Chapter 2 Section 1
2.1.1 to 2.1.14 It is a dialogue between GArgya, a BrAhmana and a kshatriya king AjAtshatru of KAsi. GArgya has learnt VedAs and he knows Saguna Brahman. AjAtshatru is a jnAni. GArgya visits AjAtshatru and offers him to teach Brahman. AjAtshatru understands that Gargya’ s main intention is to get dakshinA, i.e., teacher’s fee for teaching. He gives him 1000 cows for his proposal to teach. Though GArgya’s knowledge is confined to Saguna Brahman, he thinks that he knows everything and is proud. He says that he meditates on aspects of Saguna Brahman, namely, sun, moon, lightening, space, air, fire, water, looking glass, sound of breath of walking man, directions, shadow. and asks the king to meditate on these aspects.
There are innumerable aspects of Saguna Brahman, and it is not possible to talk about them. Therefore, GArgya finally says that he meditates on Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic subtle body, as Saguna Brahman. He does not describe their attributes. AjAtshatru responds that he not only knows the meditation but also the attributes of each aspect. He also describes the attributes as also the results of meditation on each aspect.
GArgya’s pride is gradually shattered. He humbly admits that his knowledge is limited, incomplete and falls short of knowledge of the unconditioned Brahman. It does not mean that such knowledge is not useful. It is the steppingstone. He desires to know the highest knowledge. He is now a seeker and requests the king to take him as his disciple.
2.1.15 to 2.1.17
According to tradition, only a brAhmana can teach. However, convinced of the sincerity of Gargya, the king agrees to teach him. He is the teacher and GArgya is the disciple. GArgya meditates on celestial objects and Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic subtle body as Saguna Brahman. In other words, he worships cosmic form of the God. The cosmos, the manifested world, is an effect. The teacher wants to teach the ultimate cause, i.e., the causeless cause. Any effect resolves into its cause. At the end one cycle of creation, the manifested world resolves into its cause, the causeless cause called Brahman. It is formless and Nirguna. In the next cycle, the cosmos again manifests.
In order to teach Nirguna Brahman, the teacher uses the deep sleep which is a micro-model of creation-sustenance-dissolution. In deep sleep, gross and subtle bodies are resolved except the vital forces which keep the sleeping person alive. The teacher takes the student by hand to a person who is asleep. He tries to awaken the sleeping person by calling him by various names of vital forces, but he does not get up. He gets up only after the king shakes him repeatedly and pushes him. This shows that the during deep sleep, a jiva is neither the gross body nor the subtle body. It also means that what GArgya worships is not Brahman, the causeless cause.
During deep sleep, the individuality, i.e., I awareness is hidden somewhere but is not lost because it returns on waking up. Blankness during sleep does not mean nothingness. There is experience of nothingness. On getting up, a person remembers the blankness and it is well known that there is no memory without a past experience. And experience proves consciousness. During sleep, sense organs and mind and I awareness are resolved in homogeneous mass of consciousness, which is the Self, the pure I. This micromodel of deep sleep is replicated at the cosmic level where the causeless cause is Brahman. It is of the nature of pure consciousness, the causeless cause at jiva level.
Contd Part 5