Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 61 on 16 July 2025
Full Transcript(Not Corrected)
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
For eternity he will be floating in the ocean, swimming in the ocean of Brahmananda Sagara. And what is that Brahman? Beautiful definition has been given. Brahman is truth, Brahman is knowledge or pure consciousness and Brahman is bliss. But here instead of bliss, infinite. Satyam manam anantam brahma. Now this Brahman is being expounded as the cause, as the mula karana of this entire creation. And if we remember the law of cause and effect, the effect cannot be anything other than the cause. So all the three qualities, Satyam, so a table is, and that is Satyam, but the table is nama and roopa, name and form. That's a different issue altogether. And then the consciousness, that this is a table, somebody has to recognize it. Because anything that exists must be cognizable. Even if a person is sleeping, at that moment, for that duration, the person may not be aware that I am so and so. But the person who is watching him, seeing him, observing him, that person is getting some knowledge. Existence is recognized in the form of vritti or thought, and that thought is nothing but a modification of reflected consciousness that is called jnanam in this definition. And in the other definition, it is called chit. And whenever we recognize something, it must lead to some beings, some people, some creatures happiness. Does a table give me happiness? Yes. If I am carrying something and I want to put it and I unburden myself by putting it on the table, what a relief comes, and that relief is called ananda. And that ananda is caused directly by the existence of the table. If you don't want to use that word table, earth, you dump everything on the floor. Floor means earth. So there must be something. So every object, directly or indirectly, points to satyam, jnanam, anantham. These are the very characteristics, very nature of Brahman. So in this second chapter, having formulated the goal of life is God realization, and God is defined as truth, knowledge, or truth, consciousness and infinity, which the very meaning of the word indicates, nothing can exist besides Brahman. Brahman is manifesting in the form of names and forms, but the existence part of any object and the consciousness, the knowledge part of any object and the very effect of any object, they all belong to Brahman and nothing but Brahman. So that is what this second section, first section of the second chapter wants to convey to us. For that purpose, a beautiful methodology is evolved, that is called creation. As we have seen earlier, the process of creation is beautifully explained in this very first section of the second chapter of the Taittiri Upanishad called Brahmananda Valli, that from Brahman comes the Akasha, and from Akasha modifies itself into air. Modification means it becomes further grossified, and further grossification of the air is fire, and fire crucifies as water, and water as earth, and this whole earth is nothing but the modification of the Brahman, but gradually through those stages. Why is this process of creation being initiated? So that we can understand at this moment what is our understanding. I am different, God is different. I am here, God is elsewhere. I am small, God is big. I know very little, God knows everything. I am of little power, God is of infinite power, and all our problems, sufferings, difficulties, pain comes only from this partial understanding, because I am is right understanding, but I am small is wrong understanding. I am different from God is wrong understanding. So the goal is to understand I do not exist, only God exists. If God is everything, I am nothing. That should be the final realization. For that purpose we need that knowledge. That knowledge that I am Brahman is called God realization. And here is a process that at this moment I think about me, I have some idea. What is that idea? What is that knowledge? I am the body and I have a mind. I am nothing but body, mind, plus whatever possessions I have. Even though we say my house, my property, but for practical purposes it is me, not my house. My property is me, because if the property is damaged, house is damaged, car is damaged, somebody takes away some money from my house, they don't feel the pain. Only I feel the pain. That is called extreme wrong identification. But after realization of Brahman we understand the possessions, the wealth also is Brahman. The body is also Brahman. The mind is also Brahman. I am Brahman. You are Brahman. Everything is Brahman. In fact there is nothing else except Brahman. That should be the realization. What does a person get? He enjoys everything. He will not be enjoying bliss, but he becomes bliss. So long as we are enjoying, there is that bondage. I have to obtain something because it is not me. Whatever is not me is not me and I have to work hard to get it. But whatever is me will always be me for eternity. If I am Ananda, then I will be Ananda Swaroopa for eternity. In the past, at present and in future, I will be only Ananda Swaroopa. That should be the realization. However, improbable it may look for now, but that is the final realization of every person who realizes God by adopting, whether it is devotional path or selfless service or control of the mind, body and mind, or by using the intellect. Whatever the path, Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, everybody will reach the same goal. Why? Because God is only one and he is infinite. So infinite paths are there. So here, Upanishad is trying to describe, first you understand who you are and we think we understand. In my last class, I have given this example. First of all, we have to remember what is reality, whatever affects me is reality so far as I am concerned. If, say, Ramakrishna loses or Sridhiram loses all his property, what was his reaction? Everything belongs to Rama. So long as he has asked me to look after it, now he says, I will look after it. So you take back, let God take back whatever belongs to him. In no way he was affected. In fact, his devotion had increased. So that is how one progresses. Find out. This is a peculiar methodology called you move further, inner, subtler, from the gross to the subtle, from the subtle to even more subtle, until we cross all objectivity and until there is only one truth, one reality remains. So at present, even though we are not very clearly cognizant, we are consisting of, that is our body, our mind, not only that, everything in this world, in this so-called creation is consisting of five elements. And that is the reason why the Srishti Prakriya, description of creation. So what is one purpose? It is everything is coming from one and only one cause and that cause is Brahman. And Brahman is Satyam Jnanam Anantam. And everything that comes from that cause must be the same thing. The effect cannot be even one billion percent different from the cause. So everything is really Brahman only. But now we cannot understand it. First let me understand who I am. Then with that vision, Jnanam Anjana Vimalanayana Vikshane Mohajaya, with that understanding that I am Brahman. Then if I am Brahman, I cannot see non-Brahman because I am Anantam, I am infinite. In infinite, there is no second. You can't say two infinites, let alone more infinites. If everything is infinite, two points to be noted down, there are no finites. That means Dhrithiya is not there. The second object is not there. And second is infinite doesn't mean any number of different finites. It is of one uniform nature which is beautifully defined as Satyam Jnanam Anantam Brahma. So everything is Brahman. Even to say everything is Brahman is only to teach us because if Brahman alone is, we can't use the word everything. Everything implies there are many things besides Brahman. How to attain if this is the truth? So we start with complete faith in the scriptures. If this is the truth, then how to slowly grasp? So we have to remove our ignorance. This ignorance means thinking that I am not Brahman. And the first ignorance starts, I am this body, I am this mind, I am my possessions. And therefore, how can I remove this identity with this body, with this mind and with these possessions? For that we have to say that you are nothing but the cause which made you. What is that cause which made me? That is how everything in this world is creation, is first identified as Annam. Annam means everything. The numberless galaxies that we see in this universe and everything that is contained in those galaxies, everything comes out only of one material. In scientist language, it is called everything is made up of atoms. One need not be clever and then, oh no, no, no, they have gone beyond. This is what is called root material, let us take it as, call it atom. Everything is made up of atom only. That is how step by step we have to find out the immediate cause of our body and also our mind. For that purpose, as we discussed already, that the creation process, creation means what? Crossification. Creation means what? Manifestation. Not real change, but seeming change. Seeming change for whom? For the observer, it is the seeming change. But really, just as a rope never changes, even if a billion people are looking at it as a snake, even if we think that I am different from you, you are different from a tree, tree is different from an animal, everything is made up of only that one material. Sri Ramakrishna simplifies it and says, once I had a vision where I perceived this whole creation as if made out of wax, a tree, tree, wax tree, wax dog, wax man and woman, wax sun, wax moon, wax galaxies. What is the real material? Wax only. And wax and wax alone. But because of the different forms, names and our utility, we feel that they are different. One is not the other. Any number of times we discussed this one and to make us understand that first you understand what you are, then you understand where from you have come and you merge yourself into your immediate cause. And once you reach that state, you merge your Karana. When we reach that Karana and know that I am this Karana, that Karana becomes Karya. I am no longer the cause, I am only intermediary cause, but I am actually an effect of something else. And then the striving comes, let me find out what is the cause of this second cause. And then we reach the third cause, fourth cause, fifth cause. And then what is the fifth cause? Akasha space. And once we reach that fifth cause, then we have the vision of Brahman. And then what is the next cause? There is no other cause. Why? Because there is nobody, no seeker, no seeking, nothing to seek. So that is the final cause. Where our seeking stops, that is the final cause. Moola Karana, causeless cause, the ultimate cause which is accepted by every religion as a creator. So when creation is merged in the creator, even that understanding that it is a creation and there is a creator, that division also disappears. We don't even say I am the creator. Everything is creator. We don't even say that because to say that there must be multiplicity and there would be no multiplicity. Therefore, what is the aim of the Upanishad in describing this process of creation? To make us realize our real nature by helping us move from the effect to its immediate cause and then from there to its cause until we reach the final causeless cause. And this process involves two steps. Very, very important. At every stage we encounter two realities. What is it? First of all, we feel we are the individual and we also at the same time feel you are an individual, he is an individual, she is an individual, a dog is an individual, a tree is an individual. So this is at the individual level, this difference will come. What is the purpose now? That if I know my cause, I will know the cause of the entire physical material universe. So what is happening at this second stage? The individuality is merged in the universality. The Vishwa, the individual person in the waking state who is called Vishwa now merges himself into Virat. That is to say, I am not a separate individual, but the whole of this physical material creation is called Virat, universal, the differentiation which existed before because of my ignorance now becomes less thick and I realize I am not only the individual, I am also the universal. This is called unity and diversity. So that is how if my cause is my parents, everybody's cause is their parents. And what is my cause? Earth. Earth means food. What is the cause of a tree? That is also food only. It came from its parents. So living, non-living, everything has come out of this earth. Another name for this earth is food and numb. And this earth becomes our immediate goal. Once we reach the earth, we may feel that we have reached the goal, but then immediately the understanding comes that just as we feel I thought I was the body, now I know I am not the body, as soon as we reach that state that the whole universe is nothing but the production, modification of food. Earth means food. So everything is born of this earth. Everything is maintained by earth and everything goes back to earth because the effect always goes back to earth. In fact, that is a wrong expression. The effect is always only the cause. What makes us forget is the names and forms. That's all. Once we reach the first cause, that is earth, then we realize that is not the final cause, but it is only a middle cause, one step higher, one step subtler. And then that is the process. The earth is merged in its cause, which is water. Water is merged in its cause, the fire. Fire is merged in its cause, the air. Air is merged in its cause, the space. And even space is not the cause, but it is being the first product. It is very close, very similar to the Atman. And then we reach the Brahman. And then the seeker will no longer be the seeker. The seeker has become merged in Brahman. And there the Brahman doesn't say, I am a seeker. It doesn't say, I am the sort. There is neither seeker, nor seeking, nor the sort, nor the reached. But that is how intellectually we have to understand. So this process of merging the grass in the subtle takes two steps. First, merge the individual in the universal and merge that universal in its cause. So Virat has to be merged in Hiranyagarbha. Hiranyagarbha has to be merged in Ishwara, which is called Saguna Brahma. And Saguna Brahma has to be merged in Nirguna Brahma. But first let us focus upon how to become merged in Virat. This is how a progress starts. So let us just briefly recollect. So Brahman became crossified first as five subtle elements. Then these five subtle elements became the five gross elements with a peculiar process called Panchikarna. We don't get it anywhere except in our Upanishads. Panchikarna means all the five physical gross elements get mixed up. And a combination or the resultant of this mixed up five gross elements is the entire material world. And the unmixed up five subtle elements is the result of the subtle and causal bodies of all the living creatures. That is how we have to understand. So we have to move from the lower to the higher and this is called Panchakosha Viveka. This method as we discussed involves a gradual progression from the grossest to the subtler, etc. What are these five sheaths? We already know but we have to remember it. First Annamaya Kosha that is called Food Sheath. That is the physical body, everything that is material, whether my body, your body or a rock, a mountain, etc. Subtler than that is called Pranamaya Kosha. It is called Pranic Sheath, the vital energy or breath. Details will come later on. And then subtler than that is called Manohamaya Kosha, the mind and its emotions, thoughts. The fourth very subtle called Vijnanamaya Kosha, intellect, intellect and way. Anandamaya Kosha, a causal body, a realm of potentially unmanifested matter. So each one of these five manifestations are called a Kosha. So what is the meaning of Kosha? It is a sheath. Just like a knife is kept in a sheath and there is no relationship between the knife and the sheath. Sheath is of a different material, knife is a different material. It is to make us understand the knife is comparable to the Atman. And these sheaths may be very, imagine, may be there is a very precious sword, the sword of King Solomon or things like that, or the sword that is used by Yudhishthira or even earlier by somebody else. They become memorabilia. The cricket bat that has been used by famous cricketeers becomes a very valuable object. Anyway, the point is the sword and the sheath. The sheath is only that which covers. So a Kosha first of all is different from the sword. Second, the Kosha covers up not allowing us to perceive it directly until we remove that sheath. That is the idea. So our Atman or Brahman is covered up with that precious, pure consciousness, covered up at this moment by very, very, very subtle sheath called Anandamaya Kosha. And that Anandamaya Kosha is covered up by Jnanamaya Kosha. And that is covered up by Manohamaya Kosha. That is covered up by Pranamaya Kosha. And that is covered up by this Annamaya Kosha. So if we want to know that we are that Brahman, we have to get rid of these Koshas. So that is the process called this, what is called Panchikarna or this Panchakosha Viveka. And what is the process here? First of all, we are already, we think we are identified, not really identified. That is the point I will discuss very shortly. So we are identified with Anandamaya Kosha. What does it mean? Means I think I am the body and so everything is nothing but a body. Even a table is a body of wood and a necklace is the body of gold, a pot is the body of the clay, etc. We forget the Karna, the cause and only identify with this. And that becomes our reality. But as I said, what is the reality? Do we think our body is the reality? What was the definition of reality? That which never changes, which is beyond time. No past, no present, no future. Past, present and future means change. So every moment becomes, present moment becomes past, next will be second. And the future, next will be second becomes present very soon. And that present passes into the past. And before we think, all these changes are taking place. And that which changes cannot be Satyam. It is called Anrutam, Asatyam. Asatyam means that is not real. If it is not real, it will not help us. But we think it is real. That is why the effect is also temporary. As the reality, as our imagined reality of an object changes, the effect of that imagined reality also changes, turns into its opposite. And that is our tragedy. If I am born, I am already dead in time. Only I don't want to face it. That is the problem. So this is a beautiful process. Let us remember what is reality, that which affects us, that which makes us happy. Forget time, space and causation. That is the ultimate judgmental value. And if the opposite unhappiness comes, that makes us intensely aware of time, space and causation. And nobody wants to be aware of time, space and causation. All our efforts from birth to death, if you look from one special point of view, is to forget time, space and causation. Because time, space and causation reminds us limitation. Limitation means painfulness actually. And this is a beautiful understanding. Suppose you are hungry, you sit to eat food, somebody gives you a spoonful of food. Will you be a happy person? Even that spoonful only creates more pain because it acts as an appetizer. Already you are burning from hunger and as if you poured petrol by this spoonful of food and you become even more hungry and that is not desirable at all. So what we are trying to do is, limitation is the highest type of unhappiness. And limitation is caused by time, space and causation. So our whole effort is, maybe we want to forget who we are by working. Maybe we want to forget who we are by imagining about the future. Rarely anybody lives at present. Our attempt to have wild dreams is to escape our painful, unbearable present. So when we enter into deep sleep, we feel happy, peaceful actually. Why? Oh, because that makes us forget time, space and causation. But that is a temporary phenomenon. But if we can somehow achieve a permanent transcend, ascent beyond the time, space, causation and that is what unconsciously we are praying like that. So this is the process. What are we talking about? What we think? My body is real. We know it is not real. No old man thinks in these terms. A young man temporarily forgetting, he may think my body is real because it is a beautiful, appropriate instrument for making me enjoy things. And as I discussed in my last verse, these are very, very, very important points. Even when I am enjoying, for example, a sweet, the sweet doesn't say that I am giving you happiness. The body doesn't say. The body through which the sweet goes inside the stomach doesn't say I am very happy. I am very happy is behind. There is a thought I was suffering from hunger and the food is has been taken and this is a highly delicious food, desirable food. The body never thinks in those terms. For body, whether there is salt, whether there is any chilli powder, it doesn't make any difference. Body knows only one thing. Is there protein? Is there carbohydrate? Is there vitamins? Is there elements like zinc, etc.? That's all it knows. It doesn't know anything else excepting what is called food material. And food material is nothing but energy or pranashakti we call it. But the mind thinks I love it, so I enjoy it. And the mind also is as inert as the body. The mind doesn't realize I have no power to think I am happy. It is behind this thought. There is a hidden reflected consciousness and that is what makes me feel I am happy. So who is the enjoyer? It is the atman. And who knows what is the thought? That is also the consciousness only. In other words, Brahman only. That is what beautifully summarized in that prayer we offer before food. Arpanam is Brahma. Havihe is Brahma. Agni is Brahma. And the offerer is Brahma. Everything is Brahma. So Brahma means what? Pure consciousness. This is what we need to understand. Now I said we think this body is real. But unconsciously we know the body is completely unreliable. And if we are not intelligent enough to understand this, everyday newspaper helps us understand this person with whom I spoke yesterday, now he has disappeared. That tree, so beautifully a tree and it has been cut. So everything is coming into existence, stays for a short time and then taken away by somebody or the other, by some agent or the other. Everything is changing. And that which is changing cannot be real. We know it. But we are struggling very hard to make it real. One day we understand that the body is not real, the mind is not real, the entire universe is not real. Then what is real? The cause is much more real than the effect. So let me seek, let me go to a better reality, higher reality. And then it is much more stable, much less constrained and as I said much more pervasive, much subtler. This is the process of merging the gross into the subtle and that is the purpose of this Panchakosha, Vrana. Just I wanted to tell what is the methodology indicated by the Upanishads. So first you think your body is Brahman. What does it mean? It means actually the body is, even though it is a temporary body, but it is really Brahman only, limited by time space causation. But how do we know? This body has come from Anabrahman. It is sustained by Anabrahman and it finally goes back into Anabrahman. Those points we will discuss in more details later on. But what is meant is the Karna is more real and Karna is more subtle. That is what is indicated here. So that is why we have seen in the Chandogya and here also, think of this body, Deho Devalaya. It is a temple of God. Temple of God is not temple. Temple of God is only an instrument to find the temple. We have to understand that. Even the image of God in the temple is not the reality. The image helps us to think deeply about the concept of God and that concept of God is none other than our own true nature. That is how slowly from the external and crosser to the internal settler until we transcend all the panchakoshas and finally reach that which is so called beyond the panchakoshas, that is step by step we reach the roof. But once we reach the roof, a miracle takes place that which we have been denying. This is not Brahman. This is not Brahman. After reaching Brahman, that very thing is perceived, experienced continuously, constantly as none other than Brahman itself. But before that, as if it is not Brahman. That is the process we have to follow. So the first one is Annamayakosha. So we have to think our body belongs to God and that is called considering the body as the temple where Brahman is. The temple belongs to whom? To Brahman, to God. Therefore everything that we call the temple, it is all belonging to God and because of God it is called temple, otherwise it is just called a house. So the same place, just a funny example I am giving, supposing imagine there is a kind of unsavoury, what is called a swamp where billions and billions of mosquitoes are there and some Mahatma, good man, devotee decides then he will fill it up, kill all the mosquitoes and make it very hard and builds a temple. Previously people used it for many purposes but now they dare not do it. Why? Because this reminds us that it belongs to God. Whatever belongs to God is divine and it is a sacred place. But as I said, nobody should mistake the bricks, the mortar, etc. for God but it gives us the idea, it leads us to the idea that it is nothing but Brahman. That is what exactly the body is supposed to do. So long as we think that this body is mine, this body is me, then all that belongs to the body, all the changes, all the ups and downs and I become attached. Oh I am young, I am old, I am illiterate, I am literate, I had wonderful position, I lost my job, everything affects us. But the moment we think this belongs to God, what is the first thing? It is sacred and it is holy and it is forever. That is the idea of the temple. Once I start looking upon myself as belonging to God, my body belongs to God means what? My mind also belongs to God. I belong to God means what? I, who was thinking I am the body-mind and I am myself, now start slowly to change that understanding. I, that means this body-mind, it doesn't belong to me. I also don't belong. Everything belongs to God only. That is called non-attachment. And once this process starts, what happens? There is something interesting here. As soon as a person starts thinking that I am not the body, actually this is not mine, this belongs to God. It remains as it were a dry intellectual process. But a tremendous joy comes, this belongs to God. Just as when we go to a temple, we feel sacred, we feel holy and we feel very happy and even a little bit of same prasada, same food that we eat at home is given back to us after offering to God. It becomes prasada and we touch it to our eyes showing reverence and we enjoy it much more than we enjoy ordinary food. That tremendous joy comes. And what happens with that idea? When we look upon somebody else, my view about that person also correspondingly changes. If my body belongs to God, then your body also belongs to God. Everybody's body also belongs to God. That's what Sri Ramakrishna says. When I saw a small insect crawling, I saw the consciousness itself is crawling. That is how with the change of understanding of what I am, my understanding of what the other persons are, what the other creatures are, living and non-living, everything changes. How do we know? Because in the eyes of Kalidasa, what we call Mount Everest, a Himalayas, is not a dead piece of rock. There is a devata, divine being and that belongs, that is called Himalayas in the northern direction. The mountains become God, the forests become God, the rivers become God or Goddesses. Everything in this world becomes transformed. Even now we ordinary people, when we touch Ganga water, we feel how sacred they are, how wonderful it is. So this is the process. First I have to consider that this body, mind, all the possessions belong to God and then I feel myself, a feeling of sacredness. My body is sacred, my possessions are sacred, my mind also is sacred. Along with that the change comes that everybody is sacred, everything is sacred and we will illustrate this in our future classes from the life of Sri Ramakrishna. Just one sample I will give you. Bhairavi Brahmani made him, made Sri Ramakrishna go through all the difficult tantric practices. At the end he said, I realized everything is the divine mother. So for that purpose she made Sri Ramakrishna cook food in a human skull and then eat it. She made him eat rotten fish. She made him even touch with his tongue what we call feces because feces is also Brahman. And I also explained it. You have to keep in mind for us it may not be a very healthy thing to touch or eat but what about let us say a dung beetle. For a dung beetle dung is the most suitable food and if it happens to be a Bhakta it will do Brahmaarpanam. Its dung is Brahman, eater of dung is Brahman, everything is Brahman. That is the truth. We don't know about what the beetle is thinking. We think that beetle is not capable of thinking. You find out a scorpion and put it on your head thinking it is not capable of stinging you. It is very capable of doing all these things. Every creature limitations are there but every living creature nonliving creature also can have the same effect. These are beautiful ideas how to make everything sacred. That is the secret of so you move from the grosser kosha that is a little bit sacred still more sacred still more sacred even more sacred until we reach Brahman and then we find the whole thing is there are no degrees of sacredness. Everything is nothing but pure Satyam Gnanam Anantam Brahma. Om Jananim Shardam Devem Ramakrishnam Jagat Gurum Padapadmetayosritva Pranamaami Mohur Moho Ho May the Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti. Jai Ramakrishna.