that One. Ātmā vā idam eka evāgra āsīt (A.U. 1.1.1): The Atman alone existed in the beginning. Nānyat kiñ cana miṣat: Nothing living existed at that time. The Supreme Atman, Paramatman, existed. That has somehow become this cosmos. This is what the Aitareya Upanishad tells us. It has become the objective cosmos and also the subjective jivas. It has become not only the objective universe, not only the individual jivas, but also the presiding deity standing midway between the objective and the subjective sides. This is what we generally call the adhibhautika, adhidaivika and adhyatmika phases of creation. All these three are said to be Ishvara Himself. The Atman itself has become all this.

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; therefore, its blessedness, its final destiny, lies in the realisation of its original identity with the Supreme Being. The Atman is Consciousness, Brahman is Consciousness. Prajñā pratiṣṭhā prajñānam brahma (A.U. 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 (C.U. 6.8.7), ayam ātmā brahma (Ma.U. 1.2), prajñānam brahma (A.U. 3.3). These dicta of the Upanishads 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 accidentally crept into the creative process.

The subjective side is given to us in the Taittiriya Upanishad where, in the Bhriguvalli precisely, we have an analysis of the individual involucra, the sheaths, or koshas: the annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijanamaya 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, from the vital he entered into the mental, then the intellectual, and then the blissful. Prāṇo brahmeti vyājānat (T.U. 3.3.1). He realised finally that Bliss is Brahman, and the physical, the vital, the mental and the intellectual sheaths are not Brahman.

Hence, by a subjective entry into our own personality we come to the depths of our being. We go to the bottommost essence of what we really are and come to realise that Bliss is Brahman. This is the essence of the soul. Ananda 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 ananda, and from the objective side we enter into the Supreme Consciousness. The two are identified. Vijñānam ānandam brahma (B.U. 3.9.28): “Consciousness-Bliss is Brahman,” says the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Also the Taittiriya Upanishad tells us satyaṁ jñānam anantam brahma (T.U. 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.

These features of analysis given in the Upanishads are brought together into a focus in the Mandukya Upanishad, which is perhaps the most important of all the Vedantic texts from the point of view of Vedantic sadhana. It is said that for the liberation of the soul, the Mandukya alone is sufficient because it gives us the quintessence of Upanishadic teaching. The external and the internal are brought together here in a universal analysis. The main method of meditation according to the Upanishads is given to us in the Mandukya Upanishad. It is very short; therefore, its analysis is difficult unless it is studied together with comparative statements made in the other Upanishads also.

To be continued ...

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