Thus, the kena Upanishad answers the question about the location of the “AtmA” not by providing a map to the Self, but by challenging us to discover the “sentient source” behind the mind and the senses.
केनेषितं पतति प्रेषितं मनः केन प्राणः प्रथमः प्रैति युक्तः ।
केनेषितां वाचमिमां वदन्ति चक्षुःश्रोत्रं क उ देवो युनक्ति ॥ — mantra 1.1, kena.
[Meaning: By whom desired and set forth does the mind move towards its subject? At whose bidding does the chief life-principle proceed towards its functions? By whom wished, do the men utter the speech? What effulgent one, indeed, directs the eye or the ear? Translation by Swami Sharvananda, 1920.]
If it is supposed that the body, or any of its parts, forms the locus of the “I AM,” the Upanishad asks whether the body can ever feel the presence of “I Am.” When we say, “I am walking” or “I am sitting,” we only see the body walking or sitting. The body by itself does not have the ability to think or feel “I AM.” It is inert, much like the wall in front of us.
Whenever an inert thing moves, there must be a motive force — an entity that causes the movement. If the body has moved from one place to another, something must have produced that movement. A “conscious principle” is therefore required to animate what is otherwise inert.
The kena Upanishad boldly declares that even the mind is an inert entity. In order to appreciate this stance, we must first be clear about what the mind actually is.
The mind is not a container in which thoughts arise. The thought itself is the mind. There is no independently identifiable object called “mind” apart from thought. Thoughts, taken together, constitute what we call the mind.
Thoughts are innumerable and varied. But can a thought know that it is thinking? Can a thought consciously feel “I AM”? The sense of “I am” itself is a thought. Thought is movement, and there can be no thought without movement. The life-principle, too, is under constant movement, so movement by itself cannot be the basis for sentience.
There are essentially two movements in the body: the movement of the life-principle and the movement of knowledge. The movement of knowledge is what we call the mind. There is nothing else in the body that moves independently; all other movements are made to occur. First the mind intends, then the life-principle energizes, and only then does the body move. These correspond to the power of knowledge (jnAna-shakti) and the power of action (kriyA-shakti).
The two movements differ in an important way. No images form in the movement of the life-principle, whereas an image forms whenever the mind moves. With every thought, there is an accompanying image — a friend, a partner, a tree, a car, or even subtle states such as courage or fear. These are not gross images but fine, conceptual forms. The moving thought together with its associated image is what we call the mind.
The movement (thought) and the conceptualized form together appear as a single unit exhibiting properties different from either alone, much like oxygen and hydrogen (two gases) combining to produce “liquidity.” In the same way, thought and image together give rise to the sense of “I.” But we must consider whether the form or the image can think “I am”? Both movement and image are inert, and their combination cannot suddenly produce a sentient entity. Therefore, the feeling of “I AM” cannot originate in them.
Most of us assume that we are our minds. The Upanishad teaches otherwise. Even the mind moves only when moved by something else, and the sense of “I AM” merely reflects in the mind, primed by a deeper source.
The IshAvAsya Upanishad expressly states:
तदेजति तन्नैजति तद्दूरे तद्वन्तिके ।
तदन्तरस्य सर्वस्य तदु सर्वस्यास्य बाह्यतः ॥ — mantra 5, IshAvAsya.
[Meaning: It moves; It moves not. It is far; It is near. It is within all; It is without all. (Translation V. Panoli).]
It is the AtmA that animates everything. What we experience as being “inside us” are only its adjuncts (upAdhi). As Ishvara, AtmA utilizes these adjuncts as media through which It shines.
As Kalidasa says:
शरीरमाद्यं खलु धर्मसाधनम् | — 5.33, Kalidasa’s kumArasambhava.
[Meaning: Body is the instrument for all (good) deeds.]
The body is only an instrument — an important and useful instrument — but an instrument nonetheless.
The IshAvAsya Upanishad’s statement that AtmA is both inside and outside must be clearly understood. One should not imagine AtmA as confined within the body while ignoring its presence everywhere else. Consider sunlight: it shines over the entire city, inside the house as well as outside. The same indivisible light illuminates all objects without distinction.
All bodily actions, respiration driven by the life-principle, and perceptions made by the senses are known only in the light of conscious AtmA. Without that illumination, neither the presence nor the knowing of objects would be possible. Both Beingness and Knowingness arise from AtmA’s illumination alone.
Seen in this light, it is more accurate to say that the body, senses, and mind are within AtmA. From the standpoint of the body, AtmA appears to be inside; from the standpoint of AtmA, there is neither inside nor outside, exactly as stated by the IshAvAsya Upanishad.
Therefore, the movement of the mind and its ability to know objects do not truly belong to the mind. The mind is only an instrument — a costume, a doorway. The illuminating entity, AtmA, does not move, but appears to move when functioning through the mind. Absence of movement is AtmaA’s intrinsic nature.
In its unmanifest or potential form, this is pure Knowing. When manifest, it appears as thought or mind. The eye by itself cannot see; only when the unmanifest power sees through the eye does seeing occur.
श्रोत्रस्य श्रोत्रं मनसो मनो यद्वाचो ह वाचं स उ प्राणस्य प्राणः ।
चक्षुषश्चक्षुरतिमुच्य धीराः प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता भवन्ति ॥ — mantra 1.2, kena.
[Meaning: It is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of the speech, It is also the life-principle of the life-principle, the eye of the eye. Knowing thus, the wise, having relinquished all false identification of the Self with the senses, become immortal when departed from this world.]
Using intriguing words in order to impress on us about the real ‘power’ behind the senses, the kena says that AtmA is the very ear of the ear, the very life of life-principle, the very eye of the eye and so on. It means AtmA or the Self is the real “hearer,” though we normally take the ear to be that which hears. Similarly, AtmA is the eye (the real seer) of the eyes and so on.
(To Continue … Part 8 (kena 3))