Chapter 6 JnAna and MokshA
6-5 Katha Upanishad
6-5-33 Katha 2.3.7 to 2.3.11 A refined mind is needed for Self-knowledge. Refining is gradual. The mountaineers gradually go from base to base as they climb higher so that they get used to the rarified atmosphere. From the grossest state, the mind cannot comprehend the subtle AtmA. Therefore, the withdrawal takes place one step at a time. It is Arundati Darsana method. The principle is that the controller is subtler and more powerful than the controlled. The steps in sequence are: – Withdraw from the world and identify with the body. Then withdraw from the body and identify with the sense organs. Withdraw from the sense organs and identify with the mind; the latter is subtler and more powerful and therefore controls the former. The intellect is subtler than the mind. The mind represents the doubting faculty. The intellect rationally analyses and removes the doubt. Therefore, the intellect is stronger than the mind. Now expand the mind by identifying with Hiranyagarbha, the total intellect by understanding that the individual does not exist separate from the total. Beyond Hiranyagarbha is the cosmic causal body which is unmanifest.
Superior to the above unmanifest, there is another unmanifest which is the substratum and is called AtmA. It is also called Purusha because it is resident in the body as well as outside. He is all-pervading. He is beyond all perceptions and cannot be experienced. It can be only known by a purified mind when the senses are controlled by practice. A purified mind grasps the subtle Vedantic teaching as per the scriptures taught by a teacher. It is all-pervasive and attribute-free. By knowing Atma, a person becomes immortal. Knowing means he identifies himself with indestructible Atma.
The blankness experienced during sleep when all activities (sensory, emotional and intellectual) are suspended is not nothingness. It is the potential state of waking and dream. This potentiality is the subtlest state of matter. Atma, the Consciousness is subtler than this blankness. One can reach up to blankness and objectify and experience it, but Atma cannot be objectified. The awareness of blankness is subtler than blankness. That awareness is AtmA. I am experiencing blankness or nothingness means that there is nothing called nothingness because there is one who experiences nothingness. That I, the experiencer is the real I.
2.3.11 says that firmly controlling the senses is Yoga. One should become watchful as Yoga comes and goes. In order to remain in Yoga, one must first disengage oneself from outgoing perceptions of the external world. When this is accomplished through constant practice of concentration and meditation, the union takes place of its own accord. But it may be lost again unless one is watchful.
6-5-34 Katha 2.3.12 and 2.3.13 The scriptures are one of the six sources of knowledge, i.e., prAmAna. SraddhA is the faith in scriptures because they are the authentic source of knowing Brahman. Brahman is not available for any sense organs, the mind or any instrument of knowledge. It is also not logically provable. Therefore, conclusion could be that it is non-existent like son of a barren woman or a rabbit with a horn. Therefore, a provisional faith in the existence of Brahman is required until one understands it after systematically going through the scriptures for a length of time. It is not possible to know Brahman as object, not because it is absent, but because it is the very subject that objectifies everything else.
Lord Yama says: Brahman cannot be grasped by words or the sense organs or the mind. It cannot be grasped by anything because it is the grasper. This can be understood only by the one who has the faith in the existence of Brahman until he gains the understanding “I am that”. The others, who lack this faith and open-mindedness, can never know Brahman. By sraddhA in scriptures, Brahman is first known as existent: Brahman is. A seeker begins with an idea that Brahman is an object. As the teaching unfolds, he understands, “Brahman I am”. This journey consists of transformation from “is-ness” to “am-ness”. Brahman exists is paroksha (indirect or Brahman is remote). I am Braman is aparoksha (immediate).
6-5-35 Katha 2.3.14 and 2.3.15 When all desires in the mind located in the heart wear off, then, the mortal becomes immortal. He attains Brahman here and is freed from the claws of death. It is not physical freedom, because we must depend upon the external world for food, clothing, shelter etc. The freedom referred to here is the cognitive freedom from problems of worldly life which expresses in the form of desire, anger, greed, delusion, arrogance, jealousy and fear. It is freedom from binding desires.
6-5-36 Katha 2.3.16 A combination of karma and upAsanA gives a greater benefit than karma alone. It is krama mukti. Out of one hundred nerves coming out of heart, one is sushumA nerve connecting to crown of head. In the case of a person who has practiced combination of karma yoga and upAsanA Yoga, at the time of death, subtle body travels through sushumA nerve and exits through the special aperture in the crown of head and travels to Brahm-loka through shukla gati. There he has the option of pursuing knowledge under the celestial Guru, Brahmaji. On gaining knowledge, he is a Jivanmukta and a Videha-Mukta at death which is coterminous with the existing cycle of creation. In the case of other persons, subtle body’s travel is different leading to rebirth in other LokAs.
6-5-37 Katha 2.3.17 The inner Self, although unlimited, is described as “the size of a thumb” because of its abiding-place is the heart, often compared with a lotus-bud which is similar to a thumb in size and shape. Through the process of steadfast discrimination, one should learn to differentiate AtmA from the body, just as one separates the pith from a reed.
6-5-38 Katha 2.3.18 The Upanishad concludes by glorifying the protagonist, Nachiketa. He is a qualified seeker who has received this knowledge form a qualified teacher and is liberated. Yama has also taught him yoga of practice for the assimilation of the teaching. He has become one with Brahman and is free of all impurities and mortality. Anyone else receiving the knowledge in a similar manner can attain Brahman and become immortal. He will be free from vices and virtues. Once karma is not there, there is no rebirth and without birth, there is no death. Therefore, whoever studies KathA Upanishad is liberated here and now.
Contd Part 25