Taittiriya Upanishad

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) : Happy Ram Navami. Greetings on the auspicious Ramanavami day! May Lord Shri Ramchandra bestow His grace and blessings on all of us. ========================================================================= Thursday, March 30,  2023. 07:30. Chapter 2: The Atman -4. Chapter 3: Ishvara and Jiva-1 ========================================================================= Chapter 2: The Atman -4. The universe was an effect of the Atman. It does not stand in the position of a cause, outside us, stimulating our senses to activity, as it happens to us today. The presence of an object stimulates our senses and the mind, and then we become conscious of the object. Then we establish a relationship with the world outside. The world is first, and we come afterwards here in this individual, empirical state. But there, it was not like that. The world was subsequent; and here, we become the consequents. Now, this is a very crucial point where we have to ver...

======================================================================== Friday, March 17,  2023. 07:00. Chapter 2: The Atman -3. ========================================================================= There was a very dramatic action of God, as it were—a real drama He enacted before Himself, because there was no audience before Him. He was the director, He was the dramatis personae, and He was the audience. It is very strange! He immediately visualised Himself as the all: “Aham idam sarvam asmi”—I am this all. This universe of manifested effects is myself—naturally, because the whole effect is constituted of the substance of this ultimate cause. “I am this all.” It is as if the clay is telling, “I am all the pots”; the wood is telling, “I am all the tables, I am all the chairs, I am all the furniture.” Quite true, and it is very interesting indeed! Every effect that has come out of a single cause is that cause only. So the cause is affirming itself in every effect: “I am this al...

========================================================================= Saturday, March 04,  2023. 06:30. Chapter 2: The Atman -2. ====================================================================== The Atman alone was. “Atma va idam eka evagra asit, nanyat kin cana misat,” says the Aitareya Upanishad at the very commencement. The Atman existed as the unparalleled Being, and it became the cause of the manifested elements. We have the great division of the elements as ether, air, fire, water and earth, in all their densities or levels of expression. There is a causal condition, a subtle condition and a gross condition. This was manifested. But the Absolute is never disconnected from them at any time; it always maintains a lien over everything that it has created. It enters the great objects of a cosmical nature, and this is what we call the immanence of God. The Creator does not stand as an extra-cosmic substance unrelated to its creation. The Upanishad rules out totally any co...

======================================================================== Monday, February 20, 2023. 06:30. Chapter 2: The Atman -1. ========================================================================= This final substance is constituted of the essence of everything, and it is our very Self. It is called the Atman. It is the Atman because it is the root substance of all things which are in the position of an effect. The Atman is the substance of everyone and everything. It is the Total Substance of all created beings, and so it is called Brahman. The Total Substance is Brahman, and the same thing conceived as the essence of particular beings is known as the Atman. Even as there cannot be a cause behind the final cause, there cannot be an Atman behind the Atman, for the very basic substance is what is called the Atman. The substance should be ultimate, and the Atman is such. The ultimate in us is the Atman. The ultimate in the cosmos is Brahman. There cannot be anything other than t...

========================================================================= Saturday, February 04, 2023. 06:30. Chapter 1: Introduction - 7. ========================================================================= Deductive reasoning is the other way round; it is argument from the general to the particular. For example, ‘all men are mortal' is the theory. We know very well that everyone dies. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal by nature. This is the way of argument from the general to the particular. From the general concept of all humanity being mortal, we come to the conclusion that Socrates must also be mortal, since he is also a man. This is to give an idea of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning. Philosophy is mostly inductive, especially from the point of Western thought. Western philosophers are very much inclined to the inductive way of thinking. They cannot suddenly jump to generals, inasmuch as there are great controversies concerning the nature of the...

========================================================================= Friday, January 20, 2022. 06:30. Chapter 1: Introduction - 6. ========================================================================= VIDEO :  What you will be in your next birth? ========================================================================= Two of the important Upanishads are the Aitareya and the Taittiriya, which are related to each other in a way, and coextensive in content—the one emphasising one aspect of the matter, and the other a coordinated theme. The Aitareya and the Taittiriya Upanishads speak of the same theme, but from two different points of view. They try to answer the question of life by reference to causes. This is a very proper attitude, no doubt. We know very well that every question, when it is attempted to be answered, brings us to its causative factors. Why is there a disease? Why is a person sick? We ask questions of this kind. In reply, we try to find out the present caus...

========================================================================= Thursday, January 05, 2022. 06:30. Chapter 1: Introduction -5. ======================================================================== The whole objective universe is the effect. Why do we call it an effect? Because the universe has a tendency to move forward through the process of evolution. We would never see one atom in this world lying static without movement. There is a motion of everything towards something of which there is no proper idea at the present moment. Rivers are flowing, the sun and the moon and the stars are active, and we are more active; the whole world is busy with doing something. The astronomical universe and the subatomic world are active, moving vibrantly. All seem to be ever engaged for some purpose which they have not yet fulfilled. If the purpose had been fulfilled, there would be no activity afterwards. The very fact that everything in nature seems to be busily doing something is an ...