Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 109 Ch3 10.2-3 on 17 June 2026
Opening Prayer (Śānti Pāṭha)
ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
ॐ सह नाववतु ।
सह नौ भुनक्तु ।
सह वीर्यं करवावहै ।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै ।
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥ हरि ॐ
OM SAHANAVAVATO SAHANAV BHUNAKTO SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMA VIDVISHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM
OM May Brahman protect us both. May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge.
May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge.
May what we both study reveal the truth. May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other.
OM PEACE PEACE PEACE BE UNTO ALL
Review of the Six Meditations (Ādhyātmika Upāsanas)
In our last class, we saw six types of meditations. They are most wonderful meditations. Now we are going to see these, called Ādhidaivika meditations.
Kṣemaiti vāci, yoga-kṣemaiti prāṇāpānayoḥ, karmaiti hastayoḥ, gatiriti pādayoḥ, vimuktiriti pāyau, prajātir amṛtam ānanda ity upasthau.
As I mentioned earlier, this sixth one—that the generative organ should be meditated upon as Ānanda, as Prajāti, as Amṛta—should actually be classified under the meditations on the human body. But what we need to understand are the lessons we have to learn. If I am able to speak, it is because of the grace of God—and if I can think deeply about it and then speak.
Speech as Divine Manifestation
Vāci means speech, and this speech should be meditated upon. Kṣema means well-being. Why is it so? Kṣema means acquiring riches, possessions—whatever a person wants. What is the relationship between speech and acquisition of all these? First of all, this sense organ called vāk (speech) is not merely individual; it is God Himself manifesting in each one of us in the form of the ability to speak. We should not forget that it is a nature-given gift to us, so we can abuse it. Now, if we look upon this ability to speak as the grace of God, as a manifestation of God—what is the grace of God? It is the manifestation of God only. If God is gracious and He gives us, let us say, name, fame, riches, wealth—it is not that He is sitting somewhere and giving, because He is everything. So He comes to us in the form of riches, possessions, whatever we want.
So this is how, through these five meditations on the five important physical organs of this body, we slowly acquire the ability to look upon this body as a divine body. If you remember, once somebody was feeling very impure, then Holy Mother said, "Touch me." That means she was not saying, "I am a great person; my body is so holy; you are an impure person." No—"By touching me, you will also become pure; you will become like me." That is the idea: the way we contemplate, we become that. So then everything depends also upon how we conceive of it.
Breath as Divine Energy
Yoga-kṣemaiti prāṇāpānayoḥ—one should meditate on Brahman in prāṇa and apāna, the incoming and outgoing breaths. Many people place great importance on the art of prāṇāyāma—controlling the breath—how calmly and quietly one prolongs the breath. Do not simply go on breathing in and out very fast, just as we do normally when we run a great distance for a long time and our oxygen becomes less, and then we tend to breathe in and out very fast. But that is an indication of tiredness. If we can practice prāṇāyāma, then we become really endowed with energy. With the least bit of energy, we can accomplish many things. Tremendous energy will come; calmness of the mind will come, which will lead to clear thinking, and clear thinking gives us the result of what we need, and we get that.
In fact, when we think very clearly, how many things do we need? After all, everybody wants to be happy. How many things does a person really require to be most happy? Because even the thought of happiness is a thought without having anything. If somebody can be very happy with the least of things, then he is the happiest person, he is the richest person in the world. But even from a practical point of view, if somebody can practice this prāṇāyāma in a proper way, with surrender to God, then everything the person needs to accomplish what he wants to accomplish will come to him effortlessly. Yoga-kṣema.
The Value of Each Limb
Just imagine if a person has asthma, or he is kept in a place completely closed where fresh air is not blowing. Then you understand how much constricted the person feels; he feels as though he is going to die. Asthmatic people have great difficulty because most of us do not suffer from it, so we take it for granted that such things will never happen to me, to you, to anybody. We have to understand: if God had not endowed me with these things, how much I would have been suffering. So some people do not have hands—they are born without hands, or accidents can happen for whatever reason. Paralysis, for example—hands may be paralysed, legs may be paralysed. Then the person appreciates how happy he was when he was having these things. But how did he use them? Then regret will come—post-regret: "Why did I waste my time?"
The only worthy function of the hands is to bow down before God and to serve others. The only worthy actions of the feet are to go where holy company can be obtained, or to visit temples, or to visit libraries to get beautiful books, etcetera. So that is being said—how marvellous an instrument God has given us, and because of which human birth is considered to be the most fortunate, available only because of tremendous virtue accumulated in past lives.
Gatiriti pādayoḥ—gati means movement of the legs. Just imagine a runner—sometimes you read about the greatest runners in the Olympic games; suddenly cramps will come, and I have seen a video where a lady simply could not proceed; she fell down and felt like committing suicide: "I have almost reached the goal, and I cannot participate in it." Others, of course, cannot help because everybody is racing to get at least the third prize. So our body—if any limb is missing, even one eye, one hand, one leg, one lung, one kidney, and if our tongue does not move—then we understand how defective life would be, how difficult life would be.
The Eliminative and Generative Organs
Vimuktiriti pāyau—pāyu means the organ of throwing out undigested matter. How much relief—vimukti—almost the feeling of great liberation will come, especially when our stomach is in a horrible condition and we have a very good motion; you will see that itself gives tremendous happiness. So vimuktiriti—the Upaniṣad deliberately uses this word almost like viśeṣa-mukti, equivalent to mokṣa.
And of course, the greatest organ is the generative organ, because of three reasons. It gives us ānanda—the greatest ānanda; all the five sense organs combined cannot give that much ānanda. This one organ is capable of giving it because the man becomes automatically concentrated; he cannot think of anything else at that time. So through that, he also can produce worthy children. That is the prayer of every married couple: "Let us have beautiful children"—not only physically looking beautiful and strong, but virtuous children who are capable of loving, serving, being unselfish, bringing good name and fame to the whole family. And it is said the person will live through the genes—that is called amṛta. Amṛta means immortality—relative immortality, the mānuṣī-saṃjñā.
Seeing the Body as Divine
This is what we have understood. If we can see that, then every organ becomes a great joy to be used. That is why it is said that in the olden days, marriage is meant as a sanctifying act, meant only for one purpose: to become free from all sins through the production of children, and what great joy is there. So in every way, this body is the only way; that is why it is called Brahmapurī—the temple of God—through which we can get either happiness in this world or spiritual progress. For anything, a good instrument is the best instrument, and the human body is the best instrument.
Of course, the result will be artha—upāsate tad eva bhavati. So the person becomes well; he becomes acquisition and preservation; he is able to do very great progress in spiritual life. If we use our hands and feet properly, our physical health and mental condition become best. When we are able to get rid of undigested food, only those who suffer from terrible constipation understand the value of how much God has provided this pāyu that can throw out all poisonous material. And then, of course, the organ of generation is not only a cause for worldly pleasure, but it can also be the cause for spiritual bliss.
Entering the Ādhidaivika Upāsanas
So that is over. Now we are going to enter into Ādhidaivika Upāsanas. We have to see every manifestation of force in this world as a manifestation of Īśvara. In the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gītā, at the end, God concludes that whatever greatness you see—a beautiful season, a great scholar, a great ṛṣi, a great king, a great mountain, a great river, a great forest—everything great is none other than My own manifestation.
So the next upāsanas—six upāsanas are there—we have to understand that one of them has to be brought back to this Ādhyātma level, that is the prajātir amṛtam ānanda ity upasthau. We have already done that one. Now we have to see that whatever is happening in the Adhibhautika world—the external world in the form of rain, lightning, stars, and all these things—has to be considered as a most beautiful manifestation, the greatest blessing of God Himself. We will discuss about them slowly.
The Body as Gift of God
The meditation that our whole body, especially mentioning some of these limbs, is the gift of God—that is why they are called Mānuṣī-saṃjñā meditation. Saṃjñā means meditation on the human body, that is the Ādhyātmika level. The Adhibhautika level is outside, because we are also part of the Adhibhautika—everybody and everything is Adhibhautika, the external world to us. There is lightning, there is rain, and all those things are not to be considered in a negative way. It is said: when man loses his faith in God and then treats nature with a downward look, with a selfish look, and makes the earth impure, then gods become very angry.
If we are getting rain, it is God's grace. Every season comes in the proper time and maintains the proper temperature. That is also part of the grace of God—but not directly Īśvara, but Īśvara manifesting as the god of rain, the god of lightning, etc. That is what we have to meditate upon: all these so-called natural phenomena as the grace of God. Nowadays, scientists are recognising that wherever you see, there is a natural balance. If one animal population increases, that would be detrimental to the welfare of the whole earth, so immediately there would be an opposite force that would keep it in perfect balance. How many wonderful incidents—some of them I have narrated about what the Americans did in the Yellowstone Park.
Seeing God in Nature
So we have to, when we see rain, understand that God is manifesting. When we see thunder, when we see lightning, it is also God's power. Therefore, these are called Ādhidaivika Upāsanas, but in the form of the Adhibhautika world—gods are only manifesting. A simple example I have given many times: if a country is blessed by plenty of rivers, that river is called Jaladevatā; the sky is called Ākāśadevatā; if there is air, that is called Vāyudevatā; if there is just the right seasonal temperature, that is what is called Agnidevatā. Every river is a Jaladevatā. If there is a beautiful land, every land is beautiful, every land is sacred. That is why even the Pope, as soon as he gets off the plane when visiting some foreign country, the first thing he does is kneel down and kiss the earth, saying, "Because you are sustaining, you are supporting, I am able to live like that."
The First Two Ādhidaivika Upāsanas
Now we will discuss them. First, two are given:
Tṛptiriti vṛṣṭau, balam iti vidyuti.
One should meditate on Brahman or on these phenomena—Brahman in the form of these presiding deities—as satisfaction in rain, as power in lightning.
It is written very well in our Hindu mythologies that whenever people neglect being grateful to the gods, then seasons will become upset. Now scientists are predicting the El Niño effect. So far as India is concerned, about sixty or sixty-five percent of rains will be less. The overall effect of this lack of rain is that animals will not get sufficient water; human beings also will not get it. In how many ways we take for granted that water—we just treat it, misuse it, pollute it in the form of pollution of rivers, discharging all sorts of horrible poisons into the rivers—we are causing our own destruction. It is, as it is said, like spitting into the ākāśa. Then where does it fall? You throw your head up and spit, and after a few seconds, it will fall upon one's own self. This is called the result of our actions. We are not realising how much we are poisoning ourselves, thinking that we are becoming richer and healthier by cutting down forests, polluting rivers, and using so many artificial vehicles, which require tremendous amounts of natural resources.
All these have a great effect not only upon our physical life, but upon our mental life—our happiness, intelligence, etcetera. But even more important is the effect upon our spiritual life. What is life meant for? To evolve. What is the meaning of evolution? To become more spiritual. The only right meaning of evolution is how to progress spiritually. What is spirituality? To see godliness in everything, and that starts with seeing God within ourselves first. That is why earlier we have seen Mānuṣī-saṃjñā—the meditations, upāsanas—where each one of us worships our own body.
Sri Ramakrishna's Example of Seeing God in Everything
If you remember, when Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was doing worship in the days when he was progressing by leaps and bounds, he started his spiritual life as a worshipper of the Divine Mother Kālī. Very soon, people noticed very peculiar behaviour: he was eating the thing that was supposed to be offered mentally to the Divine Mother, and all the beautiful flowers that they had collected for pūjā, he was putting on his own head, on his own feet—which was sacrilege according to other people. He even fed a cat, and we don't know how many cats and how many dogs he fed with the prasāda. God alone knows. But they did not understand: he was not worshipping himself; he was seeing God in everything. Even a cat is nothing but a manifestation of the Divine Mother.
Once there was a cat in Jayambati, and there were some attendants who were trying to serve Holy Mother. One of them carelessly struck the head of a cat with her foot. Holy Mother noticed it, and this is exactly what we were discussing. She chided: "My child, I reside in the head of the cat." In which form? In the form of consciousness. And that disciple immediately understood.
There was another funny incident. There was one sevaka, and there was a cat. Sometimes it does not ask your permission: "I am hungry; can I go and drink the milk?" Some milk was kept to be offered to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, and then maybe Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa had come in that particular form of a cat; he went and started drinking the milk. The sevaka got wild: "How can he lose his mind and say, 'Does the cat know that this milk is very special milk? It is specially preserved for worshipping Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, and this wretched cat has done it.' How does the cat know about it?" Does a human baby also know about it? Once Holy Mother was doing worship, and one of the small children—perhaps Maku's child—entered while crawling, saw the sweets, and straight like a crow—"flight of the crow"—started crawling towards them. Mother was telling, "Bābā, let me finish the worship, and then you will get as much as you want." But how can the child understand what is worship? Sweet is a sweet, and it can be eaten at any time. Even though we do not touch it out of fear that God will kick us out, our dṛṣṭi will be going: "Why is this pūjā taking such a long time to finish? Pūjā should have finished in five minutes and distributed that beautiful sweet as prasāda." Are we interested in prasāda or are we interested in the sweet? That we do not stop to think about.
So Holy Mother chided: "My son, I also reside in this cat." And the disciple learned his lesson. Not only did he stop beating the cat, he started going around other people's neighbour's houses to collect milk and also fish for that particular cat. The point is, we have to learn to see God in our own body, appreciate our body, respect our body, and use it for a right purpose. Similarly, when we succeed in this, our vision will extend: if my body is sacred, your body also must be sacred, the other person's body also must be sacred, the tree must be sacred, the river must be sacred. There is nothing that is not sacred in this world.
Ramana Maharshi and Respect for All Life
Ramana Maharshi never used to get angry, and he used to sleep very little. Even if he went to bed at twelve o'clock, promptly before three he would get up and be completely alert. He was living in Ramanāśrama. One day at noon, when he was taking rest, there was a tree—I don't know if it was an āmalakī tree—perhaps somebody was beating the tree so that the fruits could fall down. Ramana Maharshi heard it, immediately felt pain in his body, ran, got very angry, scolded the person, and threw him out. "Why are you beating the tree? Don't you know it has got life?" He did not add, but we have to understand: maybe the tree came running to Ramana Maharshi and said, "Look, Bābā, how much this fellow is beating me up." Do trees and plants feel? Jagadish Chandra Bose undoubtedly proved that plants have feelings, they have emotions, they also love some people—that is why they are called "green fingers." And "green finger" has nothing to do with agricultural knowledge; it has something to do with love, the feeling which the plants can feel.
So we have to see God in the external world. Can we see God in any way? We have to see. Why? Because who are our greatest benefactors? It is only the enemies, when they start abusing us, robbing us, trying to hurt us. Can we see the hand of God in that—the hand of karmaphala—and say, "How can this person do this if I did not deserve it?"
Nagamahashaya's Example
When Nāgamaśaya came to know that some peculiar type of ants were there and some devotee had thrown them out, when he came home he noticed it and felt intense pain. "If somebody drives us away from our own home, they make us homeless—how do we feel?" The same thing happened here. He ran, and then he said, "Please pardon me; this is not going to happen again in future. Nobody is ever going to make you homeless. I promise you this." And then he brought as many as possible and re-established them, even though they were eating the pillars of the house. The devotee was stunned. From that day onwards, he never dared to do anything. So what was Nāgamaśaya doing? He was seeing God in everything.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was seeing God in the cat. That one female cat had given birth to kittens, and he asked Navakopāl Ghosh's wife, "You take care of it, and what do you get? I will give you a boon that you will die in Vārāṇasī; you will get mukti for caring." But how is she caring? That is the important point. How was Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa looking upon the cat and kittens? "It has taken shelter under me, so it is my duty to protect it." That is what Śrī Rāma says to Vibhīṣaṇa: "If anybody says even once, 'O Rāma, I belong to You,' then he might try to get out, to run away from Me, but I will not leave him. I will see that he attains to the highest state."
With this background, let us discuss briefly:
Tṛptiriti vṛṣṭau, balam iti vidyuti.
One should meditate on Brahman as satisfaction in rain, as power in lightning.
First Ādhidaivika Upāsana: Rain as Satisfaction
So what is the first one of these Daivī Upāsanas? First thing is tṛptiriti vṛṣṭau—vṛṣṭi means rain. This is a very beautiful upāsana because there are many countries which do not have rivers, which do not have water resources except occasional rains. That is why how many animals die when there is no rain, no water; all the rivers will just dry up. How many animals will die, how many human beings are going to die—even between countries for the sake of water, especially pure water. There is going to be a terrible war, and the war set that we see present is nothing but the future: wars will be for two or three things—land, food, and water—because when these are getting exhausted, then we understand what God has given and how we misused it, and we regret our own actions which cannot be taken back.
This is a beautiful upāsana because all of us suffer from the absence of rain. Rain is very crucial. Rain gives fulfillment—tṛpti. How does it give tṛpti? Because where there is rain, there will be food—plenty of food. It may be vegetarian, it may be non-vegetarian. So directly through food, and indirectly, rain cools the temperature. Rain also brings a peculiar pleasure. That is why I have seen people, after the terrible summer season, suddenly sometimes there is what we call rain with ice stones—big, big stones almost half an inch falling in a place where we never see snow or these things. As children, we all used to run out with a piece of cloth, hold it wide, and get these beautiful frozen ice pieces falling directly. When you put them in your mouth, they are so cold and so tasty—it is like heaven descending. And the people who do not have adequate water understand the necessity, how much valuable this water is for us.
So this rain—God's grace, God's pleasure—if we worship Him properly, comes in the form of rain at the right season. Otherwise, these days in India, very few mangoes are available even today, and they are not that sweet. Why? The reason they say—I do not know—that the proper rain when the fruits are about to ripen does not occur, then they will not become sweet. I don't know if it is true, but the effect is definitely that the mangoes this year particularly are coming in plenty but no sweetness at all.
So tṛptiriti vṛṣṭau—food, and not only that, we are not only animals; the whole temperature cools down. Not only that, thinking of the future: such good rain now—the crops will be growing very beautifully, the animals will be very happy. Otherwise, first priority will be given to humans, and if there is no water, how many animals die? In India, in Africa, we see this—too much rain and absolute lack of rain at that time—ativṛṣṭi, anavṛṣṭi. How many famines occur, how many millions of animals die? So animals are happy, birds are happy, the whole nature is happy because the rainy season means food season, time for cultivating food, especially in the olden days—even now in some places. So God comes to us in the form of rain, giving us tṛpti—in the form of removing hunger so that we can eat well. Not only that, if we can grow some crop, it can be cooked in various ways; our imagination is our limit. So tṛptiriti vṛṣṭau.
Second Ādhidaivika Upāsana: Lightning as Power
And then the next meditation should be on lightning—vidyuti. When we see lightning, it is said one big lightning is sufficient to give light, to meet the needs of the whole world for one year. But unfortunately, so far we do not have any instrument, any means by which we can store this. But apart from that, when there is lightning, inevitably there would be clouds and probably rain also. So this lightning is supposed to contain tremendous energy, and that is called vidyut-śakti. The whole electric energy is nothing but energy that we create. So vidyut also indicates that when there is thunder, when there is lightning, our imaginations run wild. Usually there will be black clouds, rain-bearing clouds, and how much happiness and satisfaction it brings, especially to everybody, but especially to farmers.
Balam iti vidyuti—"as power in lightning."
Third Upāsana: Cattle as Fame
When rains are there, plenty of food is grown, and then naturally the cattle and animals will grow.
Yaśa iti paśuṣu—"as fame in cattle."
One becomes famous—"Oh, his wealth; he is a wealthy man." In the olden days of our ṛṣis, the Vedic period, cattle were wealth; money was not there. Bartering was the system. So the famous ṛṣi's pupils would go there in plenty, and their parents—the kings—would be giving a lot of these cows. That is why when Janaka Mahārāja wanted to learn Brahmavidyā, he said, "For the best knower of Brahman, I am going to offer one thousand cows," and we know the story. Yājñavalkya comes and casually commands, "Drive all these cows home," and each cow's horns are completely covered with gold. How rich he is going to become! But what is he going to do with gold? It is only because these will give curds, yogurt, milk, and ghee (clarified butter), so that all these things will be used. But not only that, it is called pañcakavya—we get the urine and the stool, cow dung. All this again goes back into the earth, making it the most natural, very nutritious fertilizer for the earth, out of which more plants grow. So it is recycling everything: the cows eat the plants and give cow dung; cow dung goes to nourish the plants—parasparaṃ bhāvayantaḥ.
But above all, for worshipping the gods, they used to do this upāsana or pūjā in the form of iṣṭas and yāgas. For that, the cows are there, and plenty of people use it to attend and to feed all of them. So even to make what is called pāyasa—a beautiful condensed milk with special elachi, etc.—that is the most marvellous thing. So it is being said: if a person has got a greater number of cattle, buffaloes, and other animals—importantly cows and bulls—every part of this is very useful for agriculture, for production of food, for milk. Especially cow's milk is supposed to be very suitable for babies, for children; even today for weak people, cow's milk is supposed to be the most wonderful thing, suitable for babies next to mother's milk. Cow milk is the greatest. That is why even at the end of the fire worship, etc., the dakṣiṇā—the gifts one has to give to all the ṛtvik priests—are in the form of these cows only.
So cows are very important, and more cows means more fame—like healthy persons are famous. Cows represent wealth. So a wealthy person is certainly well-known in society. So this is how we have to understand: yaśa iti paśuṣu—Brahman upāsīta. These are all nothing but the grace of God. The grace of God's presiding deities in the form of rain, lightning, thunder—plenty of food will be grown, and that food is used both for human beings and every animal. And then the person who has got more cattle becomes very famous. That means what is he going to do? He is going to perform more worship of the gods and goddesses. That was the life in the olden days.
So yaśa iti paśuṣu Brahmopāsīta—not worshipping a cow as a cow, but as the cattle: "You, O Mother, are manifesting the Divine Mother" (or Brahman; devotees call it Divine Mother) "in the form of these cows, as rain, as food, and as cattle." What does he become? Yaśasvī bhavati—he becomes very famous.
Fourth Upāsana: Stars as Light
Then the next upāsana is:
Jyotir iti nakṣatreṣu Brahmopāsīta.
One should contemplate—wherever we see a star—Brahman as light in the stars. Even today, science has not understood what is the effect of these stars. Remember, our sun is also one of the smallest stars in our galaxy; he is the biggest star in our solar system, but there are billions of galaxies—no one can count how many galaxies there are. There are suns compared to which our own sun appears to be like the bottom of a needle—so small. But even our sun—how much energy he contains! Because of the sunlight, how much the seasons are affected; because of the sunlight, how much gravitational force is affected; how the whole life, the formation of the forests, the formation of the continents, the formation of the North Pole and South Pole, and making those places so frozen—that is also part of the scheme. How much these architect areas influence our weather system! An ordinary man cannot even think: "Oh, here it is hot. What has this architect area got to do with it?" No—if you can study at least the El Niño effect (even I have not understood how it is going to affect; I know from the news it affects), you can do a small bit of research and find: why did this El Niño effect start in the oceans? What is the cause for it? What is the cause for that cause? If you go on tracing, you will find an astonishing fact: the whole universe is interconnected. It is the manifestation of something most grand, glorious—in other words, of God.
So every star has a relationship with the other stars, small or big. Every time a star collapses, it becomes what is called a black hole. "Hole" means anything that falls into it will never come out. People used to think that, but now some great scientists have found them out, and they said, "It is not that it disappears. There is nothing called complete disappearance. If it disappears through this door, it again comes out through the other door." Like a person who dies, gives up this physical body, and will be reborn. That is why Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says: from the unmanifest alone, the manifest comes; and again from the manifest, it goes back to the unmanifest. This unending circle, like a wheel moving up and down continuously—this saṃsāra-cakra is called Brahma-cakra. That is how it goes on.
So meditate: every star is a manifestation of Brahman, especially because it gives light and it gives heat—and this is the nature of every star. Nakṣatreṣu Brahmabuddhyā upāsīta. What does such a person become? Jyotiṣmān bhavati—he also becomes an enlightened person. He becomes light, as it were, emanating from that person, because as the upāsana is, so the phala will be. So if a person wants physical and mental strength, let him meditate upon lightning. If he wants satisfaction, let him meditate upon Brahman in the form of rain.
Fifth Upāsana: Akāśa as the Support of All
But the next upāsana is:
Sarvam iti ākāśe Brahmopāsīta.
Sarvam means the entire universe, which includes me, you, everybody, everything. Where is it contained? In ākāśa (space). And this ākāśa has come from where? From Brahman. According to the Taittirīya Upaniṣad—I hope we all remember:
आत्मन आकाशः संभूतः, आकाशाद्वायुः, वायोरग्निः, अग्नेरापः, अद्भ्यः पृथिवी, पृथिव्या ओषधयः, ओषधीभ्योऽन्नम्, अन्नात्पुरुषः.
ātmana ākāśaḥ saṃbhūtaḥ, ākāśād vāyuḥ, vāyor agniḥ, agner āpaḥ, adbhyaḥ pṛthivī, pṛthivyā oṣadhayaḥ, oṣadhībhyo 'nnam, annāt puruṣaḥ.
We will see that the entire universe—including the mountains, the rivers, the forests, the living and non-living—everything is the result of this ākāśa. Everything is sustained, everything is supported in ākāśa. There is no place where ākāśa is not there. First, there should be space, then only the stars and the clouds and the earth—how many earths are there? How many earths we are aware of? All these things. So everything is ākāśa. This ākāśa is nothing but Brahman.
So how does one worship this ākāśa as Brahman? Because there are so many similarities—about which we will discuss in our next class.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deviṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
May Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!