Svetasvathara Upanishad – 11

Chapter 4 (Mantras1 to 7) 

Mantra 4-1

ya eko'varno bahudha saktiyogad varnan anekan nihitartho dadhati I

vi chaiti chante visvamadau sa devah sa no buddhya subhaya samyunaktu II 4.1 II

The Lord, One and Undifferentiated, by the manifold application of His powers produces, in the beginning, different objects for reasons not known and, in the end, withdraws the universe into Himself.  May this self-luminous Lord endow us with clear intellect!

            This Mantra is a prayer to Lord, the Brahman, that we may be endowed with a clear intellect, with a description of that Brahman.  Brahman in His formless aspect is devoid of form and colour, yet, in the beginning of creation for some unknown reasons assumes various forms and colours through His power of Maya which is non-different from Him. We, the finite beings, cannot understand the reasons behind the creation by that infinite Brahman. It is His Lila. In the end, this universe of all forms and colours dissolve in Him as well. He initiates this cycle of creation, maintenance and dissolution without any selfish purpose but for the ultimate good of the Jivas.  That Supreme Brahman is really one without the second and is Self-luminous. We can only pray unto Him, for a good mind and clear intellect that enables us to understand our essential oneness with Him.

Mantras 4-2,3&4

tad evagnistadadityastadvayustadu chandramah I

tad eva sukram tad brahma tad apas tat prajapatih II 4.2 II

tvam stri tvam puman asi tvam kumara utha va kumari I

tvam jirno dandena vanchasi tvam jato bhavasi visvatomukhah II 4.3 II

nilah patango harito lohitakshas tadidgarbha rtavah samudrah I

anadimattvam vibhutvena varthase yato jathani bhuvanani visva II 4.4 II

That Brahman is the fire, the sun, the moon, the constellation of stars, Hiranyagarbha, water and Virat. (2)  You are the woman, you are the man; you are the boy and the girl also. You are the old man walking with the help of a stick. It is you alone who is born in all forms and has faces in all directions. (3)  You are the blue bee; You are the green parrot with red eyes; You are the thunder-clouds carrying lightning, the seasons and the oceans. You are beginningless and omnipresent. From you alone all the worlds are born.

            The Brahman is described in various terms. In Mantra 2 He is described as all devatas i.e. Agni (fire), Aapah (water), Aditya (sun), Vayu, Chandramah, Nakshtras, Hiranya garbha and Virat. In short, all the devatas are the manifestations of the Brahman only; they are not independent and different. In Mantras 3 and 4, various other forms and phenomenon are described as His manifestations. The entire universe is His manifestation only. There is no limitation to the form in which He, the Formless, incarnates. The realised seeker perceives only the Brahman in all objects, sentient and insentient; having all colours and forms because all these worlds and dwellers therein emanated from Him. The Formless appearing in a multitude of forms from moment to moment is His great play, Lila, as in the case of His appearances before Gopis or His visvarupa darshana before Arjuna and Yashoda.  In His all-pervading aspect he is in everything, omnipresent, and takes up every form. He is the master of Prakriti which is discussed in the next Mantra.

Mantra 4-5

ajamekam lohitasuklakrshnam bahvih prajah srjamanam sarupah I

ajo hyeko jushamano'nusete jahaty enam bhuktabhogamajo'nyah II 4.5 II

The one unborn Prakriti - red, white and black - gives birth to many creatures like itself. An unborn individual soul becomes attached to it and enjoys it, while another unborn individual soul rejects it after knowing the ephemeral nature of the sense world from his earlier experience.

            The Mantra says Prakriti (nature) is ajam i.e., unborn, without beginning. It is the combination of three gunas which gives rise to the diversities in the world. Prakriti (nature) creates many creatures like itself which are governed by three gunas, satva, rajas and tamas.  The three gunas are described here as three colours; white, red and black; white standing for satva representing wisdom; red for rajas representing activity; black for tamas representing inertia.  The Mantra says figuratively that an ignorant person feels drawn towards this sense world and he enjoys it while another clever and discriminative individual knows the ephemeral nature of this sense world on the basis of his previous experience and therefore rejects it. If one goes beyond all these diversities he will find that behind the diverse names and forms there is only One i.e., Brahman. This knowledge destroys ignorance. About ignorance and knowledge there is more discussion in the next two Mantras. 

Mantras 4-6&7

dva suparna sayuja sakhaya samanam vrksham parishasvajate I

tayoranyah pippalam svadvattyanasnann anyo abhichakasiti II 4.6 II

samane vrkshe purusho nimagno’nisaya sochati muhyamanah I

jushtam yada pasyaty anyamisamasya mahimanamiti vitasokah II 4.7 II

Two birds, bound one to the other in close friendship, are perched on the same tree. One of them tastes the sweet and bitter fruits of the tree; the other, tasting neither, calmly looks on. (6) Seated on the same tree, the individual self (jiva), deluded by forgetfulness of his identity with the divine Self, bewildered by his ego, grieves and is sad. But when he recognizes the other as the Lord worshipped by all and His glory, he becomes free from grief. (7)

            These two Mantras are in Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.1&2) as well. The Mantras are employing the metaphor of two birds, closely related, seated on the same tree. Tree stands for the body and the two birds are Jiva, the individual self and Athma, the Brahman which is the Cosmic Self.  In the example, one of the birds, the Jiva, eats the fruits of the tree, some sweet, some bitter. That is to say, the Jiva identifying itself with the body gets involved in various activities of the world and experiencing samsara is confused and distraught. The other bird, Athma, the Brahman, just sits there without eating anything as a detached witness. The form of every sentient being has two indwellers, the two selves just like the two birds. However, they do not have the same experience of the tree. The individual self, the Jiva, tastes the fruit of the tree in the form of the inner and outer senses, and according to the quality of that experience is made happy, unhappy, contented, discontented and thus undergoes experiences, sometimes laughing and sometimes weeping, immersed in thought and bewildered by his own helplessness.

            The Supreme Self, on the other hand, tasting neither (sweet or bitter experiences), calmly observes. Brahman also experiences because He is the indweller of all as Athma and is aware of all that the individual self experiences; yet, He looks on without being affected or conditioned by such experiences. But He knows exactly the effect and conditioning that accrues to the individual self. He is experiencing right along with Jiva as witness only without being involved in any of the experiences.  When the Jiva sees, right in the core of his being, the very Supreme he has been hitherto worshipping as separate from himself, all is changed.   Experiencing within his own being the presence and the glory of the Supreme, and realizing that glory as his own, the individual becomes liberated from sorrow.  Dr. Radhakrishnan says “In Mantra 6, the cause of sorrow is traced to the sense of helplessness induced in us when we are lost in the objective world. In Mantra 7, freedom from sorrow is traced to our getting beyond object, thinking and establishing contact with Real being”.

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