Taittiriya Upanishad Lecture 95 Ch2.9 on 11 March 2026
Lecture on the Taittirīya Upaniṣad: Brahmānanda Vallī, Sections 8 and 9
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
Summary of the 8th Section: Ānanda Mīmāṃsā
We have almost come to the end of the 8th section, which is called Ānanda Mīmāṃsā, Brahmānanda Mīmāṃsā, or Brahma Mīmāṃsā — Brahma, not Brahmā. Brahman is Sat Cit Ānanda. Brahman is not merely having existence, knowledge, and bliss — Brahman is existence, Brahman is knowledge, Brahman is Ānanda.
So what did we see so far? There is one way of attaining to higher states of happiness. Loka means a higher state of happiness, and it is always related to the purity of the mind. But there are also real physical worlds, just as we have this earth. You may remember that this earth is the 7th Loka, and from here only the upper Lokas start and the lower Lokas also start. It is only on this earthly Loka that a person can perform actions — not that everybody does what is desirable, but we do actions here and we reap the results of these actions either in this life or in the afterlife, even after many, many lives. That is possible.
The Path of Vidhi and Niṣedha: Commandment and Restraint
We have discussed how, when a person goes on living according to the directions of the scriptures — observing all the things that one is commanded to do and, with great strength of will, purposefully refraining from doing that which is forbidden, however tempting it may be — gradually, to the extent that he fulfils these two commandments, Vidhi and Niṣedha, he attains to the higher and highest Lokas. The highest of this result of Karma Phala is Brahmaloka Ānanda. It is also Brahmaṇaḥ Ānandaḥ, but here it is not Brahmānanda — it is Brahmaloka Ānanda.
But the Śruti also tells us something marvellous: one doesn't need to go anywhere. He can get any type of Ānanda, provided he attains Vairāgya towards that particular Loka. Vairāgya means dispassion — "I don't want this Ānanda."
The Psychology of True Vairāgya
Observe a curious psychological fact. To be able to say "I don't want to eat this sweet," one must have already known how that sweet tastes. Any person who has not tasted a particular object cannot truly say he is renouncing it. So here is a person who has attained it — but he renounces it. And who can truly renounce? Only when a person understands there is something higher. It is a very natural law: we can give up the lower only when we know there is something higher.
So this person has faith — tremendous faith in the scripture. That is why he is called a Śrutimān, a person who has tremendous faith in the Śruti. In this case, the Veda or Upaniṣad is like his own mother. Whatever a mother tells a baby is for the good of the baby, and the baby knows it. Even though earthly babies sometimes misbehave, even after their suffering they cling only to the mother. Rāmakṛṣṇa illustrated it beautifully: a mother wanted to correct a child and was mildly beating the child; the child felt a little pain, but still clung only to the feet of the mother. Even while weeping, he doesn't want to be beaten, but he clings only to the mother, because he doesn't know anything else.
So a Śrotriyas, a person who has this kind of faith in the Śruti — that is the first condition. Akāmahatasya — he doesn't want it. But simply an ignorant fellow who says "I don't want it" — that is because he is totally ignorant of what he is talking about; he doesn't even know what his words mean. Only a person who knows that there is Ānanda in a thing, yet deliberately and willingly gives it up — that is true Vairāgya.
Janma Janmāntara Sādhana: Wisdom Born of Experience
Now, any object capable of giving Ānanda is also capable of giving the opposite. A sweet can give happiness, but the same sweet can also make a person diabetic or spoil his stomach. So every object has the capacity to produce either a positive or a negative result. We have to be very careful about it.
Here is a person who knows this. Can he achieve Vairāgya in a moment? No — it requires janma janmāntara sādhana, practice across many births. He must have been tempted many times, given in to the temptation, and experienced both happiness and unhappiness — with the proportion of unhappiness much greater than the happiness. At last he becomes wise: even though an object gives happiness, in comparison to what I am paying, the result I get is very little. And therefore he develops tremendous Vairāgya.
As soon as he develops it — knowing fully well the joy he is giving up — that act of renunciation itself produces more joy than what he has given up. This is a well-known psychological truth. Imagine a mother who has been given only one small, beautiful sweet and has a child away at school. After two or three hours the child will come. The mother carefully guards that sweet, and as soon as the child returns, she feeds it to the child. Seeing the joy of the child, the mother also attains Ānanda. This is called Vairāgya — not merely giving up, but enjoying through the giving.
Identification with Universal Ānanda: The Akāmahata State
How does a wise person truly enjoy? Taking this example: he becomes like a mother toward everybody. He knows, according to the scriptures, that everything is Brahman and everybody is Brahman. So when some people are very happy, this person identifies with them and says, "I am very happy because they are very happy."
You must remember the example of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, who prayed to the Divine Mother at the request — rather the insistence — of his disciples: "Please pray that you could eat something, so that you may get strength and might overcome this cancerous situation." Reluctantly, he prayed to the Mother. And we all know: the Mother revealed to him, "Why are you not eating? I am eating through all these mouths." That is the state of akāmahata. The person identifies himself with others and says: "I do not personally need this. When others are enjoying it, I am capable of enjoying it too."
So when the people of the Gandharva Loka are enjoying, this person identifies with them and says, "I am getting the Gandharva Loka Ānanda." Similarly Deva Loka Ānanda, Indra Loka Ānanda, Prajāpati Loka Ānanda, and then finally Brahmaloka Ānanda.
The essence of this is: If you identify with any of this, their Ananda becomes yours, when I become identified with Brahma, then the entire Brahma's happiness becomes mine, but even that is not one infinistimsal part of infinite. And therefore the man understands and he longs to become one with Brahman, then his Anand is complete. if one can develop devotion to God, the joy of that devotion — in proportion to the intensity of the Bhakti — will be more than even Brahmaloka Ānanda. That is an established fact.
Transcending Brahmaloka Ānanda: The Limit of Karma
This person has identified himself with Brahmā the Creator, because the Creator is everything that he has created — he is the universal aspect of the entire creation, the whole Brahmāṇḍa. Therefore, the happiness of every manifestation of creation is called Brahmaloka Ānanda. Then this person understands that he must transcend even this, must develop Vairāgya even toward Brahmaloka Ānanda, and must pray to God.
Now, any action can take one only up to Brahmaloka Ānanda. After that, action will not work. Why? Because action is finite and limited. If one wants to experience something higher, one must act; but infinite activity is an impossible term — it does not exist. Every karma is limited, and the result of every karma is proportionate to that karma. Therefore karma does not work beyond this point. Then what works? Only the grace of God.
That is what Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: God can give liberation to his devotees. In fact, He gives Himself. Or, if we use poetical language: He simply destroys the limited "I," and just as the small flame that came out of Hiraṇyakaśipu merged into that infinite light, the Ugra Nṛsiṃha Mūrti, so too does the Jīvātmā lose his Jīvahood and become one with Paramātmā.
The Mahāvākya: Identity of the Inner Puruṣa and the Āditya
This realisation is what the Śruti now wants to tell, and this is called a Mahāvākya. As we discussed earlier, a Mahāvākya is one in which the Śruti wants to tell us: "Really speaking, my friend, you are none other than Brahman." This person, by the grace of God — whether he follows the path of Jñāna, the path of Bhakti, Rāja Yoga, or Karma Yoga — Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa gives us the beautiful idea in the Gītā: Mā Śucaḥ — "you will have to surrender." Can we really surrender to the infinite, when the act of surrender itself is a kind of action? No. As I said, that also is not possible in the conventional sense. But when a person reaches that state, he is simply like a small baby. He can only look at the Mother and smile, but the Mother understands and takes the baby up. Like that, the infinite removes the last vestige.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa expresses it so beautifully — for every word of the Upaniṣad I can give you a parallel quotation from his words — describing how the Kuṇḍalinī is transcending, giving up one by one. That giving up is called akāmahatasya. Slowly the person is advancing, and then he reaches the Ājñā Cakra. Then it feels as if there is no barrier. He finds that, like a glass case, the Sādhaka is able to see the light within with crystal clarity. Like a moth, he wants to become one with that light — because two things can become one only when they are of the same nature. Light can become one with light; darkness and light cannot become one; bitter and sweet cannot become one. So he feels there is no distance at all, but that barrier is still there.
When Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was unable to describe what was going to happen — that too is coming here, in the next ninth and last section of this Brahmānanda Vallī — he says, "Something happens, that's all I can say, and then I will tell you everything." He promised. But a promise is possible only in the world of duality. So he became merged into deep Samādhi, what we also call Nirvikalpa Samādhi. In Nirvikalpa Samādhi, there is nobody to tell, and no one to whom one can tell. And when he came out, he could not tell what he had experienced. But he said, "I will try." Two or three times he tried. Then, in Swami Śāradānandajī's words, Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa started shedding tears and said, "I want to tell you but Mother is closing my mouth."
And then he passes his own remark: "This good man wants to tell us what happens when the Jīvātmā becomes one with Paramātmā, but this so-called Mother is preventing him." What is the idea? What type of mother is this, who prevents others from knowing? This man wants to tell — she doesn't want him to tell. The idea is this: it is beyond words. We have seen this in the very first mantra of the fourth section of this very second chapter of the Brahmānanda Vallī, which I am going to quote very soon.
The Mahāvākya: Saś Cāyaṃ Puruṣe Yaś Cāsāv Āditye Sa Ekaḥ
Now, this person who has reached the highest peak — what does he do? Complete Śaraṇāgati: "Lord, I cannot do any more. You will have to do now what you need to do. Whatever you think, you do it." What can light do? Only give light. What can fire do? It can only burn. So what can God do? He can only give knowledge, because He has nothing else excepting Brahman. Whatever we have, we can only give to others: if you have money, you can give; if you have knowledge, you can give; if you have music, then sing some songs or teach others. But if you have nothing, you can only pray for the other beings.
That brings us here, to the Mahāvākya: Saś cāyaṃ puruṣe, yaś cāsāv āditye, sa ekaḥ — "He who is here in man, and He who is in yonder sun — He is one."
This person realises: what we call the sun is only its physical manifestation, and it is none other than the manifestation of Brahman to the manifested mind. Therefore, Saś cāyaṃ puruṣe — the real cause of this Āditya — and that which is in me — Yaś cāsāv āditye — so the pure consciousness, the Ātman, the Puruṣa, the one in the Sādhaka, in myself — he who is in that Brahmapurī, shining constantly, shedding light, jyotiṣāṃ jyotiḥ, blazing in the hṛdaya kandara — that Puruṣa, and the same Puruṣa who is in my heart, in the cave of my heart — it is the same Brahman who is also manifesting in the form of the Āditya.
Āditya is not the physical star that scientists see and measure and take photographs of. It is that which is manifesting to the body in the form of the physical sun. But within that there is that jyotiṣāṃ jyotiḥ — this sun is Jyoti, but within that Jyoti there is one who is lending that Jyoti to the Āditya. There is no difference, because:
Sahasraśīrṣā Puruṣaḥ, sahasrākṣaḥ, sahasrapāt. Sa bhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtvā, atyatiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam.
Jīvātmā and Paramātmā are one and the same — there is no difference. Therefore, Tat Tvam Asi. Tvam — the Puruṣa who is within you — Tat — the same Puruṣa who is manifesting, who is making the entire universe. In fact, our sun is none other than Brahman so far as we are concerned. Just imagine: if there is no sun, there will be no moon, there will be no life, nothing called earth, and there will be no consciousness. So He who is here in man and He who is in yonder sun — both are one. Let us not mistake "he who is here" as the mind. It is not the mind. He who illumines the mind here, and He who illumines that light in the sun — both are one and the same. That is called Brahman.
The Process of Upasaṃkrāmati: Transcending the Five Kośas
And how does this person transcend? That is being said at the conclusion of this section:
Sa ya evaṃvit, asmat lokāt pretya, etam annamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati, etam prāṇamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati, etam manomayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati, etam vijñānamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati, etam ānandamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati.
He who knows this — as described above — knowing what? That the one within me and the one within the sun is one and the same. Why does the Śruti refer to the sun? Because the sun is the ultimate cause of this entire creation that we know. There may be other worlds and other suns, but the same law and principle applies to everything.
So he who knows this — not like a pundit, not like mere intellectual understanding, but he realises this: "I do not exist; only God exists." This is beautifully described many times. I have quoted that Ṣūfī story: a lover knocked at the door, which he thought was closed. From within came the question, "Who are you?" He said, "It is I." The door did not open. A second time he knocked; the same question came, and the same answer was given; the door did not open. A third time he knocked; the same question came. This time he said, "I am my Beloved." And to his great shock, he found there was no door at all. What is the door? "I am different, you are different" — that is the door. That is called Māyā. That Māyā is not there. There is no lover and no beloved; both are one and the same.
After realising that, after performing sādhana, after receiving from the Guru — then what happens? After "dying" — and we will come to the meaning of this word — that is, withdrawing from this world. Withdrawing from this world means: "I am not the body, I am not the prāṇa, I am not the mind, I am not the buddhi, I am not even the ānandamaya kośa." That is, transcending identification one after the other from all these kośas. Kośa is a covering.
So this knower of Brahman attains the Self. What type of Self does he attain? Previously he had been identified with the Self that consists of food — the annamaya kośa. He transcends that. Then he attains the prāṇamaya kośa and ascends even that. Then he transcends to the ānandamaya kośa and transcends that also. And then says Aham— does he say something? To whom is he going to tell?
At that stage of realisation, all these are descriptions for poor people like us who are still in the net of God, in the net of Mahāmāyā. And to prove that this is the truth, this Taittirīya Upaniṣad — which belongs to the Yajur Veda — quotes further.
A Note on the Authorship of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad
By the way, you have to understand: who is the author of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad? I hope you remember who is the author of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad. It is the same Yājñavalkya, who was commanded by his teacher: "I am not keeping well; now you take over my place and teach this Upaniṣad." So what Yājñavalkya digested after hearing from his Guru — as if it were food, meaning he cogitated, did manana, did nididhyāsana, and made the knowledge that came from the Guru his own — that he then taught to his disciples. That is called the Taittirīya Upaniṣad.
And they have become "Taittirīya birds," that is to say they could not digest the entire Upaniṣad — each one understood only a little bit. But the author, really speaking and indirectly speaking, is only Yājñavalkya. We have to understand that fact.
So what does he say? He who knows that he is Brahman — which is the only reality, which is Satyaṃ Jñānam Anantaṃ Brahma — why do we use these three words? Because in the very first section of the second chapter, Brahman is defined as Satyaṃ Jñānam Anantaṃ Brahma. That Brahman he understood: "I am that Brahman."
The Three States, Three Bodies, and Five Kośas
So here, after dying — when a man dies, what happens? He gives up his body. Dying to the physical body means: "I am not this body, I am not this prāṇa, I am not this mind, I am not this buddhi, I am not even this ānanda." That is to say, when a person is in the waking state: "I am not the waker, I am not the dreamer, I am not the sleeper." These are the three possible states that every living creature undergoes. I told you many times that even a mosquito must go through the waking state — it works, then it starts dreaming, and funnily enough, I told you, a young male mosquito dreams of a very beautiful young female mosquito. How do you know it doesn't? Because you observe nature — intense competition is there. So that is how we have to understand.
From the viewpoint of kośas — the five kośas — and from the viewpoint of the three states of experience and the three bodies — sthūla, sūkṣma, kāraṇa śarīras — Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa explains this so beautifully in the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa: the annamaya kośa and the sthūla śarīra are one and the same; the ānandamaya kośa, suṣupti, and kāraṇa śarīra are the same. But in between there is what is called the sūkṣma śarīra, the mind, which is divided into three kośas equivalent to prāṇamaya, manomaya, and vijñānamaya. This is what we have to understand.
So after developing detachment — and now we have to connect it with the description of the Lokas — annamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati, prāṇamayam ātmānam upasaṃkrāmati. Upasaṃkrāmati means what? One meaning is "transcending." What is the meaning of transcending here? Not as if you leave one town and reach another town — not like that. It means: through Upāsanā, which Upāsanā? Annaṃ brahmeti vyajānāt — "Anna is Brahman." Every living creature — I am that living creature, because I consist of pañca bhūtas. In this world, both living and non-living are constructed of only these pañca bhūtas.
When a person attains, through deep contemplation, the state of anna Brahman, that means all joys that happen are me only — "I am the killer, I am the killed." Physically speaking, how can a person be both the killer and the killed? It is possible only when we are separate. When I act as both, who is the killer and who is the killed? For that person it becomes an act, a Līlā, a play.
We have this knowledge in dream — that is why we give the example of the dream. Somebody is killed in front of our eyes, and we get very angry, we become afraid, we run away. But upon waking up, both people — perhaps people we know — both the killer and the killed — we realise they were only our thoughts. They were not reality. And when we become capable of transcending this waking state — which is called the turīya state — then only we understand.
So a person develops intense Vairāgya: akāmahatasya — "I am not anna Brahma, I am not prāṇa Brahma, I am not mano Brahma, I am not vijñāna Brahma, I am not even ānandamaya Brahma." Then what remains? That is pure Brahman. These are all kośas — that is the meaning.
Thus, passing to higher and higher Selves, he gives up attachment to the lower ones. In fact, we can put it the other way around: only when we give up attachment to the lower ones can we ascend to the higher ones — until the Sādhaka finally attains that fearless Brahman, which is beyond the visible and the invisible, and then that person becomes a realised soul.
Sāyaṇācārya's Commentary: The Paradox of "He Who Knows This"
Now, Swami Nikhilānandajī Mahārāj gives a beautiful selection as an explanation from Sāyaṇācārya — not Śaṅkarācārya. Sāyaṇācārya was also one of the commentators of the Vedas. Since all the Upaniṣads are contained in the Vedas, you can say that, like Śaṅkarācārya, like Rāmānujācārya, like Madhvācārya, he is also a commentator on all the Vedas.
The question is: who is indicated by the words "he who knows this" — Sa ya evaṃvit? Is it the Supreme Self, or someone else?
It cannot be the Supreme Self, for He is the one to be known and therefore cannot be the knower. Nor can it be someone else, for that would contradict the teaching of non-duality.
So this is an intellectual understanding: does this person attain to Brahman? The answer is no — he doesn't. Then we are upset: "All this time we were thinking this person is going to attain!"
All this attainment and non-attainment — these are all thoughts in the mind. Brahman has never become the sṛṣṭi; Brahman had never become the Jīva. If He had become the Jīva, then the question of slowly ascending and going back — that is, reaching, attainment, realisation — all these would be correct. But these are meaningless words.
When a person wakes up, he understands: as if he had gone to America in his dream and then returned home. He thinks, "I went through so many problems — those visa officers under that administration tortured me, I had no sleep, I suffered so much. Thank God I have come back safely to my home." And then he wakes up. Did he go to America? Did he get tortured? Did he come back and sigh with relief? No. It was just a thought. Māyā is a thought in the mind.
And this Sāyaṇācārya, brilliant as he was, comments: "He who knows this" — what does he know? "I was never a Jīva. I thought I was a Jīva." Will that thought even be there? It will be there only so long as he is in the realm of Māyā. Once the person transcends this Māyā, even the idea that "at one time I was in the realm of Māyā" does not arise. Why? Because if he remembers there is another state besides the present — Māyā — only then can he think, "I was in another place, Hyderabad or Kāśī, and then I went to Bangalore." Two places — both real. But this is only thinking. Even that thinking disappears in deep sleep. Do you dream in deep sleep that "I went to America, was tortured, completed my work, and came back"?
Compare it with the deep-sleep state: in that state, there are no thoughts of going or coming, attaining or non-attaining, reaching or not reaching. This person understands: "I was Brahman, I am Brahman, and I will be Brahman." And again — don't mistake this to mean he will be thinking this. He won't be thinking, because the thinking instrument called the mind itself will be absent there.
For us, who want to know about it — we are separate from Brahman, we have a mind, and therefore the mind requires all this information. Really, it is not true.
So, it cannot be the Supreme Self, because you cannot reach the Supreme Self — for the simple reason that He is you. He is the one to be known and therefore cannot be the knower. Nor can it be someone else, because there is nobody besides Brahman: ekameva advitīyam.
What is the answer from our viewpoint? The Supreme Self can be both the knower and the known. And when the realised soul comes down, he understands that he can be both in Nitya and in Līlā. But sometimes the person transcends Līlā and goes into that Nitya. Who is there to describe? Like a salt doll that went into the ocean to measure its depth — it can never return. So when conditioned by the Upādhis of the physical body, the senses, and so on, the Supreme Self becomes the phenomenal Jīva, the knower — not really, but only in appearance. Free from Upādhis, He remains as the Supreme Spirit, the entity to be known.
"I was caught in the Māyā and I was released from the Māyā" — both are notions in the mind. This is difficult for us to understand, but that is the truth.
So what is the meaning of upasaṃkrāmati — "attains," "reaches"? Does it refer to a conjunction, as when a leech firmly takes hold of a blade of grass? The answer is no. The word "attains" here denotes the disappearance of illusion as a result of knowledge — just as when there is darkness, we may be frightened: "Oh, maybe there are snakes here." But as soon as light comes, there is nothing there. All these explanations are from our limited point of view. But they can help us. If someone were to say, "These are not truths," then why are you teaching them? The answer is: because you have not known the truth. Until the time you know it, you will have to be taught, as if you are different from God but can reach God. Then you become free from all these problems and will have unbroken bliss. These are all imaginary questions to imaginary problems.
So this is the meaning of this 8th section: Ānanda Mīmāṃsā, and the concluding sections of the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, distilling the logic of the ladder of bliss and the path to Jīvanmukti.
The 9th Section: The Jīvanmukta — Merging of Good and Evil in Brahman
Now in the next section, which is the last section, there is a beautiful description: whose description is it? Of a Jīvanmukta. What happens when a person truly understands "I am Brahman" and, by the will of Brahman, that realisation is confirmed — how does that person then behave?
If you remember, the Gītā at the end of the second chapter has Arjuna asking: "How does a Jīvanmukta breathe, walk, live, talk, behave?" The answer is: there is nothing. A Jīvanmukta doesn't say "I am a Jīvanmukta." It is we who say he is a Jīvanmukta. That is the truth.
But very briefly we will see this as we enter into this 9th section.
There are two topics of this 9th section: first, what is it that this person attains, and then what is the result of this attainment. With these two topics, the second chapter is concluded.
This is the English translation by Swami Nikhilānandajī Mahārāj:
"He who knows the bliss of Brahman — when words, together with the mind, turn away, unable to reach it — he is not afraid of anything whatsoever. He does not distress himself with the thought: 'Why did I not do what I should have done?' and 'Why did I do what is evil, what should never have been done?' Whoever knows this regards both these — the good and the evil — as Ātman, and thus strengthens it. Indeed, he cherishes both these as manifestations of Ātman. Such indeed is the Upaniṣad, the secret knowledge of Brahman."
With this the 9th section is over and the second chapter is over.
The Essence of the 9th Section
Such a person never regrets. "Why did I not do what I should have done?" and "Why did I do what I should not have done?" — these are the two things that define a human being. The more time goes, the more regrets will come. Sometimes we are happy about what we did; many times we are not happy about what we did. Apply this to any situation, including the present war. Maybe after a thousand years, people will ask: "Why did America and Iran go to war? They should never have gone; they should have been friendly." That regret will come, and that is what historians will depict — whether after a hundred years or a thousand years — asking, "What did we learn?" It is left, perhaps, for historians to make this kind of analysis. But at least good historians point out to us why a country behaved as it did and why it did not behave differently. What applies to the individual applies to the collective also.
A Repetition and Looking Ahead
After this, there is a repetition of what we have learnt about the Pañcakośas especially, and some very useful Upāsanās are going to be told in the next Vallī or chapter.
Remember: the Taittirīya Upaniṣad has three chapters — Śikṣāvallī, Brahmānanda Vallī, and Bhṛgu Vallī. Each chapter takes its name from its beginning word.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीम् शरदाम् देविम् रामक्रिष्णम् जगत् गुर्म्
पादपद्मे तयोः स्रित्वाः प्रणमामि मुहुरुमु
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!