Taittiriya Upanishad - 9. Swami Krishnananda


Thursday, June 18, 2020.
Post-9.

1.
The cosmic sheaths can be conceived, and they are really conceived many a time when we speak of Brahman becoming Ishvara, Ishvara becoming Hiranyagarbha, Hiranyagarbha becoming Virat, and so on. 

These sheaths in us – the physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal – are the inverted forms of the otherwise-vertical, we may say, forms of the cosmic sheaths which are in the form of the five elements – earth, water, fire, air and ether, going upwards from below. 

The Ultimate satyam jnanam anantam is negated, as it were, in this creation, because the Universal being is absent in all that is external. The word 'external' contradicts anything that can be considered as universal. In a way, God is denied in this world. 

We cannot see God anywhere; we see only particulars and spread-out things which are external in nature. Nevertheless, as the Isavasya Upanishad warns us, the so-called negated, abolished existence of the Supreme Reality is also hiddenly present as the Atman behind the earth, the Atman behind water, fire, air and ether. 

There is an Atman even behind space and time. Various degrees of the manifestation of universality can be seen in the operation of the five elements. The Universal is least manifest in the earth, more manifest in water, still more in fire, still more in air and still more in space, so that space looks almost universal, but yet it is not universal because it is externalised.


2.
In a similar manner, in our own personality also, there is a degree of the manifestation of externality and materiality. The physical body is the most material and the most external, visible thing among other things. Very hard substance is this physical body and very external; we can see it with the eyes. The internal externalities are not so easily contactable, but yet are conceivable and observable through analysis. 

The so-called physicality and externality of the body is made to feel its existence, its very life itself, by the movement of a vibration inside, called prana shakti. When the prana operates through the cells of the body, we feel that the body is alive; every little fingertip, every toe is alive. It is alive, so-called, because of the prana pervading every part of the body. 

If the prana is withdrawn, there is paralytic stroke or even death of that particular part. If the prana is entirely withdrawn, the so-called living body becomes a corpse. It becomes dead matter – matter per se.

To be continued ...


=============================================================

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taittiriya Upanishad - 5. Swami Krishnananda

Image
========================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 22/04/2020. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. *Tasmat va etasmat atmana akasas sambhutah (Tait. 2.1.1) : *"From this Universal Atman, space emanated" – as it were. *This is something hard for us to conceive at the present moment. **Space is actually the negation of the infinity of Brahman. Infinity does not mean extension or dimension – but space is extension, dimension, distance. So, immediately a contradiction is introduced at the very beginning of the concept of creation. **God is negated, as it were, for various reasons, the moment creation is conceived, one reason being that the creation appears as an external manifestation, whereas God – Brahman – is the Universal Existence. ***We know the difference between universality and externality. #The moment there is the concept of space, there i
Read more

A Systematic Practice for Developing Knowledge of Brahman : Sri Aurobindo.

Image
======================================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30/03/2020. Introduction to the Bhrigu Valli of the Taittiriya Upanishad : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Rishis of the Upanishads were seeking, not an intellectual idea of the Brahman, but a knowledge by identity that transcended the structures formulated by the mind.  The Taittiriya Upanishad systematically moves from an overview of categories and the building blocks for knowledge in the Shikshavalli, to an exposition of the nature of the universal manifestation and its underlying basis in the Brahmananda Valli, to a practice and methodology for obtaining direct knowledge in the Bhrigu Valli. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more

Lesson on The Taittiriya Upanishad - 6. Swami Krishnananda.

Image
 ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Thursday, June 28, 2022. 20:30. Post-6. ======================================================================== So our individuality, as a symbol of conscious existence, is a contribution; it comes from the prana, the vital energy that is operating within this body. But the prana is operating because of the thoughts of the mind. We can direct the prana, or the energy, in different directions by the concentration of thought of the mind. If the mind thinks only of one particular thing, the pranic energy is directed to that particular thing only. Little children look beautiful because of the equal distribution of pranic energy in their bodies. They do not have sensory desires projected through any particular organ. As the child grows and grows, he becomes less beautiful to look at because the senses begin to appropriate much of the pranic ener
Read more