Individual Soul Attuned to the Ultimate
Reality
The theme of
the Mandukya Upanishad is an exposition of the Mystic Syllable, Om, with a view
to training the mind in meditation, for the purpose of achieving freedom,
gradually, so that the individual soul is attuned to the Ultimate Reality.
The basis of
this meditation is explained in the Vaisvanara Vidya -the secret of the
knowledge of the Universal Being, designated as Vaisvanara. The simple form of
understanding is a transference of human attributes to the Divine Existence,
and vice versa. In this meditation, one contemplates the Cosmos as one's Body. One
does not regard the different limbs of the body as distinguished from one
another in any manner, all limbs being only apparently different but really
connected to a single personality, so in this meditation, the consciousness is
to be transferred to the Universal Being.
Instead of
one contemplating oneself as the individual body, one contemplates oneself as
the Universal Body. Instead of the right eye, there is the sun. Instead of the
left eye, there is the moon. Instead of the feet, there is the earth. Instead
of the head, there is the heaven, and so on. The limbs of the Cosmic Person are
identified with cosmic elements, and vice versa, so that there is nothing in
the cosmos which does not form an organic part of the Body of the Virat, or
Vaisvanara. When you see the vast world before you, you behold a part of your
own Body. When you look at the sun, you behold your own eye. All your actions
are cosmic movements. Your breath is the Cosmic Vital Force. Your intelligence
is the Cosmic Intelligence. Your existence is Cosmic Existence. Your happiness
is Cosmic Bliss.
We can start
our meditation with any set of forms that may occur to our minds and slowly
expand our consciousness to the whole earth and, then, beyond as far as our
minds can reach. Whatever our mind can think, becomes an object for the mind;
and a part of the meditator's Body, cosmically. The moment the object is
identified with the Cosmic Body, the object ceases to agitate the mind any
more; because that object is not any more outside; it becomes a part of the
Body of the meditator and is a subject. The object has become the Cosmic
Subject, in the Vaisvanara meditation.
The Vidya
has its origin, actually, in the Rig-Veda, in a famous Sukta, or hymn, called
the Purusha-Sukta, which commences by saying that all the heads,
all the eyes, and all the feet that we see in this world are the heads, eyes,
and feet of the Virat-Purusha, or the Cosmic Being. With one head, the Virat
nods in silence; with another face He smiles; in one form, He is near; in
another form, He is distant. So, all the forms, whatever they be, and all the
movements and actions, processes and relations, become parts of the Cosmic
Body, with which the Consciousness should be identified simultaneously.
The
Chhandogya Upanishad concludes this Vidya by saying that one who meditates in
this manner on the Universal Personality of Oneself as the Vaisvanara, becomes
the Source of sustenance for all beings. We may recall to our memory the famous
story of Sri Krishna taking a particle of food from the hands of Draupadi, in
the Kamyaka forest, when she called to Him for help, and with this little grain
that he partook of, the whole universe was filled, and all people were
satisfied, because Krishna stood there tuned up with the Universal Virat. The
whole universe shall become friendly with the Person who is in a position to
meditate on the Virat and assume the position of the Virat; all existence shall
ask for sustenance and blessing from this Universal Being. This meditator is no
more a human being; he is veritably, God Himself. The meditator on Vaisvanara
is himself Vaisvanara, the Supreme Virat.
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