Chapter 4 Bandha
4-1 Introduction Bandha means bondage. It manifests in many ways, e.g., insecurity, emotional suffering, anxiety, hatred, and jealousy. Physical suffering is not included. According to Vedanta, behind these manifestations, there is a feeling of limitedness and incompleteness which causes desires. Desire per se is not the cause of suffering. Binding desire causes suffering because a person is so dependent on it that its non-fulfillment imbalances him and he is in the grip of negative emotions and suffers. Desire has three defects. It comes in a mixture of sorrow. It is non-satiable. It makes a person dependent on it. If not fulfilled, it causes sorrow. Even if one desire is satisfied, it is replaced by another desire. Satisfaction is not permanent and if the reason for satisfaction vanishes, it results in sorrow.
Change in external setup does not necessarily remove suffering. It may give a temporary relief. According to Vedanta, the solution lies in internal changes. Internal change is knowing who I am. My essential nature is not BMS. My essential nature is consciousness. BMS is subject to change. Consciousness is changeless, unlimited, and complete. A conscious entity has I thought which arises when consciousness is reflected in the mind. Reflected consciousness not only makes the mind conscious which is otherwise made of matter and is inert, it generates ‘I’ thought in the mind which is different from the original consciousness. Original consciousness is the true I. Its other name is AtmA or Self. The real nature of a jivA is original consciousness. A person has Self-knowledge when he identifies himself with AtmA and not with BMS. Consequently, he considers himself unlimited and complete. He is free from suffering.
4-2 Aitareya Upanishad
4-2-1 Aitareya 1.2.1 to 1.2.5 The God gave hunger and thirst to the presiding deities of sense organs. Hunger and thirst represent desires and associated suffering in the form of sorrow, old age, and death. The Upanishad uses the term ‘vast ocean’ of desires in which the deities fell. Each organ has specific desires. It is the beginning of bondage which is the other name of the world.
The deities and sense organs cannot fulfill their desires unless they have an abode. They are offered bodies of cows and horses which they refuse as unsuitable for the purpose. They are offered a human body which they readily accept. They occupy respective places in the human body in an orderly manner. Fire enters the mouth taking the form of the organ of speech; air enters the nostrils assuming the form of the sense of smell; sun enters the eyes as the sense of sight; directions enter the ears by becoming the sense of hearing; the herbs and trees enter the skin in the form of hair (i.e. the sense of touch); moon enter the heart in the shape of the mind; death enters the navel in the form of apana (i.e. the vital force that presses down); water enters limb of generation in the form of semen (i.e. the organ of procreation).
Then hunger and thirst want their abodes. As they are only feeling and cannot have independent abodes, God provides them abodes of the deities and instructs them to share the oblations offered to deities. This arrangement was ordained at the beginning of creation and has continued since then.
4-2-2 Aitareya 2.1.1 to 2.1.4
Three births called abodes of a jivA are described covering the present life and the next life. The first birth is when a male contains the semen in his body which will later produce a son. In the semen, the father sees himself. The second birth is when the semen is transferred to the womb of the wife. The embryo becomes a part of the wife’s body like a limb. The would-be father takes care of the wife and through the wife he takes care of the would-be son. The wife delivers the son. The son’s birth is an important occasion because it ensures the continuity of the world. When the father grows old and is unable to perform rituals and duties, he transfers the responsibility to the son. The father meets death on exhaustion of prArabdha. The gross body is burnt. The subtle body transmigrates and assumes a new body as per kArmic laws. It is the third birth. This process from one birth to the next birth is cyclic without a beginning and an end. No jivA or even God can break this cyclical world. Self-knowledge alone breaks the cycle.
4-3 Isa-Upanishad
4-3-1 Isa 3 After leaving their bodies, they who have killed the Self go to the worlds of the asuras, covered with blinding ignorance. Killing the Self is figurative because It cannot be destroyed. It can only be obscured by ignorance. Ignorant ones are interested in serving the body and mind because they identify themselves with the mind and body. They do not identify with consciousness which is the Self and they fall into the realm where the Self does not shine. According to the Upanishad, the only hell is the absence of knowledge. If a man is overpowered by the darkness of ignorance, he is the slave of nature and he reaps the fruit of his thoughts and deeds. By straying into the path of unreality, he destroys himself. He, who clings to the perishable body and regards it as his true Self, experiences death again and again.
4-3-2 Isa 9 to 11 The Upanishad uses two words avidyA and vidyA for action and meditation respectively. Action and meditation are of two types, namely, selfish and selfless. Selfish one is for the benefit of oneself or at the most for nears and dears. Selfless one is done as a duty and is for the benefit of humanity at large. Vedic rituals are selfish as they are for artha, kAma, and dharma. Artha and kAma are the goals in the current life and dharma ensures swarga after death. The downside is that these benefits are temporary and are coupled with sorrow and are the cause of bondage because one becomes dependent on them. The Upanishad therefore says that those who are under the sway of action (avidyA) fall in (spiritual) darkness. The Upanishad criticizes it. The Upanishad springs a surprise and says that those who practice meditation for selfish ends fall into greater (spiritual) darkness because the material benefits in the current life and post-death are greater which take them further away from spirituality. The best course is that one should combine selfless action and selfless meditation which expedite spiritual growth by making the mind pure and focused.
4-3-3 Isa 12 to 14 The Upanishad conveys the same message differently. Earlier vidyA and avidyA have been used. Here unmanifest and manifest are used. Unmanifest is mAyA or Prakriti and manifest is Hiranyagarbha which is the cosmic subtle body and is first born. The Upanishad criticizes selfish meditations on Prakriti and Hiranyagarbha. By selfish meditation on Prakriti, a person merges in Prakriti after death and there is no rebirth until the next cycle of creation. It is a long sleep. The downside is that after exhausting the punyAs, he is reborn and the cycle of birth and death resumes. It is a spiritual darkness. By selfish meditation on Hiranyagarbha, a person gets the power of Hiranyagarbha, e.g., supernatural powers taking the person further away from spirituality. It is a fall into a greater darkness. The best course is to combine selfless meditation on Prakriti and selfless meditation on Hiranyagarbha. The combination purifies and expands the mind. Attachment and repulsion are diluted heralding spiritual growth.
4-4 Katha Upanishad
4-4-1 Katha 1.3.5 to 1.3.7
A person whose intellect is not discriminative and fails to distinguish between right and wrong, real from the unreal, his sense organs are carried away by passions and desires, just as a driver is carried away by unruly horses over which he has lost control. He is attracted by sensory pleasures and leads a materialistic life. In his view, sense pleasures are the highest goal of life though they are mixed with sorrow. He is confused and his intellect is not sharp enough to search alternative course He drifts on the same path. This is the bondage of samsAra of birth and death. But he who clearly distinguishes what is good from what is merely pleasant, and controls his out-going senses from running after apparent momentary pleasures, his senses obey and serve him as trained horses obey their driver. His intellect is clear about the primary and secondary goals of life. The scriptures help him accomplish the secondary goals while not losing sight of the primary goal. It is done by aligning the secondary goals with the primary goal, i.e., liberation.
4-4-2 Katha 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 In the first chapter, Yama has explained to Nachiketa the nature and glory of the Self. Now he shows the reason why the Self is not seen by the majority. It is because it is the nature of the mind to be drawn towards external objects through the senses, and this prevents him from seeing the inner Self. From the perspective of the theory of evolution where survival is the core, perhaps outwardly mind and sense organs are necessary. Having got human body, a course correction is required. Those who are devoid of discrimination and fail to distinguish the real from the unreal, the fleeting from the permanent, set their hearts on the changeable things of this world. They are subservient to insatiable desire. The inevitable consequences are disappointment and suffering. For them, death is a reality for they identify themselves with that which is born and dies.
ShankarAchArya says in Bhajagovindam: The childhood slips away in attachment to playfulness. Youth pass away in attachment to women. Old age passes away worrying about many things. Alas, there is hardly anyone who wants to be lost in Brahman. Even when one realizes the importance of AtmA and the purpose of life, it is so late in life that he is incapable of attaining it. Experiences do not teach him because he has successfully chosen not to learn from them. The indiscriminative ones are attached to worldly objects and not to the Self. Arjuna was attached to the BMS of Bhishma and Drona BMS and not to Self. If he were attached to the Self, he would not have worried about killing them [Self is never killed]. However, now and then a seeker, wiser than others, goes within and attains the vision of the undying Self. They see deeper into the nature of things and are no longer deluded by the charm of the phenomenal world. They do not seek permanent happiness among the passing enjoyments.
Contd Part 7