1.4.8 A secret is divulged. Love for worldly objects including close relations falls in one of the two categories: dear or dearer. It is not the dearest. The Self alone is the dearest. It is the innermost. A person may enjoy the company of the dear or the dearer. More important is the time spent with the dearest, namely, the Self. A husband loves the wife not for her sake but for the sake of the Self. A wife loves the husband not for his sake but for the sake of the Self. Love for any object is not for the sake of the object but for the sake of the Self. This is the harsh truth. The love for wife, husband, son, or daughter are conditional. They are loved so long as they are source of happiness. Moreover, they are mortal and cannot provide permanent happiness.
The Self is immortal. The love for the Self is unconditional. Any love, consciously or unconsciously, is ultimately the love for the Self. Love for the Self is embedded in our nature. There is another explanation for the Self being the dearest. The Self is of the nature of happiness. Any worldly happiness is but a trickle of the Self. AtmAnanda is permanent. Sensory pleasure is fleeting. Since the love for the Self is the highest, it is worth knowing with utmost efforts. No stone should remain unturned.
1.4.9 A spiritual aspirant wants knowledge of Brahman because it is said that by knowing Brahman, everything becomes known. What does Brahman know by which It became all? This is the question. If It became all without knowing anything, let it be so for others too, meaning thereby that knowledge of Brahman is redundant. On the other hand, if Brahman became all by knowing something, then this identity with all is the product or result of knowledge. It is transitory like result of an action.
1.4.10 The mantra resolves the above dilemma. An aspirant is already Brahman because his essential nature, i.e., Sat, Chit and Ananda, is also the essential nature of Brahman. Then why should scriptures advise to practice spiritual disciplines like karma, upAsana and jnAna yogAs? It is because a jiva is ignorant of the fact of his identity with Brahman. The spiritual disciplines are for removing the ignorance and to enable the aspirant to re-discover that he has always been Brahman They are not needed to attain anything new. Moksha is not the result of any sAdhanA. It is not a sAdhyam. It is siddha.
DevatAs who have attained the devatA status by earning punya can also gain knowledge. Indra got knowledge from BrahmAji. Only human beings can perform Vedic rituals. DevatAs cannot perform rites. They will have to take human birth for this. The message is that Self-knowledge is open to all. Rishis got this knowledge and were liberated.
DevatAs may create obstacles in the path of Self-knowledge because on gaining knowledge, a person need not perform Vedic rites to please them. As animals serve human beings, performers of rites serve the gods. The gods would not like depletion in number of performers of rites. However, in some cases the gods may out of compassion for sincere ritualists refrain from this. Obstacles including those by the gods are decided by one’s karmAs, and it may take more than one life to get rid of the obstacles and gain knowledge. Hence one should practice karma yoga so that path of knowledge has minimal hindrances. Once there is knowledge, there is no looking back. The seeker claims Brahman-hood and is liberated. The case of sage Vamadeva is famous. While in mother’s womb, he had declared that he was Self-realized.
1.4.11 to 1.4.15
Mantras 11 to 15 give details of creation of four varnAs among the gods and human beings. They are omitted here as they have no Vedantic teachings. The human beings perform scriptural rites and rituals which are action oriented and are for material benefits in this world and in the other world. Upanishad cautions that such efforts do not earn liberation. Only Self- knowledge ensures liberation, the highest human goal. Two examples are given. Mantras do not give results unless they are chanted. Vedic rituals do not give results unless they are performed. Similarly, a person does not get liberation unless he gains Self-knowledge.
1.4.16 and 1.4.17 Three factors, namely, desire, action, and ignorance are responsible for samsAra and its perpetuation. A person is ignorant of his true nature of existence, consciousness and infinite (i.e., he is already complete). Due to this ignorance, he feels incomplete which gives rise to different desires with the hope that fulfilment of desires would make him satisfied and happy. There are desires of a householder, namely, marriage, children. In Vedic culture, only a couple can perform different rites and rituals for material benefits in this world or for going to higher worlds after death. To fulfil his desires, he engages in action. The action yields punya or papa which in turn are the cause of rebirth. He is born ignorant. The cycle continues. It is perpetuation of samsAra.
Karma yoga is a supporting spiritual discipline for Self-knowledge. 1.4.16 prescribes five great sacrifices as a part of karma yoga. They are sacrifices meant for devatAs, ancestors, rishis, human beings, animal and plant kingdom environment. DevatAs represent natural forces. They contribute to our well-being. Human beings must acknowledge their contributions even if we cannot materially contribute to them. There must be respect for ancestors for it is because of them we are in the world. We owe debts to our acharyas who teach us. The best way to pay our obeisance is by study of scriptures. They are the guide to a righteous life. We are also called upon to serve our fellow beings. We live in a community and therefore community service is important. Service to animal and plant kingdom is important to maintain ecological balance.
A person who performs these sacrifices are loved by devatas, ancestors and so on. The above five great sacrifices are prescribed as our religious duties. Non- performance earns demerits. A sense of fear is instilled. As a person become mature, he is asked to perform them to earn punya resulting in material benefits. A more mature person performs them as karma yoga to purify the mind.
Contd Part 4