The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. THIRD BRAHMANA:Chapter-1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS - 2. Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, September 15, 2021. 9:00.APM.
Chapter - I : Ch-1. THIRD BRAHMANA : Chapter-1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS - 2. 
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The gods wanted to overcome the demons. The great exponent Ach?rya ?ankara tells us that the gods are always less in number, the demons are more in number, by which he means that people who follow their natural inclinations are more in number than those who are able to subdue the natural impulses. These urges of nature are designated as divine and undivine, from the way in which they work, and the purpose for which they work. And, the battle between the two forces was waged with the intention on either side for victory. The gods did not depend entirely on the strength of their arms, but wanted to take the help of a superior power, and that power is the power of a chant, a Mantra, or a vibration, a magical influence, we may say, a weapon which they wanted to employ against the Asuras. 

The Devas conferred among themselves, and concluded: "We shall employ a Mantra-Astra, a weapon which is driven, not by any material element, but by mere thought, viz., the Udg?tha, the Divine Vital Power." We have heard of Astras, or divine weapons, such as Brahm?stra, N?r?ya??stra, P?supat?stra, etc. These are not physical weapons, but certain superphysical vibrations, like homeopathic potencies which cannot be seen with the eyes, but work vigorously. These weapons can be discharged even through a small, tiny material instrument. The weapon which is mystical, here contemplated to be employed by the Devas, was the Udg?tha-S?man, a Mantra of the S?ma-Veda which is called the Udg?tha. "We chant, recite, and generate energy, so that we may overcome the Asuras, the demons."

Now, who will do the chant? The gods are the presiding deities over the senses, as far as the individuals are concerned. We have the gods in the cosmos, and gods in our own physical organism. The cosmical counterpart of the sensory powers in the individual are what are called the gods in the heavens. The macrocosmos and the microcosmos are correlated organically. The powers that are supermundane, which work as divinities in the heavens, as we hear of spoken in the scriptures, are the superintending principles over the sense-organs. 

The god of the eyes, for example, is the Sun, Surya. The Sun is the god of the eyes, and likewise we have gods or presiding principles, divinities, superior energies, presiding over every sense-organ and activity, including the psychological functions. The presiding deity of the eyes is S?rya, of the nose are A?vin? Kumaras, of the ears are the Dig-Devatas, of the taste principle is Varu?a, of the touch principle is V?yu, and there are Agn?, Indra, Vi?hnu, Praj?pati, M?ityu, presiding over the organs of action, the Moon presiding over the mind, Brahma over the intellect, Rudra over the ego, and Vi?hnu over the subconscious and the subliminal psychological layers.

All these gods conferred together to work up an energy, or a force, to counteract the Asura energy. They wanted to chant the Mantra in order that the energy may be acquired. The chanting of the Mantra, here, does not merely mean a verbal recitation through the mouth, or a hearing of it through the ears, a fact which is made out by the story itself. What is actually meant by the chant of the Mantra is a setting in tune of oneself with the Powers that are invoked by the Mantra. If this attunement of the microcosmic with the macrocosmic is not affected, the Mantra does not work; it cannot produce effect. 

This is what actually happened when the chant of the S?man was wrongly recited. The speech principle was asked to chant the S?man, that is the Udg?tha. The gods asked the speech: "You chant the Veda, the S?man, the Udg?tha," and the speech rose up into action and chanted the S?man. The gods were very much pleased that the S?man chanting was being recited by the speech, and that they were going to have more energy, and shall overcome the Asuras. 

But the Asuras came to know of this fact. The demons understood: "Oh, they are going to chant something, so that we may be overcome. We shall defeat their purpose." And what did the Asuras, the demons, do? They attacked the speech, afflicted the speech with evil, so that the S?man may be spoilt. The evil with which the Asuras affected the speech is the wrong utterances which the speech expresses occasionally. We speak good things, and also not good things. 

That we are capable of speaking something not good and useful and beneficial shows that the Asuras also are working in us, not merely the gods. We can speak what is beneficial; we can also speak what is not beneficial. We are capable of doing both. We can do some good through the speech; we can do a great harm also through the speech. Why is the speech affected with this capacity to do harm? That is the result of the speech being attacked by the Asuras – the evil effect. The chant is defeated. The gods could not achieve their purpose.

To be continued ....

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