Chandogya Upanishad Lecture 16 on 14 July 2024

Full Transcript (Not Corrected)

We are studying the Chandogya Upanishad and in our last class we have been dealing with the nature of Upasana. I gave two interpretations which is not mine but I only quoted. Either we can say that we are obtaining more and more knowledge and to that extent we are approaching God nearer and nearer. That is one way of putting. The same thing, another way of putting is that the ignorance, Ajnana is slowly being gotten rid of. By what? By the process of Upasana. A small illustration perhaps will clarify the meaning better. Suppose we are travelling in a train and you know in Europe we have tunnels, miles together especially in places like Switzerland. The train has entered into the tunnel and it is deep dark and for several minutes, maybe 5, 10, 15 minutes the train is going pitch dark but slowly you see a faint light and as the train is moving forward more and more light appears until it comes out of the panel completely. Now this is a very good illustration I thought because we can interpret it in two ways. As the train is approaching nearer and nearer we are able to see more and more light or we are able to or the darkness is becoming less and less. It is a simultaneous process and this is a point which beautifully has been discussed in Jeevan Mukti Viveka especially that does the knowledge of Brahman remove the Samsara instantaneously or one after the other. First comes light then comes removal of the Samsara. No, it is a simultaneous process. You strike a match in a dark room as soon as light comes and darkness disappears both take at the same time. Next question we will have to ask is can we do without Upasana? No, just as if we would like to reach the roof or want to climb a mountain then we have to take steps slowly one after the other. We approach the top exactly in the same way. There are Upasanas and as we discussed earlier from the devotional point of view Rupa Dhyana meditation on a particular form is the lower step and then Namo Upasana. Just you concentrate on the meaning of the Shabda word name of your chosen deity and that is much subtler actually because the limitations associated with the lower expressions are becoming less and less then further progress what is called Guna Upasana that is whatever opposing qualities inimical qualities worldly qualities are there they have to be gradually repressed and that is also as soon as light comes darkness disappears as soon as we obtain a little bit of a spiritual quality its opposite becomes less to that extent and then finally Swaroopa Upasana in the form of Sat Chit and Ananda even though it is mentioned as Swaroopa Upasana Swaroopa means its nature but nobody can talk about Brahman because even to say there must be somebody I am separate from Brahman and I want to know Brahman and I know what is the nature of Brahman that is called Swaroopa I am meditating upon it that is also falls under total ignorance only but that is the process we have to follow really speaking so this is how slowly slowly we have to progress at every step if you notice Upasana Rupa Upasana or Dhyana instead of Upasana the word used is Dhyana it is the same I will also give you some illustrations so from the gross to the subtle from subtle to the subtler subtler to the subtlest and then finally go beyond and the higher subtler includes the grosser also so this is how Upasanas help us and that is why when Totapuri first saw Sri Ramakrishna he was astonished you are fit for Sanyasa how did he come to know they have a special knowledge because he himself was one such so nobody can understand the other person unless we become equal to the other person only a great scientist like Einstein can understand Einstein a great musician like Beethoven can understand Beethoven and they must be absolutely equal otherwise anybody lower than a Beethoven can understand Beethoven only to the extent that one understands so that is why gradations are there so it is said a little bit reality is there fun also is there only eight people understood the special theory of relativity as proposed by Einstein so we have to apply these Upasanas and there are various Upasanas are there now here we are talking about what is called the Vedika or Vaidika Upasanas but as I mentioned earlier in my past classes now those Vedika Upasanas which are mostly consisting of nature means again we should not understand the meaning of nature as our contemporary scientists understand them our Vedic Rishis when they understand there is a heaven and hell difference between the understanding of Rishis for example when they see the earth is and the scientists say the earth earth is a inorganic matter it is lifeless matter similarly water fire air and what we call space but according to Rishis they are not lifeless in fact they are the cause of the entire universe and that which is the cause of the entire universe must be alive so the whole universe including me you a mosquito an amoeba living non-living mountains etc they are all coming only from this Panchadevdas therefore a mountain is not a mountain at all that is why Kalidasa excels he starts there is the king of all mountains he is called Himavan and this Himavan is not a lifeless piece of stone he is the very Devata and nowadays even scientists unable to understand but also not able to reject they say the architect areas nowadays because of the mistakes committed by being committed by ourselves it is creating global catastrophe and then the ice caps are melting and the consequences of this melting will be the destruction of millions and millions of people especially those who are living on the coastal side cities like New York etc they have been inundated with rising waters many times even now it is happening so it is said some of the cities like New York are already sinking why are they sinking because it's a disproportionate growth of the buildings etc and they are causing so much of weight there is no balance how much the earth can bear and especially some of the cities that are on the coastal areas so slowly sinking the sea levels are rising and we think it is a natural phenomena but according to the Rishis this is a what is called there are the whole creation as I mentioned earlier has been classified into like a triangle Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika these are inextricably related connected so if you take a triangle and take any angle and then shake it up all the other angles also will get affected it is just like Shri Ram Krishna was illustrating this so beautifully this interrelatedness anyhow that is how I understand it imagine in Bengal is full of ponds because every house even a poor house will also have a small pond so that they can grow fish etc of course that is where they take bath and wash their cloths utensils it is the lifeline for everything that they do and on this some kind of creeper grows and very soon is watery creeper it completely covers up the whole pond and it is all completely interconnected and Shri Ram Krishna says you pull any part of that creeper the whole creeper on the entire surface even if it is a huge tank it just comes out because whatever is related it has to come down that is how in a spiritual sense Upasana is understood Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika, Adhidaivika are inextricably connected and even though the scriptures do not explain in details when we are especially Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs we believe in Karmaphala and then what is the cause of this Karmaphala what actions whatever actions we have done in the past life that is true but the past life is over our bodies are gone new bodies have come but what is that principle which keeps a relation between what we did in the past and what is happening here as Karmaphala right now whether it is our parents our body our mind our society this is very very interesting subject for us it is a wonderfully spiritual subject do you think any event that is taking place anywhere whether it is floods or famines or droughts these are all happening as an isolated events maybe some of you are familiar with something called El Nino effect so there is there are certain atmospheric changes being made somewhere and as a result somewhere at a far distance either there are floods or droughts creating these things Karmaphala this is called Karmaphala now how do we connect Karma with Karmaphala in Vedanta it proposes a beautiful term it is called Apurva what is that Apurva it's a principle whereby the limited action done by anything living non-living etc that is connected with the consequence that happens somehow there is a principle which connects these two and brings to fructification at the right time at the right place in the right manner there are no what is called causeless actions everything is a cause everything is an effect and cause becomes effect effect becomes cause action becomes reaction reaction becomes action so the whole universe is interconnected and the first point when we turn to spiritual life is to cognize this fact that we are not isolated beings in this world that is why our karmas if they are selfish selfishness means we are totally isolated we think we are not related to anybody else that is called selfishness but selfishness will have its consequences so this is beautifully said that if we reject God God also rejects me this is beautifully put in the Brihadaranyika all this talk having these several points is dependent upon Yajnavalkya's teaching there that everything is interrelated and then he teaches to Maitreyi that if anybody thinks that Brahmana is separate from me Brahm means reject him anybody thinks I'm separate from Kshatriyas Kshatriyas will reject me if anybody thinks I'm different from everybody else everybody else will reject me they are not rejecting I am being rejected by my own action the moment I say I'm different from you I become completely isolated rejected by everything else but that is the root cause of all our problems selfishness is the root cause of all our problems and from that quality called selfishness spring up every kind of what we call Asuri Sampath a demonic qualities but what about Devi Sampath so if you recall the Gita teachings especially in the 16th so Ahimsa, Sathya etc all these qualities that are mentioned are related with the entire whole I should not injure anybody if I am not connected with somebody I cannot even injure him but we go on injuring and if I injure somebody then the result also will come how could it come because I may be mistaken thinking that I am separate from somebody but the divine law the cosmic law the whole cosmos is one which in Hindu view is divided as a triangle as I just now mentioned me the external world and the cosmic law all the presiding deities are functioning in the form of the cosmic law if we break the cosmic laws then we will be the sufferers we will have to pay heavy penalty which means suffering only and then in course of time we'll end our lessons if somebody because of good understanding right understanding does something a meritorious act remember punyam is always related with other people papam is always rejection of everybody else and especially I have to consider myself as the same as everyone else Buddha's greatest teaching is that I am everything that is why it is called also mistakenly it is a religion of morality as if God doesn't exist there foolishness cannot be further from truth than this now we are talking about upasana what is upasana our separating ourselves from our selfishness and is slowly moving forward towards cosmic unity and then slowly our understanding becomes better so I was giving the illustration of karmaphala as we know karmaphala is of two types what is called virtue and vice punyam and papam so if somebody has done something good then he earns virtue punya punyam comes in the form of the ability to enjoy to squeeze happiness under even the simplest or even negative conditions pop the opposite twice is the ability to squeeze suffering even under the best of the circumstances and most of us are foolish in that sense only compared to the rajas maharajas chakravartis kings emperors compared to the past great kings and queens etc even an ordinary person today is capable of enjoying the most marvelous things does anybody even 50 let us say 100 years back is able to speak with anybody even the next door neighbor even sometimes they're not able to call their servants because of which they died and now we can speak wherever there are people with some and it is called internet this word internet is what exactly I was trying to tell we are all connected in a net that is called interconnectedness internet or it is also called www world wide web what are we talking talking about upasana what is upasana gradually destroying our selfishness breaking away from selfishness progressing in unselfishness which is to say identifying with larger and still larger and still larger whole and after we finish this first khanda a first section of this first chapter of this chandogya upanisad where is udgita upasana is there then I want to give the illustration of panchagni vidya it is a marvelous something but the essence is the same that is to say every cause is universally cosmically related that is why it is called cosmic law every presiding deity is a cosmic law that is for example the sun so when when a scientist looks at the sun he says this is a burning gas but this burning gas as if it is lifeless becomes the cause of life and starting from the simplest form called amoeba to the highest saint or incarnation jesus buddha so ramakrishna ramakrishna etc how come that these scientists are not able to understand this simple fact that even among scientists there are such a huge brains an Einstein's brain is incomparable to most of the our brains combined all our brains combined non-einstein brains combined cannot come even one thousandth of Einstein's brain there was a beautiful anecdote when he was asked what is your greatest desire how do you want to lead your life he said always my desire is very simple a room a table a chair sufficient black white paper on which I can scribble notes and the absence of everybody else so that I have the time to think deeply and that is what he used to do most of his time though not really relevant for our purpose he was staying in an American university he fled away from Germany actually and immediately America's greatness they recognized this person accepted him granted him a place by the time of course he already published his theory of both relativity and special theory of relativity and many other papers also how space can warp itself and then he was a great man even though people didn't understand so he was given place to he and his family then slowly every day he used to walk to his university which is only walking distance and he wore the same coat for nearly 20 to 25 years see the man if he wanted every day he can buy a new coat but he didn't want to waste his time old coat is very familiar just as far as also old smell otherwise we don't get even sleep so he used to walk and sometimes the roads will be repaired and the workmen they were working and Einstein used to stand there and watch and then people saw this person is they did not recognize of course how do they know so they thought is an old man is retired and he walks every day for constitutional and then they used to look and there is a famous incident once the university gave a huge dinner in the name of Einstein and Einstein came a few minutes late later to that place where a reception is being held in his honor and the watchman or the security so they were expecting some big man with a fancy dress and all those things but simply he came shuffling his feet along with his old coat and then he said can I enter the man looked up and down and said no you can't enter there so he somehow Einstein convinced that fellow that there is a person called Einstein and he wants to talk with you I am not being admitted reluctantly the watchman went inside and as soon as he reported this the host and several others ran out oh we are fumbling we are so sorry we should have been waiting for you here to receive you please excuse this man of course he doesn't know you of course we there is no need to excuse because how could he know this person is an Einstein as he is after all a watchman only so there is a further twist there so he went there first class delicacies were all being given and then when the waiter came with all this then Einstein opened his pockets of his old coat and said please put there then they asked why because you know when I came with this address they did not I was not allowed to enter inside but only these people came so it is all because of this address so this poor fellow deserves better treatment than you have given to me anyway I'm just citing even among human beings how much of difference is there and what are these people doing they are studying astronomical causes astronomical relationships to the extent that is possible but even these scientists have not been able to penetrate so we give a beautiful example many swamis give this example take our sun it is nothing but burning gas but how how come this lifeless burning gas is creating world after world stars after stars so many planets after planets and the gravitational force that it exerts nothing can escape it is giving what is called agni devata is giving light it is giving heat and these two are the sources of life itself so it cannot be what we see the normal star but how come if you go beyond that how is that this sun has come were there galaxies before the sun has appeared on the horizon were were we there was the earth there nothing was there scientists are not very clear what happened but one thing is very clear what we see is the effect that effect will have some cause that cause will have a greater cause because the cause that we see is only an effect of something else of something else of something else of something until the whole universe is interconnected that is what this pancha devata system is connecting it is called the whole cosmic law at who who is the cause of this pancha devatas themselves that is none other than what is called atman the supreme reality sat-chit-ananda or satyam jnanam ananta so causes beyond cause our normal intellect can only penetrate to certain extent after that we need a special type of intelligence and that is called in our vedas and upanishads the medha and prayer has to be offered to again to this power of the sun god the devata inside the indweller inside the sun called gayatri and the sun incidentally is also praised as what is called the creator the entire creator of this entire cosmos that we know physically and there are so many other cosmoses which are subtler not available for the experience of our physical body that means organs even to the mind that is why it is said in the so there is also a beautiful what is called here in this sandhu chandogya upanishad itself it is called panchagni vidya vidya means knowledge not science but it is the supreme knowledge what is it every baby is coming from the highest celestial region in the form of the rain rain in the form of the cloud cloud pours down and then it enters into the earth and the earth produces the plant or plants and the plants are eaten by purusha or human beings or any purusha means any male creature and the seed produced as a result of this formation of the body is poured into the female counterpart and then a baby is born this is the first point we have to note down that is why it is called panchagni vidya and i will give that illustration later on i just want to complete something here so we think that the baby is just father and mother they came together and they had union and as a result the child has come up and these these are the causes no sir they there are invisible causes are there for apart from this gross cause which leads to subtle cause leads to some other cause the whole universe cosmos there is a cosmic law there is a cosmic lord cosmic deities who are interconnecting everything and then earlier i mentioned karma phala the result of karma who is connecting the result of what we have done not in past life but many many many past lives and who knows who has that intelligence which type of karma phala has to fructify at a particular point of time at a particular space in a particular life that is way from birth to death so how is this shape may be going to grow up what is he going to become and when is he going to or when is his body going to be falling down and so that he can continue his journey to the next stage like our we go to some airport and we enter into an aeroplane and we get down somewhere and catch our connecting plane etc etc these connections are there until the person reaches the destination so who is looking after it who is making this connection possible so here is baby born and here is karma phala and every minute of this baby's life is absolutely iron cladly bound but it has nothing to do with fatalism there is still freedom is there if we want we can struggle and we can get out of some things some things we can only get rid of a little bit some things we can get rid of everything by the grace of god but there is that vast amount of freedom that's what swamiji meant each soul is potentially divine so what is the upasana an upasana is one which gives us the understanding and identity to understand the higher truths or higher causes until we understand that the only real one cause of this entire creation is none other than the supreme soul called brahman and really there is no creation as i mentioned in yesterday's class it is only manifestation creation means separation manifestation means appearance these are the two vadas are there theories are there one is called parinama vada really there is a creation another is called ivarta vada like a snake being seen even though it is nothing but a rope only a mere appearance these are profound ideas unraveled by the practice of upasanas so i have given you there are many points are there but i have given you some important points what is it we cannot become one with brahman or our true nature until we go step progress step by step and integrate oneself into the cosmic whole i become bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until i become the ultimate brahman means that is the biggest and that is our goal to realize brahman to know that i am brahman so the more we are progressing as a consequence the more moral life kicks in what is moral life identifying oneself with a larger whole so that just as we do not wish to suffer we do not wish my bigger self also to suffer so i will not do anything that we will make cause suffering it means if i cause suffering to somebody else then i am causing suffering to my own self because i am the other there is no a real other tat tvam asi this mahavakya can be also interpreted you see a dog so somebody comes and says tat tvam asi you are that dog you see a donkey i am that donkey you see a tree i am that tree and you see a house i am that house you see a mountain i am that mountain you see a river i am that river this gradually identifying ourselves with large larger and largest whole and becoming whole growing bigger growing bigger is called spiritual progress until there is no further we become one with ananta infinity that is the meaning process usefulness of this upasana and just before i give go further about the upasanas i want to dwell straight away the very first chapter first khanda it has got 10 mantras so it starts like om it etat aksharam udgetam upasita omiti hyudgayati tasyopapyakhyana so especially these sacrifices are being maintained by the rishis at that time om etat aksharam the very meaning of the word om what is this om etat aksharam the word akshara in sanskrit has two meanings one is the syllable a b c d etc or in sanskrit we we have got 52 syllables and alphabet is there this is the beginning but the very first one according to hindu hinduism is akara because that akara the lung power the air in the lung when it enters into the sound box the very first striking of this forcible striking of this air coming from the lungs striking the sound box the very production is called akara and as it goes it becomes higher in pitch it becomes oh and finally it ends with the closing of the lips which is called makara oh so this is one meaning the syllables alphabet but this akara is called akshara what is akshara means that which deviates from its nature akshara means that which always remains without the slightest change so that is the akshara is there anything in this world which remains the same no this creation means subject to time space and causation time means changing every millisecond in fact there is not even one single smallest bit of time when it remains stable like a river flowing river is a great philosopher he said no man steps into the same river twice so akshara means brahman another name that is why in the 15th chapter of the bhagavad-gita so this akshara means indestructible which is brahman indestructible because destruction can happen only from an outside source since infinity doesn't have anything any second thing there is no reason why or how it can be destroyed or it can be changed from its very nature so this akshara is both a syllable and at the same time it is the greatest symbol for meditation as i said yesterday both for the personal brahman saguna brahma as well as impersonal brahman nirguna brahma and this onkara has to be uttered here we are not talking about the meaning of onkara the shabda of onkara the very sound of the onkara uth gita that means with power with strength means to sing remember this is chandogya upanishad a singable or singing rigvedic mantra is called samaveda so whenever sacrifices are there there are certain people who's who has learned how to sing this particular samaveda and the whole chandogya upanishad is nothing but part of the samaveda so loudly singing the onkara and it produces its own tremendous effect omiti hudgayati whenever a sacred ceremony takes place inevitably the singer of this is called also udgata and this udgata's business is to sing this samaveda and in the entire essence of the samaveda is the onkara so this is the meaning of this very first mantra one should chant the om as loudly as possible not contemplating on the meaning but more on the sound itself that itself has tremendous effect and the rest of the nine mantras here the chandogya mantras are elaboration of this one and then he says what is the speciality of this onkara so he says he starts with see we are all creatures created beings and how did we come about from our parents and what are our parents made up of prithvi means because the father is food mother is food in fact mother is food for a baby for a long time in every sense of the term but father and mother both are food i gave a little bit funny expression to it so when a hungry tiger looks at my mother or at my father or your father your mother your grandfather and incidentally even the tigers have acute sense they can also distinguish between which is tasty food and which is not so tasty so if you are walking with your grandpa a model most likely it will attack you because you are young plumpy tasty and it wants of course if it is not sufficient then next choice will be your grandfather so we are all born of this earth earth means what food prithvi the element of earth means food we are all food we are referring to the here the chandogya is referring to the body we are all coming we are bodies coming out of the bodies the bodies are made up of food so this is what he wants to say esham bhutana bhutana means all the creatures especially the living creatures even the non-living mountains also come out of the earth only so prithvi rasaha what is the essence of all of us prithvi here prithvi means what prithvi means earth earth means we have to understand as food prithvi aha apo rasaha but what is the essence of all the food rasa you masticate your food and then make it very liquid state and then you squeeze all the vitamins all the proteins carbohydrates and micro elements whatever it is all these things are there so what is the essence of the food apaha water this is the famous reference to the what is called pancha bhuta vidya the knowledge about the five elements because as we understand please recollect that atman is manifesting at the subtlest form without nama without rupa etc without any distinction you cannot even properly meditate upon it in the form of space and space is too much to think about it is almost like atman but the space becomes more grossified that means more what is called understandable by us in the form of what is called vayudevata the god of air vayu means prana prana means hiranyagarbha and then he becomes more manifest in the form of agni that is the sun the moon etc and the agni becomes even more grossified it becomes water and water becomes even more grossified and that is called the earth and what is the earth all the plants etc food actually and we eat the food our parents eat the food and then they digest it and the essence of that food becomes semen in both the male and female so the union of these two that is what we what scientifically they call x chromosomes y chromosomes z chromosomes etc male female etc so here the water is the essence in fact water is the mother the parent of the earth and now until this only the first mantra is taking how does this water manifest itself oshadayo rasaha it becomes plants plants means the vital elements for making life possible that is called oshadi that means all the plants very wonderful word oshadi means medicine so just as we have we are suffering continuously from a disease called hunger hunger is the disease which will deplete our life kill us but there is a medicine for it that is called eating food so oshadis means medicine and the medicine comes in the form of rasa essence and all the essences of these plants together when we eat what does they become purushaha you me here purusha means not the male purusha means the living creature any living creature so they become purushaha and what is the essence of purusha so purushasya vakrasaha vak speech speech is the essence of the purusha because if a person is simply keeping quiet not opening his eyes not opening his mouth and what is this fellow what does he want and why is he sitting quiet nobody can understand so the expression a knowledge must come only out of speech so speech as it were is the very essence of the purusha of course speech means what speech means thought thought means what knowledge knowledge is the essence of the purusha and this speech vak is called vachaha vigrasaha rigveda how the upanishad is taking us from the smaller to the highest so is rigveda and the essence of the rigveda what is the essence of speech rigveda rigveda means what finally the knowledge if anybody were asked who are you and then he has to if he says i am xyz he is wrong that is not veda veda means to know veda means knowledge veda means right knowledge but this is not right knowledge this is wrong knowledge what is right knowledge i am the atman i am brahman that is the right knowledge and ricaha this some of the important mantras from the rigveda are taken because they are very singable by their very composition and therefore they become they are called samaveda samaveda is nothing but more than 90 their bodily lifted from the rigveda only but in a particular way what you call like the modern some people write a song cinema song and somebody will compose music to it and then put it in the musical way so that the singer and the accompaniments can become harmoniously exhibited so samaveda is the way of singing is beautiful rigvedic mantras in a sing-song way so as if samaveda is the very essence of the rigveda and what is the essence of the samaveda samaveda samanah udgeetho prasaha this udgeetha which is mentioned in the very first one omit yata raksharam udgeetham upasita so this udgeetha is the very essence of the samaveda and what is the essence of the udgeetha om om om om is the essence of the samaveda because hindus believe the whole creation has come out of the vedas that is why the god the creator brahma is represented by the four vedas chatur mukha brahma what are the chatur chatu means four four-faced brahma what is four faces four classified vedas veda is only one but as we know yasadeva had divided the existing knowledge it is too huge for any single person so he divided into four and then he had four disciples they're a little bit less capable than yasadeva so he gave one one veda and the disciples that gathered to his four disciples were even less capable so he had to divide it into what is called branch or shaka and thus according to the capacity of the students it became divided furthermore divided furthermore divided then selfishness entered and finally the whole thing had so many things have disappeared completely because they don't want to teach this to anybody else excepting to their own family members maybe there are no family members but the person was not willing to pass it on to others that is called selfishness that is what swamiji said intense selfishness and then finally beneath with the death of that particular person he's rather happier to die without passing it on rather than passing it on so this is how it has become now what we receive if they say even not even one hundredth of what we have lost anyway it's a beautiful analysis what is the cause rasa means essence essence means cause so what is the cause of everything ultimately veda rigveda and rigveda's cause is samaveda samaveda is squeezed into essence summary is udgita udgita summary is omkara and this omkara is everything what a beautiful way of doing upasana this is a upasana we will talk about it in our next class om jananim sharadam devim ramakrishnam jagat gurum pada padme tayo saritva pranamami muhurmoho may ramakrishna holy mother and swami vekananda bless us all with bhakti jai ramakrishna