The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 13. Swami Krishnananda.

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Chinmaya Mission

Chinmaya Mission Pune and Chinmaya Yuva Kendra Navi Mumbai jointly organised a 4-day residential youth camp at the divine Chinmaya Maauli Ashram in Pune. The camp, titled “TBH: To Be Happy” saw the enthusiastic participation of over 50 youngsters under the leadership of Br. Ved Chaitanya and Brni. Maitreyee Chaitanya.

Spread over an action-packed weekend, the camp sessions, which were based on “Jeevanasutrani: Tips for Happy Living” by Pujya Guruji Swami Tejomayananda enlightened the youngsters with extremely simple tips towards happiness, fuelled even more by Vedji’s captivating mannerism and clarity of thought. Along with daily sessions, the camp saw an abundance of fun activities, the groups were asked to make mud sculptures single handedly. Other than that physical outdoor games like Bhasmasur, Villager, Chain Chain, Relays, and Volleyball were thoroughly enjoyed by the campers.

Evening Aarati followed by Bhajans were the perfect way to sing the glory of the Lord and enjoy the beautiful atmosphere of Chinmaya Vitthala Rukmini Temple.

With Pujya Gurudev’s grace and blessings, the camp concluded on a high note. All returned from the camp in high spirits finally ready TO BE HAPPY!!

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Monday, August 29, 2022. 07:15.
Chapter- II :
FOURTH BRAHMANA : 
THE CONVERSATION OF YAJNAVALKYA AND MAITREYI ON THE ABSOLUTE SELF : 13.

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Mantram-13.

"sa hovāca maitreyī, atraiva mā bhagavān amūmuhat, na pretya saṁjṇāstīti. sa hovāca, na va are'ham mohaṁ bravīmi, alaṁ vā are idaṁ vijñānāya."

Maitreyī is surprised: "How is it? You are saying that It is an ocean of wisdom, a mass of knowledge, substantiality of everything that is consciousness, and now you say there is no consciousness! When there is an absorption of consciousness into itself and freedom from its entanglement with the elements, you say It knows nothing. How is it possible that It knows nothing, while It is All-knowledge?" "You do not understand what I say," tells Yājñavalkya to Maitreyī. "I have not confused you by saying this, nor have I mystified you in this contradictory statement. Your idea of knowledge is misconstrued. You have your own definition of knowledge, and from that point of view, from that standard of judgment of knowledge, you seem to perceive a contradiction in my statement, that after freedom from entanglement there is no consciousness in spite of the fact that it is an ocean of Consciousness."

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Our concept of knowledge is well known. It is not real knowledge; it is the ass's knowledge; it is the donkey's knowledge; it is the animalistic perception that we usually call knowledge. The contact of the mind with objects in a particular manner, under given conditions, is called knowledge. But, this knowledge comes and goes according to the circumstances of the objects of particular knowledge of the senses. So, to us, knowledge means knowledge of something. This connecting link 'of' is very important. Whenever we speak of knowing, we always say 'knowing what'. So, there must be something which is known, and we speak of knowledge of something, studying something, awareness of something, illumination of something. Everything is 'of' something. Thus, we are always accustomed to connect knowledge with a content or object which is apparently external to knowledge. This strange relationship between object and the knowledge of that object is the subject of a philosophical controversy known as the conflict between the idealistic and realistic theories. How does knowledge arise, is a very great subject – 'philosophy'. Whether it arises by the location of the object in a particular manner, or is it the object that is responsible for the knowledge of the object, or whether it is the mind that knows the object that is responsible for the knowledge of the object, that, however, is another subject altogether.

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So, Yājñavalkya tells us: 

Your notion of knowledge is involved in the concept of the isolation of the object of knowledge from knowledge, so that there cannot be knowledge unless there is an object; and when I tell you that there is no such thing as knowledge of an object in that condition where consciousness is absolved completely from all contact with the formation of the elements, you are not able to understand what I am saying. Why?

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Next - Mantram-14.

"yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati, tad itara itaraṁ jighrati, tad itara itaram paśyati, tad itara itaram śrṇoti, tad itara itaram abhivadati, tad itara itaram manute, tad itara itaraṁ vijānāti. yatra tv asya sarvam ātmāivābhūt, tat kena kaṁ jighret, tat kena kam paśyet, tat kena kaṁ śṛṇuyat, tat kena kam abhivadet, tat kena kam manvīta, tat kena kaṁ vijānīyāt? yenedam sarvaṁ vijānāti, taṁ kena vijānīyāt, vijñātāram are kena vijānīyād iti."

To be continued ....

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