(Jan 4,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Mandukya Upanishad – An Introduction

The Mandukya Upanishad – An Introduction

Divine Life Society Publication: The Mandukya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

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
 

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(Nov 20,2013 ) Spiritual Message for the Day – Nachiketas’ First Two Boons by Swami Krishnananda

Nachiketas’ First Two Boons

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter2 The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad by Swami Krishnananda

(Continued from Spiritual Message for the Day – Nov 19,2013 – The World is an Arena of Sacrifice)

Sacrifices, performances, even religious attitudes may turn into a letter rather than a spirit if a long rope is given to the instinct in man, because though man has an aspiration for that which is superhuman, yet man is still man only. So in the case of this sage Vajasravasa there was greed for satisfaction, joy in the heavenly empire after the passing from this world, but he was not prepared to entirely give up his possessions in this world in the true spirit of sacrifice.

His son Nachiketas knew that it was a sacrifice, a vishwajit, which required the performer to give in charity everything that he possessed. The boy seemed to have observed that he did not offer in charity everything that he possessed. He presented himself before the father and said, “Father, to whom are you going to offer me?”

The father kept quiet. He was busy with his own activities, yajnas. The boy persisted. In a contour of anger or rage, the father seems to have blurted the imprecation: “To death I give you.”

The story is very mystical. The next thing that we are told in the Upanishad is that the boy found himself in the courtyard of the god of death, Yama. The boy stood at the gate of the palace of the great lord. Three nights passed. He observed fast and vigil for three continuous days and nights. On the third day Yama appeared before him.

“Dear boy, what made you come here? I am very sorry I could not greet you with the respect that is due to a holy man like you. I was not here. It is unbecoming on the part of any person to show scant respect to a guest who comes, especially a guest like you. What have you eaten?”

“I have eaten all the merit that you have performed,” the boy replied. That is, if a guest starves outside while you are eating well in your house, that guest is supposed to eat all your merits. Yama was startled. “I am deeply grieved. You have starved before me for three days. Ask for three boons, and go happy.”

Spiritual practice, which is an adventure of the spirit, is the esoteric significance of the epic story of the Kathopanishad. Nachiketas, the aspiring intelligent lad, is face to face with the great Lord Yama who has sanctioned three boons as a sort of compensation, as it were, for the fast and vigil which the boy observed for three days. Very intelligently and perhaps with deep consideration, the boy chose the three boons.

We wish to be received by the world with gratitude, with a word of thanks, with affection and regard. Nachiketas asked for his first boon from the great Master. “May I be well received by the world when I go back. Now I am in another world, in the land of the Lord of Death, which is other than the world of physical experience. When I return, may I be received honorably with love and affection by my father, and let his eyesight be granted.”

Nachiketas never asked anything for himself. When we become competent in our spiritual achievements in an appreciable measure, we come back to the world. Spiritual experience is not an abandonment of the world. It looks like a renunciation and a detachment from things in the earlier stages. We withdraw ourselves from the world for the sake of communing ourselves with the world once again in a better way than the manner in which we are encountering the world now.

When we achieve a spiritual status by profound inner experience, we gain a greater knowledge of our relationship with the world, and we shall be once again in the world. When we wake up from dream, we do not go to a world which is outside dream. We are in the same place that we were while we were dreaming that particular world of apparitions. The world is not made up of mountains, stones, trees, and the solar system. It is made up of space-time – nothing more, nothing less. Even the solid objects of the world are only configurations of the space-time continuum. From akasha came vayu, from vayu came agni, from agni came apas, from apas came pritvi, says the Upanishad. Space is the original cause, which projected space and air as its effect. From air came fire by friction, and by condensation it gave birth to water. Water solidified itself into the solid matter we call the earth principle.

In a reverse process, we can dissolve everything into space. Earth can become water, water can become fire, fire can become air, and air can become space. So space, which is apparent emptiness before us, is capable of containing within itself the entire physical cosmos. Therefore, space is not non-material. It is nothing but material substance. For one reason, it is an object of perception. We can see space. Anything that is visualized or capable of being contacted by any sense organ is physical, and space is such. Hence, the final condition of the world seems to be only space-time.

In a sense comparable to the distinction we draw between the space-time experience of dream and the space-time experience of waking. Distances do not exist because space does not exist. Space does not exist because space-time comes together in a continuum which is non-spatial and non-temporal, non-three-dimensional. Physicists today call it a four-dimensional, mysterious, intriguing something.

“When I rise above this mortality, when I free myself from this encounter with the Lord of Death, Yama, and when I return to the world, may I be received with honor,” said Nachiketas. The great geniuses of the spirit, jivanmuktas as they are sometimes called, who return from death and are reborn in the spirit, are received by the world once again in a different way altogether. This is the first state of advanced spiritual experience.

“Granted,” said Yama. Now ask for the second boon.”

“I have heard that Vaishvanara is a great mystery. Initiate me into this mystery of the Vaishvanara.”

What is Vaishvanara, into which mystery the great Master Yama initiated Nachiketas? It is the mystery of the Vaishvanara, the origin of all things. The secret of cosmic comprehension, and without a knowledge of this secret we cannot become good karma yogins. Arjuna was never satisfied with anything Sri Krishna told him, until the Visvarupa was shown.

‘Visva’ is the universe; ‘nara’ etymologically means man. Visvanara is the Cosmic Man. In a way, the Creator of the universe. Vaishvanara is that which pertains to the cosmic personality. There is only One Person in the whole universe. In a way, we are all connected to this Cosmic Person. There cannot be two thoughts in the world. There also cannot be two actions. Only one action, only One Person does everything. This knowledge is Vaishvanara-vidya and into this mystery, Nachiketas was initiated.

(to be continued)

Excerpts from:

Nachiketas’ First Two Boons - The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad by Swami Krishnananda
Archives - Blog

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org

(May 3,2013) Individual Soul Attuned to the Ultimate Reality

Individual Soul Attuned to the Ultimate Reality

Divine Life Society Publication: Introduction to The Mandukya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda

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.

Continue to read:

Individual Soul Attuned to The Ultimate Reality by Swami Krishnananda

  

If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
http://www.dlshq.org/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?

If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:

generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org