The Essence of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 14. Swami Krishnananda.
===============================================================================
Tuesday 27, Feb 2024. 07:25.
Scriptures
Upanishads
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
Chapter -2. The Absolute and the Universe-10.
Chapter 3: The Supreme Goal of Life - 1.
Post-14.
==================================================================================
Chapter -2. The Absolute and the Universe-10.
Name, form and action are what this world is. The world consists of nothing but name, form and activity. These, when they are externalised, particularised or finitised, become sources of bondage. Again, the Upanishad goes to the technique of universalising name, form and activity. Then they become the name, form and action of Hiranyagarbha-Prana. This is a meditation which, we may say, is the basis for the Karma-Yoga doctrine, according to which every action is supposed to be divinity manifest, and a means to liberation of the soul, provided, of course, names, forms and actions get universalised in the meditation which is to be the background of one's activities in the world. As the Bhagavad-Gita tells us, Karma should be based on Buddhi (Understanding) or Jnana (Knowledge). With this, the First Chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is concluded.
==================================================================================
Chapter 3: The Supreme Goal of Life-1.
The Second Chapter begins with the famous conversation between Balaki, the learned sage, and the king Ajatasatru, the dialogue actually hinging upon the subject of the conditioned Brahman and the unconditioned Brahman, the formed or the manifested aspect of Reality and the formless or the absolute nature of It; the learned accoster insisting upon the forms of manifestation as objects of meditation and the king who was more educated in this line emphasising, on the other hand, that no form, no particular manifestation can be regarded as complete in itself unless its universal background is also taken into consideration. The whole conversation between these two persons is on the particular theme of recognising the universal in every particular mode of manifestation. And the highest universal is Consciousness whose faint inklings are observable in the state of deep sleep when all externality of being is withdrawn. That is the essence of the discourse between Balaki and Ajatasatru.
There is then the interesting and enigmatic instruction that everything that is cosmic is also present in the individual. What is in the 'Brahmanda' is in the 'Pindanda'. The great Sages Vasishtha, Visvamitra, Bharadvaja, Atri, Jamadagni, Gautama and Kasyapa are in our bodies. They are superintending over the different limbs of our personality. They are situated in our own senses. Even the gods themselves can be located in the eye itself. The various parts of the eye, which is the subtlest manifestation of the body, are presided over by certain subtle divinities, so that in our own selves we can recognise the cosmic realities and God can be realised in our own being. The Upanishad, then, tells us that the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—can be classified into the mortal and the immortal, the Murta and the Amurta, which can be converted into objects of meditation, for the purpose of establishing harmony between the individual and the cosmic, in their forms as well as essences.
The quintessential teaching is given to us in the famous conversation between Maitreyi and Yajnavalkya. This occurs towards the end of the Second Chapter. This is an eternal message that the Upanishad gives us. All loves are loves for God. Every satisfaction is a satisfaction that comes by contact with God, and every affection, whatever be its nature, is a tendency towards God, and no one loves anything except for the sake of this universal Self present in that particular object. “Na va are sarvasya kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati; atmanastu kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati: Nothing is loved for its own sake; it is for the sake of the Absolute Self in it that anything is loved.” This is the greatest truth that can ever be proclaimed, but it is also the most difficult thing that anyone can afford to understand. That which we are called upon to visualise as an object of attraction is the Universal Absolute. It is the Infinite summoning the Infinite, as it were, when the subject and the object pull each other for the purpose of personal evaluations.
The evaluation is ultimately a universal one. It is the presence and the recognition of the Universal in the particular that evokes satisfaction. But on account of the preponderance of the clamour of the senses and the urges of the lower mind, the activity of the Universal subtly present in this contact of the subject with the object, is missed always, so that the sudden happiness that comes on account of affections is always miscalculated and projected upon an object of sense, because of the inability of the senses and the mind to recognise the presence of the Universal in the particular, which flashes forth in a moment's existence at the time of this contact. The Universal never manifests itself wholly in the particulars; it is manifest only when there is a forgetfulness of personality. Whenever there is a tendency in you to forget your own self, there is the gravitation of the mind to the experience of happiness.
(Here Aryan mean not colonial theory Aryan migration/invasion in Bharatham, but "SRESHTA"( we see Arya putra used in ancient texts) Arya/Dravida nonsense.
*****
Continued
==============================================================================
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment