2.1.18 During dream, the mind projects a dream world out of latent tendencies in it formed out experiences in the waking state. There are 72000 nAdis (like blood vessels) emanating from the heart through which prAna shakti travels to different parts of the body. The sense organs are not functional as they are resolved in the nAdis. The jIva (the reflected consciousness in the mind) travels through the nAdis and experiences the dream world projected out of the latent tendencies in the mind. In the dream, what are the ‘achievements’ of the jIva. He is, as it were, a king or a noble brAhmana or an animal. There are states of high and low. The achievements are false. It is to be noted that the jIva remains in the nAdis and does not reach the heart. If it reaches the heart, then it is the state of sleep.
Category Archives: Bimal
ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 6(2)
ShankarAchArya answers the question: Who is Svetaketu, denoted by the word ‘thou’?
“It is he knows himself as, ‘I am Svetaketu, the son of Uddalaka’, and who after hearing the instruction, thinking over it and understanding it, asked his father for knowing what has not been heard of and thought of, and remains unknown, ‘Venerable sir, how is that instruction imparted?’ He who has become entitled to be the hearer, the thinker, and the knower, is none other than the supreme Deity himself, who, in the form of reflection has entered into the aggregate of body and organ made up of fire, water, and food, like a person in the mirror or like sun, etc., in water etc, for the sake of manifesting name and form.”
Duality is mithyA
Up Sah 19.20 to 19.22 have been inter-alia discussed here. It requires fine tuning. Hence this post. Upadesha SahAsri 19.20 discusses the status of duality. It has neither birth nor absence of birth. Both have contradictions as explained below. Thus, duality is neither existent nor non-existent. It is neither real nor unreal. In VedAntic terminology, it is mithyA.
1 Suppose there is birth of duality, i.e., there is a cause of its birth. It may be an existent cause or a non-existent cause. A non-existent cause is a non-starter and cannot give rise to an effect. An existent cause can be either (a) non-duality or (b) duality.
(a) The cause cannot be non-duality, because the nature of non-duality is changelessness.
(b) If there is birth of duality A from duality B, then there is a question of birth of duality B and so on. It leads to infinite regress which is logically unacceptable.
Waking Vs Dream
We treat the waking state as real and dream state as unreal. ‘Day dreaming’ is used when a person imagines in the waking state. GaudpadAcharya in his karikA on MAndukya Upanishad refutes the ‘unreality’ of dream and shows that the two states are on equal footing.
I Utility
Objection: Dream objects have no utility in waking state.
Refutation: To a dreamer, dream water is useful, not the water in waking state.
II Reality
Objection: Dream objects are unreal because they may not exist in the waking state.
Refutation: Even though dream objects may not be seen in the waking state, yet they are as real to a dreamer as objects in the waking state are to the waking person.
BrihadAranyaka Upanishad (Part 4)
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.
ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 6(1)
6.13.1 to 6.13.3 and 6.14.1 to 6.14.3 Uddalaka continues the teaching using common metaphors as he finds that Svetaketu is a worthy student. When salt is dissolved in water, it is not possible to see the salt with eyes. However, presence of salt is ascertained by tasting the water from top or middle or bottom. Brahman is present in every jiva but sense organs are unable to perceive it. However, there are other means, namely, the scriptures, by which Brahman is known as the Self of jiva. A robber having brought a person blindfolded from Gandhara leaves him in a desolate place. The person is clueless about directions and in particular about the direction leading to GandhAra. He cries for help and fortunately on getting guidance from someone, he proceeds towards GandhAra inquiring for its location from people whom he meets on way. Finally, he reaches GandhAra. Similarly, as long as a person does not get a preceptor, he remains ignorant about Brahman and Self. If he is fortunate due to his punyas earned, he gets a preceptor and he becomes liberated. Sections 13 and 14 conclude with Thou that art.
BrihadAranyaka Upanishad(Part 3)
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.
ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 5
Part 4
6.9.1 to 6.9.4 and 6.10.1 to 6.10.3
During sleep, mind is resolved and jiva’s individuality is suspended and therefore he does not know his merger with Brahman during sleep. Bees collect juices from different flowers and make honey by mixing the juices. In the honey, there is no trace of individual juice. Eastern and western rivers flowing towards east and west respectively merge in ocean and lose their individuality. Similarly, during sleep, at the time of death, and dissolution of a cycle of creation, all the creatures lose their individuality, and they resolve in Brahman. During sleep, the karmAs are in potential form. On becoming awake, they become live and functional. Hence going to sleep does not mean moksha. There are two types of entry of an individual into pure Being: involuntary and voluntary. In deep sleep, one’s entry is involuntary. There is no knowledge of the entry, and it is not permanent, and one comes back from that state.
BrihadAranyaka Upanishad (Part 2)
1.4.7
The mantra has core teaching of Vedanta, namely, Brahman is satya, jagat is mithya, and jiva is not different from Brahman. Brahman is all-pervading pure existence. Pure existence is same as pure consciousness. Existence and consciousness are two aspects of Brahman. It is eternal and changeless. It has mAyA power which is a relative reality because it borrows existence from Brahman. MAyA is the aggregate of sanchit karmAs of all the jivAs at the end of one cycle of creation which rests in Brahman in unmanifest and potential form. At appropriate time, the world is projected due to mAyA power. The creation unfolds in stages starting from five elements in nascent forms. The undifferentiated Brahman appears as differentiated names and forms called world. At some stage, jivAs with gross and subtle bodies are created which are inert and they enclose the all-pervading consciousness. It is like a pot enclosing space. The enclosed consciousness is jivAtma. This phenomenon is figuratively described as entry of Brahman. It is like a waking man entering the dream. When the dream is over, the waking man says that he has experienced the dream. It means that the entity which experiences the waking state also experiences the dream.
ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 4
6.8.1 to 6.8.7
In deep sleep, the mind and sense organs resolve and the jiva resolves into pure existence. Sleep is called svapiti. The etymological meaning of the term svapiti is ‘one goes’, or ‘reaches’ sva, i.e., the self. The word sva connotes one’s own being or essential nature. One is absorbed in oneself in sleep. There is no individuality. Though the mind and sense organs are resolved, jiva continues to exist because there is prana, i.e., life. A clay pot resolves into clay. The clay is the nature of pot. The true nature of an entity is the locus of its resolution.