(June 17,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day –The Indwelling Spirit – Illustration of the Banyan Tree and Its Seed

The Indwelling Spirit – Illustration of the Banyan Tree and Its Seed

Divine Life Society Publication: The Chandogya Upanishad – Uddalaka’s teaching by Swami Krishnananda

Banyan tree image - Courtesy Google

There was a banyan tree in front of the kutir. All know that the banyan tree is very large but the fruit is so small and the seed is atomic. "Bring one fruit," says the father to the son. The boy runs and brings a small fruit of that huge expanse of the tree called banyan, and says, "Here is the fruit, my father."

"Split it, break the fruit into pieces," says the father. "I have broken it," replies Svetaketu. "now what do you see inside it?" asks the father. The boy says, "I see small granules."

All must have seen the fruit of a banyan tree. How many fruits are there in the tree? How many seeds are there in each fruit? Innumerable, countless, very tiny, atomic seeds are there. How small they are! And you can contrast the smallness of the seeds with the largeness of the tree which is the banyan.

"Very small seeds I see inside the fruit, very tiny, atomic seeds are there," says the son. "Now you split one small seed," says the father.

It is very difficult to split it. You cannot take it by the hand. It will escape your grip. Somehow the boy split that little atomic seed.

"Yes, I have split it," he says. "Now inside that very little atomic seed, what do you see?" the father asks. "I do not see anything," says the boy.

Our naked eyes cannot see what is inside that little seed. There is a small jelly-like, very tiny, invisible essence inside that seed. It is very small, a semi-liquid-like substance. We may be able to see it with our powerful microscope. There is no solid hard substance there inside that little seed.

"What do you see in it?" asks the father, and the son replies, "I cannot see anything."

The father now explains: "Do you know, my dear boy, what is inside the seed? It is a great wonder. You say that you cannot see anything there. It is practically invisible and non-existent, as it were, from your point of view. Thin, apparently non-existent something, the very little, subtle essence there inside that little seed, has become this vast tree in front of you. Do you know this? How is this possible? Is it not a miracle that a terribly large tree grows from this little speck of jelly which cannot even be seen with the eyes? Now look at this miracle. Please have faith in what I say and go into the deeper profundity of this analogy of mine."

This little so-called subtle essence is pervading the entire tree. How is it possible? How can an atomic little speck pervade the large expanse of the tree? Yet, there is nothing in this tree which is not in this little speck of jelly. The so-called large tree that you see there is nothing but whatever was contained in the invisible speck inside the seed. So is this vast universe. We say this universe is so large, so big or so unmanageable, so gross, so weighty. This is exactly like saying this tree is so big. But from where has it come? It has come from a very small, atomic, subtle Seed. That is the Being, the essence of the vast tree of this universe. So this Being, the essence of this whole universe, is the Self of the whole universe. This little jelly-like substance inside the little seed is the Self of this whole tree. It is the Atman of this banyan, because that has become all this, and outside it the tree does not exist. So it is the being of this tree.

Even so is the Being of the whole universe including one's own self. "Tat-tvam-asi-you are that," says the father. We can tell every branch of the tree, "You are that essence," we can tell every leaf in the tree, "You are that essence," every fruit and flower in the tree, "You are that." And you will not be committing a mistake in saying that, because it is true. Even so we can say to every individual, "You are That," because all individuals have come from that indistinguishable, homogeneous Reality.

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The Chandogya Upanishad – Uddalaka’s teaching by Swami Krishnananda

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