Fear occurs when there is an “other”—a second object. Oneness, by contrast, is fearlessness. When the world is taken to be real and external, it appears as a constant source of threat and insecurity. This fear born of the world is sustained only as long as we attribute independent reality to it (saṃsāra). Once its dependent and insubstantial nature is understood, fear naturally subsides.
This is illustrated by the familiar analogy of the rope and the snake. In dim light, a rope is mistaken for a snake, and fear instantly arises. However, when the rope is recognized for what it truly is, the imagined snake vanishes, and with it goes the fear. Under the spell of ignorance, reality appears divided, and this apparent division gives rise to fear. When ignorance is removed through knowledge, the division is recognized as merely apparent, just as darkness vanishes in the presence of light.
The Upanishad concludes this vision with the declaration:
तदनुप्रविश्य। सच्च त्यच्चाभवत्। निरुक्तं चानिरुक्तं च। निलयनं चानिलयनं च। विज्ञानं चाविज्ञानं च। सत्यं चानृतं च सत्यमभवत्। यदिदं किञ्च। तत्सत्यमित्याचक्षते। — mantra 2.6.1, taittirIya Upanishad.
[Meaning: Having entered there, It became the formed and the formless, the defined and the undefined, the sustaining and the non-sustaining, the sentient and the insentient, the true and the untrue. Truth became all this that there is. They call that brahman Truth. (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda).]
This concluding vision affirms that all apparent opposites belong only to the realm of manifestation, while the underlying Reality remains ever Non-dual. Extending our snake-rope metaphor to include both creation and the individual, we may say that the Supreme Self is the rope, while the world is one snake and the individual is another.
In the illumination of true Knowledge, we realize that the Self Itself appears as both. The Upanishad does not suggest that the Self has physically transformed into these entities; rather, the Self is the world and is the individual. It is a relationship of absolute identity.
To illustrate this identity, consider a potter who creates a pot. By creating the pot, the potter does not become the pot, nor does he enter it. He continues to exist separately as the efficient cause. But when we say that clay is the pot, there is an absolute identity. The clay is the material cause, permeating the effect completely—it is the formlessness within the form.
Hence, brahman is understood to be the abhinna nimittopadAna kAraNa (the undivided efficient and material cause) for the world (derived based on 1.4.23, BSB). It created Itself as the world (the material cause), entered Its own creation, and became the individual (the efficient cause). Therefore, our spiritual task is to recognize the essential identity inherent in both. The Sanskrit word prapanca (world) simply means “to be spread out”—the world is the Supreme Self appearing as though It has spread Itself out in name and form.
To systematically guide us to this understanding, the text directs our attention inward, stripping away our false identifications layer by layer:
ब्रह्म पुच्छं प्रतिष्ठा । — 2.5.1, taittirIya upa.
[Meaning: brahman is the tail-support.]
This mantra states that we are not even the blissful sheath (Anandamaya kosha). What we truly are is the Self—the tail-like substratum that supports all five sheaths. The “tail” in this context symbolizes that absolute foundation.
यो वेद निहितं गुहायां परमे व्योमन् । — 2.1.1, taittirIya upa.
[Meaning: He who knows It placed in the innermost recess, the transcendent space …]
When we follow this top-down and bottom-up scheme of descent and ascent, we realize that what is present in the inner recess of our intellect is the Self alone. The starting point and the end point are known to be identical, leaving no room for division. Both ends dissolve into the act of noticing itself. There is no longer a separate seer or a seen; only seeing remains. That ‘seeing’ Itself is the One Self—the very Consciousness indicated by the mANDUkya Upanishad.
While the mANDUkya teaches this process through the analysis of the syllables of AUM, the taittirIya Upanishad imparts this same Self-Knowledge through the systematic analysis of the five sheaths.
We have hitherto lived under the misconception that brahman exists somewhere up above, far removed from where we are. The taittirIya dispels this mistaken idea by showing that what is above has Itself come down, and we are identical to that Supreme Reality. When we transcend each of the sheaths with the full confidence that “I am the Self,” the sheaths dissolve into their source. With their dissolution, they cease to be seen as separate entities, and the Self alone remains.
This complete dissolution of the sheaths is not merely a theoretical conclusion; it is a lived, experiential reality. In the final chapter, the Upanishad shows us the ultimate destination of this spiritual ascent. Having traversed the depths of inquiry, the enlightened sage stands completely liberated, bursting into a song of universal oneness.
Shankara comments that this is the precise way to grasp the Self whose nature was explained earlier. Finally, only the Self remains after passing through all the sheaths, as they have all become the Self:
एतमन्नमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रम्य । एतं प्राणमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रम्य । एतं मनोमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रम्य । एतं विज्ञानमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रम्य । एतमानन्दमयमात्मानमुपसङ्क्रम्य । इमांल्लोकान्कामान्नी कामरूप्यनुसञ्चरन् । एतत्साम गायन्नास्ते । हा३वु हा३वु हा३वु॥ — mantra 3.10.5, taittirIya upa.
[Meaning: He who knows thus, attains, after desisting from this world, this self made of food. After attaining this self made of food then, attaining this self made of vital force, then attaining this self made of mind, then attaining this self made of intelligence, then attaining this self made of bliss, and roaming over these worlds with command over food at will and command over all forms at will, he continues singing this Sama song: “Halloo ! Halloo ! Halloo ! (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda).]
It is like a spider that weaves a magnificent web out of its own secretion, only to later draw the silk back into itself. In the end, the web is reabsorbed, and the spider alone remains. Similarly, the individual and the world dissolve, and the Self alone remains.
Thus ends the teaching of the taittirIya Upanishad.
{Note: taittirIya Upanishad constructs an elaborate edifice of “adhyAropa” in imparting the Non-dual message. But the shruti vAkya-s have to be understood primarily in their sense of sublation. This is illustrated by him in his gloss at 4.3.14, BSB.
- Shankara, quotes, “Crave to know that from which indeed all these creatures originate, by which they are sustained after birth, towards which they advance, and into which they merge. That is brahman” (3.1.1, taittirIya)” to impress that the reality to be known is brahman alone. Thus since the texts about creation etc. are meant for imparting the knowledge of oneness, brahman cannot be possessed of many powers and hence also It cannot reasonably be a goal to be reached. Any travelling towards brahman is denied in the text, “His organs do not depart. Being but brahman, he is merged in brahman” (4.4.6, BU).
- He also cites, “The Knower of brahman attains the Highest,” 2.1.1, taiitirIya and observes: “It is the very realization of one’s own nature that is spoken of as this attainment from the standpoint of erasing out this universe of name and form superimposed through ignorance. And it is to be understood as having been said in the same sense as, “Having been brahman, he attains brahman” (4.4.6, BU) and similar texts. (Trans: SW-G).”}
(To Continue … Part 30 (aita 1))