The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. THIRD BRAHMANA : Chapter-1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS - 6. Swami Krishnananda.

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Saturday, November 6, 2021. 6:30. PM.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - Ch-1. THIRD BRAHMANA : Chapter-1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS - 6. Swami Krishnananda.

Chapter - I : THIRD BRAHMANA : 

Chapter-1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS - 6. 

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7. atha hemam āsanyam prāṇam ūcuḥ, tvaṁ na udgāya iti, tatheti: tebhya eṣa prāṇa udagāyat; te vidur anena vai na udgātrātyeṣyantīti. tam abhidrutya papmanāvidhyan; sa yathā aśmānam ṛtvā loṣṭo vidhvaṁseta, evaṁ haiva vidhvaṁsamānā viṣvañco vineśuḥ, tato devā abhavan, parāsurāḥ; bhavaty ātmanā parāsya dviṣan bhrātṛvyo bhavati ya evaṁ veda.

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This is the greatest meditation that can be taught to anyone. It is great because it reaches the pinnacle of Reality. When we respect a person, that person begins to help us. If we disregard the person, no help can come from that person. To regard a person as an object is to insult that person, because that person is not an object. From that person's point of view, that person is a subject, with self-regard, self-esteem and value, and so is the case with everyone and everything. We shall be in a position to regard everyone and everything from the point of view of the location of his own or its own being, as we locate our own being. The Selfhood of all things is the ultimate meditation. This state cannot be achieved easily. It is a hard and arduous technique, and for this purpose we are asked to go slowly, from the lower rungs to the higher ones in the order of creation. This is the principle laid out in a beautiful injunction in the Katha Upaniṣhad, also.


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Yacched vāṅ manasī prājñas tad yacchej jñāna-ātmani jñānam ātmani mahati niyacchet, tad yacchec chānta-ātmani.

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The senses have to be centred in the mind; the mind has to be centred in the intellect; the intellect has to be centred in the Cosmic Intellect; the Cosmic Intellect has to be centred in the Absolute. This is how we have to proceed, gradually.


The principle of the Prāṇa was considered by the powers of the different senses, as the one that is capable of overcoming Mṛityu, death, evil. This is the moral that we have been given out of this story which arose from the context of a conflict that seems to have arisen between the gods and their opponents.


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8. te hocuḥ, kva nu so׳bhūd yo na ittham asakteti, ayam āsye׳ntar iti, so׳yāsya āṅgirasaḥ, aṅgānāṁ hi rasaḥ.

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The senses began to wonder, "What is this, who is this that has been able to enable us in overcoming the demons? Where is this power, what is this principle," was their question. The one that enabled the senses to overcome the principle of death was within themselves. The help did not come from outside. It was from within, and that principle, the Prāṇatva, is designated Ayāsya āṅgirasa. The word āṅgirasa is explained here. Aṅgānām hi rasaḥ: The essence of all the senses, the vital force – that is the principle which could not be overcome by death, because it was not specially affiliated to any particular limb of the body, and it was not connected particularly with any sense-organ. It was a uniform principle, impersonally operating throughout the system of the body, present in its manifested form as Prāṇa, by the power of which one is able to speak. It is operating in the mouth of a person – āsye'ntar iti. And that functions through the act of speech. The vocal organ is only one of its functions, and it does not represent the whole of the Prāṇa; it has many other aspects. But the most ostensible manifestation of it is what we call Prāṇa, in ordinary language. But it is only a symbol of a larger reservoir of Prāṇa-Śakti, which is the Cosmic Sūtra-ātman, or Hiraṇyagarbha, the connection with whom at once frees one from the fear of death. It is that from which death runs away in fear.

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Next - 9. sā vā eṣā devatā dūr nāma, dūraṁ hy asyā mṛtyuḥ, dūraṁ ha vā asmān mṛtyur bhavati ya evaṁ veda.

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To be continued ....

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