Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 71 Ch2 3-4 on 24 September 2025
Full Transcript(Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
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
Introduction to the Third Section
We are studying the third section of the second chapter of Taittirīya Upaniṣad called Brahmānanda Vallī. We have just completed the second Anuvāka, Prāṇa Māyā Kośa. As we had discussed, the Upaniṣad is beautifully analyzing all the five sheaths that all of us are covered with, and as a result of which we do not know who we are.
The Metaphor of Coverings
Just as a person who is completely covered from head to foot in five different cloths and dresses, from birth whenever he peers into the mirror he only sees the coverings and slowly he comes to identify with them. That is what Śaṅkarācārya explains beautifully.
If a person is born as an animal, the jīvātmā is born as an animal thinking "I am a dog." It cannot express but it behaves like a dog because its reality appears to be that of a dog. Similarly, we think "I am male," "I am female," "I am young," "I am old," "I am thin," "I am fat." All these are mere identifications.
Understanding Annamaya Kośa (The Physical Sheath)
Identification with the Body
As Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says, we are identified with the Annamaya Kośa—the body, especially the physical body. Within the body there are four more coverings. This external physical body is only the grossest, the fifth, outermost layer, and we are completely identified with it. As long as we are identified with this body, we call it reality.
"I am the body" means "my body is the Ātmā." This word Ātmā and the English word "reality" are synonymous. So if I think I am the body, my body is the reality. If my body is reality, everything that has a body is the only reality.
The Materialistic View
We always look outside and judge: "This person is ugly," "this person is thin," "this person is beautiful," etc. Are we judging the character or qualities of the person? No. We judge everything because we perceive ourselves as the Ātman—meaning "I am that."
In this case, "I am the Annamaya Kośa" means "I am the body," and everything that is external and physical is the only reality. This is why a class of philosophers called Cārvākas are called materialists. For them, everything is nothing but matter—whatever is perceivable.
The Continuous Dominance of Body Consciousness
The Upaniṣad tells us that this understanding will continue. What will continue? This understanding that "I am the body," acting and reacting as though I am none other than the body. This will dominate everything. Even the mind is employed, the buddhi (intellect) is employed, everything—even ānanda—is employed only to serve this body.
This becomes most people's concept. How can this body be maintained? First, keep it alive. Second, keep it as comfortable as possible. Third, make it as free from ill health as possible. The whole life becomes nothing but this.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Summary
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa summarized what is called dehātmā as kāma and kañcana (lust and gold). When a person dies—meaning the body is no longer there—both kāma and kañcana do not make the slightest difference at all. That is why we cling to life as if it is the only reality.
The Process of Spiritual Evolution
The Unconscious Revolution
Over many, many lives, slowly an evolution is going on—most of the time unknown to us, an unconscious revolution. What causes this revolution? Because however much we may consider the body as the only reality, this bodily reality has severe limitations. It is constantly changing.
Anyone can encounter an accident. A beautiful person can be burned accidentally and become very ugly. Accidentally, one can lose parts of the body. Our continuous thought process becomes: how to keep this body alive as long as possible, as healthy as possible, as happy as possible.
The Vedic Prayer
This is reflected in the unconscious prayer in Ṛg Veda: "Lead me from non-existence to existence, from ignorance to knowledge, from sorrow and unhappiness to bliss."
The Role of the Teacher
When this happens, when the mind starts thinking "How can I overcome these limitations?" one becomes a thoughtful person. Not knowing the way, one approaches a teacher, and the teacher explains what the Vedas or scriptures explain: that there is something which is the cause, of which this body is the effect.
Every effect is limited in time, space, and causation, and therefore it is called anātmā. Every effect is not the cause, and therefore it is unreal. We translate it as "unreal," but we should translate it as "temporary manifestation of the cause."
The Subtle Causes
Compared to this physical body, the cause of the physical body is much subtler, less limited, and longer lasting. Vedānta tells us that this prāṇa, sūkṣma śarīra, and kāraṇa śarīra will encounter death or destruction. Death or destruction means their mergence into their cause, which is none other than Ātmā.
This is called ātyantika pralaya. Forever, this subtle body and causal body get merged only at the dawn of true knowledge that "I am Brahman." Until that time, time is almost eternal—almost. But for the physical body, every birth is accompanied by every millisecond of change until it also dissolves into its cause, only to be reborn again and again.
Transition to Prāṇamaya Kośa
The Teaching Method
The teacher now teaches the disciple to meditate on this Prāṇamaya Kośa. He explains: How is the body born because of prāṇa? How is it maintained because of prāṇa? At the time of death, what happens? This physical body dissolves and merges into its cause, which is Prāṇamaya Kośa.
How does one attain to that? Through a wonderful process called upāsanā (contemplation).
The Contemplation Practice
What is the contemplation? Your body belongs to somebody else. Usually, for religious people, we say God is the creator—meaning He created me, He created my entire personality. This is called individual soul, individual ātman. Therefore, if somebody has created me, it belongs to Him, not to me.
But the Upaniṣad is telling us that for the time being, let this body be your God. Because of the body, you are alive. Because of the body, you can work, function, act, react. Because of the body, you can be happy and also unhappy. So sacralize it, make it sacred. This is called contemplation: "This deha is Brahma."
Universal Understanding
Once a person succeeds in this, then he will understand: "Since my body is sacred, everybody's body is also sacred." So simultaneously, with the dawning of the knowledge that I am—that is, my body is—sacred, the understanding that everybody's body is also sacred grows.
On the vyaṣṭi (individual) side and on the samaṣṭi (cosmic universal) level, both growths take place at the same time.
Perception and Reality
Our perception of the world depends upon our perception of ourselves. If I think I am happy, then I consider everybody is happy. If I think I am unhappy, everybody looks unhappy. If I think I am impure or an idiot, then everyone appears to be an idiot. If I consider myself pure, bright, and brilliant, then everyone also immediately appears the same, because it is like putting on colored glasses.
When I put on colored glasses, not only do I look the same color, but the whole universe, the whole world also looks the same way. With the change in the individual, our perception of the world also automatically changes. This is called Anna Brahma Upāsanā, Virāṭ Upāsanā.
Recognition of Effects
When I reach a particular stage of success and progress in this spiritual practice, I perceive that this body is an effect. Simultaneously, the whole world is also an effect. The right knowledge that everything is an effect is called Anātma Niścayaḥ.
Whatever is Anātmā has nāma and rūpa. Whatever has nāma and rūpa is highly limited. Whatever is limited is mithyā. Mithyā does not mean illusion or non-existence, but rather a reflection of some higher truth—just as a snake is a misconceived thought about a real rope.
The Search for Reality
If I think my body is mithyā, then there must be something which is real. Without the concept of reality, we cannot conceive of mithyatva. Once mithyatva comes, then just like a baby—when the baby realizes it is separated from its mother, immediately the baby becomes highly worried, anxious, and starts crying.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's Example
When the Dakśineśwar Kālī temple was opened, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was just a very young man who had not even become a priest. Thousands of people had come to participate in that festival. A five or six-year-old boy named M came with his mother. In that huge crowd, for a few seconds, this boy was completely lost. A priest saw him crying, took him up in his arms and said, "Who is the mother of this boy?" Soon he found out because the mother must have been searching, and she found her child on the shoulders of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa.
The Spiritual Parallel
As soon as we become aware of being separated from our root cause—just like a baby's root cause is its mother—we become anxious. Then we move toward our root cause, the root cause of this body. We transit and merge this Annamaya into its cause, which is Prāṇamaya.
The point we must keep in mind is that until this happens, until I find what is my root cause, this body is the only reality. This is called Brahman, Annamaya Brahma, Virāṭ Brahma, Anna Brahma. But through this upāsanā, through sacralizing this body, I am sacralizing the entire universe.
When that happens, I get the real knowledge: "I am an effect." Then I will automatically be anxious to go to my mother, into the lap of my mother, to be with the mother, never to be separated from my mother.
Transition to Prāṇamaya Consciousness
The Process of Pravilāpanam
This person then transits. This is called pravilāpanam. As soon as he merges with the Prāṇamaya Kośa, two things happen:
- Annamaya Kośa becomes anātmā—not real, meaning we will not act or react based on it
- Our action and reaction becomes completely focused upon Prāṇamaya Kośa
Prāṇa Brahma Upāsanā
Prāṇamaya Kośa has to be contemplated: "This prāṇa is also sacred." This is called Prāṇa Brahma Upāsanā. By this time, this person also becomes even more intelligent. So long as he considered this body as the only reality, now when a person transits from identification with the body (Annamaya) to Prāṇamaya, Annamaya becomes a kośa.
Kośa means like a dress. We never identify with our dress. This dress goes on changing as we grow. Immediately the person identifies: "I am Prāṇa and I am Prāṇa Brahma."
The Dawning of Wisdom
He becomes aware and continues for some time identifying this way. Immediately, just as he had previous experience—"Maybe just as I was under the delusion that I am the body, maybe I am under the delusion that I am this Prāṇa Brahma, I am Prāṇa."
Remember, as soon as a person knows "I am Prāṇa Brahma," his perception of the world also changes—the whole universe is also Prāṇa Brahma only. Changes occur simultaneously. This is called real evolution.
Historical Parallel
Even in physical evolution, the same thing happens. People were under the impression that our earth is the center of the universe, but as soon as Galileo proved otherwise, he was tortured because people were incapable of understanding him. He was ahead of his time, but only after several centuries of torturing him, even the church recognized the truth. We should not blame them because that was their concept. We all grow; the church also grows.
Prāṇa Brahma Realization
As soon as a person identifies that the only reality is Prāṇa and "I am that Prāṇa Brahma"—reality means Brahma and "I am Prāṇa, therefore I am Prāṇa Brahma"—his perception simultaneously changes. Like a person who changes his black tinted glasses to lighter ones, not completely dark but much lighter glasses, his whole perception of the entire world along with himself also changes.
Understanding Prāṇa
The Five Functions of Prāṇa
For the sake of contemplation, how can Prāṇa be Brahman? It is described that Prāṇa is only one, and that is the Devatā. Devatā is that without which we cannot survive, and this Devatā divides itself into five categories:
- Prāṇa - breathing in and out
- Apāna - throwing poisonous things outside
- Vyāna - distributing energy throughout the body
- Udāna - helping the jīvātmā to get out of this body
- Samāna - digesting food
Anything undesirable within the body, that which helps it come out—vomiting, for example, or attending to natural calls—these are all functions of Prāṇa. If Prāṇa doesn't work, then those functions will be defective.
Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa's Teaching
As Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says in the 15th chapter: "Not only do I sustain you, I supply food, I cook food in the form of fire, and I also digest food."
Contemplation of Prāṇa Brahma
Then we realize "I am Prāṇa Brahma, everyone is Prāṇa Brahma." But for the sake of contemplation, the person has to imagine that just as the body has a particular shape—a head, two hands, the middle part from neck to where legs start, and the legs which support this entire body—even animals follow this pattern.
A tiger, for example, is supported only by its legs. Any crawling insect uses only legs. Even a centipede uses only legs for locomotion. We are discussing using this human body as a sample or image for Prāṇa Brahma.
So Prāṇa is like the head, Vyāna and Udāna are like right and left hands, Samāna is the middle part, and Apāna is like the legs, etc. Contemplation has to be done only for the purpose of recognizing "Prāṇa is Brahman."
Progress in Understanding
As soon as he progresses enough to say "I am Prāṇa Brahma, the whole universe is Prāṇa Brahma"—both must be thoroughly, naturally, instinctively understood as Prāṇa Brahma, not Anna Brahma but Prāṇa Brahma—immediately his eye of wisdom opens. Then he understands: "This Prāṇa goes up and down, changes all the time. Sometimes weak, sometimes strong. So there must be a cause for it."
That is when the glimpse comes: there is something which is the cause. This is how the transition from Annamaya to Prāṇamaya, from Prāṇamaya to Manomaya takes place.
Introduction to Manomaya Kośa
The Third Section
In this third section, it is called Manomaya Kośa—the mind is the covering. We can only understand the word "covering" when we transcend Manomaya Kośa and identify ourselves with Vijñānamaya Kośa. Only then does Manomaya Kośa become a kośa, a covering, a sheath.
When we transcend from Annamaya Brahma to Prāṇamaya, then Prāṇamaya becomes Brahma and simultaneously Annamaya becomes the kośa, covering, anātmā.
Understanding Kośa
Kośa is a very meaningful word because you cannot cut away the body and say "Since I am Prāṇa, let me separate this body. I don't require any body." Just as our dress to the body is not the clothes that we wear, our real dress which protects us—our Prāṇamaya Kośa, etc.—is the skin (tvak). You should not mistake it for a dress like external clothing.
The Reality of Each Level
At the Anna Brahma level (not kośa), the body is very real. The head is real, two hands are real, the middle part of the body is real, and the two legs are real. In earlier evolutionary stages, the two hands were also legs—both hands and legs served as limbs.
When a tiger attacks somebody, it grasps through those four legs and tears its prey to pieces, then puts it in its mouth to eat. You have seen how even elephants take fruit through their trunk and put it into their mouth.
Human Evolution
In the course of time, human beings stood up and became evolved. There is a fascinating history here. Getting up and looking for danger—while crawling, peripheral vision is very limited. But when we get up, that height gives us the ability to see at longer distances, sense dangers, etc. Slowly, from monkeys to chimpanzees to gorillas and then human beings, everything evolved.
The Power of Thoughts in Manomaya
Understanding Mind as Cause
Coming back to our subject: when a person understands "I am Prāṇa Brahma and the whole world simultaneously is Prāṇa Brahma," this person's vision further opens up. He notes there is a cause which is making his Prāṇamaya alive and active.
What do I mean by alive? Suppose somebody has great difficulty and may have suicidal thoughts. Mind—Manomaya—means full of manas. Manas means full of vṛttis. Vṛttis means thoughts.
The Effect of Thoughts on Prāṇa
It is the thought that matters. If it is a positive, happy thought, our Prāṇa becomes stronger and brighter. If it is a negative thought, our Prāṇa goes down. This is how thoughts are the root cause of Prāṇa.
Not only that, if we probe further, we see that it is our thoughts which make us either become a virtuous person (dhārmic person) or a sinful person. A person is nothing but his thoughts. Tell me your thoughts, and I will tell you who you are. The same thing: tell me what books you read, tell me which company you keep, and I will tell you who you are.
Thoughts and Karma
These thoughts determine what we do, what actions we do, what results we expect, and what goals we have. Hindus believe we have many past lives. What are we doing? Our thoughts propel us into either dhārmic actions or adhārmic actions. As a result, our next birth is determined.
You see how thoughts slowly guide our Prāṇa, our Prāṇa activates and energizes our body and sense organs, we act and react, and we reap the results of our actions and reactions in this birth.
Birth Circumstances
From this point of view, if somebody is unhealthy, born blind, disabled, autistic, or in a very poor family, it is due to past karma. Remember, dhārmic people can also be born in such circumstances. As Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa says: "śucīnāṃ śrīmatāṃ gehe yogabhraṣṭo 'bhijāyate" (The fallen from yoga is born in the home of the pure and wealthy).
Yogabhraṣṭa means fallen from yoga. The simplest meaning of this statement of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa is that yoga means pure, virtuous, dhārmic thoughts. When a person falls, he adopts opposite adhārmic thoughts. Naturally, just as a virtuous person is born in a pure, prosperous, and happy family, this person will be born in a slum area to unvirtuous parents who are quarreling, drunkards, wandering here and there, suffering from lack of food and proper residence. Duḥkha will be there.
Prāṇa Brahma Upāsaka's Progress
Understanding and Sacred Living
Now this person understands. As soon as he succeeds in considering "My reality is Prāṇa, so everybody's reality is Prāṇa. Therefore, I have to make this Prāṇa exceedingly sacred, worship God through this Prāṇa, and live a pure life"—meaning his actions will have positive effects. He will only do what is right, never do what is wrong.
Prāṇa will be affected, but he will not act immorally or illegally.
Example of Kshudiram
Remember when the zamindar asked Kshudiram to bear false witness for him, he refused. He knew very well before replying that if he refused, the next victim would be him and his stay at that place would come to an end. That's exactly what happened because he was a truthful person. He knew what was going to happen, but the seemingly negative result was actually the most positive result. As a result, God himself, Satyam itself, decided: "I will be reborn to you."
Contemplation Method
Coming back: this Prāṇa Brahma upāsaka considers Prāṇa Brahma as having a body, but it is only imagination. The body alone has a real form, but every other kośa from Prāṇamaya kośa to Ānandamaya kośa is for the sake of contemplation and imagination only, like a human form.
Transition to Manomaya
Recognition of Prāṇa as Effect
This person turns to Manomaya Kośa when the mantra tells us that apart from this Prāṇamaya kośa, Prāṇamaya is only an effect. There is something which is the true reality and which alone is keeping this Prāṇa healthy, strong, alive, etc.
The Prāṇamaya upāsaka understands this. As soon as he understands it, like a baby who gets up and realizes mother is nowhere near, he becomes extremely restless.
The Teacher's Guidance
One of our swamis, taking the cue from Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's teaching, wrote about how the baby, not finding the mother, becomes restless. His sight roams everywhere: "Where is mother? Where is mother? I want to go to mother (āmi mā jābo)." This became the beginning of a beautiful bhajan.
Now coming back: this Prāṇa upāsaka becomes restless. Remember, as soon as he reaches that state, the teacher is guiding him further. Don't think he is sitting alone in a cave doing this all by himself. The Upaniṣad tells us from the very beginning that without a traditional teacher, the teaching will not take effect.
This person has progressed, and at every step of progress, the teacher is monitoring and guiding: "Now you do this. Now you do this. Don't hurt anybody because if you hurt anybody, the result rebounds upon you—you will be hurt. Do good, and that will also rebound upon you in the form of happiness."
The Great Understanding
When this person reaches a great amount of progress, suddenly he is able to look and say: "Oh, this is only an effect!" This is what is called great understanding—this is an effect, this is not Brahman, this is not reality. This is a shadow of reality.
Immediately he becomes restless, and of course the teacher guides him. The Upaniṣad is telling us there is another inside which is the cause of the Prāṇamaya kośa, and Prāṇamaya kośa is the mother of Annamaya kośa.
Identity with Manomaya
As soon as a person understands this, he starts identifying with Manomaya kośa: "I am the mind, and mind is the only reality."
"Mana eva manuṣyāṇāṃ kāraṇaṃ bandha mokṣayoḥ" (Mind alone is the cause of bondage and liberation for human beings).
Mind is everything. Mind is heaven, mind is hell. Mind is dharma, mind is adharma. Mind is happy, mind is unhappy.
The Power of Imagination
There is wonderful truth here. Suppose there is a poor and ugly man, but his desires will be greater than anyone else's. Externally he cannot compete with anybody. Internally, in his imagination, he can go to svarga loka, naraka loka, Mars, Saturn—anywhere.
Suppose a poor person from a slum area has eaten only the coarsest food and thinks: "How I wish I was a prince and could marry a princess!" Then suppose he is dreaming: a princess comes, falls in love with him, immediately takes him in her chariot, and convinces her parents that she must marry him. This is how Lord Veṅkaṭeśvara got married to Padmāvatī—we have to understand the story of the Lord of Tirumalā.
Dreams and Past Merit
This poor man will be dreaming, and really in his dream—if he did some puṇya—then only will he be able to really dream good dreams. Then he would absolutely have visions: a beautiful princess, incomparably beautiful, comes and takes him in her divine chariot, takes him to her palace, convinces her parents, marries him, and becomes his beloved.
So long as this person is dreaming such dreams—and such dreaming also requires lots and lots of puṇya. The corollary is that if he is a puṇyavān (meritorious person), suppose he is an ordinary man but did lots of dhārmic actions in past life, as a result his mind becomes very dhārmic. He will get even an ordinary woman, or an ordinary woman because of her virtue gets an ordinary husband. But their attitude toward each other, their love for each other, their care for each other is as if they are the most beautiful people in the whole world.
For a satī (chaste wife), her husband is sākṣāt manmatha—veritable Manmatha (god of love)—however he may look. For the husband also, his wife looks like veritable Mahālakṣmī. See, it has nothing to do with external things.
Śaṅkarācārya's Example
As Śaṅkarācārya says in his Gopīna Pañcakam, even bhikṣānnam (food received as alms) tastes like amṛta. There are many such descriptions.
Identification with Manomaya
I Am Manomaya
This person identifies himself with Manomaya kośa. As soon as he identifies "I am Manomaya"—what is mind? Thoughts. And thought is Brahman. Therefore, for me, every thought is Brahman. Every thought will only lead me to Brahman. This means he will be thinking pure thoughts.
As soon as a person starts identifying himself this way, he behaves as if thought is the root cause of the entire creation. He also knows the whole universe outside is also looked upon as vibrations, thoughts, nothing else—vṛttimaya.
Purification Process
What happens then? He becomes purer and purer. If somebody, for example, commits a crime, this person will not condemn that murderer or criminal saying "Oh, you are a criminal!" No. He sees that this fellow has become mad, and that is how even now psychiatric institutions and lunatic asylums treat people.
Somehow these negative thoughts, destructive thoughts entered into them. They are not deliberately doing this. That is why even if a murder is done, if a person is proved to be a mental case or madman, the punishment will be totally different. He will be kept in an asylum but not in a jail or punished harshly, because they know that person is only swayed by thoughts.
Universal Understanding
Here also, this person understands that everybody's body, everybody's Prāṇa is behaving in a particular way, manifesting in a particular way only because of these thoughts.
Manomaya means māyā (full of), filled with manas (mind/thoughts). He has to contemplate this for the sake of saying "I am Manomaya Brahma, I am Brahman in the form of mind."
Transition and Understanding
As soon as he identifies and succeeds in that, what happens? Prāṇamaya becomes a kośa, anātmā, and mithyā. The idea comes that it is not real, and this applies even more to Annamaya kośa.
What happens to this person? He starts meditating upon what is called Sūtrātmā. Individual Prāṇa is called Prāṇamaya Ātmā, and collective Prāṇa of everybody, every living creature, is called Sūtrātmā. That is the first stage actually. Sūtrātmā is Prāṇamaya kośa, and Sūtrātmā is the effect of Hiraṇyagarbha.
As an individual mental being, I am called Taijasa, and collectively I am called Hiraṇyagarbha. So he cherishes pure thoughts, spiritual thoughts, thoughts of welfare. His selfishness comes down, his mental powers increase, his ānanda simultaneously increases, and he slowly identifies that everybody is nothing but the manifestation of thoughts.
The Structure of Manomaya Brahma
Human Form Contemplation
This is what the third section wants to convey. There is a form. What is the form? This Manomaya Brahma also is—that is the ātmā now. It is considered just like a human body, śarīra.
Just like Prāṇamaya kośa thought of Annamaya kośa like a human body, as soon as a person identifies with the mind, he cuts himself off from Prāṇamaya kośa and understands that the whole Prāṇamaya kośa is filled with Manomaya kośa. So Prāṇa has an inner layer called Manomaya, and that Manomaya fills this Prāṇamaya.
The person has to contemplate, considering and imagining the mind also as like a human body, exactly like a human being. For the sake of contemplation, he has to do anvaya (following the contemplation of the physical human body).
The Vedic Structure
If the mind is imagined like a human being, there is a head, right side, left side, etc. This is what is being described:
- Yajur Veda is the head of the Manomaya
- Ṛg Veda is its right wing or right hand
- Sāma Veda is the left wing or left hand
- The teaching of the Vedas is its trunk
- The hymns of Atharva Veda or Atharvāṇa and Āṅgirasa (sometimes both names belong to the same person, but some ācāryas take them as combined teachings of two separate ṛṣis called Atharva and Āṅgirasa) are its tail or support
This Manomaya kośa fills the entire Prāṇamaya kośa. This Manomaya kośa also has a human form just like the physical human form.
Explanation of the Components
Very briefly today I will tell you—in our next class we will expand on this. What is the head of this imaginary Manomaya human body?
Yajur means Yajur Veda. Why is Yajur Veda called the head? Because the head is the most important part in a body.
You know the Vedas are divided into four parts: Mantra, Brāhmaṇa, Āraṇyaka, and Upaniṣad. So Yajur Veda is the Brāhmaṇa portion which explains how to perform rituals. The whole life of a Hindu is filled with these rituals. Therefore, at this stage, the head—that is, we—are controlled by the rituals, and it is a very good thing.
The mantras, original mantras, form the right hand as it were, because the right hand is the most useful hand for all our actions. 99% of our actions are done only through the right hand.
Sāma means not-so-important is the left hand. The left wing is called Sāma Veda. Why is it called Sāma Veda? Sāma Veda consists of some mantras chosen from the Ṛg Veda which are set to music so they can be sung like Gregorian chants. Their importance is only to entertain and to elucidate, but really speaking, they form a minor part. Therefore, this Sāma Veda is considered the left hand.
Understanding Left and Right Hands
We should not mistake left and right hands in their conventional sense. If somebody's left hand is the main hand, then that has to be considered as his right hand. Whichever hand is more prominent, whichever eye is more prominent—psychologists tell us something wonderful about this.
Even though we have a pair—right leg, left leg, right hand, left hand, right eye, left eye, right ear, left ear—if you observe closely, you will see the power will not be equal. Sometimes you observe carefully: a person with less hearing, when you are speaking or someone is speaking, that person will put forward in that direction either the right ear or left ear.
Even though externally we cannot distinguish, the person knows which hand is stronger, has more dexterity, so he can accomplish things with it. Similarly, it is said—I don't know how far it is true—when males step down from sleeping time, they usually put the right leg first, but when women do that, it will be the left leg.
The point is, though both are externally appearing the same, one particular limb is used more often—we prefer it, albeit unconsciously.
The Components Explained
This left side is not very important, but the right side is crucial because all of Yajur Veda depends upon Ṛg Veda only.
Ādeśa means the instructions, the commandments: "do this, don't do this." That is the very life of all of us. We all desire:
- The body must be healthy
- The mind must be healthy
- We must be prosperous
- We must know how to overcome difficulties
- We must know how to acquire things without cheating others
Atharva Veda, the fourth Veda, is famous for fulfilling most of our secular desires. That is why, willy-nilly, our Vedic ṛṣis had to add this Atharva Veda to the other three Vedas. Earlier there were only three Vedas, but people came to understand the philosophy: "Śarīra mādhyaṃ khalu dharma sādhanam" (The body is indeed the primary instrument for achieving dharma).
The body is the single most important instrument for achieving anything higher, either in the secular world or in the spiritual world. Atharva Veda caters mostly to body-mind welfare, but Atharva Veda also has wonderful Upaniṣads. We will come to that in our next class.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
Oṁ jananīṁ śaraḍhāṁ deveṁ rāmakriṣṇam jagad-gurum
pādapadmetayosritvā pranamāmi-muhurumuhu
May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna!