Pranam
There are two paths; In chandogya upanishad our ancestors spoke about
the uttara dakshina path after death in detail; its long; if I cut it, it
might be difficult; so maxima-minima I tried. I hope many would read this
calmly. And this one is preached by a Kshatriya to a Brahmana Gouthaman.
And the son shouts at dad for not teaching him well. Its interesting and
those who wish to extend may go to Ramakrishna mutt or sivananda for
chandogya upanishad. K R IRS 21421
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*The Chhandogya Upanishad **Chapter One: Vaishvanara-Vidya**THE
PANCHAGNI-VIDYA*
*1 *This section which we are about to commence, is a treatise on a
particular method of meditation called Panchagni-Vidya, the knowledge of
the Five Fires, by which the Upanishad means the various processes of
manifestation, or, we may say, evolution, it being one's bondage and the
way in which the cycle of transmigration revolves. There is a coming and
going, descending and ascending in this *samsara-chakra,* or the revolving
wheel of bondage. How it happens, and how one can be free from it, what are
the methods to be employed for the purpose of freeing oneself from the
clutches of this involuntary law that imposes itself upon us and binds us
to its own mandate so that we do not seem to have any say in the matter of
births and deaths or even the experiences that we have to pass
through—these are our themes.
2 While the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is more transcendent in its approach
and provides techniques of meditation which are mostly above the reaches of
the ordinary mind, the Chhandogya Upanishad takes us along the path of
ordinary experience, and then, finally, lifts us above into the empyrean of
supreme transcendence. Often, scholars have held the opinion that the
Brihadaranyaka is *aprapancha* in its view and the Chhandogya is
*saprapancha,* which means to say that the Brihadaranyaka concerns itself
with the ultimate Absolute and every solution is from the point of view of
the Absolute only. So, it has taken the final step in setting about finding
a remedy for the problems of life, while the normal man has also been taken
into consideration in the Chhandogya, though the ultimate aim is the same,
here also. Thus, the Brihadaranyaka and the Chhandogya form, in a way,
complementary aspects of a single study.
3 The Upanishad, in these meditations, tries to introduce us into a *new
type of knowledge* which is the solution to the sorrows that are incumbent
upon being subject to the laws of this natural phenomenon. Then the king
posed five questions.
The first question was: "Do you know where people go after they depart from
this world? When people die, where do they go? Do you know the answer to
this question, my dear boy?" The boy said, "I do not know. I cannot answer
this question." Then the king asked another question, "Do you know
wherefrom people come when they are reborn into this world?" The boy said,
"I do not know this also." "Do you know, have you any idea of the paths
along which the soul ascends, the paths being known as the *devayana* and
the *pitriyana*? Do you know the difference between these two paths? Why is
the one distinct from the other?" The boy said, "I do not know the answer
to this question also."
Then the fourth question: "Why is it that the yonder world is not filled
with people and overflowing? Always, the world is able to contain people
and it is never flooded with them. What is the reason for this?" "This,
also, I do not know." Now the fifth question: "Do you know what are the
five oblations that are offered and how the fifth oblation as liquid
becomes a human being?" "This, too, I do not know," said the boy.
Then, the king said, "Why did you say that you are instructed and
well-read? How is it possible for one to regard oneself as properly
educated if one cannot answer even these questions? What made you think
that you are educated? What is it that your father taught you if he has not
told you these things?" The boy was humbled, his pride vanished, he began
to realise that there are things which he could not understand.
4 These answers which the king gives are certain meditations. They are
processes of the attunement of the mind to higher levels of being. They are
called *vidyas* because they are specific types of knowledge. *Vidya* also
means a meditation, a contemplation. A higher knowledge is called
*vidya,* something
distinct from ordinary knowledge, scientific or artistic knowledge, and the
like.
The superiority of the knowledge arises on account of the fact of its being
more inclusive in its character than all the other known branches of
learning. Every form of learning in this world is isolated in the sense
that it bears no connection to the other branches of learning. A person who
is proficient in one branch need not be proficient in another, and,
therefore, there is a limitedness of such knowledge. Our knowledge is
finite; it is not all-comprehensive. Whatever be the education of a person,
he cannot become all-knowing. There is something which he does not know,
which keeps him subject to laws of which he has no knowledge. What binds us
is the ignorance of something which exists somewhere, but about which we
have no information whatsoever. Wherever there is ignorance, there is also
bondage in respect of that subject or that circumstance. When we have
knowledge of a thing, we are not bound to that thing, we have a control
over that thing. The greater is the knowledge that we have about anything,
the greater also is the capacity we have in making it subservient to our
own selves. But, the more is the ignorance we have about a thing, the more
are we subservient to its laws. The world binds us; the law of gravitation
limits us; the law of Nature restricts us, because we do not have an
adequate knowledge of these laws. We do not know how they operate and why it is
that we have been made subject to these laws. What is wrong with us? We do
not know this, though we know that there is something fundamentally wrong
with every one of us, on account of which the whole world keeps us in
subjection. We are under the thumb of every law in the world. The reason is
that we are apparently outside the realm of the operation of this law. We
are like exiles cast out into the winds, and the law set around our necks,
as it were, compels us to follow its dictates. We cannot overcome the law
of gravitation, to give only one instance. We are slaves of this law. We
can fall down and we can break our legs; we can get drowned; we can be
burnt; anything can happen to us. Our very life on earth is based on and is
decided by that law. But this happens on account of certain patent
limitations in our life. There is some sort of a finitude in our own bodies
and the entire personality of ours. Our fate is the same in respect of any
law that operates anywhere. We cannot think things which are not purely
sensory or physical; we cannot visualise things which are super-physical;
we cannot understand any aspect of reality which is not in space, which is
not in time and which is not causally related. And outside the realm of our
own organic personality, we cannot have a real knowledge. We are finites,
we are bound, we are limited in every way.
5 The Five Fires, called the *Panchagnis*, mentioned here, are not
actually fires in the physical sense. There are various stages of
manifestation. Here, a specific type of manifestation is under
consideration for the purpose of meditation. The Upanishad tells us this
secret of cosmic interconnectedness and involution of factors which are
unknown to the senses and unthinkable to the mind. That is why we say the
*brahmanda* is in the *pindanda*—the macrocosm is in the microcosm Here
is the philosophical background of the *vidya*, called Panchagni-Vidya. The
cause of a particular event which is ordinarily regarded as normal,
physical, personal, social, visible, tangible, etc., this particular thing,
has a transcendent secret behind it. This is the great point made out in
the Panchagni-Vidya. *The king, Pravahana Jaivali,* in his mode of
instruction, speaks to Gautama, the sage, initiating him into this mystery
of the Panchagni-Vidya. Based on this concept of the relationship of our
life with the activity of Nature outside, the Upanishad tells us that our
actions are like an oblation offered in a sacrifice. Our activities are not
mere impotent movements of the physical body or the limbs; they are
effective interferences in the way of Nature. When we pour *ghee* or
*charu* into
the flaming fire in a sacrifice, we are naturally modifying the nature of
the burning of the fire. Much depends on what we pour into it. If we throw
mud into it, well, something, indeed, happens to the fire. If we pour
*ghee* into
it, something else happens. So, likewise, is the activity of the human
being or, for the matter of that, any other being. The interference by a
human activity in the working of Nature is an important point to consider
in the performance of the sacrifice. If we coordinate ourselves and
cooperate with the activity of Nature, it becomes a *yajna,* but if we
interfere with it and adversely affect its normal function, it will also
set up a reaction of a similar character. Then, we would be the losers.
6 As we are the causes of this *apurva*, or the effect of the actions,
we would be the reapers of the fruit of these actions. So the *apurva,* or
the result of the actions, becomes the determining factor of what would
happen to us even after we depart from this world. Sometimes its effect is
felt in this very life. If our actions are very intense, either good or
bad, the results are experienced in this life itself; if they are mild,
they materialise in a later life. We offer our actions as oblations in this
sacrifice of natural phenomena. In this fire, the contemplative sacrifice
of rainfall, gods offer the oblation of their action. The *bhuta-sukshma*,
as they are called, or the subtle elementary potencies, are the *Soma-raja,* or
King Soma, mentioned here. These are all difficult terms to translate and
more difficult to understand. They have a highly esoteric meaning; they are
not exactly as they appear on the surface. The subtle potencies which our
actions produced get mixed up with the elemental potencies called
*tanmatras*—*shabda* (sound), *sparsa* (touch), *rupa* (colour), *rasa*
(taste), *gandha* (smell). And then it is that we get involved in the
higher realms; we get vitally connected with our actions for reasons
obvious, and our actions are related to the consequences they produce—
*apurva*. The *apurva* gets mixed up with the elemental subtle forces
called *tanmatras*, and so we are involved in the *tanmatras* in this
manner. Then it is that we are taken up to the higher realm by the
rocket-like force exerted by our actions which takes us up into the higher
realm after we depart from this world. These actions, these effects of
actions, these vibrations that these consequences of actions produce, are a
great drama indeed that takes place in the heaven. There is a cycle, as it
were, a wheel rotating in the form of give-and-take between the gods in the
heaven and the human beings here. We give something and we are given back
something. Nature gives us what we give to it in the form of our own deeds
in this world. We do not get what we do not deserve, and we cannot get,
also, what we have not given actually.
7 "The Earth is, indeed, the Fire, O Gautama. Of that, the Year is the
fuel, the Sky is the smoke, the Night is the flame, the Quarters are the
embers, the Intermediary Quarters are the sparks. "Into this Fire, the
gods offer the oblation of rain. Out of that oblation, arises food." Rain
falls on this earth. The earth, as the fire, is itself an object of
meditation. We contemplate the whole earth as the fire in another stage of
the Cosmic Sacrifice. The earth is a sacrificial fire. The productive
capacity of the earth depends upon another factor, viz., the cyclic changes
produced by the process of time. The time factor has an important part to
play here. What we call time, of course, for the purpose of our
understanding, may be compared to the effect produced by the rotation of
the earth on its axis and the revolution of the earth round the sun, and
the effect that the sun produces, consequently, upon the earth. This is the
essence of time for us, and this is what is called the *samvatsara*, or the
year in popular style. The year is the time factor involved in the capacity
of the earth to produce foodstuff. And because it is the inciting factor in
the production of foodstuff in the world, it is called *samit*, or fuel,
for it is what causes the blazing of the fire of the sacrifice. How do we
contemplate, then? Just as smoke rises up from the fire, we contemplate the
whole sky as if it is a dome that is rising from the earth. When we look
up, it appears as if the sky is rising dome-like above the earth, and we
may contemplate as if it is a smoke rising from the fire of the earth. And,
as flames rise from the fire in a sacrifice, the fire is the cause of the
rise of the flame, the particular phenomenon called night—we may include
the day also together with it because the two are the obverse and the
reverse of the same coin—is the result of a particular activity of the
earth. We know why there is night and why there is day. This happens
because the earth does something.
8 The philosophy of this *vidya,* the Panchagni-Vidya, is that such is
the meditation of these processes. We should not regard anything as a local
event, local structure, local body, local individual. These do not exist;
and the idea that they exist is the source of bondage. We are bound by our
erroneous notions of things, not by the things themselves, but the wrong
idea we have about their relationship mutually or to other things. We have
notions about things based entirely on sense-perception, not on the
intuitional insight into the background of the occurrence of events. What
do the senses tell us? They can report exactly what they can abstract
concretely in the form of bodies of perception from the vast reservoir of
information. The reservoir, as a background, is unperceivable to the eyes,
not even cognisable to the ordinary mind. But the meditation proposes to
introduce a technique of envisaging the whole universe as responsible for
the manifestation of everything, so that *everything is all things, and
anything is everywhere*. There is no such thing as a particular individual
or a particular body. This is the meditation which frees us from the
bondage of attachment to particular things. If this meditation could be
conducted effectively throughout one's life, there would be a universal
perception of everything. When you look at any particular object you will
see the whole world in it, and not merely one person in front. There is no
such thing as one person; that does not exist. The description of the
causes with their effects, in these passages of the Upanishad, is therefore
intended to take us above the level of ordinary sense-prerception and open
the gate of a new knowledge altogether, behind the visible effects which
are the so-called objects of sensation, perception and cognition. Bondage
is due to the connection of our consciousness, or the soul, we may say,
with the report of the senses, which is confirmed by the activity of the
mind and the intellect. The mind, the intellect and the senses work
together in collaboration in giving us a wrong idea about things. The first
mistake is committed by the senses. The mind and the intellect only
corroborate and confirm in a more synthesised manner this report of the
senses. The report is wrong in the sense that it does not take into
consideration the invisible factors involved in the production of an
effect. The clouds do not gather in the sky suddenly. There are many causes
which are beyond one's comprehension, which come together into action for
the production of a single effect called the appearance of the clouds in
the sky, and the fall of the rain, etc. So is the case with everything. So
is the case with anything that happens anywhere in the world; so is the
case with anything that appears as an effect or a person in the world; so
is anything, whatever anyone can think of in one's mind this world.
9 These are the oblations symbolically offered in the sacrifice of
meditation called the Panchagni-Vidya. This is a secret which the
Kshatriyas knew and the Brahmanas did not know. King Pravahana Jaivali was
reluctant to part with this knowledge because it was a guarded secret for
him and for his community. And now he exposed this knowledge to the
Brahmana known as Gautama who came to him as a student, and having
explained in detail these mystical doctrines of meditation—the
Panchagni-Vidya—he concluded by saying that the food oblation offered in
the Fire of Man, which gets converted into the seed, is what rises up as
the child by birth. This was one of the questions the king put to the boy
who approached him in the court.
The first oblation is the universal vibration in the celestial heaven; that
is the first sacrifice, and that is the first oblation. The second oblation
is in the second sacrifice which is the reverberation of the vibrations in
the celestial region felt in the lower regions of the atmosphere, as the
fall of the rain. The grosser manifestations which are the events that take
place in this world are the third oblation. The fourth sacrifice is of man
himself, who is involved in this entire activity, who consumes the food of
the world and energises himself and produces virility. The fifth oblation
is woman whose union with man brings about the birth of a child. These are
the Five Fires. These Fires are not to be regarded as individual events.
This is the purpose of the *vidya* in the Upanishad. The Fires so-called
are diviner manifestations of a cosmic character, and there is nothing
local, physical, earthly or binding in any of these sacrifices. They are
all processes of a vaster Nature in which the individual is integrally
involved. The conception of the entire process should therefore be one of a
Universal Occurrence, and by an extension of meaning, this is at once a
description of events taking place in any manner, apart from the particular
ones mentioned specifically in these enunciations, in these passages.
The fifth oblation is the immediate cause of the rise of the effect in the
form of the baby that lies in the womb of the mother. Here, the womb of the
mother need not necessarily mean the human mother, though the description
is human, to serve as a sample of the illustration. Any cause which gives
birth to an effect is the mother that produces the child. Now, in the case
of the human being particularly, the child lies in the womb for some
months, say nine or ten months. It sees the light of day and begins to see
things through the senses. It begins to work in the world as an individual,
so-called. Then it lives in the world for so long as it is permitted to
live by the momentum of its actions of previous lives.
There is a determining factor of the span of life of an individual even
when it is in the womb of the mother. It cannot be increased or decreased;
it is set for ever by the particular force of the *apurva*, mentioned
earlier, which becomes responsible for the birth of an individual. There
are causes and causes. All of them join together and pass a resolution, as
it were, in their meeting, as to how long an individual should live. That
is determined by the character of the cumulative effect of the actions
known as the *apurva,* part of which alone is allowed to manifest itself as
what we call *prarabdha-karma* (force which has already fructified into
experience). The *prarabdha* is the cause of everything that we experience
in this life, the length of life, the nature of the experiences through
which we pass, the circumstances into which we are born, etc. All our
pleasures and pains, including length of life, are determined by the
actions we performed earlier, portions of which are allotted for experience
in this particular life, that portion being called the *prarabdha-karma*.
Just because a person is born into this world, it does not mean that he is
dissociated from the prior causes, ultimately. The causes catch hold of the
effects at every level. They can never be freed from connection with their
causes. Even when there is a descent into the lowest level, the connection
with the higher levels is not snapped. It is always there. We may be said
to be aberrant from the realm of God in a sense.
10 When the span of life is finished, there is what we call the death
of the body, the extrication of the *prana* from the individual embodiment.
And these Fires take the individual to the destination to which it is bound
after death. Again, these Fires are there in action; they are never absent
at any time. When the span of life is finished, there is what we call the
death of the body, the extrication of the *prana* from the individual
embodiment. And these Fires take the individual to the destination to which
it is bound after death. Again, these Fires are there in action; they are
never absent at any time. Likewise is the operation of the Five Fires.
Wherever you go, they are there, because, without them nothing can take
place. The Five Fires are nothing but the five degrees of the manifestation
of universal law. So, how can you escape it? Wherever you are, in whatever
realm, in any form of birth whatsoever, these laws operate, and they catch
hold of you, and condition you to certain limited forms of life. Those who
know the secret of this Panchagni-Vidya, those who know the doctrine of the
Five Fires, those who conduct their lives through meditation in this
manner, are liberated from the bondage of *karma*. They pass through the
stages of ascent leading to the higher regions of life, ultimately landing
in *Brahma-loka,* or the realm of the Creator, for the purpose of ultimate
liberation, or salvation; otherwise, there is return, once again, by way of
reincarnation, or rebirth. If you are not to be reborn into this world of
suffering, you cannot live like an animal, thinking like an animal, living
like an animal, seeing like an animal and living a conditioned existence in
the same way as animals live in the jungle. Ignorance of law is no excuse.
You shall be punished with the rod of the inexorable law for any ignorance
of its requirements, and ignorance is nothing but the inability to
visualise the connection that obtains between us and the various causes of
our manifestation throughout the universe. Since no one can claim to have
such knowledge, it appears that everyone is bound to reincarnate in some
form. This is the pitiable consequence of the ignorance of the *jiva*, the
individual, to which reference will be made towards the end of this
section. But those who are fortunate enough to be awakened to the fact of
this divine connection of human life and meditate in this manner through
the Panchagni-Vidya—they shall be taken to the higher regions by diviner
forces, through the Northern Path, or the *uttarayana-marga, the path of
light.*
11 The *archiradi-marga*, or the *devayana*, the Northern Path of the
gods, of the celestials, the path of the liberation of the spirit from the
bondage of *samsara,* is being described. Those who meditate like this,
those who live the spiritual life of knowledge, those who have an insight
into the secret mentioned here in this Upanishad, those who practise
austerity (*tapas*), endowed with the great faith (*shraddha*) in the
efficacy of this knowledge, they rise to the realm of the divine *Agni*, or
the deity of fire, on departing from this world. They are carried to a
higher realm by the deity of the flame, or fire, and from there they are
taken up to the still higher realm of the deity of the day. There, again,
the matter does not end; they go higher up to the realm of the deity which
superintends over the bright half of the lunar month. From there, again,
they go higher up into the realm of the deity of the six months during
which the sun moves to the north. Then they go higher up to the deity which
superintends over the entire year. Then, further, they go to the sun, which
is a very important halting place, as it is said, in the passage of the
soul to liberation. Then the soul goes higher up into the more subtle
regions of experience and enjoyment of a divine a nature, comparable to
cool lunar radiance. Then comes the realm which the Upanishad calls the
flash of lightning represented by its deity. This is not the lightning that
we see in the sky, but the flash of the lightning of the knowledge of
Reality. We are on the borderland of the Creator, as it were. There the
light flashes and then the individuality is about to drop. Effort ceases
there and some other law begins to take the soul by hand. A superhuman
force begins to work there, an *amanava-purusha,* a superhuman being comes
there. Someone comes and recognises you, "Lo, the exiled has come, the
prodigal son has returned." Such is the joy of the gods when this exiled
being returns after years and years of suffering. The superhuman being
catches hold of you by the hand and leads you along the path of light,
higher and higher, until you are taken to the realm of the Creator Himself,
the *Brahma-loka*. This is the path of light; this is the path of freedom;
this is the path of liberation.
12 But, if people are unable to live such a spiritual life, cannot live
a life of meditation like this, have no knowledge whatsoever of the higher
truths of life, then, though they have done yet some good deeds in this
world, they are good persons, very charitable, very philanthropic, very
serviceful, have done a lot of social welfare work of public utility, with
the virtues which are highly praised in the scriptures, and have
accumulated the merits of what are known as *ishta* and *purta*, i.e.,
performing great sacrifices and philanthropic deeds of various types—such
good people who have accumulated merit by means of virtue here they do not
go along the path of light. Rather, they go along the Southern Path of
return. This is called the path of smoke, or *dhuma-marga, dakshina-patha,* or
the Southern movements which is, again, presided over by divinities. From
the deity of the smoke there is a rise of the soul to the deity of the
night; then to the deity of the dark half of the lunar month; then to the
deity of the six months during which the sun moves to the south. Then what
happens? It does not go to the realm of that deity which superintends over
the year. Especially, this mention is made here, and this is something
mystical and peculiar. Why do they not go there? One thing is missed there.
This is the departing place of the two paths. For some distance they go
together; afterwards they depart, one goes to the North, another goes to
the South. The juncture is the deity of the year which is not touched by
the soul that goes to the southern regions.
13 From there, the soul goes to the world of the fathers, not to the
sun. Then, from there it goes to the realm of space, *akasa*; and from
there to the moon, *Chandra-loka*. In *Chandra-loka*, it is supposed to
enjoy the privileges of the gods, yet like a visa-holder, not being a
citizen of that region, and so it is subject to return. It is subservient
to the gods who are gods by birth. The gods that are gods right from the
time of creation are superior to the gods that have become such temporarily
on account of the virtuous deeds performed in this life. So, when the
meritorious deeds are exhausted, the soul returns. It cannot live there
permanently. It is subservient, being a celestial of an inferior category.
The soul, here, is not for the citizenship of this world, though it has got
all the privileges of enjoyment and living. You can have the same boarding,
same lodging, and everything, but no privileges or rights! This is because
of the fact that you are temporarily raised to the status of a celestial on
account of the good acts that you have performed. But when the momentum of
the acts finishes there, then what happens? You are, once again, the poor
man that you were; you come back in the same way as you went. And so, even
when you go there you are not on par with the gods who were there right
from the time of creation. On account of this fact, it is said that the
soul there is like a food, as it were, to the gods; it is eaten by them,
which means to say, it is subservient to them and they are superior to it.
As long as you are permitted to live in the celestial region by the
momentum of the good deeds that you performed in this world, so long you
live there. Then you come back through the same path you went. You will be
hurried back. The soul comes back to the space through which it rose up;
then it comes down to the realm of air, with which it gets identified very
subtly. Then it comes down to the levels of smoke, the clouds and the rain.
And one knows the whole process.
14 These souls which are to return to the mortal world get identified
in a subtle manner by their subtle bodies through these natural phenomena,
viz., space, air, cloud, rain and foodstuff, even up to the grains like
sesamum and barley, beans, rice and wheat, herbs, plants and trees, etc. It
is very difficult to understand how they get mixed up with these things. In
a very subtle form, these souls are supposed to get identified with these
natural things. And they get into the body of the individual through the
foodstuff with which they have been identified. Then the same process of
birth takes place. The individual soul has come from the above, after
finishing its career of enjoyment due to the performance of good deeds
here. The soul gets identified in every manner, in every way
characteristically, with the particular level through which it has to pass.
It is difficult in get out of this existence, says the Upanishad (*Ato vai
khalu durnishprapataram*). Once it enters into these lower levels of grain,
foodstuff, etc., one cannot say what will happen to it afterwards. Perhaps
God knows what happens; ordinarily this secret cannot be known. It is a
very complicated situation. Where will the soul be driven, in what
direction, into the womb of which mother, for what type of experience, no
one can say. The way of action and reaction is difficult to understand. The
descended soul gets identified with these levels; it becomes one with the
father, one with the mother, one with the social life into which it is
born. And then it begins to say: "This is my mother; this is my father;
this is my house; this is my property." It forgets everything that happened
earlier. It really belongs to wider regions; it has many friends in the
other realms of being—it is a citizen of a vaster world, but it has
forgotten all this like a foolish individual, an idiot of the first water.
It begins to identify itself with a little locality, a small house, a
village, or even a thatched hut, and says: "This is my property." And it
has no connection with anything else. Very pitiable existence indeed, says
the Upanishad. What happens then?
15 People who have done good deeds are born in favourable
circumstances. This is the law of *karma*. The happiness, the freedom and
the satisfaction that one experiences in life are due to some good deeds
performed earlier, especially unselfish charitable deeds. The more you
give, the more also will you receive. This is the law of action and
reaction. You cannot get what you have not given. You cannot expect
happiness here if you have not given happiness to others in an earlier
life. If you are a greedy person, a miser who has grabbed the happiness of
others and enjoyed everything for your own self and put others to grief and
sorrow—that would be your fate also in this world. You would be a sufferer.
You may be a poverty-stricken individual, and you may be a pauper having
nothing, as the result of your selfish deeds in the previous lives. You
have grabbed things from others, and therefore you are deprived of things
in this life. But if you have been charitable, broad-minded, good-hearted
and amiable, philanthropic, serviceful, that would be the same experience
you will have in this life also. You would be given back the same thing
that you have given to others. If you have given joy to others, joy will be
given to you here. If you have given sorrow to others, sorrow will be given
to you. So, the type of birth you take in this world, and the conditions of
your existence here are all determined by what you did in your earlier
existences. You may even be born as an animal, says the Upanishad, if the
*karma* is very bad. This is what happens to the individual when it takes
birth in a particular world, or in this world. Thus is, therefore, the
cycle or the rotation of the wheel of *samsara*, the going up and coming
down in the circle of transmigration. There is only one path moving along
which there is no coming back. That is the *devayana-marga* mentioned
above. The other path brings the soul back.
There is another kind of birth, says the Upanishad, which is not connected
either with the Northern Path or the Southern Path. It is the birth of
small creatures like insects, such as flies, gnats. They live for a few
hours and pass away. In the rainy season you will see moths and small
insects rising up from the damp earth and then dying that very day,
sometimes even in a few hours. This is another kind of birth. Hard is life,
indeed! Their life is so short, of such an insignificant duration that one
may say that they are born and then dead. When you are seeing them being
born, they are dead also at the same time. So short is the life of these
creatures. This is the third way of being born and living, other than the
life which we live through the Northern and the Southern Paths. Why is this
world not filled up with people, and why is this other world also not
filled up by people even if many people die here? The answer is given here
that there is a cycle or rotation of people. They go from this realm to
that realm, from that realm to this realm, so that no world is completely
filled to the brim or overflowing.
16 "One should get disgusted with this life," says the Upanishad. You
must be having enough of this life. Who wants to live like this, in this
manner, where you are subjected to the law over which you have no control
and regarding which you have no say whatsoever, where you are always a
sufferer, always in a state of liability, and you do not know what will
happen to you the next moment. Is this a life worth living? This is not
life, but a form of unbelievably torturous mortality. Oh, what a life is of
this world!
17 Ignorance breeds further troubles in the form of likes and dislikes,
selfish actions and their consequences which bring about a birth of this
kind, and eventually sorrow. In this connection it is said, in conclusion,
that those who live a life of spiritual meditation are not affected by this
law. This is a solacing conclusion that the Upanishad gives. You are
affected by the law when you cannot understand the law. A person who knows
what law is cannot be harmed by law. This is the case with any kind of law,
whether it is governmental law or the law of electricity or the law of
social life or the law of the spirit. It is ignorance of the way in which
law works that binds us to the operation of the law. If we are thoroughly
conversant with the intricacies of the working of the law, naturally we
will abide by that law. And why should we be bound by it or harassed by it,
or punished by it? We do not know how the law works. The whole difficulty
is here. So, we cannot even abide by it. How can one abide by a law of
which one has no knowledge? So, ignorance is the real trouble; every other
trouble is subsidiary and an offshoot of it. One who knows this truth of
the universe, is free from every sin and trouble.
18 *Knowledge is being*; this is the central philosophy of the
Upanishad. This we cannot forget, when we study the Upanishad. *Knowledge
is life; knowledge is being, knowledge is existence; knowledge is what you
are*. So, what you are determines what you shall be in the future. And, if
yours is a life of knowledge in the sense mentioned here, if you are an
embodiment of this wisdom, if you are scintillating with the brilliance of
this understanding, even here as a part of your own vital existence, if
this knowledge is what you yourself are made of, if this knowledge is the
very substance of your life, not merely an intellectual information, then
you are free from the bondage of action. Then these laws of the world will
not act upon you, because these laws are nothing but the expression of
knowledge which is the nature of the ultimate Reality, finally. So, to the
extent you are identified with the character of Reality, to that extent you
are free from the law of *karma*, or action. *Karma* is the name we give to
the way in which the law of Reality acts upon all particulars or
individuals, reacts upon everyone and everything, when one is in a state of
ignorance. To the extent of the percentage of the law of which you are
ignorant, to that extent you are bound. And to the extent you are aware of
it and live it, and are able to abide by it, to that extent you are also
free.
19 This section, dealing with the Panchagni-Vidya, is partly a
description of a lofty type of meditation, so that we may live in this
world without being bound by the laws of the world, and after death go to
higher regions for the liberation of the spirit, ultimately. Partly, also,
it is a light thrown on the fact of the misery of life. There is a side of
things apart from the fact that there is a comical aspect involved in every
working of Nature. Life is sorrow; life is full of misery. It is full of
grief and pain, because one is living in a state of ignorance. The
Upanishad on the one hand extols the greatness and the glory of knowledge
which leads to the liberation of the soul, and on the other hand tells us
how hard the laws will descend upon us and put us to the subjection of
their mandate and requirements, and what sorrow will come upon us, what
would be the unhappy state to which the soul would be subjected if it is
deprived of this knowledge and lives merely a life of utter ignorance.
On Wed, 21 Apr 2021 at 09:02, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*The Two Roads
>
> There are two roads, the road to Heaven and/or the road to hell.
>
> The Road to Heaven is Ecological and Emotional. The road to hell is
> mechanical, and technological, governed by the dismal economics. In free,
> thick and lush nature, every smell is a door to heaven. One comes across
> continuously diverse exhalations, fusing into one emotion-rapture. The
> entire, lithosphere, Hydrosphere..., brims with biosphere, blowing emotions
> as air, wind and breeze, and every breathe, reinforces rapture. God created
> the Heaven—our beautiful and wonderful planet, the heavenly Earth, the
> Goddess Gaia, mother Bhoodevi.
>
> Revelations that continuously shatter to the core suffuse all, as the
> smell message filled raptures as exhalations.Throughout the year, the Sun
> shines vertically somewhere between the tropic of cancer and tropic of
> Capricorn. The vertical sunray creates great heat converting the water on
> the seas and rivers into steam, which goes up. The steam which has gone up
> becomes cool, can no longer remain as steam and changes into water. The
> water pours down as rainfall, very healthy and life giving waterfall from
> the Heaven.
>
> Every organism of the Biosphere is thus rained by the intense energy
> giving photons from the Sun and water energized by the Sun as rainfall. The
> result is the growth of very thick forests, filled with every organism of
> the Biosphere, on the land and also in the rivers and lakes created by the
> heavy rainfall. Year after year the forests march on, filling the entire
> earth, converting nature into the Heavenly forests. Deserts vanish, change
> into the evergreen forests. Even the photon lashed deserts which become the
> oceans of sand create gigantic biospheres underneath the sand. Gradually
> the Oasis expands into heavens, the expanding Heavens. God or Heavens will
> be everywhere. The Stars in the Heavens speak by creating wonderful
> feelings. They trigger wonderful emotions. The emotions expand from the
> Geocentric to the Heliocentric and ultimately to the Comoscentric, as forms
> of rapture.
>
> I do not want to increase the pain of hell which we created, by describing
> it. All of us are now in it.
>
> YM
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "iyer123" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
> email to [email protected].
> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/CACDCHCJZGdYirFgiyVRBjwy%3Dj%3DpLxBy4LL0QhsUFZ5qWjzrH3Q%40mail.gmail.com
> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/iyer123/CACDCHCJZGdYirFgiyVRBjwy%3Dj%3DpLxBy4LL0QhsUFZ5qWjzrH3Q%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Thatha_Patty" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CAL5XZooPO0pGVNSSrhXXte%3DoEA7yR3rpgZmv21hyeRJY%2BuR4wg%40mail.gmail.com.
