Chandogya Upanishad Lecture 90 on 30 March 2025

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM JANANIM SHARADAM DEVIM RAMAKRISHNAM JAGAD GURUM PADAPADMETAYOH SRIDHVA PRANAMAMI MUHURMUHU OM APYAYANTUM AMANGANIVAG PRANASCHAKSHUH SHROTRAM ATHO BALAM INDRIYANICHA SARVANI SARVAM BRAHMAHU PANISHADAM MAHAM BRAHMANIRA KURIYAM MAMA BRAHMANIRA KARO ANIRA KARANAM ASTVA NIRA KARANAM ME ASTU TADATMANI NIRATE YAUPANISHAD SU DHARMA TE MAI SANTU TE MAI SANTU OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI HA RE HE OM 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. I am engaged in the pursuit of the Self. May they repose in me. OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL In our last class, more or less we have finished the last which is the 26th section in the 7th chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad very aptly named as Bhumananda or Brahmananda. We have been discussing what happens to such a realized soul. A realized soul who knows I am Brahman and then not only he knows I am Brahman, everybody is Brahman, everything is Brahman. This whole universe which we see as multiple and separate and ever changing shortly called Maya is also nothing but Brahman. Brahman looked through the prism of the mind which prism is limited by time, space and causation that is that Brahman appears as one, as three, as five, as seven. In other words everything is Brahman. So that is what is said here. Such a person he becomes Ananda Swaroopa Sarvam Aapnoti Sarvashaha. He becomes, he attains, he obtains everything at the same instant. That means he becomes identified in the whole universe as what? As I am Brahman. This universe which I have been thinking was separate. It is a vikara. It is a, it is an effect and it has a cause and God or Brahman is the cause. No, but I know I am the cause. I am everything. So just to remind ourselves how do we understand this concept. That's why dream example which we studied so elaborately in the Mandukya Upanishad is very very useful. Let us recollect. Supposing you have a dream and just as things happen in the waking state so also you get the same thing. Nothing will be different in the dream state. Only thing that happens is in the waking state most people can see physical objects. Nobody can see of course our thoughts, our mind but in our dream we are seeing the whole universe exactly like in the waking state but nobody can see. Nobody can know what we are dreaming about but they can understand what dreams we had next morning. How? If our mood is bad that means we had bad dreams. Upon waking up if people find us broadly smiling and reacting very nicely that means we had sweet dreams but only every individual knows the dream is a private experience but what is important crucial point in this is in the dream, the whole dream some events which are pleasant and unpleasant events also take place. Somebody praises you, somebody criticizes you, hurts you, harms you, cheats you but you act and react exactly as you are reacting in the waking state and you have judgments. This person is bad, that person is good, this event is very pleasant, that event is not pleasant exactly like in the waking state but upon waking up what is the difference? Oh! This is all my creation, my imagination. That is where sometimes I make fun. At least why don't you have some good dreams? After all it is your imagination. Train your imagination and I went to Ramakrishna Loka or Kailasa. I have seen Shiva, had a talk with Shiva. Mother looked at me so graciously or if you wish I went to Jayarambatti and there was nobody. Mother fed me sumptuously with her own hands and she had solved all every problem of mine and I never knew such kind of happiness any time. So in our imaginations a whole dream is nothing but my creation which means I am the creator and the same experience this Brahma Jnani realized soul will have. May eva sakalam jatam, mayi sarvam pratishtitam, may eva sarvam layam yati. Kaivalya Upanishad if you remember. So this is what is meant sarvam apnoti sarvasaha and such a person he doesn't see anything, no dukkha, no unhappiness, no birth, no death but on the other hand what was he doing? We have seen it in our last or yesterday's class that earlier he was thinking that I have to meditate upon nama brahman, vak brahman, mano brahman, prana brahman etc. 15 upasanas. What is upasana? An aspirant thinking that I am not for example Indra but I would like to be Indra so that I can enjoy like Indra. Indrasya anandaha mama anandam syat. So let Indra's happiness be my happiness. With that desire he will do intense upasana. What happens? He becomes one with Indra. What happens? He will not say I am seeing Indra, I am watching Indra, I am talking with Indra. No, I am Indra. He doesn't even say I have become Indra. He says Indra is my manifestation and that is what at the end also we have seen this skandha, shanmukha, kartikeya. He incarnated as sanat kumara or sanat kumara incarnated as skandha. How do we say that? Because after realization one becomes Shiva and after realization whether you say I have created Shiva, I became Shiva or Shiva says I have created such and such a one and I have become one with him. It doesn't really matter because it is brahman. Everything is brahman. Everything is me. So he says previously this 15 upasanas. So instead of starting from nama ending with prana he starts with prana and ends with nama etc. So he says atmataha pranaha, atmataha asha, atmataha smara. So he enumerates all the 15. Only as I mentioned yesterday there are two. They are called atmataha avirbhava tiro bhava just as when we wake up from the dream we realize I manifested as the dream and when the dream came to an end I unmanifested myself. Me the waker became the dreamer and then after some time I came back to my own state. Avirbhava means manifestation. Tiro bhava means non-manifestation. So this is I have no birth, I have no death. So everything annam, balam, ignanam, dhyanam, chittam, sankalpaha, manaha, bhak, nama everything came out of me. The whole universe has come from me and then what does it mean? Atma eva idam sarvam. Everything is nothing but atman only. So now Sanat Kumara is teaching Narada. After gnanam, the jnani says all the 15 items starting from nama ending with prana including the pancha bhutas, remember akasha etc which I meditated upon as though they were all separate from me, outside me and I have become united with them after meditation. But after the realization they are all in me and they have originated from me. Without me they cannot exist. I can exist without them. This is what Kaivalya Upanishad mayyeva sakalam jatam mayi sarvam pratishtitam mayi sarvam layam yati. This is the idea we get in the sarvamangala stotram. Srishti sthiti vinashanam shakti bhute sanatani guna shreya gunamayi narayana namah sthute. So previously I was thinking I am in this world. I am a very very very tiny being not even noticeable. So the world, what is it? I am in the world. I belong to the world. I am helpless. The world is the ruler. The world is the master. I am only a slave because sita ushna, cold and heat, honor and dishonor, birth and death, everything made me extremely unhappy, hesitated. But now what do I say after this vision? I do not say I am in the world. The world is in me. What does the I mean? Pure consciousness, chaitanya. That's why earlier we discussed if you remember Brahman is in the front, in the back, above, below. Then I am in the front, in the back, above, below. All those qualities were applied quietly. Brahman has been transformed into I and not only that. When I become Jeevan Muktha, I become what is called Atma. My Atman is everything and Atman and Brahman are not different. This is where I quoted the dream example that hopefully helps us. So from the practice of Shravana, Manana, Nidhidhyasana, get the mantra from the Guru, practice it, pray, obtain that Siddhi or that knowledge, Smriti from God by the grace of God. Then all those 15 items mentioned beginning with Nama, ending with Prana, they are nothing but my manifestations. Means what? I am the Lord. But just one small example, Akasha is there. Meditation upon Akasha. What are the qualities of Akasha? It is infinite, it is indivisible, it is unattached, it is all-pervading. So if I meditate upon Akasha, what do I become? I become like sky or space, omnipresent but I am indivisible. I become the infinite space and everything will be in me. Everything is in me. Previously I am in space, now space is in me. So a person who realizes, he who perceives God everywhere. He has only one thought, everything is Brahman. He knows there is nothing other than Brahman, other than I, other than the Atman. What does he get? Then he escapes. That is what? What does he get? Moksha. Moksha, Brahmananda, Paramananda, Bhumananda, etc. So what is this Moksha? It is not running away from the world. Just as Shankara condensed the whole essence of the scriptures, Brahma Satyam, that is God alone is real, in Sri Ramakrishna's words, Jaganmithya, this world is, it means it is impermanent. No, I was thinking it is impermanent because I was ignorant. Everything is permanent because everything is Brahman. If Brahman is permanent, there cannot be anything non-permanent. Brahman is infinite, there cannot be anything which is finite, which is divisible and which is limited, which is changing also. There cannot be any such thing. Brahman is what is called Achyuta, he who never changes. So everything is a Leela. This vision is called first, in Sri Ramakrishna's words, first it means Nitya, reach the Nitya. He gave a brilliant example, a person wants to negate, this is not the roof, this is not the roof, this is the first floor, this is not the roof, this is the second floor, this is not the roof, but once he reaches the roof, he has that knowledge. Whatever material, the roof is made up of, the same material pervades, first the last, next floor, below floor and floor below that, floor below that, even if it is 150 stories building, everything is nothing but bricks and cement, etc. in Sri Ramakrishna's words. So not only that, at last there is also something called Mantra in that 15. Mantra means what? Vedas, because from Mantras means that which is used in Karmakanda, Karmani, the basis of Karma in the Mantra. Mantra are the means by which, with the help of which we have to do all the, what is called Karmakanda prescribed Karmas, rituals, etc. But then this man, realized soul realizes all the Vedas, that is what in the 15th chapter, we have seen that I am the author of all the Vedas, I am the knower of all the Vedas, I am the manifester of all the Vedas, so I know everything. So Vedahmetam, there is a beautiful word Vedaham, I know what is Veda, I know I am Brahman. So even the Vedas arise out of me and then all the activities, what is the point of all the activities? I am lacking something, by this activity I obtain something, what is that something? Finally only Ananda, only bliss, nothing else. So all the Vedas, all knowledge, all the Upanishads, all the scriptures, everything arise from me and the goal of all these Vedas, etc. is to remind me that I am not a limited being. So Sanat Kumara, he goes on mentioning, says Atmanah in the end, what does he say? Having mentioned those 15, Atmanah, Pranah, etc., then he concludes after mentioning a few, Atmanah eva idam sarvam iti, from Atman, which means from Brahman, which means from me, everything is nothing but me, my manifestation. Just as a person who reached Turiya Vastha, I am the waker, I am the dreamer and I am the sleeper. Then a quotation or a shloka, shloka means from Rig Veda. All Vedas in the beginning were only one Veda but Veda Vyasa divided because our capacity or his disciple's capacity to grasp them was very limited and therefore he divided the existing knowledge called Veda into four parts and each Veda he gave to somebody. But the essence, that is why in the Brahma Sutras, the whole thing, especially the fourth Sutra is called Samanvaya Adhyaya. Samanvaya means harmony. There is no contradiction between one Vedic statement and another Vedic statement. Only language might differ, expression might differ but the teaching, the essence remains absolutely same. So here, it is quoted here, sarvam apnoti sarvasah, which we have been discussing already, that means a realized soul, he becomes identified, knows that I am Brahman and then at the same time he identifies himself with everything in this world and then he becomes, obtains Brahmananda and never for a second he is separated from the Ananda. The infinite can never become finite. That is the idea. Now, I want to remind you again, even though I have reminded, all these descriptions that what happens when a person obtains Moksha, what happens, what is the result when a person knows he is Brahman, all these ideas are only a person who is still a sadhaka. That means he is in this world. That means he thinks I am the body, I am the mind. Even though from the scriptural point of view, he goes on telling, naaham dehi, mano buddhyahankara chittani na aham, he goes on telling, shivoham shivoham, he goes on telling. But realization has not come. It is only what is called shramana knowledge. It is only manana knowledge, not nididhyasana knowledge. So, from his viewpoint, there will be some incentive should be there. Oh, if I realize Brahman, then I will realize all the happiness that belongs to Brahman belongs to me. So, there is a beautiful example given in many of the scriptures. Supposing there is an ocean and every ocean will have waves and every wave is broken into small number of bubbles and different bubbles are there, small bubble, big bubble, etc. So, so long as this wave is comparable to each individual baddha jiva, bound jiva, thinking I am none other than this body and mind. So, when a wave, if it has consciousness and if someone were to ask that what are you, I am a wave, I am a very small wave and if a big wave comes, I cannot stand it and it submerges me, that means it kills me, just like a robber takes away all our properties like that. But the moment that same wave, here sadhaka shifts the vision and then says instead of saying I am a small wave, I am helpless wave, I am a poor wave, what does it say? So, it says I am not the wave, but it says I am the water. When it says I am the water, it doesn't merely, it doesn't deny I am the wave, it says I am the wave also, I am the bubble also, I am the river also, I am the pond also, I am the poodle also, I am the ocean also. In fact, it says I am not the ocean, I am not in the ocean, the ocean is in me, I pervade the entire ocean. In fact, there is no ocean other than me. Why? What does that, other than me means what? It is called mortality. Mortality means limitedness, finiteness which is completely changing. So, it doesn't belong to me. In fact, it doesn't belong to anybody. It is only ignorance where people think I am not Brahman, I am Brahma, so he is free. What happens? Such a realized soul becomes free from all the problems because problems are what? That person cheats me, that person loves me, so that water, that wave loves me and the other wave hates me. No, because I am the water, the wave which I thought hates me is myself like in our dream and the wave that I think loves me is none other than myself. So, all these are bubbles of thoughts, vrittis rising in the lake. Swamiji fondly gives this chitta vritti, so like that in a lake you throw a pebble, a pebble is the thought of an object and that brings repercussions, it goes on spreading all over more and more waves etc. So, but when this person understands I am not the pebble, I am not the wave, I am the ocean. This is a beautiful example for us to understand. So, when a Jnani understands himself as the non-dual Jagat Karanam, I am Brahman, the whole universe is nothing but a play. I am imagining I have become the earth, I have become the waters, I have become the fire, I have become the air, I have become the space. No, it is all nothing but that. So, what is the essence? He becomes a Brahma Jnani and he remains in what is called an ocean of bliss, Brahmananda, that is called Bhumananda. But a person who does not have this realization, what happens? So, this person is just the opposite. What is the opposite? He sees dukkha, he sees roga and he sees everything as separate, not identical and then all problems come from this vision of limitedness. Then it is said that what is this universe? Again, I am reminding you. It is an explanation from our mind's point of view. So, when my mind completely merges in Nirvikalpa Samadhi, I remain even that description. I am one. That is also from our viewpoint only, language point of view only. So, that is described for our illumination. He is the one only. He was the one, he is the one, he will be the one and remaining as one, not changing, remaining. What does he do? He becomes or manifests as 3-fold, 5-fold, 7-fold, 9-fold, 11-fold, 110-fold, 1020-fold. What does this mean? That means all the finite things that we see in this world from different viewpoints are said 3, 5, 7 and some commentators have tried to give a bit of meaning for this. So, when Brahman is not thinking about the manifestation, then he is Nirvikalpa, Nirvisesha, Nirguna Brahman. So, it is one. Again remember, it is from our standpoint. But when the same one becomes Srishti, manifestation, and the whole manifestation in our Vedantic scriptures is divided into 3, Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika and Adhidaivika. The whole creation is divided into 3, each individual and whatever the individual experiences, that is called the external world or the Adhibhautika. And the person who experiences is called Adhyatmika. And not only that, he experiences that I am a separate individual, everyone is a separate object from me. I am an object, I am one among the countless objects. So, such a person is called Adhyatmika. But if the same person, whatever he is experiencing is called Adhibhautika. But when the same person thinks there is a unity, somebody rules over me, who knows what is outside, what is within me and facilitates every experience. For example, there is a tree outside me. Where? Outside. That is called Adhibhautika. And it is a, let us say, a green tree. Now, I am a human being, let us say, I am the Adhyatmika and the tree that I see and especially the fruit I see is Adhibhautika. But for me to experience that tree, God has given me five sense organs. So, through the eye, I see the form. So, the sun is necessary to light up the whole universe and then he also manifests as my power of seeing. So, the same Devata, which is called usually Surya Devata or Hiranyagarbha, what does he do? He is manifesting as the manifester in the form of light and heat. So, he illumines this world, which is consisting of Shabda, Sparsha, Rupa, Rasa, Gandha. And then what does he do? He gives us five sense organs. And then through these five sense organs, all the five sense organs require their respective lights. A light, which we usually call light, is only related to the eye. So, if there is no light, it is darkness. Darkness means my eye cannot see. Eye is there, the object is there, but I can't see. Then Surya comes out, that means light is there. Imagine the same thing, apply the same thing to the other four sense organs. So, if I have to hear something, then space is necessary. If I have to feel something, air is necessary. Then if I have to see a form, it is called Agni. Agni means light. If I have to taste something, then water is necessary. That's why it is called Rasa. Rasa means taste. And if I have to smell something, it is called the essence of Bhudevata or Prithi Devata is called fragrance, Gandha. So, God manifests in the form of Panchadevatas or Panchabhutas and He gives light in the form of sound, form, taste, touch, smell. So, through that, He rules us. That means He controls. If the sun goes down, we can't see. If we sleep, then we can't hear, etc. So, these are the threefold, Adhyatmika, Adhibhautika, Adhidaivika. Then what about the five? If God is conceived, Brahman is conceived as Panchabhutas from whom the whole body, mind and world complex has come, so Panchabhutas, five elements, a combination of unmixed Sukshmabhutas and mixed Sthulabhutas, then Brahman is manifesting as fivefold. What is the sevenfold? When we look at our body, it is called Saptadhatu. What are the seven? According to Ayurveda, the whole body is consisting of Saptadhatus, seven fundamental body tissues. What are they? Rasa, Rakta, Mamsa, Medha, Asthi, Madhya and Shukra. What does it mean? Rasa means plasma or lymph fluid. Rakta, we know blood. Mamsa means flesh or muscles. Medha means fat. Asthi means bones. Madhya means the marrow which keeps the bones functional and alive. When the marrow becomes dried up, then we have all sorts of rattling problems will come, romantic problems will come. Then Shukra, that is the reproductive fluid in the form of semen, in the form of egg, etc., in the females. These are the seven which constitute what we call the body. So, Brahman has become these seven elements and through that he is manifesting as the body of not only human beings, every being, including the amoeba, maybe in a minute proportion. And they say Brahman manifests as ninefold. What does it mean? If we can think of Brahman in the form of five sense organs and four parts of the mind, five sense organs we know, the eyes, the ears, the nose and the tongue and the skin. But what are the four subdivisions of the mind? Chitta, first Manas, then Chitta, then Buddhi, then Ahamkara. Four, we have talked about that also. Five plus four, nine. So, what are we talking? In whatever way we talk, it is nothing but Brahman. Then what about the elevenfold? Ten organs, five of knowledge, five of action, plus the mind. Then the Upanishad doesn't say it is hundred and tenfold. So, there are some people, perhaps I don't know, that who divide the whole universe into 110 divisions. If that is their point, it is nothing but Brahman. And there are some people who want to show their scholarship and they want to say that no, no, these are all not complete, incomplete divisions, but really Brahman manifests as 1020 fold. I don't know how they have counted them, but it means that according to the person's perceptive capacity, he thinks of Brahman. And what is the beauty? We can meditate upon Brahman as any of these mentioned things. But all that manifoldness mentioned here is only categorizing of the one Brahman, one Bhuma and nothing else. And there is no division also. This is living, this is non-living, that is Jada and Chetana. There is no such thing. And all Lokas, whether it is Brahmaloka or Patalaloka, nothing but manifestation of Brahman only. So, this is how one can perhaps contemplate on Brahman if one wants in a different way. And this is just telling. But the essence is that a person who realizes Brahman, he obtains everything. But how to attain to that state? Then, when nourishment is pure, reflection and higher understanding also becomes pure. When reflection and higher understanding are pure, memory becomes fixed, undeviating. What is the memory? When memory becomes strong, when a person remembers I am Brahman, all the knots of the heart, they will be cut asunder. We have seen in the Mundaka Upanishad earlier. So, what is this food business? People like Ramanujacharya think the physical food, the eatables, they must be pure. That means they must be free from doshas, etc. But Shankaracharya says, no, that is too limited meaning. Whatever we are experiencing through our five sense organs, all that must be pure. What we see must be pure. But can we see only pure things? When eyes are open, do they have a special mechanism? Something is impure, I can close it or especially the ears? No. What it means is, see the same thing in a spiritual light. This is what Sri Ramakrishna gives as an example. One day he said, I have seen what is called a male dog and female dog, that is having sex intercourse. He looked at it and then he said, Shiva and Gauri, they are having union. So see, he is seeing only Shiva there. And that is why our Shivalinga also, after reading some books written by Westerners, so many people say it is an agricultural symbol. It is a representation, symbol of fertility of the field. Just like man and woman, they unite. Some people get children, some don't. So the fields must yield. So this Shivalinga represents the male phallus and what surrounds it represents the female. Nothing could be further from the Vedantic point of view. It is the union of Prakruti and Purusha. There must be consciousness. There must be also the instrument called body and mind. Then only this world can be experienced. So that is the meaning of it. So all the food that enters in the form of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches must be looked upon as pure. That is why we have to develop that habit. That is why, बद्रम् कन्नेविः शुन्याम देवाः बद्रम् पश्येम अक्षविः जित्राः So, O Lord, through all these ensargments, let us see what is pure. What happens? That person attains, such a person attains. Which person? Who sees Brahman everywhere, that all the Granthis, the knots of the heart get broken. Granthi, in Ramakrishna's pun, Grantha or is it Granthi? When a person studies some big book and then understands, his egotism grows, that ism comes in the form of a PhD, etc. So he says Grantha or Granthi. Granthi means a knot, that which limits our vision, that which swells our Ahankara, that which makes us lose the sight of reality, that's called Granthi. And these knots of the heart are called Avidya, Kama and Karma. Every knot of the heart, every bondage, in Shankara's words, Avidya, Kama and Karma. Avidya means ignorance. Ignorance produces the idea, I am the body and mind and that produces various lacks, desires. I want this, I want that and all the time and that produces different activities. So Avidya, Kama and Karma. These bonds are also called Granthis and in Tantra, etc. they are called Brahma Granthi, Vishnu Granthi, Rudra Granthi, etc. Psychological knots by which we are tethered to earthly experiences. So in the Bhakti Yoga, I just want to briefly return. This is what Swami says about commenting on this Ahara, Shuddha, Sattva, Shuddhi. He says Viveka discrimination according to Ramanuja is discriminating among other things, the pure food from the impure. So according to Ramanuja, food becomes impure from three causes, by the nature of food itself, as in the case of onion, garlic, etc. That is the natural dosha. Then second, when the same food, even good food, comes into touch with an impure person or adharmic person, then definitely it becomes impure. That is why Shri Ramakrishna could not touch the things given by some people. That is the second defect in the food. Third is, there may be some physical things mixed up like dirt, hair and many other things, etc. So the Shrutis are telling, if the food is pure, the Sattva element gets purified and the memory becomes unwavering. Ramanuja quotes this from the Chandogya Upanishad, Swami Vivekananda's illuminating dialogue. The question of food has always been one of the most vital with the Bhaktas. Apart from the extravagance into which some of the Bhakti sects have run, there is a greater truth underlying this question of food. We must remember, and Swamiji is explaining here, according to the Sankhya philosophy, the Sattva, Rajas and Tamas, which in the state of homogeneous equilibrium form the Prakruti and in the heterogeneous disturbed condition form what we call this world, this universe. So Prakruti and Purusha are both the substance and the quality of Prakruti. As such, they are the materials out of which every human form has been manufactured and the predominance of the Sattva material is what is absolutely necessary for spiritual development. And the materials which we receive through our food into our body structure go a great way to determine our mental constitution. Therefore, the food we eat has to be particularly taken care of. However, in this matter, as in many other matters, the fanaticism into which the Bhaktas invariably fall is not to be laid at the door of the masters or the Rishis or the scriptures. And this discrimination of food is, after all, of secondary importance. Why? The very same passage quoted above is explained by Shankaracharya in his Bhashya in a different way, by giving an entirely different meaning to the word Ahara, translated generally as food. According to Shankaracharya, that which is gathered in Ahriyate, that is called Ahara, food. The knowledge of the sensations such as sound, shabda, sparsha, droop or sagandha. I am adding a few of these words for clarification. So sound, etc. is gathered in for the enjoyment of the enjoyer, all of us. The purification of the knowledge which gathers in the perception of the senses is the purifying of the food. So the word purification of food means the acquiring of the knowledge of sensations untouched by the defects of attachment, aversion and delusion. Such is the meaning. In other words, look upon every experience as Brahman. Therefore, such knowledge or Ahara being purified, what happens? The Sattva material of the possessor, that is all of us, the internal organ, mind, will become purified. And the Sattva being purified, an unbroken memory of the Infinite One who has been known in His real nature from scriptures will result. These two explanations are apparently looking conflicted and both are true and necessary. The control of the grosser is absolutely necessary to enable one to arrive at the control of the finer. The beginner, therefore, must pay particular attention to all such dietic rules as have come down from the line of their accredited teachers. But the extravagant, meaningless fanaticism which has driven religion entirely to the kitchen, as may be noticed in the case of many of our sects, without any hope of the noble truth of that religion ever coming out to the sunlight of spirituality, is a peculiar sort of pure and simple materialism. And then Swamiji goes to make fun. It is neither Jnana nor Bhakti nor Karma. It is a special kind of lunacy and those who pin their souls to it are more likely to go to lunatic asylums than to Brahma Loka. Swamiji continues. Then comes Shankaracharya who says this word Ahara means thought collected in the mind. When that thought becomes pure, Sattva becomes pure and not before that. You may eat what you like. Then Swamiji makes a bit of fun. If food alone would purify the Sattva, then feed the monkeys with milk and rice and then they would become great yogis. Feed them the cows and the deer would be great yogis. And Swamiji continues. He remembers that bhajan by Mirabai as has been said by Mirabai in her bhajan. Uchha bhajan. If somebody can obtain Hari, Vishnu, God by just taking bath in the Ganga. There are so many creatures continually born, living and dying in the waters itself, especially in the Ganga. So if it is by bathing much that heaven is reached, the fishes will get to heaven first. If by eating vegetables a man gets to heaven, the cows and the deer will get to heaven first. This is a quotation from that bhajan. Swami does not mention the author but I know. So it stands to reason that discrimination in the choice of food is necessary for the attainment of the higher state of mental composition which cannot be easily obtained otherwise. With this, the 26th section comes to an end. Then the Upanishad itself concludes. Tasmai hrudita kashaayaaya tamasaha param darshayati bhagavan sanat kumaraha tam skandha ityachakshate tam skandha ityachakshate Whenever we find a statement repeated twice, we have to understand that particular topic is coming to an end. Here this particular chapter is coming to an end. So we read Sanat Kumara gradually let Narada when after his impurities had been washed off slowly to the further shore of the darkness. Tamasaha param. People call Sanat Kumara as skandha. Ya, they call him skandha. Thus Bhagavan Sanat Kumara the great master initiates Narada who is free from all impurities of every kind, a fit disciple to be instructed sadhana chatustaya sampannaha by an exceptionally great master into this great mystery of the supreme being and takes the disciple across devotion of sorrow. This Sanat Kumara says the Upanishad is called skandha tam skandha ityachakshate. Sanat Kumara is called skandha because he has crossed or leaped over the phenomenal existence which is one interpretation of the word skandha. There is also a story that Sanat Kumara himself was born as skandha or Kartikeya the first elder son of Lord Shiva for the purpose of fulfilling a great purpose of the gods as we read from the Puranas and Epics. Whatever it may be, we take the great master either as the divinity that took birth as skandha or one who has crossed the ocean of the sorrow and became merged in the absolute across the phenomenality of life. To that divine person is our salutations. He is skandha has reached the absolute and he takes us to the absolute. With this the 26th section has come to an end and in our next class I will have to quote from Sri Ramakrishna also and I will also give the essence and then we will take up the 28th what is called 8th chapter of this Chandogya Upanishad where a beautiful story comes of the Prajapati teaching his two disciples and one left earlier itself misunderstanding who is called Virhocana and the other Indra persisted and like Kena Upanishad here also Indra is praised. Ultimately he who has become united knew that he was Brahman. So he was a Brahma Gnani not only in Kena Upanishad but even this Chandogya Upanishad also certifies it. I will stop here. Om Jananim Shardam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagat Kurum Padapadmetayo Sritva Pranamami Mohurmoho May Ramakrishna holy mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. I Ramakrishna