Chandogya upanishad (ch. 6,7 & 8) – 6

 Chapter 6, Section 7

Mantra 6-7-1

shodasakalah somya purushah panchadasahani masih kamamapah pibapomayah prano napibato vicchetsyata iti || 6.7.1 ||

Dear son, a person has sixteen parts. Do not eat anything for fifteen days, but drink as much water as you like.  Prana is made up of water and the Prana of one who drinks water is not cut off.

            As Svetaketu continues saying ‘I still can’t understand.’, the father tries a practical demonstration.  A normal human being in good health is said to be made up of sixteen parts. If a person neither eats nor drinks water for fifteen days, he will die. But if he does not eat yet continues to drink water during that time he will remain alive. When Mahathma Gandhi used to fast, he would drink plenty of water and would put some lemon juice in it. That kept him alive. But what happens to a person when he drinks water but does not eat? His mind fails. He cannot remember anything. So, to convince Svetaketu, Uddalaka asks him to fast for fifteen days but to drink water copiously.

Mantras 6-7-2,3

sa ha panchadasahani nasatha hainamupasasada kim bravimi bho ityrchah somya yajumsi samaniti sa hovacha na vai ma pratibhanti bho iti || 6.7.2 ||

tam hovacha yatha somya mahato'bhya hitasyaiko'ngarah khadyotamatrah parisishtah syattena tato'pi na bahu dahedevam somya te ṣhodasanam kalanameka kalatisista syattayaitarhi vedannanubhavasyasanatha me vijnasyasiti || 6.7.3 ||

Svetaketu did not eat anything for fifteen days. After that he came to his father and said, ‘O Father, what shall I say?’ His father said, ‘Recite the Ṛik, Yajur, and Sama Mantras, dear boy.’ (Svetaketu replied,) ‘They do not at all arise in me, sir’ (2). The father said to him: ‘Dear son, from a blazing fire, if there is but a small piece of ember, the size of a firefly, left, it cannot bum anything bigger than that. Similarly, dear boy, because only one small part of your sixteen parts remains, you cannot remember the Vedas. Eat something and then you will understand what I am saying’ (3).

            Svetaketu did as he was asked to do.  He fasted, drinking only water. Then he approached his father and now Uddalaka said to him, ‘Will you please recite to me the Rik, Yajur, and Sama Mantras?’.  Svetaketu could not recollect them and replied: ‘I do not remember them at all. They are completely gone from my mind’.  Having been without food for fifteen days, Svetaketu’s mind was almost blank.  Uddalaka comforted him, giving the example of fire. A blazing fire can burn anything and can illumine a large area around it, but a spark from it cannot.  Similarly, after fasting for fifteen days, he could survive with only one out of sixteen parts barely active. It was enough to keep the body alive, but cannot keep the memory going. So he was asked to break the fast and start eating as before.

Mantras 6-7-4,5,6

sa hasatha hainamupasasada tam ha yatkimcha papraccha sarvamhapratipede || 6.7.4 ||

tam hovacha yatha somya mahato'bhyahitasyaikamangaram khadyotamatram parisishtam tam trnairupasamadhaya prajvalayettena tato'pi bahu dahet || 6.7.5 ||

evam somya te shodasanam kalanameka kalatisistabhutsannenopasamahita prajvali tayaitarhi vedananubhavasyannamayamhi somya mana apomayaḥ pranastejomayi vagiti taddhasya vijajnaviti vijajnaviti || 6.7.6 || iti saptamah khandah ||

Svetaketu ate and then went to his father. Whatever his father asked him, he was able to answer them all (4).  The father said to him: ‘Dear boy, from a blazing fire, if there is but a small piece of ember left, the size of a firefly, the fire can again blaze up when you add some straw. The fire, in fact, can then blaze up even more than it did before. In the same way, dear son, of your sixteen parts, only one remained. But that, when nourished by food, has revived, and by that you are now able to recite the Vedas. Dear boy, this is why I said that the mind is nourished by food, Prana is nourished by water, and speech is nourished by fire.’ Svetaketu now understood what his father was saying (5&6).  End of seventh section.

            Svetaketu accordingly broke the fast and ate.  Then he approached his father.  This time he could recollect everything and recite the Vedic hymns, his father asked for.  His father then explained to him that if the spark from the fire is fed with sufficient fuel it will again light up and blaze into a conflagration. Similarly, the mind which has been weakened by lack of food, regains its powers when the person eats again. Thus Uddalaka demonstrates that food nourishes the mind.  He then repeats again that mind, Prana and speech are nourished by food, water and fire respectively.  This time Svetaketu raises no doubts as he has understood this from his personal experience. The section ends here and the next section we shall see in the next blog.

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Bhagavad Gita

Prasthana Thraya – 3

 

One of the Dhyana slokas for Bhagavad Gita written by Madhusudhana Saraswathi praises Bhagavad Gita thus:

sarvopaniṣado gavo dogdha gopala-nandanaḥ|

partho vatsaḥ sudhirbhokta dugdhaṃ gitamṛtaṃ mahatII

All the Upaniṣhads are the cows. Krishna is the milker. Arjuna is the calf. The pure-minded are the enjoyers (of the milk).  The supreme nectar of Gita is the milk.

Bhagavad Gita which is thus praised as containing the essence of Upanishads constitutes one of the trio of Prasthana Thraya along with Upanishads and Brahma Sutras. Consisting of 700 slokas spread over 18 chapters, Gita ,as we shall refer to it hereafter, comes in Bhisma Parva of Mahabharatha and is set in the framework of a dialogue between, Arjuna, the armed warrior and disciple, and Sri Krishna, his unarmed charioteer and Guru, in the battle field of Kurukshetra.  Arjuna who arrogantly asked Sri Krishna to take the chariot to the front, turned sad and depressed seeing his Guru, elders and relatives assembled on the other side and surrendered to Sri Krishna seeking his advice and guidance on his eleventh hour dilemma “fight or pullback.”  Sri Krishna’s elaborate advice encompassing all the four yogas of Karma, Bhakthi, Raja and Jnana that dissolves Arjuna’s delusion and drives him to action is the subject matter of Gita. So Gita presents a synthesis of the four paths of Karma Yoga, Bhakthi Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana yoga. 

Each chapter in Gita is titled one Yoga or the other.  Yoga means a topic and also as  that which unites the seeker with the destination. As per Swami Paramartananda the destination here is “Security, Peace and Happiness” and seekers are ourselves. We seek these outside ourselves from external objects and relations, not knowing that we ourselves are the source for our ‘Peace, Security and Happiness’; as our minds are  covered with Malam(impurities); Vikshepa(extrovertedness) and Ajjanam(ignorance).  Malam is the six fold impurities; the six fold obstacles to discover our inner joy.  And those impurities are kamaḥ, (desire), krodhaḥ, (anger); lobhaḥ (greed); mohaḥ (delusion); madaḥ (arrogance or vanity); matsaryaḥ (jealousy or competitiveness).  Vikṣēpaḥ, mental extrovertedness, is the mental restlessness and wandering. Ajjanam is ignorance of the fact that I am the one and only source for the “Happiness, Peace and Security” that I am seeking from external objects and relations. Karma Yoga rids the mind of impurities and makes it pure, giving Chitta Suddhi.  Bhakthi and Raja Yogas discipline the wandering mind making it focussed and one-pointed, giving one Chitta Ekagratha.  Jnana Yoga imparts to such a pure focussed mind the true knowledge of the Self as Brahman of total peace and happiness and security.  Swami Sivananda considers the eighteen chapters of Gita as having a progressive order, by which Krishna leads "Arjuna up the ladder of Yoga from one rung to another".  It is not only Arjuna but all of us as well through Arjuna.

Swami Vivekananda remarks “This Kurukshetra War is only an allegory. When we sum up its esoteric significance, it means the war which is constantly going on within man between the tendencies of good and evil.”  Man can overcome the tendency for evil only through the disciplines of Karma Yoga and Bhakthi/Upasana Yoga. As Gita speaks of them equally as Jnana Yoga, Swami Chinmayananda writes, “Here in the Bhagavad Gita, we find a practical handbook of instruction on how best we can re-organise our inner ways of thinking, feeling, and acting in our everyday life and draw from ourselves a larger gush of productivity to enrich the life around us, and to emblazon the subjective life within us”.  He viewed the Gita as a universal scripture to turn a person from a state of agitation and confusion to a state of complete vision, inner contentment, and dynamic action. Mahatma Gandhi also emphasises Gita being a practical guide with his own example with these words “When disappointment stares me in the face and all alone I see not one ray of light, I go back to the Bhagavadgītā. I find a verse here and a verse there and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming tragedies – and my life has been full of external tragedies – and if they have left no visible, no indelible scar on me, I owe it all to the teaching of Bhagavadgita”.  Not only Mahathma Gandhi but other leaders of freedom struggle like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinobha Bhave etc., have found Gita a source of inspiration in their personal and public lives. 

Let us see one instance of the all-embracing practical approach i.e. in the case of obtaining Mukthi, given to us all through Arjuna.  In ch. 7 Sri Krishna classifies bhakthas in four groups Artha, Artharthi, Jijnasu and Jnani through verse 16, and we will be mostly falling in one or the other of the first three groups:

chaturvidha bhajante maṃ janaḥ sukṛtinorjuna

artho jijnasurartharthi jnani ca bharatarṣabha

Four kinds of virtuous men worship Me, O Arjuna! They are the Artha (distressed), Artharthi (the seeker of security and pleasure), Jijnasu ( the seeker of knowledge of Me), and the Jnani (one who knows Me) 

Artha bhaktha thinks of the Lord only periodically; as and when he is faced with a crisis or a problem and then he prays to Him with all fervour but slowly forgets Him after the crisis fades or blows over under the pretext he does not want to disturb Him.  He is a sakama bhaktha as his sporadic devotion is for selfish needs and desires.  For such a sakama bhaktha also Sri Krishna offers a way for Mukthi in the closing verses of the last chapter ie. Ch 18 in verse no. 56:

Sarvakarmaanyapi sadaa kurvaano madvyapaashrayah;

Matprasaadaadavaapnoti shaashwatam padamavyayam.

Doing all actions, always taking refuge in Me, by My Grace he obtains the eternal, indestructible state or abode.

The prescription is to do all nitya, naimithika karmas as well along with other laukika karmas but without forgetting the Lord all the time and also His words that fruits of all actions, good, bad or mixed, come through His Grace only. In short perform all your actions, material and spiritual, karma yoga way completely surrendering to Lord and He will guide you to Mukthi

Artharthi bhaktha remembers Him always no doubt but he has also one material demand or other always. He is also a sakama bhaktha but unlike Artha bhaktha he regularly thinks of the Lord. To him Sri Krishna offers a way for Mukthi in verse no. 65 of ch.18:

Manmanaa bhava madbhakto madyaajee maam namaskuru;

Maamevaishyasi satyam te pratijaane priyo’si me.

Fix your mind on Me, be devoted to Me, sacrifice to Me, bow down to Me. You will come to Me; truly do I promise unto you, (for) you are dear to Me.

The prescription here is to surrender to one’s Ishta Devata, Bhakthi Yoga way totally, converting his sakama bhakthi into nishkama bhakthi. ‘Me’ stands for Ishta Devatha only and not for Vasudeva putra.Krishna.  

A Jijnasu bhaktha is a nishkama bhaktha. His devotion is not out of material desires or wants but out of deep thirst for knowing Him. So his devotion to Lord is for Lord’s sake. Only he also has not got the Jnanam and  to Him Sri Krishna’s advice is contained in sloka 66. This is also called Charama sloka as this is the last sloka of Upadesa.

Sarvadharmaan parityajya maamekam sharanam vraja;

Aham twaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shuchah.

Giving up all dharmas (dharmas and adharmas ie. all actions), take refuge in Me alone; I will liberate you from all sins; grieve not.

Giving up actions implies not giving up actions as such but giving up the Kartrutva buddhi ie, doership and also Bhokthrutva buddhi ie. enjoyership. With Karthruthva bukthi and Bhokthrutva buddhi goes Ahamkaram, Mamakaram i,e. ‘me, my’ thought and with that Dehabhimana also. So shedding ego and Dehabhimana, surrender to the Ishta Devata meditating on It and being always aware of It as the One without a second is the prescription.  ‘Mamekam’ stands for looking upon Ishta Devata as the one Saguna Brahman whose manifestations only are all other Devatas.  As there is no sense of doership, no fruits of action will attach to him. Though he may not be equipped with Nirguna Brahma Jnanam he surrenders the Jnana Yoga way to his Ishta Devata for Mukthi.

For the Jnani Bhaktha Sri Krishna does not offer any advice as with attainment of Jnanam, he has already attained Jivanmukthi and for all purposes he is one with Him though he may continue in the body to exhaust Prarabhdha karma.  This Sri Krishna  has hinted earlier in ch, 7 sloka 18:

Udaaraah sarva evaite jnani twaatmaiva me matam;

Aasthitah sa hi yuktaatmaa maamevaanuttamaam gatim.

Noble indeed are all these (all the bhakthas); but I consider Jnani bhaktha as My very Self; for, steadfast in mind, he is established in Me alone as the supreme goal.

It is no wonder that with its practical approach, Gita has been highly praised not only by eminent Indians like Mahathma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Abdul Kalam, etc. but also by eminent foreigners like Aldous Huxley, Henry David Thoreau, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, and Herman Hesse.

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