The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit: 11. - Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday, 18 Dec 2023. 07:17.

Article

Scriptures

The Kathopanishad: A Wondrous Epic of the Spirit

(Spoken on June 19, 1972)

Post-11.

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We are not a loser really; we are only a gainer. If a tumour is lost, we do not regard ourselves as losers, really speaking. We are only gaining. Health is gained but illness is lost.

But what does this mean? What is actually the experience? Does one see anything there, or does one not see anything there? “If one sees anything there, what does one see there?” was the question of Maitreyi. 

Yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati, tad itara itaram pasyati, yatra tv asya sarvam atmaivabhut, tat kena kam pasyet, yenedam sarvam vijanati, tam kena vijaniyat (B.U. 2.4.14). 

Terrifying and bewildering is the answer of Yajnavalkya to Maitreyi. What is one to see there? What does one expect to see there in that ocean of the spirit? Where one has something in front of oneself, one does necessarily see something, but where one has only oneself in front of oneself, what does one see? Does one not see anything there?

For that, the answer is given by Yajnavalkya again in his instruction to Janaka in another context altogether. It is not that one does not see there, but one does not see as one usually sees. 

Yad vai tan na pasyati, pasyan vai tan na pasyati (B.U. 4.3.23): 

He sees, and yet does not see. He sees, and yet it is not an actual seeing through the senses. Why do we say that he sees, and yet does not see? 

Na hi drastur drster viparilopo vidyate, avinasitvat; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato'nyad vibhaktam yat pasyet: 

The seer has become one with the seen there. So what does one really see there? We cannot say that one does not see anything there, because the object of seeing is already there. Everything that is to be seen is there; necessarily, therefore, there is seeing. But a mysterious phenomenon has taken place. That which is to be seen has become a part of seeing itself. Then what does one really see? Does one see, or does one not see? Yes, one sees, because all the objects of perception are there intact. And yet one does not see in another sense because that which is to be seen or cognised has become part of the cogniser himself.

These are the crowning answers of Yajnavalkya as if to give a satisfying conclusion to what Yama in the Kathopanishad began in answer to the question of Nachiketas. We pass from stage to stage, from one encounter to another. The path of the spirit is a path of encounter, of facing problems and problems, vistas and vistas, newer and newer visions, and higher and higher integrations of oneself. The integration becomes complete when the object that is to be cognised becomes a part of the cogniser himself. That is the pinnacle of integration.

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To be continued

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