Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

------------------------------------------------ Saturday, October 31, 11 : 11. AM. CHAPTER - I : The Universe as a Sacrificial Horse-1 ------------------------------------------------------------- The commencement of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad is a description of a symbolic placement of the parts of the individual in the cosmic quarters, with the spiritual intention of an undivided meditation, where the subject commingles with the object. The peculiar technique, adopted here in this Upaniṣhad, is ritualistic as it is characteristic of the Brāhmaṇas in the Vedas, and this technique is supposed to be adopted in the case of every individual character in its correlation with the universe. Here the individual concerned is the horse of the Aśvamedha Sacrifice, which is the object of consecration and while, exoterically considered, it is one of the items in the Aśvamedha Yajña, and it becomes a part of an external act, in the Upaniṣhad it becomes a piece of contemplation, which is the avo...

------------------------------------------- Tuesday, October 20, 2020. 08 : 48. AM. 1.Introduction -17. ------------------------------------------- The act, the process and the end towards which the action is directed are all single in their essence, and they are not even a tripartite or a threefold process. It is a single development of Being which is impartite. This contemplation which was originally initiated in the Puruṣha-Sūkta, as the Cosmic Sacrifice, may be said to be the Mother of all other concepts of sacrifice, or Yajña in the Indian tradition, or perhaps any other tradition of this type. The offering up of oneself is the core of the Sacrifice, and, thus, the highest Sacrifice is supposed to be self-sacrifice, not the sacrifice of outward material or anything that one 'possesses'. The offering of what we have is a lower sacrifice in comparison with the sacrifice of what we are. This is the Jñāna-Yajña, or the knowledge-sacrifice that is spoken of in the Bhagavadgītā ...

  ------------------------------------------- Tuesday,October 13, 2020. 10 : 12.AM. 1.Introduction -16. ------------------------------------------- 1. Om Santih! Santih! Santih – 'Om! Peace, Peace, Peace'. We always recite this peace chant three times, indicating that there should be peace in the three realms, or in three ways, or freedom from the three sources of trouble. We have three principal kinds of trouble, and all these three are to cease and peace is to prevail. We have trouble from within; trouble from without; and trouble from above. This threefold problem is known as Tapatraya. If there is a heavy flood, or there is an earthquake, a thunderbolt, or a destruction of this kind caused by factors beyond human range, such catastrophe is referred to as supernatural adhidaivika-Tapa. When troubles come from outside, as those from animals, reptiles, wicked persons, etc., they are known as adhibhautika-Tapa. When troubles come from inside, such as illness, sorrow born of men...

------------------------------------------- Monday, September 21, 2020. 7:20.PM. 1.Introduction -15. ------------------------------------------- 1. This is to give a bare outline of how thoughts are developed in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.  We shall take up the study of the First Chapter in its proper order and consider, as the tradition goes, the meaning of the invocatory Mantram :  "Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Puurnnam-Udacyate,  Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate." Om Shaantih! Shaantih !! Shaantih !!! "Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Puurnnam-Udacyate, Puurnnasya Puurnnam-Aadaaya Puurnnam-Eva-Avashissyate." :   'That is Infinite, this is Infinite; from the Infinite does proceed the Infinite. On removing the Infinite from the Infinite, the Infinite alone remains.'  This is the chant of invocation which is recited at the beginning of this Upanishad. It is also chanted at the end of the study. This is the traditio...

------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 29, 2020. 07:13.AM. 1.Introduction -14. ------------------------------------------- Then we have, as the Upanishad proceeds, the subsequent outcome of this principal exposition in the First Chapter, namely, the Second Chapter, where we are not told anything new. It is only an elaboration of the principle which is precisely stated in the earlier one.  As a matter of fact, the main content of the Upanishad is in the First, the Third and the Fourth Chapters. The Second is a secondary elaboration, and the Fifth and the Sixth are like an appendix and are not of much importance from the point of view of philosophical study, though they are very significant in one's practice of higher meditations. The central portion of the Upanishad is in the First, Third and the Fourth Chapters, which contain the peak of human thought, and offer an exposition of the highest philosophy the human mind has ever conceived. The discuss...

------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 29, 2020. 9:21.AM. 1.Introduction -13. ------------------------------------------- 1. In the beginning, there is an attempt to describe the Asvamedha Sacrifice by identifying the consecrated horse with the universe as a whole. The creation of the universe may be compared to a sacrifice which is symbolically performed by a ceremony through rituals; and when it is contemplated it becomes an attunement of consciousness with the ultimate nature of creation. This, in outline, is the description of the process of creation. The forms, names and phenomena which we see and pass through, are a reversal of the nature of Reality, a reflection, as it were, of the Original through some medium, so that we see everything topsy-turvy and never as it really is. This is a fact which escapes our notice often, that we can see a thing and yet it can be upside down in all the features presented to the perceiving senses. Though we may b...

------------------------------------------- Thursday, August 20, 2020. 9:42.PM. 1.Introduction -12. ------------------------------------------- 1. The bondage of the self is intrinsically involved in the structure of the individual. We bring sorrow with us even when our birth takes place; and it is often said that we bring our death also together with our birth. The meaning is that all experiences – joys, sorrows, including our last moment of life all these are a fructification of circumstances with which we are born from the mother's womb. We are born under certain conditions, and they are the seeds of what will follow later, so that the entire life of ours may be said to be an unfoldment of that which is present in a seed-form at the time of our birth. We do not pass through newer and newer experiences unexpectedly, as it were, but they are all expected things only. Every experience in life is expected, as a corollary is expected from a theorem in mathematics. It fol...