Chandogya Upanishad 3.4.1-3 Lecture 124 on 27 July 2025

Sanskrit Invocation

Oṁ jananīṁ śaradāṁ devīṁ rāmakṛṣṇam jagad-gurum pāda-padmetayōśritvā praṇamāmi-mohurumō

Oṁ āpyāyantu mamāṅgāni vākprāṇas cakṣuḥ śrutra-mathu bala-mindriyāṇi ca sarvāṇi sarvam brahmau paṇiṣadam māham brahma nirākuriyām mā mā brahma nirākarot anirākaraṇam astva nirākaraṇam me astu tadātmani nirate yau paṇiṣadsu dharmā te mayi santu te mayi santu

Oṁ śānte śānte śānte

Hāre he Oṁ

Translation

May my limbs, speech, vital force, eyes, ears, as also strength and all the organs become well developed. Everything is the Brahman revealed in the Upanishads. May I not deny Brahman. May not Brahman deny me. Let there be no spurning of me by Brahman. Let there be no rejection of Brahman by me. May all the virtues that are spoken of in the Upanishads repose in me who am engaged in the pursuit of the Self. May they repose in me. Om. Peace. Peace. Peace be unto all.

Shandilya Vidya Study

We have been studying the beautiful vidya शंदिल्यविद्या। We have covered first mantra completely, but just for recollection I will read it out.

सर्वं खल्वितं प्रम्हा। तत् जलानि इति शान्तह उपासिता। अथा खलु क्रतुवया पुरूशहा। इता क्रतुवस्मिन् लोके पुरूशो भवति तता इता प्रेत्य भवति सक्रतुम् कुर्विता। वेरिले अल्दिस यूनिवर्सेज ब्रम्हन। प्रम्हिम् डो अल्दिस प्रिजिनेट। इंटो हिम् डो दे दिजाल। और वेरिले अर्दिस सुष्टेंड। आं इन् him क to med objectively । आं इसलुई वोर्मूरुकर्ण ले क्यहम्harma भवत्य сравнका।। तो यह चस्तु यन्नाए か्तारिबा क молपृत्त। और यह पुरूशो प्रक्यता प्रकापंसा, , ई। अन它ए पाप्LS бपरीता for it is the faith which one ACCUEs and is the faith also in the world as it is on departing ends.

Therefore cultivate faith. This first mantra in this Shandilya Vidya emphasizes absolutely clearly nothing else exists excepting Brahman. So we have to start our spiritual sadhana by slowly trying to see God everywhere. That is the first mantra of the Isha Varsha Upanishad also emphasizes the same truth so long as there is life.

What Should One Do?

One should be able to perceive only God and how to attain to that state not all of a sudden but gradually small point by point we will have to develop that perception power of perception mode of perception thereby we see everything as manifestation of God and as we discussed many times start with mother my mother is none other than brahman matru deo bhava then father then anybody who helps me is an acharya there afterwards whether a person hurts me or does good to me whether a person is friendly or inimical means everybody else the whole universe living non-living i should be able to perceive it as brahman why because everything has come from brahman because brahman is existence so whatever is existent is nothing but brahman everything has got its own knowledge whether it is aware of it or not so that is called the chit or consciousness or knowledge aspect of brahman and everything everyone is seeking only unbroken bliss so the whole universe has come from God it is sustained by God and it goes back to God but to put it in simple words is God only who is manifesting as this world God only is playing this leela in this world and after some time when he gets tired he goes back to his own nature so this nitya and leela the one original substance nature and this play divine play is called leela this is going on so one should meditate on this fact and one should live that is why he says so long as a man is alive so the whole life is meant only for evolution evolution means going back to our own nature and that is beautifully said one must first become absolutely serene unagitated that is called shanta upasita then the second part of the first mantra also tells us which nowadays we call it karmasiddhanta why is a person like this because in previous life he had practiced it he desired it he wanted to be like this we'll be surprised does a tramp want to be born as a tramp if you ask a tramp did you ever wish to become a tramp and live this kind of life vehemently he will deny but the truth is he believed through his actions that he will obtain a higher life but his actions he has not changed so our understanding and our lifestyle both must become harmonious if anybody believes i am going to kill people and god will be pleased with me that is terribly wrong so whatever is happening in this world according to this karmasiddhanta is predestined we should not blame god god did not create evil god did not crash the Boeing 170 at hamadabad it is the karma phala and there was the karma phala of one person nothing happened he walked off these incidents if we perceive correctly should open our eyes and we should only take responsibility for our own this thing then just briefly we entered into mantra number two how should we meditate upon god so when we are as devotees of siram krishna want to think of siram krishna intensely we are supposed to think of him in a particular manner that is why at the vesper service every evening every dawn dusk every dusk we sing these are called vesper songs so the whole khandana bhava bandana jaga bandana niranjana nara roopa dhara nirguna unamaya a beautiful mixture of both sabuna and nirguna saguna nirguna is nirguna brahma swaroopa gunamaya full of gunas so niranjana completely unstained but nara roopa dhara he had taken on the limitations finitude this is called falling into the clutches or net of the five elements so how should we think

Here certain indications are given this is how according to this particular chandogya upanishad in this particular upasana or contemplative process called sandalya vidya as taught by rishi sage sandalya in this second third is given a mixture of both the qualities defining the personal god saguna brahma as well as nirguna brahma also so this is how the mantra goes second mantra in this sandalya vidya

The Second Mantra

Certain qualities have been enumerated in the second mantra for what purpose for the purpose of a spiritual aspirant's contemplation such a beautiful description we rarely get in many other scriptures though it is indicative indication is there but such crystal clear presentation many times we lack let us analyze them what does it mean he who is permeating the mind who has prana for his body whose nature is consciousness whose resolve is infallible whose own form is like space or akasha whose creation is all that exists whose are all the pure desires who possesses all the agreeable odors and all the pleasant tastes who exists pervading all this who is without speech who is free from hesitation and eagerness

Let me first of all summarize and then we will go into the details during this process of contemplation one should think of this brahman why because whatever we are perceiving is nothing but brahman that is the central idea we will have to realize that idea not merely listen we have to do first of all lot of deep thinking called manana and having gotten rid of all the doubts develop complete faith shraddha and then do nidhidhyasana what is the nidhidhyasana it is good to recollect shravana means with 100% faith that i would like to realize god and trying to control to lesser or greater extent both the body and mind a spiritual aspirant should approach if necessary they have to live with the guru maybe five one year as we have seen in the prasna upanishad are 32 years at the beginning or total 101 years as in we have seen in the chandogya upanishad eighth chapter so it is not how long we stay but whether we are becoming what is called fit persons to hear this spiritual truth and then only the truth imparted by the guru teacher becomes fruitful even after hearing we will have to think deeply so that process of receiving the instruction from the teacher is called shravanam is not simply you make your appointment go there and then he will tell you something that is absolutely wrong one has to be fit then only a real teacher will impart then only we will struggle what is the test that we are fit for shravanam because once we hear it is not possible for us to sit quiet we have to go on striving and the first striving is to think deeply from all points of do i really believe what my teacher taught me are there any doubts my teacher teaches me but even my enemy is not really an enemy he is my god why did god create enemies why did god create suffering misery holy mother's beautiful teaching i hope we will recollect misery is a gift of god because without misery honestly you question yourself if there were to be no misery two questions you have to ask yourself if there were to be no misery in this world will you know what is happiness if you are not aware or if you do not experience hunger thirst tiredness etc will you be able to enjoy will you be able to appreciate the value of food value of cool water the value of rest etc so if there were to be no evil no enemies no suffering nobody will ever become a saint that's what shri ram krishna said i'm only repeating it so when a person really starts thinking deeply that means he had become fit and he had faith in the guru and what is the problem now what the guru teaches and what is my day-to-day minute by minute experience are completely opposite to each other my experience shows i am different from everything the teacher tells everybody is god god is everybody my experience is there are people who want to kill me torture me scripture tells god's grace comes in the form of this evil so that you can become a saint according to say ram krishna so everything that i experience and which i have been experiencing for countless number of births it is in straight conflict with what the teacher teaches but i have developed complete faith so how do i understand it so that i can remove this conflict and that purpose conflict comes in the form of doubts so through deep contemplation i should be able to bring out all the hidden doubts lurking in the depths of unconsciousness and then deal with them and convince myself hundred percent that what the teacher taught me is absolutely right and i am wrong and then once i'm convinced that is the truth and here is a psychological fact everybody wants truth nobody wants untruth and therefore i want to transform my life and how to transform my life and what does it mean to transform one's life that is being indicated that instead of saying that you will become like this it is said god is like this so how is god so who is manifesting in the form of the mind who is illumining the mind who is enlivening the mind that is called so one way of understanding the whole world is only god another way of understanding i'm still ignorant and therefore i have a body i have a mind and i'm alive therefore i have got prana i understand things and sometimes i do the right things and i want to expand myself that is being indicated so he who pervades the mind is a superficial meaning he who is manifesting both as the mind as well as in the form of the consciousness which makes the mind that is possible so my mind your mind everybody's mind they belong to the collective mind and that collective mind collective prana and collective understanding that is called hiranya garbha hiranya garbha has got three powers so as we have seen in the pancha kosha model pranamaya kosha manomaya kosha vijnanamaya kosha so these three are what is called hiranya garbha but hiranya garbha though one he has three powers so the power of determination is influenced by the vijnanamaya kosha the power of thinking deeply that is one power and the power of desire so ichha shakti jnana shakti kriya shakti so kriya shakti belongs to the pranamaya kosha ichha shakti belongs to the manomaya kosha and the jnana shakti understanding things absolutely rightly belongs to the vijnanamaya kosha so jnana shakti ichha shakti kriya shakti corresponded to vijnanamaya kosha manomaya kosha and pranamaya kosha but these three so hiranya garbha as the embodiment of jnana shakti is called mahat hiranya garbha as ichha shakti is called hiranya garbha and the same hiranya garbha as kriya shakti or manifesting as pranamaya kosha is called sutratma collective prana is called sutratma collective mind is called hiranya garbha collective correct knowledge is called mahatatvam so mahat hiranya garbha and sutratma one being he manifests these three powers respectively representing vijnanamaya kosha manomaya kosha and pranamaya kosha so some of them are being told here manomaya my mind your mind everybody's mind even a mosquito's mind even an ameema's amoeba's mind does amoeba as a mind yes it desires i want to go here i want to do this so every mind belongs to god all minds individual and collective they all are manifestations of brahman then prana shereer so pranamaya kosha and shereer annamaya kosha all gross bodies are the gross world of ishvara all subtle bodies are the subtle world of ishvara prana means shakti shakti is belonging only to god brahman so if you see prana in any creature that is a living creature and that is god only iram krishna one day he saw an insect if you recollect what was he telling there goes god is crawling in the form of that insect i see consciousness crawling in the form of this insect that was his experience his anubhuti so that is what is being said that whether it is individual body individual mind individual buddhi individual knowledge or collective bodies called virat collective minds called hirani garbha and collective karana shereeras called ishvara everything is the manifestation of ishvara i do not exist you do not exist nobody exists then a form of consciousness means light yesterday we discussed light means that which gives us knowledge means knowledge so knowledge is another name for consciousness so the form of consciousness whenever the moment i have knowledge of something through the mind that immediately indicates it is the consciousness it is brahman it is in the form of that is manifesting so is there consciousness in saguna brahmana or not yes it is nothing but saguna brahma is nothing but consciousness nirguna brahma it is only pure consciousness saguna brahma in that pure consciousness is manifesting in many fold way that is called saguna brahma so brahman is manifesting wherever you see light wherever you see knowledge wherever you see any greatness for example a great speaker that speaking power a great athlete that tremendous muscular power etc a great musician the power of singing or praying great poetical power like shakespeare wordsworth long fellow shelly khalidasa even rabindranath tagore how wonderfully you just read his gita anjali it looks as though what we are discussing sarvam khalvidam brahma as it were consciousness is peeping out through every pore that is what you feel when you really read his gita anjali especially in its bengali compilation so these are the some of the qualities then satya sankalpaha because god is truth god is satyam his thoughts cannot be asatya in fact asatya or mithya or what is called unreal doesn't exist at all whatever exists is only satyam only way to understand it then akasha atma so atma means one's own body so therefore akasha atma means brahman whose body is the space or what we call akasha or sky so the description of virat and hiranyagarbha also apply to ishwara therefore so the meaning akasha means brahman is infinite brahman is indivisible brahman is unattached brahman is one without a second like akasha you can't say there are two akashas so that which is outside that which is inside that is our mistaken understanding then sarva karma karma means action sarva karma means all actions all actions belong to god only he is the actor and he is the acted upon he is the subject he is the object when everybody belongs to him so do not the actions of those bodies also belong to him so therefore whatever action you see that is all his action whatever head is his head whatever hand his hand whatever he is doing he is only doing whatever leg you see who is walking he is walking that's why vishnu is called long strides meaning to say that whatever we are doing through our bodies and minds is only his manifestation we have to understand that in that sense only so what is the purpose of action to fulfill certain desires and who is the desirer brahman is the desirer and what does he desire objects so the desirer the subject as a desirer and the object as the desired sarva not one or two that means everything every object in this world is only brahman sarva gandha so we can say ditto ditto ditto that means what so every smell that comes is a good smell gandha means smell is it good smell or bad smell there is nothing called good smell or bad smell good taste or bad taste so a betel dung prefers to eat only dung and for it if it is a devotee it will do brahmapana before eating that dung because the dung also is nothing but brahman and to make us understand ram krishna's life illustrates it abundantly how does it illustrate we see that bhairavi brahmani had made him go through all the important practices that are there in the 64 main tantric books and some of them belong worship the generative organ of every female then even rotten meat that is also brahman only there is nothing called rotten what doesn't suit me that is rotten what suits me that is the best food so whatever we throw is thrown out by our body as undesirable is the best food in fact we also do that when you are growing first class vegetables in your back garden how are you growing them by doing all sorts of dung and that dung is the most nourishing food so far as the plants are concerned what are the plants they are manifestations of the dung earlier we have seen of the earth everything is annam as we have seen in the taitriya upanishad sarvam annamayam earth means annam annamaya purusha so a purusha is nothing but purusha means every living creature is nothing but manifestation of food so a dung becomes first class nutrient in the form of whether it's a vegetarian non-vegetarian whatever it is and then when it is eaten it becomes the living becomes the dead and the dead once it enters becomes one with us it becomes again alive comes out alive so you see everything belongs to brahman only as the subject as the object as the enjoyer as the enjoyed and as everything our body and minds and also what the body experiences remember everybody is an enjoyable thing when a tiger looks at me i am the most enjoyable being so far as the tiger is concerned so all smells are him belong to him and enjoyed by him every taste that is he only is manifesting in the form of the tasty mangoes and sour mangoes and bitter gourd everything has got its own blessing so he is the enjoyer he is the enjoyed sarvam idam abhyataha so the upanishad concludes as it were it says sarvam idam idam sarvam everything that we perceive the whole creation abhyataha is pervaded by him abhyataha means all pervading in a word ishwara sarvabhutanam isyavasyam idam sarvam yadkincha jagatyam jagat vyapakatvat vishnuhu so he is also avaki anadara avaki means that he is speechless what does it mean it means he is beyond speech he cannot be described because any description is a limitation anadara very beautiful word somebody cherishes you entertains you respects you and gives you importance that is called adara anadara means if somebody doesn't look at you neglects you and doesn't help you it's called anadara and at the same time every speech comes out only from him not only that anadara so what is anadara that he doesn't care he is not affected he is not disturbed he remains absolutely tranquil why because just like a person acting in a drama somebody insults so Girish Chandra Ghosh was acting as a drunkard and beating his wife black and blue you witness that scene and then you feel pity for that woman and then after that scene is over you rush to the green room what do you see so that woman and Girish Ghosh were laughing wholeheartedly how wonderfully you acted you rushed and say are you injured she says what injury what are you talking are you out of your mind it is all pretense i was my crying is also it is only a pretense it's an act part of the acting so everything is an acting that is why bhagavan is called Sri Ranganatha he's the master of the stage in south india it is the biggest temple in whole of india biggest temple and that is called Ranganatha temple so anadara means he knows i am everything so i am abusing myself and i am being i am the both the abuser and the abused i am the thief and i am stealing from myself this is what they call solitaire game poor fellow is only playing solitaire game so he doesn't have the organ of speech that means he cannot be expressed in any way ram krishna's famous saying to vidyasagar everything has become polluted because it came out of the mouth of a human being but not brahman so from a transactional point of view he is everything he has everything and he is both the subject and object so from a transcendental point of view he is beyond all these in this way in this second mantra both the nirguna and saguna aspects are described so we see the same thing you take up any sahasranama thousand names either vishnu or devi especially lalitha sahasranama so there are i think it is in the 47th verse it says the divine mother lalitha is being described hymned praised both the positive qualities and its opposite quality she is both she is saguna and she is also nirguna so nischinta she who is free from all doubts and anxieties nirahankara she who is without any egotism nirmoha who is free from false view of things mohanashani but who destroys all moha delusions nirmama who is a divide of self-interest no mamakara in any matter because she is everything so mamatha hantri for people like us she takes pity upon us in fact she is only taking pity upon her own self because i do not exist we do not exist only she exists mamatha hantri the destroyer of mamatha mamatha nishpapa who is absolutely sinless when is she sinless because there is no body mind but at the same time for people like us papanashani she who destroys all our papas that we have committed and that is called washing our babies and taking them into our lap after they were playing in the mud and are smeared over with mud all over what are we talking about the both saguna and nirguna not only that it continues in the 48th also nishkrodha krodhashamani nirlobha lobanashani nishamsaya samshayagni nirbhava bhavanashani nishkrodha who is without anger krodhashamani but who destroys the tendency very tendency for us to get angry nirlobha who is free from greed why is she free from greed because she has nothing to desire she has got everything so who can be greedy only a person who doesn't have but lobanashani at the same time she takes pity upon us by granting her vision by making us think we are everything she destroys every trace of greed from her devotees who surrender themselves to her then nishamsaya she doesn't have any doubts because she knows aham pramasmi samshayagni but for people like us she destroys all doubts nirbhava who is not born who is not in the samsara bhava means samsara bhavanashani but at the same time she destroys the bondage of this world let there be the world world is not a problem problem is whether we think that is real and then get ourselves caught in the net that is what is problem in the 49th again of what of lalitha sahasranama so nirvikalpa nirabhadha nirbheda bhedanashani nirnasha mrityu madhani nishkriya nishparigraha so nirvikalpa who is without any modification so nirabhadha who can never be sublated nirbheda who is beyond all differences but bhedanashani who destroys our agnana agnana is nothing but seeing differences nirnasha she is birthless and deathless but for her devotees she destroys the fear of death nishkriya she doesn't do anything nishparigraha he doesn't need any gifts so through these qualities the devotee is slowly made to progress that this nirguna brahma saguna brahma is one and the same as well in the avatara stotram the very first meaning of our mission of avatara is khandana bhava bandhana so we have seen these are some of the qualities that this we are getting in the second mantra we have to meditate upon it i do not exist my body is brahman's body my mind is brahman's mind my prana is brahman's prana my stola sharira sokshma sharira and karana sharira all belong only to him then we proceed to mantra number three

Mantra Number Three

evaadva sarshapadva shamakatva shamakatandulatva esama atma antar hrdaye jayaan prithivya jayaan antariksha jayaan divo jayaan ebhyo lokebhyaha so we have to meditate after progressing in some of the qualities as enumerated in the second mantra then we realize oh actually i am the atma so this is the english translation this is my atma where is this atman it is residing in the lotus of my heart as we have seen in this very chandogya that has been brahmapure this body is called brahmapura and there is a dhara akasha and we have to contemplate that brahman as i am that dhara akasha so the description where is that atman in my heart but then in what form it is you don't need to go anywhere so and whose atman is that it is not somebody else's atman is my own self residing in the lotus of my heart and the rishi is continuing it is smaller than a grain of paddy smaller than a barley corn smaller than a mustard seed smaller than a grain of millet or smaller than the kernel of a grain of millet that is to say this my atman residing in the lotus of my heart at the same time is greater than the earth greater than the sky greater than heaven greater than all these worlds so it is the smallest unit it is also the biggest unit that is to say brahman is everything is there something so small here small means subtle we have seen that in when we were studying katha upanishad so finer than the fine larger than the largest this myself hides in the secret heart of every creature when a man strips himself of will and is weaned from sorrow then he beholds his own self brahman purified from the mental elements he sees the greatness of the self-being so ma atma ishwara or panam atma atma brahman is my myself where is he the lord dwells in the heart of all beings oh arjuna and brahman and he is making everybody so i am not active is a beautiful example so many vegetables are put in water and the water is brought to boil and all the vegetables as if jumping up and down with awareness look how much i am jumping up and down but they do not know what makes them jump up and down is called prana in this case it is called the heat so remove the heat remove the fire they cannot do anything so remove the prana nothing happens remove the consciousness then we are inert people so he is dwelling in the hearts of everybody now it is too many mean you don't need to go search somewhere to vaikuntha kailasa he is available right here in your own heart only you reverse your vision instead of seeing outside you see try to see inside he is in the form of prajna prajna means pure consciousness in the collective he is in the in the form of prajna ishwara but in the form of the individual individual consciousness and universal consciousness what is his nature so he has given the grains of many subtle plants like rice barley mustard millet and even one smallest type of millet are themselves smaller ishwara is even smaller subtler than that but at the same time jayan prithivya jayan antarikshat jayan divaha jayan evya lokevya jayan evya sarvevya lokevya greater than the earth is greater than the bhuloka greater than the buharloka greater than the suvarloka in fact he contains within himself all the 14 worlds is a beautiful bengali song so who knows what mother is so the her stomach contains the whole universe sometimes shiva contains the whole universe he drank all the poison that came out of the milk ocean after it's being churned and all the people offered it and then he put it but he did not allow it to slip down his throat why because all the worlds will be destroyed so he kept it as a result he got the epithet neelakanthaha blue throated as if we say you know the baby has become blue that means it is going to die but in the case of shiva he has turned it to a beautiful ornament neelakanthaha so praman is greater than the greatest smaller than the smallest he is manifesting in the form of my body your body my mind your mind my three bodies everybody's three bodies both as the living as the non-living what is called jada and chaitanya so gradually meditate there inside inside my own heart in these qualities and as we progress in spiritual life as we approach brahman we also feel i am having the same qualities i am i am i am the as we have discussed in this third mantra maybe there is one more mantra is there it is a really a repetition of what we have already studied we will talk about it in our next class

Om jananim sharadham deviham

Ramakrishnam jagadgurum

bhaadapadmetayosritva

pranamami mohor mohoho

May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with bhakti.

Jai Ramakrishna.