This Upanishad is incorporated in the Samaveda. It has 8
sections, the first 5 dealing with various Upasanas or Forms of
approaching the Ideal and the last 3 explaining the manner of
acquisition of true Knowledge. Purity of the Consciousness is the
essential pre-requisite for Upaasana. Single-minded concentration
is essential for Knowledge of Brahmam. These can be got by Karma
and Upasana; thus is Brahmajnana won. That is the reason why in
the Sastras, Karma is first described and Upasana next and Jnanam
last.
In the First Chapter of the Chandogya, the Upasanas which form
part of the Sama Veda are detailed. In the Second, the entire
ritual of Sama is described. In the Third, the Upasana of Surya
known as Madhuvidya, the Gayathri Upasana, and the Sandilya Vidya
are all given. In the Fourth, the Samvarga Vidya, and the
sixteen-phased Brahmavidya are taught. In the Fifth, the three
Vidyas, Prana, Panchagni and Vaiswanara are elaborated.
Uddalaka taught his son, Swethakethu, that knowledge which if
known, all things can be known. The knowledge of mud and of gold
will give the knowledge of all pots and pans, as well as of all
bracelets and necklaces. The mud and the gold are the truth; their
modifications and transformations are temporary, mere name-forms.
So too, the world, like the pot and the bracelet, is just an
effect, the cause being "Sath". Sath means "Is-ness" is common to
all objects; the pot "is", the "bracelet" "is". "Is-ness" becomes
manifest through association with the pots and pans, the bracelets
and necklaces. The "is-ness" may not be apparent to gross
intelligences, for, it needs subtlety to realise it. The rosy
colour which is manifested in the rose "is", even in the absence
of the flower.
Similarly, the "is-ness" that is the universal characteristic
of all objects persists even in the absence of objects. Prior to
creation, there was only just this 'is-ness'. There was no void
then; there was this "is-ness" everywhere! When the "is" was
reflected in Maya or Primal Activity, it resulted in Iswara who
partook of that activity to manifest as the Universe with the
three elements of Fire, Earth and Wind. All creation is but the
permutation of these three.
The line of Uddalaka is steeped in the study of the Vedas and
so it is famed as a noble high-born family. But Swethakethu, the
son, was wasting precious years after Upanayana in idleness,
without using them for Vedic Study. This caused concern for
Uddalaka, for he who neglects the study of the Vedas, being born
as a Brahmin, does not deserve that appellation. He can only be
called Brahmanabandhu, one who has Brahmins as his relatives! So,
Uddalaka took him to task and forced him to go to a teacher.
There, by the exercise of his superior intelligence, he mastered
before he grew up to 24 the Four Vedas with their meanings. He
returned, proud and pompous, swelling with egoism, declaring that
there was no one to equal him in scholarship and righteousness.
In order prick his pride, Uddalaka asked him one day, "You have
become haughty that you have no equal in learning and virtue.
Well, did you seek from your Teacher the Message that reveals the
Absolute, the lesson that only the practice of the Sastras can
impart, the message which when imagined makes you imagine all
things imagined? Did you learn that? That Message would have shown
you the Atma which is the fulfillment of all Study and
Scholarship."
The Atma is the base of individuals like Swethakethu. The pure
Consciousness becomes apparently limited into a variety of
individuals. In deep sleep, the variety disappears and each
individual lapses back into this "is-ness". Then, all the manifold
activities, and experiences, like, "I am Ranga", "I am Ganga", "I
am father", "I am son" etc., are destroyed. The sweetness and
fragrance of many flowers are collected and fused into one
uniformly sweet honey, where all the manifold individualities are
destroyed. The names Ganga, Krishna, Indus are all lost when they
enter the sea.
They are thereafter called "the sea". The Jivi who is eternal
and immortal is born again and again, as a transitory mortal; he
continues to accumulate activity, prompted by inherited impulses
and the activity produces consequences, which he must shoulder and
suffer. It is the body that decays and dies, not the Jivi or the
Individualised Soul. The banyan seed will sprout even if it is
trampled upon. The salt placed in water, though not available for
the grasp, is recognisable by the taste!
The Jivi, befogged by Ajnana, is unable to recognise his
Reality. Discrimination will reveal the truth. A millionaire is
kidnapped and left alone in a jungle but he discovers the way out
and comes back into his home. So also, the Jivi is restored to his
millions! Once the Jivi reaches its Real Status, it is free from
all the change and chance that is involved in Samsara, or the Flow
of Time and Space, of Name and Form. If he does not reach that
Status, then, like the happy sleeper who wakes into the confusion
of the day, he will be born into the world of decay and death.
Brahmam is described as Ekameva-adwithiyam; all this visible
world is denoted as Thath-swarupa or the Form of Brahmam; it can
be realised by Sagunopasana, or Worship of the limited qualified
Divinity, just as Sathyakama and others did. The path of
Brahmopasana is called the Sushumna Marga also. The Omnipresent
Brahmam can be enclosed and discovered in the firmament of the
heart! It is the capital of that Raja. Since He is seated there,
the heart is called Brahmavesma, or the House of Brahmam. That
firmament cannot, of course, limit or set boundaries to the
illimitable Brahmam!
Yogis who are turned away from the objective world can attain
the Parabrahmam, with Its Splendour of Realised Knowledge, in the
pure clear sky of their hearts. The worlds are fixed as the spokes
of the wheel in the hub of Brahmam. Decline, decay and death do
not affect It. Since the Supreme Entity can achieve whatever it
decides on, It is called Sathyakaama and Sathyasankalpa. Now, what
exactly is the Parabrahmam? We can know it by a single test. That
which remains, after everything is negated as 'Not this,' 'Not
that' - that is Brahmam.
This is the Truth that all aspirants seek. Attaining It, they
get the status of emperors and can travel wherever they like. The
Jnani who is established in the pure Reality sees all desires that
dawn in his heart as expressions of that Truth only.
The Atma transcends all the worlds. It is uncontaminated. He
who is aware of only the Atma is ever in Bliss. The Brahmacharya
stage is an important step for attaining Atmaic Wisdom. Yajnas,
fasts and other vows are also equally helpful. The solar energy
surges through the countless nerves of the body; the senses merge
in the mind at the moment of death; the Jivi who has realised that
it was all this, while limited by the mind, then escapes into the
Hridayakasa through the nerves. At last, on the point of death,
the Jivi moves out of the Sushumna into the solar rays and from
thence to the Suryaloka itself. The journey does not end there. It
reaches out into Brahmaloka too.
But, the Jivi who is caught in the mire of Ajnana, who is
identified with the mind and its vagaries, escapes through the ear
or eye or other senses and falls into lokas, where Karma rules.
The feeling of content and joy one gets in deep sleep is the
result of Ajnana persisting in the individual.
The Chiththa is the source and support of Resolution. All
resolutions, decisions and plans are the products of the Chiththa;
they are of its form; they originate there; why they are
registered there. That is when death overtakes a scholar of all
Sastras, he becomes but the equal of ordinary men and his fate is
the same as that of the Ajnani. The Chiththa has to be saturated
with Brahmic endeavour; then only will it be an instrument of
Liberation, freed from the shackles of Sankalapa. The mind etc.,
cannot free itself, as the Chiththa can. The Chiththa
discriminates between resolutions; it tests them as duty and
not-duty and justifies with proper reasons the classification it
has made. Once this selection is made, the word utters it, the
name signifies it. The special sound-forms or manthras incorporate
the resolutions, accepted as duty, by the purified Chiththa; the
rites become one with the manthras. There can be no proper Karma
without Chiththa.
Next, about Dhyana, which is even superior to Chiththa. Dhyana
is the fixing of the Buddhi on the Divine, when it transcends such
inferior helps as images, idols or saligrams. In Dhyana, all
agitations cease, all modifications are unnoticed. On account of
the effect of the Thamoguna, and even of the Rajoguna, all created
things like the waters, the hills and mountains, the stars and
planets, men with the spark of the Divine in them, all are
agitation-bound, change-bound.
Vijnana is better than Dhyana. Jnana based on scholarship
steeped in the Sastras is referred to as Vijnana. It is attained
by Dhyana and, hence, it is more valuable than Dhyana.
Superior to Vijnana is Balam ... Strength, Fortitude, Vigour.
It illumines the objective world, it sharpens the Prathibha or
Intuition. Prathibha is the power by which you can sense the
Consciousness in all knowledge objects. Now there is one thing
superior even to Prathibha: Annam, Food, Sustenance. It is the
support of life; deprived of it for ten days man becomes powerless
to grasp anything. It is life that makes possible study, service
of the teacher, listening to his teaching, cogitation over what he
has taught, and the earning of Thejas.
Thejas or Illumination is higher than Intuition, Prathibha or
Food. Thejas is Fire, heat and light. Thejas creates water and
water produces food. Thejas can make even Wind lighter. It shines
as lightning and sounds as thunder.
Akasa is superior to Thejas, remember. It is through Akasa that
sounds are transmitted and heard. Love and play are products of
Akasa. Seeds sprout on account of Akasa.
Now, consider this. Smarana, memory, is superior to Akasa.
Without it, all experience is meaningless, all knowledge is waste,
all effort is purposeless. Nothing can be experienced without the
help of memory. Objects like the Akasa will be recognised in its
absence. It can be said that memory creates the Akasa and other
objects.
Thus analysing the value and relative importance of objects and
powers, man must give up identification of self with the physical
body and recognise his real Reality. Such a man rises to the
height of an Uttamapurusha, the noblest of men, laughing, playing
and moving without regard to the needs or comforts of the body.
The body-bound man is caught in Samsara; for the one who is free
from that bondage, Swaswarupa is the field of activity. The wind,
the lightning and the thunder have no permanent existence. When
the rainy season comes on, they appear in the sky and get merged
in it. So too the particularised Jivi appears as separate for a
time against the background of Brahmam and gets merged in It, at
last.
This Ashtaadhyayi Upanishad teaches the series of evolved
objects from Hiranyagarbha, Kasyapaprajapathi, Manu and Manushya;
this lineage and the lessons to ennoble it are vital for mankind.
It has to be learnt by sons and students from father and teachers.