The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit: 3. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Tueday, 12 Sep 2023. 07:40.

Article

Scriptures

The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit

(Spoken on June 19, 1972)

Post-3.

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The first day's fast can be compared to the discipline of the physical nature. The physical nature indeed is to be disciplined, but that is not all, because the physical body is like a cart that is pulled by bulls, energies which are supplied by forces that are inside us. The senses are not the organs of perception. The eyeball, the eardrum, the palate, the nostril, these are not the senses. They are the outer instruments or the mechanisms which are utilised by powers that are internal. So the discipline of the personality has to imply and involve not merely the mustering in the physical forces of the body, but also the bringing together or focusing of the internal nature within us, which is the true man. The true individual is within, and what we see outside is only a contour; it is only a map drawn of the hidden significance which is the mark of our individuality.

The subtle body is called the linga sharira. 'Linga' means a mark or a symbol. It is an insignia of what we really are. It gives an idea of our nature. By looking at the face or the bodily structure of a person, we cannot understand the person so beautifully as by the analysis of the internal nature, the linga sharira, the insignia of individuality or personality.

The mind is the index of our nature, as they say, while the mind is the ruler of the subtle body. It is the king in this realm of the astral personality of ours. Unless that is disciplined, fasted down, the body, poor thing, is nowhere. The bodily discipline assumes a significance only when the subtle body, the real force within the physical body, is disciplined. That is the second day's fast. But that alone will not do. We are much more than what our mind is. This is what ordinary psychology cannot detect, that we are more than what the mind is. Psychology is merely a study of behaviour of the mind, but the mind is not the entire human individuality, as Indian psychology will tell us. While the bodily personality is only an outer crust of our real nature, even the mental personality, the subtle body within us, is not the whole of our individuality. There is a causal basis of our being which is the repository of forces, the reservoir of energies wherein we can find the seeds latently present of all our future incarnations. All the rebirths that we have to undergo in our future lives have their potent seeds in what we call our causal personality, which is invisible to us. We do not see our mind. We see only the bodily behaviour, but by reflection, by inference, by contemplation, we can get an idea of what our mind is. As to our causal nature, we have absolutely no idea.

Unfortunately for us, it is the causal personality that is the real personality. The tree of samsara has its roots in the causal body. It is the root. As long as the root is there, the tree will survive even if the branches are cut off. The mind and the body are only the ramifications of this root of the individuality that is the causal body. The third day's fast of Nachiketas is the drying up of the root itself, and then the spirit reveals itself before the seeking aspiration in all its might and main.

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To be continued

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