The Chhandogya Upanishad
Pranam
Swtaketu was confronted by the King in Chandogya Upanishad. 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.”
First in last out is linear version of the west; Unending or infinity path
or cyclic is the Indian version. Brahadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads
and Rig Vedam perfectly fixes it. There are four more questions. The king
was a Kshatriya and now the student here is a Brahmin. Brahmins teach
Kshatriyas; Kshatriyas do not teach Brahmins
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 whole universe feels the presence and the birth of a single
child anywhere. So what produces a child is not the father or the mother.
It is the whole cosmos that produces the child. The universe is the parent
of this little baby. It may be a human baby, a subhuman one or a superhuman
form. Whatever be the character of that child, even if it may be an
inorganic production, an atom, or an electron, or the composition of a
molecule, the birth of it is regarded as the birth of a child, and it is
made possible by the operation of cosmic factors. The whole universe is our
father; the entire universe is our mother; the universe is the parent. That
is the cause, and even if a little liquid is jetted from a pore we would
realise that, ultimately, it has some connection with the universal cause
of all causes, by a chain of relations.
The birth of a human being in this world does not take place in
this world alone, exclusively. It takes place in the highest regions first.
One is born first in the higher levels in certain degrees of expression,
and the impact of this birth is felt in the lower levels until it becomes
visible to the physical eye on this mortal earth. Then we say that a child
is born, someone has come, there is a rebirth, and so on. But this someone
has not come suddenly from the skies. There has been a complicated interior
process preceding, which always manages to escape the notice of ordinary
vision. This is the case not only with the birth of a human being, but it
is so with the coming of every event in the world.
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.
There is connection between our sense-activity and the
gods in heaven. In this offering of the great sacrifice, contemplatively
conceived here by this process of the fall of rain, there is a productivity
created in the earth and foodstuffs are produced, for another purpose,
which will be mentioned further on. The Celestial Region, the Atmosphere,
the Earth, Man and Woman,—these are the five stages of the Fire which
becomes the object of meditation known as the Panchagni-Vidya. By the
interconnection, combination and harmonious adjustment of the structure of
these five levels of manifestation, birth takes place. This symbology of
the birth of the individual through the Five Fires is applicable to the
birth of every event and every form of expression in the world, whether it
is what we call a living being or the manifestation of the other levels,
such as the inorganic etc.,—the physical, the superphysical, or otherwise.
The theory is of the manifestation of anything, anywhere.
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*.
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
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.
II.3. Jivapetam vava kiledam mriyate, na jivo mriyata iti, sa ya esho’nima
etad-atmyam idam sarvam, tat satyam, sa atma, tat-tvam-asi, svetaketo, iti;
bhuya eva ma, bhagavan, vijnapayatviti; tatha, saumya, iti hovacha. (C.U)
What we call death is the departing of life from a particular body*. So
death is not the death of the life principle itself. Na jivo mriyata—life
itself does not die. The vitality is transferred from one location to
another.* It is withdrawn from a particular formation. That is all. Life
which is the manifestation of the general principle, the pure Being, the
Reality, is withdrawn from that particular manifestation called the body.
Then that particular form is said to die. It is deprived of the essence,
the life-force. So is the case with everything including us. Know this.
Evam eva khalu saumya viddhi. K R IRS
On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 at 10:25, Rangarajan T.N.C. <[email protected]>
wrote:
>
> https://psyche.co/ideas/the-radical-impact-of-seeing-alzheimers-as-a-second-childhood?
> <https://psyche.co/ideas/the-radical-impact-of-seeing-alzheimers-as-a-second-childhood?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=94d4499a0d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_04_23_01_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-94d4499a0d-71979216>
>
--
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/CAL5XZopiX%3DJp%3DuxJt9oh3ura9-0cTb1GYVmjhhBuPKLJWsE1OQ%40mail.gmail.com.
