1. Discourses on taittiriya upanishad

DISCOURSES

ON

TAITTIRIYA

UPANISHAD

BY

SWAMI

CHINMAYANANDA

Published

by

CHINMAYA

PUBLICATION

TRUST

173,

RAJAJA

CITY.

STREET,

MADRAS

3

Edition—1962

( 0.1 )

11213

PRINTER AT

SICANTHAPA PRESS, CHAMARAJPET,

BANGALORE-18

FOREWORD

An attempt of the finite to explain the Infinite is the content and import of all the scriptures of the

world. The Upanishads are no exceptions to this rule.

To define the Infinite is impossible, although, through

words we can certainly indicate the Truth to one who

is ready to recognise the indication, following up

their direction and come to experience Godhood.

Any fact can ordinarily be indicated through two

methods: one is the direct method of positive de-

scription and the other is the indirect method of indi-

cating what the thing is not. Thus to indicate an

ocean, we can directly explain it as an endless expanse

of water surging and seething on its surface with its

waves, but calm and tranquil in its unplumbed depths;

and indirectly it can be indicated as that which has

no outgrowths on it, that which is not solid,that

which is not motionless, that which can never float in

the air.

Similarly, Truth also is directly indicated by attri-

buting to it certain qualities and indirectly it is indi-

cated through its own manifestations. The direct

method is called in Sanskrit as an explanation through

Swaroop-Lakshana, and the indirect method is called

as the Tatasth-Lakshana

As for an example, in indicating the house of

Mr. Gupta in a street, we may directly do so by

describing it as, "that two-storeyed building with the

porch and balcony, with the decorations round the

window sill," or we may indirectly point it out as

"the house next that mango tree" or as "the house

upon which that crow is sitting" Here the mango

tree and crow are something other than Mr. Gupta's

house, but they are indicated to show through them

ultimately Mr. Gupta's house.

In this Upanishad, unlike in any other scripture

in the world, the subjective Reality in the seeker is

indicated both by the direct method of explanations

and by the indirect method of indications. In the

second chapter, there is a direct attempt at definition

of the Truth in "Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam," and

the text contains in its bulk an indirect indication of

the Pure Consciousness through an elaborate descrip-

tion of the various matter-envelopments and the

personality-layers in man

Nowhere in the world do we get such a complete

study of the human personality in all its exhaustive

features as in the Taittirīya Upanishad. Even in the

tradition of Vedanta, the only occasion when we get

a clear description of the Five Sheaths (pañch-Koshas)

is in this famous Upanishad, and its fame mainly rests

upon this extremely direct method of self-enquiry that

it provides.

This Āraṇyak belongs to the Krishna-Yajur

Veda and forms part of its Taittirīya Āraṇyaka.

There is a beautiful story that traditionally describes

the inner Truth. It is said that this portion was

taught to the Rishi Yājñavalkya at his Ćīṭṭa but at the end of

the studies the Guru got annoyed with the disciple and asked him to return all that he learnt from the teacher. Yagnavalkya, it is said, "vomited" out all that he learnt seeing which the Guru advised his disciples to turn themselves into Taittir-birds (sparrows) and consume the 'vomit'. They did so and thus they came to master this Ananyakha.

This story need not give us any disgust at all if we understand it properly. Annoyed at the lesser students of the class-room, the teacher asked Yagna-valkya to repeat the lesson that he had taught, and the genius in Yagnavalkya 'vomited' what was taught to him. When a student has absorbed a knowledge and when he gives it out, it becomes more palatable to the other students of the class-room, who could not so efficiently understand it directly from the teacher's learned discourse. Seeing that the delivery of Yagna-valkya was masterly, the teacher in appreciation asked the other students of the class to absorb it in the form of the "sparrows" which they did.

Of all the birds, sparrows are most energetic and industrious; the two great qualities that are unavoidable for any diligent student of Vedantic literature are indicated here

The entire Upanishad is divided into three sections; (a) Suksha Vallı—a section containing instructions in not only pronunciation, etc, but also in the different types of Upasanas by which a student can purify and sharpen his inner equipment; (b) Brahmananda Vallı—in which the Truth is directly explained and indirectly indicated through a scientific

analysis of personality construction in man, and

(.) Bhrigu Valli—a section in which we are shown

the practical application of the philosophical theories

propounded in the previous Vallis, and also, the section

emphasises the need for constant enquiry and

consistent meditation if a student is to come to enjoy

a guaranteed success in the path of Vedanta.

Apart from its philosophical interest, the Upani-

shad gives us a vivid picture of the exhaustive training

that was given in the educational system of that day,

which ensured the development, the growth and the

healthy sustenance of the brilliant Hindu culture of

that Vedic period The all-comprehensive instruc-

tions and the definite advice on “how to live Vedanta

in life” are given by the teacher to the student—in the

end of the first section on two occasions in the Valedic-

tory Address and in the Convocation Message.

Immediately, our country needs a special study

of these two portions which in clear terms hoot down

our impotent Hindu misconceptions of our “Ideal

Life”. Reconstituted on the basis of these healthy

suggestions, we can certainly rebuild a Hindu India

of Spiritual Communism based upon mutual love,

reinforced with the cement of Hindu Brotherhood.

In it, one can clearly see a healthy message for

the a-torn world labouring under its own miscon-

ceptions of what life is, and its own wrong evaluations

of the factors that constitute true living.

Publisher.

INTRODUCTION

The attempt of the Upanishads is to express the inexpressible, to paint the Formless, to sing the voiceless beauty and bliss of the Absolute. The finite words are no instruments to echo the roaring silence of the all-full Spiritual Perfection.

Even in our ordinary experience, when we have to voice forth our intimate subjective experiences, we know that language fails in its own limitations. It is only a superstitious belief that language can do wonders everywhere; except, perhaps, in the market place and in the banker's office, everywhere else it must feel choked.

Factual ideas directly perceived through the five sense-organs can be expressed, to an extent, by means of sound symbols which have, by mutual consent, come to represent literally some uniform meaning. Thus, a Botanist can, with ease and efficiency, describe the flower, part by part, but when the poet enters the field to express the message of the flower and the thrills of beauty it has produced in him, the trembling sentiments and the throbbing emotions must snap the silver strings of every language.

Even when such an ordinary experience as a taste, or a touch or a vision cannot completely be explained and fully conveyed through words we can easily understand how impossible it is for words to express

viii

the tranquil experience one gets when one has transcended oneself consciously the body, mind and intellect

From this it should not be concluded that the experience of the Infinite cannot be conveyed and is not available for the teachers to teach.

From the above, we must only understand that a language which is generally used to express the finite experiences, is employed in the Scriptures with a difference. In objective descriptions, words are used in their direct import, but in expressing the subjective experiences the same words are used, together with their ringing notes and the suggestive imports. Every word has, in combination with others, a direct literal meaning and an indirect, pregnant suggestion. This suggestiveness implied in each word is often used in our everyday life. "See that the crows do not come into the Dinning Room" does not mean that vultures and doves, dogs and cats, rats and crows can freely come and poison the food Here, the word "crow" no doubt means literally that black bird of harsh looks and ugly melodies, but in the content it indicates all the animals and undesirable intruders into the Dinning Hall. Examples can be multiplied to prove this that words have got not only their literal meaning but, by usage, they gather a suggestiveness of their own stored up in themselves as their special flavour.

The inexpressible Infinite Truth is thus indicated by these words of the Scriptures, It is not openly and directly expressed This is true in almost all other religions when the Prophets are in extreme ecstasy

of their own mystical experiences. But, in Hinduism,

we find that throughout the Upanishadic lore almost

every word of it is used to express its suggestive

sense.

This is the difficulty in reading and experiencing

the Truth from the Scriptures directly. The Rishis

had, for this express purpose, prepared a handy

language reinforced with suggestions and the language

so purified for the purpose came to be called as

Samsharita (purified), Sanshrit. Words can only

bring about certain intended disturbances in the minds

of the listeners. When I say “cup”, the word pene-

trates and falls into your mind and the disturbance

so caused makes the mind ripple out into the

remembered memory of the form and the use

of a cup. Thus, in transacting mutually known

experiences, language can be a handy medium of

sound. But when it is employed to convey the

experiences of one to another who has known nothing

similar to it, the conveyance becomes difficult. There-

fore, it was insisted that the teacher and the taught

should get themselves fully attuned to each other

before the master’s words could bring about the

required emphasis of the goal for the disciples. Our

initial discussions are all mainly to set up this attune-

ment between us.

These are the days of blind and unintelligent ‘Guru

Worship’ on one hand, and ‘Guru damnation’ on

the other. Those who believe, do so like the dumb

driven cattle in a herd and there is no active enthusiasm

or diligent intellectual stock-taking on their part

when they hear an advice or follow a path; unfortu-

nately, religion is not meant for the unintelligent or

for the stupid.

On the other hand, there is now a growing

majority of blasphemers who are to be congratulated,

for, their calumny is rightly directed against the false

pretenders and the professional priest class Gurudom

has become, in this country of general ignorance and

particular superstitions, a very paying business,

wherein there need not be any investment and, there-

fore, it is a safe activity of "all gains and no loss" !

But, between these two extremities of opinions

somewhere lies the truth and the Hindu Scriptures

are amply clear in their definition of a true Guru.

They are never tired of repeating that a Guru is not

one who has temporarily inspired an individual to

live a nobler life, but a Guru in Brahma-Vidya is one

who is well read in the Sastras and also well estab-

lished in his experience of the Supreme In short,

he must be well versed in the theory of Self Perfec-

tion and must equally be well grounded in the techni-

cal aspect of Self Discovery

When we read these qualifications so palpably

defined, we are apt to consider it as an exaggeration

or an over-statement, but we forget that in our work-

a-day world, a Final Year Medical College student

getting a telegram that he has passed his examination,

is not, we all know, yet a safe doctor to consult or to

perform any operation. So too, a Law Graduate. Similar is the case of a boy who has finished the course in Bachelor of Engineering. No knowledge is complete by a mere study of the theory. Study of the cookery book does not make a dependable cook. In view of this understanding, when we re-read the insistence of the scriptures, we are able to appreciate how a Sastry who can quote all the scriptures or an illiterate saint in the cave enjoying his ‘Self-experience’ cannot be a complete teacher and guide to any one who wants to walk the path and reach the goal.

Not only is it sufficient that we discover a Guru of these qualifications, but we must be able to tune ourselves completely with him. There are some unintelligent atheists who, in their haste, have come to wrong conclusions about the relationship between the teacher and the taught in ancient India. According to them, the complete surrender of the taught to the teacher is a convenience for the Guru and that, according to them, in these days there should be some sort of a ‘Union of Disciples’ guarding them from the tyrannies of the Guru !!

Closer observations and examinations of the working of the system will make it clear that in this relationship, instead of the Guru exploiting the disciple, it is the former that subjects himself to exploitation.

It is very well known that we can appreciate only that art which is already in us and our capacity to appreciate the finer points in it depends upon our own growth and development in that line. A painter

is no reviewer of poems, a sculptor is not critic of music. To enjoy music or painting, we must have the same art to some extent in us. The-more I can tune myself to the mental emotions of an artist, the more I can appreciate that art. Similarly, the Divine perfections experienced by the master's mind can be re-lived by the disciple in himself only when the teacher and the taught have, to an extent, come to feel an inner identity, a divine attunement between each other; thereafter, the scintillating joys of the master, symbolically represented by his gasping language, can create in the mind of the disciples, in their echoing presence, a similar atmosphere of purity and divinity. Mere word meaning of the scriptures are not only half truths, but, in many cases, they prove to be positively dangerous. The suggestiveness of the words, like "scent" in flowers, has a reach farther than the word, and it is with this aura of the vocabulary that the Truth is illumined

In order to raise the attunement to the necessary pitch, the methods of Upasanas are advised in all the Upanishads

Upasana is an intellectual process of conscious thinking over a subtle idea superimposed for the purpose by the mind temporarily upon a grosser object. To have upon a lesser object (Nihshta Vastu) a superimposition of a nobler ideal (Uthrishta Drishti) is Upasana For example, to superimpose the idea of the Goddess of Learning and Her divine method upon an ordinary river Ganga, and thereafter to worship its waters as sacred and to worship it with

flowers and lights, to offer in devotion milk and rice, is a typical example of Upasana.

In the Upanishad under discussion, one-third of the entire bulk is spent in advising different items of Upasanas which clearly shows how essential is the preliminary technique of self-integration for a seeker of knowledge.

The technique of Upasana, as is met with in the Vedas, is adopted for a later generation, to suit the psychological demands of that age in the Bhakti-cult or the Bhagavata-cult. Sri Vyasa Bhagawan is the master intellect that gave us the new adaptation of the method. To meditate upon a formless Power as it is advised in the Upasanas is essentially a dry and arid path over which the intellect strives forth in all its dreadful might and ugly strength. The same path becomes a flower-garden of scented beauty and soft pleasures when the formless God becomes the carved beauty of the Pauranic age; in the garden of Bhakti, the tender and the soft hearts dance in ecstasy among its arbours of music and joy.

Thus, it becomes clear that without a certain amount of positive ethical and moral life, a fair sharc of self-control (Brahmacharya) and a lot of conscious and deliberate practices through ‘devotion’ and ‘selfless-work’, the individual student of philosophy will not have in himself the necessary amount of inner integration. Without the minimum amount of intellectual sharpness and mental tranquillity, it is certainly impossible to understand the scriptures as they should be understood if our studies were to fulfil

themselves in bringing out the beauty that is now lying concealed within ourselves

The entire opening chapter of this scripture contains different methods of Upasanas (meditations) which may sound to us as strange and meaningless, but we shall try to go through them as best as we can

In our examination we shall try to get an idea of the old methods advised by those teachers the development, of concentration and intellectual poise of the seekers of their time.

Taittirīya Upanishad

The Taittirīya Upanishad belongs to the Kr̥shna-Yajur Veda and forms a part of its Taittirīya Āraṇyaka There is an interesting tradition attached to the Taittirīya.

It is said that Saint Vaisampayana got annoyed with a prominent-disciple of his, Yagna-valkya, and the Guru ordered the disciple to return back all the knowledge so far taught to him.

Yagna-valkya 'vomited' the entire knowledge acquired, seeing which Vaisampayana ordered his other disciples to take the form of partridges (Taittirī-birds) and consume the leavings.

This is the reason, it seems, that this portion of the Veda was traditionally labelled as Taittirīya.

This stōry, if we understand it literally, may read as vulgar and abominable; but there are teachers who interpret it to mean that Yagnavalkya, the genius that he was, was asked by his teacher to repeat what he had learnt and, seeing that the prodigy had not only understood the truc import of what the Master

taught, but had in his own originality brought an independent charm into it, that the teacher asked his other disciples to consume it as best as they could.

In this connection it would be interesting to note that the Taittiri-birds, the partridges, though small in size, are the most active and ever vigilant among the plumcd variety The story includes a healthy instruction to the students of the Upanishads that they are to be intellectually as smart, as vigilant and as active in their quest for knowledge as the Taittiri-birds are in their ordinary life.

All Upanishads start with a ‘peace invocation,’ a prayer to the Cosmic Powers to ward off all obstacles on the path of study, and this prayer is daily chanted together by the teacher and the taught.

A prayer is an invocation, and not a contract Nowadays, we are misusing this technique of prayer in our own ignorance and therefore we find that our Gods are deaf to our prayers.

This is true today with all religions The science of prayer explains, that when an individual surrenders himself—meaning, all his identifications with his body, mind and intellect —through devotion, reverence and understanding—love, he removes from himself all the causes for his limitations and what is thus left over is the Absolute Perfection which is the essence of his very being.

Thus prayer is the active part of the divine action, while the final successful invocation is its fulfilment.

Here in the Peace Invocation, the thing desired or invoked is ‘not something to satisfy the physical

comfort or the mental desires of the students. He is

no beggar even at the feet of the Lord ! All that he

demands of the Cosmic Powers, whom he is invoking,

is that no obstacles shall come during the study of the

Sastra at the feet of his Master. In the Upanishad

the very Peace Invocation is repeated as the first

" section " of the opening Valli and so we shall

explain it as under the opening section.

OM TAT SATH I

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

Chapter I

SIKSHĀ VALLI

अनुवाकः १ । Section 1.

शान्तिपाठः Santipatah

ॐ शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः । शं नो भवत्वर्यमा । शं न इन्द्रा बृहस्पतिः । शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः । नमो ब्रह्मणे । नमस्ते वायो । त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि । त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मवदिष्यामि । ऋतं वदिष्यामि । सत्यं वदिष्यामि । तन्मामवतु । तद्वक्तारमवतु । अवतु माम् । अवतु वक्तारम् ॥

ओ३म् शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

[ इति प्रथमोऽनुवाकः ]

Om sam no mitrah sam varunah. Sam no bhavatu Aryama. Sam na Indro Brihaspatih Sam no Vishnuurukramah. Namo Brahmane Namaste Vayo Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahma asi. Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahma vadishyami Ritam vadishyami. Satyam vadishyami Thanmam avatu. Tadvaktaram avatu. Avatu mam Avatu vaktaram.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

[Iti Prathamo Anuvakah]

ॐ: Om, शम् : propitious, नः · to us, मित्रः : Mitra, शम् : propitious, नः : to us, वरुणः · Varuna शम् · propitious, नः : to us, भवतु · may be, अर्यमा . Aryama शम् · propitious, नः . to us, इन्द्रः : Indra, बृहस्पतिः : Brahaspati. शम् : propitious, नः : to us, विष्णुः . Vishnu, उरुक्रमः : the all-pervading, (wide-striding) नमः : Salutation(s) ब्रह्मणे : unto

2

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

[CHAPTER I

Brahman. नमः : Salutations, ते : unto Thee, वायो : O

Vayu. त्वम् : Thou, एव : alone, प्रत्यक्षम् : perceivable,

ब्रह्म : Brahman, असि : art. त्वम् : Thou, एव : alone,

प्रत्यक्षम् : perceivable, ब्रह्म : Brahman, वदिष्यामि : I shall

declare. ऋतम् : the right, वदिष्यामि : I shall declare.

सत्यम् . the good, वदिष्यामि : I shall declare. तत्त् : that,

(Brahman), माम् : me, अवतु may protect तत् : that

(Brahman), वक्तारम् : the speaker, अवतु : may protect.

अवतु : may protect, माम् : me. अवतु : may protect.

वक्तारम् : the speaker.

ॐ Om शान्तिः . Peace, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace.

May Mitra be propitious to us May Varuna bless us.

May the blessings of Aryama be with us May the Grace of

Indra and Brihaspati be upon us May Vishnu, the All-

pervading (wide-striding) be propitious to us Salutations

to Brahman Salutations to Thee, O Vayu! Thou art the

visible Brahman Thee alone shall I consider as the visible

Brahman I shall declare —Thou art the ‘right’, Thou art

the ‘Good’ May That protect me, May That protect the

speaker Please protect me Please protect the speaker.

Om Peace Peace Peace !

[End of Section One]

This peace chanting is sung by both the teacher

and the taught together and it is a prayer raised in

devotion, to the recognised Gods of the Vedic Period,

who were representations of the One Divine Cosmic

Power The ideals of the Divine such as Rama,

Krishna and others, are all a later development, being

the products of the Pauranic Age. In early Hinduism,

the devotees prayed at the feet of the One Cosmic

Power recognised through its various representations

SIKȘĀ VALLĪ] TAITTIRIYA UPANIȘAD

as Mitra, Varuna, Aryama, etc. They are all, as the

Veda declares, different names and expressions of the

same One Power that functions behind the entire

phenomena of Nature and presides over their

destinies.

These deities, invoked here, are all delegates

representing in themselves one power or the other

given to them by the All Powerful. Thus Mitra is the

Guardian Spirit of the Prana and the day, since all

energy and activity are expressed in full swing at the

daytime. Varuna governs the 'outgoing breath'

(Apāna) and the the night. Here it may be noted that

whenever we call out from ourselves, any great

exertion such as lifting a weight, pushing a thing or

expressing our thought, in all such moments of activity,

we have to breathe in hard and the activity ceases and

exhausts at the expense of the 'outgoing breath', and

with the completion of the Apāna, the energy also

exhausts

Aryama is the presiding deity of the Sun and the

eyes. The Cosmic Power identifying with the Source

of all Energy and Light, the Sun, is called at that

moment of identification, with reference to its parti-

cular conditioning, as Aryama. If the Sun were not

there—Sun, meaning the light principle—the objects

and things of the world will not be illumined by

the eyes, for the sense-organs, eyes, function only in

the medium of light. Even the most powerful telescope

or microscope cannot illumine an object in a dark

room. In a medium of light alone can the eyes

function and, therefore, to consider the Sun, the source

of all light, as the presiding deity of the human eye, is

quite reasonable and scientific.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

To those who have been initiated into the secret of this conception, Indra is the Governor of all might, and the physical strength in an individual, though it cannot be located, we can at least say that its expression is generally through the instrument of the hands.

Brihaspati is again an expression of the Divine which controls intelligence and knowledge. Vishnu in his all-pervading nature governs all movements and thus becomes the deity of the feet

Thus, in invoking the blessings of Mitra, Varuna, Aryama, Indra, Brihaspati and Vishnu, the Vedic teachers and students were invoking healthy ‘prana’, ‘apana’, efficient eyesight, willing hands, wise speech and healthy limbs, so that day and night, with energy and strength, they may accomplish wise intellectual movement and fulfil the study in revolutionising the gross in them to become the Divine

The word ‘Sam’ means ‘well-being’ and, therefore, the entire invocation is a prayer raised to these forces for their grace, so that in their blessings, all the above-mentioned instruments in us may be assured of their well-being For a perfect and profitable ‘listening’ (Sravana) to the philosophical discourses and for the diligent pursuits in acquiring, maintaining and living the new values pointed out in the Sastra, it is amply self-evident that we want all these instruments and powers in full vigour and health.

To lift our eyes from the import and secret implications of this invocation to the society around and about us, crawling in discase and rotting in premature deaths, is to understand how far we have ignored the spirit of our culture and have come to suffer. All that

we can now claim of our great heritage is but a vain effort to give a gloss of philosophical neglect to our ignoble ignorance. Vedanta does not dole out any excuse for the society to ignore their health. Physical health is of consummate importance and it is so perfectly evident when we lift the veil of the words and understand the true import of this invocation.

So far, the invocation was dealing with the subjective individual himself and his anatomical and psychological parts The prayer now becomes directly a call to the Supreme. “Our salutations to Brahman,” a name uniformly used in the entire Vedic literature to address the Supreme, Infinite Truth, upon whom the pluralistic phenomena with their partial explications of dynamism and energy are but an idle superimposition. “Salutions unto Thee O Vayu,” meaning here, the expression of life in and through the infinite variety of equipments constituting the entire bulk and girth of the Universe. This Vayu is otherwise called in Vedanta as the Sutratma, meaning the “evident expression of life”, on the basis of which the entire kingdom of the living—the plant, the animal and the man—are wound together as the different flowers are held together by the string to form a garland The Supreme Brahman is unmanifest and being All-pervading is not available for our recognition either to the organs-of-knowledge or to the mind or to the intellect Vayu represents the implicit expression of the infinite dynamism of the One Reality, as it is available for human cognition during the close observation of life, and therefore, Vayu represents the manifested Brahman (Hiranyagarbha).

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

[CHAPTER I

Ritam and Satyam.—Ritam is a technical term which

in its Vedic usage indicates the positive meaning of the

Sastra when correctly understood through an intel-

lectual appreciation of the spirit of the Scriptures.

Its practice in our day-to-day activities (Achara)

becomes the Dharma and it is called Satyam.

May "That" (meaning the Supreme, the Essence

of All, viz., the Vayu) bless me, so that my studies be

fruitful. This is sung by a Vidyarthi, meaning, one

who demands (arthi) the blessings of the Brahma Vidya.

The student prays to the Supreme that his teacher

also be blessed so that no obstacles may come during

the sacred transaction of the sacred study. The

repetition is only for emphasis.

The invocation is rounded up with a thrice

repeated ‘call for peace’ This is to avert all possible

obstacles. Obstacles are many and to exhaust all

possibilities by name or label is impossible But all

obstacles can be classified under thrice heads with

reference to the sources from which they arise Thus,

the sources of obstacles can be: (a) unseem, (b) seen

and known, (c) subjective, within ourselves in our own

mind In order to avert all obstacles arising from the

above three types of causes, we have the thrice repeated

peace-call.

अनुवाकः २ Section 2

वणस्वरादि शिक्षणम् (Varnaswaradi Sikshanam)

ओं शीक्षां व्याख्यास्यामः। वर्णः स्वरः। मात्रा बलम्। साम

सतान. । इत्यक्कः शीक्षाध्यायः ॥

[ इति द्वितीयोऽनुवाकः ]

of them the mother language is almost forgotten, are instances in point. This is not only in India; in Europe also the condition is the same The telegraphic language adopted by the American Press today is a living example of how the eighteenth century nobility of language, dignity of diction, power of expression, rhythm and beauty of sounds used have all been lost in a vulgar slang wherein even vowels are totally swallowed or partially gasped out

Contrasted with this confusion in a spoken language as English, brought about from place to place even within a couple of centuries, we have in the Vedic lore a language that has stood the test of thousands of years and even today, except in rare cases, the pronunciation is uniform all over the country It is so because the study of the Science of Pronunciation is insisted upon everywhere before the student is initiated into the Vedas.

The teacher is here addressing the Vedic students and by the time the student has come to the Upanishad class, he has in his education mastered the early lessons in the curriculum, wherein he has already been initiated into these topics Therefore, the teacher has only to remind the student of the importance of these topics and hence, in this section, we find only the cnumeration of the various sub-headings May be, the Rishi, at the time of his discourses, might have given exhaustive talks on these topics, and the mantras' as they stand, only represent the points of the talk which the students were made to repeat as a help for them in their later days to remember the entire discourse.

The science of Phonetics or orthopy includes:

Varna (letter of sounds), Svara (accent or pitch),

Mātra (measure or length or quantity), Balam (effort

in pronouncing), Sama (pronouncing the letters of a

word uniformly) and Santana (continuity of words).

The ‘letters’ fall under four groups the guttural, the

palatal the dental and the labial

The ‘accents’ or tones that generally fall on the

words in each word or syllable are of three kinds:

Udhata (the acute or high), Anudhata (the grave or

middle) and Svarita (the low). The ‘measure’ or

length of time required in pronouncing the short or

long or lengthened vowels is also to be carefully noted

by every student of phonetics The correct time taken

to pronounce a short vowel is considered as one

P-instant (Hrasva); to pronounce a long vowel is two

P-instants (Dirgha); and a prolongated vowel is of

three P-instants (Pluta)

The ‘effort’ in pronouncing is indicated by the

exertion that the speaker has to put upon his vocal

chords in bringing forth the right sound in the right

way. The science explains these efforts under two

different headings, the outer and the inner, and again

in its details, divides the ‘outer efforts’ as of 11 kinds,

and the ‘inner’ as of 5 kinds.

The rule of ‘uniform’ pronunciation is evidently

most important or else the meaning can become totally

different. “Ra maw ent los chool”, cannot be easily

understood by anybody as “Rama went to school”. The

‘regular blending’ of sounds and words Santana is

also as much important in language in order to bring

10

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

forth the correct meaning. “Ajmeer Gaya” (Gone to

Ajmeer) will become a statement of tragedy and

bereavement if we disobey the rules of Santana and say

“Aj maree gaya” (Today he has died.)

Uktah ‘has been explained’. This word indi-

cates the end of the section and it clearly shows that

the teacher must have given exhaustive discourses

upon these 6 limbs of the Science of Pronunciation,

so that at the end of it all he concludes that the lesson

on pronunciation ‘has been explained’

अनुवाकः ३ । Section 3

अधिलोकादिस्वरूपं (Adhilokadisvaroopam)

सह नौ यशः । सह नौ ब्रह्मवर्चसम् । अथातः सङ्हिताया

उपनिषदं व्याख्यास्यामः । पञ्चस्वधिकरणेषु । अधिलोकमधिज्यौतिषमधि-

विद्यमधिप्रजमध्यात्मम् । ता महासंहिता इत्याचक्षते ॥

Saha nau yasaha Saha nau Brahmavarchasam. Athatah

samhitaya upanishadam vyakhyasyamah. Panchasva adhikarameshU.

Adhilokam adhijyautisham adhividyam adiprajam adhyatmam.

Ta mahasamhita iti achakshate

सहः together, नौ for both of us, यशः : glory.

सहः : together, नौ : for both of us, ब्रह्मवर्चेसम् : efful-

gence born of holy life and scriptural study. अथ : Now

अतः : hereafter, संहिताया: : the teaching-of-conjunction,

उपनिषदम् : sacred-science, व्याख्यास्यामः : we shall ex-

plain. पञ्चसु . in five, अधिकरणेषु : perceptible objects.

अधिलोकम् : concerning the universe, अधिज्यौतिषम् : con-

cerning the luminaries, अधिविद्यम् : concerning learn-

ing, अधिप्रजम् : concerning progeny, अध्यात्मम् : con-

cerning the body. ताः : They, महासंहिता: : the great

combinations, इति : thus, आचक्षते : they call.

SIKŞIIA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISIIAD

11

The pupils say "May we both, teacher and disciple, have

the glory and effulgence born of holy life and scriptural

study" The teacher says "Now we shall explain the secret

'teaching-of-conviction' This teaching is based'on five percep-

tible objects (a) Universe, (b) Luminaries, (c) Learning, (d)

Progeny, (e) Body These they call 'the great combinations'

(or 'blendings')

The teacher and the taught after the initial intro-

ductory talk upon the Science of Pronunciation, they

start the discussion on the Upanishad and the necessary

Upasanas in making the mind and intellect perfectly

sharp and sensitive for the full apprehension of the

Immortal Truth, the theme of the Upanishad When

the teacher has finished his previous talk and indicated

it with the word 'Uktah', the student immediately

raises a song of prayer inviting the glory of Brahman

upon both the Master and himself. The prayer

expresses a wish that both of them may be rendered

shining with the Joy of Knowledge.

After this prayer the teacher starts prescribing

the various methods of Upasanas We have already

seen that Upasana is a technique by which the entire

dynamism of the mind is directed through a constant

thought-flow towards a defined goal through a well-

chalked-out line of contemplation For this, various

instances are given and any one of them is as good as

any other. Different types are given to suit, perhaps,

different entities or may be in the juvenile enthusiasm

a young boy's growing mind may get easily tired of

one given method and may thirst to ramble into

some novel methods of employing his surging mental

dynamism, Therefore, it is perfectly justified if the

12

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

Rishi gives out a dozen different methods of meditations.

In the early stages, no student’s attempt at meditation can be upon a formless, nameless, attributeless Truth which is at once Omniscient, Omnipotent and Infinite As an elementary training the mind needs some idea or ideas to fix its attention on and plough out all possibilities of it,in and around the central theme.

Thus, in all Upasanas the technique is to tie down the mind to a central idea-pivot, allowing the mind a limited movement, but with a full freedom to roam at will within those prescribed limitations. This scheme is well illustrated in the freedom of a cow on a pasture land when fixed to a peg with a long rope.

Rama, Krishna or Siva are Deities for this purpose fashioned out in the Puranas, so that devotees will have some tangible Divine Personality upon whom they can fix the Infinite qualities of Truth and have their elementary training in meditation. When the object or the support is thus a tangible and almost pulsating Divine Personality, the Upasana becomes an emotional extravaganza and a love-game in the garden of Prem and Bhakti. But in the days of the Vedas, the Pauranic Deities were not available since Vyasa belonged to a much later date.

After planting a stone or a wooden-cross the devotee superimposes upon it the Shiva Tattwa or the Christ-idea and meditates upon the Lord of his heart through the symbol planted So too the Vedic Rishi had to supply a substratum, tangible and known to the students, before he could make them superimpose upon the provided symbol the ideas of a vaster and an

IKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

13

ampler truth. Once this technique is understood all

Upasanas prescribed in the Vedic lore become amply

self-evident

As students of Sanskrit, repeating daily Sanskrit

statements and stanzas, they were familiar with the

conjunction of syllables and joining of words. When

two words are joined together, that compound word in

Sanskrit invariably indicates the point of conjunction

very clearly to the students, who are literates in the

language. During their chantings—and in those days

in their mutual conversations too—they had been

joining convenient words together and disjoining them

when it suited their purpose, and thus they had a very

clear idea of the construction of the ‘compound word’.

Therefore, the teacher intelligently took up a ‘com-

pound word’ and its structure as a substratum for his

students to superimpose certain prescribed ideas, so

that they could meditate upon them The rest of the

technical tricks are all faithfully represented in the

very well-known Bhakti Marga of our own times

The superimpositions upon the “combination of

words” as advised here fall under five headings These

represent the five different fields of independent

thinking superimposed upon the limbs of the “com-

pound words”. For example, let us take a ‘compound

word’ like Mahaeswara which is a word having for its

limbs an adjective and a noun: Maha and Eswara

The first word Maha is called the “prior” and the

Eswara that follows it is called the “posterior”. The

prior sound ‘A’, with which the word Maha ends,

when it joins with the “E” of the posterior word

Eswara together they become “Ae”—sound in con-

junction. This is the clear form of the combination

which is to serve as the substratum for the students’

superimposition in the Upasana

अथाधिलोकम् । पृथिवी पूर्वरूपम् । द्यौरुत्तररूपम् । आकाशः

सन्धिः । वायुः सन्धानम् । इत्यधिलोकम् ॥

Athadhilokam Prithivee poorvaroopam Dyauh uttaroopam.

Akasah sandhih Vayuh sandhanam. Iti adhilokam

अथ : now, अधिलोकम् : concerning the universe.

पृथिवी : the earth, पूर्वरूपम् : prior form. द्यौ: : the sky

(firmament), उत्तररूपम् : posterior form. आकाश: : the

atmosphere, सन्धिः : the junction. वायुः : the air,

सन्धानम् : connection इति : Thus, अधिलोकम् : concern-

ing the universe.

The teaching concerning the Universe is this The earth

is the prior form, the heaven is the posterior form, the

atmosphere is the junction, air is the connection—thus one

should meditate upon the Universe

On the familiar structure of the “compound

words” here is an idea to be superimposed by the

Upasaka for the purposes of his contemplation. This

treatment gives the student a chance to harness his

naturally wandering mind into a subtle perception of

the vastness of the cosmic and the interconnection

between the perceived plurality in the phenomena.

To any student, while reading or chanting it is not

possible to fix his entire mind upon the words of the

text The mind will naturally wander into the

cowshed of the Guru or to the half-ploughed fields or,

perhaps, into the jungle where he has to go in the

afternoon to bring fuel for the Ashrama kitchen In

short, a large amount of the student’s mental energy

siksā valli] TAITTIRIYA UPANISAD

15

is always afloat wandering in various fields, except perhaps, for a short time during intervals when he is focussing his entire attention in his studies. These wandering energies of the mind are being harnessed here for the purposes of concentration, and the ideas upon which they are made to wander, in their very nature, give an expansion and a glorious reach for the mind and intellect of the Upasaka

From the cowshed to the skies, from the jungle to the wide expanse of the world, from the clothes that had not been washed to the endless concept of space and from the unfinished ploughing to the concept of the atmospheric air—embracing at once the heaven and earth ardently into its ample bosom—is indeed a glorious avenue through which the disciple's mind is made to expand into a thrilling freedom and exuberance

अथाधिज्योतिषम्। अग्निः पूर्वरूपम्। आदित्यः उत्तररूपम्। आपः सन्धिः। वैद्युतः सन्धानम्। इति अधिज्योतिषम्॥

Atha adhijyautisham Agnih poorvaroopam Adityah utara-roopam Apah sandhih Vaidyutah sandhanam Iti adhijyautisham

अथ now, अधिज्योतिपम्. concerning the luminaries. अग्निः : fire, पूर्वरूपम् : prior form आदित्य: : the sun, उत्तररूपम् : the posterior form. आपः : water, सन्धिः : the intermediate form. वैद्युतः • lightning, सन्धानम् : the connection इति • Thus, अधिज्योतिपम् : concerning the luminaries.

Now concerning the luminaries or meditations upon light: Fire is the prior form, the Sun is the posterior form, water is the intermediate form and lightning is the connection—thus one should meditate upon light.

As explained above, upon the same substratum here is another idea regarding luminaries which emit light. The source of light very well known to the student is certainly fire, which becomes the prior form and the posterior is represented by the Sun which is the source of all life, meaning here all energy. If two mutually unrelated objects are enumerated, no meditation upon them is possible unless we are told of or we come to discover, a relationship between them That connection between the Sun and the Fire is explained here as water, meaning the moisture in the atmosphere. Water can be converted into its vapour only through the application of the heat energy. A certain amount of vapour is always present in the atmosphere which is contributed by the heat energy both from Fire and from Sun Thus, we are told that vapour or moisture in the atmosphere is the connection between the Sun and the Fire which may also mean that one common factor in both of them is heat

If water vapour is thus the junction between the two, ‘lightning is the means of joining them’. When two things are amalgamated to become one homogeneous whole, there should be a continuity in their quality throughout. Two samples of sugar kept at a distance of a foot on the table cannot be considered as one whole until they are brought together every part of it is sugar Similarly, the heat and light energy in the Sun, and the heat and light energy in the fire are separated from one another by an endless column of atmosphere; as a result of their heat the atmosphere gets laden with moisture

and the heat and light principle expressing themselves

as streaks of lightning connect in silvery threads the

Sun above and his representative below! This

beautiful picture not only smacks science but in its

totality provides a compelling but dreadful beauty

expressing light and heat in all their might and

intensity

अथाधिविद्यम् । आचार्यः पूर्वरूपम् । अन्तेवास्यत्तररूपम् । विद्या

सन्धिः । प्रवचन*सन्धानम् । इत्यधिविद्यम् ॥

Atha adhividiam Acharyah poorvaroopam. Antevasi utara-

roopam Vidya sandhih Pravachanam sandhanam. Iti adhi-

vidyam

अथ : now, अधिविद्यम् : concerning learning.

आचार्यः : the teacher, पूर्वरूपम् : the prior form. अन्तेवास

the taught, उत्तररूपम् . the posterior form. विद्या :

learning, सन्धिः . the intermediate form. प्रवचनम् : the

instruction, सन्धानम् : the connection. इति Thus, अधि-

विद्यम् : concerning learning.

Now concerning knowledge The teacher is the prior

form, the taught is the posterior form, learning is the inter-

mediate form and the instruction is the means of joining—

Thus one should meditate upon learning

Using the same support-for-concentration (Alam-

banam) here the teacher is advising a new line of

thought taken from the familiar field of the student’s

activity It is a homely thing for every student and

is very casy for him to understand, when he is made to

contemplate upon himself and his teacher, and the

relationship that exist between the two. The teacher

and the students generally come to meet each other

in a vibrant atmospheri c oflcarni ng oi studics, and the

3

18

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

chord upon which the students and the teacher are

strung together into a united whole is the cementing

essence of the deep significances of the discourse given

out by the teacher. The teacher invariably talks

upon the visions of Truth that he had gained within

himself, and the students are those who want to

experience sympathetically the same visions, if not in

actual experience, at least for the time being, in an

intellectual appreciation Thus, a bristling atmos-

phere of mental unison is maintained in the halls of

learning, when the students crowd round the teacher

and honestly strive to gather for themselves know-

ledge and wisdom, from the teacher’s mouth

अथाधिप्रजम् । माता पूर्वरूपम् । पितोत्तररूपम् । प्रजा सन्धिः ।

प्रजनन् सन्धानम् । इत्यधिप्रजम् ॥

Atha adhiprajam. Mata poorvaroopam Pita uttararoopam

Praja sandhiḥ. Prajanan sandhanam Iti adhiprajam

अथ : now, अधिप्रजम् : concerning progeny. माता :

mother, पूर्वरूपम् : the prior form पिता : father, उत्तर-

रूपम् : the posterior form. प्रजा : progeny, सन्धिः : the

intermediate form. प्रजननम् : procreation, सन्धानम् :

the connection. इति : Thus, अधिप्रजम् . concerning

progeny.

Now concerning progeny is given Mother is the prior

form, father is the posterior form, progeny is the junction

and procreation is the connection-thus one should meditate

upon progeny

In the days of yore, especially in the Vedic period,

the Upanishad had been freely taught to the deserving.

But that did not mean that the study of the scriptures

compelled or insisted or even prepared the grounds

for an immediate retirement from life into the jungles.

SIKŞA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

19

The generation was taught of these glorious secrets

of life and traincd in the art of living in complete

unison with life and its circumstances, before the

members of the gencration were sent to face the on-

slaughts of its day-to-day challenges. Therefore,

instructions through the most vital urges in man as

sex were ficcly given out, and under healthy social

conditions this cannot bring about any deterioration

in the moral life of the peoplc It was only after

Sankara's time that the tradition of young men taking

to Sanyas "with a desire to learn the higher life and

live the life divine" had come into vogue, since

chances in society to learn the Upanishads had become

almost little.

But the Upanishad studics have come to be recog-

nized today as a spccial privilege only of Sanyasins and

a corollary to this wrong impression is the superstitious

bclief, which frightens away the dull-witted, that the

study of the Upanishads will make a healthy man

uninterested in life and, ultimatcly, it will abduct him

away from the fields of activity to the daik caves of an

impotent retirement !!

In the Golden Age of the Vedic culture, the

intelligent Hindus understood the value of literature

and the general curriculum in Education included the

study of the Srulhi Under such a scheme of things

this meditation (Upasana) adviscd, when viewed against

the background of that age, need not give us the sense

of outrageousness that we are apt to feel at the first

instance during a hasty reading.

Again, unlike the suicidal bclief in the Christian

creed we do not consider the Sex relationship as the

first sin by which the god-man had come to fall to

become the stupid, the deluded, the ego-centric entity,

rotting himself now in his own sorrows and sins ! On

the other hand, we believe that the relationship of

man and woman is divine when rightly understood

and wisely pursued. Progressive in thought, daring in

planning the social welfare, the Scientists of Life

who gave us the immortal Sanatana Dharma through

our scriptures, were not shy, sentimental, effeminate

fools to fight shy of a great principle of life simply

because of an idle misapprehension

The unhealthy misunderstandings regarding the

relationship of man and woman in life is the cause

for almost all the terrible problems, I dare say, in

the world today

Unhealthy intermingling, unintelli-

gent compromises, misunderstood liberties and un-

controlled licentiousness have poisoned the lives of

both the married and the unmarried, so that each

new generation now find themselves the unclaimed

children of their own past, not as idols of the love

lived, but as caricatures of the lust expressed.

This dreadful state of an orphan-generation,

untended and uncultivated, wrecking the entire destiny

of the world had been clearly visualised by the pure

intellectuals of the Vedic Period and, therefore, they

thought it fit to give to their children during their

growing age of curiosity and nameless excitements,

the correct scientific knowledge of true living in

controlled indulgence. In the most sacred of their

scriptures they incorporated chapters on Sexology.

On the walls of the sanctum-sanctorum in their temples

they sculptured the act of procreation. In the sacred

SIKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

21

books of their mythological stories they painted naked

the gorgeous truths of balanced living in rationed

revelry. In their literature they drenched their

themes with pictures of beauty and showed the

healthy way of enjoying them.

With this much of understanding of the views of

the saints of that era, we can easily appreciate how

the young Brahmacharis who had come to the teacher

to learn the Truth of the Absolute, are made to

meditate upon this line of thinking, and yet, they were

saved from all unhealthy mental depravity.

This much in detail we had to go because of the

condemning commentaries that are being made, most

shamelessly, both by foreigns and the Indian converts,

upon these glorious passages of such pregnant

universal suggestions

अथाऽध्यात्मम् । अधरा हनुः पूर्वरूपम् । उत्तरा हनुरुतररूपम् । वाकू

सन्धिः । जिह्वा सधानम् । इत्यध्यात्मम् ॥

Atha adhyatmam. Adharahanuh poorvaroopam Uttarahanuh

uttararoopam Vak sandhih. Jihva sandhanam Iti adhyatmam.

अथ : now, अध्यात्मम् : concerning the individual.

अधरा हनुः : the lower jaw, पूर्वरूपम् : the prior form.

उत्तरा हनुः : the upper jaw, उत्ततरूपम् : the posterior

form. वाकू : speech, सन्धिः : the intermediate form.

जिह्वा : tongue, सधानम् : the connection. इति : Thus,

अध्यात्मम् : concerning the individual.

What follows is concerning the individual or the body.

The lower jaw is the prior form, the upper jaw the posterior

form, speech the conjunction, the tongue the means of union-

thus one should meditate upon oneself.

Those who have followed so far the technique of

superimposing a line of independent thinking upon

22

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

[CHAPTER I

the construction of a "compound word", must find

it easy to understand this idea. To the student this

must be certainly a very easy thought to engage his

mind upon, since he is all the time talking at his

study-hour or when he is in the field. The student

is therefore made to maintain in his mind an under-

current of meditative thoughts upon the significance

of his own acts of articulation. Without the upper

and the lower jaws, and the vocal cords no sound

can be produced, and even when the sound is created,

without the tongue coming into vigilant play in con-

trolling and regulating the sounds, the various letters

constituting the language, such as gutteral, palatal,

dental or labial, cannot be correctly or satisfactorily

produced. With this much of understanding it must

be easy for any student to pursue this Upasana.

इतिमाहासंहिता:। यएवमेता महासंहिता व्याख्याताता वेद ।

सन्धीयते प्रजया पशुभि: । ब्रह्मवर्चसेनान्नाधेन सवर्ग्येण लोकेन ॥

[ इति तृतीयोडनुवाक: ]

Iti imah mahasamhitaḥa. Ya evam eta mahasamhitā vyākhyāta

veda. Sandhīyate prajayā pasubhiḥ. Brahmavarchasennādyena

suvarģyena lokena

[Iti Triteeyo Anuvakaha ]

इति: Thus, इमाः: these, महासंहिता: the great

blendings. यः . he who, एवं . thus, एताः . these, महा-

संहिता: the great blendings, व्याख्याताता: expounded,

वेद: understands. सन्धीयते: (is united) प्रजया: with

progeny, पशुभि: with cattle. ब्रह्मवर्चसेन . with the

glory of the holy lustre, अन्नाधेन . with food and the

like, सुवर्ग्येण लोकैन : with joys of hcavenly worlds.

These are called 'the great blendings' and he who understands them as expounded here becomes united with progeny

and cattle. with the glory of the holy lustre, wealth and heavenly joys.

Traditionally a prescription for a karma or an Upasana must have four limbs: (a) a description of

the presiding deity which indicates to us the nature of the karma (Utpatthi Vidhi), (b) a detailcd instruction on

all the acts that we have to do in the ritual (Viniyoga Vidhi), (c) an exhaustive enumeration of the qualities

necessary in making one fit to pursuc the indicated ritualism (Adhikara Vidhi), and (d) the promise of the

results that will be accrued when the ritualism is with faith and devotion diligently pursucd (Phala Vidhi).

We find now that almost all these items are given here in this Upasana upon the limbs of 'compound

words', and here, in this portion now under discussion, we read a complete description of the fruits that

are gained by such a pursuit.

All karmas sacred and secular produce in their reaction some fruit or the other. In ritualism when

the divine acts are pursued with an intention to gain the fruits thereof, the individual, in proportion to his

diligence and acquired mental strength, comes to cnjoy the fruits, but the same ritualisms when pursued

without a demand for the fruits thereof result in an efficient integration of the Upasaka's inner personality.

Here this Upanishad is advised by the Rishis to their students, many of whom are yet to go back to

the householder's life and live in society, and therefore, to show them the material gains that they can come

to enjoy through a diligent pursuit in Upasana is

24

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

[CHAPTER I

certainly quite encouraging. They will be tempted to

continue these exercises and thus slowly grow to a

greater stature in their inner constitution of mind and

intellect.

अनुवाकः ४। Section 4

मेधाश्रीकामजपहोमौ (Medhasreekamajapahomow)

यः छन्दसामृषभो विशवरूपः । छन्दोभ्योऽध्यमृतात्सम्भभूव । समेन्द्रो मेधया स्पृणोतु । अमृतस्य देव धारणो भूयासम् । शरीरं मे विचर्षणम् । जिह्वा मे मधुमत्तमा । करणाभ्या भूरिविश्रुवम् । ब्रह्मणः कोशोऽसि मेधया पिहितः । श्रुतं मे गोपाय ॥

Yaschandusamrishabo viswaroopaha Chiandobhyo adhyam-

ritatsambabhoova Samendro medhaya sprunotu. Amritasya deva

dharano bhooyasam Sareeram me vicharshanam. Jihva me

madhumattama Karnabhyam bhoorivishruvam. Brahmanah kososi

medhaya pihitaha. Srutam me gopaya

यः : he who, छन्दसाम् : among the Hymns of the

Vedas, ऋषभः : pre-eminent, विशवरूपः : manifold,

छन्दोभ्यः : from the hymns of the Vedas, अधि : above,

अमृतात् : from the immortal, सम्भभूव sprang up. सः :

that, मे . Me, इन्द्रः . Indra, मेधया : with intellectual

vigour, स्पृणोतु : may fill. अमृतस्य : of immortality,

देव : O Lord, धारणः : possessor, भूयासम् : may I be-

come. शरीरम् : body, मे : my, विचर्षणम् : able and

active. जिह्वा : tongue, मे : my, मधुमत्तमा : sweet and

agreeable to the utmost. करणाभ्याम् . with the ears,

भूरि . in abundance, विश्रुवम् : may I listen. ब्रह्मणः : of

Brahman, कोशः sheath, असि : Thou art, मेधया : by

thc intellect, पिहितः . covered श्रुतम् . learning, मे :

mine, गोपाय : may you preserve.

He who'e form is manifold, who is pre-eminent among

the Vedas of the Lord, and who has sprung up from the

hymns which are mental that Indra (Omkar) may fill me

with intellectual vigour. Oh Lord, may I become the possessor

of the mental:ecultivation May my body become able and

active, my speech sweet and agreeable to the utmost May I

be abundantly with my ears Thou art the sheath of

Prajnana May thou pervade my learning

This section opens.with a declaration of a Mantra

to be used by the students for daily repetition, a

practice technically called japa. To keep the mind

engaged in the repetition of a sacred hymn

involves divine ideas or ideals which provides an

infinite possibility for contemplation and intellectual

fluency in oral japa Hence the japa advised is for the

development of the intellect in a student.

To all renowned students, there cannot be a greater

ambition than that they should be able to shine in

their class among others. In ancient days the success

of a student mainly depended upon his retentive

capacity, since education started with memorising the

Vedas to its. Without an acute memory-power (Medha

Sakti) no student in those days could come up well in

his education. Hence we have, therefore, a Mantra for

chanting which when pursued properly with the neces-

sary mental co-operation can strengthen and purify

the memory-power in the student.

In this japa the student is addressing Indra, and

Shri Sankaracharya in his commentary interprets

rightly that Indra here means Omkar. Etymologically

the word Indra is derived from a root meaning 'to

illuminate' (Endha-ti-ilhi-Indrah). The OM-symbol,

indicating the Conscious Principle in man, is the illuminator of all the faculties in him including his own intellect. The Mantra as it reads is an invocation to Omkar for a clearer consciousness or awareness in the student.

"He whose form is manifold": The Awareness or Consciousness which is the Supreme Reality is the Infinite substratum for all the finite names and forms which constitute the world as we perceive it. The waves and ripples, the bubbles and foam, the whirls and the dips that disturb the surface of the ocean are all, when analysed, found to be nothing but the manifold forms of the same ocean. The rings, the bangles, and the innumerable varieties of ornaments, thin and thick, short and long, though different in shape, size and name, they are all the manifold forms of one and the same substance, the gold. Similarly, the One Infinite Divine Life Spark expresses Itself through the endless forms and names that constitute the entire living world of beings, and, therefore, the Truth as expressed by its symbol 'OM' is said to have manifold forms.

"Who is pre-eminent among the Hymns of Vedas": Herein we have yet another clause qualifying the OM-symbol. The Infinite and the Immortal Truth, which is One-without-a-second, All-pervading and Perfect as indicated by the symbol OM, is the one common theme that is dealt with in all the Hymns in the Vedas. Even in the Mantra-portion of the Vedas the exclamations of the Aryans at the beauty of nature were but adorations of the Infinite; when the Hindus in the Brahmana-portion entered into a scheme of ritualism there too they invoked the same Truth,

As

it

were

at

the

name

of

the

Infinite,

the

very

mention

of

which

with

intellectual

arrogance,

at

least

in

the

intellectual

apprehension,

the

deep

profound

with

a

wonderful

and

capable

of

grasping

the

momentous

Vedic

word

but

the

Syama

student

is

not

satisfied

without

acquiring

a

healthy

life

in

body

and

a

sweet

and

agreeable

voice

of

a

pronunciation

in

his

speech.

No

student

in

the

Vedic

Period

came

to

have

ever

misappropriated

knowledge

with

an

intention

to

hoard.

His

charity

is

so

inspiring

that he feels himself fulfilled only when he has disseminated the knowledge he had acquired from his teacher far and wide. Therefore, his request or demand is not only that he should become highly efficient in learning the Vedas but he must have also the physical abilities for continuous exertion in carrying out open propaganda with all the missionary zeal to spread the vital Truth and scatter the pearls of wisdom that form the very substance of his culture.

How different from what we understand today is then the real declaration of our own sacred books !!

Here we are now trying to understand the words of a japa-mantra advised by the Rishis for those students who are slightly dull, in order that they may become more efficient in their intellect. The great Masters of the Upanishads are not satisfied if their students are highly intellectual but weak and emaciated To-day, on the other hand, walk into any University-hall and we can surely point out the first-class-student; for, he will invariably be a pale walking-corpse which refuses to die, perhaps, because it has not the vitality even to pack up its life and depart in peace ! In the same University the sportsman who is well-built and beaming with health is invariably marked out for a lucky third classs or, preferably, a sure failure !

This state of affairs is certainly because of a very painful maladjustment in our educational system. This Mantra by its suggestiveness gives us the hope that there can be a better system wherein physical health and intellectual accomplishments can go hand in hand, and the vision of the educationists in any

śikṣā vallī] TAITTIRIYA UPANIṢAD

29

country should be to bring about this consummate happiness

Just as a man of resounding knowledge, a genius

of his age, is no more useful either to himself or to

the society, but becomes only a liability, if he be in a

nursing home or an asylum, so too a man with know-

ledge and health, again, is a living threat to his society

and will bring ultimately a blot upon the fair face of

the sacred culture, if he has not a sweet tongue to

express his ideas in an attractive way An individual

becomes really a pest on the generation if he has not

got the tolerance to give a patient hearing to others,

and docs not try to digest and assimilate the best in

them Fanaticism and intolerance are the cankers

that cat up the best blossom in any period of history.

Not only that such a fanatic individual will be always

unhappy in himself but his mission will always end

in marching his generation into a chaotic state of

mutual hatred and general unpleasantness.

The Mantra is rounded up with an assertion that

OM is ‘the sheath of Brahman’ When we are invoking

a Power and requesting to bless us with certain

special strength or ability, we must know whether the

invoked power has got the ability to fulfil our demand.

Here it is said that OM is the very ‘container’ for the

Supreme. The ‘sheath’ is invoked, just as we do, in

our daily life when we actually mean the contained.

“Bring the ink pot”, “pass on to me the cigarette-

case”, etc. In all such instances the request is not

a direct demand merely for the bottle or for the case

but it is a demand for the ink in the bottle or the

cigarettes in the case. The Mantra here says that the

30

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

OM-symbol is the sheath of Brahman and, therefore, invoking OM is invoking the Supreme

This Mantra is repeated with extreme concentration regularly by the students, who desired a more efficient memory and heightened intellectual capacity.

In the very scheme of the different Upasanas narrated in the text-book, the Rishi declares how an individual should plan out his great career, in order to live fully the entire implications of the inimitable Sanatana Dharma.

When an intellect has fully developed and the individual has acquired sweet speech and a mental readiness to receive new ideas at every occasion, such an individual alone, bubbling in his health is fit to pursue the ‘ritual for wealth’ which is to be prescribed now.

आवहन्ति वितन्वाना । कुर्वाणा चीरमात्मनः । वासाँसि मम गावइच अन्नपाने च सर्वदा । ततों मे श्रीयमावह । लोमशा पशुभिः सह स्वाहा । अमायन्तु ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा । विमायन्तु ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा । प्रामायन्तु ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा । दमायन्तु ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा । शमायन्तु ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा ॥

Avahanti vitanvana Kurvana cheeramatmanah Vasamsi mama gavascha annapane cha sarvada Tato me shriyamavaha Lomasam pasubhih saha swaha Amayantu brahmacharinah swaha Vimayantu brahmacharinah swaha Pramayantu brahmacharinah swaha Damayantu brahmacharinah swaha Shamayantu brahmacharinah swaha

आवहन्ति bringing, वितन्वाना multiplying कुर्वाणा : producing, अचीरम् · without delay, आत्मनः : self.

वासाँसि : clothes, मम · my, गावः · cows, च and अन्नपाने : food and drink, च : and, सर्वदा . for all time.

ततः : afterwards मे : for me. श्रीयम् : prosperity, आवह : bring.

siksh 1 v.lli] taittiriy1 upanis1ad

31

bring. लोमशाम् : hairy animals, पशुमिः : cattle, सह् :

with. स्वाहा : Svaha. आ : all along, मा : to me, यन्तु :

may come, ब्रह्मचारिणः: · celibatc students of Brahma

Vidya. स्वाहा : Svaha. चि · fiom vaiious diicctions, मा :

to me, आयन्तु . may come, ब्रह्मचारिणः : celibatc students,

स्वाहा : Sv aha. प्र · much (in laıge numbeıis). मा · to me,

आयन्तु : may come, ब्रह्मचारिणः · celibatc students, स्वाहा :

Svaha. दमायन्तु : be self-contıolled, ब्रह्मचारिणः : celibatc

students स्वाहा . Svaha शमायन्तु . be pcaceful, ब्रह्मचारिण:

celibatc students. स्वाहा : Svaha

Oh Lord, afterwards let prosperity be mine consisting in

hairy animals along with cattle May fortune produce for me

without delay and for all time, bringing continuously and in

ever multiplying proportions, food and drink, cloth and cattle

All along may celibatc students, thirsty to know, come to me

Swaha! May they come to me from distant places and from all

directions May they come in large numbers May the students

anxious to gain the knowledge of Brahman control their senses.

May the students anxious to live the knowledge of Brahman be

peaceful, Swaha !!

Earlicr we were told of a Mantra to be used in

japa by which the discriminative intelligence and the

retentive capacity of the student incıcase in grcatcı

proportions Not only that he becomes intelligent but

we also saw that the meaning of the Mantra provides

the student with certain mental visions, physical

strength and spiritual valucs. According to the Sastra,

from the very order in which these Upasanas are laid,

it is quite evident that such an individual alone is fit

to claim prosperity and fortunc. Here we have the

prescription for a sacred ritualism which is performed

by those who desire wealth.

Wealth in the hands of unprepared intellects and uncultured hearts is not only suicidal to themselves, but it is a threat to the very stability of the society. In fact, today, in the world of ours, our political and economic problems can all be traced to the lack of character in the rich men. Materialism in our scientific world has created such an appeal wherein the good in heart and the pure in intellect have little scope to gain wealth, while the unscrupulous and the dishonest can easily court fortune. When such a heartless head comes to wealth, he becomes a miniature Nero setting fire to his Society in order that he may enjoy his song in his own licentious freedom! The Gunpowder Kings cannot suffer for long their dull market and, therefore, they plan to bring about wars at every short interval! In all relationships between the landlord and the tenant, the employer and the employee, the king and the people, the master and the servant, everywhere, there is a growing discontentment because, in the scheme of things available today the unprepared individuals can, and they do, come to great fortunes.

The Vedic teachers have, therefore, indicated that desire for wealth can be a blessing only when the individual has been educated to entertain the noble qualities of the head and the heart, and the enduring values of the spirit

In this portion it is said, “Oh Lord, afterwards” -meaning after having blessed me with full discrimination, good health, the spirit of tolerance and an irresistible impatience to serve others-“confer on me good fortune” Without these qualifications,

'SIKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

33

wealth becomes a dangerous weapon, as a loaded

pistol in the hands of an innocent child, a positive

threat to itself, and probably the others around it

The fortune demanded is typical of the times;

wealth was in those days measured in terms of cattle

and sheep. Wool was essential because of the climatic

conditions of the North and in those days when

jungles were full of trees and not, as they are today,

a mere story of an historical tradition—when the

Himalayas was not rendered bald by a caterpillar

generation of profit-hunting governments and gainmad

contractors—wool was, perhaps, a necessity of life.

Wealth was demanded, not as a fulfilment in

itself, but they recognised that riches can be justified

and enjoyed only by the mission that it fulfils. If

wealth were to be idle and one knows only to enjoy

it as a dispenser of confidence and assurance of having

a high bank-balance, one knows not how to milk one's

wealth to yield a greater joy unto oneself Here the

teacher is giving the right turn of mind to the growing

disciples that they may, when they are fit, desire for

immense wealth, for a great and noblecause, namely,

for running universities where students are served and

looked after. The rich are the trustees of the illiterate

and the needy.

To say that Hinduism recognises no missionary

zeal is to misread our sacred books. We may justify

the statement inasmuch as Hinduism, the Perfect

science of peace and love, universal in its outlook,

has for itself the goal of human evolution and, there-

fore, it has no ugly proselytisation view-point in itself

4

and so compared with the mischief of such foreign institutions which are today making unhappy gashes on the National integrity and the cultural heritage of this 'sacred land, we may say that Hinduism is not missionary at all. But the sacred zeal with which the Ṛṣhis took upon themselves the noble cause in the spread of their sacred knowledge and the truths of their culture was nothing less than the zeal with which Saint Paul came to the East. Every student was charged with this divine duty of spreading the Hindu culture in his own life-time among his own people and the foreigners who might reach them seeking the way.

The ambition of each student has been thus moulded up by the teachers at the very time of their early initiation. They invoked the Lord through their rituals, and both the teacher and the taught demanded together that students of intelligence and self-control, of moral and ethical purity, of emotional stamina and psychological stability, should constantly reach them from all directions, from far and near. This healthy spirit of propagation got itself choked in the poisonous atmosphere of secularism and the criminal monopoly of knowledge that was practised by some erring generation somewhere in the near past. That suicidal policy has brought today the Hindus where they are, and their scripture has become a laughing stock for the whole world ! Here we are discussing the very sacred book itself in which it is so clearly put that the goal and ambition of every student were to be that he would be able, in his life-time, to get ample chances to train and perfect the next generation, to carry on the

SIKSHĀ VALLĪ] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

35

torch of knowledge, trim and bright, as he himself got

it from his own teacher.

Vedanta being not only a theory of perfect life, but

it being a technique of perfect living, the Hindu culture

can be imparted efficiently and successfully only to

those who are willing and ready to live these values.

This is indicated by the demand of the worshipper

that students of Brahma Vidya who reach the halls of

study must have ample self-control in their outward

life, and calmness in their inward living.

यशो जनेऽस्सानि स्वाहा। श्रेयान् वस्यसोस्सानि स्वाहा। तं त्वा

भग प्रविशानि स्वाहा। स मा भग प्रविश स्वाहा। तस्मिन् सहस्रशाखे।

निभगाहं त्वयि मृजे स्वाहा। यथापः प्रवता यन्ति। यथा मास

अहर्जरम्। एवं मां ब्रह्मचारिणः स्वाहा। धातारयन्नु सर्वतः स्वाहा।

प्रतिवेशोऽसि। प्रमाभाहि। प्रमा पद्यास्व।

[ इति चतुर्थोऽनुवाकः ]

Yaso jane asani swaha Sreyān vasyaso asani swaha Tām

twa bhaga pravisani swaha Sa ma bhaga pravisa swaha Tasmin

sahasra sakhe Nibhagaham twayi mruje swaha Yathāpah pravata

yanti Yatha masa aharjaram. Evam mam brahmacharinaha

swaha Dhātarayantu sarvatah swaha Prativaso asi Prama bahi.

Prama padyasva

[Iti Chaturtho Anuvakah]

यशः : succesful, जने : among people आस्सानि : may

I become स्वाहा Svaha. श्रेयान् : among the prosperous,

वस्यसः : superior, आस्सानि : may I become स्वाहा Svaha.

तम् : that, त्वा : Thee, भग : Oh Lord of Prosperity,

प्रविशानि : may I inter into स्वाहा Svaha. सः : He, मा :

me, भग : the Lord of Prosperity, प्रविश enter into

स्वाहा Svaha. तस्मिन् सहस्रशाखे : in that (Self) of a

thousand branches. भग : O Lord,

36

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

Thee, निमृजे : cleanse my-self, स्वाहा Svaha. यथा : as, आप: : water, प्रवतयन्नि : downwards flows. यथा : as, मासा: : months (fly into). अहर्जरं : the year. एवम् : so too, माम् : me, ब्रह्मचारिण: : celibate students स्वाहा Svaha. घात: : O Lord, आयन्तु : come. सर्वत: : from all places स्वाहा Svaha प्रतिवेश: : Refuge, असि : thou art. मा : me, प्रभाहि : beam upon. मा : me, प्रपदयस्व : come (posess).

May I become successful among the people May I become superior among the rich. Swaha! Oh Lord of Prosperity! May I enter into Thee Mayest Thou enter into me. In that Self of Thine with a thousand branches, Oh Lord! May I purify myself from all my sins Swaha! As water flows downwards, as months fly into years, so, Oh Creator! May students of Brahma Vidya come to me from everywhere Swaha! Thou art the refuge! Beam upon me! Come to me !!

Continuing the ritual the Mantras reveal more and more the nobility of the intentions and the purity of ambitions entertained by the Upasaka. The worshipper wants to become famous among men in his knowledge and in his living, because in India a philosopher never attracts any attention unless he lives up to the ideal of his philosophy. Thus, the renown meant here is not merely a popularity or a passing fame. This fame-demand is not for any self-aggrandisement of selfish gains, but it is to assure that the best types of students will be constantly reaching, from all directions, and thus the Upasaka will gain in the days to come a greater field for his missionary activities.

This prayer that he should become famous, when read together with the previous demand for great fortunes, should give us the implications meant in,

"May I become superior among the rich"; meaning, let me not only be a mere mule carrying the weight of gold but an intelligent master of fortune who is able to bless the world, with the riches that have come to me through the grace of the Lord. In so doing he becomes in fact superior to those who are wealthier than himself. Wealth in itself is no mark of nobility nor a glory to man. It becomes so only when he comes to serve the society, and thereby himself, with his wealth. Therefore, when a true Hindu acquires wealth to spend it in maintaining seekers during their stay with him; indeed, the wealth is spent in the right direction and the culture of the land maintained and preserved thereby.

In order to become thus pure in living, the individual must gain a clean and divine heart, and the method by which one can purify oneself and keep that bright shine in the inner world is now discussed. Sin is that which covers the true effulgence of the soul. In our Sastras sin is not considered as some positive blemish, but it is only a mistake in judgment; it is not a commission of an injustice but an omission to do the right. Thus our scriptures forbid us from hating the sinner, but insist that we must hate the sins. This positive philosophy is the meaning of all scriptures in the world. "Every saint has a past; every sinner a future."

The moment we correct our thinking and redress the mistake in the evaluations of things in the world, we know how to redeem ourselves from the sins and walk the path of virtue,

38

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

But, the difficulty felt by practitioners is that they are not completely independent of the reactions of their past mistakes. Every action and every thought leave their impressions upon the mental world, and every following thought and action have a tendency to repeat themselves. Thus, having made one mis-judgment, the flow of thoughts thereafter has an irresistible tendency and an irrepressible urge to flow in the same direction pushing the injustice more and more into positive criminalities and low animalisms. The only way we can redeem ourselves from our mistakes is to correct our way of thinking and rewrite the entire pattern of thought in ourselves.

This erasing of the old wrong patterns and rewriting the healthy lines of thinking are both accom-plished by the same divine process which is prescribed in the sacred text-books. The method advised is the constant and repeated chanting and Japa of the sacred Mantra of Prana va, known as Omkar. We have already seen how OM is the most excellent essence in all the Vedas, and, since it represents the Supreme Conscious-ness, it manifests itself into its manifold forms. This is indicated here in the term "into a thousand branches".

In our introductory talks we had brought out the idea that the Aryan Masters, soaked with the beauty of their native land—a wonderland of Nature's exqui-site excesses—were so moulded in their sentiments and emotions that they cannot but think in metre and in rhyme. Even their subtlest philosophy is honeyed with poetry; even objective sciences like Medicine, Astronomy, etc., have been given out by them in

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

39

majestic verses, which often rise to the beautics of

pure poctry in their style, diction, music and flow.

This being the case, we find here in the Mantra two

brilliant flashes when the Upasaka requcsts the Lord

to lead on to him students from far and ncar.

"As water gushes downwards" is a simile that can compete only

with the dynamic picture brought before us by, "as months flow into and merge with years".

In their expressiveness, grandeur and charm they can stand a

favourable comparison with the best in any literature.

The rest is clear

अनुवाकः ५। Section 5

स्वराड्यफलकोपासनम् (Svarajyaphalakopasanam)

भूर्भुवः सुवरिति वा एतासित्रो व्याहृतयः । तासामु हसैतां चतुर्थीम् । महान्तमम्य. प्रेवेदयते । मह इति । तद्ब्रह्म । स आत्मा

अङ्गान्यन्या देवता ॥

Bhoorbluvah suvariti va etah tisro vyahrutayah Tasam

uhasmai tam chaturtheem Mahachamasyah pravedayate. Maha

iti Tadbrahma. Sa atma Anganyanya devataha

भूः : Bhuh, भुवः : Bhuvah, सुवः : Suvah, इति : thus,

वै : verily, एताः : these, त्रिसः : three, व्याहृतयः : the short

utterances of mystical significances. तासाम् : of these,

उ : in addition to, हः : of course, पताम् : this, चतुर्थीम् :

the fourth, महान्तमस्यः : Mahachamasya (the son of

Mahachama), प्रेवेदयतेस्स . knowing by intuition pro-

claimed. महः : Mahah, इति : thus. तत् : that, ब्रह्म :

Brahman, सः : He, आत्मा . the body, अन्यानि : the limbs

अन्यानि : other, देवताः : gods.

Bhooh, Bhuvah Suvah—are the three ‘short utterances of

mystical significances’. In addition to these is the fourth one,

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[CHAPTER I

Mahah, made known by a seer Mahachamasya. That is Brahman That is the body, other gods are its limbs

This section opens out another method of meditation. The technique adopted has a direct bearing with things familiar for the students who had a thorough study earlier of the Brahmana-portion of the Veda Naturally, to them the ‘short mystical utterances’ (Vyāhṛtiḥ) are very familiar and full of import. But we today find it difficult to enter into the very spirit of it because we are unable to appreciate or experience the import contained therein.

The terms Bhooh, Bhuvah, etc., indicate the various fields of experiences which the mind can indulge in, if it rises itself to be in unison with these realms of experiencing. Each one of them is considered to be subtler than the other and a subtler plane not only transcends the grosser but is at once immanent in the grosser plane Compared with the most well-known three fields Bhooh, Bhuvaḥ, and Svah, the scripture says here that there is yet another plane called Maha, which is subtler than the former three. This plane of experience, Maha, was first cognised by a great Ṛṣi called Mahachamasya and, therefore, this world of experience is called as ‘Maha’.

Compared with the earlier three, the fourth is at once transcendent and immanent and therefore it is called ‘Brahman’. The relationship between Maha and the other worlds is beautifully brought out in the declarations that Maha is the body and the others are but its limbs. We all know that limbs in themselves will not make the body, but the term ‘body’ includes and incorporates all the limbs in it, Having under-

SIKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

41

stood this much, we shall proceed further to examine

the truc import of what the Masters meant by deman-

ding of their students to do certain types of super-

impositions upon these terms for the purpose of

meditation.

भूरिति वा अयं लोकः । भुव इत्यन्तरिक्षम् । सुवरित्यसौ लोकः ।

मह इत्यादित्य. । आदित्येन वाव सर्वे लोकाः महीयन्ते ॥

Bhooriti va ayam lokaha. Bhuva ityantariksaham Suvarityasau

lokaha. Maha ityaditya Adityena vava sarve loka maheeyante.

भूः : Bhuh, इति : thus, वै : verily, अयं : this, लोकः :

world. भुव इति : what is known as Bhuvah (is), अन्त-

रिक्षम् : the sky. सुव: इति : what is known as Suvah (is),

असौ : next (yonder), लोकः : world. महः इति : what is

known as Mahah (is), आदित्य: : the sun. आदित्येन : by

the sun, वाच . indced, सर्वे : all, लोकाः : worlds, महीयन्ते

: arc nourishcd.

Bhooh is this world, Bhuvah is the sky. Suvah is the next

world. Maha is the sun. It is by the sun that all worlds are

nourishcd

Using the technique of Upasana, which we have

already found is to superimpose the mighty upon the

meagre, we have here various ideas superimposed on

the three, ‘short mystic utterances’ very familar in

the Veda, so that the student may understand that

the fourth Vyahriti, called Maha, represents in

itself a factor subtler than all the other three. Indeed,

we know that the Sun, as the source of all energy and

light, must be the nourisher of all the planes of experi-

ences described by the ‘short utterances’.

भूरिति वा अग्निः । भुव इति वायुः । सुवरित्यादित्यः । मह इति

चन्द्रमाः । चन्द्रमसा वाव सर्वाणि ज्योतींषि महीयन्ते ॥

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[CHAPTER I

Bhooriti va agniḥ Bhuva iti vayuhu. Suvariti ādityaha.

Maha iti chandramāha Chandramasa vāva sarvāṇi Joyteemshi maheeyante.

भूः इति : what is known as Bhuḥ (is), वै : verily,

अग्निः : fire भुवः इति : what is known as Bhuvah (is),

वायु : air. सुवः इति : what is known as Suvah (is),

आदित्यः : the sun. महः इति : what is known as Mahah (is),

चन्द्रमाः : the moon. चन्द्रमसा : by the moon, वाव :

indeed, सर्वाणि : all, ज्योतींषि : vitalities, माहीयन्ते : thrive.

Bhooh is fire, Bhuvah is air. Suvah is sun. Mahah is the moon Indeed, it is by the moon that all vitalities thrive

Giving another set of superimpositions, again the same truth that Maha transcends all the previous three and itself forms the foundation for the previous ones, the Rishi here says that Maha is to be considered as the moon. Moon in Vedanta is the ‘source of all essence’ in the vegetable kingdom and physical vitality in man. It is the moon again that is considered as the presiding deity of the mind, since it is experienced that there is an intimate relation between the moon and the mental conditions in man; if there is a doubt, watch the hysterical or the lunatic during the full moon !

The farmer prepares his seeds for the next crop by not only drying it in the sun, but, he, though himself ignorant, is traditionally taught to leave the seeds overnight exposed to the moonlight. Collectors of honey certainly know that there is a lot of difference in the taste of the honey extracted during the wrong season.

SIKŞĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISAD

43

In short, there seems to be an intimate connection between the vitamin contents and even caloric-potential in the vegetables when not exposed to the moon-light. There are preparations in the Hindu system of medicine which are to be left exposed to the moonlight for a certain number of days before they can be given to the sick. Thus, we find enough data to justify the scientific belief of the Vedic age that moon is the nourisher of the world of matter

भूरिति वा ऋक्: । भुव इति सामानि । सुवरिति यजूँषि । मह इति ब्रह्म । ब्रह्मणा वाव सर्वे वेदा महीयान्ते ॥

Bhooriti va rucicha Bhuva iti samani Suvariti yajoomsht Mala iti Brahma Bralımanaa vaa sarve veda maheevante.

भू. र्नि . what is known as Bhuh (is). वै . verily, ऋच: : the Ṛk. भुव: र्ति : what is known as Bhuva (is), सामानि : the hymns of Sāmaveda. सुवःइति . what is known as Suvah (is), यजूँषि . the Yajus. महःइति . what is known as Mahā (is), ब्रह्म : Brahman. ब्रह्मणा : by Brahman, वाच . indeed, सर्वे : all, वेदाः : Vedas, महीयान्ते : thrive.

Bhooh is the Ṛik Bhuvah is the Sāmam. Suvah is the Yajur Mahā is the Brahman as represented by the syllable OM. It is by the Brahman, indeed, that the Vedas thrive.

This set of superimpositions clearly indicates what we have been trying to feel in the other Upāsanās. If the first three Vyāhṛtis represent the Mantras of Ṛk, Sama and Yajur Vedas, then the Ṛṣhi declares, Mahā is the Supreme, indicated by the OM-symbol, and we all know that in all the Mantras of all the Vedas they directly or indirectly

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

point out the One Supreme Goal which is the theme

in all our text-books.

मूरिति वै प्राणः। भुव इत्यपानः। सुवरिति व्यानः। मह

इत्यन्नम्। अन्नेन वाव सर्वे वेदा महीयान्ते ॥

'Bhooritı vai pranaḥa Bhuva iti apanaḥa. Suva iti vyanaha.

Maha iti annam Annena vava sarve veda maheeyante.

भूः इति : what is known as Bhuh (is), वै : verily,

प्राणः : Prana. भुवः इति : what is known as Bhuva (is),

अपानः : Apana. सुवः इति : what is known as Suvah (is),

व्यानः : Vyana. महः इति : what is known as Mahah (is),

अन्नम् : food अन्नेन : by food, वाव : indeed, सर्वे : all,

वेदा : the Pranas, महीयान्ते . thrive.

Bhooh is prana. Bhuvah is apana. Suvah is vyana Maha

is food Indeed, it is by food that the pranas thrive

Popularily it is understood that Prana is the

breath. This is not scientifically quite appropriate,

since it has a subtler meaning in the Sastras. Prana*

means the energy in man expressed through the

different functions and the vitality in man. The air,

that we breathe in and out through respiration, feeds

and maintains the vital energies in us and this energy

generated within expresses itself through five clear

departments of activity, and so we have the five

different names to indicate the special activities

performed by the one energy.

Thus, Prana is the energy that is* expressed

through the organs of knowledge; Apana is the

energy that helps the body to throw out things from

• For more details read Swamiji's Discourses on Prasnopanishad;

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itself, Samana is the digestive vitality; Vyana is the circulatory force; and Udana is the power by which, at the time of death, the mind and intellect of the individual are able to reject the present body and make their pilgrimage towards the new scheme of things and get themselves fixed in their identification with the required form conducive to fulfil their predominant desires

Of these five departments of energy (Pancha Pranas), three are taken here and superimposing them upon Bhooh, Bhuvarah and Suvah, the teacher concludes that Anna is food. We all know that the food is the source of all the energies in us.

तां वा एतां चतस्रश्चतुर्धा। चतस्रश्चतस्रो व्याहृतयः। तां यो वेद। स वेद ब्रह्म। सर्वे अस्मै देवाः बलिमावहन्ति ॥

[ इति पञ्चमोऽनुवाकः ]

Tā vā etāḥ chatasṛli chaturdhā Chatasṛli chatasro vyāhṛta-yāha. Tā yo vedā. Sa vedā Brahmā Sarvesmai devaḥ balim avahanti.

[Iti Panchamo Anuvakaha]

ताः : those, चै : verily, एताः : these, चतस्रः : four, चतुर्धा : four-fold. चतस्रः : four, चतस्रः : (and) four, व्याहृतयः : Vyahritis. ताः : them, यः : who, वेद : knows. सः : he, वेद : knows, ब्रह्म : Brahman. सर्वे : all, अस्मै : to him, देवाः : gods, बलिम् . offerings, आवहन्ति . carry.

These above-mentioned four are themselves four-fold and the four Vyahrithies are each four in member. He' who knows these knows Brahman All the Devas carry offerings unto Him.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

Vyahri- thes

Meditation No 1

Meditation No 2

Meditation No 3

Meditation No 4

Bhooh Bhuvah Suvah Mahah

World next world Sun

Fire Air Sun Moon

Rik Saman Yajus OM

Prana Apana Vyana Food

When we thus represent all that has been described so far as a mathematical table, it becomes clear that the four Vyahritihes are each described in four different ways As for an example: Bhooh is described as world, fire, Rik and Prana.

All these 16 items (4 × 4) together constitute the total universe, both the manifest and the unmanifest, the gross and the subtle, the matter-form and the energy-potentialities This totality is represented by the term Hiraanyagarbha in the Vedantic literature and we are here told that an Upasaka who is able to meditate upon the implications of these four groups of four each, becomes identified with the totality and in his maturity he will certainly come to experience at once all the joys of the world.

"All Gods carry offering unto Him": The word "Deva" generally translated as God comes from a root meaning 'to illumine' (dyotanat Deva) Thus, in Vedantic literature, Deva is used to indicate the organs-of-perception which convey the impulses from the external world to the mind and intellect An Upasaka who has become fully identified with the total mind-and-intellect (Hiraanyagarbha) naturally comes to experience all the joys of all the individuals who experience in their lives a variety of happiness through their sense-organs.

To express the idea of sense perceptions as the sense-organs carrying offerings from the external world, in the form of their experiences, to the mind-and-intellect, has a beauty of gorgeous poetry at its best.

अनुवाक ६ । Section 6.

(Survatmabhavapratipattimargakathanam)

स य एषोऽन्तर्हृदय आकाशः । तस्मिन्नयम् पुरुषो मनोमयः । अमृतो हिरण्मयः । अन्तरेण तालुके । य एष स्तन इवावलम्बते । सेन्द्रयोनिः । यत्रासौ कేశान्तो विवर्तते । व्यपोह्य शीर्षकपालं ।।

मृत्युमो प्रतितिष्ठति । भुव इति वायोः । सुव इत्यादित्ये । मह इति ब्रह्मणि । आप्नोति स्वाराज्यम् । आप्नोति मनःस्पतिम् । वाक्पतिः इच्छकृस्प्पतिः । श्रोत्रपतिविज्ञानपतिः । एतत्ततो भवति । आकाशशरीरं ब्रह्म । सत्यात्म प्राणारामं मन आनन्दम् । शान्तिसमृद्धम् अमृतम् । इति प्राचीन योग्योपास्व ।

[ इति षष्ठोऽनुवाकः ]

Sa ya eshalı antarrudayah akasalıa Tasmın ayam purooshah manomayah a Amruto hıraṇmayaha Antarena taluke. Ya yesha stana ıva avalambate Sendrayonıhı Yatra asau kesanto vivartate. Vyapoha seershakapale

Bhoorıtı agnau pratıtıshtatı. Bhuva ıtı vayau Suvarıtı adıtye. Maha ıtı Brahmantı Apnotı svarajyam Apnotı manasaspatıṃ. Vakpatıh chaksushpatıhı. Shrotrapatıh vıjnapatıhı. Etat tato bhavatı Akasa sareeraṃ Brahma. Satyatma pranaramam mana anandam Santı samruddham amrutam. Itı prache na yogyopasva.

[Iti Shashto Anuvakaha]

सः : that, यः एषः : which, this, अन्तर्हृदये : within the heart, आकाशः : space तस्मिन् : in it, अयम् : this, पुरुषः ; Purushah (entity), मनोमयः : intelligent अमृतः :

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

imperishable, हिरण्मयः : effulgent. अन्तरेण : amidst, (between), तालुके . the palates. यः एषः . that which,

स्तनः : nipple, इव . like, अवलम्बते : hangs down. सः : that, इन्द्रयोनिः : the birth-place of Indra यत्र . where,

असौ . that, केशान्तः . root of hair, विवर्तते is made to part. व्यपोह्य : opening, शीर्षकपाले : the two sides of the skull.

भूः इति : with the word Bhuh, अग्नौ : in fire, प्रति-तिष्ठति : stands. भुवः इति . with the word Bhuvah, वायौ : in air. सुवः इति : with the word Suvah, आदित्ये : in the sun. महः-इति . with the word Mahah, ब्रह्मणि : in Brahman.

आप्रोति : (he) obtains, स्वाराज्यम् : self-effulgence. आप्रोति : (he) obtains, मनसस्पातिम् : lordship over mind. वाक्पतिः : the Lord of speech, चक्षुष्पतिः : the Lord of the eyes, श्रोत्रपतिः : the Lord of the ears, विज्ञान-पतिः : the Lord of knowledge, (भवति : he becomes). एतत् : this, ततः : after that, भवति : becomes, आकाशः : space, शरीरम् : body, ब्रह्म : Brahman (Brahman whose body is space), सत्यात्म-प्राणारामम् : (whose) nature is Truth, who sports in dynamic life (Prana), मन आनन्दम् : whose mind is bliss, शान्ति-समृद्धम् : who is full of peace, अमृतम् : who is immortal. इति : Thus, (हे) . प्राचीनयोग्य : O Descendent of the ancient Yoga-culture, उपास्व : you meditate.

Here in this space within the heart resides the Intelligent, Imperishable, Effulgent ‘Purusha’ or ‘Entity’ Between the palates that which hangs nipple-like (theUvula)—that is the birth-place of Indra, where root of hair is made to part opening the skull in the centre.

With the word Bhoo he stands in fire, in the air the shape of Bhuvah; as Suvah in the Sun , in Brahman as Maha.

He obtains self-effulgence He obtains Lordship over worlds. He becomes the Lord of Speech Lord of the cycs, Lord of the cats. The Lord of the lnowledge Then, he becomes one who has space for the body, whose nature is truth, Who sports in dynamic life, Praṇava, whose mind is Bliss, who is full of peace, who is immortal Thus’ Desecration of the ancient Yoga-culture, meditate

In the last section, the meditation was upon the Taittirī (which were regarded as the worlds, the luminaries, the Prajāpati (etc.), and, here, the object of contemplation is upon the Intelligent, Ever-shining Soul. Earlier we are told that the meditator would, as a result of his upāsanā, become identified, with the Total-mind, while here, the very meditation is directly upon Brahman endowed with attributes sāguṇa Brahman) In the previous meditation the fruit is described as “the Devas offer tribute”, while here the meditator attains Lordship and Independent Sovereignty and gets himself established in one or other of the aspects of the Total-mind, which he may happen to desire at the culmination of his existence in his present mortal coil. Thus, evidently, Sections 5 and 6 together constitute one form of meditation whose various aspects have been dealt with, in two stages in the two sections.

Since, this section under discussion is a continuation of the last, the style becomes too cryptic and, therefore, it is not easy to coax the words to yield their meaning directly to us. Even the Āchāryas, who had brought into their discussions a vast amount of the subtlest intellect, could not, give us a ready explanation of these Mantras without supplementing

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

words and ideas in filling, as it were, the blanks in

this passage. Yawning gulfs separateidea from idea,

and within the section there seems to be many an

unbridgeable gap which would have been better

understood and would have been more palatable had

they been separate sections.

Now, we have to accept the section as it stands.

It expresses: (a) the object of meditation, (b) the

imaginary path of departure of the ego-centric-consci-

ousness from one physical equipment to its own

self-decided ‘fresh woods and pastures new’, (c) the

fruits of constant contemplation upon the different

ideas prescribed in the earlier section, and lastly,

(d) the section is rounded up with a passionate call

to “the worthy descendant of the hallowed Sanatana

Dharma (Pracheena Yogya)·to meditate continuously

and thus grow in his mental amplitude and intellectual

stature. We shall try to go into these four ideas

one by one.

(a) The object of contemplation here is the

Conscious Life Principle, which is descrıbed in this

section as having its abode in the ‘cave of the heart’.

The educated young man is sure to protest against

this crude statement of ıgnorance that the heart has

got a cave, while the day’s Prophets of Biology are

daily opening up hearts with their scissors and scalpels

to declare and to illustrate that there are no holes in

the heart!

In the lyrical poetry, which is the very language

of the Aryan-thought, they did not mean the pumping

otgan when they used the term heart, but what they

meant by the term is the nobler sentiments and the

diviner emotions, which the humane in man is capable

of expressing in its transactions with the world outside.

The nobility of thought, the purity of emotions, the softness of sentiment, the glorious attributes of love, tolerance, mercy, and kindness—these expressed by a man in his life constitute the ‘heart’ of his personality

The Vedantic tradition is that in this heart there is a cave and in the cave is the seat of true intelligence. That is to say, in the poetic language of the Vedas, they only meant that a full man is he who discriminates and rationalises the life and the happenings in it, through an intellect functioning in the fresh atmosphere of a pure heart A mere intellect is considered everywhere as an efficient annihilator of joy.

Ravana in Ramayana and Hitlers and Mussolinis of our own days are examples of intellect divorced from heart emitting death and disaster to others, and ultimately bringing down fire and brim-stone upon themselves Such a crude intellect can serve us only in the field of modern politics, economics and objective sciences But, the touch of the genius, the blessing of a divine glory, can never be achieved by such activities of an intellect unless it is efficiently courted by a healthy and evolved heart. The glory of a Buddha or a Mahatma is that they could bring about in their own times a certain amount of social revival and political integrity, no doubt with well-thought of and highly intellectual schemes and plans of activity, but their work seems to be nobler and diviner than the achievements of the Napoleons and Hitlers inasmuch as the intellect in them functioned through the medium of ‘a full-grown and evolved heart!!

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Thus, it is only in the Room-of-the-Skeleton that the physiologist comes to insist that the heart is the pumping organ in the bosom of living creatures. But even in our colleges if we walk from the laboratory to the library we can find that thinkers and writers have a separate connotation for the term heart. Our Rishis, scientists of living as they were, when they declared that the seat of an evolved intellect is in the heart, they only meant that an intellect functioning from the peaceful arbours of a fully-grown love-heart alone can perceive the unifying chord of life that binds all the variegated plurality into one great garland of love. Truth is experienceable only with an intellect when it is analysing and observing, viewing and discriminating in the halls of the heart, where, in the clean aroma of love, the intellect seems to gather a greater subtlety to meditate and to realise.

(b) The imaginary path of departure.—Every grown-up member of the present generation must have observed repeatedly the members of the last departing in peace and, necessarily therefore there can be no intelligent grown-up man who has not in himself come to ask the why and the how, and has not come to his own rough and ready explanation to this unavoidable and yet most painful of happenings known as death.

In his unscientific, rough-and-ready observations he must have concluded that the dead body is the rejected covering of the dead one and that some 'vital thing', as it were, has left every dead body. The body while living was reacting to the impulses provided by the world outside. It used to entertain

feelings. It had its own ideas and thoughts, and, perhaps, it had some vague feelings or some prominent urgencies created by the restlessness of its Soul. But, the moment it is dead, it seems to function in none of these levels, and, therefore, any thinking person must have concluded that some essence or vitality has departed from that body

This ego-centric conscious living Principle—the Essence behind the sense organs, mind and intellect—the Essence in whose Divine presence the very matter-made container, the body, resists Nature's law of decay, but surrenders itself to that Law the moment this Divine Factor departs—if it thus gets itself divorced from one physical structure, then the lay man would necessarily enquire to know which is the exit for the ego and life to pass out of the body.

When an uninitiated student reaches the feet of the master in the olden days for purposes of his studies in Vedanta the teacher had certainly a very subtle job for himself to do. Any student when he entertains a doubt cannot find the necessary mental peace and intellectual tranquillity for active study or vigilant pursuit of knowledge, until the agitating doubt has been dispelled by some explanation or other. Masters of psychology as they were, the Rishis knew and they invariably cleansed all doubts, with one myth or other, which at that time would look seriously reasonable and fully explanatory to the student.

This technique is fully revealed in the explanations for the pluralistic creation that have been given out by masters in the various Upanishads! Here in

the Mantra we have a very highly imaginative and

serious-looking explanation of the entire path by which

the ego or the mind-and-intellect of the individual

makes its exit from the physical body.

From the heart which is the seat of the mind and

the intellect—and therefore of the ego—there is a

subtle ‘nerve’ which runs upto the crown of the head

along the uvula. The Sanskrit word Nadi has to be

translated as ‘nerve’ in the absence of any better

word, although this is not very correct. Nadi in

Sanskrit, as used in our Sastras, is only a direction

along which life's energies flow. It is said here that

through this vertical Nadi (called in the Yoga Sastras

as "Sushumna") the individual passes and escapes

out of the physical structure at the crown.

(c) Fruits of constant contemplation.—The

third idea that seems to have been expounded in this

section is the very familiar truth, perhaps, very popular

in the Vedic days. This idea is accepted even now

by the modern psychology, namely, "as you think so

you become" We are all, each at any moment the

product of our own thoughts The criminal is he

who entertains constantly criminal thoughts and a

saint is he whose thoughts are saintly. If the thoughts

are interchanged, the saint can sink to the sins of the

former and the criminal can rise to the glories of the

latter. The constant meditation upon Bhoon, Bhavah

and Suvah leaves such a turn and character to the

thought constitution in the individual that at the time

of his death when the mind departs it is propelled by

its own thoughts to realise and live in the experience

of the presiding deities of these Vyahritis. "Such

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55

an Upasaka comes to reside in Fire in the shape of

Bhoo, in the air in the shape of Bhuva, in the Sun as

Suva and in Brahman as Maha," explains Sankara.

Thus fulfilling its constant meditations the ego

of the Upasaka comes to realise and experience its

identity with the Total-mind (Hiranyagarbha). Natu-

rally, he comes to experience the joys of the entire

existence.

(d) The call to the Hindus to live the spiritual

life.—This section is rounded off with a passionate

appeal to all Hindus to live the life of purity, chastity,

and meditation, so that they may realise all the ampler

possibilities that are now lying dormant in man. The

term ‘Pracleenayogya’ is being translated by some as

a mere proper-noun, as the name of the individual

student, but considering the word-meaning we would

like to interpret it as the call of the Rishis to all

"worthy descendants of the ancients"; men of the

ancient Yoga, or the worthy children of the hallowed

Sanatana Dharma

This section concludes therefore the instructions

of the spiritual preceptor Mahachamasya given out

to Sree Pracheenayogya or through him to the entire

world of Hindus !

अनुवाकः ७ । Section 7

व्रतञ्ज्योङ्काररूपेणोपास्सन्

(Brahmanah Pankthasvaroopenopasana)

पृथिव्यन्तरिक्षं गौर्दिशोऽवान्तरदिशा: । असिर्वायु:रादित्यइच्चन्द्रमा

नक्षत्राणि । आप ओषधयो वनस्पतय आकाश आत्मा । इत्यधिभूतम् ।

अथाध्यात्मम् । प्राणो व्यानोदान उदानः समानः । चक्षुः श्रोत्रं मनो वाक्

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

[CHAPTER I

त्वक् । चर्म मांसग स्नावास्थि मज्जा एतदधिविधाय ऋषिरवोचत् ।

पाडक्तं वा इदं सर्वम् । पाडक्तेनैव पाडक्तं स्पृणोतीति ॥

[ इति सप्तमोऽनुवाकः ]

Prithivyantariksham dyauh disah avantaradisaha. Agnih vayuh

adityah chandrama nakshatrani Apah oshadhayo vanaspataya

akasa atma. Ityadhibhootam Atha adhyatmam Prano vyanopana

udanah samanaha. Chakshuh shrotram mano vak twak. Charma

mamsam snavasthu majja Etadadhividhdhaya Rishir avochat. Panktam

va idam sarvam. Panktenaiva panktam sprunoteeti.

[Iti Saptamo Anuvakaha]

पृथिव्यी : the earth, अन्तरिक्षम् : the inter-space, द्यौः :

the sky, दिशः : the main quarters, अवान्तरदिशाः : the

intermediate quarters अग्निः : the fire, वायुः : the air,

आदित्यः : the sun, चन्द्रमाः · the moon, च · and, नक्षत्राणि

: the stars. आपः : the waters, ओषधयः : the herbs,

वनस्पतयः . large trees, आकाश : the space, आत्मा : the

Atman. इति thus, अधिभूतम् : concerning all living

creatures. अथ Then, अध्यात्मम् : upon the Soul. प्राणः :

the Prāna, व्यानः : : the Vyana, अपानः : the Apana,

उदानः : the Udana, समानः the Samanah. चक्षुः : the

eyes, श्रोत्रं : the ears, मनः : the mind, वाक् : the speech,

त्वक् : the touch. चर्म : the skin, मांसम् : the flesh, स्नावा :

the muscles, अस्थि : the bones, मज्जा : the marrow.

पतत् : this, अधिविधाय : analysing and determining,

ऋषिः : the seer, अवोचत् : said पाड्क्तम् : five fold, वा :

verily, इदं : this, सर्वम् all पाड्क्तेन : by one-set of

five-fold grouping, एव : really, पाड्क्तम् : the other set

of pentadic grouping, स्पृणोति : (is) sustained, इति :

thus.

The earth, the sky, the interspace (Antariksham), the

heaven, the main q uarters, the intermediate quarters , the fire,

the air, the sun, the moon and the stars , the waters, the herbs

the forest trees, the space and the Atman—so far, regarding all

living creatures. Then come those respecting the Soul

(Adhyātmam)—The Prana, the Vyāna, the Apāna, the Udāna and

the Samana; the eyes, the ears, the mind, the speech and the

touch; the skin, the flesh, the muscles, the bone and the

marrow. After analysing and determining these, the r̥ṣi said:

"All this is pañktam or five-fold or pentadic. The one set of

five-fold grouping sustains the other set of pentadic group-

ing."

A familiar Vedic metre consisting of five pādas

of five syllables each is technically called as paṅkti,

and the students of that age were extremely familiar

with this pentadic sound arrangement in language.

The attempt of the Ṛṣi here is to prescribe a new

method of meditation by which the attention of the

student is brought to the fact that the world outside

as well as the world within are both arranged in groups

of five. In thus showing that the world of matter

(Adhilokā); the world of elements (Adhidaivikā); the

world of nature (Adhibhautikā); and the world of the

within (Adhyātmik), are all constituted in symmetry,

with a plurality that can be conveniently classified

under five main headings, the Ṛṣi is leading the

child a possibility to meditate upon an easily realis-

able oneness with the within and the without.

It is only a recent tragedy that it has brought into

the fields of Indian thought a medley of Western

note. And this tragedy became an

unmitigated curse when our contemplative minds,

without a firm cultural background, were

in the delirium of a fatal fascination for the

void.

that unless the students are well trained and educated with the idea of the sanctity of the whole, the chances are that the Vedantic philosophy may give them a per-

version in their evaluation of life. Certainly, no sage would have conceived a culture as acme if it were to yield to us only the present state of depravity, disinteg-

ration, devilry and diabolic decadence, which is now our lot as a community in spite of all our learned Sastras, reliable Pundits, divine Saints and holy Sages ! The far-sighted intelligence of the true Hindu Masters has rightly foreseen this possibility and, therefore, they prepared their children even in their early stages by instilling into them the idea of reverence and respect for the world without.

Concluding this grouping of the pentadic classification, the Rishi, standing on the high pedestal of his own realisation, declared with an authority and a power of assertion, born of his own experience of Truth, that the subjective world completes the outer world as much as the outer fulfils itself in the inner.

When the oneness of the Supreme Self is ultimately realised, it is but logical that the outer is also to be experienced as much Divine as the inner; the Divinity which the Vedanta respects is not a crystallised neutron-like centre within, but it is an effulgence of Divinity which pervades and sustains the entire universe of multiplicity, finitude and change.

This idea of the oneness of the within and the without is amply brought out in all our sacred books: in all the Upanishads, in almost all the chapters of the Gita.

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

59

अनुवाकः <। Section 8

ओमिति ब्रह्म । ओमितीदं सर्वेम् ॥

Om iti Brahma Om iti idam sarvam

ओम् : Om, इति : thus, ब्रह्म : Brahman. ओम् : Om,

इति : thus, इदं : this (universe), सर्वेम् : all.

The Sacred Sound OM is Brahman. All this is the syllable

OM.

The mystic syllable OM is the choiceless point

of concentration prescribed for the benefit of the

student of Vedanta who is constitutionally more

intellectual than emotional. In their early attempts

at developing a highly concentrated mind and intellect,

such students too need the help of a symbol or an idea

which has infinite possibilities to entertain them with

its inexhaustible contents. The genius in the Vedic

Masters gave us OM as an idea-idol for the intellect

to worship in the inner temple.

Life, is a constant flow of experiences and these

experiences when observed are found to fall in three

layers, as the experiences of the waking-state, of the

dream-state, and of the deep-sleep-state. The life of

every one of us is certainly influenced by our experiences

in all these three different planes-of-consciousness and

they all have totally a positive influence in moulding

our character and our personality. This would read

slightly strange to the modern young man, because

Western philosophy have all been so far striving to

discover the fundamental in life by an analysis and

close study of merely the life available for us in our

waking-state. It is indeed difficult, if not almost

60

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

impossible, to come at a right evaluation of life and

its meaning by observing only a third of its field.

When the Rishis more and more closely observed

these three fields of experiences they discovered that

an individual identifying with his physical body comes

to live his waking-state of outer gross objects as the

'waker'.

The same entity totally in oblivion of his body

and the outer world, when he exclusively gets identified

with his mind-and-intellect he comes to revel in an

inner world of dream, and experiences subtle objects

of imagination as a 'dreamer'.

When the same entity becomes forgetful of the

body and its outer world, the mind and intellect and

their feeling and thoughts, he comes to enjoy a world

of nothingness, no doubt peaceful and joyful and yet

conscious of nothing but nothingness, he becomes the

'deep-sleeper'.

The 'dreamer's' experiences are totally different

and sometimes even contrary to the 'waker's' life,

and the experience of 'deep-sleeper' is common to all

and seems to have no relationship with the waking

and the dream conditions of experiences. Yet it is

the experience of all of us that we can remember, on

our waking, all about our experiences during the last

waking-state, yester-night's early dreams and also the

peaceful sleep that we had afterwards. From these

observations the Rishis continued their bold and

adventurous theory.

The Law of Memory is that one cannot oneself

remember any experience of another; if one can

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD

61

remember anything at all they are all actual experiences of the individual himself That is to say the Law of

Memory enunciates that the rememberer and the experiencer must be one and the same individual or

else memory is impossible: I can never remember any one of your past experiences : nor can you remember

any one of my experiences.

Applying this Law of Memory as a test we find that the ‘waker’, the ‘dreamer’, the ‘deep-sleeper’

are strangers among themselves, each living in its own world, and has seemingly no passport to travel across

its own frontiers. Since we can remember all our experiences in all the three different planes there must

necessarily be a single Common Factor which was a witness of all the happenings in all the three planes.

To make it clear: let us suppose that we have one idle afternoon, a friend in our drawing-room who

starts revealing a slice of his biography, in which he explains his despairing days in Madras, his disastrous

failures in Madurai and of his glorious successes in Delhi.’ Now we all know that Madras is not Madurai,

nor is Madurai one with Delhi. But our friend is describing his experiences of all the three planes from

his own memory. Again, the despairs of Madras are different from disasters in Madurai and both these sets

of experiences are separate from the glorious successes in Delhi. But our friend is explaining all of them

from his own memory. Under such circumstances we instinctively understand that he, our friend, livec his

despairing days in Madras, and himself went to Madurai where he spent his days of failures, and then

62

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

he himself again left the Madurai-Madras-zone for Delhi, to reap his glorious successes.

Similarly, there must be some Entity within ourselves who is present in the ‘waking-world’, who moves to illumine the ‘dreams’, who is a distant observer in the ‘deep-sleep-world’, and yet, all the same, it is not conditioned by any of these three realms.

The Entity is, as it were, conceived as the “fourth”, who is the Real, the Changeless, the Intelligent Principle.

The Sages of the Vedas after indicating this much to the students of Vedanta want them to experience the Pure Subject who in the waking-world becomes the “waker”, in the dream becomes the “dreamer” and in the sleep becomes the “sleeper”.

The sound OM is constituted of three syllables* A, U and M and while chanting continuously the sound OM in the mind the Upasaha is advised to superimpose upon these three sounds the three different planes-of-consciousness we have been describing so far, namely, the ‘waking’, the ‘dream’ and the ‘deep-sleep’.

The process of superimposition is the same as the principle underlying all idol-worships.

We have already discussed this technique by which the mighty is seen or imagined in the meagre; Siva Tattwa in Siva Linga, the Divine Mother of Knowledge in the River Ganga, Sri Narayana in Saligram, Christ on the Cross !

• For a more elaborate treatment of the subject, refer Swamiji’s Discourses on Mandukya and Karika

The practitioner at his meditation thus trains himself consciously to superimpose the waker-in-him on the sound A; and then, as the sound A merges with the sound U, he gains a mental dexterity to forget totally his identity with the waking-state-experiences and to come to live in meditation consciously the entire identity with the ‘dreamer’ in him; so too, when he comes to the sound M, he is able to black out the entire state of plurality and arrive at a state of semi-conscious experience of all negation. Thereafter his spiritual growth. is assured in proportion to his intensity of pursuit, purity of life and his intelligent sense of detachment.

Even this practice of getting oneself fully conscious and the sound A, U and M each marching into the other and getting telescoped in themselves one into the other, is in itself a severe training for the mind at concentration. The conscious superimpositions unfolded, and again folded up as explained above is an equally all-absorbing occupation for the entire intellectual capacity in us so that the true practitioner, if he be sincere and regular, gains in a very short time, an infinite amount of integration both in his mind and in his intellect equipments

Thereafter the sensitised instruments of the within become subtle in him to dare seek the Pure Awareness which in the grosser three planes illumines the objects and sustains the mirage-personalities of the ‘waker’, ‘dreamer’ and the ‘deep-sleeper’. The silence between two successive OM is the point of concentration which the Yogi attempts to merge with and experience thereby in infinite contents of one split

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TAITTIRIYĀ UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

second—completely divorced from the past, and

entirely free from the mental slavery to the future.

To live thus dynamically free from within and from

without, one second of a human life, is all that is

needed to peep over the vels of ignorance and realise

for ourselves eternally thereafter the True Nature of

the Self, the Godhood.

Here we need not have gone into such an exhaus-

tive treatment since the reference in the text does not

justify such a complete treatment, but we do so with

the hope that it would help us all in our daily medita-

tion.*

As we explained above since OM represents a

symbol for the waking, the dream and the deep-sleep

states of Consciousness, and since our entire life is a

sum total of different experiences in these three planes,

OM the symbol represents ‘All this’. As OM is a

symbol of the Infinite Reality, that is behind the

seeming multiplicity and the painful plurality, it

becomes self-evident that the Rishis were not illogical

or deliberately mystical when they declared this fact

that OM is all this Universe.

Mud is the reality; all pots of all colours, all

shapes, of all sizes irrespective of their contents or

condition are all nothing but mud. Gold is the reality

behind all ornaments, be they thin or thick, be they

intricate or simple, be they for the neck or for the legs,

they are all nothing but gold. The ocean is the

reality, for all the waves; be they mountainous, be

• Swamiji’s Meditation and Life is an exhaustive treatment on the

art of meditation

they small. be they frothy; be they nalcod; all of them

are nothing but the very occan itsclf. It is in this

scnse OM. the idol of the Rcalitv, has been cxplained

in the Vcdas herc as a symbol that rcprescnts "the

entire univcrsc - cxpricsscd within and within as thought, and ideas

ओमित्येतदनुकृति हस वा अप्योश्रावयेत्यास्रावयन्ति । ओमिति

सामानि गायन्ति । ओमिति यास्साणि शांसन्ति । ओमित्यथर्व्यु: प्रतिगरं

प्रतिगृणाति । ओमिति ब्रह्मा प्रसौति । ओमित्यग्निहोत्रमनुजानाति ।

ओमिति नामण: प्रवक्ष्यन्नह ब्रह्मोपापमवनीति । त्रैमैवो पाप्मोति ॥

[ इत्यष्टमोऽनुवाक: ]

Om iti etadanukruti hasma va apyosrarayctyasravayanti Om iti

samani gavanti Om som iti sasrami sansanti Om iti

adlivaryuli pratigaram pratigrunati Om iti Brahma prasauti Om

iti agnihotram anujanati. Om iti brahmanah pravakshyannal

Brahmapapanavanccti Brahmaiso papnoti

[Ili Ashtamo Anuvakaha]

ओम् : Om, इति : thus, एतत् : this, अनुवाक: : con-

sent; हस्मै : is widely known, अपि . also, ओ श्रावय : O

Sravaya, इति : thus, आश्रावयन्ति : they (the priests offi-

ciating at the sacrifice) encourage (his assistants).

ओम् : Om, इति : thus, सामानि : the Sama verses,

गायन्ति : (the) sing. ओम् : Om, सोम् : Som, इति : thus,

यास्साणि : invocations, शांसन्ति : (they) recite. ओम् : Om,

इति : thus, अध्वर्यु: : the Adhvaryu, प्रतिगरम् : word of

encouragcmcnt, प्रतिगृणाति : responds. ओम् : Om, इति : thus,

ब्रह्मा : the chief priest (Brahma), प्रसौति : cxpres-

ses his assent. ओम् : Om, इति : thus, अग्निहोत्रम् : offer-

ing to the fire, अनुजानाति : permits. ओम इति . with

Om, ब्राह्मण: : the Brahmin, प्रवक्ष्यन् : beginning to

6

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER 1

recite the Veda, आह : says, ब्रह्म : the Brahman, उपा-

नोति : may I obtain, ब्रह्म : Brahman, एव : surely, अपा-

नोति : he obtains.

Widely well known it is that OM is uttered to indicate

consent. The priest officiating at the sacrifice encourages his

assistants with the words "O, Sravya". With the chanting of

OM they start their singing of the Sama verses, and with

"OM Som" they recite the Sastras, The Adhvaryu answers,

"OM". With "OM" the chief priest, Brahma, expresses his

assent. One permits the offering of oblation to the fire with

"OM". "May I obtain the Brahman," with this determination

the Brahmin says OM before he begins to recite the Veda;

and he does obtain the Veda.

For the purposes of the Upasana it is necessary

that the meditator (Upasaka) should be provided

with some ideas of divinity and sanctity for his Upa-

sana, or else his mind cannot be persuaded to remain

in a divine attitude of inspiration attaching itself to

the Upasya (the object of contemplation). Here the

advice is given to meditate upon OM, and the teacher

should provide with material to excite and sustain a

spirit of inspiration in the student.

The student is one who had reached the master

after years of devoted pursuit in the ritualistic portion

of the Vedas. He is very familiar with the scene of

sacrifice, the various priests and the words uttered

by them, etc. No student of that time could have

failed to feel divinely inspired when they are reminded

of a Yagna Sala. Therefore, here we find the teacher

is giving the student some definite ideas about the

exact places in the rituals where the various priests

and officials-around the sacred fire familiarly chant

OM with all the priestly dignity.

In the course of the ritualism when the subordinates ask "Shall I do the Homa," or "shall I start chanting," the chief priest gives his consent by saying "OM". Again when a Ṛtvic is sleepy and is missing his chanting the Mantras, in order to encourage him and to bring his attention to the chanting the elder priest would say O, Śravaya". Thus OM is used by the chief priest not only for registering assent (Anumati) but the same sound is used for encouragement (Prerana).

The Mantras of the Sama Veda are sung to tune and the singers of the Saman start their chanting with OM. Portions of Sama Veda not tuned to music are called Sastra and they too are recited with an invocation as "OM Sam." The presiding priest of a Yagna never talks during the Yagna and he sets the sacrifice in motion by saying OM. The sacrificer authorises the priest to start the offering of oblations to the fire, again, by uttering OM. A Brahmin with a desire, "Let me obtain the Vedas," starts chanting the Veda with a devoted OM. Assuredly he obtains Brahman, the theme of the Vedas.

By thus giving some hints of the sacred occasions when the sound OM is used in the divine atmosphere of the rituals, the meditator gets a mental attitude of godliness and sanctity, and the chances are that he will soon develop an amount of self-integration within himself, as a result of his meditations on OM.

अनुवाकः ९ । Section 9.

अपरविद्योपासनम् (Aparavidyopasanam)

ऋतं च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । सत्यं च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । तपश्च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । दमश्च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । शमश्च स्वाध्याय-

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

प्रवचने च । अग्नयश्र स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । अग्निहोत्रं च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने

च । अधितयश्र स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । मानुषं च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च ।

प्रजा च स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । प्रजनश्र स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च । प्रजातिश्र

स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च ।

सत्यमिति सत्यवचा राथीतरः । तप इति तपेनित्यः पौरुशिष्टिः ।

स्वाध्यायप्रवचने एवेति नाको मौद्गल्यः । तद्धि तपस्तद्धि तपः ॥

[ इति नवमोऽनुवाकः ]

Ritam cha swadhyaya pravachane cha. Satyam cha swadhyaya

pravachane cha Tapasca swadhyaya pravachane cha. Damascha

swadhyaya pravachane cha Samasca swadhyaya pravachane cha.

Agnayascha swadhyaya pravachane cha. Agnihotram cha swadhyaya

pravachane cha Athitayascha swadhyaya pravachane cha Manu-

sham cha swadhyaya pravachane cha. Praja cha swadhyaya

pravachane cha. Prajanasca swadhyaya pravachane cha Praja-

tisca swadyaya pravachane cha.

Satyamiti satyavacha ratheetaraha Tapa iti taponityah pauru-

sishtihi. Swadhyaya pravachane eva iti nako maudgalyaha. Taddhi

tapas taddhi tapaha.

[Itı Navamo Anuvakaha]

ऋतम् : what is right and proper, च : and, स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the

truths therein. सत्यम् : truthfulness, च : and, स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the

truths therein. तपः : penance, च and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च

: study of the Veda and propagation of the truths

therein. दमः : control of the senses, च : and, स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the

truths therein. शामः : tranquillity, च : and, स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation af the

truths therein. अग्नयः : (maintenance of) fire, च : and,

SIKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

69

स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein अग्निहोत्रम् : daily offering to fire in fire-sacrifice, च : and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein. अथि-

तिथि: : guests, च : and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein. मानुषम् : what is good for human welfare, च : and, स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein. प्रजा: : dutics towards children, च : and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein. प्रजन: : procreation, च :

and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च : study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein. प्रजाति: : propagation of the race, च : and, स्वाध्यायप्रवचने च ; study of the Veda and propagation of the truths therein, (अनुष्टेयानि : should be practised).

सत्यम् इति : truth alone (is to be strictly practised), सत्यवचा: : Satyavachas, राथीतर: : the son of Rateetara. तप: इति : Penance alone (is to be practised), तपोैनित्य: Thapanitya, पौत्रशिष्ठि: : son of Purusishti. स्वाध्याय-

प्रवचने : study and teaching of the Vedas (are alone to be practised), पच : alone, इति : thus, नाक: : Naka, मौद्गल्य: : the son of Mudgala. तत् . that, हि : verily, तप: . penance, तत् . that, हि : verily, तप: . penance.

The practice of what is right and proper as fixed by the scriptural texts is to be done along with reading the texts oneself and propagating the truths of the same, ‘Truth’, meaning, practising in life of what is understood to be right and proper, is to be pursued along with regular studies and preaching Penance, and study and preaching , control of the senses, and study and preaching; the ‘maintenance of fire’, study and preaching; offering to fires in fire sacrifice, study and preaching of the

Vedas; serving the guests, study and preaching; the performance of duties towards man, study and preaching; duties towards children, study and teaching of Vedas; procreation, study and preaching, propagation of the race, study and preaching;-all these are things to be practised sincerely.

Satyavachas, son of Rathitara, holds that truth alone is to be strictly practised. Thapanitya, son of Paurusishti, declares the penance alone is to be practised. Naka, son of Mudgala, holds the view that the study and preaching of the Vedas are only to be practised; that verily is penance; aye, that is penance.

This portion represents the last concluding lecture given by the teacher to the students in their class-room. This almost represents the corresponding function that we have got in our modern colleges, which goes by the term, valedictory address. The students are told some main ideas of how they should live dedicated to their culture and consistent with what have been taught to them as the goal and the way of life.

A careful analysis of the ideas here and a diligent inquiry into them clearly give us an insight into the special trait in our ancient generation, which caused the whole world to stand aghast, lost in admiration and respect to the Spiritual India! No doubt, the glory of India could not have been because of a few prophets or a handful of saints and sages, however great and divine they might have been. The admiration that historical figures could invoke in their limited life-time could not be a sufficient theme to create the amount of awe at and reverence for India which the distant peoples of the world are paying even today.

SIKSHA VALLI] TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD 71

From this portion it is clear that the present world's tribute to the glory, that was of India, is not the adoration paid to a declared prophet or to some unknown saints, not to a philosophy or a science, but it is a tribute paid to a generation that lived the enduring values of life in society, spreading more and more peace and tranquillity among men. It is not the compelling glory of some rare beings, mighty in their own perfections and glorious in their worlds, but it is the loving reverence that an age feels towards a past generation that knew how to live the right values of life and bring the entire generation to enjoy a greater quota of intellectual poise, mental stability, physical health, social happiness, communal growth, and national well-being.

'In order to create such a consummate scheme of things around and about us, among a people, it must be the duty of the educationists to see that they impart to the growing generation, not mercly some factual knowledge or some wondrous theories but they also must instil into the growing generation ideals of pure living and train the children to live those in their individual life. In short, the secret of our glory is crystallised in this valedictory address and we will find that this portion is more exhaustively amplified in the following section also.

'In this section we find that twelve immortal ideas of living and rules of conduct are given, and on an equal number of times it has been insisted that the student should continue his study of the scriptures and propagation of the immortal ideas of his glorious culture among the people all through his life,

believe that the Hindus are not missionary in their zeal for the propagation of their ideas in the world is not to understand at all the spirit of Hinduism. The Ṛṣhis themselves dedicated their entire life in spreading this culture, and when they sent out their children, the entire educated community was commissioned to serve as preachers in the society.

Earlier also we find that the teacher and the taught practised ritualism to invoke the grace of the Lord demanding of Him infinite wealth for the purposes of opening universities and maintaining the same. Here in the valedictory address the teacher, addressing the students in the final class on the last day of their regular meetings, emphasises the need for continuing their studies till their death and making it a moral obligation on themselves that they should continuously preach the contents of their scripture.

This glorious urge for a studious life bristling with the missionary zeal left us somewhere in the past, and from that cursed time onwards the Hindu decadence had started its pernicious decay. The educated Brahmans learned to misinterpret these words and arrogate to themselves a monopoly of knowledge and viciously traded upon the cultural heritage of their noble land. Mainly guided by a misjudgment and mostly encouraged by the vicious charms of power and ambition they felt it convenient to withdraw knowledge from the majority and share it among themselves, and thus created an exclusive class of intelligentsia blessed with special knowledge and, therefore, with special patronage from the State.

This sad decadence initiated then came to roar its threats in the days of Buddha by which time the sapless ritualistic excesses had made ugly gashes on the serene face of Mother India, and Buddha, as a true son of this culture, rose in revolt at the existing imperfections and launched his campaign against it. Sadly enough his followers misunderstood the message of the Prophet of Peace, and misguided the generation. To retrieve the age back to the Sanatana Dharma Sankara came, and he had to emphasise the essence of our religion in a language which that generation could understand then.

Reading the works of philosophers and the bibles of prophets without reference to their times confuse every later generation and this tragedy happened to a large extent to the students of Sankara also. Thus, in our slavery to words we missed altogether their import and forgot to make restatements of the Truths in the context of our time.

In these days, when Hinduism has sunk into the lowest ebb of its decadence, when foreign ideas and ideologies are very systematically infiltrating into this country and taking hold of the people, and when these tragic ulcers are sure to end the individualistic glory of the Hindu culture, if we don’t bring into the generation and the society the true vitality of the Upanishadic Truth, with an urgency which the situation demands, unavoidable indeed is the Hindu disaster !

Our present idea that the spread of our culture and free discussions on the scripture is the special right of a few and that it should be addressed to only

a few 'specially selected' individuals is an absurd notion which has not the sanction of the Rishis, especially in our age. Here we find that the brilliant students are repeatedly commissioned to continue their study and to be preachers all their life-time.

The Upanishadic style is itself brevity. Even a syllable more than the minimum required is considered as a great sin and, yet, here we find in a small little section twelve repetitions of the same idea (Swadhyaya) study, and (Pravachanam) discoursing upon the Veda with a view to making others understand and appreciate our culture.

For this missionary work the Hindu Rishis never saw any necessity for organising a special class of teachers but it was made a duty of every householder!

In the pursuit of his vocation the householder was not asked to spare any special time or to sacrifice his duties either towards himself, or his own children or to the society, or to the nation or to the world. But while emphasising the need for pursuing his duties on all these levels he is asked to keep continuously in touch with the scriptures and to preach the same truth to others: both by words and by his actions.

'The great qualities that have been insisted are: (a) the practice of what is right and proper as indicated in the scripture (Rutham), (b) living upto the ideals that have been intellectually comprehended during their studies (Satyam), (c) spirit of self-sacrifice and self-denial (Tapas), (d) control of the senses (Dama), (e) tranquillity of the mind (Sama), (f) maintenance of a charitable and ready kitchen at home in the Seva of all deserving hungry fellow-beings (Agni), (g)

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

75

practice of concentration and ritualism through Fire-worship as was in vogue in the society in those days

(Sacred fires), (h) one's duty towards humanity, towards children, towards grand-children and towards

the society.

In the close of the section, three great masters have been quoted who had in the past declared the

most important of the above. The unavoidable quality to be cultivated according to each is either

Satyam or Tapas or study of the Sastras and its efficient spread in the society (Swadhyaya-Pravachanam).

In short, the section reads as though it is a manifesto upon the Hindu way of living in which every

Hindu, striving to live upto his or her sacred culture, is charged to live true to his or her own intellectual

convictions (Satyam), in a spirit of self-denial (Tapas), the study of his sacred bible (Swadhyaya) and the

spread of his culture among the peoples of the world (Pravachanam).

अनुवाकः १०। Section 10

परविद्योपासनम् (Paravidyopasanam)

अहं वृक्षस्य रेरिवा । कीर्तिः पृष्ठं गिरेरिव । ऊर्ध्वपवित्रो वाजिनीव स्वमृतमस्सि । द्रविणं सवर्चसम् । सुमेधा अमृतोक्षितः । इति त्रिशङ्कोर्वेदानु-वचनम् ॥

( इति दशमोऽनुवाकः )

Aham vrukshasya reriva. Keertih prushtam gireriva. Oordhwapavitro vajineeva swamrutamasmi. Dravinam savarchasam.

Soomedha ámrutokshitaḥ.' Iti trisankorvedanuvachanam.

[Iti Dasamo Anuvakaha]

76

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

अहम् : I, वृक्षस्य : of the Tree, रेरिव : stimulator.

कीर्तिः : face (glory), पृष्ठम् : peak, गिरे: : of the mountain

इव : like. ऊर्ध्वःपवित्रः : High and Pure (am I), वाजिनि :

in the Sun (the essence), इव : like, सु-अमृतम् : the

excellent, immortal being, अस्मि : am I. द्रविणम् :

power and wealth, सर्वचसम् : effulgent with intution.

शुमेधा : intelligent, अमृतः : the imperishable, अक्षितः :

the undecaying (am I). इति : thus, त्रिशङ्को: : of the seer

Trisanku, वेदानुवचनम् : the sacred recitation.

"I am the stimulator of the tree of the Universe. My

face is as high as the peaks of the mountains. High and pure

am I like the Essence in the Sun; I am the power and the

wealth, effulgent with intuition. Intelligent, imperishable and

undecaying am I"—this is the sacred recitation of Trisanku,

after he realised the Truth.

Since this section has no direct bearing with what

had preceded and, also we shall find, has no intimate

bearing with what is to come, Sankara very intelli-

gently interprets this section as a Mantra for

recitation just before the daily reading of scriptures

(Swadhyaya) which had been 12 times repeatedly

insisted in the previous section. This repeated

insistence in the last section of both the study and the

dissemination of the knowledge is termed by Sankara

as Brahma Yagna.

Since the study of the Vedas is to be pursued by

every one all through his life, and since the students

are going out into the world commissioned to live as

healthy social beings, they are soon to enter the

house-holders’ tribulations. Tossed by the daily

circumstances of life, no individual human creature

can maintain his mental equipoise in life, which is so

necessary for the study of the highly philosophical

SIKSA VALLI] TAITTIRlYA UPANISAD

77

literature. Without some special exercises in mental

reconditioning.

As states of mind can easily be kept in serene

atmosphere - in meditation, can maintain in

this required inner poise: later on too, at the time of

their retirement. Ordinarily, can teach them

to calm the mind, mental poise. For the

surplus profit - and with our plentiful

apparatus - we fighting the mentality as in the

fixed seats - or in the state of mental

stability - - - - - - - - - - - -

spiritual - - - - - - - - - - - -

In recent years a measured mind be broadcast

broadcast - - - - daily, can - - - - on the

broadcast - - - - - - - - - - - -

science - - - - - - - - - - - -

virtue - - - - - - - - - - - -

the - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hatha - - - - - - - - - - - -

a foolish - - - - - - - - - - - -

because - - - - - - - - - - - -

vitez - - - - - - - - - - - -

world - - - - - - - - - - - -

due - - - - - - - - - - - -

this - - - - - - - - - - - -

virtue - - - - - - - - - - - -

fitness - - - - - - - - - - - -

---

thus - - - - - - - - - - - -

enjoy - - - - - - - - - - - -

etc - - - - - - - - - - - -

its - - - - - - - - - - - -

enjoy - - - - - - - - - - - -

etc - - - - - - - - - - - -

out - - - - - - - - - - - -

all - - - - - - - - - - - -

The words, that 'express thoughts in the heights of their inspiration, do not merely convey their literary meaning even in ordinary life as it is evident from many passages in dramas when they come to the 'crisis'. Here also we find the words in themselves do not, by their dictionary-meaning, convey the full import.

Again, since we have now drifted away from the vast oceans of the resplendent Hindu culture to the straits of secularism and sectarian prejudices, we cannot understand very easily the implications of these words which have the flavour of the Vedic tradition.

There is nothing strange about it. If the great Rishis were to come down and move with us now they too may not find it easy when we talk to them in our language and familiar expressions. Expressions like "atom-bombed the resolutions", or "shelled with arguments" or "met-at-tea", etc., would be confusing enough for them since they are uninitiated into the significance of the "atom-bombed" or "shelled" or "at-tea".

Similarly, here, when we are reading some expressions of the Rishis which were at that time very familiar to the students we generally stand confused and lost.

"I am the stimulator of the tree".—If this be, according to Hinduism, the divine Self-realisation of the great sage, then surely there will be none here who would pride himself at being a Hindu; for, to be a "stimulator of a tree" is not quite satisfactory for us even if we be extremely imaginative.

This confusion arises from our incapacity to understand what exactly is the connotation meant by the teachers when

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TATTIRĪYA UPANISHAD 79.

they used the term “trce”. It is such cxpressions in

our scriptures that confuse the West and confounds

the products of the West that have recached to live in

the East. We should certainly sympathise with them;

they are disgustingly too low to descryve our hatred or

wrath.

When we get more and more acquainted with the

entire Vedic literature, the scriptural connotation in

which the term “tree” is used, becomes clear. It is

the tradition of Hindu thought from the early days of

the Vedas, to consider the entire universe in the form

of a trec. Not only in the Vedas, but we find the

same tradition of referring to this universal symbol,

both in its erect and inverted positions, in Buddhistic,

Gnostic, Hermitic, Christian and Islamic religious

books also. The Martrayopanishad speaks of one

Aswātha-trēe identified with OM. The Rug-Veda

asks, “what is that tree out of which heaven and

earth are fashioned?” In Mundakopanishad, again,

there is the picture of the tree referred to. In Maha-

bhārata, in its Aswathamaparva, we find a full des-

cription of the Brahma-Vrksha. In Vrsnu Sahas-

ranāma ‘Tree’ is counted as one of the names of the

Supreme Lord. In the later literature the conception

changed and we find the same tree standing inverted

representing the entire finite world of plurality. The

Kathopanushad* conceives it, Swethaswara Upani-

shad refers to it, and in Gita we find an exhaustive

description of it,

“The finite world of plurality is conceived of as an

Aswatha-tree because a banyan-tree can be considered

• Refer Swamiji’s Discourzes on Kathopanishad–VI

on Mundakopanishad–III. 1; and also his

Ch. XV.

relatively immortal, due to its long days of existence.

Again, there is no single tree which can be otherwise quoted which has such a large number of branches and leaves, which are ever in a state of agitation with so many adventitious roots flowing out of its branches to embrace the Mother Earth and to make its shady grounds a thousand-pillared hall of noisy confusions!

The very name of the tree, Aswatha, also, has in the construction of its nomenclature, a meaning well suited for the purposes; Swa means "tomorrow", tha means ‘existence’; Swatha means, therefore, ‘that which exists tomorrow also’; when the negative-sense A is prefixed, it becomes A-swatha meaning "that which will not exist tomorrow"—that which is finite.§

This Tree of Universe representing in itself the entire world of objects is vitalised by the Eternal, All-pervading Consciousness which is the goal of Rishis, struggling on the path of Self-realisation Rishi Trisanku was successful in rediscovering him-self to be this spiritual perfection, and the passage now under discussion is the song of ecstasy and joy that gurgled out from the blissful experience of this God-man.

He is here struggling to stammer out in words the divine inspiration that he has lived in his moment of realisation, and therefore, we find that the Mantra does not read as a statement of fact. The maimed words, broken and hesitating, though literally they express nothing, in their voiceless significances indi-

§ Refer Discourses on Mundakopanishad

cate an occan of an extremely subjective experience.

He crics "I, the Pure Self, the Conscious Principle,

the Infinite Reality, is the stimulator in the entire

Tree of Universe, I am the sap of life, wherever it

is manifest, from the lowest to the highest."

Necessarily, therefore, "my glory is as high as

the peaks of the mountains," inasmuch as wherever

there is the thrilling glow of pulsating life felt it is

only the "throb of my glory," it is "the song of my

fame," in effect says the great Rishi.

The Conscious Life Spark within ourselves or

the purity of the individual concerned is untouched

by animalism since Awareness as such is only the

Illuminating Principle presiding within the being.

Good and bad, sin and virtue are conditions of the

mind and the qualities of the thoughts. But the con-

sciousness that illumines these conditions or qualities

within ourselves should certainly be untouched by and

separate from these objects illuminated; for, it is a

law in nature that the illuminator is always separate

from the illuminated.

The Sun's rays may bless both a crime perpet-

rated or a divine ritualism performed; it may illumi-

nate at once a bin of filth at one end and a pan of

rose water at another place. The illuminator, the

Sun, being separate from both these objects, neither

of them could condition the light or the source of light,

the Sun. Similarly, the consciousness illuminates the

condition of the mind of the individual whether good

or bad and the Life Spark in Itself is ever the Divine,

the Perfect, the Blissful. It is in no way conditioned

by the qualities or the textures of the passing thoughts

or the entertained ideas.

Therefore, the great saint who comes to rediscover

in himself that he is none but this Divine Centre in

his real nature and thereby experiences himself to be

the heart of the universe, cries, from the balcony of

his own experience, "Pure am I, like the essence in

the Sun."

The sceptic cannot and will not understand the

benefits accrued by such a Self-realisation, since to

him life without intentions is profitless. There are

people amidst us according to whom life has a mean-

ing and a purpose only so long as we have a fair

chance of reaping our moans of the morning hours,

hated thoughts of the midday-hours and the chances

of fighting tooth and nail all through the evenings !

They cannot appreciate nor can they live the quieter

joys of the pregnant moments of peace, or of the tran-

quillity of the inner poetry, or of listening to the

warbling notes of joy and cheer, that gurgles out from

the bosom that is at rest ; from a soul that is at peace

with itself.

As an answer to such gross creatures who may

suspect the futility of this consummation of evolution,

Trisanku declares, "I am the Power and wealth ".

Ordinarily in life man is constantly struggling to

acquire wealth and having become wealthy we find

that the rich man is not contented unless he can pur-

chase power with his wealth. Understanding this

fundamental weakness in man Trisanku rightly

declares that to know ourselves, to complete our

rediscovery, to realise our divine nature, to live as the

god in ourselves, is the only harbour wherein the frail

mind shall no more be exposed to the storms of

contentions and the surging waves of desires for wealth

or temptations for power. To realise and live as the

"tree of the entire universe" is to

realise at once the wealth, power, joy and perfection

that is enjoyed and experienced by every living

creature of all time (past, present and future) and at

all places—all at once.

"Intelligent, imperishable, undecaying am I."

This is the final explosive expression by which

the choking experience in the boson of the great

R̥ṣi seems to burst out in expressing his lived bliss

of Perfection. In order to show this Infinite, since

language has no sway in that realm, all that the

prophet or the saint can do is, as it were, to stand at

the frontiers of the finite and with a pointing finger

indicate the Infinite in the language of contrast. To

every one of us the finite alone is the land of our

known experiences. We all know that the finite world

of matter is inert, perishable and decaying, and

therefore, using the opposite words, as "Intelligent,

imperishable and undecaying," Triśaṅku is helping to

convey to us the ‘otherness’ of the Infinite from what

we know and experience in ourselves at present—in

our ego-centric misunderstandings.

To remember thus, our Real Nature as lived and

experienced by Triśaṅku, is the most efficacious

technique in turning ourselves to the highest purity

and to the greatest sense of detachment from our false

values. When an individual recites this with sincerity,

faith and conviction, it is evident that he will gain a

84

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

sufficient amount of inward poise and tranquillity—which are surely necessary for a profitable study of scriptures daily.

अनुवाकः ११ । Section 11

वेदमनूच्याचर्योऽन्तेवासिनमनुशास्ति । सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । आचार्याय प्रियं धनमाहृत्य प्रजातन्तुं मा व्यवच्छेत्सीः । सत्यान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । धर्मान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । कुशलान्न प्रमदितव्यम् । भूयै न प्रमदितव्यम् । स्वाध्यायप्रवचनाभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् ।

वेदम् : Veda, अनूच्य : having taught, आचार्य: : the teacher, अन्तेवासिनम् : (to) the disciple, अनुशास्ति : enjoins. सत्यम् : truth, वद : speak. धर्मम् : duty, चर : perform. स्वाध्यायात् : from the study of the Veda, मा : never, प्रमदः : be heedless about (swerve). आचार्याय : for the teacher, प्रियम् : agreeable, धनम् : gift (fee), आहृत्य : having given, प्रजातन्तुम् : line of descendents, मा : not, व्यवच्छेत्सी: : (you) severe. सत्यात् : from truth, न : never, प्रमदितव्यम् : err. धर्मात् : from duty, न : never प्रमदितव्यम् : fall. कुशलात् : from what is your own welfare, न : never, प्रमदितव्यम् : be indifferent. भूयै : (your) prosperity, न : never, प्रमदितव्यम् : neglect. स्वाध्याय-प्रवचनाभ्याम् : from the study of the Vedas and propagation of the truths therein, न : never, प्रमदितव्यम् : be indifferent.

Having taught the Vedas, the preceptor enjoins the pupil: “Speak the truth, do your duty, never swerve from the study of

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

85

the Veda, do not cut off the line of descendants in your family,

after giving the preceptor the fee he desires Never err from

truth, never fall from duty, never overlook your own welfare,

never neglect your prosperity, never neglect the study and the

propagation of the Veda."

This chapter represents, we may say, the "con-

vocation address" delivered to the students when

they were returning home from the ancient gurukula-

universities. This section represents the Hindu

commandments, and the entire address systematically

concludes in seven waves of thought each following

the other with a scientific rhythm which is the very

melody of the Hindu thought.

This section can be considered subject-wise under

five sub-headings : (1) Advices ruling one's own mode

of living with reference to the society and oneself,

(2) regulating one's relationship with the last genera-

tion and the present elders; (3) relationship with

oneself and one's teachers; (4) one's attitude towards

the learned and the wise in society; (5) charity and

the 'laws of giving'; (6) remedy for doubts regarding

one's duty and conduct in life; and (7) doubts regarding

one's relationship with others falsely accused in the

world.

Concluding these seven specific waves of

progressive thoughts the teacher concludes that these

commandments are to be strictly followed by every

true Hindu if he is worth the name. A careful study

of the implications of these should give us an inkling

to the secret by which we could maintain such subtle

and divine culture amidst us so successfully for such

a long period of unbroken history. Our covetable

success in a competitive world, where ordinarily the

devil governs more than God, must have been again because of these values of life upon which the society was taught to live.

After the studies, before the children are let out to meet their destinies in their independent individual life as a social being, the teacher gives his exhortation which comprises in itself, we may say, “Vedanta in practice”. The entire wealth of knowledge gained by the R̥ṣi in their experiments with the world-of-objects, the world-of-thoughts and the world-of ideas have been here brought from the temples and libraries to the home and the fields! The modern half-educated are tempted to cry down Vedanta as an impracticable theory; this can be only the sad moaning of one who has not read this portion—the crystallized essence of Hinduism—with sufficient poise and peaceful thoughts.

In this exhortation the first wave of thoughts comprises the Guru’s advice to the students about their relationship with society. “Speak the truth”; Truthfulness consists mainly in uttering a thought as it is actually perceived, without hypocrisy or any vulgar motive to do injury to others. Ordinarily, a liar is he who has not the moral courage to express what he sincerely feels. This disparity between thought and words creates in his mind a habit to entertain ‘self-cancellation’ of thoughts. This impoverishes the individual’s mental strength, will power, and determinative dynamism. Such an exhausted mental character is too weak thereafter to make any progress in life’s pilgrimage.

and an essential meaning a

Dharma is a word which has

no corresponding word in English. Somebody in

who followed him had merely repeated the same

word, traditionally Dharma is 'righteousness'.

But as it is too meagre a word to carry the load of

meanings which is the content of the word Dharma.

All those fundamental values of life which are

universally recognised at all times,-which

form the rock-bottom foundations of all efforts at

moral rearmament and all efforts of ethical perfection;-which constitute the corner-stones for all

temples, churches, mosques, synagogues and gurud-

waras;-which are the eternal duties of every man who

wants to live upto the full dignity of the human and

strive consistently to grow into his fullest stature as

a Godman in this very life In this ampler meaning

we may, for our convenience, and not in satisfaction,

translate Dharma as duty.

Hinduism is built upon duties and not on rights.

The European way of thought has moulded itself

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upon the ‘principle of rights‘ and they have been

growing through arrows and boomerangs, bullets and

shells, to reach the present when they are threatening

each other with Atomic weapons and secret instru-

ments of mutual slaughter, to demand and maintain

the rights of each against the rights of the others.

They are demanding rights; rights are to be taken;

to be acquired; to be preserved. A civilisation that

is based upon ‘right‘ must necessarily come to

clamour and fight; and the instincts of acquiring and

hoarding, keeping and maintaining should develop

in that society, and should ultimately upset the peace.

On the other hand the glorious Sanatana

Dharma of the Hindu recognises his right ‘to do his

duties‘ as the fundamental privilege in life. When

it is duty to be performed, a generation that has

understood it, will be trained to demand of life only

ample chances to fulfil their duty. Duty therefore

develops the spirit of giving, the urge to be charitable,

than the lust to hoard or the anxiety to keep.

The growing buds of the generation, as they are

leaving the teacher‘s presence, are advised to keep to

this glorious principle of fulfilling their duties towards

the society, towards their relations, and towards

themselves.

The students are not insisted to pay their fees

before they entered the Gurukula-institution. That

was not the rule in ancient India. Education was

free A student entering the portals of education was

a pleasant challenge as it were to the teacher who

took up the challenge and saw to it that he made out

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

89

of that raw material an efficient and independent

earning member of the society.

After his education the boy was not thrown out

into the world of tensions and chaos from which he

was so long and so efficiently kept away in the Guru-

kula, then, as today we keep them in the libraries and

laboratories; on the other hand, the educational

system was so organised as to work perfectly in unison

with the demands in the society and the needs of living

at that time, so that a child from the day he had

walked out of his teacher's protection, he proved

himself to be a fully trained soldier to fight the battle

of his life.

The Guru Dakshinā (the fee) was not even

demanded of the boys when they were leaving the

institution after their education. The Gurukula-

system seemed not to justify itself to demand fees simply

because they had educated the boys. The system was

thorough and they were so confident of the results

that they insisted that they would be receiving the

payment only from the first independent income of the

individual!

As soon as the student reaches home, he plunges

into work and the early savings that he could make,

entirely go towards the Guru Dakshinā. And who

among them could forget their own days of Gurukula

activities and the fact how, during their days, the old

students maintained the Rishi-universities? Thus

the boys of each generation continued subscribing

towards the Gurukula-funds almost year after year or

at least during the various stages of their life.

After paying the fees the student is advised to enter the householder's life by marrying a fit lady and he is advised that he should live with her enjoying a perfectly controlled indulgence. It is one of the duties of the Hindu householder that he should not misunderstand his early education, with its over-emphasis on Brahmacharya, and continue sex-control even in his householders's life, because such a self-control may amount to sex-suppression in the majority of cases. He is advised that he should not break the line of descendants.

The sequence of thoughts as expressed here, "After giving the preceptor his fees, do not cut off the thread of progeny," implies the healthy suggestion for us how best to plan our life. After education, first of all, be economically independent, learn the trade, create a market, assure a comfortable income, and then as the next duty in life, the scripture says, marry and maintain the line of descendants in the family.

This is followed by a series of warnings not to swerve from truthfulness, duty, personal welfare and prosperity. If the Hindus had correctly understood this portion and pursued this most effective and necessary part, they would never have come to the plight to which they have today sunk. A devoted Hindu has come to express, now-a-days, in the ways of his living and in his conduct in life, such a great amount of impotency, langour and dullness, that he is no better than a walking corpse moving about with no self-assertion or personality. Like an idle dry leaf kicked about here and there according to the whims of the passing breeze, roams and exists the modern

bhakta! This is against the principles and theories propounded by our Seers and Prophets. This idea is very well brought out by the irreplaceable commandment “Do not swerve from cleverness, nor from your prosperity.”

The above-mentioned qualities like truthfulness, etc., may become, instead of creditable virtues, a liability on the devotee especially in a world of criminals which recognises no higher values of existence. In our unintelligent insistence to follow blindly these instructions we are apt to be made a fool of and therefore, here, the Rishis are advising the children of that age that a Hindu should not allow himself to be used as a cat’s-paw by others, nor should a Hindu permit others to trade upon his nobler virtues. Kusalath na pramadatavyam “never swerve from cleverness”, can be used as the watch-word for the Hindu spirit of living!

‘Never neglect your welfare’ is the commandment and yet, how differently we have understood our own sacred way of living. We have come to mis-understand our ethics and spiritual literature to be codes of behaviour by which we can easily become a prey to every diplomacy, and ultimately sink into wretched poverty and miserable destitution! This is exactly what we are seeing around us. On the other hand the Rishi advised the students, as they went out to face their individual situations of life, that they should not on any score neglect their welfare—not, of course, for the purpose of self-aggrandisement nor to corner the entire wealth of the society, creating unequal distribution of wealth and the consequent

poverty and sorrows of the country. They were

asked to be prosperous so that they would be able to

serve others in selfless charity; the rules of charity

follow soon in this very section as the fourth wave of

thoughts

The above ideas of truthfullness, duty, cleverness

and prosperity cannot be healthily developed and

efficiently maintained unless we have the necessary

spiritual stamina in ourselves and in the society.

Therefore, it is reasserted that we must pursue the

study of the scriptures and make it a life's mission to

spread those truths among ourselves with a burning,

irresistible, missionary zeal.

देवपितृकृकार्याभ्यां न प्रमदितव्यम् । मातृदेवो भव । पितृदेवो भव । आचार्यदेवो भव । अतिथिदेवो भव ॥

Devapitṛkaryābhyāṁ na pramaditavyam Matṛdevo bhava.

Pitṛdevo bhava. Āchārya devo bhava Atithi devo bhava

देव-पितृकार्याभ्याम् : from your duties towards Gods

and departed souls (ancestors), न : not, प्रमदितव्यम् :

swerve. मातृ-देवः : he to whom mother is a god, भव :

you be. पितृ-देवः : he to whom father is a god, भव :

you be. आचार्य-देवः : he to whom the preceptor is a

god, भव : you be. अतिथि देवः : he to whom the guest

is a god, भव : you be.

Never swerve from your duties towards Gods and towards

the departed 'souls' (Manes) May the mother be, to thee, a

God May the father be, to the€, a God. May the preceptor

be, to thee, a God. May the guest be, to thee, a God

In those days of the Upanishads, the Vedic

literature did not give any method of worship upon

a form. Their gods were, except fire, all conceptions

'SIKSHĀ VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

93

of the unmanifcst Power of Naturc. The tcachers of

that cra must have noticed the difficulties experienced

by the beginncrs, who, in their youthful days waging

thcir battlc of lifc, could not find enough poisc of mind

or intcllcctual shai pness to dcvote thcmsclves in subtle

meditation upon the formless Truth. Some idol, or

living cxpression of divinity, was to be supplied for

thcir conccntration, to scrvce them as a source of

constant and unbroken inspiration.

The principlc of idol worship, though not evolved

as such, as in later times, it is implicit in the principle

of Upasana where, as we have said carlier, the attempt

is to scc the mighty in the meagne. Thus, as a process

of constant Upasana the student is told that he has

to be all through his lifc onc to whom his parents are

expressions of godly qualitics.

We need not necessarily take this idea only in its

limited scnsc. In its ampler implications it can be an

exhortation of the Rishis to the members of the present

generation, that, in their youthful vigour though they

are inspired to dash themselves forth into progressive

plans for a greater future, they need not totally

condemn and reject the last generation of elders in the

society. The youth have always the urge to move

forward and the energy to drag their present to the

futurc, but, in so doing they should try to respect and

reverc the wealth of experience that the old have with

them as a result of their own lived long life.

The last generation lingering with us need not be

conceived as the authority and the only people who

have the-vision of the future; but, at the same time

they need not be totally rejected, discarded or

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ridiculed. The Rishi means that the youth should be made to work respecting the old.

यानि अनवद्यानि कर्माणि । तानि से वितव्यानि । नो इतराणि ।

यानि अस्माकं सुचरितानि । तानि त्वयोपास्यानि । नो इतराणि ॥

Yāni anavadyāni karmāṇi. Tāni sevitavyāni No itarāṇi.

Yāni asmakam sucharitāni Tāni tvayopasyāni No itarāṇi.

यानि : such, अनवद्यानि : actions free from blemishes,

कर्माणि : actions. तानि : those, से वितव्यानि : must be done. नो (न+उ) : and not, इत राणि : others. यानि : which,

अस्माकं : pertaining to us, सुचरितानि : virtuous actions. तानि : those, त्वया : by you, उपास्यानि : must be followed. नो (न+उ) : and not, इत राणि : others.

Let only those actions that are free from blemishes be done-and not others You must follow only those virtuous actions which are irreproachable-and not others.

At the conclusion of this second wave-thought, the declaration of the teacher gains for itself a roar of sincerity almost unequalled in any other religious literature in the world, both in its modesty and selfless dedication to Truth. Philosophy being a subjective science and since its blessing can be only gained by us by actually living it, apart from its logic and reason, the theory must have the dynamism of the teacher with it to inspire the student at all times. If this reverence and respect for the teacher be not there-the moment suspicion and doubt creep into our minds regarding the purity and sincerity of the teacher-the philosophy that is declared becomes immediately impotent in our hearts. Therefore, the teacher says,

"follow only the un repreachable qualities in us".

This does not mean that the teacher is full of viccs, but the R̥sha is extra careful to avoid all possibilities of any misjudgment. Even when an individual has no weakness, it is possible that an observer may project his own mental evaluations and come to criticise and condemn the other. As a remedy to all such mental mischiefs the teacher, accepting this natural weakness in man, exhorts him to follow only those irreproachable qualitics, habits and conducts noticed in the teacher. “Not others”—meaning if there be any unhealthy trait, even though the teacher may practice it, on no score should it be copied and followed by a truc student of this culture.

This portion clearly shows the attitude which the teacher maintained in the presence of the students. They did neither for a moment pose themselves as superhuman, nor as colossus of purity, strength or divinity. They behaved among the students as though they were mere mortals with all possible weaknesses which a mortal is heir to.

Wearing this look of the ordinary, behaving as any ordinary mortal, these men of perfection faced their students, and this in fact, was the secret of their success in spreading this transcendental culture among a people living the life's contentions in their day-to-day existence.

Greater the teacher, and firmer his realisation we find, easier he comes down to move shoulder to shoulder with the students in a spirit of easy camaraderie and unmistakable friendship. The formalities of distance between the teacher and the taught are insisted upon and maintained only by those uncertain

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[CHAPTER I

masters who have not the confidence in their own knowledge or the charity to remember their own days of confusion and (who have) not come to sympathise fully with their students.

This portion clearly shows again that, whether it be an individual or an institution, they are not sanctioned by our Sastras to continue indulgence in any weakness even though their teachers had practised it. Smoking of tobacco, ganja, etc., indulging in non-vegetarian diet, even drinking alcohol are being practised today in this country by individuals and institutions, and their justification seems to be that their teacher once upon a time did indulge in these. The portion now under discussion clearly dispels any doubt upon the point whether such indulgences are justifiable or not. A weakness is always a weakness and no seeker has a right to perpetuate it; no institution should entertain the audacity to argue for it.

ये के चाऽसच्छ्रेयांसो ब्राझ्णाः। तेषां त्वयाडासनैन प्रश्वसितव्यम् ॥

Ye ke cha asmacchreyamso Brahmanaha. Tesham twaya asane na prasvasitavyam.

ये के : those who are, च : and, अस्मात् : than us, श्रेयांस: : more distinguished, ब्राझ्णा: : Brahmins. तेषाम् : of them, त्वया : by you, आसनेन : in discussion, प्रश्वसितव्यम् : not even (a word) be breathed, (आसनेन : offering seat, प्रश्वसितव्यम् : should be worshipped).

You must not even breathe a word when those who are more distinguished than you are in discussion on spiritual matters (or, you must offer seat for superiors and worship them with acts of reverence and love).

In this fourth wave of thought the teacher's declaration codifies the relationship of his students with other Gurus in the land who are equally if not greater than their own teachers. There was no spirit of rivalry between the teachers; in fact, they all worked as a team serving as preachers nourishing our culture and spreading the Hindu glory round the globe. But the students may, it is always natural, in their overenthusiasm and misunderstood devotion to their Guru, come to look down with contempt upon other teachers in the land. This sectarian attitude and preferential reverence is looked down with a reproachful eye by the Rishis of old. They advised their students to follow a healthier and more tolerant attitude.

Tvayasanena prasvasitavyam.—The arrangement of words here is a masterly manipulation of sounds in such a way that in themselves they can be made to mean two ideas which are both instructions to the students. Tvaya + Asanena + Prasvasitavyam is one way of dissolving the words, in which case it means that “the master should be entertained with seat and other things provided by you”.

The same can be dissolved as Tvaya + Asane + Na + Prasvasitavyam in which case it will mean, “Not even a word should be breathed out by you when they are seated in their assembly for discussion”. In the former case it is an advice on how you should receive and entertain with respect and devotion all teachers, and in the later case it is a prescription of the code of behaviour that one should observe in an assembly of teachers who are discussing philosophical

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matters among themselves. The idea is that you must be all ears and eyes, when the wise talk, and not full of noise and tongue. When such teachers discuss, there are plenty of ideas which one must try to absorb and later on to be discussed upon and assimilated properly. If one were to start discussion and arguments in the very beginning one is apt to lose oneself in a morass of words and get oneself perhaps choked and drowned in it.

श्रद्धया देयम्। अश्रद्धया देयम्। श्रिया देयम्। ह्रिया देयम्। भिया देयम्। संविदा देयम्॥

Shraddhaya deyam. Ashraddhaya deyam. Shriya deyam. Hriya deyam. Bhiya deyam Samvida deyam.

श्रद्धया : with faith, देयम् : gifts should be given. अश्रद्धया : without faith, देयम् : gifts should not be given. श्रिया : in plenty, देयम् : gifts should be given. ह्रिया : with modesty, देयम् : (they) should be given. भिया : with sympathy, देयम् : (they) should be given. संविदा : with knowledge, देयम् : they should be given.

Gifts should be given with faith, it should never be given without faith ; it should be given in plenty, with modesty, with sympathy.

As we have noticed earlier, the Hindu culture is essentially based upon the sacrifice implied in duty and not upon acquisition which is implied in rights. The very structure in Hinduism recognises the house-holder’s existence only as a necessary training in curbing his animalism and purifying the greater heights of spiritualism. Cultural perfection was the goal. And every breath in the individual, every activity in his life, every thought in him was marshalled

and disciplined to bring out the symphony of the perfect Hindu culture. As such the houscholder was trained to live a life of carning and hoarding, mating and breeding, building and keeping only as a field of

activity for him to train himself in the values of love, kindness, service and charity. Ultimately the individual was valued upon the spirit of sacrifice he could show towards the finite, when the Call of the Infinite reached to smother his bosom.

Naturally, therefore, the teacher has to give some instruction as to how charity can best be practised. In the name of charity many a thing is ordinarily done in society which destroys both the giver and the recipient: the giver gains in his vanity, while the recipient becomes an irredeemable idler and a moral wreck.

In order to avoid such a social suicide the master had to instruct the students on the ‘Laws of Giving’, lest it should kill the soul of this consummate social law

Gifts should be given with faith.—Faith is not what we generally understand it to mean. In society faith is generally understood as some idea to be swallowed without questioning, without enquiry. To be under the intellectual tyranny of an individual or a class is not faith according to Vedanta.

This has been made clear in Vivekachudamani by Sri Sankaracharya. Sankara says that to judge and understand rightly the full import of the advices of teachers and the depth of the declarations in the sacred text-books, and thereafter, to struggle in our thoughts and activities constantly to attune ourselves to these intellectual judgments is called faith.

Therefore, charity is acceptable only when it, toes the line with our own independent intellectual beliefs and convictions. Unless we are convinced of the nobility, and unless we have come to a correct and independent judgment upon the worthiness of the cause, charity should not be practised. There is a school of intellectual idlers who believe that our charity must be as open and as free as the fruit trees in an orchard that give their fruits to all, without questioning.

This is not acceptable to the Science of Vedanta which is not trying to cultivate fruit trees. Its aim is to cultivate the thinking animal called ‘man’. Therefore, the Rishi pointedly condemns the opposite idea by the positive declaration “gifts should not be given without faith”. Every benefactor has the right, nay, has a duty to enquire into the bonafides of the cause which he is trying to patronise.

Again, a miserly giving will not benefit either the giver or the receiver and, therefore, it is said that having come to judge a cause to be deserving, give it your entire patronage: ‘give in plenty, with both hands give!’

This very charity can bring into us feelings of egoism and vanity, and these are being avoided by instructing us to give with modesty There are yet others who may have the intellectual vision to judge the cause he is patronising, the large-heartedness to give in plenty, with all modesty that has’been required of him, and yet, he may not have the necessary love clement in himself to feel a deep sympathy with the

cause which he has come to patronise. The Rishi is here advising that we should not on any score ignore this most essential factor in all charities. To give without sympathy is to build a temple without the idol and is as futile as to paint a picture with black ink on a blackboard!

Sympathy generates love in us and unless this love element comes to predominate in us, compelling us to seek an identity with the cause, we will not be spiritually evolving along the path of charity. Charity constricts the hearts and obstructs the human growth, if it is not honeyed with the spirit of love and the joy of identification.

Hence we are warned against all charity without sympathy with the cause or the occasion. To throw a quarter anna to a helpless beggar and make him struggle in picking it up from the wayside dirt with his half-caten-up leprous fingers is no charity at all, however thick the giver may wear his caste-marks on his narrow forehead!!

अथ यदि ते कर्मविचिकित्सा वा वृत्तविचिकित्सा वा स्यात् । ये तत्र ब्राह्मणाः सम्मर्शिनः । युक्ता आयुक्ताः । अलक्ष्या धर्मकामाः स्युः । यथा ते तत्र वर्तेरन् । तथा तत्र वर्तेथाः ॥

अथाभ्याश्रस्यातेषु । ये तत्र ब्राह्मणाः सम्मर्शिनः । युक्ता आयुक्ताः । अलक्ष्या धर्मकामाः स्युः । यथा ते तत्र वर्तेरन् । तथा तत्र वर्तेथाः ॥

Athā yadi te karmavichikitsa vā vrittavichikitsa vā syat. Ye tatra brāhmanāḥ sammarṣiṇaḥa. Yukta āyuktāḥa. Alokṣha dharmakāmāḥa syuḥu. Yathā te tatra varteran. Tathā tatra varte-thāḥa.

thāhā.

Athabhyakyateshu. Ye tatra brahmanah sammarsinaha Yukta ayuktaha Alooksha dharmakamah syuhu. Yatha te tatra varteran. Tatha tatra vartethaha

अथ : now, यदि : if, ते : for you, कर्म-विचिकित्सा : any doubt regarding your acts, वा: or, वृत्त-विचिकित्सा : any uncertainty regarding your conduct in life, वा : or स्यात् . should arise. ये : whoever, तत्र : there, ब्राह्मणा: : Brahmanas, सम्मार्शिन: : who are thoughtful. युक्ता: : religious, आयुक्ता: : independent, अलूकक्षा: : not cruel, धर्म-कामास्यु: : devoted to Dharma, स्यु: : who are available. यथा : as, ते : they, तत्र : there, वर्तेरन् : would act. तथा : so too, तत्र : there, वर्तेथा: : (you) should act.

अथ . now, अभ्याख्यातेषु : who are falsely accused of some crime. ये : whoever, तत्र : there, ब्राह्मणा: : Brahmins, सम्मर्शिन: : thoughtful. युक्ता: : religious, आयुक्ता: : independent. अलूकक्षा: : not cruel, धर्मकामास्यु: : devoted to Dharma. यथा : as, ते : they, तेषु : in such (situations), वर्तेरन् : would behave. तथा : so too, तेषु : in them, वर्तेथा: : you should act.

"Now if there should arise any doubt regarding your acts or any uncertainty in respect of your conduct in life, you should act in those matters exactly as those Brahmanas there who are thoughtful, religious not set on by others, not cruel and are devoted to Dharma."

And now with regard to those who are falsely accused of some crime, you would rule yourself exactly in the same manner as do the Brahmanas there who are thoughtful and religious not set on by others, not cruel and are devoted to Dharma

In the thick of life's battle, there may arise situations in which there may be a doubt in your mind as to what is the ideal way to live. In all such cases

SIKSHA VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

103

the Hindu youngster is advised to follow other elderly

members of the society who are the accredited

champions of our culture.

This cultural perfections should not be in them-

selves the qualification necessary to make a man

perfect enough to be followed by others. He must be

thoughtful—meaning one who is not blindly following

the Sastras, but is one who is capable of independent

thinking and correct judgment. He must not be

one who is merely secular in his concept of things,

but should have respect and reverence for the sanctity

of the sacred.

A true Brahmin is he who is not only a man of

independent judgment and truly religious, but he

must be also a man with full freedom to express his

ideas. This is exactly the quality absent in the

present-day Brahmins of the world. The European

philosophers and the Indian Pundits, including the

presidents of the mutts, find themselves, in an

unenviable position, compelled to dilute their opinion

to court the attitudes or even the prejudices of their

patrons !!

Such Acharyas are not considered here as the

ideal ones to be followed. An ideal Brahmin should

be one who is not set on by others. He must not be

cruel. He must be a self-dedicated champion of the

greater values of life as explained in the immortal

scriptures of the Hindus. Such men of dedicated life

firmly established in their ideas and stoutly independent

are the true sons of the Hindu culture, and you have

104. TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER I

been asked to follow them whenever there is a doubt regarding either your action or your conduct.

Karmavachchhitsa.—Regarding ritualism there are some fundamental doubts upon the various rules, since we can meet with contradictory statements in the text-books. Some branches believe that the fire-worship should be before sunrise. Others insist that it should be after sunrise. Regarding the Devata also there are doubts as to whether they are masculine or feminine, since, both genders are found to be used in some cases in the Puranas. In all such cases the boy is asked to follow what the ideal local Brahmin pursues.

Virthavichchhitsa.—These represent certain doubts regarding man's conduct; for an example, in a country like India which incorporates in its vast embrace a variety of geographical conditions, habits and customs, flora and fauna, we find even contrary and opposite conducts are recognised as ethical and moral in different parts of the country. In Malabar, under the matriarchal system, uncle's daughter can be married by the nephew, while in other parts of India it is tabooed. In one place the bridegroom is purchased with a dowry for the sad privilege of accepting his daughter as wife, while in the Himalayan villages the girl is purchased as cattle for agricultural purposes! In all other provinces of India if one husband for a woman is considered as normal, among the Pathans, it is a code of morality that three or four brothers can together co-operatively maintain a single wife. In such circumstances it is possible that the student comes to doubt as to what is the right

SIKSHA VALLI] TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD

105

conduct; and he is directed in all such cases to follow

the eminent men of culture, in the district.

एष आदेशः। एष उपदेशः। एष वेदोपनिषत्। एतदनु

शासनम्। एवमुपासितव्यम्। एवमुचैतदुपास्यम्॥

[ इति एकादशोऽनुवाकः ]

Esha adesaha. Esha upadesaha. Esha vedopanishat. Etada-

nusasanam Evamupastavyam. Evamuchaitadupasyam.

[Iti Ekadaso Anuvakaha]

एषः : this, आदेशः : (is) the command. एषः : this,

उपदेशः: (is) the teaching. एषः : this, वेदोपनिषत् (is) the

secret of the Vedas. एतत् : this, अनुशासनम् : (is) com-

mandment. एवम् : in this way, उपासितव्यम् : one should

live one's life. एवम् : thus, उ : verily, च : and, एतत् :

this. उपास्यम् : one must act.

This is the command. This is the teaching. This is the

secret of the Vedas. This is the commandment. This should

be observed Verily, having understood this fully one must

act in the way taught above, continuously till the last—and not

otherwise.

With this seventh wave of thought this section

concludes and the master is here concluding his

discourses. When we follow merely the word-meaning

we are apt to misjudge these words as a vain

repetition of similar words already used, almost

conveying the same sense But on a closer analysis

we can discover that in the dramatic layout of the

Upanishad, as a conversation between the teacher

and the taught, these words declare the character

of the student as well as the temperament of the

teacher.

Concluding his exhortation the teacher declares

that "this is the command" (Adesa). In the next

sentence he amends it by a much more tamer term

as "This is the advice" (Upadesa). In the dramatic

situation here it should be amply clear to any reader

what exactly must have made the teacher amend his

words. As soon as he declared that this is the

'command', in spite of their reverence to the Guru,

the Hindu students—temperamentally not very willing

to accept a command on ethical and moral rules

from anybody, even if it be from their own Guru,

unless he pauses to explain and make them understand

the logic of it—they expressed a revolt in their looks

This attitude of their intellectual dissatisfaction

might have expressed itself in the sparkling eyes of

the young student and so the Guru dilutes his

emphasis by his amendment.

Again, the discriminative intellect of the Vedic

generation even in their youthful days were audacious

enough to question the teacher until they got a

complete satisfaction, and the teachers also never at

this misunderstood their students. They on the other

hand always expected and encouraged in their

students all intellectual honesty and freedom. Seeing

this healthy sign of revolt against an individual's

intellectual dictatorship, especially in moral and

ethical values, the teacher again appealed to them

to accept what he said since his arguments were in no

sense a mere intellectual hypothesis born of his own independent intellectual calculations but it was, he declared, the declarations of the Veda (Vedopanishad).

Those who understand and will enter into the spirit of the Veda understand that the declaration of the Vedas are no subject matter for doubt, since they are all declarations of the saints and sages who report their own transcendental experiences rather than enunciate with their finite and limited intellect.

Once the teacher remembered that what he had declared was the Cream of Hinduism, as declared by the endless hierarchy of divine masters, then he gained a self-confidence, as it were, in himself and exploded to say that this is the Commandment of the Lord, the very Creator of the life (Anusasanam).

The above passages starting with ‘Satyam Vada’ consisting of 25 items and divisible into 6 waves of thoughts, constitute the sacred Commandments in Hinduism. The waves of thoughts as indicated in this section are (1) advice regarding the idividual himself; (2) his relationship with others, (3) his right action in the world, (4) his attitude towards the eminent men of culture, (5) the laws of charity and (6) his duty to follow the eminent living men of his own times.

In the seventh wave of thought the teacher concludes saying that these Commandments are to be followed diligently by every intelligent seeker who

lives a life for a higher cultural purpose—besides his worldly ambitions, and secular activities. In short, over the`shoulders of the students, as it were, the Rishi of Taittirīya Upanishad is addressing the entire Hindu community to follow these Commandments.

अनुवाकः १२ । Section 12.

शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः । शं नो भवत्वर्यमा । शं न इन्द्रो बृहस्पतिः । शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः । नमो ब्रह्मणे । नमस्ते वायो ! त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि । त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मावादिषम् । ऋतमवादिषम् । सत्यम-

मावीत् । तदुक्तारमावीत् । आवीनमाम् । आवीदृकारम् ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

[ इति द्वादशोऽनुवाकः ]

[ इति शिक्षा वल्ली ]

Sam no Mitrah sam Varunaha Sam no bhavatvaryama Sam na Indro Bruhaspatih Sam no Vishnu rurukramaha. Namo Brah-mane. Namaste Vayo. Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahmasasi Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahmavadisham. Rutam avadisham. Satyam avadisham. Tanmamaveet Tadvaktaramaveet. Aveenmam, Aveedvkaram.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

[Iti Dwadaso Anuvakaha]

[ITI SIKSHA VALLI]

ॐ : Om, शम् : propitious, नः : to us, मित्रः : Mitra, शम् : propitious, वरुणः : Varuna. शम् : propitious, नः :

SIKSHĀ VALLI] TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD 109

to us, भवतु : may be, अर्यमा : Aryama. शम् : propitious,

न: : to us, इन्द्र: : Indra, बृहस्पतिः : Brhaspati. शम् : propitious, नः : to us, विष्णुः Vishnu, उरुक्रमः : the all-

pervading (wide-striding) नमः : salutation (s), ब्रह्मणे : unto Brahman. नमः : salutations, ते : unto Thee, वायो : O Vayu त्वम् : Thou, एव : alone, प्रत्यक्षम् : perceivable,

ब्रह्मा : Brahman, असि : art. शम् : thicc, एव : alone, प्रत्यक्षम् : perceivable, ब्रह्म : Brahman, अचादिपम् : I have declared. ऋतम् : the right, अचादिपम् : I have declared. सत्यम् : the good, अचादिपम् . I have declared.

तत् : that, माम् : me, आवित्त् : has protected. तत् : that, वक्तारम् the teacher, आवीत् : has protected. आवीत् : has protected, माम् : me. आवीत् has protected, वक्तारम् : the teacher.

ॐ Om शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace.

May the Sun be good to us. May the Varuna be good to us. May Aryama be good to us. May Indra and Brushaspati be good to us. May the All-pervading Vishnu be good to us.

Prostrations to the Brahman. Prostration to thee O! Vayu. Thou, indeed, art the visible Brahmun. Thee I have declared the ‘Right’, Thee I have declared ‘Good’. That has protected me. That has protected the teacher.

[Om Peace! Peace! Peace!]

For the word-meanings and the implications of this invocation we may refer to the discourses reported on the same Peace-invocation at the opening of this chapter. But there is a difference in the tense of verbs used in the second half of this closing Peace-invocation. While in the opening passage the invocation expressed a humble submission to the Supreme,

here it is the joy-cry of the devotee who feels himself

the recipient of the grace. There if it was a cry to be

blessed, here it is the cry of satisfaction at having

been blessed.

In short, the student feels here that the study all

through this chapter has been fruitful and in this

invocation he is expressing his gratitude for the

blessings received from the Cosmic Powers, whom he

had invoked in the beginning of the lessons.

[ HERE ENDS SIKSHA VALLI ]

Chapter II

Brahmananda Valli

ॐ सह नाववतु । सह नो भुनक्तु । सह वीर्य करवावहै ।

तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥

॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om saha navavatu Saha nau bhunaktu Saha veeryam karavavahai Tejasvinavadheetamastu ma vidvishavahai.

Om Shantih Shantih Shantih

सह : together, नो : us both, अवतु : may He protect,

सह : together, नो : us both, भुनक्तु : may He help us

enjoy (the fruits of scriptural study). सह : together,

वीर्यम् : with enthusiasm, करवावहै : exert together (to

find the true meaning of the sacred text). तेजस्वि :

fruitful and effective, नो : of both of us, अधीतम् :

study, अस्तु : may be. मा : never, विद्विषावहै : may we

two quarrel.

ॐ : Om, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace,

शान्तिः : Peace.

Om, May He protect us both. May He help us both to

enjoy the fruits of scriptural study. May we both exert

together to find the true meaning of the sacred text. May our

studies be fruitful. May we never quarrel with each other.

[Om Peace! Peace! Peace!]

This Peace-invocation is chanted both by the

teacher and the taught everyday during the study of

the rest of the book. In thus reminding themselves

112

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

before their study each day that they are to exert

themselves together in order to experience the Truth

of the Upanishads they get more and more turned up

with each other. This condition of perfect unison

between the teacher and the taught is unavoidable in

the study of the Subjective Science, Vedanta.

As in the modern colleges, Vedanta cannot be

learned merely from the bazaar notes A deep and

intimate personal experience is to be conveyed by the

teacher in teaching the students. A transcendental

experience, that inspires the experiencer to a

complete sublimation of his ego-centric consciousness,

cannot become a theme that can be sung through the

flimsy instrument of language. Therefore, the success

in understanding the Vedas and ultimately gaining

the experiences of its Truth is dependent entirely

upon the seeker's capacity to tune himself to the

master's own intimate experiences which are expressed

vaguely in the intuitive song sung by him in the finite

language of the text.

This perfect unison between the teacher and the

taught generally gets molested by some misunder-

standing between them. It may be either in the

form of the teacher's dissatisfaction towards his

student or it can be due to the student's misjudgment

of the teacher's attitude or words. If either of them

suffers from a similar clogging of the heart they

become, as it were, 'short-circulated' and the trans-

ference of knowledge is immediately blockaded. In

order to avoid such a sad plight and to assure a

perfect tuning up—both from the teacher to the

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 113

taught and from the taught to the teacher—this stanza with all sincerity is chanted daily by the preceptor and the disciple.

The thrice repeated Peace-chanting and their significances have already been explained at the end of the opening stanza of Chapter I.

अनुवाकः ९ । Section 1

ॐ ब्रह्मविदाप्नोति परम् । तदेपाडभ्युक्ता । सत्यं ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म ।

यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन् । सोऽश्नुते सर्वान् कामान् सह

ब्रह्मणा विपश्चितेति ॥

Om Brahmavidapnoti param. Tadeshābhyuktā. Satyam jñānam anantam Brahma

Yo veda nihitam guhāyām parame vyoman Soaśnute sarvān kāman saha Brahmanā vipaschitēti

ॐ : Om, ब्रह्मवित् : the Knower of Brahman, आप्नोति : attains, परम् : the Supreme. तद् एपा : with reference to that, अभ्युक्ता : is recited (the following hymns) सत्यम् Truth, ज्ञानम् : Knowledge, अनन्तम् : Infinity, ब्रह्म : Brahman. यः : he who, वेद : knows (It) निहितम् . as existing, गुहायाम् : In the cave of the heart, परमे : in the transcendent, व्योमन् : Akasa. सः . he, अश्नुते . realises, सर्वान् all, कामान् : desires, सह : along with, ब्रह्मणा : as Brahman, विपश्चिता : omniscient इति : thus.

Om, The Knower of Brahman attains the Supreme With reference to that there is the following hymn recited, “Brahman is the Truth, Knowledge, Infinity He who knows It as existing in the cave of the heart, in the transcendent Akasa, realises all his desires along with Omniscient Brahman,”

Sandwiched between the first and the last chapters we have in this Brahmananda Vallı the 9

philosophical essence of the Upanishad described in

the inimitable style of the Taittirīya Upanishad.

Extremely scientific and incomparably analytical, the

R̥ṣi brings the wealth of his psychological under-

standing into the method of its exposition. Artistic

in finish, the master leaves no missing link in the claim

of his arguments that the thesis, so complete and

well-rounded off, comes to stand out embossed attrac-

tively upon the background supplied by the earlier

and the later chapters of the book. In the first chapter

the students were initiated into a series of different

methods at concentration so that at the end of it

all, they may come to possess a more developed and

better integrated mind and intellect so that they can

much more easily journey themselves into the subtler

heights of the transcendental thoughts. After thus

preparing the instruments of mind and intellect the

teacher here initiates the students for the great

operation of Self-discovery.

In the Taittirīya Upanishad the goal is pointed

out as the core of the individual seeker himself and

ultimately this Centre of the different concentric

Whirls of his own personality is brought within the

cognition of the seeker by making him realise fully

each of the outer layers of matter around him. One

by one these outer layers are transcended and the

individual is ultimately made to become fully aware

of the innermost essence.

For the purposes of this scientific analysis, in

this Upanishad for the first time, an individual is

considered as constituted of five different sheaths of

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 115

matter each covering the other with varying degrees of grossness, the outcrmost being the grosscst.

Nowhere else in the literature of Vedanta do we get this analysis so completely and exhaustively, and the theory of the five kosas has been sanctioned for the first time here in this chapter.

The chapter opens with the declaration of the goal, "The knower of Brahman reaches the Supreme".

The Upanishad is addressed to those seekers who are struggling to understand what is the goal of life and how to reach it They were first of all assured that the goal is "to know the Brahman", and having known, "the knower reaches the Supreme".

This reply to the seeker, though it is a declaration of the Truth, cannot be very satisfactory since it does not say anything about the goal.

In other Upanishads too, similar assertions have been given, especially in Mundaka Upanishad*, "he who knows Brahman becomes Brahman".

These assertions are apt to be misunderstood or even criticised as impossible idealisms preached to canvas the beliefs of the unintelligent.

The critics argue that, by knowing a table we don't become a table, nor do we reach or come to the wealth of another by merely knowing his bank balances.

"If by knowing we were to come to possess and live our knowledge", laughs the hasty critic, "in the world there would not have been, perhaps, a greater profession than to be a cashier in a State Bank"

• Refer Swamiji's Discourses on Mundaka Upanishad III 2, 9.

116

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

This is exactly the mistake into which one would naturally fall when one tries to read and understand the Upanishads by the literary meaning of the words. In the Upanishadic literature words borrowed from the finite language are being made use of for a higher and a special purpose of indicating the Infinite. As such, these borrowed words are to be understood, in their special employment, to have gathered some special meanings and imports. Thus, the word knowing here is not meant in the sense in which we generally know things of the world, wherein the 'knower' is always different from the 'known' and the 'knowledge'. Here the word know is used in the sense of discover or realise.

Often it happens that we keep on desperately searching for a key, or an important paper all over the room, until somebody points out to us either the key that is in our own hands, or the paper that is just in front of us on the table. The knowledge that the key that I was searching, is in my own hand, is a knowledge that gives me back the key that I had lost! When we say that by 'knowing' the thing, we 'reach' the thing known, we only mean that the thing was already with us, and yet, it was screened off from us temporarily by our own ignorance of it. The ignorance of it is removed by our knowledge of it; and the thing that was already with us becomes available for our experience. Similarly, he who realises that Divine Spark, he Self within himself, comes to know it, in the sense that he rediscovers that which was already within him, but it lay, unfortunately, veiled off from him by his own ignorance.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 117

The students to whom the Upanishad is declared are all great seekers, wanting to know what life is, and whether there be any goal in life worth achieving. They are all great intellectual enquirers who had come to investigate upon the universal happenings in Nature and have come to question if at all there is a purpose to be gained or a goal that is to be reached in life This question is completely answered here in this short and pithy declaration by the great Rishis. The Goal is the Brahman, and one who realises it reaches the Supreme.

When the Guru has declared in one summary statement the goal of life, the Aryan students of the truc Hindu stock, as we have found earlier, are not very ready to accept it immediately unless the statements are fully supported by the Eternal Vedic declaration. The teacher knew this tradition, and therefore adds, "in that sense is the following hymn recited". He is quoting a Vedic definition of Truth Absolute as indicated by the term Brahman.

The Infinite Truth can on no account be fully defined in words, Infinite defined, is finitude ill-expressed ! And yet, we have here three words which in their indicative meaning completely give us an appreciable suggestion of what the Truth is.

Satyam —It is generally translated as Truth. In itself this translation is mum and does not express any idea. The words gather their momentum only in intellects that are familiar with the full import of the words. In the tradition of Vedanta Satyam is that which is the changeless substratum for all changes and modification.

For example, the post is the ‘truth’ in the ghost vision; the rope is the ‘truth’ behind our misunderstandings that it is a serpent or a dry twig or a crack on the surface of the earth or a streak of water. The idea is that in all honest enquiries ultimately, the real substratum comes to be discovered; when we discover the post-in-the ghost we all know how impermanent, relatively, is the ghost. Therefore, the super-imposition, the Ghost and its ghastly grinnings are all declared as “false” while, relatively of course, the post is considered as “Truth”

In the life of plurality also we are watching an endless variety of change; time changes; seasons change; individuals keep on changing in their body, mind and intellect. Nothing is permanent even for a moment; in this general and continuous state of flux there must be a changeless Eternal Factor, that is the Ground which makes the changes possible upon It. That Satyam is Brahman.

Without the steady, spotless screen behind the ever-changing play of lights and shades, they cannot give us the illusion of a thrilling play in the theatre; without its permanent and motionless bed, the waters of a river cannot maintain their endless flow; without the solid and inert rails, the flying wheels of the train cannot move on. The screen in the film-theatre, the river-bed in the river, the rails in the Railways—these are the changeless, the permanent, the ‘truth’. That Factor which is immutable upon which the finite changes are rendered possible is Satyam, the Brahman of the Upanishadic literature.

Knowledge

of

the

object

of

experiences

in

the

outer

and

in

the

inner

world.

The

Consciousness

that

It

comes

into

existence,

must

as

the

sunlight

does

not

profess

preference

and

there

illuminates

all

objects

with

its

light

and

gives

its

perceive

of

their

nature

and

quality,

when

the

object

come

into

the

flood

of

the

sun's

light.

By

the

word

Jñanam,

this

Consciousness

in

us

is

indicated. We have already seen that it is this Life Spark that is the substratum, immutable and eternal, which makes the changes of the body, mind and intellect possible and realistic.

Anandham.—It is translated as Infinity. Since by the word Satyam Brahman was indicated as the Real, the substratum from which the entire world of the finite had, as it were, merged, it has become the cause of the phenomenal world. The cause from which effects arise (as pots or ornaments from mud or gold) is generally inert and inorganic and as such the doubt may arise that the Supreme is an inert and an unintelligent principle (like mud or gold). To remove such a hasty conclusion, it is insisted that Satyam, though the cause of the world, it is Intelligence itself.

This Consciousness that the substratum of the created world may itself one day end, is yet another doubt that can possibly come in the mind of the uninitiated. To refute this idea and to show that Pure Awareness which is Satyam is Itself not the effect of any other cause and as such is Infinite in nature, we have the term Anandam used here. This term explains that though Truth be the cause of the pluralistic mutable world, it in itself is the uncaused cause. Unborn and eternal that Truth revels as Infinite and Conscious.

This is the core of man's own personality since without this Consciousness or Awareness, however strong he may be physically, however noble he may be in mind, however powerful in intellect, the individual will be considered dead by the world. Life

B. VALLI] TAITTIRĪYA UPANISHAD 121

means expression of awareful experiences. When an individual ceases to live his experiences, to live awareful of his outer and inner worlds, that mass of matter having the shape of the creature is considered as dead, and the carcass is claimed by nature for reconversion into the five elements from which it had emerged !!

Thus, in this irrefutable definition, made up by inimitable usage of the pregnant suggestions contained in these three terms "Satyam, Jnanam, Anandam", the immortal text of the Hindus, the Vedas, indicate the Absolute Reality which is at once immanent and transcendent. To seek this Truth within and to rediscover It is the Divine unfoldment of the mortal to his own immortal stature, of the finite to the dignity of the Infinite, of the bound to the joys of the freedom.

If there be thus a Truth as defined above, how do we reach that Brahman? The terms Satyam, Jnanam, Anandam have a flavour as though they are expressing some definite qualities and in the ordinary usage of language, qualities qualify objects. As such the students, who are familiar with this word-usage in language, are apt to misunderstand from these qualifications that Truth is an object separate from the seeker.

He who rediscovers this Conscious Principle within himself is one who is considered as fully awakened to the Divine Nature in man. This awakening makes him drop once for ever all his identifications with the false matter envelopment of

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

his body, mind and intellect and the choking world

of plurality created from these three levels. Just as

in any dream we, identifying ourselves with our

mental creations, come to suffer dreadful sorrows

within ourselves, so too, in the dream of plurality,

our false identification with matter ends when we get

ourselves awakened to our Real Divine Nature.*

Practical-minded as they all were, the children

of the Aryan stock were not very much enamoured

by the fact that the Vedas had thus declared a highly

poetic and extremely consummate goal of life. They

wanted to know how this great realisation of the

divine in them could facilitate the individual in living

a more intelligent and healthy life. Their's was the

cry for a life of subtler joys; their demand was a

complete freedom from the sorrows of the finite.

However noble a goal the philosophy may point out,

to the impatient seekers it was not acceptable unless

it could guide them to the goal that they wanted. The

teacher knew this character and the healthy impati-

ence in the students of that generation, and, naturally,

he concludes, as it were in the same breath, that

he who realises this Conscious Principle in himself,

"he enjoys all his desires, all at once, along with

Brahman."

The Consciousness in the individual being the

same as the one Life Factor in all the living world,

it is the illuminator of all joys enjoyed by every body

at all places and times, and, therefore, in experiencing

• For further elucidations refer Swamiji's Discourses on Mandukya

and Kanka

the Spiritual Centre in ourselves, we may say, we are at once experiencing thereby all the joys experienced by all the living kingdom.

In Vedanta, the great Scientists of Life, the Rishis, had made an exhaustive study of the sources of joy in our ordinary life. The material preoccupation of the world today does not provide the required amount of intellectual poise for such a close study of life, for the purposes of investigating into the mechanism of the joy transactions. Ordinarily now-a-days even the best of us only feel that there is a joy when a desire is fulfilled, but we do not pause to make a scientific analysis or an investigation into the principles underlying and governing the sensuous joy.

Vedanta does not deny the fact that in our finite world there are joys. The flickering joys tantalizing man, with their flashy charms, are not a satisfying fulfilment to those who are really hungry to live fully. In their dissatisfaction they were goaded and encouraged to make exhaustive enquiries into the structure and composition of the sensuous happiness.

No doubt there is a joy when a desire is fulfilled, but enjoyable only by the one who entertains the desire. The joy that an object provides is, it is found, directly proportional to the amount of desire with which the individual has struggled for it. We also find that a given object that gives joy to one can itself dole out a measure of unhappiness to another! The same given cup of coffee if it gives eighty units of happiness to a South Indian, it gives, perhaps, an equal amount of unhappiness to a Pathan who is not

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familiar with the embittered sourness of the Madrasee

Coffee! A young lady after days of struggling at

last fulfils her deep desire for a blue Mysore Saree—

which provides her with a great satisfaction,

while, the same Saree spills disastrous sorrows and

a creeping sense of disgust in some of her dear

friends!

If happiness were in the objects, the coffee or the

saree should have given the same happiness to all of

us, but it seems that the same object provides different

units of happiness to different individuals and the

same object graces the same individual with different

textures of joy at different places and times. On the

whole we can say that the joy is not in the object, but

the object is only an ‘occasion’ when the required

mental condition is gained by the individual which

provides him with a sense of joy which he experiences.

The Seers of Vadanta explain this exhaustively,

and their convincing arguments have in them a com-

pelling force of persuasion and we are compelled to

accept them. A desire is a tortuous mental state

wherein we fail to take our mind off from a given

thought-disturbance which demands an immediate

satisfaction by physically possessing or mentally

enjoying or intellectually appreciating some object or

objects other than ourselves. Thus, the commotion

of desire is a mental disturbance and thicker the

desire, more powerful is the commotion. At the

satisfaction of the desire the commotion ends and the

peace in the mind allows the Joy of the Soul as it

were, to beam out undisturbed and unmolested.

B VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 125

The Rishis cry that the Self is the repository of all joy, since the Pure Awareness or the Reality is itself Bliss Absolute. The mental thought-disturbances, like thick monsoon clouds, veil the beam of joy and the attempt of the individual in procuring and keeping sensuous objects is an unconscious act of the individual to bring about the necessary condition in his mind so that the joyous soul may peep out shedding its infinite joy.

Thus the Rishi declared that all joys come from the Self and the sensuous joys are all flickerings of the Self seen through the intervals of peace in the mind's natural state of thought-chaos !

With this idea in mind if we re-read the Upanishadic declaration it cannot be very difficult for us to understand how an individual on realising his Self, comes to experience all the joys of every living creature-all at once.

तस्माद्र एतस्मादात्मन आकाशः सम्भूतः । आकाशाद्वायुः । वायो-रम्भिः । अग्नेरापः । अद्भ्यः पृथिवी । पृथिव्या ओषधयः । ओषधीभ्यो-ऽन्नम् । अन्नात्पुरुषः॥

Tasmadra etasmadatmana akasah sambhootaha Akasadva-yuhu Vayoragnihih Agnerapaha. Adbhyah pruthivee. Pruthivya oshadhayahala. Oshadhebhyo annam. Annatpurushaha.

तस्मात् : from that (Brahman), वै : verily, एतस्मात् : which is this Atman, आकाशः : space, सम्भूतः : is born. आकाशात् : from space, वायुः : air. वायोः : from air, अग्निः : fire. अग्नेः : from fire, आपः : water, अद्भ्यः : from water, पृथिवी : the earth. पृथिव्या : from the earth, ओषधयः : herbs. ओषधीभ्यः : from herbs, अन्नम् : food, अन्नात् : from food, पुरुषः : man

From that (which is) this Atman, is space born; from Akasa, air; from the air, fire, from fire, water, from water, earth; from earth, herbs, from herbs, food, from food, man

Since, to the Hindu seeker, theology and philosophy are not in themselves a fulfilment, no true Aryan seeker feels happy or considers himself fulfilled, at this. He demands out of philosophy a way of living by which they can actually come in contact with the Truth and raise themselves to live on par with it. Self-experiencing and the consequent Self-perfection alone satisfies the Hindu seeker.

Looking in and through the words of this passage no ardent student can miss the picture of the salient beauty of the Himalayan Valleys against which the Ashram nestles, swathed in divinity and comfort and in the open porch of it sits the sacred master instructing a gathering of his disciples! In this dramatic layout the master's declarations are all coloured by the appreciation and opinions expressed by the student's faces. When first the teacher declared that the Supreme is realised by those who know Brahman, the gurgling question in the heart of the student was, "what is this Brahman?" The teacher defined that Brahman as Truth, Knowledge, Infinity Even then, the disciples were not satisfied, since if there be an Infinite Truth, they had not been told where exactly was this Truth to be contacted.

If, for my illness, the doctor says that there is a specific treatment and the medicine is "Geolalopatte", naturally, those who are ailing would like to know first of all what it is. On being told that it is a medicine to be taken orally twice a day, once after

B. VIII] TAITTIRĪYA UPANISHAD 127

breakfast and another after dinner, then the question comes where it can be procured. If at this juncture,

we are told that the original company is no more preparing this medicine and it is not available anywhere, then the medicine prescribed is not even worth the paper upon which it was written !!

Hence the doubt of the disciples, the teacher, therefore, explains.

Here we find that the Brahman defined can be realised in the innermost recesses of the seeker's own personality The realm in which we can rediscover this Absolute Nature in us is explained here as the Supreme sky which is exactly what was meant by the term the 'cave of the heart' used earlier.*

The Pure Consciousness described at first objectively and later on indicated subjectively is one, and the same. The Reality, being one, All-pervading and Eternal, cannot be limited in any sense of the term and, therefore, to assume that the Reality is not at once immanent and transcendent is to misjudge the Divine Nature. To say that the Divine is yonder there to be realised as the Sultan of the Skies is a terrible blasphemy, for, it will be attributing a limitation upon Its Infinite and All-prevading Nature, and if Truth be within also then it is certainly realisable there in ourselves. It is to indicate this fact—that the Consciousness within and without is one unbroken homogenous Truth, that in this section we are told, "from That (which is) this Atman".

• Refer Discourses on Kathopanishad, by Swamiji

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

This idea is brought out fully and clearly in Vedanta through an analogy of the outer-space and the room-space or pot-space. Space being a subtle, all-pervading element it cannot be limited either by the walls of the room or the material of the pot.

And yet in our gross concept we generally identify space with the four walls of the room or consider space as conditioned by the material of the pot, and declare it as the ‘room-space’ or the ‘pot-space’. Space, being homogeneous, is one and the same within and without. The very ‘material’ of the pot or the walls of the room are themselves standing in space and so space is not limited by the material walls.’

Similarly, the cause-of-space, necessarily subtler than the space itself, the Reality, is one-without-a-second–both within the pluralistic world and without it. This oneness of the spiritual essence in man with the Infinite Reality, which is the substratum of the entire phenomenal world, is indicated here when the Sāstr a says, ‘from That which is this Ātman’.

To every real seeker of Truth there is a period in his intellectual quest when he comes to wonder at and feels bewildered at the why and the how of the Universe. This doubt is to be first of all answered thoroughly by the teacher or else the student will not be able to harness all this mental energies at the true scientific analysis of himself, and, through deeper meditation, reach the realm of the subjective experience of Truth.

Therefore, we find that all teachers have to give some explanation, which would suit the mental

B. VALLI] TÁITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 129

temperament of the student and give him the necessary satisfaction, at least temporarily. It is in this sense that we find in the Upanishadic literature varied explanations on how the creation first came into being. One such explanation which can temporarily give a sense of satisfaction to the seeker is given here by the Rishi of the Taittirīya Upanishad. He narrates the story of how the five Great Elements have in an unbroken sequence emerged out of the Supreme

First of all the subtlest of the Five Elements, Ākāsa, emerged from Truth and from it a grosser element the Air came; a more grosser Jala came from Air; and a still more grosser element Tejas manifested itself from the Fire; and the creation with the grossest manifestation, the element earth. These Five Elements have been accepted as the fundamentals in the manifested world of matter. In almost all the philosophers and scientists of the world, according to whom the entire physical phenomenon is an endless variety of combinations and manipulations of these five Great Elements

from its own quality of form; water, besides the qualities of all the previous ones,—namely sound, touch and form—has its own special quality of taste. And Earth the grossest of the lot has all the four qualities described, along with its own specific quality of smell.

Thus, we find Great Elements—each representing one or the other of the sense-objects, here the cognisible by man through his sense-organs — are described, in the poetic language of the scriptures, as the deities of the five sense-organs: Akasa in the ears, Air in the skin, Fire in the eyes, Water in the tongue and Earth in the nose.

We are explaining these conceptions in the Vedanta in such detail here only to give an idea, how clearly and precisely must have the ancient students understood their teacher's words, at the time of the delivery of the text, when the students were already familiar with this idea that the Elements represent the sense-organs. Therefore, though microcosmically this portion reads as the story of the Elements and their manifestations from the Supreme; microcosmically it at once expresses how in the individual, the five great sense-organs, the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongue and the nose rose as though a separate creation from the Atman.

From Earth, the Food.—Out of the gross Earth rose up the entire world of vegetation and among the herbs, plants and trees are the food materials which can maintain the physical health and stamina of the individual. The food that is taken in large quantities

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 131

by the father crystallises into its essence as the seeds in him and a seed fertilising an ovule in the womb

of the mother grows into its full maturity, to be born

as an individual called Puruṣha.

न वा पञ पुरुपंडरममयः । तस्येदमेव शिरः । अयं दक्षिणः

पक्षः । अयमुत्तरः पक्षः । अयमात्मा । इदं पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा । तदप्येप श्लोको

भवति ॥

[ इति प्रथमोऽनुवाकः ]

Sa va eṣha puroṣho annarasamayaha. Tasyedam eva sīraha.

Asam dakṣiṇaḥ pakṣaha Ayam uttaraḥ pakṣaha. Ayam ātmā.

Idam puuchchham pratiṣhṭhā. Tadapyeṣha śloko bhavati

[Iti Prathamo Anuvakaha]

हः : Hc, वै : indeed, पप : this, पुरुप: : man, अन्न-

रस्मयः : consisting of the essence of food. तस्य : His,

इदम् : this, पच : indeed, शिरः : head. अयम् : this, दक्षिण:

:(his) right, पक्षः : wing. अयम् : this, उत्तरः : (his) left,

पक्षः : wing. अयम् : this, आत्मा : (his) trunk इदम् : this,

पुच्छम् : hind part, प्रतिष्ठा : (his) support and foundation.

तत् : about that, अपि : also, पप : this, श्लोकः :

verse, भवति : is there.

He indeed is this man consisting of the essence of food.

This is his head This is his right wing This is his left wing

(side). This is his trunk This is the hind part forming his

support and foundation. About this also is the following

verse.

After describing the outer world and how it was

caused the teacher is slowly gliding his discourse to

the subjective theme of self-analysis. The goal of

the spiritual quest is the Supreme and the subjective

search is the technique adopted in Vedanta.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

This physical body born of food is described here as the essence of food, Annarasamaya. When man is thus explained as made up of food the students. might misunderstand the theme indicated by the term to be man with his physical, mental and intellectual personalities.: The Rishi here is definitely guiding the student's attention to the purely physical structure of himself. He at present is talking merely of the physical sheath in man. To indicate exhaustively a physical sheath in all its entirety the teacher is pointing out the five main parts of the body as the head, the right and the left sides, the trunk and the lower limbs.

Sureswaracharya while commenting upon this portion describes it as a metaphor drawn from the hawk-like arrangement of the sacred Fire-places in some special types of Yagna. The Rishi is here dramatically pointing out to his own head, limbs and trunk, and is describing the parts constituting the Annamaya Kosa—the Food Sheath. The description indicates that what the Rishis meant by the Food Sheath is the physiologist's man-structure, constituted of the head, the trunk and the limbs.

Strictly following the tradition of the Vedic faith the teacher after making this bold assertion immediately hastens to add that what he said was not a mere individualistic philosophy, or a mere intellectual hypothesis, but that it is fully supported by the words of the Vedas. The Vedic stanza is quoted in the next section

B. VALLI] 'TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD

133

अनुवाकः २। Section 2.

अन्नाद् भ्रजा: प्रजायन्ते । या: काश्च पृथिवीं श्रिता: । अथो

अन्नानेव जीवन्लि । अथैनदपियन्त्यन्ततः । अन्नं हि भूतानां ज्येष्ठम् ।

तस्मात्सर्वौषधमुच्यते । सर्वं वै तेऽन्नमाप्नुवन्ति । येऽन्नं ब्रह्मोपासते । अन्नं

हि भूतानां ज्येष्ठम् । तस्मात्सर्वौषधमुच्यते । अन्नाद्भू-

तानि जायन्ते । जातान्यन्नेन वर्धन्ते । आद्यतेऽत्ति च भूतानि । तस्मादन्नं तदुच्यत इति ॥

Annadvai prajah prajayante. Yah kascha pruthiveem sritaha

Atho anennaiiva jeevanti Athainadapi yantyantatah. Annam hi

bhootanam jyeshtam. Tasmat sarvaushadham uchyate Sarvam

vai te annam aapnuvanti Ye annam Brahmoopasate Annam hi

bhootanam jyeshtam. Tasmat sarvaushadham uchyate. Annadbhoo-

tani jayante. Jatani annena vardhante. Adyate atti cha bhootani

Tasmatannam taduchyata ॥॥

अन्नात् : from food, वै : indeed, प्रजा: : beings, प्रजा-

यन्ते : are born. या: का: च : whichever and whoever,

पृथिवीम् : on earth, श्रिता: : exist. अथो: : thereafter,

अन्नेन : by food, एव : alone, जीवन्लि : live अथ: : again,

अपियन्ति : (they) merge into. अन्ततः : ultimately, अनन्तन:

food, हि : verily, भूतानाम् : of all creatures,

ज्येष्ठम् : the eldest. तस्मात् : on that ground, सर्वौषधम् :

medicament for all, उच्यते : it is called. सर्वम् : all, वै :

verily, ते : they, अन्नम् : food, आप्नुवन्ति : obtain ये :

those, अन्नम् : food, ब्रह्म : as Brahman, उपासते : medi-

tate. अन्नम् : food, हि : indeed, भूतानाम् : of all creatures

ज्येष्ठम् : the eldest. तस्मात् : on that ground, सर्वौषधम् :

medicament for all, उच्यते : it is called. अन्नात् : from

food, भूतानि : all beings, जायन्ते : are born. जातानि :

the born, अन्नेन : by food, वर्धन्ते : grow. अद्यते : it is

eaten, अत्ति : eats, च : and, भूतानि : beings. तस्मात् :

134 TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

therefore, अन्नम् : as 'Annam' तत् : that, उच्यते : is called, इति : thus.

All beings that exist on earth are born of food. They thereafter live by food; again, they ultimately go back to merge to become food. So, verily, food is the eldest of all the creatures. On that ground it is called the medicament for all. From food all beings are born; having born they grow by (consuming) food. Food is that which is eaten by the beings and also that which in the end eats them : therefore food is called Annam.

A pot that is created from the mud exists no doubt only in mud, for, if we remove the mud the pot cannot exist! Also we know that when the pot is broken it surrenders itself to become the mud! That is, an effect arising from the cause, exists in the cause and ultimately merges back again to become one with the cause. Therefore, the pot is called as mud-pot.

Similarly, the physical body of man born from the food taken by his father, maintained and nourished by the food consumed by itself, and ultimately, since the physical body of every one must go back to the earth to fertilise and become food for others, this physical structure also is called the 'Food Sheath'. This idea is indicated here by the Vedic Mantra which says 'All living creatures of the world are born of food, live by food, and at the end they go back to become food'. Therefore, says the Rishi, food is the eldest creature which is self-evident without any special explanation.

The etymology of the word 'Annam' is also given by the Srutu to justify what she had already

explained in word She says "that which is eaten (Adyat) and that which eats (Atti); it is called food (Annam)." The medical science also openly explains now-a-days that the general deterioration of health in the world today is because man is over-cating.

Over-cating saps his vitality, ruins his health, and in the end kills him In small doses even poison is a curative medicine, similarly food also, in right healthy proportions, is a blessing to the body but when we learn to over-cat and indulge in gluttony the individual slowly deteriorates in his health and soon dies away.

This idea is so beautifully put in the words of the Sruti when it says that food is "that which is eaten by the eater and which in the end eats the very cater" Food is also called, therefore, a great Universal medicine, in right doses it blesses; in over-doses it kills. "Those who worship food with this understanding will become," declares the Rishi, "rich in food".

This portion is generally passed over by merely declaring that this is a method of Upasana or Meditation. To understand it as a method of meditation which promises the meditator more and more wealth and food, is to almost insult the passage. Vedanta is a literature that is generally prescribed by the orthodox Pundits only to those who are well-fitted for the same, and these Adhikaris are men of detachment and renunciation. And therefore, it should sit ill upon the lips of Pundits to translate the passage as a mere "method of worship" (Upasana) which would

provide the seeker with a lot of material gains and food !

This seems to be a passage which justifies the Hindu attitude of sanctity for food. The portion now under discussion should be considered as a secret knowledge not only for the happiness of the individuals but of the community, of the nation and even of the world.

The food problem of the world can directly be attributed, in almost a majority of cases to the irreverence with which we handle the problem.

Food is insulted through over-eating. Idlers who have not contributed their share of "Upasana" in its cultivation hoard the food ! The honest "Upasahas" who have done the Sadhana in the field are at the end plundered ! When in one part of the world there is scarcity in another part we either find food insulted through bad storing or ignorant cultivation and some times through deliberate criminalities such as the burning down of crops or throwing the collected crop into the sea with a view to raising price in the world market. Even in our country—where famine is so natural and regular that we have learnt now to accept it with the philosophical resignation of the milestones on the roadside—any average economist would declare from the housetops that famines in India are always due to our un even enˇe for food in the present and our long and continuous blasphemy against food in the past. Neglect of agricultural facilities like irrigation, of livestock, of implements, of manure, etc , and the irreligious wāy in which the

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 137

priests of the “temple of food” are behaving or in

the modern language it is because of the ignorance of

the cultirators themselves.

In casc we know how to respect food knowing

fully well all its implications that it is pre-eminent

among all the beings and that it is the grcatcst medi-

cament known to man certainly that individual or

community or nation can cxpect to gain more and

more food to themselves

तस्माद्वै तस्मादन्नरसमयात् । अन्योऽन्तर आत्मा प्राणमयः ,

तेनैप पूर्णः । स वा एष पुरुषविध एव । तस्य पुरुषविधताम् । अन्वयं

पुरुषविधः । तस्य प्राण एव शिरः । व्यानो दक्षिणः पक्षः । अपान उत्तरः

पक्षः । आकाश आत्मा । पृथिवी पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा । तदप्येप श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति द्वितीयोऽनुवाकः ]

Tasmadva etasmat annarasamayat Anyontara atma pranama-

yaha. Tenaislia poon aha. Sa va esha purushavidha eva. Tasya

purushavidhatam. Anavaram purushavidhaha. Tasya prana eva

siraha. Vyano dakshunah pakshaha. Apana uttaraḥ pakshaha.

Akasa atma. Pruthivce puccham pratishta Tadapyesha sloko

bhavati

[It Dviteeyo Anuvakaha]

तस्मात् : other than that, वै : verily, पतस्मात् : than

this, अन्नरसमयात् : than the one made of the essence of

food. अन्य: : other (there is), अन्तर: : inner, आत्मा :

soul, प्राणमय: : of Prana. तेन : with it, पऽप : this, पूर्णः :

is full. स: : he, वै : indeed, पष: : this, पुरुषविध: : of the

form of a person, एव : exactly. तस्य : his, पुरुषविधताम् :

being in the form of a person. अन्व : similarly, अयम् :

this too, पुरुषविध: : of the shape of a person. तस्य : of

that, प्राण: : Prana, एव : alone, शिर: : head. व्यान: :

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

Vyana, दक्षिण: पक्ष: : is the right side. अपानः : Apana,

उत्तर: पक्ष: : is the left side. आकाशः : space, आत्मा : is

the trunk. पृथिवी : the earth, पुच्छं : the hind part,

प्रतिष्ठा : as support. तत्त् : about that, अपि : also, एष: :

this, श्लोक: : Verse, भवति : there is.

Other than that (Soul) made up of the essence of food,

there is an inner soul (Sheath) made of the Prana. With it this is

filled. This (Pranamaya) is of the same form as the previous. Its

human form is exactly as the human form of the former. Of

that, Prana is the head, Vyana the right side, Apana the left

side, Akasa is the trunk, Earth is the tail or the support. About

this also there is the following verse.

In this portion the preceptor is guiding the atten-

tion of the disciple to a point interior to the gross

physical structure which had been already described

fully. The second sheath is constituted of the pranas.

Here prana is not AIR, this generally is the mistaken

notion entertained by all hasty readers, who thereby

come to misunderstand the entire Sastra. Prana

only means that vitality which expresses itself in a

body when it is alive. This vitality of life expressing

itself from various centres in the physical structure

and pursuing different functions is together indicated

by the term Prana in the Vedas.

The Vital-Air-Sheath is described here as one

interior to the Food-Sheath forming as it were a silk

lining to the outer sheath. Molten metal poured into

a mould should necessarily take the shape of the

mould, so too the Pranamaya is occupying fully the

Food-Sheath.

Vital activity of life is not centred at one special

point nor is it scattered at different points of the

.B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 139

Physical Sheath. It being the very nature of the life it expresscs its naturc through every conceivable point in the body.

When into` a mould of a God-form metal is poured and in another mould of an animal-form a sample of the same molten metal is poured, it is very well known that on destroying the mould the shape within should exactly correspond with the shape of the mould. Similarly, the Vital-Air-Sheath when it is full in the Food-Sheath it must have the same shape as the physical body, and therefore, the teacher goes on to describe the head,trunk and limbs of the Pranamaya-Sheath.

The total life’s vitality as expressed through the physical body has been very carcfullly noted for purposes of scientific classification. Though lifc be one it expresses itself in different departments of activities and, therefore, the Prana is considered under five main classifications by the ancient teachers. To understand them as five distinct Pranas will be a misrcading of our scriptures; the Prana remaining one and the same the five different names have been given to it to indicate the various departments of its activities.

Just as the same individual is father at home, an officer in the office, a friend in the club, a mere devotee in the pilgrim-centre, so too the same Prana is known by the five different names. To indicate its five different activities: life’s vitality functioning in the organs of perception is called Prana; expression of life as the vitality that presides over the actions

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that throw out or reject the by-products from the

physical body is called Apana; the strength in us

administering the department of digestion is called

Vyana; while the energy behind the distribution of

assimilated food to the various corners of the body,

politic is called Samana; and the energy which helps

the ego-centre to leave one physical structure at the

time of its death—to pursue its transmigratory pilgri-

mage seeking ‘fresh woods and pastures new’ where

it fulfils all its matured desires,—is called Udana.

These five Pranas together constitute the life’s

vitality as exhibited in a living creature. Therefore in

the consideration of the structure of the Vital-Air-

Sheath the teacher explains that its anatomy is con-

stituted of these five Pranas. As before the descrip-

tion explains that the Prana is the head, Vyana and

Apana are the right and left sides.

The trunk of it

is described as Akasa (space), which is quite natural

because energy or vitality can be expressed only in

a fit field for his expression, and therefore, space is

considered as the very stay of the Vital-Air-Sheath,

inasmuch as no vitality can ever be expressed where

there is no space!!

Its lower limbs are explained here as Earth.

This is very scientific and indeed quite acceptable to

us since we are the children of the knowledge of

Newton. The gravitational force is that which keeps

us on to the surface of the Earth but for which we

would have been all weightless things floating in the

atmosphere like cotton! That we are able to live

under the influence of Prana is due to the fact that

II. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 141

we are planted on the surface of the Earth, chained to its centre by the unseen forces of attraction called gravitation; or else we would have been under the influence of the Udāna and floating about without any permanent mooring.

This idea also is fully endorsed by a Vedic Mantra which is given in the following section.

अनुवाकः ३। Section 3

प्राणं देवा अनु प्राणन्ति । मनुष्याः पशवश्च ये । प्राणो हि भूतानामायु: । तस्मात्सर्वायुषमुच्यते । सर्वमेव त आयुर्यन्ति । ये प्राणं ब्रह्मोपासते । प्राणो हि भूतानामायु: । तस्मात्सर्वायुषमुच्यते इति ॥

प्राणम् : Prana, देवा: : Gods (Indriyas), अनु : depending upon (Prana), प्राणन्ति : live. मनुष्याः : (so too) men पशव: : animals, च : and, ये : whatever (beings). प्राणम् : Prana, हि : indeed, भूतानाम् : of all beings, आयु: : (is) the life. तस्मात् : therefore, सर्वायुषम् : Universal Life, उच्यते : it (Prana) is called. सर्वम् : all, एव : verily, ते : they, आयु: : full span of life, यन्ति : reach. ये : those, प्राणम् : Prana, च्रम् : as Brahman, उपासते : meditate (worship). प्राण: : Prana, हि : verily, भूतानम : of beings, आयु: : the life. तस्मात् : therefore, सर्वायुषम् : Universal Life; उच्यते : it (Prana) is called, इति : thus.

Through Prana the God's (Indriyas) live and so also do men and the animal kingdom. Prana is verily the life of beings. 'Therefore it is called the Universal Life or the Life of All. Those 'who worship Prana as Brahman come to live

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the full span of their Life. Prana verily is the life of beings.

Therefore it is called Universal Life or the Life of All

The translation itself is amply clear especially to

those who had been initiated into the special attitude

in which similar ideas have been expressed in the

earlier sections. Here also there are Pundits who

believe that this is (Upasana) method of worshipping

Prana as Brahman. To assume that it is only a

method of worship, without having any implication of

life is to scandalise the wealth of import in our scriptures.

From what we have already seen it is evident

that one who worships the Prana in all, its five fields

of activities and lives in self-control and thus economises the expenditure of vitality, can certainly come

to live the full span of the human life—which is

recognised by our Sastras as hundred and twenty

smiling years.

Any doctor, who is not so fully preoccupied with

his own income and therefore is totally blind to the

world and its health, would endorse the statement

that the faster we live the quicker does the generation

get wiped out of the face of the world by their relentless lord of justice, Lord Death.

Because vitality in the individual is a sign of that

subject's life, the Total Prana is called the Total Life.

Thus describes the Vedic Mantra all about the Prana

in us and the infinite reality. Therefore the Veda

says that he, who realises this sacredness of the very

vitality in him, comes to economise in his physical

expenditures, and thus by avoiding all foolish dissipations he comes to live the full span of his life.

b. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 143,

तस्यैप एव शरीर आत्मा । य:पूर्वस्य । तस्माद्वा एतस्मात्स्थाणमयात् । अन्योन्तर आत्मा मनोमय: । तेनैप पूर्ण: । स वा एष पुरुषविध एव । तस्य पुरुषविधताम् । अन्ययं पुरुषविध: । तस्य यजुरेव शिर: । ऋग् दक्षिण: पक्ष: । सामोत्तर: पक्ष: । आदेश आत्मा । अथर्वाङ्गिरस: पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा । तदप्येप श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति तृतीयोडनुवाक: ]

Tasyaisha eva sarccra atma. Yah poorvasya. Tasmadva etasmat pranamayat. Anyontara atma manomayaha. Tenaislia poornaha. Sa va esha purushavidha eva. Tasy a purushavidhatam. Anvayam purushavidhaha. Tasy a yajureva siraha. Rig dakshinah pakshaha. Samottarah pakshaha. Adesa atma. Atharvangirasah puccham pratishta. Tadapyesha sloko bhavati.

[Iti Thriteeyo Anuvakaha]

तस्य : of that (Annamaya), एष: : this, एव : verily, शरीर: आत्मा : (is) the embodied Atman. य: : who, पूर्वस्य : of the former. तस्मात् वै एतस्मात् : from that very, प्राणमयात् : consisting of Prana (Atman). अन्य: : other than, different from, अन्तरात्मा : inner Self, मनोमय: : constituted of mind. तेन : with that (Self), एष: : this one, पूर्ण: : (is) full. स: : it, वा : verily, एष : this, पुरुषविध : in the form of a person, एव : only. तस्य : its, पुरुषविधताम् : human form. अनु : depending upon or according to, अयम् : this one (Pranamaya), पुरुषविध: : of the shape of the person. तस्य : of it, यजु: ,Yajus, एव : only, शिर: : the head. ऋग् : Rik, दक्षिण: पक्ष: : the right side. साम : Sama, उत्तर: पक्ष: : the left side. आदेश: : the scriptural injunctions, आत्मा : the Self. अथर्वाङ्गिरस: : the hymns of the Atharva-veda, पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा : the hind part and the support. तत् : about that, अपि : also, एष: : this, श्लोक: : verse, भवति : there is.

Of that Former (Annamaya) this Pranamaya is the Atman. Different from this Pranamaya-Self, made up of the Pranas there is another Self constituted of the mind With that Self made of mind the Pranamaya is full This also is of the form of man. Its human form is according to that of the former. Of it Yajus is the head, Rik is the right side, Saman is the left side, the scriptural injunction (Adesa) is the support There is the following verse about it

As described earlier here also the Mental Sheath is described as filling the entire area of the Vital-Air-Sheath, which in its turn fills up the form of the Food-Sheath. For this Manomaya Kosa the Yajur Veda Mantras form the head and the Rug Veda and the Sama Veda Mantras form the right and left sides. Yajur-Veda contains Mantras which has no strict rules regarding the number of letters in each line, nor is there any definite rule regarding the ending letter in each line. Rig Veda Mantras are those that are strictly bound by the laws of metrical composition.

These Vedic Mantras are external sounds and how they can be considered as parts of the human mind is a doubt that can certainly come to an intelligent reader's alert mind. In all Upasanas an individual is advised to superimpose certain desirable meanings upon a substratum for purposes of invoking the greatest concentration. Ordinarily no explanation can be expected in the prescription for Upasanas, since the worshiper never comes to demand any explanation. One training for good marksmanship will not question the why and the wherefore for the fixed point of concentration. However here

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

it seems to have a fairly systematic method. Vedic Mantras are in thorough consonance in which the practitioner is ready to exert himself in total cooperation instinct in his mind. Vedic Mantras do certainly fulfill the zeal of the students of Veda; in short they are True Brahmacaris; and Sheath is withdrawn from the Veda in the appropriats. In this creative moment he is and truly dedicated to Knowledge the rendered in this very career.

The injunctions and restrictions in the Vedas which detail all the rites of ritualism, constitutes the true Sommaya Katu, and the Atharvana Veda, consisting of Mantras, worn by Rishis Atharvana and Angiras, is considered as the foundation on which this cult is built.

When we remember that the Atharvana Veda contains (or containing) all the knowledges of various sciences as mechanics and Darsana, Jantra, Tantra, etc.), the field of the mind, gained confidence. Unfortunately living in this modern age only a very scanty literature is available in its original form.

In saying thus Atharvana mind and the rituals with the other Veda sacred eyes of veda

11

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

Rishis of old look upon the secular activities of the State and the society.

To say that Vedanta closed its eyes at the material side of life is the undigested understanding of our spiritual culture and material science as interpreted in the Eternal Vedas. Unprepared and unhealthy students of the Hindu literature alone will have this shameless courage! An unprejudiced study clearly shows that the Rishis entered the vast arena of the subjective experience of the Self only when they had walked along the unending corridors of their libraries and laboratories.

Today we know not the recipe of the 12th century magicians, sorcerers and devil-beaters; for, on reaching a greater knowledge through science and its experimental investigations we had no more any need to go back into the witchcraft or sorcery of that barbarous age: So too, when the Rishis and their children came to experience this staggering 'truth' of the inward perfection and the essential divinity of man, they came to neglect, if not totally reject, the other sciences and their conclusions or achievements.

How much they recognised the importance of the secular well-being through material knowledge, which has a great contribution to make in the development of the mind and the intellect of the successful Vedanta-seeker, is evidently clear when they assert here that the Mental Sheath or the psychological personality in man is rooted well upon the Atharva Veda! This idea above described by the daring Rishis of Taitti-

riya Upanishad is not the whim and fancy of that

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 147

master but it is a truth that had been endorsed by a

long line of seers and has, therefore, come to be

recognised as part of our Veda The Mantra is

quoted in the following section

अनुवाकः ७। Section 4

यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते। अप्राप्य मनसा सह । आनन्दं ब्रह्मणो

विद्वान् । न बिभेति कदाचनैति । तस्यैप एव शारीर आत्मा , यः पूर्वस्य॥

Yato vacho nivartante Aprapy a manasa saha Anandam

brahmano vidvan. Na bibheti kadachaneti Tasya esha eva sareera

atma Yah poorvasya.

यतः : whence, वाचः : all speech, निवर्तन्ते : turn

back. अप्राप्य : without reaching it, मनसा सह : along

with the mind. आनन्दम् : bliss, ब्रह्मणः : of Brahman,

विद्वान् : he who knows. न not, बिभेति : fears, कदाचन :

at any time, इति : thus. तस्य : of that, एषः : this, एव : verily, शारीर आत्मा . (is) the embodied soul. यः : who,

पूर्वस्य : of the former.

Whence all the speech turn back with the mind without

reaching it (that is the Eternal Truth the Brahman) He who

knows the bliss of the Bruhman fears not at any time This

mind is the embodied soul of the Pranamaya Of this (Prana-

maya) the Manomaya is the Self

Sankara in his commentary happens to drop this

line without commenting on it word by word, since

the same Mantra is again quoted in the ninth section

where he goes into it exhaustively. Following San-

kara’s commentary there are a host of Pundits who

have dared to claim that this is an unnecessary

portion worthy to be eschewed. Personally I would

feel that this claim can be justified only if we accept

that the critic has failed to appreciate fully the work

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of a teacher among a host of his disciples. If the

teacher took his profession seriously, and he is

faithful to his duties, then, he has not only to explain

the theme which he is expounding in a masterly way

but he has also to prepare his grounds to guide the

students to a greater state of knowledge.

This Vedic Mantra quoted, though it indicates

the Supreme Infinite Reality, it is here used by the

teacher of the Upanishad to indicate the mind. In

a human life mind plays such an all-important part

that to consider the mind as the very truth in the

body is but a pleasant and poetic exaggeration.

The students of that age, unpardonably impatient

to know and to live the perfections promised in the

Vedas, cannot brook any lengthy discourses which

expound theories of matter and spirit, unless they

directly indicate a path by which the students can

come to experience it.

By now, listening to the teacher's talk in the

Upanishad, the students were getting rather intellec-

tually impatient, and, perhaps, traces of it were

evident on the face of the children. The description

of how the five elements came; the details of the Food-

Sheath;—all these endless narrations excited but

impatience in the mind of the students, who were

hungry to know and thirsty to live the experience of

Truth. The teacher being so well tuned with all the

disciples that he implicitly understood the mind of

the taught and, therefore, in order to keep them

engaged in a better spirit of thrilled joy and deep

earnestness, the teacher gave a talk which would seem

to us out of place here, in our hasty reading.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 149

Again, this Mantra gives a necessary warning to those of the students who are not giving the necessary amount of their intellectual co-operation, but are only blinking on depending upon the Guru's words which are so far very clear and precise, in the hope that at one point of his discourse, the teacher will be able to point out the Atman and indicate it as an object!

The theme of the Upanishads is the spiritual entity in ourselves. The Atman being the Eternal Subject, it cannot be objectively indicated. All other sciences are in varying degrees objective in their scope and treatment, and therefore, an ordinary educated student would expect the teacher to conclude his discourses, ultimately holding upto their gaze the Self.

To indicate that the Self is neither available for physical perception, nor for the mental and intellectual comprehension, we have this Mantra here quoted by the teacher so that the students may nicely sharpen and finely adjust a little more, their attunement with the teacher. And this is unavoidable; the subject-matter so far was relatively grosser and could be easily comprehended since they were talking about the gross body and the expressions of vitality in themselves.

But the mental and the intellectual personalities, into which the theme of the discourse is now introducing the students, are indeed subtler and, therefore, this warning is quite timely and highly useful to the students.

"Whence all speech turn back".—All other themes in the world can be fully and forcibly expressed or painted in words but when it comes to the Self,

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words fail. By saying so, the Rṣis are not trying to

avoid a direct demand of the student class. They are

only giving expression to a fact that is accepted by the

very science of language.

Though words have mighty power and they can

paint ideas, report incidents, express emotions, and

enunciate truths, they have their own limitations.

There are occasions in life when the words must

necessarily fail when we try to express them. The

great Rṣis of old, with their acute intelligence, had

very scientifically analysed the capacities in words,

and they had found that the entire realm of things

and;happenings that is expressed in terms of words-

can all be conveniently grouped under four headings.

Words can explain the species (Jāti), the attributes

(Guna), the activities (Kriyā), and the relationships

between things called (Sambandha).

If a thing falls under any species, it can be

expressed in terms of words as: table, chair, sugar,

etc. If it has any attribute like. good, bad, black

or white, it can be captured in words. If it is a verb

like: cooks, eats, walks, jumps, smiles, etc., it can be

conveyed. And if it is a relationship as: wife,

husband, friend, father or mother, it can also be

expressed. But, if there be a Factor which, like the

Infinite Reality, is One-Without-a-Second, without

Jāti, without Kriyā, without Guna and without

Sambandha, necessarily words cannot function in that

realm of experience. Therefore, here the Ṛshi

explains the Truth as that from which all words get

recoiled, declaring their failure in all their attempts at

capturing the Truth in their forces of expression.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 151

The words do not return from the Infinite all alone themselves, but they are faithfully accompanied in their retreat by the mind. The mind cannot feel the Truth nor the intelligence know It, because the mind and the intellect are but inert matter and they gain their capacity to feel and know only when they are dynamised by the Conscious Principle in us. Just as with a telescope we cannot afford to see ourselves; just as a driver cannot be run over by the very car he is driving; similarly, mind which is functioning because of the Conscious Principle behind it, cannot itself feel or know this Life-Factor as an object other than itself.

He who has come to realise this Atman within himself thereafter, feels no fear at any time. The State of Fearlessness is here equated with a State of Perfection and lives of all great men remind us that, they, after attaining Perfection, lived a life of fearlessness and daring adventure. They alone had the courage at the historical periods to stand against the floods of criticism, and yet, break the wrong and dangerous flow of thoughts of that era, and redirect them towards better fields in man's life. Infinite alone is the fearless harbour where threats of finitude, though howling or shrieking without, cannot penetrate and toss the ship of life.

तस्माद् एतस्मान्मनोमयात् । अन्योऽन्तर आत्मा विज्ञानमयः ।

तैनैप पूर्णः । स वा अप पुरुपविध एव। तस्य पुरुषविधताम् ।

अन्वयं पुरुपविधः । तस्य श्रद्धैव शिरः । ऋतं दक्षिणः पक्षः ।

• Refer for more details Discourses on Kenopanishad, by Swamiji

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

सत्यमुत्तरः पक्षः । योग आत्मा । महः पuc्छं प्रतिष्ठा । तदप्येष श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति चतुर्थोऽनुवाकः ]

Tasmadya etasmat manomayat Anyontara atma vijnanam-yaha. Tenaislha poornaha. Sa va esha purushavidha eva Tasya purushavidhatam Anvayami purushavidhaha. Tasya sraddha eva siraha. Ritam dakshinah pakshaha Satyam uttaraḥ pakshaha. Yoga atma Mahah puccham pratishta Tadapyesha sloko bhavati

[Iti Chaturtho Anuvakaha]

तस्मात् वै पतस्मात् : from that very, मनोमयात् : consisting of mind. अन्यः अन्तरः आत्मा : another inner Self, विज्ञानमयः : made up of intelligence. तेन : with that (Self), पष्ण : this one, पूर्णः : (is) full. सः : it, वै : verily पष्ण : this one, पुरुषविधः : in the form of a person, पव : indeed. तस्य : its, पुरुषविधताम् : human form. अनु : according to, अयम् : this one (Mano-maya), पुरुषविधः : of the shape of a person. तस्य : of it, श्रद्धा : faith, पव : indeed, शिरः : the head. ऋतम् : Ritam, दक्षिणः पक्षः : is the right side. सत्यम् : Satyam, उत्तरः पक्षः : the left side. योगः • Yoga, आत्मा : is the trunk महः : Mahah, पुच्छम् प्रतिष्ठा : is the hind part and the support. तत् : about that, अपि : also, पष्ण : this, श्लोकः : verse, भवति : there is

Different from that made of mind is another inner soul made up of intelligence and by that, this is filled It also has the shape of man According to the human shape of the previous is the human shape of this one Faith is its head, Ritam is its right side, Satyam its left side, Yoga is the trunk and Maha is the tail, the support

After indicating the Mental Sheath in the human personality, the Rishi is guiding the disciple to a still

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

153

more subtler and, therefore, interior sheath of matter

—identifying with which the individual comes to

claim his intellectual personality. This Intellectual

Sheath, as before, pervades the entire area of the

Manomaya and, therefore, it also is to be conceived

of as having a human form.

This Intellectual Sheath having the form of a

man is described as having faith for its head.

In this anatomy ot the Intellectual-man in us, as

described in the Upanishads with faith as head,

Ritham and Satyam as sides, Yoga as the trunk and

Maha as the lower limbs, the attempt of the Rishis

is to bring out at one stroke, through a clear-cut

caricature, the cssential scientific details about the

intellect (that were available then) to the memory of

those vigilant students of that time. Unfortunately

today, we, having none of those preliminary know-

ledge, come to despair at the vulgarity of such rude

statements that the Intellectual-man in us has an

anatomy and a shape !!

When we approach the statement with the neces-

sary understanding it becomes very tame and yields

its milk of satisfaction. Faith is not that ridiculous

intellectual tyranny of one over a community or a

caste; though such a silent and dumb-following of

a Prophet or a revelation is generally considered now

all over the world as Faith: so that the priest class

may conveniently trade upon the ignorant laity !!

In Vedanta, Faith is essentially the inward

courage in us to live consistently attuning ourselves

to the ideal that we have ourselves intellectually

grasped. In short, we may understand faith as something like self-confidence in ourselves. It is very well known that even in our ordinary life our successes depend not only upon the chances or upon our qualifications but mainly upon our confidence in ourselves.

Without a certain amount of self-confidence we cannot live even an average life successfully. One who has lost completely his own cofidence in himself is a lunatic who is a danger to society and a sad encumbrance upon himself. Intellect can grow and assert itself therefore only if there be an unbroken flow of self-confidence in it. The Upanishad rightly expresses the very head—meaning the sacred and the most important limb—of the intellectual man in us, is self-confidence, termed here as Śraddhā

Similarly, its right and left sides are the intellectually digested and appreciated essence of the great text-book (Ritham), and the courage of conviction that propels one to live upto the Rithām, which is called as Satyam. It is evidently clear that a man can grow in his intellect only through study and training in every walk of life.

The trunk or the essence, in the sense that it is the main seat of vitality, which distributes its essence and nourishes all the parts of this intellectual man is explained here as Yoga. The word Yoga should not bring before your mind the picture of twisted human forms or bellowing prānāyām-practitioners. The word Yoga comes from Yuj to join, and any attempt of any individual to live in life through contemplation attuning his own imperfect being of

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

155

today to the greater and nobler concept of the true is called Yoga.

Any method by which we can live upto certain nobler and diviner goal, and thereby come to drop our weaknesses and imperfections under which we are today suffering—all such sacred activities, divine in concept, noble in spirit, are called Yaga. Mainly the success in Yoga rests upon the individual's capacity to concentrate and his ability in the deeper meditation. Therefore, to say that the very 'trunk' of the intellect is the power of concentration and its application in deeper and faithful meditation, is but expressing a fact which even modern scientists must accept without any complaint,

This individual intellect is rooted in the Mahat-Tattwa says the Upanishad. Mahat-Tattwa is the concept of the Total-mind or intellect. How the individual intellect is conditioned by the Total intellect is very well experienced at every moment by every one of us although rarely are we conscious of it. Take the example of a young man sitting in the verandah of his house rather restless, because of his incapacity to visit as many pictures as he wishes or because he has not yet come to possess a radio all to himself ! Compared with his grandfather's generation, we can say that this young man has started worrying for a thing over which our grandfathers never thought of complaining or grudging The young man is now thinking in terms of his age and to that extent we may say that he is a product of the thought of his times.

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This idea is elaborated to include even its subtlest implications in the story of the Ten Great Incarnations accepted by the mythology in Hinduism. According to the age and the conditions, the Avatar also had changed in its physical structure, mental capacity and intellectual accomplishments. From the Fish to Krishna is the entire story revealed of how the great man-gods of each era had to prove themselves a faithful replica of the total intellectual throbbing of their respective ages.

A Mahatma Gandhi in Italy would have been as complete a failure as Mussolini would have been in India. Not only the great leaders and the prophets are thus the product of their ages but every one of us is guided entirely by the influence of the age that we can almost say that there is but a very meagre fraction in us which is original. This idea is expressed here by saying that the intellect is rooted in the total intellectual influence of our era.

The next section gives us the required Vedic-quotation to substantiate the statement of the Taitti-

rya Upanishad expounder.

अनुवाक: ५। Section 5

विज्ञानं यज्ञं तनुते । कर्माणि तनुतेऽपि च । विज्ञानं देवाः सर्वे । ब्रह्म ज्येष्ठमुपासते । विज्ञानं ब्रह्म चेद् वेद । तस्माच्चेन्र प्रमाद्यति । शरीर-

पाप्मनो हित्वा । सर्वान्कामान्समश्नुते इति ॥

Vijnanam yajnam tanute Karmani tanute api cha Vijnanam devah sarve. Brahma jyeshtam upasate Vijnanam Brahma chedveda. Tasmachchenna pramadyati. Sareere papmano hitva.

Sarvan kaman samasnut iti

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 157

विज्ञानम् : knowledge, यज्ञम् : sacrifice, तनुते : performs, अपि : also, कर्माणि : actions, तनुते : performs, च : and. विज्ञानम् : knowledge, देवाः : the ‘Gods’ सर्वे : all. ब्रह्म : as Brahman, ज्येष्ठम् : the eldest, उपासते : worship. विज्ञानम् : knowledge, ब्रह्म : as Brahman, चेत् : if, वेद : knows. तस्मात् : from that, चेत् : if, न : not, प्रमायति : swerve from. शरीरे : in the body, पाप्मनः : sins, हित्वा : having abandoned. सर्वान् : all, कामान् : desires, समश्नुते : attains, इति : thus.

Knowledge performs the sacrifices and it is the real agent of all the physical activities. All the ‘Gods’ worship knowledge as Brahman, the eldest. If a man knows Knowledge as Brahman and if he does not swerve from it, he attains all desires and comes to abandon all the sins in the body

All ritualisms have deep significance and suggestiveness. One who does not know the exact implication will only be following the routine process of chanting and doing the prescribed action without benefiting himself and feeling any sense of inspiration. The Upanishad is very insistent and the Vedas, with equal emphasis, roar that without a correct knowledge of not only the rules of the Karma, but the full significance of it, ritualism has no effect at all. Therefore the Rishi here says that it is the intellectual faculty that is the true performer of all rituals.

Similarly the Mantra insists that the intellect alone is the true agent who does all actions in our transactions in our life. As soon as an external stimulus is conveyed by the sense-organ to the mind, the mind informs the intellect of the impulses received and it is the determining faculty in us that issues out

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definite instructions as to what is to be done and how best we can make use of the external experience so gained. In short, when we analyse the theories of perception and the working of experiences as expounded by the various schools of philosophy in India and elsewhere we find in almost all cases the intellect is considered as the true agent in all our intelligent transactions with the world outside.

Again, intelligence is considered as Brahman or the Eternal essence by all the ‘God’. To understand this word Deva as the celestial being or angels, etc., would be to confuse ourselves with ridiculous mis-understandings The word Deva comes from a root which means illumination; Deva means illuminator. The Devas in us are the Five Sense-Organs and the Mind; they consider intellect as the true factor behind them; without an active intelligence the Indriyas are incapable of receiving their impulses and acting readily to meet the challenge in the outer world.

He who lives in the consciousness that every perception of the sense-organs is an expression of a deliberate grace of the intellect, he comes to develop more and more his intellect. Naturally he cannot make any new mistakes and he comes to live much more happily fulfilling all his ambitions and desires. A fully awareful existence at once intelligent and conscious is sure to take us from success to success and to such a vigilant individual there cannot be any sense of frustration in his desires.

The sorrows of life are all due to our misunder-standing ourselves to be nothing but the fleshy body.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 159

This body-consciousness circumscribes our capacity and burns with terrific responsibilities and false duties. These are the sins of the body mentioned here. Once who lives in the intellectual zone as a masterly intelligent being will thereby be getting himself redeemed from his bodily preoccupation and to that extent he will be feeling free and liberated.

तस्यैप एव शारीर आत्मा । यः पूर्वस्य । तस्माद्वा एतस्माद्विज्ञानमयात् । अन्योऽन्तर आत्मानन्दमयः । तेनैप पूर्णः । स वा एष पुरुषविध एव । तस्य पुरुषविधताम् । अन्वयं पुरुषविधः । तस्य प्रियमेव शिरः । मोदो दक्षिणः पक्षः । प्रमोद उत्तरः पक्षः । आनन्द आत्मा । ब्रह्म पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा । तदप्येष श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति पञ्चमोऽनुवाकः। ]

Tasya esha eva sarecra atma Yah poovasyah. Tasmadva etasmat vijnanamayatah Anyontara atma anandamayaha. Tenaesha poornaha. Sa va esha purushavidha eva Tasya purushavidhaatam. Anvayam purushavidhaha Tasya priyam eva siraha. Modo dakshina:h pakshaha Pramoda uttara:h pakshah Aananda atma Brahma puccham pratishta Tadapyesha sloko bhavati

[Iti Panchamo Anuvakaha]

तस्य : of that (Vignana Maya),, एष: : this, एव : verily, शारीर आत्मा : (is) the embodied Atman. यः : who, पूर्वस्य : of the former. तस्मात् वै एतस्मात् : from that very, विज्ञानमय: : consisting of Vignana (Atman). अन्य: : different from, अन्तरात्मा : inner Self, आनन्दमय: : constituted of Anandamaya एष: : this one, पूर्ण: : (is) full. सः : it, वै : verily, एष: : this, पुरुषविध: · in the form of a person, एव : only. तस्य : its, पुरुषविधताम् : human form. अनु : depending upon, अयम् : this one (Vignana Maya), पुरुषविध: : of

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the shape of a person. तस्य of it, प्रियम् : joy, एव शिर: : is indeed the head. मोद: : rejoicing, दक्षिण: पक्ष: : is the

right side. प्रमोद: : bliss, उत्तर: पक्ष: : is the left side.

आनन्द: : Ananda, आत्मा : is the Self. ब्रह्म : Brahman,

पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा : is the hind part and the support. तद् : about that, अपि : also, एष: : this, इलोक: : verse, भवति

: there is.

' Of that, of the Former, this one verily is the embodied

self. Different from this self made up of Intellect (Vijñāna-

maya) is another self within formed of Bliss (Ānandamaya).

By this that is filled (by Anandamaya the Vijñānamaya is full )

It also has the shape of man According to human form of

That, is the human form of this Of it Joy (Priya) is the right

side, rejoicing (Moda) is the left side and Bliss (Pramoda) is

the trunk Brahman is the tail-support About this there is

also the following verse

As before we are told that deeper within the

Intellectual Sheath filling it up entirely and fully is

the subtlest of the matter envelopment called the Bliss

Sheath. This is constituted of all the flickering joys

that we experience in our contacts with the finite

world of matter when the sense-organs come to live

them. All those joys put together form the subtlest of

Sheaths. In life our existence is conditioned by our

joys also. Just as the body and its conditions limit

our personality, just as the mind and the intellect and

their health condition our ego-centric existence, so

too, our share of joys in life also adds its colour into

our individual existence.

The joys that we experience in life arise from an

endless-variety of sources and it would have been the

despair of any people in the world to tabulate them

all. But the Ṛṣhi of old could do so. Not only did

they bring into their classification all the joys experienced by an individual, but they classified under three headings all the possibilities for enjoyment of all living creatures in the Universe.

This they could achieve by classifying all circumstances under three stages in the relationship between the conducive sense-objects and their enjoyer. There is a kind of happiness when an individual is mentally brooding over a sense-object which to him is a source of happiness. Thus when the object of love is absent the lover enjoys it through contemplation. The joy thus experienced in the contemplation of the loving object is termed in Sanskrit as Priya which we are compelled to translate as joy.

When the object of love is very near the lover, the enjoyment at the vicinity of the enjoyable is certainly better than the delight gained in the mere contemplation of it. This joy which is subtler and greater than Priya is termed as Moda which we have translated as rejoicing

When the beloved object is not only near the beloved, but he actually comes to indulge in the enjoyment of the object, the joy arising out of this actual experiencing is termed as Pramoda: we translate it as Bliss.

As an example, a lover when he is contemplating upon the beauty of form, the nobility of the heart and the delicacy of sentiment of his beloved, his joys are termed as Priya; when he is meeting her in a secret arbour of love in the actual vicinity of the true throbbing heart, the joy that arises is called Moda,

12

and when the same loving couple come to live in mutual embrace living the soft joys of the betrothal, the pleasure derived from that fleshy enjoyment is termed as Pramoda; we translate it as Bliss.

Under these classifications all enjoyment of sense-objects can be marshalled in: these three being the sources of all our joys.

In describing the Anandamaya, the Rishi, therefore, explains that Priya is its head and Moda and Pramoda are the two sides. In all these three sources of joy, the common vital content is but the sense of a satisfying delight and this fact is indicated when the Rishi declares that the trunk is Ananda.

In the above narration of joy and the Bliss-personality in man, though we explained it as the joys experienced through the acquisitions, possession and enjoyment of the sense-objects, when we view it closely we find that all bliss springs from the same source, the Supreme Self. Bliss is the essential nature of man, and desire or sorrow is a condition when the flow of the Self is choked by the powerful agitation of the mind. Possession of the beloved object in its varying degrees of satisfaction calms the mind and to the degree the mind is calmed, to that degree beams of the Self's Blissful light bursts upon the individual's cognition. This technique has been fully explained earlier. Therefore, according to Vedanta, sense-enjoyment is nothing but the Bliss of the Self that manifests itself at certain moments, the immediate cause being the possession of the particular object. This truth is upheld when the Rishi declares that the

B. VALLI] TATTIRIYA UPANISHAD 163

Bliss-personality in man is rooted in or founded upon Brahman.

What has been said here is endorsed by the Vedas; the appropriate Veda Mantra is quoted in the following section

अनुवाकः ६ । Section 6.

असदेव स भवति असद्ब्रह्मेति वेद चेत् । अस्ति ब्रह्मेति चेद्वेद । सन्तमेनं ततो विदुरिति । तस्यैप एव शरीर आत्मा । यः पूर्वस्य ॥

Asanneva sa bhavati asadbrahmeti veda chet. Asti Brahmeti chedveda Santamenaṃ tato viduriti Tasyaiṣa eva sarcira ātmā. Yaḥ pūrvvasya

अयम् : non-existent, एव : truly, सः : he, भवति : becomes, असत् : non-existent, ब्रह्म : Brahman, इति . thus, वेद : knows, चेत् . if. असिन् : as existent, ब्रह्म : Brahman, इति . thus, चेत् . if, वेद : (he) knows. ततः : then, एनम् : him, सन्तम् : to be existent, विदुः : they (the world) consider, इति . thus. तस्य : of that, एव : thus, एव : verily, शरीर आत्मा : (is) the embodied soul. यः . who, पूर्वस्य : of the former.

If he knows Brahman as non-existent he becomes himself non-existent If he knows Brahman as existent, then (they) the world knows him to be existent. Of the former (Ananda-maya-kosa) the Self is the essence

The theory of transcendence as explained so far should necessarily give the student a feeling that the Truth indicated in Vedanta is a condition to be experienced as ‘Non-Existence’. All that we know of existence can be experienced either from the body or from the mind or from the intellect or at least as an inward ‘glow of happiness’. But the Ṛṣi was

labouring all along to explain to us all these instruments in us and he had been advising the transcendence of each one of them.

When we remove all our identifications with the body, though the external sense-objects become nil to us, certainly, there are the feelings of the mind that exist wherein we can live. When the mind is also transcended there is at least a world of ideas which we can capture and live in our intellect When we transcend the intellect also, we may still live, as the teacher explained, in the ‘glow of happiness’, in the causal-body. But when even this is transcended the goal that we can reach must, certainly, be a complete zero, a vacuum an emptiness, a dull and dreary Non-existence in which all that we know of is negated. When all the instruments of experiences are transcended we must necessarily reach a void which, as far as our intellect could understand today in its calculation, must be a zero—a Non-existent nothingness !!

That which has its own positive qualities is called an existent thing. This watch on the table exists because I see it, I touch it, I can conceive of it as my watch, and I have got an idea of its make or of the company that manufactured it. The watch is existent. But when I search for my horn it is termed as Non-existent, since my sense-organs cannot perceive it ; neither can my mind feel it nor can my intellect conceive of its presence. When none of the instruments of cognition in me can come to experience an object in the work-a-dav world we term it as Non-existent.

The believers in Asat Vada, a group of Buddhists, had come to claim that ‘Non-existence’ is the Truth, since they pursued exclusively the path of negating everything in the cognisable or experienceable world-of-objects. They declared, therefore, that ‘Non-existence’ is the Truth. In short, they claimed that ‘Non-existence’ exists. This Religion of Non-existence threw the generation out into an insipid animal life of atheistic values, and ulcerated the society with its leprous sensuousness.

This Mantra clearly indicates that an individual who realises that the Supreme Goal is Non-existent, he during his meditation comes to realise only the ‘Non-existence’, and thereby he becomes only a sad negative personality and not a positive divine God-man.

Sankara arguing against this misinterpretation, very lovingly and tenderly takes up the logic of the Asat Vada and declares that they are at the gates-of-Truth refusing to go in and experience the positive dynamism of the Supreme Essence in themselves. Sankara says that there is a palpable contradiction, when they declare that "Non-existence exists'. Theirs is a cry that they had experienced Non-existence in their supreme transcendental anubhava. Since they had experienced "Non-existence" there must be a positive Consciousness, an existent entity, that illumined the state of "Non-existence". That existent dynamic factor is the Truth which illumined, at that time of complete cessation of all the sheaths, the natural state of ‘Non-existence’; meaning, the

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non-existence of the ordinarily known objects that are knowable only through the sheaths—which are all objects of these various sheaths.

Vedanta is not a negative philosophy. Its strength lies in its positivity and it leads man away from his present confusions and misunderstandings and ushers him into Godhood, which is then experienced there as a positive Existence.

Without the assertion of the positive qualities of Godhead the Vedantic Sadhana is not complete with the mere negation of the delusory beliefs in ourselves.

Curing the symptoms of a disease is not in itself the end of a treatment; the treatment ends only after the convalescence when the patient positively regains all his lost health and gets established in the enjoyment of his entire energy and vitality.

Removing hunger is not the fulfilment of eating, but it must give to the eater the positive happiness of fulness and comfort.

Negation of our false misunderstandings about ourselves is certainly to be pursued; the false is to be negated.

But Vedanta does not point out this partial method only. After the negation of the false, realisation is complete only when we come to assert and live the vital Truth in Itself.

Negation of the ghost should be immediately followed by the assertion of the positive existence of the post !

This statement of the Veda therefore asserts that if a seeker overemphasises the method of negation he may reach only a dull void which in itself is not the fulfilment of a God-man's inward divine realisation

He not only understands that he is not a finite mortal

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISIIAD 167

but comes to experience that he is the Infinite Eternal Truth. Without this positive understanding, Vedanta only fulfils in drawing out a melancholy caricature of a man in imperfections rather than discover for him the celestial beauty of a perfect God that lives in him !!

The application of this Vedic declaration can be found in life also. Unless the faithful followers of a theory or a philosophy, or even the people of a nation they do not believe in and come to experience the existent goal in their plans or programmes, they do not become dynamic followers, who can carry out a successful glory unto themselves This is an era of planning. A plan should include not only a clear and vivid realisation of the present wealrh and sorrows in the society, not only should it give the details of its working schemes for the amelioration of the existing conditions, but the plan should give a positive picture of what would be the result of the nation or the country at the fulfilment of this plan.

If the people, faithfully subscribing to the plan, do not come to realise this positive goal of their ideal, can never depend upon those people to fulfil that plan. Unless we have a definite faith in our existence and unless we believe that it is actually come to experience this ideal existent factor, there is no hope of becoming successful

So, too, here in the Vedic plan structure, which plans our evolution, we have to gain a mental wealrh, so as to integrate

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the stature of a God upon earth, free and efficient in

every field, noble and divine in every activity, peace-

ful and serene in every situation, cheerful and

composed in every circumstance—ever a master of

his own emotions and desires, never a slave of his

sentiments and ideas. As such, in this subjective

planning unless the seeker has a definite faith in a

positive goal, unless he comes to experience it, there

is no fulfilment in the spiritual path as indicated in

the God-making programme of Vedanta.

This positive, Existent, Divine, Consciousness

which is eternal and perfect, immortal and omni-

potent is the Ātman, which is the essence of the

Ānandamaya-kośa. To know and to realise the Bliss

Sheath is to discover the Ātman. To fix our identifi-

cation with this Bliss Sheath entirely and completely

is the last act of the conscious and deliberate human

effort in his attempt at self-evolution, wherein he

comes to realise his essence as nothing short of the

Supreme Godhood.

अथातोऽनुप्रश्नः । उताविद्वानमुं लोकं प्रेत्य । कश्चन गच्छति ।

आहो विद्वानमुं लोकं प्रेत्य । कश्चित्समश्नुता उ ॥

Athato anuprasnaha. Uta avidvan amum lokam pretya. Kas-

chana gachchati. Aho vidvan amum lokam pretya Kaschit

samasnuta u.

अथ : now (thereupon), अतः : therefore, अनुप्रश्नः :

the following questions. उत : whether, अविद्वान् : the

ignorant, अमुम् : there (yonder), लोकम् : world, प्रेत्य :

having left (this world). कःचन : any, गच्छति · go?.

आहो : or, विद्वान् : the knower, अमुम् लोकम् : that world,

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAI 169

प्रेत्य : having left, कःचिन् · any, समश्नुते . attains, उ : whcther ?

Therecupon arise the following questions Docs the ignorant leaving this world go There or does the knower leaving this world obtain That

The diligent and daring intellectuals that they were the children of that age in their extreme self-integration could not only follow faithfully the highest philosophical discourses but they could see even much ahead of their classroom. The impatient enthusiasm in the students, mouldering under courageous impatience, seems to take wings and voice forth these questions. The questions in their implication cover a greater field than the words suggest themselves in their superficial dictionary meanings. In the beginning the teacher said that out of the Reality, defined as “Satyam, Jñanam, Anantam,” the entire world of plurality emerged under the propelling force of a desire.

When a chain is made out of gold whether the links in the chain know it or not, when it is melted it cannot become anything other than gold itself. Similarly, the disciples ask “Will not a human creature even when he does not know anything of the Atman, without any of the self-efforts at ethical and moral living, and continuous mental seeking and deep meditations, reach the Supreme on leaving from this world of existence?” This question in its implication raises a doubt as to what is the special benefit derived by the spiritual-way-of-living and by following the traditional trainings of Self-devlcopment when every born creature would ultimately merge back to become

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its cause, which is the Supreme? Here the question

is upon the futility of any conscious spiritual ende-

avour.

The other question is an antithesis of the earlier :

"Does one who knows the Reality reach the Supreme

experience, after his departure from here." Together

in their combination both the questions indicate a

doubt whether there is a Reality or not, which is to be

achieved by man through a conscious effort on his

part. The full implication of the question will be

understood as we read more and more of the text.

सोडकामयत । बहु स्यां प्रजायेयेति । स तपोऽतप्यत । स

तपस्तप्त्वा । इदं सर्वमसृजत । यदिदं किंच । तत्सृष्ट-

त्वा । तदेवानुप्राविशत् । तदनुप्रविश्य । सच्चत्यचाभवत् । निरुक्तं चानिरुक्तं च । निलयनंचानिलयनं

च । विज्ञानं चाविज्ञानं च । सत्यं चानृतं च । सत्यमभवत् । यदिदं किंच । तत्सत्यमित्याचक्षते । तदप्येष इलोको भवति ॥

[ इति षष्ठोऽनुवाकः ]

So akamayata Bahu syam prajayeveti. Sa tapo atapyata.

Sa tapastaptva Idam sarvam asrujata. Yadidam kincha. Tatsru-

shtva. Tadevanupravishat Tadanupravisya. Sacchatyaccha abhavat.

Niruktam cha aniruktam cha. Nilayanam cha anilayanam cha

Vijnanam cha avijnanam cha. Satyam cha anrutam cha Satyam

abhavat. Yadidam hincha. Tatsatyam ityachakshate Tadapyesha

sloko bhavati

[Iti Shashto Anuvakaha]

सः : He, अकामयत : desired. बहु: : many, स्याम् :

may I become, प्रजायेय : may I be born, इति : thus.

सः : he, तपः : tapas, तष्यत : performed. सः : he, तप :

tapas, तप्त्वा : having performed. इति : thus, सर्वम् : all,

असृजत : created. यत् इदं किं च : whatever that is here

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

171

(that we perceive). तत् : it, पच : verily, अनुवचिशत् : entered into. तत् : it,

अनुविचष्टे : having entered. सत् : the manifest, च : and,

त्यत् : the beyond (the unmanifest), च : and. अभवत् :

became. निरुक्तम् : the defined, च : and, अनिरुक्तम् : the

undefined, न : and. निलयनम् : the housed, च : and,

अनिलयनम् : the houseless, च : and, विज्ञानम् : knowledge,

च : and, अविद्याम् : ignorance, च : and, सत्यम् : truth,

च : and, अनृतम् : ignorance, च : and. सत्यम् : manifest,

अभवत् : became. यत्तदद्रं किं च : whatever that is here.

तत् : therefore, सत्पम् : existence, इति : thus, आचचते :

it is called. तत् : about that, अपि : also, एप :

this, श्लोक: : verse, भवति : there is

He desired "I shall become many and be Born. He

performed Tapas. Having performed Tapas, he created all

this whatsoever (we perceive). Having created it, he entered

it Having entered it, he became the manifest and the

unmanifest, the defined and undefined, the housed and the

houseless, knowledge and ignorance, truth and falsehood, and

all this whatsoever that exists Therefore, It is called

Existence. In this sense, there is the following Vedic verse."

The Supreme All-Pervading Consciousness,

which is the substratum for the entire world, is Itself

the Conscious part of life within us, called the

Atman. This has been already explained in the

beginning verse of this chapter. Here in this Mantra,

the teacher is continuing his discourses and is explain-

ning how the creation has actually emerged out from

the ocean of Pure Consciousness which ever remains

Perfect, the One-without-a-second.

There are many European critics who naturally

get flabbergasted at the logic of the master's words

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here. The students asked definite and pointed ques-

tions which the master was not answering immediately

and directly. From this, they conclude that the

teacher was not only avoiding the question and its

implications, but was even frightening the children

away by the dignity of his beard and the sonorous

echo of his thundering words1

In fact, on a closer study, it would be revealed

how subtly the master had answered all the subtle

implications of the students’ questions. In this

dramatic situation--where the teacher was giving a

discourse, to a few students, who were eagerly sitting

in front of him with all eyes and ears, with their mind

surging forward to peep over even uncovered new fields

of knowledge which the master’s words seemed to

open up to their view—the students, in their impati-

ence, asked the above questions

The teacher appreciating the depth of under-

standing which is indicated in the students’ questions,

did not all of a sudden jump at an answer in a direct

‘Yes’ or ‘No’, but he continued his discourse

covering all the fields as per his own scheme of

the discourse.

There was a smile of satisfaction on the face of

the teacher and he promised the children with his

smile that he would be answering them. Thus, the

teacher continued to explain how the Infinite came to

play the game of the Finite not by any accident, nor

by the intervention of anything other than Itself, but

It happened to entertain a desire to become and

play the game of life!

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 173

This description gives us a fallacious feeling that the teacher is trying to explain 'the creation' objectively. Though the words here, "He desired" gives the reader a wrong notion that a creator, there, among the clouds, desired, and "you and I are all the creatures of his desire," in the tradition of the Upanishadic studies, the students of that age, tried to grasp the Truth in themselves subjectively. Vedanta, being the science of man's subjective quest to discover the Reality in himself, at every point in the Upanishads, we can understand the Sastra only if we try to subjectively experience what has been objectively explained in their Mantras.

The Atman, Supreme and Divine, Perfect and All-full, revelling in Its own omniscience and omni-potence, became awareful of a desire arising in Itself. Thousands of desires do come every day in the bosom of each one of us, but we do not identify ourselves with them and they immediately die away. But, at moments, we get ourselves identified with one of the desires and then starts the endless chain of tragedies and sorrows in our effort at accomplishing the desires and regaining our mental poise.

For example, almost every day, in the afternoon, the idea of visiting some cinema show may crop up in our minds, but it is ignored and it dies away without making any stir in us. But one day, suddenly one gets a desire for a picture-show, and he does not keep quiet but identifies himself with the desire, and then starts vitalising it with his own thoughts. He struggles hard to create that 'world of experience' by

reaching the theatre, purchasing the ticket, walking in and taking the seat. Having thus created this joy, he enters it, as it were with his enthusiasm, to enjoy the ‘show’ and then comes to suffer the agonies of the tragedy; smiles at the comedies, etc.

Similarly, says the Rishi, the Supreme, first desired—meaning, when a desire bumped up in that Ocean of Perfection (in Its All-fulness, desire too is in It) It identified Itself with that desire and performed Tapas. Concentrated and consistent thinking in the line of a desired object is Tapas. These thoughts dynamise the desire and the individual, meaning “the Supreme, identified with its desire,” struggles to create the necessary world in which it can fulfil its desire Having created the world, He enters it, meaning, he comes to live in an intimate and immediate relationship with the world of objects so created. “Thus,” concludes the Rishi, “the Supreme Himself became the entire world of experience in plurality!”

In this birth of the plurality from the Supreme, no division or change has happened in the Infinite. The Finite is only a superimposition on the Infinite. The vision of a ghost does not in any sense reduce, divide or mar the nature of the post. Rockfeller may dream that he is a beggar roaming in the streets of New York, seeking for a full lunch, but on waking, he shall not find himself even a farthing the less rich for his dream-poverty than what he was. This process of a delusory vision which veils the Real Nature of the substratum and gives us an experienceable perception of something different from the real nature

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 175

of substratum is called a superimposition. The Rishi here explains this all-satisfying theory of creation as expounded in Vedanta.

Thereafter, the Atman himself became the entire world of perception, manifest and unmanifest, that which has form and the formless, all knowledge and all ignorance, truth and falsehood,—nay, in short, every object of experience came from that one substratum, Divine and All-Pervading, the Supreme Self. The waves and the ripples, the foam and the lather, all are in real sense nothing but the one homogeneous ocean.

Whatever be the size, shape, design, colour, price or contents, all clay pots have risen up form the one mud alone.

If all these objects have risen up from the Truth, in what way can we detect something that is common to all things, both the manifest and the unmanifest. In the manifest world, we have inert stones, the growing vegetable world, the sentient animal kingdom, and the rational human beings. We experience the unmanifest world, such as our tendencies, likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds, etc. What is that Factor which is common to the stone, the plant, the animal, the man, and his feelings and his ideas? If there be a common ground, which is the same for every one of these entities, certainly that Factor should be an expression of the Supreme, out of which all these have arisen.

On no platform can all these pluralistic worlds be brought together and equated on the basis of a

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common factor, except on the one idea, which is certainly common to all of them, and that is, Existence. All of them exist The fact because of which we say that they exist—as contrasted with things like sky-flower, or mirage-water, which we say has no existence—that fact, philosophically called “Pure Existence”, is common to all and this is an expression of the Supreme Consciousness. Since the Truth is embracing all objects and giving them all a glamour of existence, it is called “Existence”.

This declaration is not a mere intellectual hypothesis fathered by the Rishi of the Upanishads, but there is a Veda Mantra which endorses it. It is quoted in the next section.

अनुवाक: ७। Section 7

असद्र्रा इदमग्र आसीत्। ततों वै सदजायत। तदात्मानं स्वयम्‌कुरुत। तस्मात्तत्सुकृतमुच्यत इति॥

Asadva idamagra aseeta Tato vai sadajayata. Tat atmanam svayamakuruta Tasmat tatsukrutam uchyata iti

असत् : non-existence, वै: verily, इदम् : this, अग्रे : in the beginning, आसीत् : was. तत् : from that, वै: indeed, सत् : the existent, अजायत : was born. तत् : that, आत्मानम् स्वयम् : itself by itself, अकुरुत : created. तस्मात् : therefore, तत् : it, सुकृतम् : Self-made or well-made, उच्यते : is called, इति : thus

In the beginning was verily this Non-existence From that the existent was born That created Itself by Itself. Therefore, It is called Self-made, or Well-made.

This is a stanza often quoted by those who claim that Non-existence is the Eternal Truth, because,

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 177

according to the Vedic Mantra as quoted here, Non-existence alone existed before all creation. This mischievous misinterpretation cannot stand the scrutiny of even a moment’s quite thinking. The very sentence, “Non-existence existed” is itself a palpable contradiction, and a science or a scripture that so ridicules to indulge in contradictions, and wherever there is a seeming contradiction, it is for us to find the correct meaning and understand the statement rightly.

In the beginning, that is, before the manifested world was created, it was all in a state of ‘non-existence’ in the sense that ‘existence’ as the known, conditioned by the various objects, material or manifest, did not exist, and ‘non-existence’ of it, It is only to negate the manifested world as known to us today in the Supreme that the ‘non-existence’ of it is stated. Our scriptures pot contain it. In fact, it has been said that be “the non-existent” Existence is not an experience.

The passage is heavily distorted and illegible.

cold, struck by fatigue, and torn by hunger, I am roaming in the jungles, when a beast of prey pounces on me from around a bush.* Herein, the bush, the jungle, the beast of prey, and its victim all are created from me, by myself, and the moment I withdraw back again to the waking-state-consciousness, the dream fades away into the nothingness from which it had come Exactly by the same process, the Supreme having identified itself with a desire, creates a field out of "Itself, by Itself".

The pluralistic world therefore is nothing but Himself and He being Perfect and Divine, the created world is not to be condemned as something that is born out of sin, which is the unhappy philosophy of the Christian Bible, but here the noble cultural tradition of the Hindu considers the world as "sukrutham" -- well-done, divinely-planned and perfectly-executed. The Semetic religions all weep at their own imperfections when they compare themselves with the beauty and completeness of Vedanta.

Altogether this ‘theory of creation’ provides us with a complete philosophy and not an objective theory. It is not giving us the logic of creation as much as the methods of transcending it. It prescribes the secret solvent with which we can resolve the bundles of contradictions we meet with around us and within our hearts !

The philosophy of the Taittiriya is a brilliant idol wrapped in glorious optimism that in its shrine

• For a closer study af the dream-world refer Swamiji's Discourses on Mandukya and Kanka

B I A III] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 179

the sobbing and sighing man gets revived to a godly beauty that wears an eternal smile—the smile that wells up from a satisfied blissful heart. A man who has followed Taittirīya properly and realised the Truth indicated by it, can no more thereafter feel any imperfection anywhere in the world, since the plurality is but a superimposition upon Reality. Thus the existence, wherever it be, is but the Existence borrowed from the Supreme!

Thereafter the entire world of multiplicity comes to wear a robe of divinity and an aura of perfection to one who is a true student of Taittirīya. There is no trace of cynicism nor is there in the Taittirīya-view-of-life any hint at the futility of life or the foolishness of recognising a world The world is no more a chain upon the soul but it is a glorious occasion to recognise the dynamism of the spirit and its perfection both in its transcendental and immanent presence. The world is sūkṛtāvan well-made, divinely-planned and perfectly-executed.

यद् वै तत्सुकृतम् ! रसो वै सः । रसं ह्येवायं लब्ध्वाऽऽनन्दी भवति । . कं ह्येवान्यात् कः प्राण्यात् । यदेष आकाश आनन्दो न स्यात् । एष

ह्येवानन्दयति ॥

Yad vai tatsukrutam Raso vai saha Rasam hyevayam labdhva anandee bhavati Ko hyevanyat kah pranyat Yadesha akasa anando na syat Esha hyevanandayati

यद्: this, वै: verily, तत्: that (which was), सुकृतम्: Self-made, रस: : ‘taste’, वै: verily, स: : is He. रसम्: ‘taste’, हि: indeed, एव: only, अयम्: this one, लब्ध्वा: having obtained, आनन्दी: blessed, भवति: (he)

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becomes, कः : who, हि : indeed, वच : just, अन्यात् प्राण्यात् : who else can breathe out other than, कः : who indeed, यत् : if, एषः : this, आकाशे : (in) the cavity of the heart, आनन्दः : joy, न स्यात् : were not there, एष : . this one, हि : surely, एव : indeed, आनन्दयाति : brings us joy.

This which was Self-made . that is ‘taste’. Having obtained this ‘taste’ man becomes blessed, for who can breathe out or breathe in if this joy were not there in the cavity of the heart, and this Brahman himself brings us joy.

The oneness of the created world and the creator is nowhere in any other philosophy so beautifully brought out and so perfectly conceived as it is here. It sàys that the pluralistic world finite in nature, pain-ridden in experience, imperfect at every stage when we try to grasp it from the level of our body, mind or intellect is itself nothing other than the Supreme, Perfect—full of a vital, experienceable Bliss Essence (Rasa).

There is no sense of a disrespect of the finite when viewed after the experience of the Infinite! It is recognised and respected, revered and adored, worshipped and invoked, sung and glorified, as nothing but the Supreme Itelf. Here is a positive philosophy which roars its reverence to life : domestic, social, communal, national and international. Life itself throbs with the Reality and the pain and imperfections in it are but the ulcers that we have created by our misuse of life, in our ignorance and stupidity. Any temple can become as dirty as a dust-bin if we misuse it—as we scandalously do in many of our

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 181

temples. Similarly, in our irreverence to life and non-recognition of the divinity in human beings we breed mutual hatreds and enmities which molest the social security and the beauty of life.

Rasa is that which is enjoyable. It is not a non-existent nothing but an existent factor. Rasa is that which gives pleasure and joy. On realising the Self within though we negate all objects of the body, mind and intellect in our transcendence of all the five sheaths, it is not an inert zero, an empty non-entity, but it is a positive Bliss Experience. This idea is indicated here by declaring Atman as full of Rasa.

In the world, living in the various sheaths identifications, we come to our share of happiness in contact with their conducive objects. The body is happy in contact with the beloved who satisfies all its sense-organs of perception and sense-organs of action. A beautiful literature satisfies the mental zone, just as an appetising philosophy when explained properly satisfies our intellectual hunger. At all these levels we enjoy when in contact with their chosen objects, while, when we have transcended all these, in the experience of the Self in the Self, it is possible that a student may doubt if there can be any joy at all This doubt is cleared in this scripture by its declaration that the Supreme is full of Rasa.

This can be observed in life when we observe a devotee closely. A Christ in rags, a Buddha under a Bodhi tree, a Ramakrishna in the Kali-Temple, a Vivekananda in the cold Railway platform in America, a Guru Govind Singh encircled with danger

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and threat to his life at every moment, a Ramathirtha in the valleys of Himalayas, . . . . . . none of them could in any sense of the term be conceived as provided with any reason to be happy or joyous, and yet, these are the rare ones whom we see through the books of the history, who wore their eternal smile at the perfection achieved, the contentment gained, the tranquillity established !

We see at one hand a rich spendthrift seeking a perfect joy through sensuous objects sighing and weeping ; while, on the other hand, one declaring his consummate satisfaction with the limpid depths in his peaceful looks and the endless smiles on his loving lips, who have none of the sensuous objects around him. We have surely therein a practical demonstration of what the Upanishad explains : that the experience of the self in self is a positive joy, so perfect in itself that all the sensuous objects put together cannot ever give even a trace of its Eternal Perfection !

Having experienced this spiritual centre as one's own essential nature that individual 'becomes blessed' in the sense that thereafter no circumstance can give him any sense of imperfection or sorrow.

When the teacher has explained this much and tried to express himself the glory of the spiritual experience, he being one well-established in it, he, naturally, shoots himself into that memory of lived joys and so he explodes himself in a general statement. In this outburst we hear echoes of the teacher's desperation at the incapacity of the language to express the Infinite Brahmananda Rasa which he wanted to convey through his students to the world at large.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 183

This is but natural that whencver we try to narrate to somc one ncar and dcar to us an cxpericnce we had and whencver we arc anxious that the other must cxpericnce the same it must be the cxpericnce of everyone of us that our thoughts will always run faster than our words. Similarly, here when the teacher was over-anxious to convey his Infinite experience of the Positive Reality of the Spirit, his thoughts run wild into his memory of lived joys, while his words stammer and falter at the threshold of their own incapacities

There is certainly a pause of breathless ecstasy on the part of the teacher at this point of delivery when the power of his memory bundles him away into the realm of his experienced spiritual ecstasy from whercin he understands that the source of all joy in the entire universe is but the Bliss of the Self, and so, when he tumbles down back again into his mind-and-intellect-plane and takes up the thread of discourse he cries out this general statement which is pregnant with suggestion.

He declares that none can breathe on the face of the globe and continue to live if the source of all joy were not there in his heart That all joys, which we gain in the sensuous world, are all flashes of the brilliance of the Self emerging out through the mental agitations, which they are clamed through the fleeting enjoyments of the sensuous objects, has already been throughly explained in the previous pages.

The psychologist estimating the mental character and composition of a suicide declares that a creature

decides to die and raise a weapon against himself only when he, at the impact of a sudden and immediate disappointment in life, comes to feel that there is no more a chance of any happiness, or no more an occasion to smile, in the future. No creature can live without joy and every moment of life is an active seeking of a greater joy. If this motive-force is removed from life the entire existence tumbles down and permanently comes to a halt. The movement of life is continued and kept up by the dynamism of this joy-hunting. Naturally the teacher here declares quite appropriately that no creature can be there and continue to breathe in its body embodiment if its heart were not full of this experienceable Self.

That this Brahman alone brings us all the joys has already been explained when we were discussing the mechanism in the joy-distilling process within the beings.

यदा ह्येवैष एतस्मिन्नद्रुष्येऽनात्म्येऽनिरुक्तेऽनिलयनेऽभयं प्रतिष्ठां विन्दते । अथ सोऽभयंग गतो भवति । यदा ह्येवैष एतस्मिन्नुदरमन्तरं कुरुते । अथ तस्य भयं भवति । तत्त्वेव भयं विदुषोऽमन्वानस्य । तदप्येष श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति सप्तमोऽनुवाकः ]

Yada hyevaisha etasminn adrusye anatmye anirukte anilayane abhayam pratishtam vindate Atha sobhayam gato bhavati Yada hyevaisha etasminnudaramantaram kurute. Atha tasya bhayam bhavati Tatveva bhayam vidusho amanvanasya. Tadapyesha sloko bhavati

[Iti Saptamo Anuvakaha]

यद्रा : when, हि : indeed, एव : thus, एष : in this, अद्रुष्ये : (who is) invisible, अनात्म्ये : incorporeal, अनि-

B. VALLI] TAITTIRĪYA UPANISHAD 185

अनिलयन्ते : inexplicable, अनिलयन्ते . unsupported, अभयम् प्रतिष्ठाम् . fearless-oneness, इतरत्रे attains, अथ . then, तत् : he, भयम् fearlessness, भवति : becomes.

यत्र . whcn. हि . howcici, तत्र . tryl. पत् : this onc. पतत्रिमन् in this, उ चन, दृशम् . plightcst, अन्तरम् . distinction, गुरते . makes, अथ : then, तस्य : to him, भयम् . fear, भवति : is. तत् that, तु . certainly, पञ्च : indecd.

भयम् : fear. चित्‌उप: : the All-Knower (Brahman) अमन्चातस्य : for one who docs not reflec1, तत् : about that, अपि . also, अस् : this, इलोक: verse, भवति : there is.

When this Atman attains the fearless-oneness with Brahman who is invisible, incorporcal, inexplicable and unsupported, then he becomes free from fear When, however, this makes any slightest distinction in Brahman, then there is danger for him That very same Brahman Himself becomes the source of fear for him who makes a difference, and reflects not. To the same effect there is the following verse.

The spiritual centre,which presides over the body- assemblage in every living being has been explained as “full of Rasa”. This blissful Centre is not realised now by us bccause of its identifications with the assemblage constituted of the body, mind and other sheaths. The Atman, when seemingly conditioned by these delusory matter-envelopments, is called the ego- centre. The process of self-discovery is the ego’s rediscovery that it is the Pure Self without any of its delusory identification swith Its matter vestures. On this recognition the Self in us realises Its oneness with the Self of the Universe.

In a cup of water the reflected sun entirely depends upon the condition of the water in the cup.

When the water is disturbed the reflected sun gets shattered. When the water is muddy the reflected sun becomes muddy. The sun in the sky conditioned by the water in the cup stands for the Atman conditioned by the matter-sheaths, and this reflected Consciousness is called the Ego-centre. When the cup is broken or the water is thrown away, in short, when the reflecting-surface is destroyed, the reflection also ends and the real sun in the sky comes to be realised as the Truth behind the reflection.

In fact, it is the sun in the sky that illumined the reflection, the water in the cup and the cup itself. Similarly the ego-centre and the matter envelopments are all being illumined by the one Pure Consciousness; but this is not realised so long as we are preoccupied with the various vicissitudes and destinies of the ego-centre. When once the seeker detaches himself from all the sheaths and thus ends the reflecting medium, thereafter the Pure Consciousness, the Atman, rediscovers himself to be nothing other than the Self in all names and forms constituting the entire Universe.

The Atman rediscovered Itself immediately understands Its oneness with Brahman.

Invisible.—Here Brahman is described as invisible meaning he is not cognisable through the known avenues of perception, namely, the sense-organs. Not only that it cannot be seen it is equally true that Brahman cannot be heard, tasted, smelt or touched. Sense-organs can function only in the world of objects and they can perceive only their sense-objects which are other than themselves Atman being the subject

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 187

it is not perceivable. What is visible is a modification or a phenomenon (Vikaraṇa). Brahman is not a phenomenon and therefore he is invisible, incorporeal.

That which is a Vikaraṇa or a modification alone can take a gross form Brahman is described here as formless because it is not a modification.

By the earlier term that Brahman is invisible if it has indicated directly that it is changeless, indirectly it also connotes that it is also incorporeal (bodiless); and that which is bodiless is indescribable also. In short, Brahman is not subject to any modification, it being the cause for all the modifications.

Being so, it is ‘unsupported’ or ‘abodeless’. In its subtlest All-pervasiveness Brahman covers all and nothing covers It. And therefore, It is abodeless.

For a parrot the cage is the abode, for the cage the house is the abode; for the house the roof is the abode; for the roof we may say the ‘blue dome of the sky’ is the abode; for the sky, philosophically the Brahman is the abode But, for the Brahman there is no abode since there is nothing other than That, and nothing covers It.

All effects and their attributes have the support of the substratum, the Brahman. But there is no support for It. Śruti says that the Brahman is established in no support other than Its own glory.

An individual who thus comes to experience his oneness with the Brahman becomes free from fear. Fear can come only from something other than oneself. Nobody is afraid of himself When a seeker successfully realises his oneness with the entire Universe, the sense

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of distinction ends and thereafter he has no occasion to feel the sense of fear at anything.

To convey this idea that fearlessness can come only at the realisation of the individual's oneness with the entire, the Upanishad here gives the negative statement also. The Brahman Itself becomes a source of fear for him who makes even the slightest distinction in it. The moment we recognise an objective God other than ourselves revelling in heaven and we do not seek our oneness with Him, agitations and fears come to storm our bosom. Perfect tranquillity and peace come only when we establish our unquestioned oneness with Truth. Perfect happiness is only in the fulfilment of love. Love is fulfilled only when the lover and the beloved merge to become one single mass of love experience. Similarly, when the ego-centre in us loses all its separative Consciousness and comes to experience its unbroken and definite oneness with the Atman it comes to live the Infinite State of Perfection and Fearlessness in Itself.

The same Truth which gives fearlessness to the realised provides occasions for fear to those who do not give enough meditative thought to the discriminative analysis of the Unreal and the Real. The ego is 'Atman playing the fool amidst the unreal'. To awaken itself to the Real is to rediscover Its Divine omnipotent nature and in this Self-discovery is the State of Fearlessness. Those who do not make the necessary discriminative analysis of the Real and the unreal, of the true and the false, they in their delusory identifications come to feel themselves different from the Real and their realisation is never complete.

n. vili] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 189

The Self in us realisable as our own Real Nature full of experiencable Bliss (Rasa) is by now brought within the intellectual comprehension of the students, if not fully within the intuitive realisation of the seekers. In the next section we have got a complete picture of the dynamism of this Spiritual Centre and also a comparative statistics which gives us a certain concrete measure to divinise what is the joy experienced in the Self by the realised.

अनुयागः <1 Section 8.

भीषास्माद्वातः पवते । भीषोदेति सूर्यः । भीषास्मादग्निश्चेन्द्रश्च । मृत्युर्धावति पञ्चम इति ॥

Bheeshasmadvatatl puvate Bheeshodeti sooryaha Bheesha asmadagnischa Indrascha Mrutyurdhavati panchama iti.

भीषा : through fear, अस्मात् : of Him, वातः : wind, पवते : blows भीषा : through fear, उदेति : rises, सूर्यः : the Sun. भीषा : through fear, अस्मात् : of Him, अग्निः : fire च : and, इन्द्रः : Indra, च : and मृत्यु : death, धावति : proceeds, पञ्चमः : the fifth. इति : thus.

Through fear of Him blows the wind Through fear of Him rises the Sun Through fear of Him again Fire and Moon and lastly that is fifthly, Death proceed to their respective duties.

In the phenomenal world, in spite of its confusing plurality and endless multiplicity of things, there seems to be some golden chord of uniformity inasmuch as this external jig-saw-puzzle follows strictly a definite law in its moment-to-moment existence and activity. There is certainly a concord that runs through the noisy discord of the world. There is a

silent rhythm seen imperceptibly running through the endless variety of confusing movements. Seasons similarly follow one after another rhythmically. Each object in the universe strictly conforms itself to its own nature. There are the natural laws which strictly follow all scientific observations. The sun is never dark; the moon is never hot; fire is never cold" A cow begets no lion; a tigress begets no bird. The innumerable laws of instincts and emotions observed among the vegetables, animals and human lives are all strictly pursued everywhere in nature.

A law is always promulgated by a law-giver and wherever we find strict adherence to the law it is always because of the fear for the law-giver. Similarly, if in nature we find that the natural laws are irrevocably declared and strictly followed, certainly, we have to assume that behind the phenomenon of nature there is a definite law-giver who strictly executes the law, He, ever standing, as it were, just behind Nature with a raised whip threatening them with total annihilation at the simplest disobedience.

This idea is brought out by the Sūtra in order to establish the Supremacy of the Spirit over the matter, and also its dynamism in it. Also this declaration conclusively proves that this spirit is not a non-existent non-entity, but an existent Reality which can be courted and experienced as full of Bliss, omnipotence and omniscience. The Truth indicated in the beginning of the chapter as "Satyan, Jñānam, Anantam", though invisible, incorporeal, undefined and abodeless is the source of all dynamic life and is an Existent Principle.

B VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 191

Five main observations are made here by the Sāṅti such as the movement of air, the rising of the sun, the heat of the fire, the light of the moon and fifthly, the very principle of decay and death that sustains the perishable nature of a finite world, called Death All of them indicate that the entire phenomenal world is not a haphazard idle dream of a mad man, but it is an intelligent scheme ordered by a Dynamic Divine Power which executes Its will very strictly and fully through Its established laws of behaviour and reaction This is a Vedic hymn quoted here in support of the previous Mantra which declared that he who rediscovers the spiritual centre becomes fearless, because he thereby becomes the very Truth, whose dictatorial sovereignty is the irrevocable sanction behind Nature’s laws.

This declaration of the Rule of the Spirit over matter is followed up in this section by a narration of the various joys experienced in the different realms, and, in this comparative study or joy, the teacher of Taittirīya tries to convey to the student a quantitative and qualitative conception of the Infinite joy which is the very Nature of the Self.

सैपाडडनन्दस्य मीमांसा भवति । युवा स्यात्साधु युवाडध्यायकः । आशिष्ठो द्रढिष्ठो बलिष्ठः । तस्येयं पृथिवी सर्वावित्तस्य पूर्णा स्यात् स एको मानुष आनन्दः । ते ये शतम् मानुषा आनन्दाः । स एको मनुष्यगन्धर्वाणामानन्दः । श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Saiśa anandasyā meemamsa bhavati Yuva syatsadhu yuva adhyayakaha Asishto dradhishto balishtaha. Tasyeyam pruthivee sarva vittasya poorna syat sa eko manusha anandah. Te ye satam manusha ānandāḥ. Sa eko manuṣya-gandharvāṇāmānandaḥ. Śrotriyasya chākāmahatasya.

192

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

manusha anandaha Sa eko manushvagandharvanam anandaha.

Shrotriyasya chakamalatasy a

सा : that, एष: : this, आनन्दस्य : concerning the

bliss, मीमांसा : enquiry, भवति is, युवा : young man,

स्वात् : supposing there is, साधु : good, युवा : youthful,

अध्यायको: : well-versed in scriptures, आशिष्ठ: : well-

disciplined, दृढिष्ठ: : resolute, वलिष्ठ: : very strong, तस्य

to him, इयम् : this, पृथिवी : the earth, वित्तस्य : with all

its wealth, पूर्णास्यात् : belongs, स: : that, एक: : (is) one,

मनुष्य आननन्द: : human bliss. ते : those, ये : which, शतम्

hundred, मनुष्या आननन्द: : (units of) human bliss, स: :

that, एक: : one, मनुष्यगन्धर्वाणाम् आनन्द: : (is) the bliss

of human Gandharvas, श्रोत्रियस्य : (also) one who is

well-versed in Vedas, च : and, अकामहतस्य : who is

free from desires.

The following is the enquiry concerning the bliss (Brahma-

nanda Rasa) Suppose there be a youth, good, well versed in

scriptures, well disciplined, resolute and very strong Suppose

to him belongs all this earth full of wealth This is one

human bliss This bliss of man (Unit of Bliss) multiplied

hundred-fold is the bliss of human Gandharvas—and this

is also the bliss of one versed in Vedas and who is free from

desires.

For any measurement we must have a "standard

unit" with reference to which we can make all our

subsequent relative measurements. In order to

measure the joys of the various situations we need

a unit of measurement and Sûti first of all, defines

here the unit very clearly.

She says that the joy of an educated well-discip-

lined, mentally resolute and physically strong, young

man, when he comes to possess the whole world and

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 193

its wealth as his own, his joy is the unit measure of a 'human bliss'.

In the definition of this bliss the scripture is also giving us indirectly the conditions necessary for a true material enjoyment Wealth in itself is no joy unless the rich man is young enough Merc youthfulness dissipates itself in wealth unless he is well educated to live the healthy values of life Merc knowledge and youthfulness cannot contribute to the enjoyment of the wealth unless he is well disciplined and has developed sufficiently his will-power. Once who has youthfulness, education, discipline, and power of self-control and self-assertion, if he is strong in body, mind and intellect, he alone is capable of enjoying the wealth. To all others wealth is an added burden weighing down their shoulders. A donkey carrying golden bricks is in no way better and luckier than the donkey which is carrying mud-bricks! The Parabddha of the pigs cannot be improved because they are housed in Prime Minister's own drawing-room.

This being the unit of the sensuous worldly joy which is to an extent within our comprehension the teacher of the Taittirīya Upanishad is trying to indicate the various types of joys in its quantity and quality relative to this unit

Hundred times the joy unit represented by this human bliss, he says, is the joy of human-Gandharvas*

• The time measured from the day of creation to the day of total dissolution of the Universe is denoted by the term KALPA. A devotee who during one kalpa by his meritorious actions attains a higher plane of joy and experiences, is called as human-Gandharva (Terrestrial Angel )

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

The term Gandharva indicates an artist The joy of

a human artist, in the moments of his inspiration

when he comes to forget the entire world outside and

when he becomes one with his tune or shape or

rhyme or curve is the godly joy of a musician or a

painter or a poet or a sculptor. The bliss derived by

a genius or an artist and not by a trader in art-

not by an advertisement-painter or a film-star or a

Kalakshepam-musician—but a true self-dedicated

devotee at the feet of Venus, is explained here quanti-

tatively as a hundred times more than the sensuous

joy of the young, self-cultured man of true education

when he becomes the king of a prosperous vast country.

The joy of this inspired artist which is equated

with hundred joys of the Emperor is said to be, by

the Sruti, the joy of one who is a deep student of the

scriptures and has come to realise the goal indicated

by Vedanta; and, therefore, in his conscious experi-

ence of the all-full nature he has no more desires for

the paltry things of the world.

ते ये शतम् मनुष्यगन्धर्वाणामानन्दः । स एको देवगन्धर्वाण-

मानन्द् । श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam manushya gandharvanam anandaha Sa eko deva-

gandharvanam anandaha Shrotriyasya chakamahatasya.

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् : hundreded, मनुष्यगन्ध-

र्वाणाम् : of the human Gandharvas. आनन्दः : bliss, सः :

that, एक्कः : one, देवगन्धर्वाणाम् आनन्दः . bliss of Celestial

Gandharvas. (Also) श्रोत्रियस्य : one who is well-versed

in the Vedas, च : and, अकामहतस्य . who is free from

all desires.

DISCOURSES

ON

TAITTIRĪYA

UPANISHAD

BY

SWAMI

CHINMAYANANDA

the return to the world after

the attainment of Bhr̥ta the

material comfort is caused

by the unexhausted remnants

of the enjoyments in the

previous birth. Here, in the

statement, it is hinted that

the soul, after having been above, is

again brought down to the world

Does it mean that one, who

merits, enjoys life in his

diśaḥ, reaches the heart of self-

conscious, and in entertaining the divine

soul, and the heart

In the joy of the celestial-Gandharvas* is

compared with the joy experienced by a Vedantic

scholar, who, having

experienced the theme of

• A state lived in the previous kalpa when

one gets the joy of the Gandharva world, that one born there in from

the beginning of this

is called as the celestial - Angel (Dova-

Gandharva)

196

TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

Vedanta, has come to entertain no more desires for

the finite world-of-objects.

ते ये शतम् देवगन्धर्वाणामनन्दाः। स एकः पितृणां चिरलोक-

लोकानामनन्दः। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam devagandharvanam anandaha. Sa ekah pithrunam

chiralokalokanam anandaha Shrotriyasya chakamahatasya

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् hundred, देवगन्धर्वाणाम्

of the Deva Gandharvas, आनन्दाः : bliss. सः that, एकः

: one, पितृणाम् चिरलोक लोकानाम् आनन्दाः : the bliss of

manes, whose world continues for long. (Also)

श्रोत्रियस्य : one who is well-versed in the Vedas, च :

and, अकामहतस्य : who is free from all desires

A hundred-fold the bliss of celestial Gandharvas is the unit

of joy of the Manes, whose world continues long The same

is the joy expressed by one well versed in the Vedas, and is

free from desires.

Continuing the statistics of joy, the Rishi says

that a hundred times the joy of the celestial artist is

the joy of the Manes, who live in the 'world of the

dead' Pithruloko (world of the dead) is a conception

particularly in Hinduism Those who have been

faithfully following all the moral and religious injunc-

tions of a true Hindu, it is declared, they would on

their departure from here, gain the pleasant abode of

the dead and continue enjoying the subtler joys of

that world for a considerably long interval of time.

At the end, when they had exhausted the fruits of

their righteous actions, they will be again, it is tradi-

tionally believed, coming back to this world to be born

in divine environments, wherein they will be impelled

to continue the life of a faithful devotee Thus having

B. VIII] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 197

earned enough fruit they will again return back to that world of enjoyment.

It is believed that having reached the world of the Manes the ego-centric comes to enjoy a thrill that is a hundred-fold greater than that of the celestial riddhanas The Rishi here assumes, from the balance of his own experience, that this joy is experienced equally by one who is well versed in the Vedas and Vedanta. and, therefore, has come to give up all desires for the fleeting sense-objects of the world.

In short, such a perfect one on accomplishing himself in the fulfilment of Vedanta, comes to experience the divine joys of the world-of-the-dead even while he is amongst us in the mortal world !

ते ये सतम् पितॄणाम् चिरलोकलोकानामानन्दाः । स एक आजान-

जानाम् देवानामानन्द्‌ । । श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam pitṛṇam chira'lokalokanam anandaha Sa eka ajan-

ajanajam devanam anandaha. Shrotriyasya chakamahatasya

ते those, ये which, सतम् . hundred पितॄणाम् चिरलोक लोकानाम्

lively immortal आनन्दाः : bliss, सः . that, एकः : (is) one, आज्ञान जानाम् देवानाम् आनन्द्‌ : bliss of the Gods born in the Deva Loka (Also) श्रोत्रियस्य च आकामहतस्य .

one who is well-versed in Vedas and who is free from desires.

This joy of the Manes* whose worlds are relatively immortal multiplied a hundred-fold is one unit of joy of the Gods born in the Deva Loka, and it is also of a Shrotriya free from desires

• As a reward for the true or sincere ritualistic worship and moral living a Jooja attains the world of the manes to enjoy therein for a time, and to return back again to the human womb They are called Pitrs

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

ते ये शतमाज्ञानजानां देवानामानन्दा:। स एक: कर्मदेवानां देवानामानन्द:। ये कर्मणा देवान्पियन्ति। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam ajanajanam devanam anandaha Sa ekah karma- devanam devanam anandaha Ye karmanā devanopiyanti Shrotri- yasya chakamahatasyā.

ते : those, ये which, शतम् hundred, आजान जानाम्

देवानाम् : of the Gods born in the Deva Loka, आनन्दाः

: bliss, सः : that, एकः : (is) one, कर्मदेवानाम् देवानाम्

आनन्दः: bliss of Gods who have become so by their special Karmas. ये : who, कर्मणा : by special actions,

देवान् : Gods, अपि : also, यन्ति : attain. (Also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकाम-

हतस्य : one who is well-versed in Vedas and who is free from all desires.

This joy of the Gods born in the Deva Loka* multiplied a hundred-fold is a unit of joy of the Gods who have become

so by their special Karma and it is also of a Shrotriya free from desires

ते ये शतं कर्मदेवानां देवानामानन्द:। स एको देवानामानन्द:। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam karmadevanam devanam anandaha. Sa eko deva- nam anandaha. Shrotriyasya chakamahatasyā

ते : those, ये which, शतम् : hundred, कर्मदेवानाम्

देवानाम् : of the Gods who have become so by their special karmas, आनन्दः : bliss, सः : that, एकः : one,

देवानाम् आनन्दः : bliss of Gods: (Also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकाम-

हतस्य : one who is well-versed in Vedas and who is free from all desires.

• Among them those who had performed hundreds of Yagnas and Yagas they go a step higher to live as Gods (deities) incharge of the

Heavens Those who are thus born into this status as a result of their "works" in the previous Kalpa are Ajana Devas — the "natives" of Heaven Those who reach there due to 'works' of this kalpa are called

terrestrial Devas — Karma-Devas

B. VALLI TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 199

A hundred times this joy of the Gods who have become so by their special karma, is the simple unit of joy of the Gods (office-bearers) and it is also the measure of the bliss of the Shrotriya who has transcended all his desires.

ते ये शतं देवानमानन्दाः। स एको इन्द्रस्य आनन्दः। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam de.anam anandaha Sa eko Indrasya anandaha Shrotriuasia chakamahatasy'a.

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् . hundred, देवानाम् . of the Gods, आनन्दाः : : bliss, सः : that, एकः : (is) onc, इन्द्रस्य आनन्दः . bliss of Indra. (Also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकामहतस्य : of one who is well-versed in Vedas and who is free from desires.

One hundred measures of the happiness of the Gods (office-bearers) is the Simple unit of joy of Indra* and it is also the measure of the bliss of the Shrotriya, who has transcended all his desires

ते ये शतमिन्द्रस्य आनन्दाः। स एको बृहस्पतेरानन्दः। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam Indrasya anandaha Sa eko Bruhaspatelı anandaha Shrotriasy'a chakamahatasy'a

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् . hundred, इन्द्रस्य : of the Indra, आनन्दाः : bliss, सः : that, एकः : (is) onc, बृहस्पते : आनन्दः . the bliss of Brihaspathi. (also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकामहतस्य . of one who is well-verscd in the Vcdas and who is free from all desires,

A hundred-fold bliss of Indra is the unit of joy of Bruhaspathit and it is also equal to the bliss of a Shrotriya who is devoid of any desires

• Indra, the king of the Gods and naturally more joy

† Bruhaspathy, the adviser and Guru of the Gods.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

ते ये शतम् बृहस्पतेरानन्दाः। स एकः प्रजापतेरानन्दः। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam Bruhaspateh anandaha Sa ekah Prajapateh anandaha Shrotriyasya chakamahatrasya

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् : hundred, बृहस्पते: : of Brahaspati, आनन्दाः : bliss, स: that, एक: : (is) one, प्रजापते: आनन्द: : bliss of Prajapati : (also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकामहतस्य : of the one whe is well-versed in the Vedas who is free from all desires.

A hundred-fold the bliss of Bruhaspati is the unit of measure of the bliss of Prajapati* and it also gives a us measure of the bliss enjoyed by a Shrotriya who has no desires

ते ये शतं प्रजापतेरानन्दाः। स एको ब्रह्मण आनन्दः। श्रोत्रियस्य चाकामहतस्य ॥

Te ye satam Prajapateh anandaha Sa eko Brahmana anandaha Shrotriyasya chakamahatrasya

ते : those, ये : which, शतम् : hundred, प्रजापते: : of Prajapati, आनन्द: : bliss, स: : that, एक: : (is) one, ब्रह्मण: आनन्द: : bliss of Brahman : (also) श्रोत्रियस्य च अकामहतस्य : of the one who is well-versed in the Vedas, and who is free from all desires.

A hundred-fold the bliss of Prajapati is the unit of measure of the bliss of Brahman which is in no way greater than the bliss of one who is a Shrotriya and who, in his experience of the Reality, is devoid of all other desires

Continuing the entire list of comparative measurements of bliss, the teacher says, the bliss increases each time a hundred-fold, when we compare the

• Praja-pathi, the Father of the creatures, is the Creator, and thus He (Sutra-Atma) has the greatest Joy in the Universe

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISAD 201

Manes to the 'native' Gods of the Heavens, the 'native' Gods of Karman Devas, to the Gods (the celestial office-bearers) in the Heavens, and these Gods of power and duty to Indra. The joy of Brihaspathi, is declared as a hundred-fold more when it is compared with the bliss of Indra, and compared with the joy of Brihaspathi, a hundred-fold more is the joy of Prajapathi. The Brahman, the Bliss Absolute, can be estimated as a hundred times the Bliss of Prajapathi ! The Bliss of none of them is in any way more than the Bliss lived by one who has studied truly the Upanishads at the sacred feet of a realised saint, and has himself experienced the theme indicated by the scripture, and has, therefore, come to entertain no more any desire for the decaying finite objects of the body, mind and intellect.

It is indeed very difficult for us to understand these traditional beliefs Especially to us, who are strangers to such traditional declarations, it is impossible to swallow such ideas. We have not the faith of the olden days to believe in things simply because they have been handed down to us as a sacred knowledge from the past Revolt is the very essence of our life and we protest against anything that we cannot understand.

In this modern spirit, when I try to read, I can come to a certain understanding in my own which I hope will help you also in mentally comprehending the hierarchy of joys explained here. If we try to take a parallel from the political constitution and the social joys, I feel confident that you all will be able to understand this passage

202 TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

The joy of an Indian who is living today the active life of making history, is certainly greater than the joys of life enjoyed by an antiquated politician who lives now in retirement, glorifying himself in the remembered joys of his own ancient success. They may be considered as the dead ones living the joys after their death in their past world of activity enjoying today their retirement and pension. Indeed, a hundred-fold more joy is the share of the Native Gods when they are compared with the Manes !

We all know natives of a country cannot afford to live as extravagantly as a foreigner who has reached a country as an ambassador or as a representative of his government—a job generally given to a person by all wise governments not merely on considerations of relationships or on recommendations but in recognition of his achievements in his own country.

The joys and comforts enjoyed by such a "Karma Deva" is certainly hundredfold more than that of an average native of that country. This is the same, whether it is the life of the American Ambassador in India or of the Indian Embassy in America.

The dignity and importance enjoyed by the Cabinet Ministers in the Republic of a country are anyday greater than those of the foreign Ambassadors in that country. The Devas meant here are the 33 great office-bearers constituted of the 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras, 12 Sun-gods, Indra, and the Creator, the Prajapati Their joy is hundred-fold more than those of the Karma Devas.

The Bliss or Satisfaction of the President or the Prime Minister of any country, we all know, must

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 203

be greater in his own country than any of the members

of the Cabinet—Indra's joy is a hundred-fold more

than those enjoyed by “Karma Devas”.

The power and satisfaction enjoyed by the legis-

lature or by the “brain-trust” of any country that has

decided the policy for the Head of the State to follow

strictly, must be certainly greater than the freedom

enjoyed by the Head of the State himself. The joy of

Bruhaspathi, the preceptor of the Devas, is a hundred

times the joy of Indra himself.

The joy of Prajapathı is estimated here as

hundred times the joys of Bruhaspathı. The Creator,

the total mind and intellect of all living beings,

celestial and terrestrial, is Prajapathı. The mind and

the intellect being the instruments with which we

enjoy all the possible bliss in life, the Total-Mind-and-

Intellect must at once be enjoying all the joys of all

the people, at all times and in all places.

The Bliss Absolute is thus slowly and steadily

indicated as hundred times more than the joy of

Prajapathı

In all these cases it has been definitely indicated

that one—who is well versed in the content of the

scriptures and who has in his own personal experience

come to live the Reality pointed out by Vedanta—

will come to enjoy a Bliss in no way less than that of

Brahman. The chapter started, you remember, with

a declaration, ‘the Knower of Brahman attains the

Supreme’, and this Supreme has been discussed as

the Bliss Absolute, indicated by the definition,

“Satyam, Jnanam, Anantham”

Again, in this chapter, in describing the cause for the creation of the world, the Ṛshi explains that the Ātman in us came to entertain desire. Desire is the cause for the creation of the pluralistic world which gives us the agitations of the mind and the consequent individual shares of unhappiness. When even to a degree the cause is removed, to that degree the effects also are eliminated, and naturally, the Bliss which is our Essential Nature manifests Itself.

Thus, the State of Perfection is the State of Desirclessness—a state wherein the individual is no more a victim of his desires, but he is a matter over them. The desires in themselves cannot enslave us. In themselves they are helpless and impotent. They can chain and enslave us only when we subscribe ourselves to remain as victims under their throes. This Self-redemption from our own inner desires is the Self-mastery that culminated in Self-realisation, and to the degree one has given up one’s desires to that degree his joys increase and in his experience he comes to attune himself with the perfect joy of the Absolute.

This is indicated when Upanishad here says that the celestial joys of the Gods even of the Creator is the same as the joys of a mortal man of wisdom who has come to realise his own essential divinity and has therefore come to drop all his sensuous desires to the finite world of objects.

स यश्रायं पुरुषे । यश्रासावादित्ये । स एकः । स य एवंवित् ।

असल्लोकात् प्रेत्य । एतमन्नमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रमति । एतं प्राणमयमात्मान-

B VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 205

सुपसङ्क्रामति । एतं मनोमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रामति । एतं विज्ञानमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रामति । एतमानन्दमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रामति । तदप्येष श्लोको भवति ॥

[ इति अन्नमोदनवाकः ]

Sa yas'chayam purushe Yascha asau aditye. Sa ekaha. Sa ya eramvit Asmallokat preiva Etam annamayam atmanam upasankramati Etam pranamay am atmanam upasankramati Etam manomavam atmanam upasankramati Etam vijnanamayam atma-nam upasankramati Etam anandamayam atmanam upasankramati Tadapyesha shloko bhavati

[Iti Ashtamo Anuvakaha]

सः : that, यः . which, च . and, अयम् : this, पुरुषे : in man, यः : which, च : and, असौ : that, आदित्ये : in the Sun, सः : that, एकः : is one, सः : he, यः : · who, एवम् विद् : knows thus, अस्मात् लोकात् : from this world, प्रेत्य . leaving, पतम् this, अन्नमयम् आत्मानम् . Atman made of food, उपसङ्क्रामति . next attains, (crosses) पतम् : this, प्राणमयम् आत्मानम् Atman made of Prana, उपसङ्क्रामति : next attains (crosses) पतम् . this, मनोमयम् आत्मानम् . Atman made of mind, उपसङ्क्रामति : next attains (crosses) पतम् . this, विज्ञानमयम् आत्मानम् : Atman made of Knowledge, उपसङ्क्रामति : next attains (crosses). पतम् : this, आनन्दमयम् आत्मानम् : Atman made of bliss, उपसङ्क्रामति next attains तत् : about that, अपि : also, पत् : this, श्लोक: . verse, भवति is

The Reality in the core of man and the Reality which is in the Sun are one He who knows this, on leaving from this world first attains this Atman made of Food, next attains this Atman made ot Prana, next attains this Atman made of Mind, next this Atman made of Buddhi and, lastly, Atman made of Bliss . . . regarding this here is the following verse.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

This State of Desirelessness by which an individual comes to experience the greatest sense of fulfilment and Bliss is not attainable merely through an accidental windfall of Eswara Kripa or through any hard-earned wealth of Guru's grace. Neither the number of years that one has remained in the jungle nor the amount of sacrifice one has made, nor the number of pilgrimages one has taken, nor even the number of Yagnas one has performed—none of those has any direct bearing upon this perfect State of Desirelessness and its achievement.

The only method by which one can establish oneself in this sense of Transcendental Perfection is by experiencing oneself this oneness with the entire Universe. On realising the Spiritual Centre within ourselves we come to experience immediately that the Spiritual Centre everywhere, and in all things and beings is one and the same. There are no two Realities: as one within us and one without us The Divine Absolute is one and the same within our bosom as well as everywhere in the Cosmos. This idea is nowhere so beautifully brought out as it has been done here when the Rishi says that the essence in us is the essence in the Sun. But unless we are initiated into the secret of its suggestions we are apt to mis-understand this statement as a philosophical exaggeration which has no real pith in it.

Each one of us is certainly the centre of our own individual world of experiences. The Sun we all know is the Centre of the entire Cosmos. Therefore, in saying that the Spiritual Centre in us is the

B VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 207

Spiritual Centre in the Sun is to express the oneness of the Spiritual Truth everywhere in its Absolute Divine Nature. This Advaita Truth to be rediscovered within ourselves as our Real Nature is to reach the peak of evolution, the Goal of our life: when we end all our futile ramblings along the bylanes of our desires, and our swinging between the worlds of the dead and the living comes to a halt.

Just as on reaching the evolution of “man”, our world is no more riddled with the desires of the fishes or of the birds, of the ape man or of the barbarian, but we entertain only our own desires, and to that extent we can say that we have released ourselves from those desires, so too, on culminating our evolutionary pilgrimage and re-entering into our essential nature of Godhood we get ourselves naturally released from all other worldly desires—desires for the acquisition or enjoyment of the sensuous objects which, in fact, can give but some temporary satisfaction for certain nervous itchings!

An individual, who on realising thus the Spirit in him as the Spiritual Centre in the Sun, realises also that he is himself at once the centre that controls and experiences the “circle” of his own world and also the centre defined by the Sun that holds together, blesses and vitalises the entire “Circle of the Cosmos”.

On this realisation of the Truth the individual comes to rise above the ordinary mortal-world, riddled with its own imperfection and fleshy demands for the sensuous happiness and ephemeral wealth and

glory. Therefore, it is said here, "after leaving from this world". This expression does not mean, after the individual has died away, but it only means, after having lifted himself from his ordinary and instinctive worldly activities and thoughts Before the dawn of Knowledge, man, in his misunderstanding of himself, had behaved towards the world in a peculiar attitude of attachment, through which he created a life of tussles and agitations caused by the pairs-of-opposites such as love and hatred, heat and cold, success and failure, joys and sorrows, profit and loss, health and illness, in short, "the life and death" in all its implications On realising the real nature of the spiritual centre in him, the individual as it were, has awakened to the realisation, that as the Conscious principle, he is but the Illuminator of the entire world of objects and that the world can cause agitation only for the mind-and-intellect.

The Consciousness lends life to the mind-and-intellect to perceive, feel and think all its sorrows and joys. In the realisation, "I am that Consciousness", the man of wisdom comes to transcend his limited small world of I-ness and my-ness in the physical debilities, in the mental constructions and in the intellectual limitations. It is this transcendence of the pettiness of the mortal and its evolution into the transcendental to assume Its own dignity, and live the glory of Godhood, that is here meant by "after leaving from this world"

There are some schools of thinkers, who do not 'accept the state of complete liberation while living,

in this body (Jeevanmukta); but they only accept the

idea that complete and full liberation from the clutches

of mortality can be transcended and infinite experience

gained only when dead from this life (Videhamukti).

Sankara is a staunch supporter of the former point

of view and his arguments indeed overweigh with

anyone who is a sincere student of the Sastra not

only in the library but in the laboratory also. More

of his arguments on this point we shall be giving,

when we discuss the same Mantra again, as it is

repeated in the close of the text-book.

We have no belief in or use for the promise of a

posthumous perfection, which we may after our death

come to enjoy. Unlike the semitic religions, Vedanta

is not satisfied by merely promising a post-mortem

discovery of the Divine. Being practical men, the

Aryans demanded and worked for a redemption, a

sure and certain redemption, here and now. This is

clear from the words that follow in the Sruti.

Following the expression "after leaving from this

word" the Sruti, as it were, comments upon her own

term very elaborately.

She points out that a seeker, who has come to

experience his oneness with the Spiritual Centre in

the Cosmos, has also experienced a slow and steady

transcendence of his false and delusory identifications with the five Sheaths. He realises, stage by

stage, the Self made of Food, the Self made of Prana,

the Self made of Mind, the Self made of Intellect,

and the Self made of Bliss at the transcendence of

which he comes to live and experience the Pure

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

Attributeless-Self which has been described (Seventh

Section) as "the Brahman who is invisible, incorpo-

real, undefined, abodeless".

This courageous declaration is not an indepen-

dent intellectual hypothesis of the Rishis, but it is fully

supported by the Vedic declarations and entirely

endorsed by the Rishi's own subjective experience.

The Veda Mantra is quoted in the following section.

अनुवाक: ९। Section 9

यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते। अप्राप्य मनसा सह। आनन्दं ब्रह्मणां

विद्वान्। न बिभेति कुतश्चनेति ॥

Yato vacho nivartante Aprapya manasa saha. Anandam

Brahmano vidvan. Na bibheti kutascane ti

यतः : from which, वाचः : all words, निवर्तन्ते :

return, अप्राप्य : without reaching, मनसा सह : along

with the mind, आनन्दम् : bliss, ब्रह्मणः : of Brahman,

विद्वान् : the one who knows, न बिभेति : is not afraid,

कुतश्चन : of anything. इति : thus.

He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, from which all words

return without reaching It, together with the mind, is no more

afraid of anything.

While describing the Mental Sheath in this

chapter (Section 4) the same Veda Mantra was

declared by the Master, there to indicate the infinite

possibilities of the Mind. Here the same Mantra

is repeated to suggest its native import explaining the

transcendental nature of the Self and to show how

speech cannot define, nor mind feel, nor the Intellect

completely comprehend the Self which is Eternal

subject. For details of discourse refer Section 4.*

• I bid pp. 148—151

B VIII11] TAITTIRĪYA UPANISHAD 211

एतं ह वाव न तपति । किमहं साधु नाकरवम् । किमहं पापम्-

करवमिति । स य एं विदानेते आत्मानं स्पृणुते । उभे हैवैप एते

आत्मानं स्पृणुते । य एवं वेद । इत्युपनिपत् ॥

[ इति नवमोऽनुवाकः ]

Etam ha vava na tapati Kimaham sadhu naharavam Kimaham

papam akaramiti Sa ya evam vidanete atmanam sprunute

Ubhe hyeraisha etc atmanam sprunute Ya evam veda. Iti

Upanishat.

[Itı Navamo Anuvakaha]

एतम् . such (thoughts), ह . of course, वाच . cer-

tainly, न तपति . does not distress, ' किम् . why, अहम् :

I, साधु . good, न अकरवम् . I have not done ?', किम् .

why, अहम् . I, पापम् . sins, अकरवम् . I have committed'

इति : thus सः . he, यः . who, एवम् . thus, विद्वान् . the

knower, एते : these, आत्मानम् : the Atman, स्पृणुते : re-

gards, उभे : both, हि एव एत् : verily this thus, एते :

these, आत्मानम् . as Atman, स्पृणुते : knows, यः : who,

एवम् : thus, वेद . knows इति . thus, (ends). उपनिपत् :

the Upanishad.

Such thoughts do not certainly come to distress a man of

experience of the Truth “ why have I not done what is good ?

Why have I committed a Sin ?” He, who knows thus regards

both these as the Atman Verily, both these are regarded, by

him who knows thus, as only Atman Thus ends the Upanishad

The joys of Virtucs and the sorrows of Sin are

both conditions of the mind when it comes to react

between specific circumstances in the outer world

and the particular intellectual conditions within.

The same set of circumstances in the outer world

may not necessarily provc to be a sin to all people;

the intellectual composition being different from person to person, the required mental structure for a tortuous Sin experience, will not be created An act which is considered as cruelty or a sin in one part of the world, does not become so poignant and sinful in another part of the world where they believe differently since their customs and conditions have wrapped them of a different texture in their intellectual standard.

When an individual grows more and more in his knowledge, many of his instinct-motivated actions, fall off the grace and the chances are that he is rendered totally and completely incapable of doing any more Sin. He is no more in his ego-centric-self arrogating unto himself a false personality as body, or any of the Five Sheaths. It is only when we come to believe ourselves to be the matter-vestures that we are tempted away to perpetrate immoral acts for purposes of procuring, maintaining and preserving sense-objects in the vain hope that thereby we will be able to experience a greater happiness and a fuller sense if fulfilment.

Apart from the fact that a man of wisdom and perfection, will not misbehave or come to act sinfully, such an entity in his realisation of his oneness with the Conscious Principle of life, within himself comes to live fully the truth that his body, mind and intellect are all belonging to the outer world of objects other than his own Self The Sun is not soiled by the blood of a murder scene that he happens to illumine, nor does he become glorious and sanctified by illumining

an auspicious ritual in another part of the world. The illuminator is always separate from that which he illuminates. And, the illuminated cannot condition the illuminator. The mental thoughts and intellectual conditions do not in any way limit the glory of the Conscious Principle which illuminates both these sheaths Consciousness in us is the factor that illuminates both the conceptions of sin and virtue in our mind

It is in this sense that it is told here that a man of realisation does not get flustered at the commissions or omissions in his life.

His freedom does not mean the freedom from unethical and immoral acts The Christian missionary in his stupendous ignorance often because of his perverted enthusiasm to misinterpret all sacred scriptures—as if that is the only method known to him for glorifying his own scripture—has been complaining that the Vedantic ideals take the wind away from all initiative in living an ethical and moral life. This misunderstanding shoots high of their own ignorance, for, I do not believe that they are victims of an incapacity to see, eye to eye, with the great scripture.

The perfection of the Hindu religion reaches such eminence in the Upanishads and the Rishi feels so much confidence in the man of Vedantic realisation that he declares that such a perfect man in beyond the bounds of all rules and that he, in his perfect tuning with the Infinite, is incapable of producing even a single wrong note, when he plays upon the

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lyre of life. What he does is thereafter the ethics and

morality for his generation to follow. Even the

Vedas are but a compendium of how such Men of

perfection thought, felt and acted under various

circumstances.

Since such a master lives always in unison with

the Infinite Cconsciousness, thereafter neither his

external actions, nor his feelings nor his thoughts,

can ever go false in their beat. No false step is

possible in a dancer so long as the accompaniments

are rhythmic and true. We have in our mythology

many stories to illustrate this idea. Great sages like

Durvasa, though established in their own Self, now

and then, as it were, propelled by some power extra-

neous to them, got themselves bumped into the world

outside, and identifying themselves with that passing

Sankalpa (willing) they cursed one or blessed another.

Invariably we find in mythology that in the long run

all such curses had come to bless either the individual

concerned or through him, often, the entire era and

'its generation.

When a radio is fully tuned up with a parti-

cular station, all music that it can sing for the time

being is the song that is sung at that moment in the

broad-casting room of that station. Similarly, when

a man of perfection is living in the Lord, in divine

unison with the Infinite, his mind and intellect

cannot come to entertain any selfish or ego-motivated

false feelings. Whatever be the thought that might

rise up in his mind, it can only be the reflection of the

thought in the total mind. When the thought in that

sage finds an expression in the outer world it may

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 215

immediately bring about a positive blessing or may bring the blessing after a period of chaos and crisis.

In his total-self-effacement and, therefore, of all vanities as agent or actor, enjoyer or sufferer, the sage remains ever a witness of his own thoughts, motives and actions. Such an individual fully freed from the shackles of his thoughts, from the chains of his egoism in short, from the prison-house of his ignorance, in his effulgence and transcendental wisdom, he becomes perfectly detached both from sin and from virtue.

The entire Dharma Sas̄tra, expounding and explaining, describing and enforcing moral and ethical rules for individual life and collective existence, is a compilation of the close observations made upon the behaviour of such men of studies (Shrothrūa) who are well established in the experience of the Reality (Brahma Nishtha)

Here ends the Upanishad -In the Vedic days, Vedas were chanted and remembered and not printed and preserved. Today we see Veda, while the children of the Rishis heard Veda They, in those days, chanted and recited Veda, we, today, read and forget Veda ! Literature and its style, its sanctity and its mode of use have all been changed with the invention of the printing press. Therefore, there must be a subtle difference in the techniques of study when the text-book is in hand and when the text-book is at hand.

The method of instruction followed by the Rishis was the method of chanting and repeating, and therefore, the end of a chapter is to be indicated in the very-closing words of the chapter. In a printed book it is sufficient if we see with our eyes, a new

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

chapter started or an old chapter ended with a short thick line

While repeating by mouth, an end of a section or the chapter is to be clearly marked out by a direct statement of it ; “Here ends the Upanishad.” The philosophical portion of the entire Taittirīya text is contained in its second chapter, and the Ṛshi here says that this important portion, where the Supreme is indicated through a definition and a plan of Realisation narrated, has come to a close.

The term Upanishad is here used to indicate the text-book, discussing Brahma Vidya, through which the finite mortal man comes to rediscover himself to be the spiritual Infinite Reality.

The more popular and the direct meaning of the word Upanishad had already been explained There we said that it was a word made up of the root shad (to sit) prefixed by two indeclinables upa (near) and ni (in a lower seat). The word Upanishad gives us an idea of that literature or knowledge which is to be gained by sitting near, and at the feet of a master.

But the word shad has three different imports such as, (Viṣaṇam) meaning to pulverise: (Ava-sādhanam or Atyanta nāsam) to totally end and (Gathi) which means to lead or to guide Reconsidering the word Upanishad and its native three meanings of the suffix shad we get three implied meanings in Upanishad.

(a) By a correct study of the Upanishad and by following the values of life preached and the practices of self-development prescribed therein, we can get

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 217

away from all our false misunderstandings in our life and consequently we will be "purifying" all our fears of limitations, dreads of the finitude and sorrows of mortality.

(b) On experiencing the goal indicated in the Upanishad to be our Real Nature we once for ever get so fully redeemed from all our identifications with our finite body-mind-and-intellect that we come to end for ever (Atyanta nasa) the sorrows of life and death in us.

(c) The instructions in the text lead us or guide us through the corridors of our personality and help us to rediscover in the Sanctum Sanctorum of our life the Infinite Reality, and therefore the text-book is called the Upanishad

Sankara says that since the knowledge in the book, purifies ignorance and absolutely ends the experiences of finitude, since they guide us away from the plurality to the vision of the oneness, the very text-book itself has come to be named as the Upanishad.

ॐ सह नाववतु । सह नो भुनक्तु । सह वीर्य करवावहै ।

तेनस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥

॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

[ इति द्वितीयो ब्रह्मानन्द वल्ली ]

Om saha navavatu. Saha nau bhunaktu. Saha veeryam karavavahai. Tejasvinavadheetamastu ma vidvishavahai

|| Om Shantih Shantih Shantih ||

[Iti Dviteeyo Brahmananda Valli]

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER II

ऊँ : Om, सह : together, नौ . us both, अवतु : may He protect, सह : together, नौ : us both, भुनक्तु : may He help us enjoy (the fruits of scriptural study) सह : together, वीर्यम् : with enthusiasm, करवावहै . exert together (to find the true meaning of the sacred text) तेजस्वि : fruitful and effective, नौ : of both of us, अधीतम् : study, अस्तु : may be मा . never, विद्विषावहै : may we two quarrel.

ऊँ : Om, शान्ति: : Peace, शान्ति: : Peace, शान्ति: : Peace.

Om, May He protect us both May He help us both to enjoy the fruits of the scriptural study May we both exert together to find the true meaning of the sacred text. May our studies be fruitful. May we Never quarrel with each other

[Om Peace! Peace ! Peace !]

The Peace-Invocation is daily chanted both by the teacher and the taught. This not only tunes up each mentally for the study and the discourse, but it also helps them each to be in unison with the other.

Any constriction of heart in either of them towards the other will screen off the flow of light-and-love between them. Unless there are the unseen beams of mutual love and respect, reverence and admiration connecting the thrilled heart of the inspired Saint and the thirsty head of the sincere students, no actual transaction of Truth-experience can take place. Upanishad being a subjective-science these adjustments are unavoidable.

B. VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 219

In the Vedanta classroom, the teacher writes with words on the heart slabs of the boys; the students read the golden letters of Knowledge in the light of kindling love, and understand them with a "head" peeping out of his "heart". In the still moments of its silent inspirations, in quick and brilliant flashes the boy experiences the Truth transcendental.

Hence the chanting of Peace-passage both in the beginning and in the end of each chapter and each day.

Chapter III

BHRIGU VALLI

अनुवाक्. ९ । Section 1

In the last chapter which contains the entire philosophical discussion in this Upanishad we were told in the very opening Mantra that to realise and experience the Supreme Brahman, "Satyam, Jñānām and Anantam" is the goal of life, the destination of man, the fulfilment of evolution, the ascent of man to Godhood. Thereafter, naturally, the teacher has to give an explanation of how from the Infinite Truth, man descended, stage by stage, to become what he is, sad and sorrowful, bound and belaboured, a glorious God chained by himself to a hell created by himself! From the Supreme, the five great elements came and out of the grossest, element earth, came food, and from food man was born. Analysing the various personality-layers in man, we were told of the five great sheaths, each subtler than the other beneath which lies the Truth as substratum for the entire hallucination. The question whether that Reality is a non-existent non-entity or an existent experienceable factor was also discussed. In order to show that it is an existent factor we were told how it is the Law-Giver, fearing whom the phenomenal world strictly obeys the laws of nature. Also we are told how that Pure Infinite Consciousness is "full of Rasa". The statistics of joy emphasised here is that one who is

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 221

devoid of desires comes to experience the Supreme; for, it was explained that out of the Supreme, five

great elements came up because "He desired". The end of desire is the end of creation.

The philosophical ideas and ideals however complete would not in themselves give an appetising

satisfaction to the serious and energetic students of the Rishi-days when they always judged the quality

of philosophy from its practical application. Unless the philosophy can be realised, they dedicated it as

impotent poetry fit only for old mothers to sign as a song of lullaby.

Therefore there was an urgent need felt to indicate that the techniques of realisation suggested in

Philosophy are all practical and that any student can reach the same goal if only he can follow the instruc-

tions therein.

For this purpose the Rishi of the Taittirīya Upa-

nishad provides us with the third and the last chapter in which a student and a teacher are brought together,

face to face, and we are shown how on the instructions of the teacher, the student, through the path of correct

analysis and deep meditation is able to undress him-self of his matter clothings and rediscover himself

to be in the Self in all its naked glory and Godly Perfection. Here in the chapter we have Bhrigu,

a youngster approaching his own father, Varuna. the teacher, with a humble request to initiate him into

the Knowledge of Brahman, the substratum for the pluralistic phenomenal world.

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ॐ सह नाववतु । सह नो भुनक्तु । सह वीर्य करवावहै ।

तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥

॥ ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

Om saha navayatu Saha nau bhunaktu. Saha veeryam kar-

vavahai. Tejasvinavadheetamastu ma vidvishavahai.

|| Om Shantih Shantih Shantih ||

ॐ : Om, सह : together, नौ : us both, अवतु : may

He protect, सह : together, नौ : us both, भुनक्तु : may

He help us enjoy (the fruits of scriptural study). सह :

together, वीर्यम् : with enthusiasm, करवावहै : exert

together (to find the true meaning of the sacred text).

तेजस्विन् : fruitful and effective, नौ : of both of us,

अधीतम् : study, अस्तु : may be. मा : never, विद्विषावहै :

may we two quarrel.

ॐ : Om, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः :

Peace.

Om, May He protect us both. May He help us both to

enjoy the fruits of scriptural study. May we both exert

together to find the true meaning of the sacred text. May our

studies be fruitful. May we never quarrel with each other.

[Om Peace! Peace! Peace!]

Since we have exhaustively discussed the peace

invocation earlier in the text-book it is not proposed

to repeat the arguments again here.*

भृगुर्वै वारुणिः । वरुणं पितरमुपससार । अधीहि भगवो ब्रविति ।

तस्मा एतत्प्रोवाच । अनं प्राणं चक्षुः श्रोत्रं मनो वाचमिति ॥

Bhrugurvai varunih Varunam pitaram upasasara. Adhechi

bhagavo Brahmeti. Tasma etatprovacha. Annam pranam chakshuh

shrotram mano-vachamiti.

• Refer pages 111, 112 for discussions on this invocation

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223

भृगु. Bṛigu, वै: veṛily. वारुणि: vāruṇiḥ : the son of Varuna

वर्णम्. varṇam. unto Vāruṇa, पितरम् pitarm : his father, उपससार :

1cached. "अधीहि . teach me, भगवः : O Revered Sir,

वत् : (what is) Brahman " इति : thus. तस्मे : to him,

पित्तु : this, प्रोवाच : (Vāruṇa) said. "अन्नम् . food, प्राणम्

: Prana. नयनु : the eyes, श्रोत्रम the ears, मनः . the

mind. वाचम् . the speech", इति thus (are all Brahman)

Bhrigu, the son of Varuna, approached the father Varuna

and requested, "O Revered Sir, teach me Brahman" Varuna

said thus to him (Bhrigu) "Food, Prana, the eyes, the ears,

the mind and the speech—are Brahman "

The scene opens here. and its narration is done

in dots and dashes, and it has got the beauty of

shorthand writing; one who knows its language can

read it in full. Similarly, those who have got a sym-

pathetic intellect—an intellect that revels and works

in a love heart—can ruy casily peep through the

tells of these few strokes, and discover very clearly

behind it all, an young boy of enthusiasm, with all

humbleness and meek surrender, approaching his

own father, and after due prostration in a choked

voice of reverence and adoration, murmurs his great

desire "show me, O Lord, the Nature of Reality".

The smile of satisfaction on the face of the Guru

when he meets thus a sincere student, adds colour to

the entire picture. The father forgets for the moment

that Bhrigu is his own son, and yet, with more than

fatherly love, he embraces the disciple in his silent

gaze of estimation and drinks him to the bottom of

his heart! Varuna answers that the entire world of

objects is nothing other than the Subject expressed

Itself.

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In order to emphasize the idea that everything in the world of objects had risen from the transcendental Divine, the teacher enumerates that Brahman is "food, Prana, eyes, ears, mind and speech". In saying so, the master means that Brahman indicates the Truth which is the common substratum for all the manifestations in the universe. The wave, the ripple, the foam, the lather—all of them are the ocean The bangles, the chain, the ear-stud, the nose-rings all of them are nothing but gold. Similarly, here the master is trying to indicate the Truth through its manifestations, and in order that the student may not have even a trace of doubt about what the teacher meant, he is very careful that his enumerations are exhaustive and scientifically quite appropriate.

Annarn and Prana—The word Food indicates the entire world of matter which can be assimilated and used for the preservation of the living creatures, and Prana means all the vitality that is exhibited by all the living creatures in the entire universe.

Eyes and Ears.—These two are to indicate all the sense-organs of perception and so, if the first two terms indicated the entire world-of-objects, these express the world-of-the-subject starting with the body.

Mind and Speech.—Mind is the receiving station which absorbs in the perceptions received through the five gateways of Knowledge, and again it is the mind that conveys the instructions and the decisions of the intellect to the muscles concerned. And it is these transactions that we really mean by life. So, by the

word mind, all our activities are indicated. Speech is representative of all our organs of action, and among them speech is specially mentioned because it is through speech that we hear and come to understand the great cultural truths of our country as explained in the Upanishad, and again it is through speech that we convey the same truth to others. Study of the Truth and its dissemination are the duties of every Hindu. This has been emphasised from the beginning and as such speech here stands not only for the organs-of-action in the physical sense of the terms, but it also represents all our cultural, religious and

spiritual efforts

All these together constitute the Reality. These differentiations are all a deluded plurality that has been superimposed upon the Reality. The head, the neck, the trunk, the long legs, the thin hands, the tapering fingers, the protruding eyes, the grinning face, etc., of the ghost are nothing but the innocent post. Similarly, the entire world of phenomenon that now grins at us as a belligerent army of objects, is nothing but a superimposition upon the Truth.

Having thus given this rough definition and ready estimate of Truth, the teacher observes in the face of the student only a thorough dissatisfaction, Bhrigu was a seeker after crudition and scholarship; he was a true Hindu who wanted to bring about the divine transformation within himself! Practical-minded as he was,' the above explanation of a general scientific definition could not satisfy him and nothing this look of dissatisfaction in the boy the teacher continues :

16

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तँ होवाच। यतो वा इमानि भूतानि जायन्ते। येन जातानि जीवन्ति। यत्प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्ति। तद्विजिज्ञासस्व। तद्ब्रह्मेति। स तपोडतप्यत। स तपस्तप्त्वा॥

[ इति प्रथमोऽनुवाकः ]

Tam hovacha Yato va imani bhootani jayante. Yena jatani jeevanti Yat prayantyabhisamvisanti Tadvijijnasasva Tat Brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata. Sa tapastaptva

[Iti Prathamo Anuvakaha]

तम् : to him, हू : (then) indeed, उवाच : said. यतः : that from which, वा : indeed, इमानि : all these, भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are born. येन : that by which, जातानि : the born, जीवन्ति : live. यत् : that into which, प्रयन्ति : departing, अभिसंविशन्ति : enter. तत् : that, विजिज्ञासस्व : seek thou to know, तत् : that (is), ब्रह्म : brahman. इति : thus, सः : he, तपः : penance, अतप्यत : performed सः : he, तपः : penance, तप्त्वा : having performed.

To him (Bhrigu) he (Varuna) again said, “that from which these beings are born; that by which having been born these beings live and continue to exist, and that into which, when departing, they all enter–that seekest thou to know That is Brahman.”

He, Bhrigu, performed penance, and after having done penance . .

Herein we have the most scientific definition of Brahman or the ultimate Reality. The Reality behind a wave can never be more exhaustively explained than that from which it had arisen, in which it exists and into which it dissolves itself. The cause of all effects is that from which all effects arise: and during its existence the cause continues to support the effect,

and into the cause the effects merge, when they end their separate existence as effects Thus, the fundamental cause and the support of the entire pluralistic world is indicated by Varuna as the Truth defined by the word Brahman

A mere definition, however philosophical it might be, it could not have been accepted by the true Hindu in Bhrigu, for, to him no philosophy is acceptable unless it is practicable. Without the technique a mere blabbering of the highest ideals will not make a satisfactory philosophy to the Hindu mind. And at the same time the student is not in a hurry to reject a philosophy just because the philosophic truth is too big for his mouth to swallow.

True to this spirit, the student retires as it were from the presence of the Guru and performs Tapas Tapas does not mean the kind of physical sufferings which have been popularised by the mythological literature in our country. In Vedanta, Tapas is considered only as a discipline of the mind “ Deep concentration of the mind is the highest Tapas,” according to the subtlest interpretation of the word Therefore, here Bhrigu retired to a quiet place and through his steady contemplations, meditated upon the definition and tried to discover what the Brahman could be as per the teacher’s definition.

When he had contemplated sufficiently long, Bhrigu came to certain decisions which seemingly satisfied him for the time being. But when his fiery intellect purified and sharpened for the purpose was brought in contact with his conclusions, they scemed

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to melt themselves away as mist at the touch of sun-

light. Therefore he felt himself confused. The next

section explains his initial conclusions, and his

following doubts. Naturally he runs to the Guru

again and again.

अनुवाकः २। Section 2

अन्नं ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात् । अन्नाद्धयेव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते ।

अन्नेन जातानि जीवन्ति । अन्नं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति । तद्विज्ञाय ।

पुनरेव वरुणं पितरमुपससार । अधीहि भगवो ब्रह्मेति । तं होवाच ।

तपसा ब्रह्म विजिज्ञासस्व । तपो ब्रह्मेति । स तपोऽतप्यत । स तपस्तप्त्वा ।

[ इति द्वितीयोऽनुवाकः ]

Annam Brahmēti vyajanat Annāddhyeva khalu īmāni bhootāni

jayante Annena jātāni jeevanti Annam pravantyabhisamvi-

santeēti. Tadvijnāya Punareva varunam pitaram upasasāra.

Addheehı bhagavo Brahmēti Tam hovācha Tapasā Brahma

vijijnāsasva. Tapo Brahmēti Sa tapo atapyata Sa tapastaptvā.

[Itī Dviteeyo Anuvakaha]

अन्नम् . food, ब्रह्म इति : as Brahman, व्यजानात् : under-

stood, अन्नात् : indeed from food, एव : alone, खलु :

certainly, इमनि : all these, भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are

born. अन्नेन : by food, जातानि : the born, जीवन्ति : live,

अन्नम् : into food, प्रयन्ति : on departing, अभिसंचिशन्ति :

enter. तत् : that, विज्ञाय : having understood, पुनः एव :

again, वरुणम् : unto Varuna, पितरम् : his father, उप-

ससार : approached. अधीहि : teach me, भगवः - O

Revered Sir, ब्रह्म इति : what is Brahman. तम् . to him,

ह : then, उवाच : said. तपसा : by penance. ब्रह्म :

Brahman, विजिज्ञासस्व : seek thou to know. तपः :

penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, इति : thus. सः . he, तपः :

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

229

penance, अतप्यत : performed. सः : he, तपः : penance,

तत्पयत : having performed.

Bhrigu learnt that food is Brahman because it is from food

that all these beings are born; by food, when born, do they

live, and having departed, into food they enter.

Having known that, he again approached his father

Varuna and said, " Revered Sir, teach me Brahman "

Varuna told him, " By deep thinking (Tapas) seek thou to

know Brahman Tapas is Brahman "

He performed Tapas and having performed Tapas .. . .

As a result of his initial thoughts, he came to the

conclusion that food is the material cause of the world

of names and forms. To Bhrigu food was Brahman

because food had the distinctive marks of Brahman.

All living creatures are born of food to exist in food and when they disintegrate themselves

at their death, whether they be the most revered and

the sacred of the prophets of the age or the most

insignificant of the worms, they have all to go to the

world of matter made up of calcium, carbon, phos-

phorus, etc. The physical body made up of the five

great elements have all to go back to the five elements

when life and its warmth depart from the structures.

Though superficially there is for Annam the look

of Reality, as the cause for the world of matter to

exist, matter has a positive beginning and an end.

It is ever-changing. A changing factor cannot be the

Ultimate Reality. The Supreme, pointed out by the

term Brahman, is the changeless substratum upon

which all changes are made possible. But the world-

of-food is ever-changing and the only permanence

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about it is the truth that it will change-on " Therefore,

Bhrigu was not satisfied, and so "he again approached

his father Varuna ".

On being thus approached and when the student

repeated the same request as before, "Teach me

Brahman", the teacher understood exactly what was

the trouble with the boy and so instead of directly

guiding him, which would have been an intellectual

interference, he was only encouraged to do more

intense and poignant thinking. The teacher refused

to 'bomb' the disciple with any Truth experienced

in his own personal realisation. The teacher wanted

the student to discover for himself the Real and the

Eternal.

All that he does is to encourage the child to get

up again on to his feet and learn to climb a few steps

higher. Thus, the teacher only repeats what he

had already explained, "know the Reality through

continued application of right thinking". In order to

emphasise the idea, that the Vedantic realisation is

the fulfilment of the path of right thinking and deep

meditation, the teacher here says, "Penance is

Brahman " The means are generally indicated as

the goal itself when the means are directly connected

with the goal This is often employed in our conver-

sation: "Ghee is long life " meaning ghee gives good

health and assures a profitable long life.

The Bangalore road starts verily in Madras and

it is called so, because if consistently pursued it will

directly take us to Bangalore

Similarly here, concentrated right thinking,called

Tapas itself, is called Brahman, in the sense in which

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 231

we ordinarily say, “we are baking bread”. Bread, as such, need not be baked, but the baking would so immediately end in made-ready-bread that even at the moment of baking we say it is bread that we are baking.

The boy unwhetted in his enthusiasm plunges again into a deeper meditation - and having meditated he came to realise that the expression of the Vitality (Prana) in us is the Reality. But again, he discovered the hollowness of his own conclusions and so again approached the Guru.

अनुवाकः ३ । Section 3

प्राणो ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात्। प्राणाद्धयेव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते। प्राणेन जातानि जीवन्ति । प्राणं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति । तद्विज्ञाय । पुनरेव वरुणं पितरमुपससार । अधीहि भगवो ब्रह्मेति । तँ होवाच । तपसा ब्रं विजिज्ञासस्व । तपो ब्रह्मेति । स तपोऽतप्यत । स तपस्तप्त्वा ॥

[ इति तृतीयोऽनुवाकः ]

Prano Brahmti vyajanat. Pranaddhyeya khalu imani bhootani jayante. Pranena jatani jeevanti. Pranam prayantyabhisamvisanti Tadvijnaya Punareva Varunam pitaram upasasara. Adhechi bhagavo Brahmti Tam hovacha Tapasa Brahma vijijnasasva Tapo Brahmti Sa tapo atapyata Sa tapastaptva.

[Iti Triteeyo Anuvakaha]

प्राणः : Prana, ब्रह्मेति as Brahman, व्यजानात् : understood. प्राणात् : from Prana, हि : indeed, एव : alone, खलु : certainly, इमानि : all these, भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are born. प्राणेन : by Prana, जातानि . the born, जीवन्ति : live. प्राणम् . into Prana, प्रयन्ति : on departing, अभिसंविशन्ति . cnter. तत्त् that, विज्ञाय having understood, पुनः एव : again, वरुणम् unto Varuna, पितरम् : his

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father, उपससार : approached, ‘शाधीहि · teach me,

भगवः : O Revered Sir, ब्रह्म इति : (what is) Brahman.’

तम् · to him, ह : then, उवाच : (Varuna) said’, तपसा :

by penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, विजिज्ञासस्व · seek thou

and know it ‘तपः : penance, ब्रह्म : (is) Brahman, इति :

thus’ सः : he, तपः : penance, अतप्यत : performed. सः :

he, तपः : penance, तपत्वा : having performed.

Bhrigu understood that Prana is Brahman, because it is

from Prana that all these living beings are born Being

produced from it, they live by it and in the end they go

towards Prana and become one with it.

Having known that, he again approached his father,

Varuna, saying, “Oh ! Revered one, teach me Brahman ”

He, Varuna, told him, “ Desire to know Brahman by Tapas.

Tapas is Brahman ”

He performed Tapas and having performed Tapas

Bhrigu reflected over the theme of Brahman

again, with a concentrated mind, when he was

encouraged by his master, and came to discover that

the Vitality expressed in the body, indicated by Prana

is the Reality Here Prana is meant not in the sense

of “the air that we breathe”. We had previously

explained the five great departments and activities of

Prana that continuously go on within us. When the

activities of perception, digestion, evacuation, circula-

tion, etc , are not carried on, we consider the individual

as dead. These activities of breathing, assimilation,

etc , are taking place everywhere in the world of the

plants, or animals or men Wherever there is life’s

pulsations, in every such point whether a unicellular

being or a multiple organism with the highest

rationality developed therein, everywhere, the Prana

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

233

activities represent Existence. From a dead father, no

child can be born. In a vacuum no seed can

germinate. In short, there is a very close relation-

ship between Prana and life.

Thus when he thought, Bhrigu came to the conc-

lusion that from Prana life starts, in Prana life conti-

nues to exist, and into Prana the life ends, when

the manifested body perishes. Therefore Prana is

Brahman.

Though this conclusion at the moment of thinking,

as it struck him, was quite obvious, when he conti-

nued his contemplation, he found that his arguments

were not without their fallacies. Prana is no doubt

the efficient cause of the birth, sustenance and death

of the body, and, therefore, life can be Brahman.

But on a closer examination he found, that Prana

could not be Brahman, because it is "not intelligent"

(Jada), it is in itself "and effect" having a cause for

it, and it has always a beginning and an end. So

again he approaches his father, after having done

enough contemplation for himself.

अनुवाकः ४ । Section 4

मनो ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात्। मनसो ह्येव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । मनसा जातानि जीवन्ति । मनः प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति । तद्विज्ञाय ।

पुनरेव वरुणं पितरमुपससार । श्रद्धीहि भगवो ब्रह्मेति । तं होवाच । तपसा ब्रह्म विजिज्ञासस्व । तपो ब्रह्मेति । स तपोदध्यात । स तपस्तेपे ॥

[ इति चतुर्थोऽनुवाकः ]

Mano Brahmēti vyājanāt Manaso hyeva khalu imāni bhoōtāni

jayante Mānasa jātāni jīvanti. Manah prayantyabhisaṃvis-

santīti. Tadvijnāya Punareva Varuṇam pitāram upāsasara

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Adheehı bhagavo Brahmetı Tam hovacha Tapasa Brahma

vıjijnasasva Tapo Brahmmetı Sa tapo atapyata Sa tapastaptva

[It Chaturtho Anuvakaha]

मनः : Mind, ब्रह्म इति : as Brahman, व्यजानात् : understood मनसः : from mind, हि : indeed, एव : alone, खलु : certainly, इमाःनि : all these, भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are born. मनसा : by mind, जातानि : the born, जीवन्ति . live. मनः : into mind, प्रयन्ति : on departing, अभिसंविशन्ति : enter. इति : thus. तत् that, विज्ञाय : having understood, पुनः एव : again, वरुणम् : unto Varuna, पितरम् : his father, उपससार : approached, ‘अधीहि . teach me, भगवः : O Revered Sir, ब्रह्म : (what is) Brahman, इति : thus.’ तम् : to him, ह : then, उवाच : said (Varuna). ‘तपसा : by penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, विजिज्ञासस्व seek thou and know it. तपः : penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, इति : thus’ सः : he, तपः : penance, अतप्यत . performed. सः he, तपः : penance, तप्त्वा : having performed.

He knew that Mind was Brahman· for, it is from the Mind that all these living beings are produced Being born from it they all live by it and they go towards the Mind and become one with it.

Having known that, he again approached his father Varuna, saying, “Oh! Venerable one, teach me Brahman.”

He, Varuna, told him, “Desire to] know Brahman by penance. Tapas is Brahmanan ”

Bhrıgu performed Tapas and having performed Tapas. . . . . .

When he himself rejected the idea that Prana is Brahman, he continued his own independent reflections and when he sufficiently applied his concentrated intelligence he came to discover in his meditations, a

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

235

subtler factor and understood that Mind which controls the Prana is the eternal cause of things, the Brahman. He argued that Mind colours our perceptions. A worried mind obstructs digestion, evacuation and even circulation. Thus, the intimate relationship of the Mind and Prana, as master and slave is very evident.

Even in this very Tapas period, we were told that the Creative Activity was preceded by ‘thought’. Let alone the world of the gross, to write a note to a friend of ours is also in our thought a definite vision of the future, and then alone can the activity of writing into matter take place. The Mind is the creator of the Jada, and gets itself exhausted in the process, and comes to its original state of peace. By even a casual statement of this kind, we are

But in our private meditations we have to go deeper researching the Mind, an organ of our personality, it depends for its activity to it cannot. It has a real self-luminosity, light.

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remain the same Thought, by thought, each has a

beginning and an end and the Mind has an existence

as an entity if at all, only in the continuity of its

changing thoughts. In this welter of changes it is

essentially finite and, therefore, cannot be the Supreme

Brahman, the changeless substratum, upon which

alone all changes are possible. Therefore, it could

not be Brahman, the uncaused-cause, the Eternally

Perfect. Therefore, Bhrigu again approaches the

teacher to check up whether he has fallen away from

the grand-road of right thinking into the bylanes of

misunderstanding and unphilosophical confusions.

अनुवाकः ५ । Section 5

विज्ञानं ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात् । विज्ञानाद्ध्येव खल्विमानि भूतानि जायन्ते । विज्ञानेन जातानि जीवन्ति । विज्ञानं प्रयन्त्यभिसंविशन्तीति ।

तद्विज्ञाय । पुनरेव वरुणं पितरमुपससार । अधीहि भगवो ब्रह्मेति । तँ होवाच । तपसा ब्रह्मविजिज्ञासस्व । तपो ब्रह्मेति । स तपोऽतप्यत । स तपस्तप्त्वा ॥

[ इति पञ्चमोऽनुवाकः ]

Vijñanam Brahmeti vyajanat Vijñanadhyera khalu imani

bhootani jayante Vijñanena jatani jeevanti Vijñanam prayanty-

ablisamvisanteeti Tadvijnaya Punareva Varunam pitaram

upasasara. Adheehi bhagavo Brahmeti Tam hovacha Tapasa

Brahma vijijñasasva. Tapo Brahmeti Sa tapo atapyata Sa

tapastaptva

[Itı Pauchhamo Anuvakaha]

विज्ञानम् : Knowledge, ब्रह्म इति : as Brahman, व्यज-

नात् : understood विज्ञानात् . from knowledge, हि :

indeed, एव : alone, खलु : certainly, इमानी . all these,

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

237

भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are born. विद्यानेन : by knowledge, ledge, जातानि : the born, जीवन्ति : live. विद्यानम् : into knowledge, प्रयन्ति . on departing, अभिसंविशन्ति : enter.

इति : thus. तत् : that, विज्ञाय having understood, पुनः : again, वरुणम् . unto Varuna, पितरम् : his father, उपससार . approached, 'अधीहि teach me, भगवः : O Revered Sir, ब्रह्म : (what is) Brahman, इति : thus. तम् : to him, ह : then, उवाच . (Varuana) said, तपसा : by penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, विजिज्ञासस्व : seek thou to know.

तप: penance, ब्रह्म : Brahman, इति : thus' सः . he, तप: : penance, अत्तनयत् . performed. सः . hc, तप: : penance, तत्त्वा . having performed.

He understood that Knowledge is Brahman, because it is by Knowledge that all these living beings are born, having been born, by knowledge they live, and having departed, into knowledge alone they enter

Having known that, he approached his father Varuna to know the Truth further and said, "Revered Guru, teach me Brahman "

He, Varuna, told, "by Tapas seek thou to know Brahman. Tapas is Brahman " .

He performed Tapas and having performed Tapas .

When Bhrigu, thus, continued his contemplation seeking for an agent under whose instructions alone the Mind can really function as ably and diligently as it does now in a man's bosom, he discovered that the Intellect is the true agent who does all the necessary driving of the Mind.

The Intellect is certainly subtler than the Mind and the same Upanishad had declared earlier that Intellect is the agent in all activities: "Knowledge performs the sacrifices and it is the real agent in all physical activities."**

• I bid Section II, 5, and p. 156.

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

This Intellect, discriminating rightly or wrongly, has propelled the Mind to think and act in a particular way and as a reaction to those karmas in each life, the individual takes a form and comes to live in the world. Naturally it is from the Knowledge, that we are born and every activity subjective or objective, is propelled by the Intellect in us. Not only thus life and its activities are sustained by the Intellect, but on departing from this physical structure the individual goes forward seeking new venues of activities again motivated by his own intelligence Thus, Knowledge can be the Brahman as defined by the teacher and so the body concludes that "Knowledge is Brahman".

But again on a reconsideration "he was not satisfied with his own conclusions" and, therefore, by extending his thoughts a little further, he immediately discovered the obvious fallacies in these conclusions. It is helpful to note that the modern world is going through an era of a blind belief in the intellect This Supreme The generation has so blindly taken to this belief that they have not yet gained the necessary poise of Mind to intelligently analyse the very Intellect, since the children of this era are not trained to detach themselves from the very intellect to observe and analyse the very nature of the Intellect and its Knowledge.

Bhrigu on the other hand, could not find entire satisfaction in believing that the Knowledge is the Supreme Brahman, because he realised that Intellect

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

239

is only an agent. An agent generally works for the

satisfaction of the master. The agent works under

the instructions of the master and the motive behind

the agent, is the satisfaction of the master. Also we

know an agency is marked with paid, besmeared with

dependence and an agent is not perfectly pure.

Therefore, fearing lest he should miss the bus in

his philosophical pilgrimage to self-discovery he con-

tinues his daring intellectual flight and in one leap he

comes to understand that Bliss is the secret master

behind all agencies and departments of activity

within the microcosm.

अनुवाकः ६। Section 6

आनन्दो ब्रह्मेति व्यजानात्। आनन्दाद्धयेव खल्विमानि

भूतानि जायन्ते ! आनन्देन जातानि जीवन्ति । आनन्दं प्रयन्-

त्यभिसंविशन्तीति । सैषा भार्गवी वारुणी विद्या । परमे व्योमन्प्रतिष्ठिता ।

स य एवं वेद प्रतितिष्ठति । अन्नवानन्नादो भवति । महान्भवति प्रजया

पशुभिर्ब्रह्मवर्चसेन । महान्कीर्त्या ।

[ इति षष्ठोऽनुवाकः ]

Anando Brahmeti vyajanat Anandadhy eva khalu imani

bhootani jayante Anandena jatani jeevanti Anandam prayanty-

abhisamvisanteeti Sastha Bhargavi Varuni vidya Parame vyoman

pratishtita. Sa ya evam veda pratitisthati Annavan annado

bhavati Mahan bhavati prajaya pasubhih Brahmavarchasena

Mahan keertya

[Iti Shashto Anuvakaha]

आनन्दः : happiness (bliss), ब्रह्म इति : as Brahman,

व्यजानात् : (he) understood. आनन्दात् : from bliss, हि :

indeed, एव : alone, खलु : certainly, इमानी : all these,

भूतानि : beings, जायन्ते : are born. आनन्देन : by bliss,

जातानि : the born, जीवन्ति : live. आनन्दम् : into bliss,

प्रयन्ति : on departing, अभिसंविशन्ति : enter, इति : thus.

सा एषा : is this, भार्गवी वारुणी : of Bhrigu and Varuna,

विद्या : knowledge; परमे : in the supreme, व्योमन् : space

(in the excellent cavity of the heart), प्रतिष्ठिता : is established सः : he, यः : who, एवम् . thus, वेद् : knows,

प्रतितिष्ठति : becomes established (in Brahman). अन्नवान् : possessor of food, अन्नाद: : the eater of food, भवति :

he becomes महान् : great, भवति : he becomes, प्रजया : in progeny, पशुभिः : in cattle wealth, ब्रह्मवर्चसेन : in the

splendour of true Brahmin-hood. महान् : great, कीर्त्या : through fame and renown (he becomes).

He knew that Bliss was Brahman, for, from Bliss all these beings are produced, by Bliss do these beings live. They go

to Bliss and become one with it

This is the Knowledge learnt by Bhrigu and taught by Varuna This is established in the Supreme space—in the

excellent cavity of the heart He who knows thus becomes one with Brahman He becomes the possessor of food and the

cater of it He becomes great in progeny, cattle and gains the splendour of true Brahminhood Indeed, he becomes

great in fame and renuwn

When Bhrigu thus through contemplation transcended himself from Annam to Prana, from Prana to

Mind. and from Mind to Intellect, he was not satisfied and, therefore, he took the most daring plunge into

the beyond when he left the Intellect also behind.

On transcending the Intellect also, he came to experience a state of Bliss which had been already

described in the last chapter as Anandamaya kosa.

We have found there, this Bliss-sheath is the enjoyer of which the Intellect is an agent.

To experience the Bliss-sheath in itself through a steady and awareful withdral of our identifications with the world outside and the outer four layers of matter, is to experience immediately the Supreme which is subtler than the very Bliss-sheath. He who reaches the Bliss-sheath, by the very momentum of his arrival there, from the outer world of his natural preoccupations, gets bowled out into the Infinite realms beyond it and comes to experience the transcendental glory of his own Nature To reach upto the Bliss-sheath is (Purushartha) the self-effort. Having reached there, the transcendence of it and the experience of wisdom is immediate and instantaneous.

In a dark room, in daytime, all your effort will be directed to carefully feeling your way through the objects of the room to the window and there to open its shutters This is the last act that you have to do, to flood the whole room with light. Having opened the window, you need not invite the light from outside to stream in Similarly, our own Real Nature was unknown because of our preoccupations with the five matter envelopments and their worlds-of-objects When we had withdrawn ourselves upto the Ananda-maya kosa without any hitch or struggle we automatically get ourselves transported to the realm of the Divine in us which is indicated here as "established in the Supreme-excellent cavity of the heart" We have already explained what we mean by the Cave of the Heart.*

• Refer pp. 50, 51 and 52. 17

This subjective way of realisation of an intimate conscious enquiry of the different layers of personality in man is the most direct of methods available in Vedanta for Self-realisation. No other religion in the world had ever given us such a direct method of culminating man's evolution in his discovery of the Godhood that lies concealed within himself. This method of enquiry and direct apprehension of the subtler realms of the personalities in ourselves, and ultimately to discover and realise in an intimate personal experience the vital source of all other existence, to be the Infinite, all-pervading-Reality, is called the Bhāgavī Vidyā.

Just as in the modern world of science, a theory discovered by a scientist goes under his name, here the theory by which Bhrigu realised for himself the Truth came to be called the “Science of Bhrigu”. Here it is interesting to note how Varuna, the teacher, though he enunciated this theory, had not cared to lend his name to it, because, in philosophy, the touchstone is its experiencer. Bhrigu first experienced the Divine glory of his own inner Self through this technique of Self-enquiry and therefore, this method is called Bhāgavī Vidyā—and not Varuṇī Vidyā.

This is not an accidental coincidence that he heard it and came to realise this Truth, but Mother Śrutī guarantees that if any one with the sincerity of Bhrigu consistently continues to persevere in the path of enquiry and concentrated meditations, he too can come to experience the same fulfilment as Bhrigu.

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 243

Sruti says “He who knows thus becomes one with Brahman”.

Ordinarily this portion is translated in a most impotent manncr, saying, that one who thus realiscs Brahman becomes rich in food and also very efficient in eating food. If matcrial succcss and gluttony were the results of self-perfection, God forbid that philosophy, and save that country! Here the word Annam should be taken in the largest sense of the term as the “entire world of experienceable objects”. In short, it means that a perfect man alone can become fully and clearly conscious of the entire world that throbs with life and joy, and also he alone is the one who can come to experience infinitely more than the dull-witted and the prejudiced

An ordinary man of imperfections is one who constantly keeps on running away from pains and agonics, failure and disasters, threats and despairs of life. Thus, more than half the world is, even for the best of men, a dark cave of horrid fears from which they should run away and seek a refuge and shelter

On the other hand he who has realised the Atmic-oneness of the Divine Whole, to him all circumstances and the entire world, from the simplest blade of grass to the Creator Himself, is an appetising field to revel and to dance in ecstasy Thus, at every moment in life, at any place and in any circumstances, he is in an inspiring world, experiencing intensively he life in its Totality.

Such a perfect Master who has gained mastery over all the different limbs of his personality and has

come to rule over them must necessarily become extremely successful in the outer material world of secular competition, whether it be with the outer world of phenomenon or among his own fellow-beings. In the Vedic days, the wealth was cattle and so, when the Sruti says here that "he becomes great in the wealth of cattle," she means that he|becomes rich. (One wonders whether the world ‘purse’ came from the Sanskrit word “Pasu” !)

Again, hereafter, you will find in many places, the Sas tra insistently saying that such a man will have a long line of progeny, This is again translated ordinarily as ‘children’—as if the father of 11 children should be a greater man of Realisation than the father of 5 or 3 The upper and the middle class society of to-day seem to take this as almost their watchword in their life and thus irresponsibly pro-create children, without restraint not only within the four walls of their houses, but even outside them and criminally create a national problem of uncontrollable rise in population !! A poor country like India, backward in her social, political and economic spheres, can ill-afford such an incomprehensible pressure of population on land.

In fact a correct understanding should be something more noble and acceptable. I, for one, believe that here the word ‘Children’ means all those whom the Revered man of knowledge comes to love as his own ‘children’ so that they learn to look upto him as more than their own ‘father’

Brahmavarcasam.—The glow of cheer and joy, peace and serenity, love and tenderness, that beam

out of a person who has the mental tranquillity and

the spiritual equilibrium while facing the tustle of

life through all its imperfections, is what is meant

here by the āna, around the face of a man-of-

realisation. To misunderstand it, to be nothing

more than a physical health—a giant shape—is to

climinate some of our greatest men of realisation out

of the Hindu fold Sri Rama Thirtha, Ramakrishna

Paramahamsa, Bhagavan Ramana, Yogi Aurobindo—

none of them were in any sense of the term ‘adipose

collected in tranquillity’! In fact such endless

girth and dimensions indicate invariably a buffalo-

constitution which has not got wisdom more than

that contained in the famous “ Uppu Chettiar ”.*

Such an individual well equated, developed, and

healthy in all his personalities must surely become a

potent factor in his age and so it is here said “he

becomes great in fame”

Bhrigu when he thus followed the instruction of

Varuna faithfully to the last, came to feel such a

consummate satisfaction that he felt no more any

need to come back to the Guru and enquire what is

Brahman? When he reached the Anandamaya kośa

and gained a glimpse of the beyond, there must have

been that supreme look of contentment and Divine

satisfaction in his Blissful face, that thereafter, there

was no discussion either possible or necessary.

The Guru, rooted in his own experience, could

feel sympathetically, the silent experience of Bhrigu

*Representation of Uppu Chettiar in statues is available for drawing

room decorations in India This statue is known in foreign markets as

the ‘Laughing Tom’

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

and he feels the need that he must give some final

advices to the boy, before he leaves the seat at the

feet of the Guru, to live the rest of his life in the

glorious Consciousness of the Divine.

At the same time, the teacher was not exclusively

giving audience to Bhrigu alone. The other students,

who had not had the necessary inner purification,

could not come to comprehend the entire Truth so

vividly as Bhrigu. This incapacity on the part of

some of the students does not mean that the science

is wrong or impotent. Some students of the scrip-

ture may become thus impatient, and throw the book

away to walk out as confirmed atheists.

In all such cases it is only because the students

had not the benefit of a true teacher to guide them.

Whenever such a thing happened in the Vedic days,

the teachers never despaired but correctly understood

that it was because of the student's lack of integra-

tion. Whenever such an inner maladjustment between

the psychological and intellectual beings in a student

is noted, immediately the teachers advised them some

method or methods of self-integrations called the

Upasanas.

Here, six different methods of Upasanas have

been prescribed for the purposes of better integration,

and at the end of it all, the same Truth of the oneness

of the Life-Spark in us and the life everywhere is

being repeated to bring it more clearly to the percep-

tions and intimate experiences of the students so

integrated.

Of the six items of Upasanas, the earlier four contain, besides the instructions for meditation, a deeper message to the student-of-realisation in Bhrigu.

Great teachers always do have this ability of talking at once to two different levels of students in one and the same breath ! We shall see how the first four of them had an obvious meaning for the ordinary student to understand as a method of Upasana, and for Bhrigu, the realised, a deeper message of instruction and direction as to how he should live in the world outside after his Realisation.

The boy has now realised the source of the Infinite Bliss within himself These moments of experience are generally limited and broken. Until he gets himself established in this experience, there will be for him, moments of disturbances (Uthan) when he will be pushed out of that plane of God-experience to the consciousness of his ego-centric existence At such moments the chances are, that he will look upon the world of plurality as mauspicious, wretched, pain-ridden and a delusion.

On realising his own Divine nature, he may, by a relative estimate, come to regard his own brother creatures of the world as something undivine, as something to escape from In order to avoid this mistaken notion and the consequent estimate of the world as undivine the teacher had to point out to Bhrigu, who was sitting at the feet of his master, drowned in the intoxicating joy of bliss, that he must consider the world outside also, with as much reverence and divinity as he considers his own experienced

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Self. We shall see how this is most beautifully done

in the following Upasana method.

अनुवाकः ७। Section 7

अन्नं न निन्द्यात्। तद्व्रतम्। प्राणो वा अन्नम्। शरीरमन्नादम्।

प्राणे शरीरं प्रतिष्ठितम्। शरीरे प्राणः प्रतिष्ठितः। तदेतदन्नमन्ने

प्रतिष्ठितम्। स य एतदन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितं वेद प्रतिष्ठति। अन्नवानन्नादो

भवति। महान्भवति प्रजया पशुभिर्ब्रह्मवर्चसेन। महान्कीर्त्या॥

[ इति सप्तमोऽनुवाकः ]

Annam na nindyat Tadvratam. Prano va annam. Sareera-

mannadam Prane sareeram pratishtitam Sareere pranah

pratishtitaha Tadetat annam anne pratishtitam.

Sa ya etadannam anne pratishtitam veda pratitishtati Annavan annado bhavati.

Mahan bhavati pragaya pasubhih Brahmavarchasena. Mahian

keertia.

[Iti Saptamo Anuvakaha]

अन्नम् : food, न : not, निन्द्यात् : one should blame.

तत् : that, व्रतम् . (is your) vow. प्राणः : Prana, वा :

indeed, अन्नम् food शरीरम् : body, अन्नादम् : (is) the

eater of food, प्राणे in Prana, शरीरम् body, प्रतिष्ठितम् :

is established, शरीरे : in the body, प्राणः : Prana,

प्रतिष्ठितः . is established. तत् : therefore, तदत् : this,

अन्नम् . food, अन्ने . in food, प्रतिष्ठितम् . is established.

सः . he, यः . who, पतत् . this, अन्नम् food, अन्ने in

food, प्रतिष्ठितम् . established, वेद knows, प्रतितिष्ठति

becomes one with (Brahman). अन्नवान् . possesser food

(and) अन्नादः . the eater of food, भवति : he becomes.

महान् : great, भवति : he becomes, प्रजया : in progeny,

पशुभिः : in cattle wealth, ब्रह्मवर्चसेन . in the splendour

of true Brahmin-hood. महान् : great, कीर्त्या : through

fame and renown (he becomes).

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

249

Do not blaspheme food That shall be your vow Prana is food. Body is the cater-of-food. The body is fixed in Prana The Prana is fixed in the Body. Thus food is fixed in food He who knows that food is fixed in food, becomes one with Brahman He becomes possessed of food and he becomes the eater of the food He becomes great in progeny, in cattle, and in the splendour of Brahmin-hood He becomes great in fame

To the ordinary students, this is an engaging line of thinking to entertain themselves during their meditations and they are encouraged to continue their meditations by the promise of material gains, because, essentially these boys are those who have a greater share of attachment with the material gains and worldly fame. Indeed, it is our attachment to the sensuous, that makes us disintegrated and incapable of great things in life. The Rishi here understanding the character of his students and knowing their demands, is playing to their desires in hauling them out of their sensuous ruts ! Thus, they are promised that they will become not only rich in food but equally capable of enjoying the sumptuous food, that they will have plenty of food all their life through Besides, they are promised that they will have plenty of children to look after them in their old age and plenty of cattle-wealth. Thus they will be satisfied in all their three great desires (Ishanas) : desire for wealth (Vitheshana) desire for children (Puthreshana) and desire for fame (Lokeshaṇa)

These results are promised to those who could meditate upon the food and the food-eater as one and the same. Here the Sasṭra says that the Prana is food and the physical body of man is the food-eater, meaning the body consumes the Prana. But at the

250 TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

same time, the body is established in Prana, and moment to moment the Prana or the vitality is consuming the body and, therefore. the body is the eaten and the Prana is the eater. Thus, the eater and the eaten is one and the same, inasmuch as there is a continuous competitive eating of one by the other !!

The body eats the Prana; and the Prana eats up the body too. Thus, in fact there are no two things—the eater and the eaten—but from the philosophical standpoint we can declare “Food is fixed in food”.

The implications of this statement are so vast that thoughts cannot exhaust all the possibilities and, therefore, there is no chance of the meditation being exhausted. One who regularly meditates, gains more and more integration within, and an integrated person is ever noted for success always in all spheres of activities including the material and secular.

The above is the obvious meaning which the ordinary students comprehend when they approach this portion as a mere instruction for Upasana. But the extremely integrated and, therefore, more subtle intellect of Bhrigu, understands a deeper message from the same. This message is hammered into Bhrigu, not so much by the force of the words, as by the arresting look of depth and gravity in the eyes of the master.

The very opening word summarises the message to Bhrigu. “do no censure food”. The word ‘food’ to him is not the ‘material supplied in the kitchen’. But, in its ampler meaning it denotes food for all the

sense-organs in short, the world-of-food constitutes the world-of-objects. The outer world-of-objects and the inner truth-of-the-subject are not two distinct entities, one competing with the other, but the world-of-objects is but the concretization of the perceptions of the “misunderstood subject”. As such, the teacher instructs the students, that due to his Realisation of the Divine nature of the Self, he should not entertain any undivine idea about the world outside. The world without is as much Divine as the world within.

When we read this appropriate meaning into this passage, we take the wind away from the false arguments that were often raised against Vedantins. The philosophy of Vedanta does not at any stage laugh at and ignore the entire world as such. Wherever they say, “the world is a dream-like delusion” they only mean to point out our misunderstandings, and misconception regarding the world Vedanta requires of us to make a re-estimate of the world. A more intelligent re-interpretation of the world is all that is demanded by Vedanta.

It was probably the mischief of foreign powers in this country, that encouraged this wrong mood, which by an ignorant tradition, came to be read as the philosophy of Sankara by successive pundits for the last 500 years. None of the great Vedantic Acharyas ever ignored the world and ran away from it. Certainly their world is not the world as we recognise and experience it. We look at the world from a partial, prejudiced, angle of view and because of the squint in our vision, we see the world ugly and

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

maladjusted, abominable and undivine, a field for pain and agony, a theatre for death and destruction,

a tomb of sorrows and sobs, a den of disappointments and despaîrs" This pessimistic point of view

had no place in the jubilant philosophy of the Hindu tradition. When they cried that the Atman within

is the Brahman without, they appealed to the people to watch for, recognise and experience the Eternal

Divine play in and through the seemingly different names and forms.

Bhrigu is initiated here in the vital essence of Hinduism, that a man of Realisation has no right

to censure the world-of-objects but he must realise that the world of names-and-forms experienced by

the experiencer, the Atman, and the world are one and the same and so the world is, in its turn, as much

Divine as the Soul. With the newly dawned wisdom,

Bhrigu was appealed to walk out into the world, "without speaking ill of Food". Such a master of

Realisation becomes really a walking-God upon earth, to whom the entire world becomes so many occasions

to experience and enjoy the Infinite Bliss.

Such a saint becomes great in progeny, meaning a man who guides the entire generation with a

devoted fatherly love and to whom the generations look up as children would to their father. He

becomes indeed great in fame. A hundred other masters with the infinite experience of the Divine

might be living now, and might have died away in the secret caves of the Himalayas like any house

rats or street dogs, but the world and the children

of the present generation do not raise even a single

thougt of gratitude against their Dıvine expression

of Reality. But on the other hand a Vyasa or a

Valmiki, a Yagnavalkya or a Vasishta, a Rama-

krishna or Vivekananda, a Guru Govind Singh or

Rama Thirta, a Ramana or Aurobindo—they are even

now remembered with grateful adorations because

theirs was a realisation more complete, more perfect

and more exhaustive; they realised and recognised the

Divine not only in themselves but in the entire world-

of-objects and in their perfect wisdom, they had no

fears of any fall at any tıme in the delusory net of

misunderstandings or physical appetites.

Varuna toeing the line with the great masters of

the Vedas, here, instructs Bhrıgu to throw away his

prejudices against the world of plurality and come

to recognise the one Supreme-Self vitalising the

world Herein we have the inimitable phılosophy, the

like of which the world had never seen before, wherein

the sacred embraces the secular, God plays with

Gold ! Indeed Vedanta, the paragon of philosophy,

is singing here the Kokıl song of the descent of God

into man, and in the eyes of the Realised there is

nothing but Perfection revelling in disorder and

confusion. A lıttle self-discipline, a few little adjust-

ments in the valley of life, will make the very same

world of agitations and passions, sorrows and fights

into a Heaven of perfect joys.

It is a cri

say that a ma

life into the d

been a self-surviving philosophy all these periods of

history, if the Perfection conceived by the Hindu

Upanishads were to make man nothing better than the

Rocks on the Ganges banks ! To send people, from

the world and its joys, from the great scheme of

nature, the revelling beauty and the gorgeous extra-

vagance of light and colour, smile and ecstasy, into

a dull and dreary darkness, we need no great philo-

sophy to be profounded by any Rishi !! Even if they

could have done it, they could not have hood-winked

such a long unbroken line of brilliant generations of

Hindus and sustained even to this day. Let us not, in

our overenthusiasm compliment ourselves to be the

only wise generation that has come to grace the-face

of the globe. None of our political, economic, social

and secular problems of the world to-day shall justify

our wisdom !! If greater men of virulent and more

steady intellect, have accepted Vedanta as a philo-

sophy of perfection, it could not be because Vedanta

readily created ineffectual men out of honest seekers;

on the other hand it must have been because, as we

hear in the Upanishad, of its appeal to the man of

wisdom to come out into the world, to recognise the

Divine nature of the world of plurality and to work

for the redemption of man. “Do not speak ill of

food,” warns Varuna and he adds for purposes of

emphasis, “that shall-be your vow”

अनुवाकः ८ । Section 8

अन्नं न परिचक्षीत । तद्व्रतम् । आपो वा अन्नम् । ज्योति-

रन्नादम् । अप्सु उग्रेति: प्रतिष्ठितम् । ज्योतिष्याप: प्रतिष्ठिता: । तदेत-

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 255

अन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितम् । स एतदन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितं वेद प्रतितिष्ठति ।

अन्नवानन्नादो भवति । महान्भवति प्रजया पशुभिर्ब्रह्मवर्चसेन ।

महान्कीर्त्या ॥

[ इति अष्टमोऽनुवाकः ]

Annam na parichakshsita Tadvratam. Apo va annam.

Jyotir annadam Apsu jyotih pratishtitam Jyotishy apah pratish-

titha Tad etad annam anne pratishtitam, Sa ya etad annam anne

pratishtitam veda pratitishthati Annavan annado bhavati Mahan

bhavati prajaya pasubhih Brahmavarchasena. Mahan keertya.

[Iti Ashtamo Anuvakaha]

अन्नम् : food, न परिचक्षीत : do not reject. तत् : that,

व्रतम् : (is) your duty. आपः : water, वै : verily, अन्नम् :

(is) food. ज्योति: : fire, अन्नादम् : (is) the eater of food.

अप्सु : in water, ज्योति: : fire, प्रतिष्ठितम् : is established.

ज्योतिषि : in fire, आपः : waters, प्रतिष्ठिता: : are establish-

cd. तत् : therefore, पतत् : this, अन्नम् : food, अन्ने : in

food, प्रतिष्ठितम् : is established. सः : he, यः : who, पतत् :

this, अन्नम् : food, अन्ने : in food, प्रतिष्ठितम् : establish-

ed, वेद : knows, प्रतितिष्ठति : gets established (in

Brahman). अन्नवान् : possessor of food, अन्नाद: : eater

of food, भवति : he becomes, महान् : great, भवति : he

becomes, प्रजया : in progeny, पशुभिः : in cattle wealth,

ब्रह्मवर्चसेन : in the splendour of true Brahmin-hood.

महान् : great, कीर्त्या : in fame. (he becomes).

Do not reject food That is a duty Water is food Fire

is the food-eater

So, food is fixed in food He, who knows that food is fixed in

food, stands for ever, established well, He becomes the

possessor of food and an eater of food He becomes great in

progeny, in cattle and in his spiritual lustre. He becomes

great in fame.

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If, in the previous Upasana, the vow which the worshipper was to take be, that he 'should not censure food,' in this Upasana, the vow is that he should 'not reject any food' that comes to the table, because it is not tasty. Whatever that comes to his table, he must be able to consume without making faces or protesting against that food. This will be respecting and revering food.

Water, that is drunk, is digested by the digestive "fire" in our system. Therefore, water is regarded as food and fire is regarded as the consumer of food. Water can also be considered as food in the sense that the Food grains grow with water. Heat in a living body is necessary for the food to be digested and hence the body-heat can be considered as the eater-of-water.

Fire is fixed in water —This is true in the sense, we all know, that the "digestive-fire" gets kindled and leaps to consume the food taken in, when we drink water an hour or so after meals. In this sense, we can say that fire is fixed in water, inasmuch as by supplying water to the digestive system, its efficiency increases.

Water is fixed in fire.—Again, whenever the heat of the body increases immediately we find water in the form of perspiration, streaming out, as if water is fixed in fire. Anything consumed by fire is always accompanied by moisture—let it be driest of fuel that you can find Completely dehydrated things cannot be burnt—they can only be charred.

Altogether the teacher wants to emphasize in another striking analogy, how the eater and the eaten,

the experiencer and the experienced, are interchangeable and therefore in fact, they are both virtually

one and the same The relationship between the subject and the object is clearly shown to be one and

the same When a glass rod is put at an angle in a trough half-full of water we find though refraction

the rod bent: half of the rod straight and the other half at an angle to it. This ugly delusion is, because

of the medium through which we are looking at the object. Similarly, the subject and the object,

though they are one and the same, the world-of-objects, seems to be different from the subject, because of the

refraction that is caused by the medium of the mind and intellect, through which we are experiencing the

objects.

As before, the fruits of the Upasana are enumerated as great material success and easy satis-

faction of all the fundamental desires of life.

Turning from the ordinary students who under-stand this as a pure method of Upasana to the great

student, Bhrigu, we can find that the perfect student in him, had a special message in these very same words

of the teacher. To the student of realisation, who has just peeped into the beyond and got divinely inspired,

the message would be that he should not, on any score reject food—“food”, meaning the world-of- objects

that can be experienced The manifested world of plurality is not to be rejected as a false and delusory

nothingness.

The example of the waves is aptly used in this context. But to misunderstand them as having inde-

18

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

pendent individual existence, is not to understand

the ocean at all. The advice is for re-interpretation

of the world and not for a negation of the world

as a whole. With the Vision of the Divine that is

immanent in the world of names-and-objects, the

world presents a totally different field altogether for

the perfect Man to serve and to adore, to worship

and to guide

The main theme of Taittirīya, apart from its

philosophical theories, is the right attitude of the man

of knowledge towards the world of multiplicity. Study

of the scripture and experience of the Truth indicated

by them, is one part of the Perfect One's existence

(Swadhyaya), and the other part is constituted of

the spread of this idea among his fellow-men, so that

the Divine culture of the land may be maintained

and properly cultivated (Pravachana).

Bhrigu was advised not to reject the world on

any score but to recognise the true Divine Nature of

the world outside, and to continue his life of love

and sympathetic understanding of the world. Bhrigu

was commissioned to guide the generation through

the right channels of correct evaluation of life-as-such

and to goad the members of his generation to live

by themselves the Hindu cultural way of life

अनुवाकः ९ । Section 9

अन्नं वाव कुर्यात् । तद्व्रततम् । पृथिवी वा अन्नम् । आकाशो-

न्नादः । पृथिव्यामाकाशः प्रतिष्ठितः । आकाशे पृथिवी प्रतिष्ठिता ।

तदेतदन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितम् । स य एतदन्नमन्ने प्रतिष्ठितं वेद प्रतितिष्ठति ।

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 259

अन्नवानन्नादो भवति । महान्-भवति प्रजया पशुभिर्ब्रह्मवर्चसेन ।

महान्कीर्त्या ॥

इति नवमोऽनुवाकः ]

Annam bahu kurveta Tadvratam Prithivvee va annam.

Akaso annadaha Prithivyam akasah pratishthitaha Akase prithivee

pratishthita. Tadetadannam anne pratishthitam veda pratitishthati Annavan annado bhavati

Mahan bhavati prajaya pasubhih Brahmavarchasena Mahan

keertya

[Iti Navamo Anuvakaha]

अन्नम् : food, बहु . plenty, कुर्वीत : accumulate. तत् : that, व्रतम् : is the duty पृथिवी : the earth, वै indced, अन्नम् . is food. आकाश: spacc, अन्नाद: is the eater of food. पृथिव्याम् , on the earth, आकाश: space, प्रतिष्ठित: : is established. आकाशे . in space, पृथिवी the earth, प्रतिष्ठिता : is cstablished. तत् therefore, पतत् . this, अन्नम् : food, अन्ने in food, प्रतिष्ठितम् is established स: he, य: who, पतत् this, अन्नम् food, अन्ने in food, प्रतिष्ठितम् cstablished, वेद knows, प्रतितिष्ठति gets established (in Brahmern) अन्नवान् possessor of food, अन्नाद: . (and) the eater of food, भवति . he becomes. महान् great, भवति . he becomes, प्रजया in progeny, पशुभि: in cattle wealth, ब्रह्मवर्चसेन in the splendour of truc Brahmin-hood. महान् great, कीर्त्या . in fame (he becomes).

Accumulate plenty of food. That is the duty The carth is food. Akasa is the food-eater In the earth is fixed the Akasa. In the Akasa is fixed the earth So food is fixed in food He, who knows that food is fixed in food, thus rests in food, and is established well for cver. He becomes rich in food

food and becomes eater-of-food. He becomes great in

progeny, in cattle and in spiritual lustre He becomes great

in fame

That we must accumulate food in plenty for the

purpose of distribution is the vow. When one eats

the food, the food becomes surrounded by the indi-

vidual. Similarly, the earth from which all food

arises, is itself the food, a morsel in the mouth of

space (Āhasa) The earth, after all, revolves on its

own axis in the wide mouth of Āhasa itself. Again,

in a circumscribed and limited point of view, the

space of this pandal rests on the earth and so, space

is fixed on the earth and to that extent we may say,

the space is consumed by the earth. The subtle

concept of space can easily be understood as inter-

penetrating into the very bowels of the earth. A

subtler element cannot be conditioned by a grosser

one. Earth, the grossest, cannot limit the condition

of either by its bulk or substance. In every point of

the Earth, space is fixed up, in the sense that space

interpenetrates into the very bowels of the Earth.

Here, it can be assumed that world is the consumer

and the space is the consumed.

The usual material gains are promised here again

as a reward for guch a regular and deep meditation.

As far as Bhrigu is concerned, this is yet another

bit of information or instruction given to him by

his teacher. He was advised, "accumulate plenty

of food. Thus is thy vow" To Bhrigu, the ideal

younger of God-realisation, it was told that he,

in his universal seva in the cultural rehabilitation of

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

261

man, must not run away from the world-of-objects

that are necessary for it, as well as from the people.

"Accumulate plenty of food," for the purpose of

feeding the students of the Gurukula and also for

maintaining and looking after the seekers who might

come to him for instruction. This is not a watch word

for the material world; under blind secular impulses,

man may, at certain periods of history, try for in-

creased production and selfish accumulation. Here to

Bhrigu, it is not an instruction to hoard wealth and

establish great monasteries and come to forget him-

self in the madness of power and in the foolishness

of institutionalism. On the other hand, here the boy

is whipped to enthusiasm; to serve and to propagate

The master is injecting a missionary zeal into the

boy, to adore and to worship the world-of-objects as

his own Self.

The Self which is all-pervading and "the cause

of the ether," subtler than the Ahāsa, as the Eater as

it were, of the whole universe which moves in space.

Even the concept of space is only at one end of Pure

Consciousness, it is the Awarness in us that illu-

minates even space As such consciousness is 'the

cater'--the factor that makes it possible for the mind

and intellect to experience the Universe--of the entire

world-of-objects. At the same time it is to be noted

that the world-of-objects and the names and forms

are necessary for the manifestation of the dynamism

in Pure Awareness. The Supreme, clothed in matter,

expresses itself as you and I, the world and the ocean,

the solar and the lunar systems, the Universe and its

pattern. These joyous expressions of might and glory,

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

power and strength, beauty and music, poetry and

grace of the Absolute Reality, can never be so cons-

picuously expressed in the realm of the gross but for

its mirage-like delusions in its finite, matter exten-

sions

Electricity would have been only a mathematical

conception, known perhaps to a few physicists, but for

the bulb and the fan, the heater and the cooler, the

tram and the train and such other mechanical contri-

vances through which electricity can be made to

function and be our faithful slave to serve us and to

entertain us In this sense we may say that electricity

is being consumed by the various electrical equip-

ments1 Similarly, the world, we can assume, is in

a sense the cater-of-the-spirit—as the gadgets consume

electricity Thus, Spirit alone becomes the cater and

the eaten, the experiencer and the experienced are

but one And as such to entertain a prejudice

against one is to misunderstand or misrepresent the

other

Bhrigu understood all these implications even

without a discourse, and perhaps, a lot of discourses

were given by the original Rishis, in between the

Mantras, as some critics and commentators of the

Taittiriya have suggested, After the discourses, the

great Rishis themselves crystallised their talks of the

day into one or two Mantras to facilitate the memory

of their children the students had to remember the

entire talk all their life through in which these

Mantras helped them.

However, even without the discourses, Bhrigu

was in a position to understand the implications of

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 263

what the teacher said, because of his own experience of the Infinite.

अनुवाकः १० । Section 10

न कञ्चन वसतौ प्रत्याचक्षीत । तद्ब्रततम् । तस्माधया कया च विधया वहन्नं प्राप्तुयात् । अराध्यासम् अन्नमित्याचक्षते । एतद्वै मुखतोऽन्नं राद्धम् । मुखतोऽस्मा अन्नं राध्यते । एतद्वै मध्यतोऽन्नं राद्धम् । मध्यतोस्मा अन्नं राध्यते । एतद्वा अन्ततोऽन्नं राद्धम् । अन्ततोऽस्मा अन्नं राध्यते । य एवं वेद ॥

न : not, कञ्चन : any one, वसतौ . (seeking) shelter प्रत्याचक्षीत . should turn away. तद् : that, ब्रततम् . is your duty. तस्मात् : therefore, यया कया च . by whatever, विधया : by means, वहु : plenty (of), अन्नम् food, प्राप्तुयात् : let him procurc. अराधि . is ready, अस्मै . for this * house-holders). एतत् : this, वै . indeed, मुखत: . in the best manner, अन्नम् . food, राद्धम् : prepared (and given). मुखत: : in the best manner, अस्मै . to him (the guest), अन्नम् food, राध्यते : is offered. एतत् . this, वै : indeed, मध्यत: . in the medium manner, अन्नम् . food, राद्धम् : prepared , मध्यत: : in the medium manner, अस्मै : to him (the guest), अन्नम् : food, राध्यते : is offered. एतत् : this, वै : indeed, अन्तत: : in the lowest manner, राद्धम् : prepared; अन्तत: in the lower manner, अस्मै : to him, अन्नम् : food, राध्यते : is offered. य एवं वेद .

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

ner, अस्मै to him (the guest), अन्नम् : food, राध्यते : is offered य: who, पच्म् : thus, वेद् : knows.

Do not turn away anybody who seeks shelter and lodging

This is the vow. Let one therefore acquire much food by any

means whatsoever They should say, "Food is ready". If

the food is prepared in the best manner, the food is given to

him, the guest, also in the best manner If food is prepared

in the medium manner, food is also given to him in the

medium manner If food is prepared in the lowest manner,

the same food is also given to him

He who knows thus, will obtain all the rewards as

mentioned above

The Upasala, who is generally a boy who is to

return back to society and who is to live as its pillar

in working out the Hindu culture, is exhorted there-

fore to live in recognition of the spiritual oneness

with all, especially an intimate oneness of an indis-

soluble brotherhood with the Hindus Here it is

not meant in the communalistic sense. The word

Hindu is universal rather than communal He

who respects and reveres the noble and the ethical

values of life, who lives in self-control, whose mission

in life is to end the animal in him and regain the

Kingdom of God 'within -all such men of cultural

attribution are Hindus and there is necessarily a deep

community of soul between such men of similar life-

values

The boy coming out into the world, after his edu-

cation, is instructed so completely in the spiritual

communion of the Rishi. This was observed earlier

both in the "Valedictory speech" of the teacher,*

• See Section 2, pp 67-75 and Section 11, pp 84-103

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

265

at the close of the intitial studies, and in the “Convocation address ”* delivered, at the time when the students were departing from the Guru-kula.

The culture of Hinduism is based mainly upon duty and the Hindu code of Dharma is mainly a textbook explaining one’s duties. The duties of a householder instil into him the idea of charity and the spirit of hospitality. It is considered as a duty unavoidable to a householder, that he should entertain every guest that comes to him ‘without date’(Atithi).

Thus, the householder-student, during his Upanayana, was told to consider this Atithi Seva as his vow.

In order to fulfil this vow the students will have to entertain and worship the sick, the poor and the deserving travellers, with shelter and food; which shows that the householder must have the necessary means, and, therefore, it is said, let one acquire much food by any means whatsoever”. The latter part of the quotation may sound as a declaration of the modern lusty rich to whom procuring wealth by “any means” seems to be the ambition and the occupation. Here it only means that the one who wants to live a healthy spiritual life in the world must be able to work hard in whatever field of activity he finds himself, with all the sincerity and perseverance, so that he may get enough honest profit.

This is not a message prescribing an unethical way of living or immoral way of procuring wealth. It only insists that a boy, after education, when he goes back to his village, in the arrogance of his

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

undigested knowledge he should not prove himself impotent in life He is told to act diligently and

sincerely, in whatever field-of-life he finds an opening, and through sincere and hard work to earn as much

as he can, and with that earning, keep a house warm with charity and hospitality

As soon as a guest comes in to the house, at a time which is appropriate, then a noble Hindu house-

holder must say, “Food is ready”. The meaning of this passage and the ardour of love and warmth it

indicates, cannot be better expressed than by a contrast with how we are now behaving under the

influence of our un-Hinduistic education In many of the homes, we rarely hear the ready cry of “Food is

ready” but on the other hand, we hear suggestive soft hissings, such as “I hope you must have come

after your meals”, or “perhaps you will have to return for your lunch at home”.

In fact, to keep a hospitable home, now-a-days, is not very easy even for the richest man in the

country, because of the dire poverty and stupendous idleness that have come to curse the land of the

Rishis. The main cause for this is, certainly not the foreign rule but the foreign ‘Way’ we live in our

society, divorced from our culture, perpetrating dangerous experiments with the life and wealth of

the society. The Hindu Dharma alone can flourish in Arya Varta: any other weed gathered in the

jungles of other nations must necessarily die away upon this sacred soil Thus, the modern madness

for a secularism divorced from Sacredness, the lunatic

hurry with which we are striving to encourage the

worship of gold in this land of Gods, all these are

bringing about more and more confusion and instabi-

lity into our midst.

Under these circumstances of poverty and the

consequent privations, it is absurd to, say that a

Hindu should try to be as openly charitable as his

forefathers were, in the Golden Era of our civilisa-

tion. In the context of our present times, we have

to add many 'buts' 'and' 'ands' to the Statement. It

would be sufficient for us if we make our homes

charitable enough for the near and dear, and also

for the respected and revered members of the society

who are the upholders of our sacred culture and are

the champions of our national and religious progress

along the right lines.

To be charitable does not mean to be foolish.

To borrow, so that we may give plenty in charity,

is suicide In a vulgar and misconceived sense of

vanity, to overdo charity is again an ugly mischief

which none but fools would appreciate. The Sruti

here says, that if you have prepared the food in a

particular standard you feed your guests with the

same food. If the householder had prepared but

medium quality or the simplest of food, he is not

asked to prepare anything extra for his guests, but

the Mantra commissions him only to share his food,

whatever it be, with others. He who understands

this meaning and practises this comes to gain all

the abovementioned fruits.

From the standpoint of Bhrigu, the section con-

tains another deeper message. A man of Realisation

must by means, honest and sincere, collect around him the largest number of audience from all round the world, so that he may propagate the noble truths of Vedanta for the happiness of man. "By any means whatsoever," is confusing when it is understood in its direct meaning It reads as though it is an unequivocal scriptural sanction for the Philosophy of Gains preached by the modern profit-mad social ulcers" But, when it is applied to a man of Self-Realisation, who is attempting to create a field all round the world to spread this Universal culture of Peace and Love, it reads as an instruction of Varuna to Bhrigu impressing upon him the fact that one must by all means at one's command try to attract the attention of one's age and address it in its language

The Vedic teacher understood that this Eternal Truth cannot be preached in the same language at all times in the world Societies and patterns-of-living change from era to era, so that re-interpretations of the truths are needed from time to time Bhrigu has been instructed here, "by any means whatsoever" to bring the generation together, to listen to, to act up to, and to live in the perfections preached in Vedanta.

If any seeker comes to a man of Knowledge, like Bhrigu, Varuna instructs the Hindu-world of teachers, that he should not no any scorn, "turn away a student" "If fond"—if the seeker's inner integration—"is prepared in the best manner"—give him direct

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 269

instruction of ‘That’—defined in this text-book as

"Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam". If the seeker is a

mediocre, give him a mediocre instruction of some

Upasana and an equal dose of philosophy. If the

seeker, unfortunately, happens to be of the worst

type, meaning one who is full of desires and agitation,

excitements and passion, brutalities and animalism,

then, even such an individual is not to be turned away

from the Temples of Vedanta but the priest therein,

the Man of Self-Realisation, has been instructed to

feed such a man with that type of spiritual-food which

he can easily digest and assimilate. To such people,

first give instructions in Asana and Pranayama, and

when, through this Hata-yoga when the individual

has developed both his head and heart to a certain

degree, he is to be initiated into the more vigorous

and subtler Upasanas, and when he reacts favourably

to these treatments, the highest Vedantic Truth is to

be revealed.

That the Rishis of old were anxious to have the

largest audience when they were discoursing upon

the Vedantic Truth is evident in the very first chapter

of the text-book.*

क्षेम इति वाचि । योगक्षेम इति प्राणापानयोः । कर्मेति हस्तयोः ।

गतिरिति पादयोः । विमुक्तिरिति पायौ । इति मानुषीः समाख्या: ॥

Kshema iti vachi Yogakshema iti pranapanayaho Karmeti

hastayaho. Gatiriti padayaho Vimuktiriti payau Iti manusheeh

samajnaha.

क्षेमः well being, इति: thus, वाचि in speech,

योगः क्षेमः . (as) acquisition and preservation, इति :

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TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD [CHAPTER III

thus, प्राणापानयो: : in Prana and Apana, कर्मे इति : as action, हस्तयो: : in hands, गातिः इति : as movement,

पादयो: : in legs, विमुक्तिः इति : as excretion, पायौ : in anus, इति : thus, मानसी; : in respect of man, समाधिः :

(is) meditation (of Brahman).

The Supreme resides in speech as ‘well-being’; in Prana and Apana as acquirer and preserver, in the hands as actions,

in the legs as movement, in the anus as the activity of excretion Thus, is the meditation of Brahman in respect of man.

So far the Rishi had been explaining the four different methods of Upasanas on food (Annam),

which had a double implication—an obvious one for the back-benchers and a mystic meaning, subtler in import and graver in suggestion, for Bhrigu, the young boy of experienced realisation. Here we have

two more methods of meditation prescribed, which are meant for the subjective integration of the instruments of self-realisation, addressed here only for the back-benchers in the class-room

The analytical brain of the immortal Rishis of India could classify any subject however confusing it may look to the ordinary man Concentration

can be developed by meditation upon an object and to classify all the possible methods of meditations would be a problem almost inconceivable to any statistician. But the Hindu Rishis had quite success-

fully brought all the then existing methods of meditation and all possible future methods of meditation under three main headings, the classification being upon the basis of the condition and character of the …..l-meditation The aim-of-meditation can be

upon an unmanifested ideal or ideal, then the meditation

is called Samyama. When the point-of-concentration

is upon an object or a phenomenon that is manifest,

it is called Dhyana. And when the individual's

vritti or contemplation are directed towards his

own physical structure and its inner world it is called

Dharana.

Under these three groups all 7 panmas can find

a place. We have here the Bhagya/ma, and a happy

combination of the latter two forms of meditations.

That is to say we have a scheme of meditation des-

cribed whereby Adhyatma truths are recognised in

Saiyana the phenomenon

The section under discussion is describing the

Saiyana methods. Meditation upon a human

personality itself, both upon its activities as well as

its own structure, as described here. To superimpose

a subtle and noble idea on a gross and ordinary

object is called Pratika. We had already seen that

Pratika is, the attempt of recognising the mighty

upon the meagre, as Siva-lattva upon a round stone,

or the national pride and hope upon the nation's

flag

Applying this technique the teacher instructs the

student to recognise the "Brahman in speech as well-

being" As students, they are ever living in world

of sound, later on they are to walk out into the world

where also they have to face incessantly the sound

of others speaking. Thus speech is a continuous dis-

turbance that always reaches our cars. We get

disturbed by speech only when we try to understand

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its obvious outer meaning. The more we recognise

the inner motive of every sound, made from whatever

source it be, there is a unifying truth that binds them

all together into a golden embrace of homogeneity.

This common factor is described by the scripture here

as "Kshemā"—Well-being

From the howlings of an innocent child in its

mother's lap, to the thundering declamations of a

politician on his platform, all sounds emerging out of

living throats are all expressions of an attempt at

realising its well-being. The child weeps seeking its

well-being to be gained through some food or with

some toy. The criminal and the vulgar become noisy

with their foul mouths for their own well-being The

scandal-monger talks low of his neighbours, the

deceiver tells a lie, the devotee sings a song, a Rishi

gives a discourse—all of them are struggling their

best to seek their own individual well-being

Varuna instructs his students to recognise this

fundamental factor in all sounds, wherever they are

heard, may be in a jungle in the night when wild

animals roar, or in the daytime when the joy-throated

birds chirrup, or where the bees buzz, or in society

when men and women, young and old, make a

thousand different noises in the market-place, or in

the temples, or in various other walks of life—all of

them are in their own way motivated by their own

conceptions of their individual well-being.

I. Prana — Brahman as acquired and preserved

Prana is the vitality that functions in the five sense-

organs which procure for the mind the new impulses

for its experience. Yoga is ‘procuring to ourselves

that which we have not got at present at hand.’

Kshemā is ‘preserving that which is procured’. Thus

the terms Yoga and Kshemā together indicate a pro-

gressive growth which is constantly maintained and

consistently preserved. It is the healthy working of

the vitalities in us represented by Prānā and Apānā

that Yoga and Kshemā are maintained in ourselves.

In the hands see Brahman as the action —Varunā

means that if the student finds it difficult to detect

and recognise well-being in all talks, or cannot under-

stand the idea of Yoga Kshemā in the main vital

expressions of life, then he may easily direct his medi-

tations upon his own hand In all the hands, though

they differ in shape, in size, in colour and strength,

though they are employed in a million different acti-

vities, in all of them the one common truth is that at

all times, however employed, all hands are doing or

performing actions. Therefore, Brahman which is

common in all forms and names can be identified as

the action in all hands.

So too ‘motion in all legs’ and even “in the anus

see him as the act of excretone”. One may wonder

how the Rishis so readily jump from the sublime to

the ridiculous. In the Upanishads this is invariably

used as a very effective technique in arresting the

wandering attention of the students, which is the

main duty of a true teacher. Also, when we are con-

sidering the All-pervading Divine we must be able to

realise It even in the vulgar and in the filthy. And

any one who has some understanding of physiology

19

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[CHAPTER III

will also admit that the action of excretion is as

important for sound health and as sacied as the

activity of swallowing down the food Constipation

is a threat to health and ultimately to life. In fact,

Apana functioning in the anus dircctly detcimines

the activities of the Prana on the face. There is an

intimate relationship thus between these two forces

working within us.

These a1c the methods of meditation that can be

profitably undertaken by a student upon his own

individual human personality.

अथ दैवी । तृप्तिरिति वृष्टौ । बलमिति विद्युति । यशइति

पशुपु । ज्योतिरिति नक्षत्रेपु । प्रजापतिरमृतमानन्द

इत्युपस्थे । सर्वेमित्याकाशे ॥

Atha daivī . Truptiriti vrushtau. Balamiti vidhyuti Yasa

iti pasushi . Jyotiriti nakshatreshu Prajapatih amrutamancnda

iti upasthe. Sarvam iti akase

अथ . then, दैवी: pertaining to Devas

तृप्तिः . satisfaction. वृष्टौ : in rains, बलम् इति . as power,

विद्युति . in lightning, यशा: इति : as fame, पशुपु : in

cattle wealth), ज्योतिः . as light, नक्षत्रेपु : in stars,

प्रजापतिः . as offspring, अमृतम् : immortality, आनन्दम् :

(and) bliss, उपस्थे . in the organ of procreation, सर्वम्

इति as all, आकाशे . in Akasa

Now follows the meditation upon the Adhidaivik , as satis-

fction in the rain, as power in the lightning, as fame in the

cattle as light in the stars as offspring immortality and joy

in the organ of procreation, and as all in the Akasa

In this section we find a type of meditation

whercin, through the point of meditation is upon some

manifested phenomenon in nature, an unmanifested ideal or conception is superimposed upon these points-of-concentration Though rains sometimes have their own nuisance- value and can bring about floods in certain places and consequent misery to men and things, it generally brings satisfaction to the great majority all over the face of the globe Plants get thrilled and laugh out into tender foliage and brilliant flowers, as the rains descend Animal life becomes extremely happy as the pasture lands newly dress up in their green velveteen. And the farmers everywhere dance in joy as the rains descend —nay, even the mill-owners, if they are not mercly financiers, they too take an active interest in rains and feel thrilled at proper rainfall at proper seasons: since their raw materials too depend upon this benevolence of the skies.

To see satisfaction in the rain is a subtle form of meditation indeed. So too is it to recognise fame in the cattle-wealth of a country, which is essentially and irredeemably agricultural. The stars in the summer-sky may lie scattered in a hundred directions: some small, others big, some nearer, others farther, some solitary, others in groups, and yet, in all of them, there is a principle of light that knits them all together into one family—a family of incandescent glory !

Even the reproductive organ is not excluded, be it in the stamen or in the pistil, in the male or in the female, in man or in woman, for purposes of meditation. The seekers being young would naturally, at that age, be spending, in spite of themselves, a lot of

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thought upon the organs of procreation and this obvious sex-instinct is not ignored but conscripted for the higher purposes of self-integration. To ignore it and to encourage its suppression is the sure path for self-disintigration "Offspring, immortality and joy can be recognised upon these genital organs." It is obvious that "in the concept of space we can easily recognise a substratum for all things in the universe."

तन्नप्रतिष्ठेत्युपासीत । प्रतिष्ठावान्भवति । तन्मह इत्युपासीत । महाम्भवति । तन्मन इत्युपासीत । मानवां भवति । तन्नब्रह्मण: परिमर इत्युपासीत । ब्रह्मवान्भवति । तद्ब्रह्मण: परियन्ते द्विपन्त: सप्रथा: । परिये ब्रिया भातृव्य॥

Tatpratishtetı upaseeta. Pratishtavan bhavatı Tanmaha ıtı upaseeta Mahaan bhavatı Tanmana ıtı upaseeta Manavan bhaavatı Tad brahmaṇaḥ parımara ıtı upaseeta Brahmaavaan bhavatı Tat Brahmanah paryenaṃ mriyante dvipantaḥ saprathāḥ. Pariye'briya bhaatruvyaa ||

नन् . that (Brahman), प्रतिष्ठा इति . as support, उपासीत let him meditate, प्रतिष्ठावान् : well-supported, भवति . he becomes. नन् that (Brahman), मदः इति : as great, उपासीत : let him meditate. मदान् . great, भवति he becomes नन् : that (Brahman), मनः इति : as mind, उपासीत let him meditate मानववान् : thoughtful, भवति he becomes. नन् : that (Brahman), नमः इति . as obeisance, उपासीत . let him meditate नम्यन्ते : they come to pay homage. वस्से : to him. कामा: all desires नन् that Br.hman'. ब्रय इति . as Brahman उपासीत :

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277

let him meditate ब्रह्मान् : wielding supremacy, भवति

: he becomes. नत्, that, ब्रह्मण: of Brahman, परमर: :

the aspect of destruction, ति : thus, उपासीत : let him

meditate. परि प्रणम् . around him, द्रियते: dic, द्विपन्त: :

the hateful, शपन्ति. enemies. परि : dic, ये : those

who (are), अप्रिय: . unloving, आत्व्या: : rivals.

Let him meditate the Supreme as the support, he becomes

wellsupported Let one worship Brahman as great, one

becomes great Let him worship it as mind, he becomes

thoughtful Let him worship That as Namah (obeisance), to

him all desires shall come to pay homage Let him meditate

upon That as the Supreme, he comes to Supremacy in life

Let him contemplate apon That as the ‘destructive aspect’ of

Brahman all those enemies who hate him and those rivals

whom he does not like ‘die around him’

In this section we. find a great psychological truth

enunciated and the experiments arec described to

illustrate it “As you think, so you become,” is a

great truth recognised, accepted and declared, not

only by the Rishis of old, but even by modern psycho-

logists. Each one of us at this moment is an

illustration in point Everyone whether he is a doctor

or an engineer, a driver or an advocate, a student or

a dullard, a pick-pocket or a minister, whatever he be

at present, is the result of his constant meditations

and the resultant of his thoughts. When during con-

centration, if we approach the Lord with a definite

attitude we come to express that very same Bhav in

our life also.

Thus, we find a lot of difference between a

Christ and an Aurobindo, a Sankara and a Ramana,

a Guru-Govind Singh, and a Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

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[CHAPTER III

The attitude with which you meditate determines your character, temperament, behaviour and demeanour. The courage of Napoleon, the heroism of Gandhiji, the daring of Hitler, the perseverance of Churchill, the surrender of Ramakrishna, the dynamism of Vivekananda, are all different attitudes which the great masters expressed because of the different Bhav with which they meditated and approached the Supreme

Here this idea is beautifully brought out when the teacher says that by meditating upon the Supreme as the support of the entire plurality one becomes well supported by his fellow beings and the circumstances in life Similarly, by meditating upon the Supreme as Great he becomes great in life To meditate upon the Lord as the mind is to become yourself a great thinker in your era.

The rest is all clear except the last item where it is said, that if the Lord is meditated upon, as the "destructive power manifested in the world," (as we have in Saṭha Ṭipāṣanas) we develop in ourselves such might and glory, such a powerful and compelling personality that opposition witches into nothingness, and even enemies become friends and allies. Here the word "destruction" is not to be construed to mean that our enemies will die away; rather, we should understand that the enmity will die away. Without the feelings of enmity, the enemy cannot maintain his belligerent attitude towards us.

म यतयं गुहो । यग्रामावादिन्ये । म यकः । स य पवं

राः । यत्प्रतिष्ठम् । पद्मनसद्माम्, नमुपल्कम्य । पतं प्राण-

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

279

मयमातमानमुपसंक्रम्य । पतं मनोमयमात्मानमुपसंक्रम्य । एतं विज्ञान-

मयमात्मानमुपसंक्रम्य । पतमानन्दमयमात्मानमुपसंक्रम्य । इमान्लोकान्का-

मा:्नी कामरूप्यनुसंचरन् । एतत्सामगायन्नास्ते ॥

Sa yas'chayam purushe Yas'cha asau aditye. Sa ekaha. Sa

ya evam vit Asmat lakat pretya Etam annamayam atmanam

upasankramya Etam pranamayam atmanam upasankramya

Etam manomayam atmanam upasankramya Etam vijnanamayam

atmanam upasankramya Etamanandamay am atmanam upasank-

ramya Iman lokan kamannee kamarupyanusanchal an. Etatsama

gayannaste

सः . he, यः : who, च : and, अयम् : this one, पुरुषे

in the man, यः : who, सः . hc, च : and, असौ : yonder,

आदित्ये : in the sun, सः He, एकः : is one. सः : he, यः :

who, एवमचित् : knows thus, अस्मात् : from this, लोकात् .

world, प्रेत्य : on leaving, पतम् . this, अन्नमयम् आत्मानम्

उपासंक्रम्य : the Atman made of food attaining, पतम्

प्राणमयम् आत्मानम् उपसंक्रम्य : this Atman made of Prana attaining, पततम् मनोमयम् आत्मानम् उपसंक्रम्य . this Atman made of mind attaining, पतम् विज्ञानमयम् आत्मानम्

उपासंक्रम्य : this Atman made of Knowledge attaining,

पततम् आनन्दमयम् आत्मानम् उपसंक्रम्य . this Atman made of bliss attaining, इमान् लोकान् these worlds, कामान्नी :

having the food he likes, कामरूपी : having the form he wants, अनुसंचरन् : roaming, पतत्: this, साम :

Ṣaman (song), गायन् : singing, आस्ते : remains.

The Reality in the core of man and the Reality which is in

the Sun are onc He who knows this, on leaving this world,

first attains his Atman made of food, next attains his Atman

made of Prana, next his Atman made of mind, next his Atman

made of Buddhi and lastly his Atman made of Bliss. And

thereafter eating what he likes, and assuming any form

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according to his wishes he roams upon the face of this globe

and sits singing the following Sama song of joy

The carlier part of this Mantra was already

repeated in Brahmananda Valli, Section 6.*

The very style of the Upanishad is carved in

brevity and to repeat an idea twice is almost a blas-

phemy in the Upanishads And yet, here we find an

entire Mantra being repeated. The justification of

the teacher is that he has nothing more to add, He said

these truths earlier when he had finished his‘ statistics-

of-bliss’, but he found that the students were not at

that time ready to react to those words, because, as

it were, their enthusiasms, were damped by the fear

that this Vedantic method of Self-enquiry into the

various personality-layers in man, though obviously

quite direct, is not a fruitful method for Self- realisa-

tion

Thus the teacher was forced to repeat the story

of Bhrigu's success at the feet of Varuna and again

impart some more Upasana—methods which were

intended to bring the students to the highest point of

the inner integration. After having done so, he

again repeats the Mantra

I want to blast some gun powder, but I find that

a heap of it does not react to the naked flame of a

match-stick! Then I will have to understand that it

is damp, and, therefore, I will have to dry it properly.

After making the powder dry, I will have to bring

a spark to it.

• see pp 219-221

Similarly, here, the teacher brought this Mantra as a spark from his own inward conflagration of Knowledge earlier at the end of the second chapter, but he found that the children's minds and intellects did not get blasted off! The treatment suggested in the third chapter prepares the students better, and now the master is bringing the same Spark of Wisdom-declaration to them, and to his satisfaction he finds that the inner world of the students burst out into a brilliant conflagration, wherein their ignorance gets blasted and the entire “valley of darkness” is-lit up at once by the blaze of Knowledge and Divine Realisation.

In the later portion of the Mantra, a new idea is added to declare what would de the kind of attitude taken and the type of activity undertaken by such a Man-of-realisation, who has left his little world of the body-mind-intellect and has become a Native of a Diviner world of Pure Knowledge and Self-Realisa-tion.

After this rediscovery of the Divine in the mortal, the awakened man thereafter comes to live in perfect freedom and godly joys. As the Mantra says, “Assuming forms according to his wishes” he roams about on the face of the globe as a mighty pinnacle of joy and peace, taanquillity and poise, daring and goodness, divinity and perfection Whether he finds himself among the lowest of the low, or in the palace of a king: be he in health or in disease, in joy or in sorrow, he is at home in all situations and all condi-tions.

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Whether in the kingly robes of might and power

or in the rags of the poor man, starving and suffering,

he is the king of the situation, a Lord of circumstances

a master of himself and a ruler of everybody. Unat-

tached to any place or person he roams about on the

face of the globe expecting nothing, demanding

nothing, wanting nothing, desiring nothing, singing

the song of his own joy. Revelling in his own inward

experiences of transcendental Bliss and consummate

fullfilment, he sits at once place or roams about as his

fancy dictates The song of his joy is expressed here

in the Sama-verse quoted below:

हा वु हा वु हा वु । अहमन्नमहन्नमहन्नम् । अहमन्नादोऽहन्नादोऽहन्नादः । अहं श्लोककृदहं श्लोककृदहं श्लोककृत् । अहमस्मि प्रथमजा ऋतस्य । पूर्वं देवेभ्योऽमृतस्स ना भािय । यो मा ददाति स इदेव मा वा । अन्नन्नमन्नमदन्नमाल्लि । अहं विशवं भुवनमभ्यभवा । सवर्णडरन्ति । व एव वेद । इत्यपनिषत् ॥

Ha uha u ha u Ahamannam ahamannam ahamannam.

th: anado ahamannado ahamannadaha Al am slokakrut aham

'l'a', ut cham slokakrut Al amasmi pratamaja rutesy a Purvam

de ho amrutesy i a bhay: Yo ma dadati sa ideva ma va

al..unarram annnmutamadııı I ham ussim bhuvanamabliy a-

has.. Sıarunji'otlıa Ya evam veda Iti Uranishat.

आत्म् ॥३॥ Oh, Oh, Oh, अहम्: I, अन्नम्: (am) food अहम् अन्नम् . I am food, अहम् अन्नम् . I am food.

अहम् . I am the eater of food, अहम् अन्नादः: I am the eater of food, अहम् अन्नादः : I am the cater of food,

अहम् . I, श्लोककृत् : (am) the author of Sloka, अहम् श्लोककृत् . I am the author of Sloka अहम् श्लोककृत् : I am the author of Sloka अहम् I, अहंस् : am, प्रथमजा

: first-born, ऋतस्य : of the True, पूर्वम् : before (earlier) देवेभ्य: : than gods, अमृतस्य : of immortality, ना भायि :

the naval (the centric), य: : who, मा : me, ददाति : gives, स: : he, इत् : surely, एव : alone, मा : me, अचा: :

: saves. अहम् I, अन्नम् . food, अन्नम् : food, अदन्न्तम् : one who cats, अभि : cat. अहम् : I, विश्वम् : the whole,

भुवनम् : world, अभ्यभवाम् : have conquercd. सुवर्णऽयोति:

: (I am) the luminous like Sun. य्रः . (he) who, पचम् : thus, वेद : knows. इति : thus, उपनिषत् : is the Upanishad.

Oh! Oh! I am the food, I am the food. I am the food. I am the cater of food, I am the cater of food, I am the cater of food. I am the author of Sloka. I am the author of Sloka I am the author of Sloka. I am the first born of the True. Before the Gods, I was the Immortal Whoever gives me, he surely does, save thus I am the food that cats him who cats food. I have conquercd all in this world I am luminous like a Sun He who knows thus (also attains the aforesaid results) This is the Upanishad

On realising his Real Nature to be nothing but the Spirit, the ego-centre gets stuck with awe! His wonderment choking the giddy emotions, makes language impossible and the heart stammers out seeking and searching for words to express the Infinite Experience of the moments of Self-realisation.

The false identifications with the body and mind and intellect, created the dream Frankenstein within ourselves and it is this, powerful though delusory, ego-centre that suffered the feeling of many passions and sorrows, finitude and plurality, of the mortal—and all these years I lived as a hapless victim of birth, growth, disease, decay and death.

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On rediscovcry through the right processes of Vedantic Self-realisation, when the same ego-centre walks out of its delusory worlds of the Sheaths it reaches the realm of the homogeneous, spiritual experience. On waking up from that experience he tries to mouth his Infinite discovery through finite words! Language naturally breaks, and like the music in a broken reed, halts and splashes in wrong tunes and meaningless noises!!

Oh! Oh!--Wonder is a sentiment that the human heart feels when the intellect comes in contact with a problem that it cannot solve itself. The mute intellect trying to express through a choked heart its burning experiences is the expression of surprise and wonderment. This is nowhcie so well expressed as in Sanskrit, in the words "a-u, a-u, a-u" since these onomatopoctic words clearly transcribe the particular sounds a man should make during such moments of irrepressible and staggering wonder,

Limited being that he thought himself to be in his delusory rclationship with his five sheaths, suddenly he shakes himself off his limitations--when he transcends them all through true discrimination--and discovers himself to be the Pure Spark of Life, the very centre of all the activities in life. Even when a farmer is suddenly informed that he has been lucky enough to get the first prize in the Derby Sweep, at the impact of the idea that he has become a millionaire he sometimes drops down dead How much more then must be the shock of realisation when a man suddenly rediscovers that he is God! That feeling is

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD 285

expicsscd hcic in thc wo1ds of ama/cmcnt and wonder, sui prisc and stupoi, thi ough blabbc1ing toncs that stammcr and rcpcat thcmsclves in jerky confusion.

I am food, I am food —This is the dcclaration of his cxpcricncc that I, thc subjcct, am mysclf the food, meaning thc world-of-objects Hc icaliscs that the pluralistic phcnomenal world is but a projection of the Self in him. Whcn Purc Consciousness gets refracted at the prism made up of the body, mind and intcllect, the world-of-objects is perceived. When a child looks at its own palm, through the yellow glass-panc of thc window, he secs his palm yellow, similarly when Consciousncss looks out upon Itself through the spectacles of Its own own matter-envelopments,It scems to scc the world-of- plurality standing mighty and powerful, to choke It and threaten It !! The ghost in the post can threaten with its fearful looks an innocent traveller passing on the road !

I am the eater-of-food, I am the eater-of-food — The blabbering still continucs and does not exhaust itself with the mere declarations of its experienced Oncnss with the entire world-of-objects, but in its attempts at voicing forth its experiences it had to cry that it is not only one with the objects, but at the same time it is the subject itself I am the experiencer of 'food'. I am the subject that makes possible all the experiences of the objectified world. In short, the statements by their repetition emphatically declare and insist upon the sure and certain experience of the Perfect· he is not only one with the entire world-of-objects but at once he is the subject, the 'centre of

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the entire Universe In fact the cry is an attempt at expressing the transcendental experience of the One-

ness of the subject and the object, the eater and the eaten, the experiencer and the experienced

In this sense this Sama-verse can be considered as a golden chord of song binding together the subject

and the object into one unified whole It is the song of life sung to the music of experience, expressing the

poetry of life, titled as—“I AM”.

I am the first born, of the eternal and the im-

mortal —Because, though born I am the only one who is conscious of not only my person but also of

the divine heritage of my transcendental glory. In the world the first born son alone comes to live and

experience the wealth inherited from his father Out of the Infinite and the Immortal the finite was born,

and when it redisccvers its own Self it alone can cry that it is the “first born”, in the sense that it alone

has the entire right to the Father's station and dignity, wealth and glory

I am the centre of all Immortality, prior to the

Guni —The Self is Immortal and the experience of the oneness of the Individual Self with the Universal-

Self, is to realise the Infinite and the Eternal. All living creatures draw their shares of existence

only from the Immortal existence of the Truth. Gods are relatively considered as Immortal and their

immortality is also supported and fed by the Immortal Self The individual who has realised his oneness

with his own Self, therefore, cries that even through the purer and the nobler equipments of the Gods, “It

I. the Self. that reveals and expresses”.

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I have conquered all the world.—This is the cry of all the great souls of Self-realisation, God-Consciousness. " I am the Cæser's Cæsar " cried one; "I am the Sha-in-Sha " sang another; "I am the Raja of Rajas," insisted another, "I am god " roared the Rishis—" Svoham Svoham". Universally man at his spiritual experience always felt his complete freedom from his shackling sense of dependence, limitations and bondages, and when he became relieved from his inward slavery he instantaneously felt that he had really become free from all his desires and wants, his misconceptions about himself and had gained his Swarajya—where he knows no other God or king, except his own Self. The world can no more threaten him. The entire universe thereafter exists because of his Existence; Indra's might, Vishnu's greatness, Shiva's prowess, Brahmaji's creative ability—all have come to borrow their potency from the source of all dynamism, power and vitality, the Brahman—the Self.

I am luminous like the Sun —In the Universe the sun is the source of all light as he is the Source of all energy. This is accepted by the modern physicists also. The Sun being nothing but light, no other light is necessary to illumine the Sun and so in saying, " Like the Sun ", the self-effulgence of the Sun is specially indicated. All other things are illumined borrowing the Sun's light. Similarly, the Self being Pure Knowledge, it is self-effulgent, and therefore no other Knowledge is needed to know that Knowledge. Here the saint of realisation cries his experience of divinity which he had realised in himself.

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This transcendental and superhuman experience is not the rare privilege of an exceptional individual because of some rare circumstances of the age or due to some exceptional grace of an extra-godly teacher, but it shall be the experience of everyone of us, as is indicated here when the Mantra includes "He who knows thus". All those who come to realise the Self-effulgent Atman come to enjoy this sovereignty over the pluralistic phenomenal world and the true Bliss of Immortality

This is the Upanishad -We have already described earlier the term Upanishad and its significance.*

This announcement is necessary lest the students misunderstand that the teacher has not given out all the instructions. They may doubt that there is yet some more lessons to be studied The teacher announces that he has exhausted his discourse and that he has nothing more to add on the subject. Especially, we can understand the need for such a definite declaration in a tradition wherein the scripture is taught and learnt by mouth. In memorising a passage its conclusions have to be noted by positive statements which declare from time to time that the passages have concluded

ॐ सह नाववतु । सह नौ भुनक्तु । सह वीर्य करवावहै ।

तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥

[ इति श्रीगुरोः समापा ]

• Be'j 21-

BHRIGU VALLI] TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD

289

Om saḥa nāvāvat.u Sāha nāu bhunaktu Sāha vı̄ryam

karavāvah.i T.ejus.nāvadhitam.astu mā vidvis.āvah.ai

|| Om Shāntıh Shāntıh Shāntıh ||

[Iti Bhrigu Valli Samapta]

ॐ Om, सः : together, नो : us both, अवतु : may

He protect, सः : together, नो : us both, भुनक्तु : may

He help us enjoy (the fruits of scriptural study) सह :

together, वीर्यम् : with enthusiasm, करवावहै : exert

together (to find the true meaning of the sacred text).

तेजस्वि . fruitful and effective, नो : of both of us,

अधीतम् . studḥ, असतु . may be मा : never, विद्विषावहै

maỵ we two quarrel.

ॐ. Om, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः :

Peace

Om, Maỵ He protect us both Maỵ He help us both to

enjoỵ the fruits of scriptural studỵ Maỵ we both exert

together to find the true meaning of the sacred text. Maỵ our

studies be fruitful. Maỵ we never quarrel with each other.

(Om Peace ! Peace ! Peace !)

[Here ends Bhrigu Chapter]

ॐ शं नो मित्रः शं वरुणः | शं नो भवत्वर्यमा | शं न इन्द्रो-

बृहस्पति। शं नो विष्णुरुरुक्रमः | नमो ब्रह्मणे | नमस्ते वायो |

त्वमेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्मासि | त्वामेव प्रत्यक्षं ब्रह्म वदिष्यामि |

ॠतं वदिष्यामि | तन्नामवचःु | तत्क्तारमचतु | अवतुमाम् | अवतु

वक्तारम् ||

|| ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ||

[ इति तैत्तिरीयोपनिपत्संपूर्णा. ]

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Om sam no mitrah sam varunaha. Sam no bhavatu aryama

Sam na Indro Brihaspatih Sam no Vishnurunukramaha Namo

Brahman.e Namaste Vayo Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahma asi

Tvam eva pratyaksham Brahma vadishyami Rutam vadishyami.

Satyam vadishyami Tannumavatu Tadvaktaram avatu Avatu-

mam Avatu vaktaram Avatu-mam

| Om Shantih Shantih Shantih ||

[Ill Tuttiriya Upanishad Sampoorna]ha]

ॐ Om, शम् : propitious, नः : to us, मित्रः : Mitra

शम् . propitious, वरुणः : Varuna शम् : propitious, नः :

to us भवतु : may be, आर्यमा : Aryama. शम् : propi-

tious, न. ' to us, इन्द्र. Indra, बृहस्पतिः : Brihaspati

शम् : propitious, नः : to us, विष्णुः : Vishnu, उरुक्रमः :

the all-pervading (wide-striding) नमः Salutations

(s), ब्रह्मणे : unto Brahman. नमः : Salutations, ते . unto Thee,

वायो : O Vayu, त्वम् . Thou, एव . alone, प्रत्यक्षम्

: perceivable, ब्रह्म Brahma, असि : art, त्वम् : Thou,

एव : alone, प्रत्यक्षम् perceivable, ब्रह्म : Brahman,

वदिष्यामि : I shall declare ऋतम् . the right, वदिष्यामि .

I shall declare, सत्यम् . the good, वदिष्यामि : I shall

declare तन्नु . that 'Brahman), माम् : me, अवतु : may protect

तन्नु : that (Brahman), वक्तारम् . the speaker,

अवतु . may protect अवतु may protect, माम् : me.

अवतु . may protect. वक्तारम्म् . the speaker.

ॐ : Om. शान्तिः. Peace, शान्तिः : Peace, शान्तिः

: Peace,

Peace

May Mitra be propitious to us. May Varuna bless us May

the blessings of true knowledge be with us May the Grace of Indra

and Brihaspati be upon us May Vishnu, the All Pervading

(wide-striding) be propitious to us Salutations to Brahman

Salutations to Thee, O Vayu! Thou art the visible Brahman

in me. May Thou protect me. May Thou protect the teacher.

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Thee alone shall I consider as the visible Brahman. I shall

declare Thou art the ‘right’, Thou art the ‘Good’ May

That protect me May That protect the speaker Please

protect me. Please protect the speaker

[Om Peace! Peace! Peace!]

Exhaustive explanations have already been given

upon these two Peace-Invocations.*

It is the sacred tradition, in the study of the

Brahmavidya, that the teacher and the taught recite

the “Peace-Invocation” both at the beginning and at

the end of each lesson

[Thus ends Bhrigu Chapter]

[Here ends the Taittirīya Upanishad]

[OM TAT SAT]

• Refers pp 1-6 and also pp 111 and 112.