Commentary on the Panchadasi: 23. Swami Krishnananda.

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Thursday 29, January 2026, 20:10.
BOOKS
UPANISHAD 
Commentary on the Panchadasi: 23. 
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality.
Mantras 44-55
Mantras - 51- 55 
SWAMI KRISHNANANDA
Post-23.

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Mantram-51.

"Idaṁ guṇakriyā jāti dravya sambandha vastuṣu, samaṁ tena svarūpasya sarva meta ditīṣyatām."  

These problems that we raised just now of vikalpatva or nirvikalpatva, that is, finitude or infinitude as associated with Brahman, may also be considered as futile arguments in the case of quality, action, species, genus, objectivity, relation, and anything whatsoever. Guna is quality, kriya is action, jati is species, dravya is object, sambandha is relation, vastu is anything whatsoever. Hence, in any one of these categories that we find in this world, the same difficulty will arise if we start envisaging these things either as finite or as infinite.

Nothing finally can be looked upon as either finite or infinite. So what is the position of the thing now? A thing that it is neither finite nor infinite is inconceivable. Such is the nature of this world. It is a relative world which is impossible to conceive in any manner whatsoever. Anything that is relative cannot be conceived. The modern science of relativity also takes us to the same conclusion that the world is not as it appears to us. The world is an unthinkable, peculiar mystery. That is why it is called maya—a jugglery-like thing that is appearing before us. If we try to probe into it, we will find it is not there at all, as night vanishes when the sun rises or darkness vanishes when the flash of a torch is thrown on it. It is because our knowledge is not operating that the whole thing looks very solid, so three-dimensional, so real. If a flash of light is thrown on our understanding, we will find it vanishes. It cannot be conceived at all as either existent in this manner or existent in that manner—neither finite nor infinite, which means to say that it is not there at all. Such is this world.

Mantram-52.

"Vikalpa tada bhāvā bhyām asaṁ spṛṣṭāt ma vastuni, vikalpi tatva lakṣyatva sambandhā dyāstu kalpitāḥ." 

In this case where it is a question of ascertaining the nature of a reality which is uncontaminated with either the concept of finitude or the concept of infinitude, all these categories that we have been discussing are only foisted upon it. We say so many things about God. He does this, He does that, He did this, He is like this, He is like that. None of these statements that we make can apply to Him. Neither did He do this, nor did He do that. He neither looks like this, nor does He look like that. All our intellectual categories are foisted upon God. The category of finitude and the category of infinitude, and the category of relation of one thing with the other are all imagined by the conditioning factors of the mind. Brahman is above all that we can imagine in our mind.

This kind of study that we have made is called sravana. We have heard a lot about the nature of the world, the nature of the individual, the nature of Brahman. We have studied Ishvara, jagat and jiva in some measure. What is the nature of these great principles God, world and individual?

Mantram-53.

"Itthaṁ vākyais tadar thānu sandhā naṁ śravaṇaṁ bhaveta, yuktyā sambhā vita tvānu saṅdhānaṁ mana nantu tat."

This kind of thing that you have heard and studied now is equal to hearing. You have studied by actually hearing. But merely hearing is not sufficient. When you return home, you must ponder over this deeply. The ideas that have been made to enter into your mind through the medium of your hearing should enter your heart. They should become objects of deep investigation, Self-investigation. The mind withdraws into itself all the ideas that it has collected by hearing, and deeply bestows thought on these considerations. That is called manana.

Sravana is hearing, learning, studying. Manana is deep thinking. If you merely hear and go away, and hear again tomorrow, it will be what is humorously called Eustachian philosophy, which means that what you hear through one ear goes out through the other ear. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to say there are Eustachian philosophers. They understand nothing; it does not go inside.

It has to go inside. Unless we bestow deep thought on what we have heard, that knowledge which we have gained by hearing will not be part of our nature. We will be sitting independently as we were earlier, and the knowledge will be outside in space, or it will sit on top of a tree. It has to be brought into the depths of our understanding by deep reflection. That process is called manana. Even that is not sufficient. We have to become that knowledge itself.

Mantram-54.

"Tābhyāṁ nirvicikitse'rthe cetasaḥ sthāpi tasya yat, eka tānatva metaddhi nidi dhyāsana mucyate"

The deep association of us with this knowledge is nididhyasana. Firstly, we hear and study. Secondly, we bestow deep thought and investigate into the substance and essentiality of what we have heard and studied and make it a part and parcel of our daily thought and understanding. But when this process goes on continuously day in and day out, it becomes the very spirit of our nature. We do not merely know; we actually become it. Knowledge is not merely a property that we have gained by hearing or studying. It is not a quality of our intellect, as an academic qualification. It is our very substance. Knowledge is Being. Chit is Sat. So when the knowledge that we have gained by sravana and manana becomes our very substance itself, we move like God Himself in the world. That is jivanmukta lakshana. That condition is nididhyasana tattva, a continuous flow of knowledge without break, which becomes the essence of our person. This is called nididhyasana.

Mantram-55.

"Dhyātṛ dhyāne pari tyajya kramād dhyeyaika gocaram, nivāta dīpa vaccittaṁ samādhi rabhi dhīyate." 

Deep meditation, which is nididhyasana, is, in the beginning, involved in three processes: the meditating consciousness, the object on which meditation is carried on, and the process of meditation. Therefore, three things are involved. There is someone who is meditating, there is something on which meditation is being carried on, and some process of knowledge is linking the subject with the object, connecting the meditator with the object meditated upon. So when we meditate, in the beginning we will have a consciousness of three things. We will feel that we are there contemplating or meditating, we will feel that there is something on which we are concentrating, and we will also know that there is a relation between the two.

When by deep concentration, by going further, deeper, the consciousness of our being there and the consciousness of a process going on are also dropped, our consciousness merges into that object, and we become the very object itself. The very artha, the very target, the very ideal, the very aim becomes us. We are not contemplating something; we have become that. That becoming of the identity of our consciousness with the very object which we are concentrating upon, losing the consciousness of individuality and the process of concentration—the identity of the subject with the object, the merger of the consciousness perceiving with the object concentrated upon—is called samadhi.

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Next
Discourse 6
Chapter 1: Tattva Viveka – Discrimination of Reality
Mantras - 54-65

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