THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD : Ch-1.1.18 SWAMI KRISHNANANDA.

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Tuesday, December 07, 2021. 8:00.PM.
THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD  :
DISCOURSE-8 (8 FEBRUARY 1977) 
CHAPTER I 
Third Brahmana
1.THE SUPERIORITY OF THE VITAL FORCE AMONG ALL FUNCTIONS -18

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We always expect something better. We never imagine that the world will be worse. It will be better than today, we think. This positivity present in our life, and the confidence we have that we shall live tomorrow, though there is no certainty about it, is the reflection of reality in us. Who tells you that you will live tomorrow? But you have a confidence that you will be alive. This is due to the presence of an eternity, masquerading in our own personalities, invisible, and yet present. But yet, there is insecurity. We have a suspicion that our apprehensions may not be true, and so we sleep restlessly and unhappily. We have in us happiness and unhappiness mixed up. That is due to the Sat and Asat elements combined in us, appearance and reality, both working together, side by side, swinging us on either side, in different forms, and under different occasions.


So, the prayer here is, “Let us rise above this turmoil of transiency of life, and move to the real which is indicated faintly in our own personal lives and in the manifestations that are in front of us.” The rise is the process of the ascent of the soul to the Absolute. Thus, the prayer is: – “Asato ma sad gamaya: – Lead me from the unreal to the real, from the apparent to the Absolute, so that we shall be steadfast in that which is free from entanglement in appearances – space, time, and causal relations.” And this is at once a prayer for further light in the process of this ascent. When we rise from the unreal to the real, we also become enlightened, much more than we are today. It is not merely ‘being’ that is transmuted, but also ‘consciousness’, side by side. The rise from inadequate ‘being’ to adequate ‘Being’, from the lower type of ‘being’ to the higher type of ‘Being’, is at the same time, simultaneously, a rise from lower understanding to higher understanding, where consciousness expands as ‘being’ expands.


Being and consciousness go together; they cannot be separated. Our consciousness is tied to our body, so that whatever we know is limited to this little body. We cannot go beyond. The consciousness of our ‘being’ is the same as consciousness of our body. There is nothing else in us. And the body is so limited, as we know very well. Hence, the expansion of ‘being’, or the dimension of our ‘being’ includes simultaneously consciousness, because ‘being’ and consciousness are one. This is indicated by the other prayer: – “Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya: Lead me from darkness to light.” This world is a world of darkness. It is not a world of light. The light that we see in this world is really a form of darkness, as we studied in an earlier portion of this Upanishad that all forms of life are forms of death only. They are not realities. The sunlight is not real light, because it is not intelligent. It is another intelligence that is responsible for apprehending the value of even sunlight. Mere sunlight cannot understand, because it is an object outside. Objects are inert, and it is the subject that is consciousness. Any object that is bereft of a relationship with the subject is equivalent to a darkness. It is lifeless. And so, the world of objects may be said to be a world of darkness, as it is the world of unreality. But, we have to rise to the realm of Light, the Light which stands by itself and shines as the infinite, the permanent, whether or not there are objects to shine upon.


Our understanding, today, is conditioned by the presence of objects. When objects are totally absent, we do not know what we will be aware of. Can we imagine a condition where there is nothing outside us to look at, to hear to come in contact with? What would be our mind; what would be the state of our understanding, at that time? We will be muddled completely. A person who is incapable of perceiving anything external cannot be regarded as sane. There will be a complete reversal of the function of consciousness at that time, because the individual mind, which is the individual consciousness, is accustomed to be healthy and alive only in connection with its objects. We are happy only in the midst of things, persons, objects, not independently. It is impossible to live absolutely independently because the mind is not accustomed to such a life. We like society because our life is tethered up to relationship outside, and from this we can draw the conclusion that our life is secondary; it is not primary. We are not living an independent life, not the original life; we are not true Existence. We are leaning upon a stalk which is outside us, and therefore unreliable. The objects of sense cannot be trusted completely. They pass like wind; they come and go; and, therefore, if our life is dependent on them, we go with them. That is why there is death for the individual who hangs upon the object which is subject to death. Hence, the world of so-called understanding, enlightenment, intelligence, is really a world of darkness, because it is not the self-sufficient, self-existent consciousness that is working, but a dependent form of mentation. 


So, the prayer is: 

“Let us be led above the related type of understanding to the unrelated Absolute Understanding, Absolute Intelligence,”

that is, “tamaso ma jyotir gamaya.” 

This is, at once, freedom from death, and attainment of immortality. 

Next : ”Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya : Lead me from death to that which is immortal.” 

To be continued ....




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