The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad - 14. Swami Krishnananda.

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Friday, September 16, 2022. 06:45.
Chapter- II :
FOURTH BRAHMANA : 
THE CONVERSATION OF YAJNAVALKYA AND MAITREYI ON THE ABSOLUTE SELF : 14.

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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.

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Commentary :

Where there is an object of knowledge, well, naturally it can be known. Where there is something other than the eye, the eye can see. Where there is something outside the nose, the nose can smell, that is true. Where the sound is outside the ear, the ear can hear the sound. Where the spoken word is outside the speech itself, one can speak about something. Where the thought is different from the object that is thought, it is possible to think. Where the object of understanding is different from understanding, it is possible to understand that object.

Where there is an object of knowledge, well, naturally it can be known. Where there is something other than the eye, the eye can see. Where there is something outside the nose, the nose can smell, that is true. Where the sound is outside the ear, the ear can hear the sound. Where the spoken word is outside the speech itself, one can speak about something. Where the thought is different from the object that is thought, it is possible to think. Where the object of understanding is different from understanding, it is possible to understand that object.

Yatra tv asya sarvam ātmāivābhūt: "But where understanding only is, and the object of understanding is not there, what is it that you understand? If this situation could be envisaged for the time being, if a condition can be conceived of where the object of knowledge has melted into the knowledge itself, what could be the knowledge which one can be endowed with? That which is to be known has melted into the knowledge itself; it has become part of the knowledge, so knowledge is filled with the substance of the object which it knows, so much so, there is no more an object as such – how can you then say that there is the knowing of anything? Because that 'anything' which you speak of as the object of the knowledge has become knowledge itself, so there is then no such thing as knowing 'anything', and therefore it is, O Maitreyī, that I said no such thing as knowing exists there and it does not know anything." Sarvam ātmāivābhūt: Where everything is the Self of knowledge, what does that Self know, except its own Self? Tat kena kaṁ jighret, tat kena kam paśyet, tat kena kaṁ śṛṇuyat, tat kena kam abhivadet, tat kena kam manvīta, tat kena kaṁ vijānīyāt? Who is to see what, where the object of perception has become a part and parcel of the process of perception itself?

Yenedam sarvaṁ vijānāti, taṁ kena vijānīyāt: Everything is known by the knower, but who is to know the knower? If the knower is to be known, there must be a second knower to that knower, and the second knower can be known by a third knower, the third by a fourth, the fourth by a fifth, and so on. You go on scratching your head, you cannot know the knower. How can the knower be known? We have already designated the knower as the 'Knower' and you cannot now call it the 'known'. Therefore there is no such thing as knowing of Knowing, or knowing of Knower. Knowing of objects only is there before liberation. With liberation, that object has become part of knowing itself; It has become one with the Knower. The Knower alone is; there is no such thing then as 'knowing'. Therefore, as I told you, Maitreyī, it is not possible to have cognition and perception and mentation and understanding, in the usual sense, in that Absolute which is Supernal Felicity of Plenum – vijñātāram are kena vijānīyād iti.

Now, this subject is continued later on in the Yājñavalkya Kanda of the same Upaniṣhad. It abruptly stops here, and takes up a new subject which has some remote connection but not immediate connection. The immediately connected passage will come later on: Yad vai tan-na paśyati, paśyam vai tan-na paśyati, etc. Yājñavalkya will be speaking to the Emperor Janaka where he says: "When I tell you that It does not see anything, it does not mean that It does not see anything, It sees everything. While It does not know anything, It knows everything; while It does not see anything, It sees everything," etc. This will be mentioned later on as a part of the exposition of this mystical statement of Yājñavalkya in the particular Brāhmaṇa known as the Maitreyā Brāhmaṇa. 

Now a subject that is in a way connected with this topic is taken up in the subsequent section. The reason why you cannot have perceptual knowledge or cognitional awareness in the totality of things is because of the fact that everything is connected with everything in that knowledge. You cannot look upon something and judge a thing independently in a condition where everything is connected with everything. You cannot have a standard of judgment in a situation where that which is judged has become one with the standard of judgment itself. This interdependence of things and interconnectedness of values is discussed in a very famous aspect of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka knowledge called the Madhu-Vidyā, which is supposed to be given by Sage Dadhyaṅṅ.

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Next-
Chapter II

FIFTH BRAHMANA: MADHU-VIDYA – THE HONEY DOCTRINE.
To be continued ....

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