Chapter 6 JnAna and Moksha
6-10-2 Anuvaka 10 The Upanishad prescribes two groups of meditation. In each group, there are several meditations: adhyAtma Brahman upAsanA, Adhidaiva Brahman upAsanA, AkAsa Brahman upAsanA.
adhyAtma Brahman upAsanA-. Here different organs in the body are locus for invocation. May you meditate upon Brahman in the form of well-being in speech. If a person’s speech is proper and appropriate, it can bring all-round wellness. Speech is the best ornament of a person. May you meditate on Brahman as yoga and ksema residing in prAna and apAna. PrAna rises from the lung upward and goes out, while apAna goes in from the nostrils and travels down to the lung. In this prAna and apAna, yoga-ksema is present. Yoga means all forms of acquisition – money, house, health, food etc. Ksema. means preservation of whatever has been acquired. Yoga and ksema reside in our breathing, because they exist only when we are alive. Once we cease breathing (die), they become irrelevant.
Procreation (upastha) is a three-fold faculty consisting of prajati., amritam and ananda. Prajati. means the power of propagating one’s own species Amritam – immortality. Procreation is a method of indirectly immortalizing oneself in the form of descendants. Ananda. – Immortality is always Ananda. Thus, procreation produces Ananda through children. Therefore, meditate on procreation in the form of the three glories.
Adhidaiva: The natural forces are taken as the glory of Brahman. Meditate on Brahman as contentment in rain; as power in lightening; as fame in cattle; as light in the stars; as everything in space. Glory of God is the core of meditations on natural forces. May you see everything as Brahman in space
AkAsa-upAsanA is the subtlest. AnuvAka 1 of BrahmAnandavalli mentions that AkAsa is the cause for vAyu. VAyu does not exist separate from AkAsa. Similarly, agni (fire), jala (water), prithivi (earth) are all subsequent products. Therefore, we can say that everything is born of AkAsa, which means nothing exists separate from it. Therefore, it is an ideal symbol of meditation. The common features of AkAsa and Brahman are: Imperceptible to sense organs. unpolluted, indivisible non-dual, all-pervading and support for everything. By nishkAma meditation on space, the intellect becomes subtle to comprehend Brahman. SakAma meditation on space as symbol of support, great, intelligence, prostration, infinite, and as agent of destruction makes the meditator respectively, well supported, great, intelligent, receiver of pleasures, infinite, and free from enemies.
Space is the manifestation of destructive power of Isvara because at the time of pralaya, everything is swallowed by space. The order of resolution is the reverse of creation: earth, water fire, air, space. By meditating upon this destructive power, enemies are destroyed. Enemies are of two types: disliking enemies dislike me, and disliked enemies are disliked by me. In short, all the enemies will perish. Destruction of enemies should be understood as the destruction of enmity. Once the enmity goes, there are no enemies.
There are two types of benefits: sakAma upAsanA brings material benefits and nishakAma purifies the mind.
Bhriguvalli concludes that Brahman is bliss. The bliss in the human being and the bliss in the sun are one. He who knows thus transcends the five sheaths and abides in Brahman after the fall of the body. That Bimbananda, the original Ananda, which obtains within the individual body is the same as that in the totality (samasti – Hiranyagarbha upAdhi). The differences are only in the reflected Ananda (pratibimba Ananda) because of differences in the reflecting mediums. The gradations of experiential Ananda in the form of priya, moda and pramoda etc. and those in the form of manusya, gandharva, manusya-gandharva etc. belong to the pratibimba, the reflection. The original Ananda is non-experiential and unobjectifiable. It is beyond experience. Anything experienced is subject to change and is therefore not Brahman. One must disown that also. Identification with experiential bliss, especially in meditation, is a defect and an obstacle called rasa-svAda.
A jivanmukta is of nature of bliss which is due to Self-knowledge. Upanishad describes the enjoyment and freedom of a jivanmukta in a song called sama-gAna. He lives moving about these worlds, eating freely, and assuming any form at will. Wonderful! I am the food. I am the food-eater I am the combiner. I am the eldest of the creation, born before the gods. I am the centre of immortality. I occupy the entire universe like the effulgence of the sun.
A unique idea is given related to dAna: save by giving. Normally, we tend to save anything by not giving. The Vedic logic is that you save by sharing with the others. It suggests that if you give to the world, the latter will return the favour at the appropriate time – i.e. in time of your need. If you do annadAna, the world will feed you when you are hungry. The one who gives food to the others is really saving food for his own future use. Instead of using the word food directly, the jnAni uses the word ma (myself) as though reminding an earlier statement that he is food. He also warns that if we do not share food with others, the unshared food will not nourish us and may even destroy us who are the product of food.
NOTE This part should have been ideally under the Chapter 5 Preparation
Contd Part 37