Ignorance is the cause of suffering because it breeds erroneous action towards motives which are wrongly directed. This is the cause for the transmigratory cycle of the soul, which can be put an end to only by proper meditation on the inward structure of the Universe in its essential nature, and not as it appears to the senses in ordinary life. The birth and death of an individual, the process of reincarnation, the impulsion to action propelled by desires and the compulsion to restrain the consciousness within the four walls of one’s own body - all these are aspects of the bondage of the individual. Life is an essence of bondage, a prison-house, as it were, because of a very complicated type of nescience, or ignorance, which has enmeshed the phenomenal existence of the jiva, the individual. There must be some remedy for this state of affairs. Is there not a way of freedom? Are we to suffer only in this manner, subjected to the law of transmigration, conditioned by the law of cause and effect, and having to pass through the ordeal of this life in which no factors there seem to be over which we have either any control or of which we have any knowledge? With a view to expound a doctrine of freedom, or the liberation of the spirit from the bondage of samsara, the Upanishad embarks upon a new subject subsequent to the exposition of the Panchagni-Vidya. The new section will be confined to the elucidation of the renowned meditation known as Vaishvanara-Vidya. In this context we are introduced to an anecdote, or a precedent story.

Continue Reading >> Vaishvanara, The Universal Self - Chandogya Upanishad

In this connection, the Upanishad commences with a story. There was a student named Svetaketu who was the son of sage Uddalaka. This student was well-read and finely educated. He was so confident about his knowledge that he used to parade his learning and calibre in the midst of all learned people, have discussions in courts of kings etc., and was very reputed for his great educational gift. This boy went, by chance, to the court of the king called Pravahana Jaivali, a noble emperor. The moment the boy arrived at the court, the king received him with respect, and after offering him the requisite hospitality becoming of a Brahmin boy well-versed in the Vedas and all the branches of learning, the king put a question to the boy.

“Are you well educated? Have you studied? Is your education complete? Has your father instructed you?” The boy said, “Yes, my education is over, and I am well-read.”

Then the king put some questions. “Naturally, you are a well-informed person so as to be able to answer any pose. You are proficient in every branch of learning.” That the boy professed to be, that he would be able to answer any question. Then the king posed five questions.

Continue Reading >> The Course of the Soul After Death - Chandogya Upanishad

The sections of the Chandogya Upanishad, which we are going to study, are a gradational ascent of knowledge for the purpose of meditations which lift us above the phenomena of ordinary experience, such as birth and death and bondage of every kind, and point to the methods of transcending all sorrow, whatever be its nature, and regaining the originality of being. The various sections that follow are a systematic teaching on what we may call Adhyatma-Vidya, or Atma-Vidya, a knowledge of the ultimate Self, which is the only remedy for the malady of empirical existence.

Continue Reading >> The Panchagni-Vidya from Chadogya Upanishad

Among the ten major Upanishads, the Chandogya and the Brihadaranyaka stand above others in their grand stature and majesty, these two texts being viewed by scholars as representing the cosmic and the acosmic aspect of Reality. In the Brihadaranyaka there is a preponderating emphasis on the ultra-spiritual nature of every plane of existence and stage of evolution, a rather super-idealistic sweep of all the phenomena of experience. The Chhandogya, however, tries to be more realistic in its rather matter-of-fact consideration of the issues of life. This is the reason why, evidently, there is a prevalent feeling that the Chhandogya is saprapancha (considerate as to the visible forms of experience), while the Brihadaranyaka is nishprapancha (transcendent to all available experience).

The Atman is the content of the meaning of Omkara, with which the Upanishad commenced. This Om, which is All, the all-comprehensive. Name designates this All, which is the Atman. The Atman is the designated; Om, Pranava, is the designator.

As there are three relative phases of the Atman, there are the three relative phases of Om. A, U, M, are the three constitive elements of Om. Just as waking, dream and sleep may be regarded as the constitutive elements of the manifested Form of the Atman, Om, in its three-syllabled constitution, is manifested. Pada matra, matrasca pada: The feet of the Atman are the Matras or the syllables of Om, and vice versa. The Matras or the syllables are A, U, M, Akara, Ukara, Makara iti. So ‘yamatma-adhyaksharam: The Atman is the Overlord of this Akshara, imperishable Om. Adhimatram: It is also the Lord over the three syllables, A, U, M, which may be compared with the three states described of the Atman - Jagarita (waking), Svapna (dream), Sushupti (sleep). This Supreme Atman as the designated is comparable with Om with its Matras, A, U, M, and we have to learn now how these syllables are comparable with the three states. And, also, just as there is a fourth transcendent state beyond the three states of the Atman, there is a transcendent state of Om, too, beyond the three syllables, A, U, M. As there are four states of consciousness, there are four states of Omkara, each one, respectively, comparable with its corresponding counterpart.

Continue Reading >> Atman as the Pranava - Mandukya Upanishad

We have made an analysis of the three relativistic phases of the Atman, both in its individual and cosmic aspects. But, Reality, as such, is neither individual nor cosmic. To say that it is cosmic is also to limit it to a certain extent, to bring it to the level of what we call creation. The Supreme Brahman, the Absolute, is not a cause, and not also an effect. It has no effects, and, therefore, it is no cause. We cannot call The Supreme Being as even a cause of things, especially when we consider that everything is identical with It. The Mandukya Upanishad describes not merely the gross, subtle and causal conditions of the manifested consciousness, but also Consciousness, as such. There is something called Reality in itself, independent of relation. Even Isvaratva is a description by means of a relation to the universe. We call God Sarvesvara, Sarvajna and Sarvasaktiman, because we relate Him to the creation. God is omnipresent, pervading everywhere, which means that we recognise Him in terms of space. He knows ‘all’ things, means that there are things which He knows; and He has power over all things, means that He can exercise power over something which is external to Him. All definitions, even the best ones, such as Creatorship, Preservership and Destroyership of the universe; omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence, arc relative. They are Tatastha-lakshanas of God, accidental definitions; - not Svarupa-lakshana, the essential nature of Reality. What was God before creation? That would be His Svarupa-lakshana or essential characteristic. God, in His own essence, is something more than a Creator, Preserver or Destroyer, more than a cause of things, more than even an Overlord, All-knowing and All-powerful. What is that essential essence which is by its own right, and abides in its own Greatness, in its own Majesty? What is that Light which cannot be beheld by others, the Light which shines, but shines not upon anything? That is the state of Pure Consciousness, which is neither causal, nor subtle, nor gross. It is neither outside nor inside. It has no external nor internal. That grand Reality is described in the seventh Mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad.

This Consciousness as the cause of all things is also the Lord over everything - Esha sarvesvarah. Now, this epithet ‘Sarvesvara’ as also the other qualification, ‘Sarvajna’, omniscient, cannot be attributed to the Jiva, because the Jiva is not Sarvesvara, and so not also Sarvajna. The Mandukya Upanishad seems to make no palpable distinction between the individual and the cosmic, and it harmonises the relation between Jiva and Isvara. The causal condition of the Jiva, namely Prajna, is regarded only as a part of the Cosmic Causal State of Isvara. To this Upanishad, there is only one Reality, and the distinctions that we usually make between the Cosmic and the individual, between Isvara and Jiva, are overcome in the higher analysis of the Upanishad.

Continue Reading >> Who is Ishvara, the God of the Universe? - Mandukya Upanishad

The waking world and the dream world, from the point of view of the Jiva, are two aspects of the function of the mind. The mind projects itself in perception, both in waking and dream. The mind is active, and it gets tired of activity. It ceases from activity when it is too much fatigued. The complete cessation of the activity of the mind, due to exhaustion, is sleep, known as Sushupti.

That is called Sushupti, or deep sleep, where - na kancana kamam kamayate - one desires nothing, because the mind has withdrawn itself from both the physical and subtle objects. Na kancana svapnam pasyati: It does not dream also, because even psychic activity has ceased. Tat sushuptam: This is complete absorption of the mind into itself. But this absorption is of an unconscious nature.

The mind, while it appears to be a little conscious in dream, and more conscious in waking, is not conscious at all in deep sleep. This has given rise to an erroneous school of philosophy which concludes that consciousness is possible only when there is contact of the mind with objects. The Nyaya and the Vaiseshika hold this view. Unless there is contact of the Atman, they say, with objects, there cannot be knowledge. The real nature of the Atman, while it is not in contact with things, is not knowledge, say the Nyaya and the Vaiseshika. They are not right because they cannot explain how this unconscious element creeps into the state of sleep. The reason is not merely that consciousness has no contact with objects but that it has some other obstruction to the revelation of knowledge in deep sleep.

Continue Reading > Consciousness and Sleep - Mandukya Upanishad

The first phase of the Atman, as the waking consciousness, has been explained. Internal to the waking consciousness, and pervading the waking consciousness, there is a subtler function of this very same consciousness, which is subjectively known as the dream-consciousness, or Taijasa, and universally known as Hiranyagarbha, or the Cosmic Subtle Consciousness. This is the theme of the description in the next Mantra of the Mandukya Upanishad, beginning with ‘Svapnasthanah’, etc.

That which has dream as its abode is Svapnasthana. That which is aware only of the internal and not of the external is Antah-prajna. That which has seven limbs is Saptanga. That which has nineteen mouths is Ekonavimsatimukha. That which absorbs only the subtle into its being is Praviviktabhuk. This is Taijasa, the second phase, the second foot of the Atman.

Continue Reading >> Mystery of Dream and Sleep - Mandukya Upanishad

This Atman, which is Brahman, is fourfold, and can be approached and attained by a fourfold process of self-transcendence. We now propose to take up these stages, one by one, by way of analysis and synthesis. The first stage of approach, naturally, is that which pertains to the degree of reality presented before our senses. All successful effort commences with immediate reality. We, generally, say, ‘you must be realistic in your life and not too much idealistic’, which means that our life should correspond to facts, as they are, and we should not merely idealise or live in a world of dream.

The mind will not accept what it does not see or understand; and no teaching, whatever be the subject of the teaching, can be undertaken without reference to facts, facts which are a reality to the senses, because, today, at the present moment, we live in a world of the senses. We cannot reject what is real to the senses, as long as we are confined to their operation. The Mandukya Upanishad, therefore, takes this aspect into consideration and commences the work of analysis of the self from the foundation of sense-perception and mental cognition based on this perception. What do we see? This is the first question, and what we see is immediately the subject of investigation.

Continue Reading >> The Universal Vaisvanara - Mandukya Upanishad