The Message Of The Upanishads 2

THE MESSAGE OF THE UPANISHADS Book: Swami Ranganathananda Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

“Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.” [Rig-Veda I-89-i] PART 2

ISHA UPANISHAD

“The invisible (Brahman) is the Full; the visible (the world) is also Full. From the Full (Brahman), the Full (the visible universe) has come. The Full (Brahman) remains the same, even after the Full (the visible universe) has come out of the Full (Brahman).” This ‘Shanti-Patha’, Peace Invocation, precedes the Isha and all other Upanishads belonging to the ‘Shukla Yajur-Veda’. This verse tells us that beyond and behind the manifested universe is the reality of the Brahman, which is the fullness of pure Being; it then tells us about this world of becoming, which being nothing but Brahman, is also Full. Then it adds, from the Fullness of Brahman has come the Fullness of the universe, leaving Fullness alone as the remainder. To the purified vision of the Upanishadic sages, this whole universe appeared as the Fullness of Being, which was, which is, and which shall ever be. That is the nature of the Brahman; and the theme of the Upanishads is this Brahman. It is also the true nature of man; and a second theme of the Upanishads is therefore the achievement by man of his true nature, the fullness of his being, ‘Purnata’. This is the clarion call of the Upanishads to the human spirit. Do not rest content; the best is yet to be. Intense dissatisfaction with the present and keen desire to scale further heights are the true marks of moral and spiritual greatness. Wherever they are found, there the true Vedantic spirit and temper are present. 11

Man must be educated in the knowledge of his divine nature. This is ‘AtmaJnana’, Self-knowledge, the knowledge not of our own separate ego-natures, but of the One Self of all; ‘in Him we live and move and have our being’. This is the knowledge that will restore to us freedom which is our birth-right.

“That from which all these entities and beings are born; That in which, being born they live; That unto which, in the end, they enter; know That; That is Brahman.” [Taittiriya Upanishad 3.1] The deep philosophy of the Upanishads is not revealed to the casual questioner; it is only revealed to the earnest enquirer who, with a ceaselessly questioning mind, is capable of penetrating the innermost depths of his being. The Isha Upanishad, which is always regarded as the first among the Upanishads, has special significance. This very first verse of the Upanishad is, as it were, a proposition, or statement that is substantial and authenticated by every other Upanishad.

“Whatever there is changeful in this ephemeral world, all that must be enveloped by the Lord. By this renunciation, support yourself. Do not covet the wealth of anyone.” [Isha Upanishad 1] This is the one great message of the Upanishads, the message of the immortal and imperishable Self behind the mortal and the perishable. Says the Katha Upanishad [2.2.13]:

“He is the eternal in the midst of the non-eternals, the principle of intelligence in all that are intelligent. He is One, yet fulfills the desire of the many. Those wise men who perceive Him as existing within their own self, to them belongs eternal peace, and to none else.”

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Renunciation is an eternal maxim in ethics as well as spirituality. There is no true enjoyment except what is purified by renunciation. Through renunciation and detachment, we become identified with the immortal and divine Brahman which is the Self of all. We see with our eyes and mind purified, this universe as the Brahman and renounce what our small separatist ego has conjured up. Shankaracharya, in one of his beautiful hymns [Bhaja Govindam2] addressing man, says:

“O fool, Give up this excessive desire for wealth; yoke your mind to the good and true, and cultivate detachment. Whatever wealth you obtain by your honest labour, with that learn to delight your mind and heart.” Enjoy life with zest, with the fruits of your own honest labour; avoid covetousness, for it will lead to exploitation, which will destroy the moral life of both the exploiter and the exploited. It is only when we become free from all spirit of selfish exploitation that we can truly enjoy life. The world is nothing but the blissful Brahman; and we are here to enjoy it. It is only when our eyes are purified by renunciation that the world will appear to us in its true form, as consisting of waves and waves of bliss of Brahman. This is the true joy of life; it is growth; it is development; it is realization for man. It is fulfillment, ‘Purnata’, the goal of evolution.

“In this world, one should desire to live a hundred years, but only by performing actions. Thus and in no other way, can man be free from the taint of actions.” [Isha Upanishad 2] So the Isha Upanishad gives us at once two basic ideas which together constitute the totality of the Vedantic Outlook. These two basic ideas ask us to live a full span of life, to work with zest and joy and with a new outlook, an outlook based on true understanding of the real nature of man and the universe, seeing all as ‘enveloped by Lord’. The greatest truths do not lie on the surface of life, but in its depths. “The shells float on the surface of the ocean, but the pearls lie in its depths”, says Shri Ramakrishna. The Upanishads are a storehouse of these pearls. Enlightened by 13

this knowledge of God, the sages of the Upanishads tell us that life, including life at the surface, is an inherent good, that we should live with joy and zest, and that we should, in the process, also seek to find the true source of this zest and joy. The outlook of the Upanishads is characterized by joy and cheer, by what William James called ‘healthy- mindedness’. God’s name itself is joy in the Upanishads. What a beautiful exposition of divine nature is found in the Taittiriya Upanishad. [2.7]:

“He is, verily, bliss; man, verily, is blissful by getting this bliss. Who would have lived, who would have breathed, if this infinite expanse of bliss were not there?” This Upanishad says that the nature of God is bliss itself, and the little joys we experience in life, even in the sense life, are but particles of that infinite bliss of God. Spiritual realization confers immeasurable happiness, as it connects one with Brahman, God, which is the ocean of all bliss, of which all these are particles. This positive, cheerful, sunny attitude to life and religion is what modern man will learn from Upanishads. Upanishads treat spiritual bliss as the fulfillment and completion of the joys of a perfect youth. There is a verse in the ‘Shrimad-Bhagavat’ [11.29.22] in which Shri Krishna says:

“This is the intelligence of the intelligent, the wisdom of the wise, that a man attains Me, the immortal One, here (in this very life) by means of the unreal and mortal – his psycho-physical organism.” This is the technique of religion; hence its insistence on the proper care of the body and of the mental functions that derive from it. The health of the psychophysical organism is necessary for all achievement, worldly or religious. Properly trained and disciplined, this organism will eventually land us on the other shore of life – on the shore of illumination and immortality. Old age is not a thing to be looked down upon; it has its own graces. The young and the old both have a divine within; and that alone can be the locus of true value for man; for it is indestructible and inalienable; physical capacities for work and pleasure cannot be the true criterion of human value.

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“Thou art the woman, Thou art the man; Thou art the youth and maiden too; Thou art old man tottering on his stick. Thou art born in diverse forms.” [Shvetashvatara Upanishad 4.3] Life’s problems are not to be avoided; they have to be faced. It is not escapism that is taught in the Upanishads, but acceptance, the coming to grips with life, meeting the challenge of life with the challenge of philosophy, with the strength of spirituality. The greatest strength comes from the knowledge of the Atman, our divine nature; says the Kena Upanishad [2.4]: “Strength comes from (the knowledge of) Atman.” Over and over again, the Upanishads exhort man to turn his attention to the realization of his nature-given equipment of body, senses and mind.

“This Self is one. It is unmoving; yet It is faster than the mind. Thus moving faster, It is beyond the reach of the senses. Ever steady, It outstrips all that run. By Its mere presence, the cosmic energy is enabled to sustain the activities of living beings. It moves; It moves not. It is far; It is very near. It is inside all this; It is verily outside all this.” [Isha Upanishad 4, 5] In Vedantic language, space or ‘akash’ is taken as the nearest symbol of the Infinite and the Absolute, Brahman or Atman. The theme of the Upanishads, clearly stated in these two verses, is that the Atman is One and that It is everywhere. It is the One behind the many, sustaining the many. Being infinite and all pervasive, It does not move; but It appears to move through association with the moving mind and senses, through being viewed through the ‘human spectacles’ as Jeans expresses it. Logic is in fact a very poor instrument to help us understand the depths of truth.

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Thought is a force subtler than a nerve impulse, subtler than even light, and faster than both. But the Atman travels faster than the senses, faster than light, and faster than even the mind. In the Chhandogya Upanishad the teacher tells the disciple again and again that the whole universe is centred in the self:

“Every thing in the universe has this subtle reality for its Self; That is Truth, That is Atman, and that thou art.” The Upanishads tell man that he is not finite; that he is not the limited, truncated thing he considers himself to be. He seems to be limited because he is viewed, or he views himself, through the limitations of the body and the senses. In his essential nature, however, he is pure being, pure consciousness, and bliss – ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda’ – and, as such, he is one with all. Pure consciousness cannot be divided; it only appears to be divided by the manifesting media of bodies and minds. But it is ever one and unmoving – ‘anejat-ekam’, as this verse puts it.

“The wise man who realizes all beings as not distinct from his own Self, and his own Self as the Self of all beings, does not, by virtue of that perception, hate any one. What delusion, what sorrow can there be for the wise man who realized the unity of all existence by perceiving all beings as his own Self.” [Isha Upanishad 6, 7] This realization according to Indian thought, modern as well as ancient, make the highest point of human excellence. These two verses convey a message of the highest spirituality, where the highest vision becomes embodied as the highest character. All the great ones of India have reacted to these two verses with a whole-hearted response. The saints and sages, intellectuals and devotees, of our country accord the highest place to this spiritual attainment. Through this realization, man realizes his basic oneness with all men, with all beings; through this he achieves life fulfillment. All morality, all ethics and spirituality, tell us that we are one, basically one. Jesus says:” Love thy neighbor as thy self”. The Upanishads add: “For you are thy neighbor”. It is a philosophy that proves to us that the sense of separateness is

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not true; it imparts to us the knowledge of oneness; and with knowledge comes also morality and ethics, and we discover our true kinship with every man and woman, and with the whole of nature. “Knowledge leads to unity and ignorance to diversity”, says Shri Ramakrishna. So the purpose of spiritual knowledge is to destroy this delusion of separateness, this ‘original sin’ of ignorance, which cuts us off from the main stream of life. The capacity to realize this sameness comes to the human mind by discipline in social awareness as a citizen, and by discipline in inwardness as a spiritual seeker. The Vedantic study of the mystery of man has all the qualities of a scientific study, including the most important one of verifiability. It is also systematic and thorough, leading the enquirer through the various outer shells or sheaths or ‘koshas’ of personality, to the abiding innermost being of man, the Atman, which is also the innermost being of the universe, Brahman. ‘Brahma-Jnana’ (wisdom) is ‘sarvatma-bhava’, realization of the Atman as the self of all. It is through the intensification of man’s spiritual awareness, through the knowledge that he is the Atman, that equality will become a social fact. If we want to avoid the sufferings and sorrows arising from nervous diseases, and mental tensions, we have to educate ourselves to the fact that we are not the body, nor the senses, nor the mind, nor the intellect, but we are the Atman, the eternally pure, eternally awakened, and eternally free Self – ‘Nitya-ShuddhaBuddha-Mukta-Svabhava Parmantman’ as Vedanta expresses it. This knowledge will at once lift us up above the trivialities of sensate existence and confer on us universality of vision and sympathy. If Brahman and Atman are one, if the world is spiritual through and through, then certain consequences follow for the life and destiny of man. It at once unifies the external and the internal, the secular and the spiritual fields of man’s life; it unifies science and religion. The discords and conflicts arising from partial views of reality become resolved in the light of this total view, making possible a comprehensive spirituality in which the believer and the non-believer, the theist and the agnostic, the religious man and the scientist, the contemplative and the worker, become transformed into fellow seekers of truth. All education, all training, all culture, according to Vedanta, are but the methods by which the ever-present universal is liberated from the temporary limitations of the finite and the particular. The more educated a person and the more cultured, the more he sees the oneness of things; this vision finds expression in life in increase of love, compassion, and service. The sign of true culture is comprehension and compassion.

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Man in the Indian context needs to be inspired by the Vedantic vision of human excellence and the Vedantic will to realize that excellence in character and conduct. The Vedantic ideas have the power to nourish and strengthen man, but only when taken in and assimilated. The capacity for assimilation of ideas comes to man from self-discipline and self-discipline alone. “Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, character-making, assimilation of ideas.” - Swami Vivekananda

“They enter into blinding darkness who worship ‘Avidya’; into still greater darkness, as it were, do they enter who delight in ‘Vidya’. He, who knows both ‘Vidya’ and ‘Avidya’ together, overcomes death through ‘Avidya’ and experiences immortality by means of ‘Vidya’.” [Isha Upanishad 9, 11] The ‘Brihadaranyaka Upanishad [2.3.1] says:

“Brahman (Reality), indeed has two aspects – with form and the formless, mortal and immortal, limited and unlimited, defined and undefined.” Vidya or knowledge refers to the knowledge of the Self, the changeless reality, the ‘Amritam’, while ‘Avidya’ refers to the knowledge of the non-self, the changeful universe, the ‘martyam’. The study of the non-self or the world of change is science; this study gives man knowledge of the laws that govern the world of change, and the capacity to control and manipulate it in the interest of his development, in the interest of a richer and fuller life for himself. But if this is done in isolation, if this is attempted without reference to his inner world, the world of the Self, the result will not be life and more life, but death and more death. Hence the exhortation to combine it with the knowledge of the Self, the changeless, deathless reality in man. It is this knowledge of the Self that imparts meaning and significance to man’s knowledge of the not-Self.

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“Into deep darkness do they enter who worship the ‘asambhuti’ (the world of Becoming as detached from Being). Into still darkness, as it were, do they enter who delight in ‘sambhuti’ (pure Being or Brahman.” “He who knows ‘sambhuti’ (Brahman) and ‘asambhuti’ (the perishable world of becoming) both together, overcomes death through ‘Vinasha’ and achieves immortality through ‘sambhuti’.” [Isha Upanishad 12, 14] The word ‘Vinasha’ means destruction; here it means the destructible, that which is subject to destruction – the world of becoming, of name, form and action. “If a man plunges headlong into foolish luxuries of the world without knowing the truth, he has missed his footing, he cannot reach the goal. And if a man curses the world, goes into a forest, mortifies his flesh, and kills himself little by little, by starvation, makes his heart a barren waste, kills out all feeling, and becomes harsh, stern, and dried up, that man has missed the way. These are the two extremes, the two mistakes at either end. Both have lost the way, both have missed the goal…. So, work, says Vedanta, putting God in everything. Work incessantly, holding life as something deified, as God Himself….. God is in everything, where else shall we go to find Him. He is already in every work, in every thought, in every feeling. Thus knowing, we must work, this is the only way.” - Swami Vivekananda. ‘Vidya’ and ‘Avidya’, the Self and non-self, as well as ‘sambhuti’ and ‘asambhuti’, ‘Brahman’ and the world, are basically one, not two. ‘Avidya’ affirms the world as a self-sufficient reality. ‘Vidya’ affirms God as the other, as a far away reality. When true knowledge arises, says this Upanishad, this opposition is overcome. The Atman or Brahman is the changeless Reality; It is termed ‘Nitya’, the Eternal, in Vedanta. The relative world when viewed in the light of this ‘Nitya’ is termed ‘Lila’, God’s cosmic play. And we then get the equation: the Nitya and the Lila are one. It is also expressed in another way: Brahman and Shakti, Being and its power of becoming, are one. “A man should reach the ‘Nitya’, the Absolute, by following the trail of the ‘Lila’, the relative. It is like reaching the roof by the stairs. After reaching the Absolute, he should climb down to the relative and live on that plain in the company of devotees, charging his mind with the love of God. This is my final and most

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mature opinion… If you accept the Nitya, you must also accept the Lila. It is the progress of negation and affirmation. You realize the Nitya by negating the Lila. Then you affirm the Lila, seeing in it the manifestation of the Nitya. One attains this state after realizing Reality in both aspects: Personal and Impersonal. The Personal is the embodiment of ‘Chit’, consciousness; and the Impersonal is the Indivisible ‘Sat-Chit-Ananda’, “Existence-Knowledge-Bliss”. -The Gospel of Shri Ramakrishna The ‘Mahanarayana Upanishad’ says [13.5]: “Narayana (the indwelling Divine), exists pervading all things, externally as well as internally.” The Gita teaches that true spirituality confers on man all-round efficiency – efficiency in the field of action, and efficiency in the field of thought and contemplation. This total efficiency is the product of a total vision of reality. Vedanta, as the philosophy and the religion of the Upanishads is known, enshrines this total vision and upholds this comprehensive spirituality. In virtue of this, it has received the name of ‘Sanatana Dharma’, Eternal Religion, or Perennial Philosophy, as Aldous Huxley has translated it. The ‘Sanatana Dharma’ in its wholeness is a synthesis of what the Isha Upanishad calls ‘Vidya’ and ‘Avidya’. That this is its unique feature is clearly expressed by Shankaracharya in the very opening paragraph of his beautiful commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita:

“Two-fold, verily, is the dharma as taught by the Vedas, one characterized by ‘Pravritti’, action (or, rather, outgoing action), and the other characterized by ‘Nivritti’, inaction (or, rather, inward directed action), both together constituting the stabilizing factor of the world, and the true cause of the ‘abhyudaya’ (worldly welfare) and ‘Nihshreyasa’ (spiritual well-being) of all beings.” The philosophy of total vision thus synthesizes action and contemplation, the secular and the sacred, reason and faith, the human and the Divine. Action becomes a snare and a defeat for man when it does not draw nourishment from his true Self, which is the Self of all. Action illumined by the Knowledge of the Self becomes itself illumination, and ceases to be mere action. Work becomes worship. These beautiful verses of the Isha Upanishad, though written ages ago, breathe the spirit of the universal and human, and bring to us the message of a comprehensive spirituality capable of energizing and illumining every aspect of human life, every field of human endeavor. They summon us to a converging life 20

endeavor to develop anal-sided character, broad as the skies and deep as the ocean. This knowledge of the essential spiritual oneness of the whole universe, cosmic, celestial, as well as terrestrial, is emphasized again and again in the Upanishads. Bhagavad-Gita [5.19] says:

“In this very life have they overcome birth (relativity) whose minds are fixed on sameness; for Brahman is free from all evil and is the same in all. Therefore they are fixed in the Brahman.” Two sentiments that are more often associated with the idea of salvation in India are disgust for this world and fear of rebirth. But these fears have been overplayed in India. Our later religious books are heavy with these two sentiments. And our people in general have sought in religion only one blessing of a cessation from rebirth. This fear of life, this hope of salvation, this intense religious desire to escape from rebirth, have gone so far as to throw into the shade the problems and prospects of the brief spell of human life on earth. The character of the average educated citizen of India, even today, is an assembly more of negative values than of positive ones. There is a strong tendency in us to avoid difficult situations, to escape responsibility, and generally resort to easy and cheap ways in earning wealth, acquiring knowledge and education, and even in the matter of realizing God. “If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word ‘fearlessness’. And the only religion that ought to be taught is the religion of fearlessness. Either in this world or the world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what causes fear? Ignorance of our own nature.” - Swami Vivekananda This is the gift of a true and robust philosophy to the human mind; the criterion of its truth is the spirit of freedom and fearlessness, love and service that it imparts to human life. Indian religious thought has visualized India as a ‘Punya-bhumi’, holy land, and ‘Karma-bhumi’, land of work, where souls are born not to indulge in sense pleasures but to work their way to the realization of God. In the Shrimad-Bhagavat [5.19.20-22], Gods (in heaven) verily sing thus (of the glory of human birth in India):

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“Oh! What auspicious deeds have these done that Hari (the indwelling God) Himself has become pleased with them – deeds by which they have obtained birth in the continent of India, a birth which is the means of service of Hari. Far better it is to win a few moments of life in India than aeons of life in these celestial regions; because there, heroic souls can achieve, in a moment, the state of fearlessness in God, by renouncing in Him all actions done by their perishable bodies.” What tragic irony that men in India learnt to fear and despise that life on its soil which was coveted by their own gods in heaven! And our people pine to go to a post mortem heaven, unmindful of the fact that a great heaven lies about them.

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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