Part 1 is included in Chandogya Upanishad (chapters 6 to 8) Part14

BSB 1.3.14 to 1.3.21                                                                                                        Ch 8.1.1 reads: “Om. Now, in this city of Brahman, there is a mansion in the shape of a small Lotus; in it is a small inner Ākāśa. What is within that, that should be sought; that, indeed, one should desire to understand.”                                                                     [Swami Swahananda. Chandogya Upanisad (p. 366). RK Math, Mylapore, Chennai. Kindle Edition.]                                                                                                           There is a doubt whether term ‘Akasa’ (space) refers to material space or Brahman. Another doubt is about the owner of the ‘city’, Brahman or the individual soul. The opponent holds that space denotes material space because the text, “the space inside the heart is of the same magnitude as the space outside” (Ch 8.1.3) is meaningful only for material space. The individual soul is the owner of the city because the body is earned on account of action of the individual soul. The aphorist rejects the views of the opponent on the strength of Ch 8.1.2 and Ch 8.1.3.

Ch 8.1.2 is a question to the teacher about what exists in the small space and is to be sought for. The teacher’s answer is in Ch 8.1.3. The space within the heart is of the same magnitude as the space outside and both heaven and earth are included in it. The comparison with outside space rejects the idea of smallness of space and further that material space cannot be cited for comparison with itself.

The word space denotes the supreme Lord. It is evident from, “That which is known as Space is the manifester of name and form” (Ch 8.1. 4). The opponent argues that in Ch 8.3.4, the Self should be taken to mean individual soul because individual soul residing in the body can only rise from the body. This argument is rejected on the ground that individual soul identifying itself with limiting adjuncts cannot be free from sin. Another reason is that the words “in his own nature” in Ch 8.3.4 eliminates any idea of individual soul. That the entity that rises refers to Self is reiterated in Ch 8.12.3 because of the use of words, “attains its own real nature”.

“Before the dawn of discriminating criminating knowledge, the individual soul’s nature of Consciousness, expressing through seeing etc., remains mixed up as it were, with the body, senses, mind, intellect, sense-objects, and sorrow and happiness. Just as before the perception of distinction, the transparent whiteness, constituting the real nature of a crystal, remains indistinguishable, as it were, from red, blue, and other conditioning factors; but after the perception of distinction through the valid means of knowledge, the crystal in its latter state is said to attain its true nature of whiteness and transparency, though it was exactly so even earlier; similarly in the case of the individual soul, remaining indistinguishably mixed up with such limiting adjuncts as the body etc., there springs up a discriminatory knowledge from the Upanishads constituting his rising from the body (consciousness); and the result of the discriminatory knowledge is the attainment of the real nature, its realization of its nature as the absolute Self.——–.”Thus, the difference between the individual soul and the supreme Lord springs from ignorance alone, but not from the things themselves, for both are equally free from attachment etc. (as well as part-less and so on) like space.” [Sankaracarya; Translated by Swami Gambhirananda. Brahma Sutra Bhasya (Kindle Locations 2393-2404).]

The characteristics of the Self as free from sin etc mentioned in Ch 8.1.5 cannot apply to the material space. Space which is the subject matter of Upanishad is mentioned in, “Then, again, that which is the Self is a dam, a reservoir (an impounder) to prevent the worlds from getting mixed up” (Ch 8.4.1).

BSB 1.3.41                                                                                                                Space mentioned in Ch. 8.14.1 refers to Brahman because it is declared different from name and form.                                                                                                           “That which is called akasa is the accomplisher of name and form. That in which they are contained is Brahman; that is immortal and that is the Self” (Ch. VIII. xiv. 1). [Sankaracarya; Translated by Swami Gambhirananda. Brahma Sutra Bhasya (Kindle Locations 2927-2928). Kindle Edition.]                                                                           Ch 6.3.2 says: let me manifest by Myself name and form entering as the individual soul.

Contd Part 3