The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. Second Brahmana, The Creation of the Universe. : 13.7 Swami Krishnananda.

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Wednesday, September 08, 2021. 9:45. PM.
Chapter - I :
SECOND BRAHMANA : 
13. THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE-7.
Mantram-7. 
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"So׳kāmayata, medhyam ma idaṁ syāt, ātmanvy anena syām iti; tato׳śvaḥ samabhavat, yad aśvat, tan medhyam abhūd iti tad evāśva-medhasyāśva-medhatvam; eṣa ha vā aśva-medhaṁ veda, ya enam evaṁ veda. tam anavarudhyaivāmanyata; taṁ saṁvatsarasya parastād ātmana ālabhata: paśūn devatābhyaḥ pratyauhat. tasmāt sarva-devatyaṁ prokṣitam prājāpatyam ālabhante; eṣa ha vā aśva-medho ya eṣa tapati: tasya saṁvatsara ātmā, ayam agnir arkaḥ, tasyeme lokā ātmānaḥ; tāv etāv arkāśvamedhau. so punar ekaiva devatā bhavati, mṛtyur eva; apa punar-mṛtyuṁ jayati, nainam mṛtyurm āpnoti, mṛtyur asyātmā bhavati, etāsāṁ devatānām eko bhavati."

The body which is bereft of life is Medhya, which means to say, it is impure. We do not like to touch a corpse; but, we have no objection to touch a living body. What is the difference between a living body and a corpse? Both are bodies. We regard a living body as holy, but a dead body as impure. So, He Willed, as it were: "May this universe that I have created, which is my Body, but which is without life, may this universe which is thus impure, bereft of consciousness, bereft of life, assume purity." That is possible only when vitality is injected into it. 

So, what might have happened? Idam medhyam syāt, ātmanvy anena syām iti: I become this Universe. Just as a mother loves her child, God loved the universe. The Energy of God permeated throughout His creation, and it assumed a great meaning and significance, just as a dead body can assume a significance the moment life enters into it. This is the Aśva; this is the horse of the Aśvamedha Sacrifice, says the Upaniṣhad, again, to go back to the great symbology of the Aśvamedha Sacrifice. The Aśva is very holy, highly sanctified. It is sanctified for the purpose of the Aśvamedha Yajña, and in our symbology here, it is the universe, which is the horse. Tato'śvaḥ samabhavat, yad aśvat, tan medhyam abhūd iti tad evāśva-medhasyāśva medhatvam: Thus, the conception of the Aśvamedha Sacrifice is philosophically and spiritually explained.

Eṣa ha vā aśva-medhaṁ veda: One who knows the Aśvamedha Sacrifice, Sacrifice, knows God also; that is, one who knows this universe, knows the Creator of the universe, also, because He is present, wholly there, reflected. As from a reflection one can move to the original, through the universe we can move towards God. Though the universe is not God, because it is the reflected form, yet He is implanted there as a reflection, and therefore, through the symbol which is the universe, we can move towards Him, who is the substance. Eṣa ha vā aśva-medhaṁ veda, ya enam evaṁ veda: Knowing the Aśvamedha, knowing this horse, knowing this universe, is knowing God. One who knows this secret, knows the true Aśvamedha Sacrifice.

Here, the Second Brāhmaṇa of the Upaniṣhad concludes by telling us that we can overcome this urge for self-expression, for creativity, for desire, which is the principle of Death, by becoming the Self of Death. Death is overcome by that person who becomes the very Self of Death itself, just as, whenever we become one with someone, that someone becomes our friend. Even the worst of things can be our friend, provided we become the Self of that thing. Now, how is it possible? What is the meaning of saying that we can become the Self of Mṛityu, or Death? 

We have to become one with the process of Creative Activity. Then Creative Activity does not harm us. The world is a great trouble for us, inasmuch as we are outside it, and we are unfriendly with it, therefore. As we are outside it, naturally, it is outside us. We are cast aside, as it were, into the winds by the creative urge. We are helpless victims of the Creative Activity, and so we are unconsciously driven in the direction of creativity. But, if consciousness can be well-trained, this consciousness can attend upon this activity itself, every process becomes, then, a Selfhood. Action becomes Knowledge and Being. Perhaps, we have the seeds of Karma-Yoga here, that principle that activity can become the ātman, provided the ātman is felt to be present in the activity. Generally, an action is a movement of the self, outside, in space and time. This is ordinary action or Karma. 

But, when space and time are also contemplated as being parts of Consciousness, activity becomes naturally a part of Consciousness. It becomes a part of this Consciousness, because nothing can be anywhere outside this Consciousness. It is Infinity itself. How can there be anything outside the Infinite? So, how can there be a Will of God against our will? Our will and God's Will should harmonise between each other, and our will is nothing but a vibration in a tiny form of the Universal Will. So, the question of any independent assertion does not arise, such as 'I do', 'you do', and feelings of that kind. There is no such thing as 'I do', 'you do' really. There is only the One Thing that does all things. If this awareness can rise in our self, we shed our individualities and individual wills, and for the time being, set aside all creative activity and agency on the part of the ego. That is, the assertion of agency in action is given up. The will individual becomes the Will Universal. Then, there is no fear of death and birth, because the universe does not fear death. 

There is no such thing as birth and death for the cosmos. Everything is a process within itself, like the movements in the ocean. Thus, one who knows the secret of this Aśvamedha Sacrifice, the beginning and the ending of the process of the Aśvamedha, how the horse came about, which means to say, how creation came about, one who knows the presence of the Eternal Reality in every act and every process of the Creative Will, he becomes the ātman of the very process. He becomes the Self of the very principle of destruction, which was responsible for the reversal activity, which was the originating factor in creation. Everything becomes the Self – the subject as well as the object – also the process of the reversal of the subject into the object, and even the movement of the self towards the object – all becomes one. If this contemplation could be possible, Death can be overcome, because one becomes the very Soul of Death itself; how can Death trouble anyone, says the Upaniṣhad.

End.


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