Chapter 4 Bandha
4-1 Introduction Bandha means bondage. It manifests in many ways, e.g., insecurity, emotional suffering, anxiety, hatred, and jealousy. Physical suffering is not included. According to Vedanta, behind these manifestations, there is a feeling of limitedness and incompleteness which causes desires. Desire per se is not the cause of suffering. Binding desire causes suffering because a person is so dependent on it that its non-fulfillment imbalances him and he is in the grip of negative emotions and suffers. Desire has three defects. It comes in a mixture of sorrow. It is non-satiable. It makes a person dependent on it. If not fulfilled, it causes sorrow. Even if one desire is satisfied, it is replaced by another desire. Satisfaction is not permanent and if the reason for satisfaction vanishes, it results in sorrow.
Author Archives: bimal
Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 5
Chapter 3 Jiva Jagat Isvara
3-5 Katha Upanishad
3-5-1 Katha 2.3.1
The world has arisen due to kArmic balance of the jivAs carried from the previous cycle of creation. The kArmic balance is in turn due to desire which propels action. Ignorance of Atma gives rise to action. The creation is compared to a tree and its root as Brahman. The branches represent the world consisting of dualities, e.g., heat, cold; pleasure, pain; birth, and death. Brahman is eternally pure, unchanging, and is therefore superior. The trunk is like subtle bodies of all creatures. It grows in strength due to desire represented by sprinkling of water. It has tender sprouts as sensory objects. Beautiful flowers represent good deeds like sacrifice, charity, and austerities. Various tastes are experiences of happiness and sorrow. The nests are the various lokAs beginning from satya loka (also called Brahma-loka) built by birds for living beings from Brahmaji downwards. The tree like world is unsteady and shaken by winds of desires. The leaves are karma kAnda of VedAs that perpetuates the world-tree. Brahman is the root and support of the universe. There is nothing beyond Him just like a pot does not transcend the clay.
Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 4
Chapter 3 Jiva Jagat Isvara
3-1 Introduction
It is desirable to begin with the obvious, namely, the creation and human being. The world is constituted of living and non-living beings. It also includes invisible entities, e.g., thoughts, and emotions. A human being is a living being. Though Upanishads differ in the details of creation, there is consensus about a causeless creator called Brahman and that the creation is cyclic, not linear. A linear creation with a beginning and an end runs into logical fallacies. In the cyclic version, there is no beginning and no end. Pedantically, it is absurd to talk about any beginning of creation because time is a part of creation. An immediate question that begs an answer is about the source of raw materials for creation. Before the creation, there was nothing except the creator. Upanishadic answer is that the creator has the material within Himself like a spider having material inside itself. The material is the mAyA power of Brahman which does not exist separately from Brahman. Cyclic creation and the material within the creator lead to a third proposition. In one cycle, the world emerges out of the creator, runs its course according to certain laws, and then resolves into the creator to remain there in potential form and become ready at an appropriate time for the next cycle. It is called creation-sustenance-dissolution. The word ‘creation’ is a misnomer because it conveys that a new thing comes into existence which is not correct. A more appropriate word is manifestation.
Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 3
Chapter 2 Eight Upanishads-Introduction
A brief outlay of each Upanishad is presented for familiarization and to arouse curiosity. It is not necessary to know all the concepts at this stage.
2-1 Aitareya Upanishad It belongs to Rig Veda. There are three chapters. The first chapter has three sections, second and third chapters have one section each. A total of five sections. The Upanishad uses creation (shrIsti) and entry (anupravesha) methods (prakriyA) to convey the Vedantic teaching, namely, Brahman is the reality, jagat is mithyA, and jiva is not different from Brahman. Brahman is the cause and creation is the effect. Brahman exists independently and the world borrows its existence from Brahman. Therefore, Brahman is the reality and the world has relative reality and is mithyA. The world including jiva is made of five elements. A jiva can transact in the world if it has consciousness. Therefore, Brahman which is of the nature of consciousness enters jiva. The embodied Brahman is jivAtmA. However, the jiva forgets that his real nature is consciousness. This forgetfulness causes desire and suffering. It continues from one life to another until the jiva gains Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge enables the jiva to claim his freedom which he always has. The Upanishadic depiction of creation and entry may give an impression that Brahman fashions creation, etc, like a magician. However, the depiction is figurative. The mahAvAkya, aham Brahmasmi is from this Upanishad.
Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part 2
Chapter 1 General Introduction
1-2 PramAna VedAnta accepts six sources of knowledge called PramAna. Direct perception: Sense organs directly perceive and give information. Inference: It is an indirect knowledge of something not in the range of direct perception. There is knowledge of fire when smoke is seen. Presumption: Knowledge about something in the past by directly perceiving something different in the present. On seeing a wet street in the morning, there is knowledge of rain in the night. Comparison: It is knowledge of something derived by comparison. There is knowledge of a wild buffalo in the forest because it resembles the buffalo seen in the village. Non-cognition: Knowledge of the absence of something by non-cognition. Seeing a chair in a room gives the knowledge of the absence of an elephant in the room. Testimony: It is knowledge derived from written or spoken words. I read a Physics book Physics to get the knowledge of laws of motion.
Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise)
Bhagavad Gita (TW) was self-published last year on Amazon. It was also posted on AV in a series of 26 parts. Part 1 Part 26 Each part has links to the preceding and the succeeding part. After completing the series, there was scope to improve the published book. The second edition has been self-published recently (on Kindle).
Buy from Amazon US
Buy from Amazon UK
Eight Upanishads (Topic-wise) Part1
It is a series of eight chapters. Chapter 1 General Introduction Chapter 2 Eight Upanishads- Introduction Chapter 3 Jagat Jiva Isvara Chapter 4 Bandha Chapter 5 Preparation Chapter 6 Jnana and Moksha Chapter 7 Brahma Sutra Bhasya Chapter 8 Vedic Practices
Chapter 1 General Introduction
1-1 Why should Upanishad be studied? A brief answer should suffice at this stage. The Upanishads, also called Vedanta, form the end parts of Vedas and contain Vedantic teaching. The Upanishads are one of the Trai-Prasthanas, the other two are Bhagavad Gita and Brahma Sutra. Trai means three and Prasthana means to go. It is held that to know the truth, one must take recourse to the said three scriptures. Upanishad is Sruti (revealed) Prasthana, Gita is Smriti (remembered) Prasthana and Brahma Sutra is logic (Nyaya) Prasthana. Brahma-sutra provides the logical foundation for Upanishadic teachings. Shankaracharya has written a commentary (Bhasya) on Brahma Sutra.
Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt26
7 Summary 2(13,15,16,22,46), 4(9,10,15 to 25,35 to 38,41,42), 6(45 to 47), 18 (62 to 66)
7-1: 2(13,15,16,22,46) Fear of death is common. Death happens when the subtle body leaves the gross body making it insentient. The subtle body has the property to manifest consciousness which the gross body lacks. Sri Krishna says that death is a change of state like a transition from childhood to youth, youth to old age, and from old age to death. After leaving the gross body at the time of death, the subtle body takes up a new gross body according to karmic law. It is rebirth as an infant. This transmigration of the subtle body is blessed by the all-pervasive Atma. In this sense, it is said that as a man discards worn-out clothes and wears new clothes, Atma discards the old body and takes up a new body. Knowing this cycle, a wise person is not deluded. Life is a flow and changes are inherent, such as hot-cold, pleasure-pain. It is a choiceless situation. As such, a person should endure them and need not unnecessarily suffer from agony and mental disturbance. He can then take up the spiritual path, gain knowledge, and be liberated.
Bhagavad Gita (Topic-wise) Pt 25
6 Moksha
6-1 Preparation
6-2 Jnana, Jnani, and Jnana-Phala
6-2-18 Glory of knowledge 3(43), 4 (1 to 3), 7(1 to 3), 9(1,2), 14(1,2) 3(42) describes Self as the most subtle and beyond intellect. 3(43) says that armed with the knowledge of Self and by controlling the mind with reason, enemy-like desire can be killed which is otherwise very difficult to overcome. In 4(1 to 3), Sri Krishna says that He gave this knowledge to Sun and then it passed on to Manu to Iksvaku and other royal sages, Unfortunately, with the lapse of time, it was lost and through Arjuna He is reviving it. He glorifies this knowledge. It is ultimate and supreme. On gaining this knowledge, there is nothing left to be known because by this knowledge, a person is fully satisfied, is complete, and transcends the worldly life of pairs of opposites and duality. He is free from the cycle of birth and death. It is a secret knowledge. One among thousands strives to gain it, and only a handful of seekers are successful in getting and assimilating it.
Vedanta and Hard Problem of Consciousness
Science regards matter as the most fundamental entity and that life is also a product of matter. Life is represented by breath. There is a saying that till breath is there, there is life. Breath is one of the five Pranas (vital forces). Pranas are insentient. That life is a product of matter is accepted by Vedanta also. As regards consciousness, the prevalent scientific view is that it is an epiphenomenon, that is to say, consciousness arises in a complex organism. In other words, it is also a product of matter. This view is confronted by what is called the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Science says that consciousness and therefore firsthand experience are produced by the brain. David Chalmer differs and says that subjective experience is not an outcome of the firing of neurons in the brain. This is the hard problem of consciousness. Hard Problem of Consciousness – David Chalmers (organism.earth)