2.1

The Vedas are acceptedly the most ancient scripture in the world. They have formed the basis of religion and philosophy and even today they are authoritative in those fields for Hinduism.

There is a view that Indian philosophy started with the Upanishads otherwise known as the Vedanta (end of the Veda or its concluding portion). This view owes its inspiration to the recent occidental scholars who have been convinced of the parallel with Greek philosophical beginnings which dismissed all mytho-theologico-anthropological explanations. Upanishads have not avowedly discarded either the earlier portions of the Veda or the gods praised therein. On the other hand, they have tended to make clear the implications of the Veda in such a way as to help understanding of the enquiring mind. In a profound sense we can perhaps make a distinction between the Mantra and Brahmana portions on the one hand and the Upanishads on the other, as referring to svartha – sabda and parartha – sabda, for the former is for inner intuition for oneself, for knowledge and works, and the latter is for instruction to the disciple. The Upanishads then are to be considered to be intellectualised or mediating presentations of the intuitive and revelatory truths of a Reality very much transcending the ordinary sensate level of understanding of man. In a profound sense it would be correct to go to the earlier portions of the Veda in order to understand fully the implications of the meaning of the Vidyas of the Upanishads, rather than attempt or try casuistical explanatiens of the same from parity with other portions of the Upanishads, which unfortunately has been the practice so far. Revelations help interpretation of intuitions and generalisation of intuitive truths and may illumine intellectuality, being of a higher order of Reality but not vice versa.

The Vedas were originally reckoned to be three, namely the Rig Veda, Yajur and Sama. These three were known as the trayi ; but a fourth Veda, Atharvana, containing many hymns not contained in the Rig came to be regarded as important, and well might it have been the source of the other revealed literature pertaining to the ayurveda, dhanurveda etc....

Later thinkers, including the author of the Bhagavad Gita, prescribed the Veda as dealing with the trigunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) : traigunya visayah Vedah, nistraigunya bhava Arjuna or the objects which have the three gunas as motives to attain, such as power, pleasure and heavenly residence arising from following the rules of sacrifice (dharma). Thus from early times it was regarded that the Vedas taught the attainment of the lower ends (purusarthas) which were known to be closely connected with the three gunas, rather than Moksa which it was the function of the Upanisads to teach. The Vedanta Sutras also have been interpreted accordingly by the Vedantic teachers as teaching Brahman, whereas the Mimamsa of Jaimini is said to teach Karma (Dharma) and that though they both form one single Sastra, yet the latter teach the transient good whereas the former teach the eternal Good. It is in this sense most probably that some serious scholars saw in the Upanishads the germs of the pessimistic view since they discard the pursuit of social efficiency and hedonistic goals for the attainment of the liberation from avidya (which comprises all technical knowledge and hedonistic pleasure-ends) and samsara for the sake of transcendent condition of immortality which can be won only by Vidya (real liberating knowledge).

The world of the Right Veda is surely not different from the world of the Upanishads since it is the world of men who are in direct contact with the supernal powers not merely primitive natural apotheosized by the primitive mind. Nor can it be said that the Vedic seers were pleasure – loving Soma – bibbers, though it almost appears that some eastern and western savants have convinced themselves about this by applying the naturalistic and anthropological and evolutionary interpretations so much the fashion of the nineteenth century. Western scholars like Max Muller, Whitney, Eggeling, Grassman, Griffith etc., claim to follow the great Vedicist Sayana, who explained the Vedas, mainly adhibhautically. The philosophic seers of the Upanishads always speak of the Vedic sages with profound reverence: iti susruma dhiranam yenasted vyacacaksire.

The development or evolution of Indian culture continued under different conditions and passed through periods of faith and devotion, works and ritual and agnostic speculation and philosophic idealism. Later thinkers reacted against certain attitudes of the Vedic integralism and produced philosophies (darsanas) which emphasized one or two aspects or attitudes of the same.

The Vedic seer was consciously aware of the integral unity of the whole reality. He realised that there are several planes of reality, the physical (with its terrestrial, atmospherical, celestial), the psychical and the supra or transcendental reality and he also realised that one must consciously integrate them in order to be able to attain the Good and the liberation and the happiness and truth. He assigned the several powers divine – belonging to the One Supreme Divine – such as Agni, Mitra, Surya, Indra, Maruts, Varuna, Matarisvan, Soma, Brhaspati, Rudra, Prajapathi and Visnu etc., to the several planes. Thus even in the Rig Veda, monotheism had been achieved whilst preserving the apparent polytheism of multiple powers by the classic text : ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti : The Real is One though the sages speak about it variously owing to the planes in which the One is seen. Later thought would speak of it as One person who appears as four or many persons. The many personalities of the One Person (purusa) were at first considered to be each the whole or integral expression of the one and accordingly all exploits were referred to each though they really were performed by one of them alone. This led to the conception expressed rather naively by Prof. Max Muller as henotheism or what was dubbed cynically opportunistic monotheism – a philosophy of courtiers. This obviously is an unsound suggestion and needlessly humanistic. All the manifold personalities are in a sense subordinate to the One, and there is room for the later development of the evolution of the hierarchy of gods and goddesses who are not God or Brahman but His amsas, part or ray of Eternal Being. We cannot resist the Upanishadic explanation that all things and beings are God, because they form the body and function (or manifestation) of Brahman (sarvam khalvidam Brahma) who is the Self and support and truth of their very existence, in whom they live and move and have their being.

The Vedic Seers showed that common sense Polytheism inherent in hierarchy is not in every sense the contradictory of monotheism, and so also pluralism need not be contradictory of monism, when understood in an organic integral sense and meaning of the One Eternal Brahman as Integral Reality (Purna) and Person (Purusa). Since all gods, all powers of goddesses, are supported by the One Being in all, every prayer addressed to any one of them finally and even immediately directly refers to that One Being alone, even as Sri Krishna says in the Gita. Indeed all refer to Himself alone : Vedaih sarvaih Aham eva Vedyah, says He.

As for the philosophico-mystic exposition of the Organic Integral Spiritual Reality, the Vedas themselves express this in that grand and suberb Hymn known as the Hymn of the Supreme Person : Purusha Sukta, that occurs in all the Vedas, with slight variations of order of the mantras. There is hardly any doubt that this Hymn is the meeting – place and synthesis of several Fundamental Vedic concepts, even as the Isa. Up. is for Upanishadic thought.

It begins to speak of the thousand – headed, thousand – eyed, thousand – footed Person who has covered the entire Universe and is exceeding it. (Sahasra sirsa Purusah, Sahasraksa Sahasrapad, Sabhumim visvato vrttva atyatista dasangulam, purusa evedam sarvam). The One Supreme Reality and causal Being is immanent as Self (purusa) of all and yet exceeds all. Thus pantheism is set aside or rather transcended by the concept of exceeding. The original idea of the One has yielded place to the concept of Person, which is so to speak going to play an important part in the Gita as the Purusottama. The divine personalities merged in the One now appear so to speak as the Uttama (Supreme) purusa and monism of metaphysics finds its translation as the supreme Personality of God of religion. Here again we find that profound suggestion as to the nature of sacrifice or Yajna that played such a prominent part in the life of the sages of yore as is to be gleaned from the Brahmanas. Interpreted psychologically (adhyatmically), all divine works, either as rites of sacrifice, yaga or Yajna, are mystical attempts to attain the realisation of the worlds of Brahman, yoga. The Purusa – sukta however adds one more note of  tremendous value : it reveals that all true or real creation is possible only through yajna or sacrifice. Not that the Divine One is imperfect and having a goal, for even as Sri Krishna said, there is nothing that He need do, but that all Works must be done for the sake of the Divine. There is hardly any suggestion in this Hymn of any carnal motive (himsa): it is of the spirit of self-giving of the Divine for the Realisation of the Perfect Order (Rta), both in individual creation as well as social. The sacrificers selflessly do it accordingly to the ancient manner (dharma). The world of our temporal order comes into being from out of Him who is all, enveloping all, and as such the material and the efficient cause of the World, in significant sense of the organic unity. In this Hymn alone indeed is the reference made to the Divine manifestation of the social fourfold order from the body of the Supreme Being. Considered to be a metaphor, its meaning was made clear by Sri Krishna in terms of  functional position (gunakarma), the question of hereditariness being seen to be a social convention in the Vedic society as shown by Dr.V.M.Apte in his interesting study of the Rig. Vedic Hymns on this subject. The ancient practice of right social organisation was explained and given the sanction of the Vedic intuition, and prefigured as the Ideal of society. The fact that this conception is under eclipse owing to the egalitarian views at the present moment does not entail its uselessness.

The Rig Veda (along with the other Vedas) clearly presents a composite picture of the Universe as seen from an integral vision. To this Veda belongs the Aitereya Brahmana that contains the famous Sunassepa episode of purusa–medha, human sacrifice, which tries to give a psychological meaning and direction to the sacrifice, so as to make it free from the taint of himsa (injury). It is quite conceivable that owing to the loss of the psychological and spiritual tradition there came into being the practice of gross or literal sacrifices against which Buddha, Kapila, Krishna and Mahavira and a host of others protested, and which yet continued to sway some tantrika sects driven out by the purified Vedists.

We owe a lot to the great work of the Vedic savants, eastern and western, for the work in unravelling the mysteries of the Veda. Today we owe to Swami Dayanand and Sri Aurobindo the deep mystic interest in the Vedas.

The Vedas have had profound influence on the Southern Mystic schools. The Sri Vaishnava Mystic Seer [Alvar] claimed to tamilicize the Vedas, and claimed to give the import of the Rig Veda in his inimitable Tiruviruttam as the seeking of the Soul [deemed as female] of its beloved Godhead. Indeed the original of the concept of Soul’s femaleness [including that of the gods] is stated in the Rig V : [I. 164.16] and later carried on in the Vishnu Purana and Visistadvaita, and tantra. St. Tirumular of Saiva Siddhanta claimed to give the gist of the Vedic truths gleaned through the Saiva agamas in his Tirumantiram and not merely about the One Being of Love but also the Agni-karma.

The Vedas’ knowledge of the Eternal Being and Order [Rta] and prescribing means to the Realisation of both is unlike others which deal with the transitory goals and ends. In a sense, it also teaches how the transitory could be utilised to achieve the Eternal and the Immortal through surrender and dedication and sacrifice and selflessness. It is therefore what has been heard, uncreate, and which every one has to heed and hear for the attainment that passeth Understanding.

Om Santhi Santhi Santhi!

2.2 BRAHMAVIDYA

The supreme merit of the Upanishads lies not so much in its so called philosophical mind but in its inimitable methodology of approach to the fundamental truths sought to be expounded and attained. The speculative features, which alone attracted the intellectual doctors of philosophy, are indeed without any basic strength if they are not revealed to be supra intellectual or attained by practical verification. It is clear that this verification is not to be equated with the pragmatic criterion of success or consequences or even workability. A profound understanding of human psychology had revealed to the Upanishadic seers taken as a whole the necessity of discipline of the mind in all its levels of ananda, intellect and will so much so they subordinated the lower levels of approach or technique to the higher. This will be clear if instead of treating the vidyas of the Upanishads as statements of inference deductive or inductive or analogical, we try to see that they are training techniques for inner perception.

It is true that almost all collegiate training these days forgets this inner discipline of the mind and senses of the students and gets about going with cramming stuff of all kinds and all grades at the same time in the minds of the pliable mental make up. Unfortunately this stuffing – a veritable chau-chau as any study of the modern curricula will reveal – has left no elbowroom for training as such for discernment. To equip a man for all things is the ambition of a sarvatantra svatantra – an encyclopediest but it hardly works well with the normal man. The Upanishadic theory of education hardly contemplated this omnivorous bookworm or laboratory assistant – for – all – trades. On the other hand they took hold of values firmly and affirmed certain human aims in knowledge as in works which will promote a process of growth and development leading up to the highest possible welfare of all by firmly binding people to one another which seems to be the basic meaning of the word so often and so loosely used – loka-samgraha.

The Upanishadic upasana, which is equated with bhakti, is a form of meditating on the Highest Reality knowing whom one knows all and attains supreme facility.

The number of these Upasanas or meditations or approaches for attainment is about 32 according to the Visistadvaitins, 28 according to Swami Sivananda, but I believed they are considerably more in so far as several contemplations or meditations are of certain attributes of God or the Ultimate Brahman. It is clear that the list furnished by the Acharyas are taken from the Vedanta Sutras and should prove sufficient for the attainment of supreme liberation or God which will not lead a man again into this world of Samsara.

We are aware that the modern climate of thinking has veered steadily  towards a different goal namely the goal of being well here and we have steadily given our wishful meanings to the concept of Jivanmukti. This–worldness may be a great bar to higher levels of knowing and being and ultimately set up a peculiar attachment to the transitory. One of the profound dangers that arose from the development of the yoga–siddhis – and which has led to its being steadily put down by the great Vedantins, was this materialism that is more insiduous than the pure materialism of the Charvakas. This has been the grave of  yoga–siddhis.

The Upanishad Vidyas at no point encourage the siddhi–mongering and indeed have steadily avoided any mention of the lower ‘avidya’ so to speak. It does not at all mean that they were not aware of the possibilities open to man in his power–adventure, but it can lead to only one consummation and that is world–sankaram, confusion.

However it is true that the synthetic Upanishad Isavasyopanisad does mention the double practice of avidya and vidya (avidya being taken here in the sense of lower Vidya rather than Karma), as promoting a double attainment of conquest over death and attainment of the Immortal.

The aim of the Upanisad vidyas is the attainment of the Immortal Brahman by which one becomes immortal that is beyond the fear of death and birth cycle and misery and ignorance and all.

Swami Sivananda in his Essence of Vedanta has given his own synthesis of the several Upanishad upasanas and has named it SIVANANDA VIDYA. The same comprises X khandas and they are Nature of Brahman, Contradictions reconciled, vision of a Sage and the worldly man, Adhyasa, Happiness in Atma only, Brahman is the material and efficient cause, Brahman is unattached, Qualifications of an aspirant, Kaivalyam and the method of Meditation.

A commentary on the above ten khandas is also given to explain in detail, the several aspects of the Brahman Nature.

The vidya thus gives the minimum hypothesis about the nature of the Ultimate Reality from the particular standpoint of the sadhaka or mumuksu (seeker after liberation). The supreme qualification for Vedantic vidya is the desire, which is firm and steady for liberation from the worldly transient things and goods. For many today, wish to do sadhana not for liberation but for more bondage for wealth and power and health. Not the bubhuksu but the mumuksu is the adhikari for Vedanta or true philosophy. Today philosophy has fallen into strange techniques and aspirations for Reality is not its concern nor truth nor for the matter of that anything. Means have become ends and ends in themselves too. In such a tragic state of philosophical learning and teaching it is certainly refreshing to find Swami Sivananda gallantly speaking up for the Mumuksutva as the necessary first step.

Not in the world and not in any thing but in the Atman alone can their be happiness. And this is true because it is the illusion and delusive attractiveness of the world and the powers and pleasures of the world are derivative from the atman which they hide. The fact is there that one runs after these again and again, and return to them again and again, in ever so many subtle forms for even the great men get caught up in the net of the adhyasa. Seeking to save they also get caught in the net and know it rather too late.

The Nature of Brahman cannot be detailed by any neat logical processes and the efforts at samanvaya or reconciliation are not of the order of intellect with its dialectic intended for intellects. The true reconciliation is seen in intuition which is really an experiencing in living and knowing or living-knowing. It is usually forgotten that the logic of the Infinite can only be recognized in living-knowing rather than in any one of them apart from the other. The aparoksanubhuti is not a cognitive (jnana) process but a transcendental living-knowing. It is in this sense it is said to be bhakti-jnana-janya or Semusi in the language of Bhagavad Ramanuja.

The bliss of Realisation of the Supreme Atman with which one becomes one without separatability at any other time is a unique experience beyond the happiness and triumphs of it in the world. Indian thought (and I believe all truly spiritual thought) has realised that there is an unchanging state which is transcendental to any space-time-causation nexus. This means a state of Bliss in Brahman. That men may seek to hold on to both the pleasures of this world as well as of that world yonder is but natural, for men seek the best of both worlds. This is an unfortunate deduction from the modern notion of religion so generously pampered to by very knowing man. However, Swami Sivananda had no two minds in this matter. In his Vidya he has clearly announced that the Kaivalya is not of this double or dual nature. Man is a real member of the Divine permanent World call it Brahman or Paramapada or paramdhama or Narayana, or Vaikuntha or Kailas. And as such for him the return home is the natural thing to do. This is the constant remembrance or dhruvanusmrti that is necessary and the significant meaning of the great vakyas cannot be other than this. It is however necessary to remember that they are not mere words or sentences which have to be repeated parrot-like or to be grammatically analysed in the mind but to be fully invoked as prayer and devotion to the highest Brahman.

A synthesis of all vidyas is not possible except in terms of their content referring to the One Supreme Brahman. This one Brahman is the abode of infinite auspicious qualities, each of which attracts a sadhaka, and through that route he is led to the Highest One who is then realised as the One who has all these attributes. The intellectual dialectics that tries to divide substance and attribute and affirm the former at the expense of the latter is incapable of profound intuition. A vidya is a profound intuitive one, trans-philosophical or intellectual and must be approched and studied as such.

Swami Sivananda I am sure is doing a noble work in analysing and intuitively reconciling the several trends of upasanas.

DISCUSSION

2.3  UPANISADS AND UPAMANA

The Upanisads are concerned with Ultimate Reality and they are held to be par excellence the Sabda or valid verbal testimony for knowing it (the Ultimate Reality). The study of verbal testimony comprises discussion about the nature, the means and the fruit of attaining Reality.

The Upanisads are mainly instructions given to the seeker after the Ultimate Reality, thought of as the source of all process, meaning and life. The instructions are given by the aptas or rsis who have attained, by the threefold processes of knowing, seeing and entering into that Reality, (even as the Lord of the Gita has stated modifying the Upanisadic statement of “jnatavyah, srotavyah, mantavyah and nididhyasitavyah. Thus the ultimate knowledge of Reality can only be truly attained by entering into that Reality. Indeed such is an apta, one who has attained, and such a one is the person who can speak about it with authority. Sri Sankara rightly held that this is aparoksa-anubhuti-transcendent experience of Reality. That it may entail other consequences such as loss of the triple distinction of known, knower and knowledge need not detain us at this stage. That there is hardly a choice for the human individual between the pratyaksa and aparoksa, between perceptive knowledge and transcendent revelatory knowledge is what should make us pause. Reason and sensation or perception are the two opposites of Western Philosophy, whereas in Indian Philosophy or Vedanta the opposites are perceptive knowledge and transcendental revelation. The contradiction between reason and revelation is of a different order even as the contradiction between perception and reason is. Reason has no independent status beyond systematising the knowledge it gets from sensations or from revelations. It has hardly an independent capacity to afford immediate reality or reality per se, or thing-in-itself.

The Upanisadic seers were of the same order as the Seers of the Mantras and indeed the Vedic literature has mentioned them as such. But as teachers of the knowledge of the Ultimate as Brahman or Self we have to conceive of them as communicating this knowledge. Is this communication effected by means of inference, or by means of analogy, or by both? The present writer believes that appropriate means for such a communication are inference and upamana, both together. I wish to suggest that (as in great transcendental matters) the inference does not work, even in the sense of Mimamsa rules of interpretation, and that in the Upanisads it is through the use of Upamana that the transcendental vision is being sought to be brought to the consciousness of the seeker.

Upamana in this sense is a separate means (pramana) rather than a sub-class under inference depending on invariable concomitance (vyapti and bhuyodarsana). The Naiyayika view of Upamana mentions that it consists in (i) a forester coming to us and telling us of (ii) an animal like our cow in the forest and (iii) that it is called gavaya. This is just information from a reliable forester. Being from a reliable individual the information has some authority but it is the actual seeing of the animal in the forest by me that makes me name it gayaya remembering the name given to it by the forester. So much so that some consider that naming is important because it is the name that really makes one know about a thing. This nominalist view however is dependent on the more important thing, viz. seeing the animal like a cow, which alone makes one name it. Neither of these functions will begin to operate unless a reliable forester comes and gives information about its existence.

Let us now look at the Upanisadic method of communication. It resembles exactly the method of Upamana. Here one asks about the ultimate reality, and the rsi (a forest-dweller–play on the word), a reliable one who has known the highest Reality and will not speak an untruth, speaks about the ultimate and says that it is Brahman, that it is Sarvatman, that it is Satyam, jnanam, Anantam and so on. All these are in a negative sense compared or contrasted with what we know, or even exalted and multiplied in excellence to what we know. But it remains just information and book-knowledge in a sense or heard-knowledge so to speak, till one actually “goes to the forest” and sees for oneself and applies the name Brahman to the inward and infinite Reality or the Sole Reality – Ekam sat, which is an intuition of the highest order. Therefore the three steps of Upamana as conceived by Naiyayikas seem to be available in this method of communication or teaching of the Upanisads.

Thus we find that when Naiyayikas formulated the testimony of Upamana as an independent pramana they were thinking of the methodology adopted by the Upanisadic seers. Comparisions from ordinary experience are for the sake of making communication intelligible by comparison, but the difference of the transcendental from the known was never left out ; and though the Brahman was compared with the Jiva or their indentity affirmed, it was not so very unconditional as it is sought to be made out. It is because this Upamana or “near-measure”1 has been used in the Pararthasruti that the whole literature of Upanisadic philosophy has been described as ‘Upa-nisad’. But it is unfortunate that some schools of Vedanta do not perceive that there is a unique method or pramana utilised by the Upanisads which is different from the usual upamana or (upama) in poetry and scientific treatises. The use of Upamana by the Vendantins themselves has not been consistent with the logical schools of either Mimamsa of Nyaya.

The fact is that a careful inspection of the methodology of the Upanisads reveals that the technique of communication of transcendental truths in the language of the ordinary man or phenomenal existence can only be through this “upamana” that combines the knowledge given by an authority, the experience of that object which has been spoken of, and lastly the verification that culminates in granting the new name to that transcendent reality – a recognition-remembrance – smrti so to speak – a word which has been significantly used by Sri Krsna of Veda Vyasa in the Gita (18).

This intimate connection of Upamana and Sabda (which later has to be made into anubhava or one’s own experience in a direct and non-sensory manner) has led to the non-discrimination between the two and to the neglect of the important discovery made by the ancient Naiyayikas of the Parartha-sabda technique. The Mimamsa technique of Upamana as stated by me in a paper several years ago, seeks to transcend the common method by comparing the unknown with the known (upameya). However this is a point that needs to be carefully studied in any logic of the Vedanta or the Upanisads. 

2.4 Isavasyopanisad – a Study according to Sri Vedanta Desika

In paying tribute to the genius of one who has by his stupendous labours done more than any other single thinker to the cause of Dharma-sastra study in India, I wish to present a few salient points in the Upanisadic thought as expounded by one of the finest flowers of Sri Vaisnava thought in India. I mean Sri Venkatanatha, otherwise popularly known as Sri Vedanta Desika. Sri Venkatanatha commented on only one Upanisad, the Isavasyopanisad. He considered that this Upanisad was sufficient for all purposes and difficulties on the path of Realization, which he considered is the proper dharma of every man. This Upanisad is the friend of the Universe, visvamitram. That this claim has stood the test of age, even as the Gita has, is proved by its enormous influence on the minds of men of all ages in India. The Indian Renaisance thinker has to study the implications of this profoundest of Upanisads. GANDHI,1 AUROBINDO and TAGORE, who in the words of Sir Sarvepalli RADHAKRISHNAN, show great “promises of a great Dawn,” owe their finest inspirations and syntheses to this Upanisad. Not that other Upanisads do not contain valuable instruction, but this Upanisad gathers within it syntheses of great worth and moment to Humanity.

The Isavasyopanisad shows a synthetic way of realization, of works, of unity, of synthetic conquest and triumph and synthetic Ananda. Later literature appears as it were to be comments on this wonderful Upanisad.

That some Mantras are taken from other Upanisads, especially Brhadaranyaka, and others, does not in the least affect the Integral nature of the syntheses presented in this piece.

The Analysis of the Upanisad shows that it tries at the very start to synthesise the knowledge of the Omnipervasive Divine Being with the doing of individual duties. The duties immediately take the form of self-lessness or fruit-renouncing nature. The Upanisad itself is the concluding portion of the Vajasaneyi Samhita, and that means that all works, sacrifices, nitya and naimittika, should be appropriated to the growth of knowledge of Brahman:

      Samhitodahrtam sarvam viniyogaprthaktvatah

      Vidyartham syad iti vyanktum nibandho ‘sya tadantah.

The unitary practice of knowledge of God and works devoted to the enlargement or increase of one’s consciousness culminates in the Vision of Unity which is the aim of all Upanisadic instruction.

The first three mantras form the preliminary instruction of the Guru to his disciple, and these form the introduction to the entire thought of the Upanisad. Whatsoever is changing and transient is pervaded by the Lord, knowing this one should, giving up all sense of possession and avarice, enjoy the world of His. Man should not surrender his works based on the knowledge of the all-pervasive Brahman, since such action does not cleave to man. Failure to know or do works with the sense of renounced-enjoyment makes one a self-killer, and the destiny of such a person after death is not the solar orb or supreme status but the unending gloom of interminable darkness.

The fourth mantra takes up the threads of the first half of the first mantra which intimates the indwelling all-prevading nature of God. In a few vigorous choice phrases His Omnipervasiveness and Omnipresence are described in apparently contradictory terms so as to indicate the wonderful luminous presence everywhere. The height of this wonder is reached when the Seer describes that ‘Air upbears the Waters’ “tasminnapo matarisva dadhati”. The next verse repeats the same idea in order to emphasize the excellent transcendent nature of Sarvesa.

The sixth mantra points out the fruits of the knowledge of Lord’s omnipervasion. One does not recoil from any thing. The seventh proceeds forward and points out that ‘He who perceives the Oneness of the Lord does not suffer from delusion or sorrow’.

The eighth mantra is all important. No commentator, ancient or modern, other than Sri Venkatanatha has explained it properly. Sri Venkatanatha displays loyalty to the grammatical construction of the mantra which contains two groups of words, one in the nominative case and the other in the accusative case. The two groups accordingly should refer to two different persons, God and the soul, the soul in this case being the mukta, freed soul, which has attained the highest state. This also shows that the two groups may interchangeably refer to God and the freed soul. This identity in quality it is that makes it possible for the individual to meditate and realize the Supreme as the Self–So’ham asmi (16th mantra) ‘He am I’.

HE ATTAINS THE RADIANT, BODILESS, SCARLESS, SINEWLESS, PURE BEING WITHOUT SIN : (HE) SEER, SELF-CONTROLLED, CONQUEROR INDEPENDENT, BEARS THE REAL NATURE OF THINGS FOR INNUMERABLE YEARS.

Or

He (the supreme Brahman) Omniscient, Intelligence, Lord, Independent, who from eternal years determines the real nature of all things, pervades the pure (self), without (karmic) body, scarless, sinewless, freed from evil (and good).

The above is the two-way translation according to Sri Venkatanatha. This interpretation does not militate against the doctrine of Unity. It shows that creation is not a fiction but a real creation. The individual soul achieves real height and peace and glory of equality in all aspects except the creation of the world (jagadvyaparavarjam).

Then come the two triads of the most intriguing verses, referring to the synthesis of Avidya and Vidya, and Asambhuti and Sambhuti.

There are several views and no one is agreed as to the exact meaning. One view holds that Avidya is ignorance, and this ignorance produces action. This action thus is Avidya. This action is further identified with vedic ritualistic performance, kamya-karma, which produces blindness. When practised along with Vidya it helps the surmounting of the death and attainment of Immortality.

Another interpretation makes ignorance the consciousness of many alone, whereas vidya or knowledge means consciousness of unity alone. The integral truth is the unity in multiplicity and multiplicity in unity.2

According to Sri Venkatanatha, avidya means vidyetara – other than vidya, that is that which is also next and nearest to it, and that is action, karma. This is the karma prescribed in the second verse; kurvanneveha karmani …. This is right action, consecrated action which does not touch man, action done in the consciousness of the omnipervasive Brahman, action suffused with renunciation of  fruits and self-possession. Such is avidya.

I shall not dilate on the controversies about these two terms as I shall be doing so elsewhere at length.3

The next group is equally interesting, and the interpretation of Sri Vedanta Desika is remarkable. Sri Sankara identifies these two terms with destruction and birth and pleads for their transcendence. The dialectical movement, it is assured, is overcome by the realization of the height. What is throughout forgotten in the analysis of both the groups is that the terms avidyaya mrtyum tirtva and vinasena mrtyum tirtva are not properly explained. How can ignorance lead to conquest over death? How can destruction lead to conquest over death? Certain further explanations are needed to make them acceptable. It is this that made Sri Venkatanatha undertake to explain these terms otherwise so as to be in tune with the integral meaning of the Upanisad.

Sri AUROBINDO, an integral thinker of great Vision, holds that the ideal of the Upanisad is “to embrace simultaneously vidya and avidya, the one and the many : to exist in the world but to change the terms of death into terms of immortality, to have freedom and peace of non-birth simultaneously with the activity of birth-Death is the constant denial by the All of the ego’s false self-limitation in the individual frame of mind, life and body.” Here the meaning of non-birth is birthlessness, and this is the counter-pole of birth. Birth is the quality of manyness, whereas non-birth is the quality of self-identical existence, and their conciliation is brought about through the pursuit of Divine Transcendence that does not follow exclusively either the birth-pursuit or the birth-lessness-pursuit.

These is another interpretation which is also interesting. It considers that asambhuti refers to the lord of destruction, Rudra-Siva and sambhuti to the Lord of Creation, Brahman ; worship of any one of the two gods exclusively leads to ignorance and darkness. Both the functions belong to the Supreme Lord who is spoken of as sarva-vyapin and is declared to be the Origin of all the three processes of creation, sustenance and destruction : janmadyasya yatah (I. i. 2. Vedanta Sutra). The one supreme Godhead should be worshipped as the Lord of both, and this will lead one to the two-fold realization.

Sri Venkatanatha interprets the two terms in a very luminous manner quite distinct indeed from the rest. Asambhuti means the destruction of all obstacles to sambhuti or divine birth or communion. Sambhuti is divine birth (jnana-sambhuti). It is the brahmic experience (Samadhi) that is to be sought after and the obstacles to it ought to be overcome. Hence destruction (vinasa) means the destruction of obstacles to realization, and therefore when this destruction happens there is also conquest or crossing over death. The two are limbs of the knowledge of the Omnipervading God. They sustain and energize the growth of His consciousness and make for the rending of the veil that covers the face of the self mentioned and prayed for in the following mantra :

            Hiranmayena patrena satyasyapihitam mukham

            Tat tvam pusann apavrnu satyadharmaya drstaye (15th Verse)

Thus according the Sri Venkatanatha, the first triad is not repeated by the second ; on the other hand, the second triad belongs to the realm of upasana, praxis, and the last group of mantras 15-18 are prayers to the Supreme of the form of Pusan the protector, the Sun, Prajapati, and Yama, to reveal the form effulgent and auspicious of the indwelling Lord in them and in Him, who is the same as his own self, so’ham asmi, He I am.

The description of the darkness into which men are said to enter through isolated or atomistic conduct (in verses 9, and 12) is similar to the description given earlier in the third mantra. The reality of the dark spheres or planes of consciousness of ignorance, the reality of sin, and the sin of non-performance of action and wrong performance of action, the sin of not fulfilling the dharma of the self, which is to perceive its Self as the Supreme Lord indwelling in all, are clearly enunciated. They result in the entrance into darkness. All these are activities comparable to or indeed are activities that lead to suicide of the self. To realize the diunity to knowledge and selfless consecrated action, the unity of religious consciousness of utter dependence on the Supreme and the mystic consciousness of over-coming all restraints and obstacles to that realization, is the real synthesis of the integral consciousness. Religion and Mysticism are clearly represented by the figures of sambhuti and asambhuti.4 Both lay claim to vision and knowledge, and yet one-sided or unilateral action precipitates them into darkness as much in the lower as in the higher states. The occult secret is their diunity of dynamism.

4.  Cf. My paper read at the 10th All India Oriental Conference, Tirupati, 1940, on “Relation between religious and mystical consciousness in the Isvasayopanisad-bhasya of Sri Vedanta Desika.”

The last four mantras are said to be prayers. The Lord is the protector, is the Kratu, who remembers the Satvic sacrifice performed by the individual as instructed in the first verse–tena tyaktena bhunjithah. The most glorious vision thus becomes man’s through the prasada of God and not otherwise. Surrender, prapatti, is thus intimated with the words, nama uktim vidhema, and it gets its complementary prasada, grace. This last is one of the most important features of the doctrine of Realization according to Sri Vaisnava philosophy.

Isavasyopanisad

(Translation of text)

I.          All this whatsoever is in the worlds changing is capable of being dwelt in by the Lord. With that (world) renounced enjoy. Covet not anyone’s wealth.

II.         Thus should one desire to live a hundred years performing works. Thus for thee it is not otherwise than this. Works do not touch (such) a man.

III.       Notoriously evil are those worlds of Asuras, enveloped by utter blinding darkness whitherto all slayers of their souls resort on departing from their bodies.

IV.       Unmoving, the One Existence, speedier than the mind, that which has at the very beginning attained all the gods have not yet attained ; standing, which overtakes that run, by it air upbears the waters.

V.        That which runs (and yet) that does not move,

That which is afar and that is also near,

That dwells within all this and outside all this.

VI.       He who sees in the self all creatures and all creatures in the self alone,  does not recoil from anything.

VII.      When he who knows the Self only as that which has become all things, for him who has seen Oneness, where is there delusion or sorrow?

VIII.     He attains the Radiant, Bodiless, Scarless, Sinewless, pure Being, without sin : (he) Seer, Self-controlled, Conqueror, Independent, bears the real nature of things for innumerable years.

Or

He (the Supreme Brahman) Omniscient, Intelligence, Lord, Independent, who from eternal years determines the real nature of all things, pervades the pure (self), without (a karmic) body, scarless, sinewless and free from evil (or good).

IX.       Into deep darkness enter those who are devoted to works. Into still deeper darkness verily those who are devoted to knowledge.

X.         Different verily from the knowledge it has been said,

Different verily from works it has been said.

This is the instruction we have received from those wise men who instructed that very clearly to us.

XI.       He who knows that the knowledge and the works as together,

By the works crosses over death, and by the knowledge attains the Immortal.

XII.      Into deep darkness enter those who follow asambhuti (exclusively) ; they into still deeper darkness who are devoted to sambhuti alone.

XIII.     Different verily from sambhuti it is said :

Different verily from asambhuti.

This is the instruction we have received from those wise men who instructed that (means) very clearly to us.

XIV.     He who knows sambhuti and asambhuti together

By vinasa crosses over dealth, and by the sambhuti attains the Immortal

XV.      The face of truth is covered with a brilliant golden lid. Do thou remove that, O Nourisher! for the sake of perceiving the true nature.

XVI.     O Nourisher ! O sole Seer ! O inner Ruler ! O Prompter ! Lord of all creatures !

Abolish thy burning rays, gather up thy rays of light, so that

I (may) see thy most auspicious form. Who this MAN this He am I.

XVII.   Moving about, abodeless, immortal, after giving up this body which goes to ashes, OM. (O Lord of)

Sacrifice ! Remember that which was done. (O Lord)

Sacrifice ! Remember that which was done.

XVIII.  O Agni. Lead us by the auspicious path to (spiritual) wealth. Thou God who art knower of all knowledge, remove the  crooked sin from us. To thee we sincerely (and repeatedly) utter the word ‘Namah’.

2.5 A NOTE ON USE OF THE TERMS ADHIDAIVATAM AND ADHYATMAM IN THE KENOPANISAD

The question addressed to the Seer of the Kenopanisad at the beginning is :

Kenesitam patati presitam manah
Kena pranah prathamah praiti yuktah!

Kenesitam vacam imam vadanti
Caksuh srotram ka u devo yunakti!!

‘Who is that Godhead by whom desired the mind moves towards its object, at whose bidding the breath first preceeds to perform its functions, by whom wished do men utter speech, by whom are the eye and ear directed?’ the answer to this fundamental question was that Person is the eye of the eye, ear of the ear, mind of the mind, breath of the breath, speech of the speech, who is beyond their reach and cannot be known by them fully. Further it was stated that one should know that Person as He who grants then their virya or energy of being. Neither Agni, nor Vayu nor Indra knows who that effulgent One is till instructed. He is indeed the power that got them the Victory over the asuras or powers of darkness, which they did not know and for teaching which He appeared to them.

We can esoterically consider in the story narrated in the third and fourth sections of the Upanisad that Agni, Vayu and Indra are the adhidevatas or presiding deities of the elements or of the senses viz. eye, breath and mind respectively which refer to the three planes of physical, vital and mental or jnanendriyas, karmendriyas and mind. The story concludes with the instruction in the fourth section thus:

Tasyaisa adesah: Yad etad vidyuto vyadyutada

Itin nyamimisada ityadhidaivatam?

“This is the instruction regarding It. ‘Just as the lightning flashes forth and disappears’. Here ends the instruction having reference to elements (adhidaivatam)”1 .

The above is the translation made according to the Commentary of Sri Rangaramanuja. Others translate ‘nyamimisada’ as ‘it vanishes as the eye winketh’ or ‘it is like the twinkling of the eye’. Further it is stated that this analogy of Brahman with lightning and its disappearance is well known.

I wish to point out in this note that the usual rendering of the adesa of the Seer is not adequate. Not that it does no convey some meaning. My contention is that it can convey much more than what meets the eye. The story gives the most important clues. The idea that the experience of Brahman at first occurs out of His grace, out of His wish to let known that He indeed is the being behind all activities, that HE is the self. This experience at the beginning is like a flashing-light (vidyurlekhaiva bhasvata) or even like the Yaksa, wonderful Being who disappeared or vanished the moment Indra approached It, and revealed there another form (bahu sobhamanam Uma Haimavatim). It may be a momentary experience whose speed is like that of lightning itself, but it is something that binds the eye. The eye is made to close down – nyamimisada.

And all other sensory organs too ‘close down’. No longer does the individual perceive or is conscious of any thing of the outer world. The word nyamimisada reveals this complete inversion of the senses. The senses are enraptured utterly. A very arresting name of the Divine is stated to be ‘Hrisikesa’ which means the “enrapturer of the senses,” for by His very appearance they cease to be attracted by the objects and get blind to them. This experience of the Divine as the supernal falsh of lightning occurs out of His grace and cannot be had by means of austerity or mere learning or any other. As the Kathopanisad points out He who has been chosen by the Divine, by him is He perceived: yam esa vrnute tena labhyah. Thus adhidaivatam2  means really that which occurs by the Will of the Divine or Brahman who wishes the individual or the senses to win a victory over the lower vital forces, the asuras. The adhidaiva occurance of the occurance of the Grace is intimated and this sets up processes within the individual, which is intimated by the next passage. A radical experience, which cannot occur through the will of the individual or his effort is what we refer to the Divine or Grace. Once this radical experience within occurs, and the senses close down or become inwardly absorbed or are sent to sleep, then there is the preliminary peace or quiet, the prasada. This is what happens.

“Athadhyatmam yad etad gacchativa manah and na caitad upasmaraty abhiksnam sankalpah: Then the mind goes after It as it were. And by that it constantly follows it desiring It (alone).”

Sri Rangaramanuja reads that the desire is not capable of following it as it is such a momentary experience. Man’s contemplation on It is incapable of being continuous and uninterrupted due to the extreme transcendence of the Supreme. But it is claimed by all sadhana that not until one’s consciousness flows like tailadhara, uninterrupted continuity, can there be real establishment in the Divine. Bhakti means this uninterrupted meditational continuity.

Thus the reading anena caitad upasmarati seems to be proper, at least as cogent as the other given by him nacaitad upasmarati. The eyes that have beheld the Lord, even for a second, can have no place for anything else. The mind’s eye, the divine eye divya caksus, opens up and it begins to move towards the Divine who thereafter is the one object of desire and volition. The Divine alone is enjoyed. The individual is rapt in love of that object adorable, effulgent, the source of all power and the Self, whose first contact was like that of a lightning that dispels the darkness and ignorance which the senses follow. Through God’s Grace, as Uma Haimavati intimates in the upanisad, the victory over the objects of senses happens by the very perception of the Divine; it all happens in a split-second. The individual’s mind is lost to the Divine, it discovers its source and being in the Divine; one-pointed it enters into the Divine contemplation instead of driving the senses outward for the fields of enjoyment. All desire follows it inward to the Divine.

The Divine is next revealed as the Tad Vanam, the garden of  Bliss, the garden of spiritual honey.

Taddha Tadvanam nama Tadvanam ityupasitavyam: That is called Tadvanam. It is to be meditated upon as Tadvanam.

Thus the individual to whom through Grace, that which is due to the Godhead’s Grace (adhidaivatam), He appears as Jyothis, as effulgent light of the lightning, becomes one whose senses are inturned, and whose mind becomes concentrated on God, and whose desire follows the Divine Goal, with the Divine as Goal, with an extinguishment of all other desires. This is what occurs within the individual (adhyatman) or within his body (if we yet play with the view that the body is the soul), or since the manas is not of the soul nor the senses for the matter of that except of the sarira or body, Rangaramanuja may be considered to be right when he explains adhyatmam as ‘with regard to the body’. But it must be pointed out that this is what the individual finds happening to him who is the embodied-seeker of the Supreme Divine.

Almost all the great mystics have borne testimony to this process of the Divine Revelational action, a descent of Godhead towards man; and the ascent of man towards Godhead is described by the adhyatma.

In this connection I am delighted to present the close correspondence between the Kenopanisad’s instruction and the experiences of the Alvars, especially of Tirumangai. I have already expounded the philosophy of religion of Sri Tirmangai taking into consideration the two Madals under the caption ‘Eros’ in the Journal of the Sri Venkatesvara Institute (Vol. IV. Pp. 21). I shall here point out the close similarity expressed in the language of the beloved who on beholding the beloved Form of Sri Krsna lost herself entirely. She did not go out to see Him, but some others called her out to behold the dance of the Lord.

Vara yo venrarkkuccenren envalvinai yai

karar mani niramum kaivalaiyum kanen nan

aranum sollirrum kollen                              (Siriya madal 14)

I went to them who called me out to see the Lord, owing to my great sin, (for) there I became as one who saw not the black attractive form (of krsual), and as one who lost her bangles: I accepted not the words (of consolation or assurance) from others.

Again

      Karar tirumeni kandatuve karanama

      Iperapptarrattiritaruvan…..

      Varay madanenje vandu manivannan

      Sirar tiruttuzhay malai namakkaruli

      Taran tarumenrirandattil onratanai

      Aranum onratar kelame connakkal

      Arayumelum panikettatan renilum

      Poratozhiyate pondidunirenrerku

      Kara kadal vannam pinbona nenjamum

      Varate yennai marandutu tan…                                        (ibid. 54-55, 57-60)

On merely seeing His blue form, losing control, shivering I am wandering. Further the cool breeze breaking through my frame entering into me is causing in me passion. I am unable to know in what manner.

To me who sent my mind after the blue-ocean-hued form (as messenger) with the words “O sluggish mind, get up. If you but  go and ask such that none of my enemies hear ‘Will Thou of blue-stone-hue out the Grace give us the beautiful tulasi garland or wilt thou not?’ and hearing His reply come back to me. Even if He do something that ought not be done, do not stay back there, but come and tell me.” The mind did not return to me. It forgot me…

2.6  A MEDITATION ON THE ISAVASYOPANISAD 15-18.

Every meditation is a practice of union with the Divine, a yoga. The last four verses of the Isavasyopanisad counselled for the purpose of meditation by Sri Venkatanatha reveal certain wonderful correspondences between the Vedic, Upanishadic and pauranic strata of consciousness. The Mantra or the revealed literature is rendered into assimilable intellectual terms in the Upanishads and elucidated in the History which the Pauranik literature is. But the three are (I should have added the Brahmanic or sacrificial mysticism also) one integral presentation. If we would understand the inner meaning of any one of these, we should go to the other two, and this indeed is the intention of certain classes of ancient scholars who insisted upon a correct and complete understanding of the three literatures mentioned.

The Isavasyopainsad teaches in the first fourteen verses the nature of God, the nature and duty of man and the means towards freedom and perfection and the results of the violation of the nature and the violation of the means. The realization of perfect being or at-one-ness with the Divine is intimated most luminously in the 8th verse. I have dealt with these aspects in another work and therefore do not propose to deal with them here1 . But my practice of meditation for the last four verses beginning with “Hiranmayena patrena satyasyapihitam mukham Tattvam pusan apavrnu satyadharmaya drsthaye” (15) had led me to feel that here we have a clear and profound mantra of liberation that is integral and combines the knowledge with works, and this prayer is the expression of the devotion impregnated with the knowledge of the Divine Nature and Grace, and the knowledge of the true relation that subsists between the individual and the Nature which includes his body.

The first verse (Isa. 15) clearly reveals that the individual soul is covered over with a passion-coloured lid and this is of the form of ignorance, since this prevents the soul from seeking the Divine as the indweller in all things moving and unmoving (Isa I). The goal is the realisation of the One supreme Being as indwelling in all and the perception of the entire realm of creatures and things in that One Being and not only that one should see also the Divine as that who has become all these things (Isa 6 and 7), in orther words, as creator and cause. This realisation is incapable of being attained through the help of the senses, as the Kenopanisad has stated. For the Self is that which causes these senses to see and hear, and breath  and taste and smell and touch; thus the real subject of all experiences and the agent of all action is the Self; and this is the Satya, the Truth. Thus every other function of the self is incapable of seeing or knowing or even adequately informing the self to us. By the self alone can the self be seen and known and heard, and as the Kenopanisad says Atmana vindate viryam vidyaya vindate amrtam – we must gather our strength and truth from the Atman, the self that is the source of all seeing and the power behind all seeing. Thus it is that this Being unseeable of the senses, is incapable of being known except when the passion-clouds, are dispersed, the passion-lid removed and a strong peace or silence or calm pervades the being. More fully must it be comprehended that this attainment of peace or sthita-prajna-consciousness or calm silent fullness is impossible to attain by means of man’s volition or will or ignorance as such; but by a real and inward aspiration this might be possible. That is the reason for the prayer and the aspiration upwards calling to the Nourisher, Pusan, the Divine of the beneficent movement. The santa-state is a gift of the Divine, this is the satya-dharma state, a preliminary peace-state but nonetheless foundational and fundamental to all ascent. It is because it is a gift and Grace of God and the intimation of His presence, it is capable of being permanent and ever-revelatory of higher and higher levels of being and immortality. Any peace that comes as a result of one’s own effort is not only incapable of being permanent, but it indeed achieves a false-peace, a repressed state infected with a deeper conflict or else it is a precarious egoity that is the contradiction of the realisation of the One self in all beings.

The pauranic analogue suggested by the phrases of this verse of Isa Up. is the story Hiranyakasipu—the gold-vestured or gold-coated egoistic Asura, who searched as no man or God ever did for the omnipervasive Being—the Vishnu, the enemy of the egoistic soul Hiranyaaksa, greedy eyed – a stealer of the Things that are of the Divine, the coveter of the Goods that belong in verity to the Divine(Isa 1), the usurper, albeit ignorant of the fact that the things do belong to the Divine alone. But the point is not that alone, the soul that is thus greedy eyed or passion-eyed and passion-covered, being ignorant of its true nature and considering itself to be the sole Master of reality, of all that is permanent and temporary, essays to challenge the very existence and possibility of the existence of the Divine, Iswara.. The Puranas as well as the Veda describe the existence of other Asuras such as Vrtra, Vala, Naraka, Taraka.. But the illustration of the truth is most aptly and adequately represented by the unique figures of Hiranyaaksa and Hiranyakasipu. The nature2  of the asura is to make it impossible for the truth to emerge, to possess it exclusively for themselves, by confining it to their own cave by closing the gates of the cave against any outlet or inlet. This lid was what was prayed for  to be removed by the Divine Almighty. It is in this sense that we have to accept the story of Hiranyakasipu who through his austerities won the coveted boon of unslayability by any mortal being or God or animal or plant or any created being. His own son pointed out the actual existence of the supreme Omnipervader. Searching for this Being, the Asura returned baffled, unable to reach it. “The ego was a helper” in acquiring the boon by tapasya and yoga, but it had become a bar to attainment of the knowledge of the Omnipervader. It had indeed itself fixed the lid more firmly on itself than helped to remove the lid. This indeed is the mystery of the ego. “He who would save his soul must lose it.” The ego is something that is an entity fundamental and real; because it is indeed such it is the most persistent fact in experience. It is eternal. But this is quite different from the fact of ignorance that erects this ego as the possessor of all reality or experience, as the ruler and sustainer of reality. It is immitigably private that it can never play that role of Isvara though it is through the soul the Divine acts or manifests or enjoys the soul as well as the Universe of Nature. The infinite diversity of Nature equally is reality that is sustained by the Divine One so true is the numerical manyness in respect of individual souls and the Nature (prakrti), this manyness is a reality, a secret truth of the Divine Nature. The Divine, as Sri Aurobindo affirmed, is the One in His eternal Manyness.

Further the truth becomes clear that the lid of ignorance cannot be removed by the powers and passions or exertions of the individual ego. Only by the Divine alone could the imprisoned soul get released; only by the Divine Power and Love or Grace could the lid of ignorance and passion be removed. No doubt as a result of intense prayer and pleading and aspiration the soul imprisoned within its own construction of desire, passion, greed and covetousness could be released. The souls are of three grades: divine, human and titan. The first is a class by itself, luminous in being, uncovered by any lid of passion, full-blown instruments of the Divinity within them, devoted servants and warriors of light. They never suffer from this opaqueness of being that is a result of convetousness and separation from the Divine, the Satya, the centre of being, a seperation  that results from the covering of the lid by the ignorance of the One Truth that all verily belong to the Divine alone.

The second-class, namely the human (mental) and the third-class namely the Asure (vital), beings are those who are in need of this removal of the lid of separation and passion, the lid of division, the lid that makes it impossible for the soul ever to enter into itself in order to arrive at the truth or knowledge of its real function and nature. The word in the Upanisad ‘dharma’ significantly points out that the soul has to seek to know its real function in respect of the Divine, for, knowing this the soul becomes something protected and nourished by the truth rather than tormented by the untruth of independence and egoism which it could not but consider in its own limited consciousness as the core of its reality. Confronted with the mystic truth that Prahlada, the awakened Intuition, had brought, the Vital Asura, indeed the father because of being the prior or earlier manifestation in evolution, engages upon a severe test of the nature of the soul, Atman, Prahlada himself being but the embodient of the nature of Atman. The Atman which has attained the Supreme Being, the Isa, is described in the Isavasyopanisad verse 8, as Suddham, Suklam, asnavirum, akayam, avranam, or Kavi, manishi, paribhu, svayambhu – all these attributes reveal the soul to be other than the body, the physical body, which the individual has been seeing and considering it to be. The vital soul (titanic and powerful), the Asura, found that the son, the enlightened buddhi, Prahlada, was not touched by the rigourous tests and threats of the vital being. He was different, and he said that there was another, the Vishnu, the omni-pervader, who was guarding him (paryagat; attained him as the Isa Up. ‘8 put it). The vital soul wanted a demonstration for his own complete benefit of existence of the omnipervading being, and would not accept the conclusive evidence of the mysterious persistence of the soul apart from and despite the body. Thus challenged the soul of Buddhi, Prahlada, prays (or is it the self of Hiranyakasipu baffled by the energy and ability of the soul that lives by the Self and by Knowledge had attained immortality: atmana vindate viryam vidyaya bindate amrtam – vinasena mrtyum tirtva sambhutya-amrtam asnute-prati-bodhaviditam matam amrtatvamhi vindate-?) to the Supreme Vishnu to remove the lid that covers the ego, even if it be by force, as indeed it has to be done, for it is the Rudragranthi, the knot of final death or ignorance, dissolution of egoism, and convetousness and possession; it is then that the individual soul ceases to feel the need for the continuance of itself as a separate being. It is then that the Lord in the form of Narsimha3 (indeed a play on the word Purushottama in one sense, and in another sense the representation of the infinite marvel of the Divine Being transcendent to all creation, all possibilities of created being, and yet master of all these forms and yet master of all these forms and names and capable of incarnating in each and everyone of them without undergoing any sort of dimunition of energy light, knowledge, infinity and power, benevolence and majesty), emerged, as the Purana says with mystic Sound, Om.

The Omkar is the Aksara, the One Imperishable supreme Sound that is the Brahman. The Isa uses this Mystic Sound (pranava) in the 17th verse as meaning the Sacrifice of Will-superconscient, the Doer. The Narasimha emerges form the Pillar (sthanu) within and destroys the hrdayagranthi the root-knot of bondage, that is, the possessive-knot that separates and disintegrates the unity that is the abiding nature of the soul with the Divine. The bowels and entrails of the soul are removed once for all, for it is for these or for the protection and sustention of these (self-preservation and self-perpetuation which are the twists in real seeking of immortality, the perversions of the fundamental truth of immortal existence in divine nature and function) that the habits of sequestering or coveting or theiving were cultivated. Thus the grand effulgence of the Divine who emerged with the glorious sound creative and destructive of all the worlds, manifested the ever present beneficence of the Vishnu. The prayer of the soul was indeed answered and the asuric knot was cut, the lid was torn open, (apavrnu-remove or uncover almost suggest the tearing open, cut open) and the great father of Prahlada was liberated. Thus may the father, or Prahlada on behalf of his father, pray “Pusannekarse Yama Surya Prajapatya Vyuha rasmin samuha tejah! Yat te rupam kalyaanatamam tat te pasyami Yo’ savasau purusah so’ham asmi!! O Nourisher! O sole Seer! O death! O Surya! Prajapathi! Withdraw thy Hot rays, gather up thy beneficent rays so that I see thy most auspicious Form. Who this man He this am I.” And thus know that the angushta-matra, thumb sized being in-dwelling in me is identical with the Self in the Sun. This is the Aditya-hrdaya—the secret of oneness in multiplicity resolved by, in and through the experience of the Prahladic Buddhi the Joyful Wisdom, the Sreyas, the eternal oneness in eternal Manyness of the Antaryamin, Vishnu, the Omnipervading Iswara, Narayana of the Pancaratra4, and the Prasnopanishad.

The last verse is a further fulfillment of the previous verse, and is not as some scholars might consider, a general prayer found in the three Vedas and the Brahmanas. For, its integral place by reason of the continuity of thought is ascertainable form the fact that surrender of the form of sacrifice of the Mahabali, the energetic elevated soul,conscious of the nature of the Dwarf, Brahman, who came a-begging for just the three mystical feet, as the Vishnu; who was anxious to complete the great sacrifice undertaken by him entailed the leading of Bali to the highest places of plenitude out of the Grace, promised to the progeny of Prahlada. (The Matsya Paurana and Harivamsa accounts of the entire episode are most enlightening accounts). Once the Divine has appeared as the self of itself as its truth and being, the peace is assured, conflicts are avoided, by the Grace of the Divine who of his own accord came, as the great Tiruppanalvar said, to take the soul to the supreme abode of Rasa, rasatala, for the great Mahabali was consigned to the Rasatala, there to be eternally watched by the Divine solely and to be enjoyed by Him alone and naively or is it purposely it is stated, Mahabali was fully satisfied. Was there a more lovable punishment ever given to one who dared to offer himself up to God despite the entreaties of his own Guru who asked him to hold on to what he had and warned him the deceit of the Divine! Did not the Gopies seek such a punishment? Have not the Alvars sought this punishment? Have not Gods awaited this punishment? To be with God morning, noon and night and for ever and alone. To have God is breath, sight, taste, smell, and the sweetest Sabda of the Flute: to share in the experience of knowledge of God’s direct sovereign rulership, intimate indwellingness, transcendent supremacy, wonderful power of creation, sustention and destruction all revealing the supreme sovereign Daya, and more than all descents into all forms, in His Fullest puissance and plenitude, resplendence and power!! The Divine though omni-pervading or capable of omnipervading (vasyam literally means this latter), out of his Grace and in response to the search and prayer and aspiration, descends to meet the soul and leads him to the higher reaches. If this task could have been done in respect of the recalcitrant dividing asura, vital being, and difficult to modify except through force or violence, how much more easily and more finely could not the Divine do the same for the more evolved mental soul? Thus the last verse:

Agne naya supatha raye asman visvani deva vayunani vidvan!

Yuyodhyasmajjuhuranameno bhuyistham te nama uktim vidhema!!

The Divine who is the Nourisher and Ruler, Seer, Death and In-dwelling self, and our father and Supreme Light is the Foremost Fire or Will within us. He is undiminished in every one of his descents and is ever full:

Purnamadah purnamidam purnatpurnamudacyate!

Purnasya purnahtadaya purnam eva avasisyate !!

 2.7  P R A N A Y A M A

The Yoga of Patanjali is distinguished from the practices of the Sri Vaishnava thinkers. There are certain differnces mentioned by the Sri Vaishnavites whose authorities are the Agama of Vaikhanasa and Pancaratra and tradition or Sampradaya. I shall here sketch briefly the relevant portions taken by the Sri Vaishnava thinkers in order to be in tune with the main tenets of their Philosophy of Organic Unity and prapatti and bhakti which are held to be the final culmination of all knowledge and action, jnana and karma.

The eight angas of Yoga are accepted and they are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

Yama, niyama, asana, pranayama are all of the satvic order and are intended for the  sake of  ‘yoking the senses’ that are outwardly turned to make them inwardly turned, or at least quiet, so as to permit direct reception by the mind itself. It is in a quiet mind that the intimations of higher consciousness are sown.

Yama and niyama accepted by the Sri Vaishnava is what is described in the Vishnu Purana  VI.7: Celibacy, harmlessness, truthfulness, non-covetuousness, non-acceptance of gifts, scripture reading, purity, outer and inner, contentment, austerity, and inclining the mind to God. This list is not quite different from the Patanjali’s Yoga.

The Asana that is counselled as par excellance is padmasana – lotus-pose. The Patanjali’s Yoga holds that  asana  is best which is steady and performed with ease, sthira-sukha-asanam.

The Pranayama deals with the vital breath. Three stages are mentioned the recaka, kumbhaka and puraka. This view is accepted by all. The special method, however, followed by this school is different from the Patanjali sustras. The inhalation and exhalation are of half the duration of the kumbhaka or restraint. The inhalation follows the exhalation. The usual procedure adopted by the Yogis is that the right nostril first is used to exhale the air, and then closing it with the fingers the indrawing of breath is done with the left nostril. After retention for the specified period, the exhalation is performed with the right nostril. Then with the right nostril the breath is inhaled and exhaled with the left nostril. This establishes according to these thinkers and practicers the balance of the breath and establishes equipoise of mind and breath. On the other hand, the doctrine of Sri Vaishnava thinkers is that in no case should there be inhalation with the right nostril and exhalation with the left nostril. Therefore the fundamental difference.

The psycho-physical basis of this argument is as follows:

The left nostril is supplied with Amrta-nadi and the right with death or surya-nadi. The one is Agni, and the other is cooling like the Moon. The seeker after the vira-path seeks the divine realization through the path of Agni, and does not seek to establish the fullness of the living presence the immortal,here and now. Thus there is death seeking in that path. The good that accrues from the practice of left-nostril breathing is annuled by the right-nostril breathing.

It has been amply demonstrated by a yogin who counselled that in all cases when persons are suffering from fevers due to heat and other disorders, and even those who wish to sleep by day-time, not to sleep with their left side to the ground or to breathe with the right nostril. Pranayama with the left nostril-inhalation leads to cure, whereas right nostril-inhalation leads to aggravation of the malady.

Pratyahara (Reversion of will) accepted by the Sri Vaisnava is that according to the Vishnu Purana  VI.7, and dharana and dhyana are said to be of five kinds according to the Vishnu Purana VI. 7-91-ff.

Samadhi is the culmination of dhyana; it is of the nature of saksatkara, of the self. Beyond that is the supreme Brahma-saksatkara. Samadhi itself is an intimate coitional-consciousness of bhakti and overwhelming knowledge-devotion. The quality of power that it gets is due to the intensity of the equational consciousness leading to divine integration. More and more the individual becomes conscious of the presence of the Lord within, and the Mother, and those two rescue the individual from being merely an interiorised being. The veils of the soul are reft  as under and the individual stands in the presence of a transformed universe of Delight that was misery. All he perceives as the Vasudeva and is lost in the contemplation and ecstacy of the supreme.         

APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY

2.8 ARTHA PURUSHARTHA

Ancient Indian culture accepted four legitimate motives of human being – man’s vital interests and needs, his desires, his ethical and religious aspirations, and his ultimate spiritual aim and destiny. These fourfold motives answer to his fourfold nature as a physico-biological (or embodied) being, as an emotional being seeking happiness and enjoyment, on the one hand, and on the other, as an ethical and spiritual self. On the proper satisfaction of these four aims consists perfection and happiness.

Almost all men normally devote the major part of their energy to the finding of means to satisfy their terrestrial needs. It is legitimate to strive for the bodily welfare of oneself, not merely seek its mere survival. Those things which help this preservation of the body and its continued efficiency and enjoyment are called the good things of life or simply goods. Everything is measured by its utility for the preservation of the body.

It is clearly recognized that the world in which we live though bounteous in its gifts and prolific in its produce of the essential and elementary demands of the body, sometimes offers great threats which challenge the life and existence of the individuals. These challenges of the environment are the ones which dictate the responses of the individual not merely in a purely stimulus-response (or situation response manner) but also with foresight. And foresight is power. It is precisely this foresight which again impels the individual to secure and hoard and preserve the things that are needed, and protect them from being taken away from him by other individuals or creatures. This necessity to protect and preserve the acquired things demands power, ability and might. The individual who has greater foresight, cleverness and ability as well as might wins in the race of life. He survives not merely as an individual against the environment but also against other individuals who seek to snatch or rob what he has. This latter condition may not usually arise in a well knit family or group where co-operation rather than rivalry predominates. But it is nontheless true that the break up of the family or the tribe is caused by the competitive rivalry between its members owing to manifold psychological reasons. Such break-ups undoubtedly reveal the individual to be a disintegrating force, an ego at cross-purposes with society, which appears to be a better unity or unit than the individual himself. Out of this fact one thing can be assumed for certain, that the individual seeks his self-expression, his freedom to be in a certain way. He seeks his growth and development in the world and in society if possible, out of it, if necessary. The emergence of the individual person then is the primary fact of the struggle for survival. (As conceived by Locke,) it is not enough to get the right to live and protect oneself but to have property which is the means to live, which is the fundamental necessity and right.

Property (artha) becomes a means for self expression, development and freedom. Property implies the exclusive use, enjoyment and control of those things which are of value in so far as they satisfy the fundamental needs of the organism. Thus property or rather private property is an essential condition of economic freedom. A life without property is impoverished for there is no wherewithal to live.

The right of every individual is to secure the primary needs of food, clothing and shelter without interference and without abridgment. But in a world wherein there is so much of competition among individuals for the necessities of the body, even to the minimum, and wherein these are not keeping pace with the growth of population, the problem of getting these has become very acute and a solution to it is not easily to be had. Thus a limit has to be placed on the quantum of property or wealth, understood in this limited sense that any individual can possess. Socialising the means or the equal distribution of all land and produce by the State will not mean anything but the best means of providing each individual with the barest necessities of life. This may imply that the individual may be obliged to work co-operatively, so to speak, with the rest of the individuals to get the bare minimum of his requirements. In whatever manner we go about it, the principal basis of life of man is material and economic. The higher aspects have to be erected on this. Any view of our human “existence” which neglects or unduly belittles or intolerantly condemns this basis is therefore by that very fact, whatever its truth or merit or utility, or whatever its suitability to individuals of a certain temperament or in a certain stage of spiritual evolution “unfit to be the general and complete rule of human being” says Sri Aurobindo.

Therefore it is seen that the modern world insists on this necessary material basis of life. It must be first well established before one engages on the spiritual adventure. The spiritual man who emphasizes the spiritual nature at the expense of the material basis of personality perhaps speaks for the higher values of life which are beyond the apprehension and ability of the normal man. He divides the world of experience into two schemes – one is the biological and hedonistic, and the second is the ethical and the spiritual. And similarly he divides man into two parts, the material (prakriy) and the spiritual-psychic (purushaic). He emphasizes the utter contradictory nature of these two which are somehow in an unholy wedlock. Thus the real nature of man is the spiritual, which is eternal and immortal. The body binds for it is ignorance. There is really no necessity or obligation to serve the needs of the body at all, except in so far as it is necessary to keep it going till one knows oneself as one truly is or knows it to be all illusory. Further since greed grows on what it gets, the pursuit of wealth leads to accumulation of more and more wealth. But it is not an unmixed good. It ceases to be a protection and tends to become more and more a threat. The sense of security passes when possession of wealth or goods passes beyond particular limit. This is one danger. It invites the powerful man to rob it away. The search for power is incidental to the search for wealth. Wealth i