TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD – 72. Rishi Yajnavalkya.

 

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Sunday 22, December 2024, 12:50.
Taittiriya Upanishad
Part-2.
BRAHMANANDA VALLI
PART 2: 9 No. Anuvakas (Chapters)
THE BLISS THAT IS BRAHMAN
Anuvaka 2.6 
From Anandamaya to Atman  
Mantram - 2.6.1:   Shruti Quotation on Existence of Brahman 
Post - 72.

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Anuvaka 2.6 
From Anandamaya to Atman  
The End of Negation:

Brahman is the final destination which the Rishi is driving us to by negating the Koshas, one by one. The negation ends with the Anandamaya Kosha, from where we hop out of our last Upadhi, and enter the limitless realm of Brahman. 

 

Before quoting the verse let us see its true context: As each Kosha is transcended, we go to the immediately successive one that is subtler than it. However, the Anandamaya 

Kosha is the last sheath. Where do we go to from there? We stand facing a big question mark: Two options are posed in the Shruti quotation that follows . . . 

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Mantram - 2.6.1:  Shruti Quotation on Existence of Brahman: 

1 

asat eva sah bhavati; =  i) “He becomes himself non-existent, 

asat brahma iti veda chet. = if he considers Brahman to be Non-existent. 

2 

asti brahma iti chet veda; = ii) If he considers Brahman to be Existent, 

santam enam tatah viduh iti = then he, too, may be considered to be existent

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The quotation actually speaks of Brahman, the support” of the Anandamaya Kosha, not the Kosha itself. The reason is quite obvious: when one reaches the terminal station of a 

long train journey to Delhi, he is not concerned about the coach he is alighting from, but the city he has just arrived into. Similarly, on this journey of negation, the seeker is alight[At this point OBJ 2 arises.] 

The Upanishad accepts this possibility by naming Brahman the “supporting tail” of 

the Anandamaya Kosha. 

The higher one’s vision is, the greater would be the goal he will strive for. And the 

greater the goal, the greater will be the effort he will make to reach it. Acharyaji words 

were: “It is worth coming out into the sun than to live a million years in the darkness of a 

cave. If you love anything, you will get enthusiastic about it.” 

 

Objection 1:  Is Brahman Existent? ing from the terminal sheath and his mind is naturally on where he has arrived. Is it really Delhi or some other unknown place?  To the seeker the situation is: Am I in Brahman or not? 

1

 The mood of negation of the Koshas seems to have overstayed its need at the  destination. The mood persists and asks the question: “Am I in Existence or Non-existence?”  

If we deny our own existence, we fall into the camp of the Vijnanavadins ( a Buddhistic  School) which declares that God is “Non-Existence”. Sri Shankaracharya vigorously opposes  such a denial of the Truth, and therefore expands on this line considerably in his Bhashya. 

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Next

Mantram -2.6.2:  Anandamaya Kosha as “Inner Self” of Vijnanamaya Kosha 

Contnued

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