Chapter
6, Sections 14 & 15
Mantras 6-14-1to3
yatha somya purusham gandharebhyo'bhinaddhakshamaniya tam
tato'tijane visrjetsa yatha tatra prangvodanvadharangva pratyangva
pradhmayitabhinaddhaksha anito'bhinaddhaksho visrshtah || 6.14.1 ||
tasya yathabhinahanam pramuchya prabruyadetam disam gandhara
etam disam vrajeti sa gramadgramam prcchanpandito medhavi
gandharanevopasampadyetaivamevehacaryavanpuruso veda tasya tavadeva ciraṃ
yavanna vimokshye'tha sampatsya iti || 6.14.2 ||
sa ya esho'nimaitadatmyamidam sarvam tatsatyam sa athma
tattvamasi svetaketo iti bhuya eva ma bhagavanvijnapayatviti tatha somyeti
hovacha
|| 6.14.3 || iti chaturdasah khandah ||
Dear son, just as a person is brought blindfolded from
the Gandhara country (by some robber) and left in a deserted place, and
just as he would turn sometimes to the east, sometimes to the north, sometimes
to the south, and sometimes to the west, shouting: ‘I have been brought here
blindfolded! I have been left here blindfolded!’; (1) and as someone might
remove that person’s blindfold and say, ‘Ghandhara is this way; go this
way,’ and as the intelligent man goes from one village to another, asking his
way and relying on the information people give, until he reaches Gandhara; in
the same way, a person who gets a teacher attains knowledge. His delay is only
as long as he is not free of his body. After that he becomes merged in the
Self. (2) ‘That Sat which is the subtlest of all is the Self of all
this. It is the Truth. It is the Athma. That thou art, O Svetaketu.’
[Svetaketu then said,] ‘Sir, please explain this to me again.’ ‘Yes, my son, I
will explain it again,’ replied his father.
End of fourteenth section
In the previous section Uddalaka emphasised the importance of sastra
pramanam through the salt and water experiment. Now in the present section he shows the
importance of guru-upadesa through another example, as follows. A rich man of
Gandhara is kidnapped, robbed and abandoned, tied and blind-folded in a distant
forest. Feeling desperate he turns round
and round screaming for help. Luckily, a kind knowledgeable traveller hears his
cry for help and comes to his rescue. He
removes the cloth covering the eyes and gives him proper guidance as to how to
get back to his place. He travels as per
the stranger’s advice, getting confirmation from the villages on the way and
reaches his place. Similarly the thieves
of ignorance (avidya) and inherent tendencies (vasanas) rob the individual
(Jiva) of his inner peace and distance him from his true nature. His hands are tied by attachments to home,
family and pleasures and his eyes of discrimination are covered by the cloth of
delusion.
As he cries
helplessly and desperately for relief and a way out of the forest of samsara, a
kind-hearted guru comes to his help, by God’s Grace. Sri Aadhi Sankara says in Vivekachudamani
(verse 3) as follows:
durlabhaṃ trayamevaitad, devanugrahahetukam |
manushyatvam, mumukshutvaṃ, mahapurushasamsrayah ||3||
Very rare indeed are these
three things and happen only due to the utmost Grace of God—a human birth, a
burning desire for liberation, and the blessed refuge of an illuminated sage.
Guru, curing him of his
delusions and freeing him from his attachments shows the way to get out of
samsara, attaining the Jnanam of his Real Self. By intelligently following the guidance
steadfastly with discrimination, detachment, desire for Liberation and the
disciplines of sama, dama etc., he discovers that his Real Self is not the body-mind
complex but It is Sat, the Existence that is Brahman, and merges
with Sat, the Brahman, permanently at the exhaustion of his prarabhdha
karma. Uddalaka now adds that this Sat, the Brahman is the
subtlest essence, the Self of all and It is the Athma and declares “Tat
Tvam Asi (You are that)”. Svetaketu seeks more clarification and Uddalaka
agrees. This part of the Mantra
is only a repetition of earlier Mantras - 6.8.7 / 6.9.4 / 6.10.3 / 6.11.3 / 6.12.3/ 6.13.3. This section ends
here.
Mantras 6-15-1to3
purusham somyotopatapinam jnatayah paryupasate janasi mam janasi
mamiti tasya yavanna vangmanasi sampadyate manah prane pranastejasi tejah
parasyam devatayam tavajjanati || 6.15.1 ||
atha yadasya vangmanasi sampadyate manah prane pranastejasi
tejah parasyam devatayamatha na janati || 6.15.2 ||
sa ya esho'nimaitadatmyamidam sarvam tat satyam sa athma
tattvamasi svetaketo iti bhuya eva ma bhagavanvijnapayatviti tatha somyeti
hovacha
|| 6.15.3 || iti panchadasah khandah ||
When a person is seriously ill, my son, his relatives sit around
him and ask: ‘Do you recognize me? Do you recognize me?’ As long as his speech is
not merged with his mind, his mind with his Prana, his Prana
with the heat (Fire) in his body, and the heat with the Supreme Self, he will
be able to recognize them. (1). Then
when his speech merges into his mind, his mind into Prana, his Prana
into the heat (Fire) in his body, and the heat into the Supreme Self, he no longer
knows them. (2). ‘That Sat which
is the subtlest of all is the Self of all this. It is the Truth. It is the Athma.
That thou art, O Svetaketu.’ [Svetaketu then said,] ‘Sir, please explain
this to me again.’ ‘Yes, my son, I will explain it again,’ replied his father.
End of fifteenth section.
In this section Uddalaka does not cite any example but describes
the process of death which was earlier described in the course of the Mantra
6.8.6. There is no difference in the
death process of a Jnani and ajnani. Death being the resolution
of the faculties, one by one, i.e. gradual folding back of the faculties, Jivathma
at death merges into Paramathma with the gross body merging into gross
elements. For the Jnani Jiva, the remaining prarabhdha also getting
exhausted at death, merger is final and the subtle body also gets merged with
subtle elements. But merger is only
temporary for ajnani Jiva as his subtle body remains in a dormant state
and manifests again with a new gross body determined by his sanchita karma,
the collected capital of past outstanding karmas. Mantra 6-15-3 is only a repetition of the
earlier Mantras; 6.8.7 / 6.9.4 / 6.10.3 / 6.11.3 / 6.12.3/
6.13.3/ 6.14.3. where Uddalaka
quotes the Mahavakhya “Tat Tvam Asi” and emphasises the identity
of one’s Self, Athma with Brahman the Supreme, referred to here
as Sat (Existence), and which is the Self of all as well and Svetaketu
makes the request for more clarification to which Uddalaka agrees. This section ends here.
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