The Secret of the Katha Upanishad -32. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Saturday 22, February 2025, 10:30.
Upanishads:
The Secret of the Katha Upanishad: 
Discourse No. 6:
Swami Krishnananda.
Post - 32.

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In this union of the soul, which cannot be called a literal union of one thing with another thing, where the subject melts into the object, and vice versa, what yoga can be practised? Here the Upanishad alone is our guide. The yoga of the Upanishad is a masterly technique of soul-transformation. In various places they give us indications, hints of what this yoga could be. The Upanishad yoga is not the ordinary yoga that we usually study in our yoga institutions of the world. It is the yoga which can be practised only by the soul, not even by the mind and the intellect. It is soul contemplating itself as its goal. In this yoga, what does the soul do? How does it recognise its goal? It is the perception of the Self of all things that is the yoga of the Upanishad.

The world will not lose you and you will not anymore lose the world. You will not be a stranger in this world and the world will not be anymore a stranger to you. You will not be denied anything by the world, and you will not deny anything to the world. The object, the world outside, the things that you see with your sensory functions, all assume a new character altogether, which could not be discovered or detected earlier. We can never dream that the objects have any quality or character which is akin to our own nature. There, in the stage of the contemplation of the Universal where the vijnana-atman rises to the Mahat and the Shanta-atman, the objects lift the covering which has been hiding them upto this time, and you see what it is in front of you. In this meditation, you do not see the objectivity of things. A tree is not a tree, a stone is not a stone, a mountain is not a mountain, the world is not the world. In this yoga of meditation, according to the Upanishad, you rise into a state of consternation when the objects begin to seem as those in whose company you once lived. The universe is not anymore a field where you live as a content thereof, but it becomes a part of your nature, a part of your very skin itself so that when you think, everything will begin to think; when you breathe, everything will start breathing.

In the Chhandogya Upanishad, there is an anecdote of Raikva, the sage, who used to sit under a cart, scratching his body as a person with no work whatsoever, known to nobody in the world, a great master of yoga. There was a king called Janasruti in that country, who was also a yogin and a master. The Upanishad tells us that two birds were flying across in the sky and Janasruti was on the ground on some mission of his, and one of the birds said to the other, “Don't cross him, don't cross him. Don't you know it is Janasruti, the sage who will burn us if we cross over his head?” The other bird retorted, “Who is this Janasruti, about whom you are speaking, as if he is Raikva, the sage?” This conversation between the two birds was heard by Janasruti, the king, who was also a great sage. “Oh! look at it! They are speaking about me in this manner!” “Who is this Janasruti as if he is Raikva?” The birds went on: “All the virtuous and good deeds that anyone performs are credited to the account of Raikva. If anyone does any good thing, it goes to his credit.” What is this? Suppose you all people start earning salary, and it is all credited to my account, what is the good of your working? But this is what happens—whatever wonderful things, good things, beautiful things, glorious things or valuable things or signficant things exist in the world, all these belong to such a person of Knowledge. The whole world converges towards that personality which practises that yoga of 'That which is', says the Chhandogya Upanishad

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Continued

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