Valli 6
Nachiketas’ question
to Lord Yama was “Is there life after death? If so what survives the body after
death?’ Lord Yama has so far analyzed
and answered the question from various angles that “Athma, the eternal
principle, which is one’s real Self, survives death. Indeed death is for the
body part of anathma only. The
other part of anathma, the life energy, moves to another body depending
upon karma phala and upasana phala. This too shall dissolve into its elements
when the Jiva realizes the true Self, Athma, and its identity
with the one undivided unbroken cosmic supreme, Brahman.” Since death is not for one’s true Self, one
should be able to shed the fear of death while living, which is one of the main
benefits of BrahmaVidya. So
towards this end, Yama gives some more illustrations and rounds up his
instructions on BrahmaVidya, with preparatory disciplines and benefits
in this final Valli.
This Valli starts
with the comparison of Jagat to an inverted peepul tree which has its
root upwards in Brahman, in Mantra 1, which comparison Lord
Krishna also employs in Bhagavad Gita (15-1).
That means, like a genealogical tree which flows downward from the
family head, here the whole Jagat has its origin in Brahman and Brahman
is the Jagat karanam. Further a tree appears inverted in its reflection
in water. So it can also be inferred
that the Jagat, like reflection, is only apparently real, a projection
through Maya, and not absolutely Real.
This is the samsara tree to which we get attached. Though it appears deeply rooted, it can be
cut easily with the axe of detachment as Lord Krishna points out in Gita 15-3,
and then you reach the root, which is eternal, Real and Pure and is the resting
place of all the worlds and beyond which there is nothing else. This Brahman is the answer to
Nachiketas’ rephrased question, “what is it that transcends Time, Gunas and
cause and effect”. All the forces are
under its control only. This is one’s
real Self. This can be realized clearly
like one’s reflection in the mirror, only in the human body, where various
sadhanas for realization of Self are possible. When one attains and is
established in this knowledge of Self, discriminating Athma from anathma,
one is lifted to the highest state of Brahman even when alive. At this
state, in whatever environment one is placed or in whatever work one is engaged
in, one is always conscious that one’s Self is separate from and superior to
changing body and senses. He does not mentally identify himself with his body
and senses and so is untouched and unaffected by fear and sorrow.
Mantras 6, 7 and 8 outline sadhanas for
realization of Brahman. These are
only restatement of the ideas spelled out earlier. They are repeated to emphasize
their importance. One step is to
remember constantly that the sense organs are only the product of Pancha
Bhuthas and these Pancha Bhuthas have all their origin in Brahman
and Brahman as Consciousness is the real Self. So Self as karana is not affected by
the sorrows of the senses. Armed with
this jnanam the realized person does not feel affected by sorrows. Second step remembered is that of pancha
kosa viveka, the discrimination that the Self, as sakshi Chaitanyam,
is beyond the pancha kosas and all the modifications and changes are
limited to kosas only. This frees one from fear of death, decay, disease
etc. To negate the five kosas and
to recognize the apparent blankness that one arrives at on negation as the
state of one’s true Self, the formless Brahman that cannot be
objectified, a sharp, subtle intellect is required. To see your eye, you need a functioning eye
and a good mirror. In the case of Athmajnanam, the mirror is Guru
Sastra upadesa and functioning eye is the sharp, subtle intellect.
In Mantras 10
& 11, Lord Yama talks of Samadhi stage of ashtanga yoga,
wherein one focuses the mind, for a length of time, on a form or on an idea, as
one of the important sadhanas for becoming Brahmanishta. When this focusing is done on Saguna Isvara,
before sravanam it is called upasana. This gives one Chiththa Ekagratha,
which helps one in getting established in Brahmajnanam. If upasana is not done before sravanam
it has to be done as Nithidyasanam after mananam to get fixed in
the acquired knowledge and make it as one’s own. In Nithidyasanam, the Samadhi
state is reached by meditating on the Mahavakhyas. This state is called ‘Yoga’ by Lord Yama. Yoga is not for acquiring Jnanam, but
to get fixed in the acquired jnanam.
This stage is to be reached in respect of acquired doubt-free Brahmajnanam,
to become Brahmanishta. In the yoga
stage also sadhanas should continue as in this state one is subject to lapse
into previous samsara state, if one is not alert and watchful. When the state of yoga happens spontaneously
without any effort on the part of the meditator and the triputi of
meditator, meditation and the idea of Jiva Brahma Ikyam merge into the
idea of Ikyam only, then and only then, one becomes fixed in the
knowledge and can be called Brahmanishta.
In Mantras 12 &
13, Lord Yama talks of sraddha in the words of sastras and in guru
upadesa as an important preparatory discipline to get this jnanam. This idea Lord Krishna also conveys in Gita
(4-39) as “Sraddhavan labhathe Jnanam (He who has Sraddha only gains Jnanam)”.
One must have initially the faith as ‘Brahma asthi (Brahman is)’, to get later the jnanam as ‘Brahma
asmi (Brahman I am)’. Further
this knowledge is not prathyaksham or paroksham that can be attained through the senses, but only
experienced by oneself as aparoksham, directly, for Brahman is
not an external object but one’s own real Self. When one realizes one’s true
Self, then one attains fullness in mind.
All desires are rooted in one’s need for fulfillment. When this need is
not felt, binding desires seeking fulfillment in objects, people and environs
also leave this person. After that
whatever desires that person has, are only non-binding preferences. Binding
desires that arise from ignorance of one’s fullness give rise to karma
and karma phala that bind a person and so are called knots. When
ignorance goes these knots also fall off and one becomes free of the fears of
Yoga and Kshema, acquisition and maintenance, in respect of external
objects and relations as well as of one’s own anathma of body and
mind. This state of total fearlessness
is called immortality in Mantra 15, in which Lord Yama’s instructions on
Athma come to an end.
In Mantra
16, Lord Yama gives the phala of NachiketaYajna that was given as
second boon. If this NachiketaYajna
is done with Virat upasana as a combination of yajna and upasana,
one will go to Brahma Loka after death where he can get krama mukthi,
by getting BrahmaVidya there. In
Mantra 17, he repeats his teachings in a capsule form; Brahman as
eternal, pure Athma indwells every jiva, and can be recognized as
thumb sized Purusha through pancha kosa viveka by a subtle
intellect but the process is as delicate and difficult as separating the pith
from the thin sharp Munja grass. Upanishad ends with the
Mantra18 which declares that Nachiketas after absorbing
the teaching of Lord Yama along with the process of Yoga in its totality,
became free from impurities and death with the realization of Brahman and also
affirms that anyone else too, who seeks to know the Self in the same way as Nachiketas, will also realise Brahman.
Acknowledgement
While concluding the series of
blogs on Kathopanishad I wish to record my deep debt of
gratitude to the speeches and writings on this subject, of:
1) Swami Paramarthananda
2) Swami
Gurubhakthananda
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