The Mandukya Upanishad – An Introduction
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 Vidya (meditation), known as the Vaisvanara Vidya. This is
the secret of the knowledge of the Universal Being, designated as Vaisvanara.
Its 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 and 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. 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. When you look
above into the heavens, you are seeing your own head. When you see all people
moving about, you behold the various parts of your own personality. The vast
wind is your breath. All your actions are cosmic movements. Anything that
moves, does so on account of your movement. Your breath is the Cosmic Vital
Force. Your intelligence is the Cosmic Intelligence. Your existence is Cosmic
Existence. Your happiness is Cosmic Bliss.
Though the Mandukya Upanishad
gives certain symbolic instances of identification of limbs with the Cosmic
Body, the meditator, in fact, can choose any symbol or symbols for such form of
identification. The creation does not consist merely of the few parts that are
mentioned in the Upanishad. So, we can start our meditation with any set of
forms that may occur to our minds. We may be sitting in our rooms, and the
first things that attract our attention may be the objects spread out in the
rooms. When we identify these objects with our Body, we will find that there
are also objects outside these, in the rooms. And, likewise, we can slowly
expand our consciousness to the whole earth and, then, beyond the earth, to the
solar and stellar regions, so that, we reach as far as our minds can reach.
Whatever our mind can think, becomes an object for the mind; and that object,
again, should become a part of the meditator's Body, cosmically. And, the
moment the object that is conceived by the mind is identified with the Cosmic
Body, the object ceases to agitate the mind anymore; because that object is not
any more outside; it becomes a part of the Body of the meditator. 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. The Purusha-Sukta of the Rig-Veda 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; with a third one, He
frowns; in one form, He sits; in another form, He moves; 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.
When you think, you think all things at the same time, in all the ten
directions - in every way.
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. Just as children sit round their mother, hungry, and
asking for food, all beings in creation shall sit round this Person, craving
for his blessings; and just as food consumed by the body sustains all the limbs
of the body at once, this meditator, if he consumes food, shall immediately
communicate his blessings to the whole cosmos, for his Being is, verily,
All-Being.
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.
So is also the case with any person who is in a position to meditate on the
Virat, and assume the position of the Virat. The whole universe shall become
friendly with this Person ; 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.
Excerpts from:
The Mandukya Upanishad – An
Introduction by Swami
Krishnananda
Invocation and verses - The
Mandukya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda
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