Part17

Chapter 6 JnAna and Moksha
6-5 Katha Upanishad
6-5-1 Katha 1.2.12 and 1.2.13 The Self (AtmA) is not perceptible to sense organs. Neither is It available for inference. It is hidden in the intellect like a cave enveloped in darkness of ignorance causing miseries. It is a figurative expression as the elf is infinite, all-pervading and cannot be hidden. It is the witnessing consciousness of both the happy and sad states of the mind. An aspirant first hears about this Truth from an enlightened teacher. If he has any doubts, he gets it resolved by the teacher. He is now intellectually assured about the teachings. Stii, he may not be able to align the life with the teaching because of habitual tendencies. To overcome it, he reflects upon what he has learnt by constant meditation on the teachings. It is Vedantic meditation, nidhidhyAsana. He meditates on the Self withdrawing his mind from external objects. Eventually his life conforms to the teachings. He achieves the fulfilment of the highest human goal. He learns that all sense pleasures are but fragmentary reflections of that one supreme joy found in the true Self alone. Yama says that Nachiketa will realize the Truth as he has shown the highest discrimination and sincerity of purpose. The mansion of Brahman is wide open for him.

6-5-2 Katha 1.2.14 Nachiketa asks Yama that if He considers him so worthy, He should teach that which is beyond dharma and adharma. Nachiketa thus reminds Yama that his question in 1.1.20 is still unanswered, i.e., what happens after death. Nachiketa himself defines Self. It is beyond dharma and adharma, beyond cause and effect, different from past and future. The pair of virtues and vices in the empirical world is like two sides of a coin. If the Self is free from vice, it is also free from virtue. The Self is beyond both. BG18.66 says: one must give up adharma first, follow dharma for a length of time as a householder and then give up dharma as a sanyasi. Dharma and adharma are results of good and bad actions respectively. The Self is not a result of actions. It is beyond both the cause and effect which exist within time. Modified cause is effect (seed modified is tree; milk modified is yogurt). The cause in the present becomes the effect later. The Self is beyond time, past, present, and future. It is realized by knowledge.

6-5-3 Katha 1.2.15 to 1.2.17 Vedas glorify OM. Brahman is beyond language and difficult for mortals to think or speak of It without calling it by a definite name. The sages have given It the name OM. Omkara can be the symbol for saguna (inferior) Brahman as well as nirguna (Supreme) Brahman. OM is the best medium for attaining saguna Brahman and knowing the nirguna Brahman. For the purpose of meditation, saguna Brahman can be a personal deity or Hiranyagarbha, the cosmic subtle body or Virat, cosmic gross body. In meditation, saguna Brahman is imagined on OM. If a person practices meditation throughout the life, he goes to Brahm-loka after death where he has the choice of gaining knowledge under the tutorship of Brahmaji and get liberation. It is krama-mukti. He can get liberation in the current life also. By meditation on saguna Brahman, he gets necessary qualification to pursue knowledge and on gaining Self-knowledge, he becomes free. For gaining knowledge he does inquiry of OM.

OM has three syllables (mAtrAs): A, U, and M. While pronouncing, A and U combine to make the sound O. It is the root of all language. The first letter “A” is the mother-sound, being the natural sound uttered by every creature when the throat is opened, and no sound can be made without opening the throat. The last letter “M,” spoken by closing the lips, terminates all sounds. As one carries the sound from the throat to the lips, it passes through the sound “U.” The three sounds therefore cover the whole field of possible articulate sound. Silence is amAtrA which is in and through the three mAtrAs. It is the supreme Brahman. Mandukya Upanishad teaches OM inquiry to know the supreme Brahman.

6-5-4 Katha 1.2.18 As inquiry of Om leads to Brahman, the nature of Self which is same as of Brahman is described. The Self is birthless and deathless. It is eternal and unchanging. It is not slain even though the body is slain. Verse 2.20 of BG restates the same thing. The Self is of the nature of consciousness. It is not a part or property or a product of the body. It is a separate entity that enlivens the body. It is not dependent on the body to exist, but the body requires Consciousness to exist. Consciousness is not bound by the spatial limitations of the body. It does not die when the body perishes. The surviving Consciousness is not recognized because of the absence of the medium and not because it is not there. So long as the body is there, the Consciousness is present in the manifest form. When the body perishes, Consciousness does not manifest. Consciousness is not subject to modification unlike the body which has 6 modifications. It is not subject to time. It is prior to time. Nachiketa has asked the question – what is beyond cause and effect? The answer is that it is the Self which is of the nature of Consciousness. Consciousness is to be understood as noun, not as an adjective.

6-5-5 Katha 1.2.19 If the slayer thinks that he slays, or if the slain thinks that he is slain, both know not. For It neither slays nor is It slain. Yama introduces two more features of Atma. It is neither a doer of action nor reaper of fruits of action. The agent performing an action undergoes change, physical or mental. Change happens spatially as well as in time. Atma being beyond time and space is ever free from action and its results. Sanchit, agamA, and prArabdha do not cling to It. With no birth or death, It is beyond samsAra. Some people consider Atma to be a killer (actor) and some others consider It to be killed (victim). Both are wrong. If we extend it psychologically, we find that most of our pain are in the form of hurt and guilt. A jnAni identifies himself with Atma and transcends guilt and pain. Krishna emphasizes this in verse 2.19 of the Bhagavad Gita.

6-5-6 Katha 1.2.20 Although Atma dwells in every living being, It is not perceived by ordinary mortals because of Its subtlety. It cannot be perceived by the senses. A finer spiritual insight is required. The mind must be pure and freed from selfish desire; the mind must be withdrawn from all external objects; mind and body must be under control. When the mind is calm and serene, then only it is receptive to knowledge of Atma and can realize It which is subtler than the subtlest and is the invisible essence of everything. Being boundless, It is greater than the greatest. It sustains the whole universe by providing existence. Just as the thread holds the beads together, the invisible Existence holds the creation together. It is in and through everything. Superiority or inferiority of the beads do not affect the thread. When the beads are gone, the thread continues to exist. It is inherent in every object because it is the very substance that all the objects are made up of. Atma is like water in a wave, bubble, foam or ocean. Water alone appears as these. Smallness of wave and bigness of ocean belong to name and form. Water is the substance. Remove name and form from the wave and ocean, and only water remains. Atma is neither small or big, but with the association of an object with name and form, it appears small or big.

6-5-7 Katha 1.2.21 and 1.2.22 There are two aspects of Atma. The all-pervading (sAmAnya) Consciousness (SC) has no specific location, e.g., during sleep. This is our real nature. The sense of localization is present only when we are awake. When we wake up, the mind becomes functional and reflects this all-pervading Consciousness. The Reflected Consciousness (RC) is in Reflecting Medium (RM), the mind. This RC is localised (Vishesh) consciousness (VC). It is available when the mind is functional. RC overpowers SC during the waking state but does not displace it. SC continues in the waking state.

In Panchadasi, SwAmi VidyAranyA gives an analogy. During daytime, we experience the sunshine all over. If we take a mirror and reflect the sun on the wall, a patch of reflected light appears on the wall. In that area, there are two sun lights – the original and the reflected sunlight. The general sunlight continues to exist but is overpowered by the reflected sunlight. When we remove the mirror, reflected sun light disappears and general sun light is seen. Similarly, this body has SC and VC. VC is formed because of the active mind (analogous to mirror). In the active condition of the mind, VC is localized, and SC is all-pervading. Because of the movement of RM, VC also travels. Due to this, SC appears to travel. SC is the non-traveling. At the time of death, the mind travels along with VC. Therefore, Atma is figuratively said to travel to another body. When it is understood that VC is caused by the mind and that a person’s true nature is SC the person knows that he is present everywhere. He is not limited where he is physically located, but also where he is not so located.

Sitting in the waking state, Atma travels far and wide. For example, when I look at an object, the mind travels and pervades that object. This is the Vedantic theory of perception. [In the scientific theory of perception, the light travels to the mind through the sense organs]. When the mind travels and pervades the object, the VC also travels and pervades it. When the VC pervades an object, the object is known. When one goes to sleep, the mind resolves. The mind is not functional and therefore, VC is not available. In the absence of VC, SC becomes dominant.

Atma is both with and without pleasure. Mind alone experiences pleasure or pain in the waking state. When the mind is resolved in sleep, there is experience of nothingness or blankness. The mind aided by VC experiences pleasure and Atma seems to have pleasure. From its own standpoint Atma is without pleasure. Ignorant people take themselves as the VC (I am now happy or unhappy). A jnAni identifies with the SC and is without pleasure and sorrow. It is free from all emotions. He transcends all dualities. This shift in identification from the VC to the SC is liberation. Since Atma has these seeming contradictory features, understanding Atma is difficult. The mind must be trained to understand it. An intelligent person does not grieve when he understands that omniscient Atma is not confined to a body. It exists in all the bodies even though it does not have a body. Just as space is contained within every vessel. When the vessel is broken, the space survives. A jnAni does not say I have Atma. His vision is “I am Atma” because he identifies with Atma which is sAmAnya Consciousness and not the localized consciousness obtaining in BMS. It is called Aparoksha (immediate) Anubhuti (knowledge).

6-5-8 Katha 1.2.23 and 1.2.24 Intense desire for self-knowledge is important. If this knowledge is acquired only as an academic exercise, it will not be assimilated to give full benefits. A man must get rid of his lower nature of selfish desires and gain control over the body and senses so that the mind is calm and peaceful. Such a mind learns from life experiences and is receptive to Vedantic teaching. When a person’s hair catches fire, he desperately looks for water and jump into it without caring for the quality of water and for proper time to jump into it. Similarly, a sincere seeker burns with the fire of samsAra and seeks the cool Ganges water of Atma-Vidya. He has other qualifications, namely, dispassion, discrimination, etc. The knowledge is in three stages: sravana consisting of repeated listening for a length of time to the teaching from a competent teacher. A highly qualified seeker may get Atma-jnAna at the sravana stage. AtmA reveals to him so to say, and he is established in Atma. In the case of other seekers, manan for removing doubts and/or nidhidhyAsana (meditation on Vedantic teaching for getting established in AtmA) are required.
Contd Part 19