Aitareya Upanishad - 5

 

Sec. 3 Mantras 11-14

Mantra – 11

sa ikshata katham nvidam madrite syaditi sa ikshata katarena prapadya iti,

sa ikshata yadi vachabhivyahritamn yadi pranenabhipranitam

yadi chakshusha drishtam yadi srotrena srutam yadi tvacha sprishtam

yadi manasa dhyatam yadyapanenabhyapanitam

yadi sisnena visrshtam atha ko’hamiti.II11II

He bethought Himself: "How could this exist without Me?".  Then He pondered: "Which way shall I enter it?".  He said to Himself further: "If speech is uttered by the organ of speech, if smelling is done by the nose, seeing by the eyes, hearing by the ears, touching by the skin, thinking by the mind, eating by the apana and the emission by the reproductive organ, then who am I?"

 

The Supreme Self found itself in an unusual paradoxical position. It thought that if every other organ of the body does only its assigned job, then who is there to co-ordinate. Only where there is a Knowing principle, there the reports from the various organs like eyes, ears etc. can be unified and synchronised for a total experience.  So it started thinking about playing the role of the master of assemblage to give a purpose or fulfilment to the assembly and pondered over the way through which it should enter the body to assert itself and play that role. The basic idea is to make them all function collectively, in a co-ordinated matter through His proximate presence as the Supreme Self.  Just as a palatial house has no meaning without the existence of the householder to live in it, the beautiful human body has no meaning, without the Supreme Self, the Athma, as its indweller.

Mantra 12

sah etam eva seemaanam vidaarya, etayaa dvara prapadyata;

saeshaa vidritihr naama dvastad, etannaandanam;

tasya traya aavasathaah, traya swapnaah;

 ayam aavasathah, ayam aavasathah, ayam aavasathah. II12II

Then He opened the suture on the skull, and entered by that door. This is the door named “Vidriti”; this is Naandana, the “place of bliss”.  He has three dwelling places, and three conditions of sleep (dream). This is a dwelling place; This is a dwelling place; This is a dwelling place.

So, piercing the skull, He entered through that door. That door is known as the Vidriti, the cleft. This is the place of bliss, Naandana.  Athma, thus embodied, has three abodes, three states of sleep (dream). According to Sri Sankara the three abodes are the right eye in the waking state; the mind in the dream state and the heart in deep sleep state. The three states of dream are waking, dream and deep sleep.  All the states, even the waking, are considered as ‘dream’ because self-ignorance is common to them all. Sri Sankara states of the waking state “There is no consciousness of one’s own supreme Self, and in it are perceived unreal things as in a dream”.  Creator entered the created body and occupied as the experiencer Jivathma.  This entry is called anupravesa.

Mantra 13

sa jato bhutany abhivyaikhyath kimihaanyam vavadishaditi,

sa etameva purusham brahma tatamamapasyath. Idamadarshamiti3 II13II

Having been born as the jiva (i.e. entering the body), He realised the elements (deities) as one with Himself.  “What is there other than Me that needs to be named?”  He saw the all-pervading Brahman.  With wonder He said to Himself, “Oh, I have seen this before!”

The passage tries to describe the experience of the Self (Athma), when having entered the body and gazed out into the world of plurality, through the sense-objects, mind and intellect, and could perceive only His own transcendent nature everywhere.  At the perception of Supreme Brahman over-spreading all, He cried out, “Oh! I have seen this”. The word ‘seen’ here does not mean seeing something separate from oneself.  But it is Athma Sakshatkaram , Self-Realisation.  It is Self, seeing the Self, where seeing has a special connotation.  It is the experience of Self beyond all doubts and as convincing as something one has seen. In short, He recognizes everything around Him as Himself only.  The letter 3 at the end of the last word denotes the elongation of the last word into 3 Matras to express the joy of having attained union with Brahman.

Mantra 14

tasmadidandro namedandro ha vai nama,

tamidandram santamindra ityaachakshate parokshena .

parokshapriya iva hi devah, parokshapriya iva hi devah. II14II 

Therefore, He is called Idandra.  Idandra, indeed is His name. Him who is Idandra, they (the deities) call indirectly as Indra. For the deities appear to be fond of cryptic epithets; the deities appear to be fond of cryptic epithets (Indirect names).

Because He saw the all-pervading Brahman subjectively as ‘this’ (Idam), the Brahman is called as Idandra.  Since deities are fond of being called by indirect names He is called Indra.  Further, it may be out of respect He is called by a shorter appellation, Indra, as we generally out of respect and reverence address certain individuals directly not by their personal name but by a reverential appellation.  The repetition of last line is to indicate the conclusion of chapter 1.

--------------------------------