Meditation According to the Upanishads -6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday 29, October 2024, 06:30.
Article
Scriptures
Meditation According to the Upanishads -6. 
Swami Krishnananda.
(Spoken on January 14th, 1973)
Post-6.

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The Upanishad deduces that there should be a cosmic counterpart of these three states experienced by individuals—namely, the waking, dream and sleep states. While we are individually body-conscious in the waking state, the cosmic counterpart, known as the Virat, is said to be universally, physically conscious. Or, to explain it in another way, there is a simultaneous consciousness of all the physical existences in the cosmos. This is said to be the cosmic counterpart of the individual, physical condition.

Virat, or Vaishvanara, is the cosmic physical consciousness, of which the vishva, or the individual waking condition, is regarded as a part, a segment or a section. Similarly, consciousness in the dreaming condition, known as taijasa, is said to have a cosmic counterpart, known as Hiranyagarbha. The individual causal condition we call sleep has a cosmic counterpart, known as Ishvara. Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat are the names given to the universal counterpart of the individual states of consciousness—sleep, dream and waking, known as prajna, taijasa and visva, respectively. But the distinction is made that while the individual conditions are powerless and ignorant, the cosmic conditions are omnipotent and omniscient.

We may wonder how, though the parts are ignorant, the total becomes omniscient. The total is not merely a total of ignorances. When the total is reached, the characteristics of the particulars change automatically because the particulars, or the individuals, are isolated from one another on account of the existence of tamas and rajas; and inasmuch as tamas and rajas cannot be said to exist in totalities, they are completely removed, lifted up in the cosmic condition where shuddha pradhana shakti is said to predominate. Therefore, Ishvara, Hiranyagarbha and Virat are regarded as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, as opposed to the individual conditions of location in a particular place, which are ignorance and unhappiness.

The Vaishvanara aspect of this analysis receives a detailed and elaborate treatment in the fifth chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad, known as the Vaishvanara Vidya, wherein the glory of the Supreme Being is described, the meditation upon which is said to burn up all sins. In an analogy of this Upanishad, as fire burns cotton into ashes leaving no residue whatsoever, meditation on the Vaishvanara burns up all samskaras, all impressions of the mind, all sins and defects, and makes one Self-realised. From the description of the Vaishvanara given to us in the Chhandogya Upanishad we can also infer the conditions of Hiranyagarbha and Ishvara, which are not specifically mentioned but are implied therein.

Hence, the method of meditation in the Upanishads is primarily a juxtaposition of the objective and subjective sides in order that the two may be brought together into unison in the Universal state, and the Universal may be meditated upon. In order to understand what exactly is the meaning or the implication of the Mandukya Upanishad, you have to read, if you have time enough, the Karikas of Gaudapadacharya on the Mandukya Upanishad; or, if you have no time to read such a lengthy treatise, at least read a very short exposition of it in sixty-two verses given by Sureshvaracharya, known as Pranava Vartika, also called Panchikarana Vartika. How the individual is to be set in tune with the cosmic is described there. Sureshvaracharya tells us to abolish the perception of difference, and regard the individual waking as the cosmic waking. This is what he says.

Thus, the Upanishads give us a purely philosophical, analytical, mystical and spiritual method of contemplation by a denial of diversity through a contemplation of the totality of things. The Mandukya, Taittiriya and Aitareya Upanishads are specifically useful for this type of meditation. An elaborate commentary on this is to be found in the Chhandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads, as I mentioned, one giving us what is known as the saprapancha view of things, and the other giving us the nishprapancha view of things.

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Continued

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