Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.1.4 Lecture 34 on 17 May 2026
Full Transcript (Not Corrected)
Opening Invocation
ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात् पूर्णमुदच्यते
पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः
OM PŪRṆAMADAḤ PŪRṆAMIDAM PŪRṆĀT PŪRṆAMUDACYATE PŪRṆASYA PŪRṆAMĀDĀYA PŪRṆAMEVA VAŚIṢYATE OM ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTI ŚĀNTIH
OM That Brahman is infinite, and this universe is also infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. Taking the infinitude of the infinite universe, it remains as the infinite Brahman alone.
OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all.
The Setting: A Discussion in the Gurukula
There was a great discussion in a sacred gurukula. The students, real seekers of Brahman, had started a discussion: What is Brahman? What did our ācārya teach us? And how can we implement, progress, and realise that I am Brahman?
In our last class, with regard to that — in the seventeenth mantra, the last mantra of the fourth section — we were discussing what the duties of a householder are. That is to say, who is a householder? Anybody who thinks "I am the body and mind" is a householder. Such a person's desires will be confined only to the satisfaction of the body and of the mind, and at best he wants to have higher happiness by going to higher lokas, called svarga lokas.
The Fourteen Lokas
Varieties and degrees of happiness are described there. There are six higher lokas according to the Hindu division. Hindus have divided every state of experience anybody can go through into fourteen lokas. Starting with this earthly world, bhūloka, there are six upper lokas. Six lokas plus our earth, where we are — that forms half of the world. And below us, there are seven lokas. The total is fourteen lokas.
Now the point is, we are very fortunate to live in this earthly world, because this is called karma bhūmi. The other worlds, higher or lower, are considered places only to exhaust our karma phala, either puṇyam or pāpam. We will be going to those lokas either to experience higher happiness and thereby exhaust our puṇyam, or go to the lower lokas and exhaust our pāpams. But one has to come back to this earthly world to do sādhanā.
The Awakened Householder and His Two Desires
Here is a person who has evolved into a human being — not an uncouth, uncultured human being, but one who has awakened to some higher faculties. He has realised that human life is precious. Such a person can cherish two desires.
First: "I want to be happy in this world and in the higher lokas." But after experiencing that for some time, again and again, through a great deal of labour, such a person realises, "What I want is not something temporary, ephemeral, lasting only for a very short time. I want permanent happiness."
That is the second category of people, of which the Gītā beautifully says: out of a million people, perhaps one person awakens to the fact that spiritual life, godly life, is the only life worth living. So there is such a householder, who thinks "I am the body and mind," but who has faith in the scriptures. The scriptures describe the higher lokas, and so he says, "I want to be happy in this world as well as in the higher worlds."
The Duties Prescribed: Varṇa Dharma and Āśrama Dharma
For such a person, the scriptures prescribe certain actions to be done according to one's varṇa and according to one's stage in life — varṇa dharma and āśrama dharma. We presume this person is a good person. He goes to the teacher, spends several years, learns all about life, comes back, and he has unfulfilled desires pertaining to the body and mind. Such a person desires: "I want to perform this ritual."
For that, the Vedas tell us that five things are required. What are the five things? First, the yajamāna himself must be of capable age, able to undertake the ritual. Second, he must have his wife. Why should such a person require a wife? Because a person imbued with worldly desires will think: if I have a duly married wife, then rightful duties can be discharged. So he requires five items — this is called panktam, a group of five.
Through this panktam, he must discharge his varṇa dharma and āśrama dharma, which are to be discharged through the proper performance of the pañca mahā yajñas — the five great acts through which one removes one's debts — which we have discussed in the past.
The Five Requisites of Ritual
The five requisites are:
- Yajamāna — the performer, the sacrificer, himself.
- Patnī — the wife.
- Putra — the son.
- Mānuṣam vittam — human wealth: money, animals, servants, and the many objects required for the performance of yajña and yāga.
- Daiva vittam — divine wealth: control of mind, deep faith in God, and similar inner qualities.
All these five are indispensable if a person wants to properly discharge all the pañca mahā yajñas.
Karma Yoga and Citta Śuddhi
We presume such a person performs these duties throughout life, throughout many lives, and slowly awakens and evolves. As the scripture teaches: arise, awake, approach learned ones, sit humbly at their feet, salute them, please them, and ask them what type of life you should lead.
So this evolved person says: "I have done all these things physically; now I want to progress from external ritual into higher action." That is called upāsanā. So such a person now turns his mind inwards. But the Upaniṣad also tells us that as long as a person has not married, has not had sons, and has not performed all these yajñas and yāgas, he cannot evolve. That is why the appropriate duties apportioned to one's own caste and to one's own stage of life called varṇāśrama dharmas, and the due discharge of these dharmas inevitably brings certain results.
The proper performance of these duties is called karma yoga. Karma yoga, in other words, is nothing but getting rid of our debts to five classes of beings: our ṛṣis, the gods and presiding deities, our ancestors, every other human being, and everything else in this world — nothing is left out. When we are grateful for our life, our health, our happiness, our fulfilment, and everything we have received, we must give back. This giving back is a continuous and constant process.
Every second, for example, we are breathing in — borrowing oxygen from the Vayu devatā — and we must give back what is helpful to other creatures, like the trees, through the proper releasing of carbon dioxide. So when a person properly discharges his duties, his mind becomes pure. This is called citta śuddhi. The result of Karma Yoga is citta śuddhi.
The Fruits of Karma Yoga
What does citta śuddhi accomplish?
First, it purifies the mind. Second, it generates puṇyam — the ability to draw happiness irrespective of any circumstance. Third, the mind becomes concentrated. Fourth, the mind gradually expands, identifying itself not only with one's own family, but with one's village, one's state, one's country, the world in which one lives, and later with every human being and every non-human being.
This is because the great fact — to which even today we have not awakened — is that everything depends upon everything else in this world. Nothing is redundant. We may say something is useless and wish to be rid of it, but God has not created anything that is redundant. Everything helps us in some way or the other. That is the sacred, holistic attitude: looking upon the whole universe in which we are living — including our body and mind, our sense organs, everything — as a manifestation of God, which is again and again taught to us in the Viṣṇu Sūktam, the Nārāyaṇa Sūktam, and the Puruṣa Sūktam. Everywhere the continuous refrain is: everything is the body of God, and nothing is actually redundant. That is the most wonderful truth we have to understand.
The Transition to Upāsanā
So when a person reaches a certain stage of development, he says: "I have had enough of this outer life. Now I want to turn this external ritual into an inner ritual." That is called upāsanā. That is much more important. But unless a person has truly performed these external rituals, simply sitting and saying "I don't need to do all those things" will not help. We cannot evolve. For everything — nursery school, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, university — these are all graduated steps, and we cannot neglect even one step.
All these external observances produce citta śuddhi. Finally, citta śuddhi sharpens our understanding, and at last we understand the goal of life, which Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says is God-realisation.
Vairāgya: Dispassion as the Sign of Maturity
Now what does this evolved person feel? "I am married. I have had children, through so many births. I have gone to higher lokas and come back, but I still do not feel fulfilled. I still feel a tremendous dissatisfaction. I am not a happy person."
Do not say that every unhappy person is an evolved person — no. This person was very happy performing his duties, having a wife, having children. He gained a tremendous amount of higher happiness. But at the end he realises these were all achieved through hard labour, and they are all ephemeral. Every happiness has to be re-earned, because nothing is permanent. Such a person awakens and says: "I feel unfulfilled." That is called vairāgya — dispassion.
Not śmaśāna vairāgya, not prasūti vairāgya, not jobless vairāgya, not markaṭa vairāgya. No. It is because the person has genuinely evolved and now clearly sees that there is a higher goal.
There is a beautiful incident. Once Swami Narendranāth approached Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa saying, "I am very unhappy. Please bless me so that I may progress in spiritual life." Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was testing Narendra and said, "Why don't you complete your college education?" Narendra replied, "I wish I could forget whatever I have learned so far. I thought that was the goal earlier, but now I understand, by your grace, that these very things are great obstructions for my future life. I wish I could forget everything and restart my life." Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa was of course highly pleased, for Narendra was telling his real experience — not a merely temporary vairāgya.
Ahaṃgraha Upāsanā: The Fivefold Inner Ritual
What shall this evolved person do? He must discharge the same pañca mahā yajña in the form of upāsanā. Since we have been studying the Taittirīya Upaniṣad, we are familiar with the pañcakośas. We can say 'panktam' - a group of five. We have to transcend, with the help of these five kośas, each of which must be sanctified— looked upon as sacred, as a manifestation of God.
The body is God. The mind is God. The external world is God. Somebody who is friendly is God. Somebody who is inimical is even more God. Everything in this world is there to push me nearer to God.
So this person, how he ascended, we have seen in Brguvalli also, prctically what Brgu had done. So this person wants to perform this upāsanā. This is called ahaṃgraha upāsanā or pankta upāsanā. Pankta upasana means my own personality containing all the five elements - five types of wealth — the performer, his wife, his son, his mānuṣam vittam, and his daiva vittam — so, my mind is myself, the yajamana, my speech is my wife, my prana, my eyes and ears. So he turns these very external things into internal contemplative instruments.
What does he want? "I want fulfilment." How is he going to get it? By performing this upāsanā and becoming one with Brahman.
This is called pankta upasana or ahaṃgraha upāsanā. What does ahaṃgraha mean? Ahaṃ brahmāsmi. Ahaṃ ātmāsmi. Ahaṃ īśvaraḥ asmi. This feeling — just as Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, while doing upāsanā on Hanumān, felt "I am Hanumān," completely identified. Upon completion of his meditation on Rādhā, he felt "I am not a male. I am a female like Rādhā. I am Rādhā, and my only thought is Kṛṣṇa." That is called ahaṃgraha upāsanā.
The Five Inner Equivalents
The Upaniṣad is telling that especially in Vanaprasthasrama (means the stage of withdrawal) explains the five inward counterparts of the five ritual requisites:
1. Manas — the Yajamāna (Oneself)
The mind is oneself — the self in which the ahaṃkāra, the "I," resides. Therefore it is considered ātmā, one's real self. If my mind is pure, I am a spiritual person. If it is impure, I am a worldly person, identified with anātmā. A person whose mind is filled with holy thoughts will speak only holy words, and his deeds will be only holy deeds.
2. Vāk — the Patnī (Wife)
Just as a chaste wife follows her husband, speech follows the mind. The whole Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa is nothing but his thoughts. The Gospel of Holy Mother is the understanding of Holy Mother expressed in spoken words. The Bhagavad Gītā is nothing but the thoughts of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa himself — that is why it is called Bhagavad Gītā, directly emanating from the mouth of Bhagavān.
3. Prāṇa — the Son
Prāṇa represents that power to translate our thoughts and speech into real actions. Just as an obedient and loving child follows in the footsteps of his father, prāṇa — our concrete actions — follows our thoughts and our speech. To perform holy deeds, a person requires energy, and that energy is prāṇa.
4. Cakṣu — the Mānuṣam Vittam (Human Wealth)
The eyes are called human wealth. Why? Because cakṣuṣā tat vindate — it is the eye which discerns everything, which can experience, and which gives us the greatest knowledge from the external world. Through the inner eye of discrimination — viveka — we must examine this world. Is the scripture speaking the truth?
When we see that which has birth is continuously changing and ending in the final change called death — everything is ephemeral excepting pure consciousness — that observation through the eye of discrimination, if it is proper, will slowly, through many lives, bring dispassion. As Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says: "everything is temporary; God alone is permanent."
Vairāgya should never be understood in a negative manner. Vairāgya means: "This is a lower happiness, but I am in search of a higher happiness, and when I attain higher happiness, the lower happiness becomes naturally left behind." Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa's mouth never spoke of anything but the scriptures. So this person turns inward — and inward means Godward.
5. Śrotra — the Daiva Vittam (Divine Wealth)
Marvellously, this Upaniṣad tells us that our ears are called daiva vittam. Why? Because when a person hears about God, about the highest life, that is śruti. That is why the Vedas are called śrutis. Through hearing — whether we read the Gospel of Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, the works of Swamiji, the works of Ramaṇa Maharṣi, or the Upaniṣads, or the Bhagavad Gītā — we receive that knowledge. That is why the ears are most important.
When the same ears are used in worldly life, we are reminded of Madhu and Kaiṭabha — we desire. Everybody loves hearing others say: "Everybody appreciates me. They love me." But nothing can be further from the truth. As we have seen in the very first chapter of this Upaniṣad: nobody loves anything else for the sake of that other thing. A wife is not loved for the sake of the wife. A son is not loved for the sake of the son. Wealth is not loved for the sake of wealth. The body is not loved for the sake of the body. They are all loved for the sake of the Ātmā — because Ātmā is of the nature of ānanda.
We love ānanda. We come from ānanda. We live because of ānanda, or we live in the hope of getting ānanda. Only when we reach God can this condition be truly fulfilled. Therefore, all this knowledge comes to us from studying the scriptures, from the company of satpuruṣas and great souls, from hearing the scriptures. With the help of divine wealth — our ears — our eyes must examine this world, and through this combination, dispassion comes.
The Practical Lesson: How to Evaluate a Holy Person
By whose presence do we become truly happy without any external objects to give us happiness? The mere sannidhya — presence — of such a person is enough to make our mind go upward, and the more it goes up, the more happiness we feel. The higher a person progresses, the greater and the longer-lasting would be his happiness. This is how we have to judge.
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa says about the ṛṣis that early morning these people used to get up — even though they were householders — go far from home, spend the whole day in deep thinking, forgetting the world, thinking only of the Ātman, and come back in the evening to satisfy their hunger with roots and fruits, take a few hours of rest — and that is why they became ṛṣis.
By definition, a ṛṣi is a mantra draṣṭā. Ṛṣati jānāti iti ṛṣiḥ — one who knows spiritual truth, real truth, is called a ṛṣi. So we must become ṛṣis. For that purpose, God has given us a body consisting of five sense organs. They can be directed, misdirected, or well directed. That direction should come after hearing the scriptures and cultivating holy company.
The Fruit of Ahaṃgraha Upāsanā
Then verify whether the scripture is telling the truth. Open your eyes — jāgrata, not only uttiṣṭhata, arise — but awake. Why was Rāmakṛṣṇa so happy even though he possessed so little from the worldly point of view? Why are so many swāmis so happy, so satisfied, so pleased with their simple life? They must be getting some happiness from somewhere, devoid of all the external objects without which we are convinced we cannot be happy.
We should understand: we cannot be happy with these objects either. Whatever tends to give us happiness also tends to give us its opposite in equal — and perhaps even greater — measure. That is the essence of this ahaṃgraha upāsanā.
This upāsanā leads, first, to withdrawal — which means detachment, non-identification, neti neti, from the external world, from the body, from the mind — and this freed and purified mind is then directed towards God. That is upāsanā. Finally, even that instrument through which we are approaching God is itself discarded — or rather, it melts into the divine.
As the scripture says: nāmarūpe vihāya samudro bhavati — every river that merges into the ocean loses its name, form, taste, and colour. Thereafter it is known only as the ocean. So the jīva completely gives up jīva-bhāva and becomes merged in Brahman. Those whose bodies and minds are still alive are called jīvanmuktis.
As the Upaniṣad declares: sarvam āpnoti — tad idaṃ sarvam āpnoti ya evaṃ veda. One who performs this ahaṃgraha upāsanā — the pañcam upāsanā of manas, vāk, prāṇa, the eyes, and the ears — what does he get? He gets everything. He gets Brahman, and Brahman means everything. Who gets it? Ya evaṃ veda — he who succeeds in performing this ahaṃgraha upāsanā. Then only ahaṃ remains; graha falls away automatically.
This is the essence of ahaṃgraha upāsanā. With this, the seventeenth mantra is over, and with it the fourth section is complete.
Overview of the First Chapter
Now, what is the essence of all this? This is what Swami Vivekānanda came to teach: uttiṣṭhata, jāgrata, prāpya varān nibodhata — arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
In this first chapter, we have seen how sṛṣṭi started — the līlā of Brahman, the brahma līlā. It is also called brahma cakra. Saṃsāra is called brahma cakra, but if we forget it is brahma cakra, that is what in Hindī they call cakkar meṃ paḍ gayā — fallen into delusion. So after Bhagavān first created and started the sṛṣṭi, first the subtle pañca bhūtas, then the gross pañca bhūtas, then the creation of the gods, then the creation of human beings — then He divided everybody into the four varṇas.
I am afraid to use the word "caste," because that is inevitably associated with birth, which is an absolute anomaly. It should not be understood that way. It is based only on guṇa — which quality is dominant: sattva, rajas, or tamas. Then Bhagavān created satyam and dharmam, and to put satyam and dharmam into practice, Bhagavān created the varṇāśrama dharmas in the form of "do this" and "do not do that." For every varṇa and every stage of life, there are certain appropriate duties, and the discharge of those duties helps us evolve further.
The Evolution Through the Varṇas
A śūdra becomes a vaiśya, a vaiśya becomes a kṣatriya, a kṣatriya becomes a brāhmaṇa. A person develops gradually. The development of intelligence ends in rebirth as a vaiśya — "I want to earn more and more, I want to know more and more." Only an intelligent person can become a successful businessman. Then, to protect what one has earned, one requires strength — not only to earn, but to enjoy and to protect, yoga and kṣema. And then, after some time: "I must make everything external into the internal." That is called becoming a brāhmaṇa. A brāhmaṇa is a spiritual person. Spiritualising the whole of life is called living a brāhmaṇa's life.
These are the marvellous thoughts that the Upaniṣad wants us to grasp, understand, retain, and ponder over — and slowly develop. We will talk about these things in our next class.
Closing Prayer
ॐ जननीं शारदां देवीं रामकृष्णं जगद्गुरुम् ।पादपद्मे तयोः श्रित्वा प्रणमामि मुहुर्मुहुः
Om Jānānāṃ Śāradāṃ Devīṃ Rāmakṛṣṇaṃ Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Śṛtvā Praṇamāmi Muhur Muhuh
May Rāmakṛṣṇa, Holy Mother, and Swami Vivekānanda bless us all with Bhakti.
Jai Rāmakṛṣṇa!