The Material Foundation of Existence on Earth - Sri Aurobindo.
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22/03/2020.
Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmananda Valli, Chapter Two (part 1):
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1.
#“Verily all sorts and races of creatures that have their refuge upon earth, are begotten from food; thereafter they live also by food and ’tis to food again that they return at the end and last. For food is the eldest of created things and therefore they name it the Green Stuff of the Universe. Verily they who worship the Eternal as food, attain the mastery of food to the uttermost; for food is the eldest of created things and therefore they name it the Green Stuff of the Universe. From food all creatures are born and being born they increase (Or, grow) by food. Lo, it is eaten and it eateth; yea, it devoureth the creatures that feed upon it, therefore it is called food from the eating.”
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2.
#The material basis and foundation of existence is referenced here as “food”.
##The Rishi sets up a paradigm in this chapter which carries through the rest of the Taittiriya Upanishad as it systematically explores the various sheathes or planes that interweave to manifest the universal creation.
###The paradigm searches for that by which something is born, that which sustains it in existence, and to which it returns at its time of ending.
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3.
#The Upanishad also makes a significant statement in indicating that those who focus on “food” (Matter) as the Eternal “attain the mastery of food to the uttermost”.
##We can see this very thing in the focus of Western science over the last several hundred years on Matter and the results that have come forth in the form of powers of action and technological breakthroughs in most cases undreamed of in recorded history.
###In fact, as this focus on Matter has developed in the West, it has led to a boundary whereby scientists have begun to discover more subtle principles that activate and even create Matter, and thus, they are following up on the paradigm of the Rishis as we shall see in the systematic exposition of the Taittiriya Upanishad.
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4.
#Sri M. P. Pandit notes: “Matter is the one reality that strikes the eye and the seeker, says the Upanishad, must look upon this Matter as Brahman itself…. Now the Brahman-Being or Self which is related to and presides over this manifestation of the Physical principle in the Reality — annam of the Upanishads — is called the Annamaya Purusha.”
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5.
#Sri Aurobindo, in On Yoga (as referenced by M. P. Pandit): “Poised in the principle of Matter it (Spirit, Self or Being) becomes the physical self of a physical universe in the reign of a physical Nature; Spirit is then absorbed in its experience of Matter; it is dominated by the ignorance and inertia of the tamasic Power proper to physical existence.
##In the individual it becomes a materialised soul, annamaya purusa, whose life and mind have developed out of the ignorance and inertia of the material principle and are subject to their fundamental limitations.
###For life in Matter works in dependence on the body; mind in Matter works in dependence on the body and on the vital or nervous being; spirit itself in Matter is limited and divided in its self-relation and its power by the limitations and divisions of this matter-governed and life-driven mind.
####This materialised soul lives bound to the physical body and its narrow superficial external consciousness, and it takes normally the experiences of its physical organs, its senses, its matter-bound life and mind, with at most some limited spiritual glimpses as the whole truth of existence.”
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=======================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22/03/2020.
Sri Aurobindo translates Taittiriya Upanishad, Brahmananda Valli, Chapter Two (part 1):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
#“Verily all sorts and races of creatures that have their refuge upon earth, are begotten from food; thereafter they live also by food and ’tis to food again that they return at the end and last. For food is the eldest of created things and therefore they name it the Green Stuff of the Universe. Verily they who worship the Eternal as food, attain the mastery of food to the uttermost; for food is the eldest of created things and therefore they name it the Green Stuff of the Universe. From food all creatures are born and being born they increase (Or, grow) by food. Lo, it is eaten and it eateth; yea, it devoureth the creatures that feed upon it, therefore it is called food from the eating.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
#The material basis and foundation of existence is referenced here as “food”.
##The Rishi sets up a paradigm in this chapter which carries through the rest of the Taittiriya Upanishad as it systematically explores the various sheathes or planes that interweave to manifest the universal creation.
###The paradigm searches for that by which something is born, that which sustains it in existence, and to which it returns at its time of ending.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
#The Upanishad also makes a significant statement in indicating that those who focus on “food” (Matter) as the Eternal “attain the mastery of food to the uttermost”.
##We can see this very thing in the focus of Western science over the last several hundred years on Matter and the results that have come forth in the form of powers of action and technological breakthroughs in most cases undreamed of in recorded history.
###In fact, as this focus on Matter has developed in the West, it has led to a boundary whereby scientists have begun to discover more subtle principles that activate and even create Matter, and thus, they are following up on the paradigm of the Rishis as we shall see in the systematic exposition of the Taittiriya Upanishad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
#Sri M. P. Pandit notes: “Matter is the one reality that strikes the eye and the seeker, says the Upanishad, must look upon this Matter as Brahman itself…. Now the Brahman-Being or Self which is related to and presides over this manifestation of the Physical principle in the Reality — annam of the Upanishads — is called the Annamaya Purusha.”
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5.
#Sri Aurobindo, in On Yoga (as referenced by M. P. Pandit): “Poised in the principle of Matter it (Spirit, Self or Being) becomes the physical self of a physical universe in the reign of a physical Nature; Spirit is then absorbed in its experience of Matter; it is dominated by the ignorance and inertia of the tamasic Power proper to physical existence.
##In the individual it becomes a materialised soul, annamaya purusa, whose life and mind have developed out of the ignorance and inertia of the material principle and are subject to their fundamental limitations.
###For life in Matter works in dependence on the body; mind in Matter works in dependence on the body and on the vital or nervous being; spirit itself in Matter is limited and divided in its self-relation and its power by the limitations and divisions of this matter-governed and life-driven mind.
####This materialised soul lives bound to the physical body and its narrow superficial external consciousness, and it takes normally the experiences of its physical organs, its senses, its matter-bound life and mind, with at most some limited spiritual glimpses as the whole truth of existence.”
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