KENA UPANISHAD : “Know That Alone as Brahman” - 21. Swami Tejomayananda.

President Draupadi Murmu : 

MADURAI MEENAKSHI DEVI TEMPLE -Tamilnadu.

=========================================================================

Sunday, February 19, 2023. 08:00.

Chapter 4, 9 Mantras. (The Story Interpreted)

An Illustrative STORY

The Inner Essence

Post -21.

=========================================================================

Mantram - 4.5: Microcosm – the “Flash of Thoughts”
With Translation :

11 atha adhyaatmam yat etad, gacchhati iva cha manah; = Now with reference to the individual, the Jeeva : i) The mind seems to want to go always to It;

12 anena chaetad upasmarati,  abheekshnam sankalpah. = ii) The mind repeatedly tries to remember It; iii) The thought of Brahman switches on-off rapidly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bhashyam (Vyakyanam) ;

11a Adhyaatmam: “Jeeva”, at the individual level. This is the Microcosmic level. The 

mind itself is taken to resemble a lightning flash within the individual. There are three ways 

in which we see this happening in the mind :

11b i) Restlessness is the nature of the mind. Due to that, the hidden urge in the 

mind is always to find rest in Brahman. That is the only place where it can have a rest.

12a ii) There are two components to every thought, the Aham and the Idam Vrittis. 

The mind’s built-in urge to remember Brahman could be the operation of the Aham Vrittior 

“I”-thought, which is the fixed component of every thought, and which always accompanies 

the variable Idam Vritti, the thought of the object.

12b iii) In the mind, our thoughts come and go like flashes of lightning. Every thought 

contains in it the stamp of Brahman as Consciousness, or the knowing principle. This 

happens moment to moment, unceasingly, in the normal course of the waking state. 

The Flashing Thought – A Case of Illumination?

If thoughts can arise so rapidly, they can disappear just as rapidly. The disappearance 

of thought is necessary for illumination to occur. Thus illumination itself can be represented 

by the simile of the flashing of thought in the mind – it comes in a split second, as long as it 

takes for thought to flash out of one’s mind! In meditation, the Brahmakara Vritti is the 

single thought by which we ‘think’ of Brahman. This is the closest that we can humanly

approach God with our mind. What happens thereafter is beautifully expressed by Guruji as 

follows :

“We can do that much with human effort. Thereafter, we just have to turn towards 

God, face Him in total surrender, pray for His Grace – and patiently WAIT. He will then pull 

our mind and get it absorbed in Him! Although the mind cannot reach It, mind can make 

itself available to be ‘pulled’ by Brahman. The mind then dissolves or disappears. In other 

words, we have to make the effort to withdraw from the world and face Brahman; then by

His gracious compassion He draws us to Him!”

Guruji called this Adhyatma Upadesha. The Lord’s Grace brings the illumination.

Even in ordinary life we experience something that resembles the above. When the 

mind thinks continuously of one thing, and then suddenly lets it go, we experience a 

blankness of the mind upon which we are forced to pay attention. In respect to God, the 

Adhyatma Upadesha is very similar, though the feeling accompanying the latter is intense 

longing for God, whilst in the former it could be any intense attachment.

*****
Next
A DISCUSSION ON UPASANAS
To be continued

========================================================================