KENOPANISHAD -8: Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday 19, Jul 2024 06:30.
Article
Scriptures
Kenopanishad
Commentary on Section 1
Mantras - 3&4 (Continued)
Post-8.

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So, how are we to speak? How are we to instruct about it?  says the Upanishad teacher. How is this to be taught about? We cannot understand. This is what we have heard about it from ancient seers. 

An enigma is placed here by the Upanishad, a question without an answer, a pose that can be solved by the Self by itself and by no other means. Is it possible by effort to recognise the Atman, may be the simple question of any student of the Upanishad. Is there any kind of effort on our part by which we can realise the Atman? It appears on the surface, at least, from this mantra, that it cannot be known by any means or effort—because what effort can we do in respect of that which is not an object of the senses? All effort is mental, intellectual, psychological, and the Upanishad confirms that these instruments are unfit for recognising the Atman, because their objects are outside the Atman. The intellect ratiocinates, the mind cognises, etc., externally. 

There is no such thing as ratiocinating the Atman, thinking the Atman or sensing the Atman. Such a thing cannot be, and, inasmuch as we are not endowed with any other faculty than these, what would be our effort as to the realisation of the Atman? How can we speak about it? How can we instruct another about it? How can we understand it? How can we realise it? Is it possible at all? On account of this enigmatic difficulty it is that in the Upanishad, as well as in the Bhagavadgita, the Atman is spoken of as a wonder, ascharya. It is a marvel! When we say it is a marvel, we cannot say anything more about it. It simply means we cannot understand it. That is what is meant by a marvel.

The Atman is a marvel, a mystery beyond all conception. Accepting this marvel as the only possible knowledge accessible to us, do we go nearer the Atman? These days, scepticism is said to be the beginning of philosophy. In ancient times, the recognition of wonder was regarded as its starting point. The ancient Greeks and even the ancient seers of India marvelled at creation. All the hymns of the Vedas are expressions of this vision of the marvel. The rise of the sun, the pouring of the rain and the burning heat of the sun were all wonders for the ancient seers, and philosophy grew out from this acceptance of the wonder of creation. 

How does the sun rise? I asked a small boy: 'Where does the sun go in the night, and how does he suddenly come back to the same place from where he rose today in the morning?' The boy said: 'When we are asleep, he must be jumping back suddenly.' I told him: 'One night you please do not sleep, and see how he jumps.' He goes slowly to the West and, at night, suddenly jumps back and starts once again the same passage! That was what the boy told me. Well! That is the simplicity with which even the Vedas began, only without the ignorance that is behind the boy's notion. We may laugh at this answer of the boy, but our answers are not much better; we have only become more sophisticated, that is all. 

It does not mean that we have solved the problem. The problem remains a problem even today. Why do not the stars fall on our heads? And even educated people wonder why the earth does not sink down by weight—it has no support. It may fall down somewhere and break itself; but where will it fall? Why does it not drop down; and this is not a joke, because scientists tell us that it is actually dropping down. The heavenly bodies rush in such speed, say our scientists—the Solar System and perhaps even the Milky Way rush in such velocity, unremittingly, that we cannot be conscious of this speed because we are sitting in a moving train. The whole Solar System is rushing. Where does it rush to, why does it move, we do not know. Why should there be this motion? 

Why do they not keep quiet? This is a wonder, and what is our answer to it? No answer! The Vedic seers were seers of the wonders of God's beauty and God's perfection. Why creation looks to us a wonder is because it is perfection. All perfection is a marvel. It is only defective objects that look intelligible. All perfected things are unintelligible. The whole universe is a tremendous completeness, and the intellect which is not trained to see anything that is complete wonders at completeness. Why the stars do not fall on our heads can be known only if we know how the world is a complete whole, a structural magnificence, and how things are interrelated in a manner which the intellect cannot comprehend.

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Continued

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