The Chandogya Upanishad - 4.1.4. - 34 : Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Wednesday, 02 Aug 2023. 08:40.

CHAPTER 4: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF THE SELF

Section: 1. The Universal Self within the Heart and in the World-4.

Post-34.

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Mantram-6.

"Tad yatheha karma-jito lokah ksiyate, evam evamutra punya-jito lokah ksiyate. 

Tad-ya ihatmanam ananuvidya vrajnty-etams-ca satyan kaman, tesam sarvesu lokesu-akamacaro bhavati. 

Atha ya ihatmanam anuvidya vrajnaty-etams-ca satyan kaman, tesam sarvesu lokesu kamacaro bhavati."

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Our bank balance is not to be infinite. We know it very well. Our salary also is not to be unending. It will have an end one day. The more we work, the more salary we get. But our salary depends upon the work that we do, the extent of the work that we do, the length of time for which we perform our work, etc. Anything that we achieve in any manner whatsoever visibly in this world is subject to limitation. Our actions bring about conditions which give us conditioned happiness. We cannot be always happy merely because we live in this world. The conditions under which we are subjected by the laws of this world, the laws of action and reaction and many other factors, compel us to have only limited happiness, and even that we will find to be an apparent happiness if only we conduct a true investigation into its character.

As is the case with actions performed which produce transient results in this world, so is the case with those actions, even virtuous ones which are supposed to produce beneficial results in the other world. They too are transient in their character. Just as secular actions produce limited results in the secular world, so do religious acts and virtuous deeds produce limited results in the other world. Even if we perform a wealth of virtuous acts in this world and after death reach shining regions of paradise, they will yield only limited experiences, because, after all, all these experiences are action-born. Whether an action is virtuous or vicious is not the question here. The question is whether it is an action or not. Because it is an action, naturally it is conditioned by the factors which rule over every type of action. Therefore, limited results alone follow all actions. Nothing is unlimited if it is produced by action. Sorrows are limited and pleasures too are limited here. Pleasures of the other worlds also are limited. So, everything that we get is limited ultimately. Nothing unending can result from actions which have an end one day or the other.

We cannot have freedom absolute, because of the absence of the knowledge of the Atman. Even those people who are well-to-do in this world, who are regarded as great by people in this world, but who do not know the nature of this Atman, go like animals. Just as animals die, those people also die, and the fate of those people ultimately is like that of the animals, for however great their category be, they are bereft of true Knowledge. The real nature of oneself is the nature of one's own Atman. The point made out here is that if we cannot understand our own Self, how can we understand anybody else? We have not known the Reality that is inside us. Then how can we know what is really outside in the world? Those people who are ignorant enough not to know even their own internal nature go to worlds which produce limited results, and they have absolutely no freedom. Just as we have no freedom in this world, because there is a ruling law operating external to us, so is the case with people who go to the other worlds. There, too, they have no freedom. If some law operates here, in this world, some other law operates in the other worlds also. Just as we are subjected to rules here, we will be subjected to rules in the other worlds also. Everywhere we will be subjects and not kings or masters. Merely because we have a little bit of freedom to enjoy the objects of senses, it does not mean that we are completely free. It is like the freedom of cattle to eat grass and chew cud. It is not real freedom. This is the fate of those who do not know the truth. The reason is simple. They cannot exercise their will to the furthermost limit on account of these limitations.

But the blessedness of people who know what this Atman is, is grand indeed. Those who depart from this world having realised what the Atman is, their jurisdiction is infinite. They are not limited by laws outside. They are themselves lawmakers. Their will is the universal law. There is a unity between their will and the law that works outside. In the case of ordinary individuals, the difficulty arises on account of the conflict between external law and internal law. Why are we limited in this world? Because our will does not coincide with the will of the universe. We have got a way of thinking which is not necessarily in consonance with the law of the whole universe. The will of the individual is not the will of the Creator. That is the reason why there is bondage. But the more one goes into the depths of one's Being, the more does one approximate the identity of one's self with the law that is operating outside. The question of outside and inside will not appear when there is harmony of the two. We talk of inside and outside as long as we think independently through a physical body, as long as we are individual subjects thinking of external objects. But when we are knowers of the Atman, as the Upanishad puts it, we also know what the ultimate Reality is. Then the law of the outside world becomes the law of the inside world. The law of the Atman is the law of the universe. Therefore, there is absolute freedom for those who are knowers of this great secret. Whatever they will, it expresses itself in experience at once. There is no gap of time between the manifestation of their will and its materialisation. It is not that they think something today and it materialises tomorrow. It instantaneously manifests itself. This is the case of the blessed souls who have known the Atman.

The objects of desire appear to be outside us, which is the reason why we take time to realise our objectives. There is a distance in space and in time between ourselves as centres of volition and the objects outside. Therefore, naturally there is delay in time. The time taken by us in the realisation of our objectives is due to the existence of space which looks very vast outside and which looks very puny inside. The other reason is that we have no control over the objects of our desires. Our desires are not truth-filled, not satyakamas. They are artificially projected by conditions which are not entirely in consonance with the law of truth. Therefore, it is difficult for us to fulfil all our desires. The desire becomes difficult of fulfilment on account of its dissonance or disharmony with the nature of truth. Truth alone triumphs, as we know, and nothing else will triumph in this world. And if the will or the desire of a person is filled with untruth, which means to say it has certain characteristics that cannot be corroborated by the nature of truth, to that extent it shall not succeed. But to the extent it is in harmony with the nature of truth, to that extent it succeeds. The externality of the object is, therefore, one of the impediments to the manifestation of the object in the fulfilment of a desire. The whole point seems to be that the object outside is as much an individual with its own status as the willing subject. Therefore, there is no easy access to the location of the object by the subject. The object is not subservient to the subject. It is not a vassal or a subordinate of the subject in any manner whatsoever. Any one person is not a subordinate of another person. Both are on par with each other. So is the case with every object in this world. Just as I am the subject, the other so-called object is the subject from its own standpoint. So, to will in such a manner as to control the object, and convert it into a subordinate of one's self, is not an easy affair. As long as we are content to remain physical bodies, individual persons, isolated physically from physical objects outside under the impression they are absolutely disconnected from us, as long as we are conditioned by these false notions in us, so long we cannot fulfil our desires. But, the fulfilment immediately comes once we realise our affinity with the objects.

It is not true, as the mind falsely thinks, that the objects are disconnected from the subjects. The more the intensity of the feeling of identity with one's body, the greater is the difficulty in the achievement of any objective in this world, because the objectives get more and more cut off from oneself. The more the intensity of the feeling of one's body and isolation from others, the more is one's feeling of segregation from other things and the greater is the difficulty in one's achieving anything in this world. The more we cut off connections from other things, the more are we intensifying our personality consciousness. The more we think we are independent bodily, the more is the difficulty for us in this world, because the more is the reaction produced by other persons and things in this world in a similar manner. The greater the affirmation of our body consciousness, the greater is our segregation from other beings in this world, and greater is the reaction produced by them who will also assert themselves in a similar manner to us. If I am different from you, then likewise you are different from me. So, here is the psychology behind the secret of unfulfilment of desires by those who are intensely body-conscious and selfish in their nature, egoistic in their motives and incapable of knowing the inward connections between themselves and other things of this world.

The knowledge of the Atman that is referred to here is nothing but the knowledge of the deepest secret of the connection of the subject with the object. If that is known, the externality of the object falls away, the difference between the subject and the object ceases, and there results a true union of the two. That is called the true fulfilment of all desires. This, therefore, is the great truth proclaimed by the Upanishadic master. He who knows the Atman gets all desires fulfilled at once and the other people who know not the Atman are subject to the rule of law. The whole world is ours if we are able to establish an inward contact with the world. But nothing will be ours, we will be forlorn, deserted wanderers in this world, if we think that we are mere bodies unconnected with others.

Now comes a beautiful series of proclamations or exclamations made by the Upanishad in the following section, telling us what the power of the will of a person who has Self-realisation is, and what capacity that person has got. Nothing is impossible for that person.

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Next

SECTION 2: DIFFERENT HIGHER WORLDS

Mantram-1.

"Sa yadi pitr-loka-kamo bhavati, samkalpad-evasya pitarah samuttisthanti, tena pitr-lokena sampanno mahiyate."

Continued

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