THE MESSAGE OF THE UPANISHADS

Book: Swami Ranganathananda

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

“Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.”

[Rig-Veda I-89-i]

PART 4

KATHA UPANISHAD

“Om! May Brahman protect us (teacher and student) both! May Brahman nourish
us both! May we acquire energy (as a result of this study)! May we both become
illumined (by this study)! May we not envy each other! Om, Peace! Peace!
Peace!”

This ‘Shanti patha’ (invocation) is meant to induce a state of creative tranquility in

the mind by making it receptive, knowledge oriented, and bereft of any other evil
passions.

Teacher and student engaged in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence

of character is education. Education according to Indian sages is lighting
of one lamp from another. Education is not stuffing the brain but
illuminating the mind and heart.

The Upanishads conceived education as training in clearness of vision, in purity

and strength of will, and in richness and stability of the emotions. The very word
‘Upanishad’ means ‘education received by a student while sitting close to his
teacher’. The profounder the subject, the more the need for close communion
between teacher and student.

When man achieves some sort of order and stability in his outer life, and if his
mind is not stifled in the process but continues to be creative and seeking, he is
bound to feel the impact of a vaster and more significant inner world pressing
upon his mind and seeking his attention. It is only then that he becomes aware of
something profound and deep within himself; close to him and not far away. This

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recognition at once makes for a gradual silencing of the clamors of the sense
organs; a mood of inwardness and peace descends on the soul of man; and he
now enters on the search for the truth of experience, not in the field of sense-
data, but beyond them.

Only a seeker endowed with such a frame of mind, and backed by a measure of
inner discipline, can pierce the outer literary form, and enter into the spiritual
atmosphere, of the Upanishads.

The Katha Upanishad emphasizes the truth through two participants in its
dialogue: young ‘Nachiketa’, the student, and wise ‘Yama’, the teacher.
Nachiketa is the embodiment of inner discipline and one-pointed love of truth. He
is a child, pure and fresh and fearless, pulsating with life and vigor. And Yama,
the god of death, is the master of Self-knowledge; he has pierced the mystery
hidden in life and death and achieved wisdom and serenity. His very name
suggests self-control and moral elevation. He has compassion for those who
struggle on the path of truth.

Among the Upanishads the Katha Upanishad stands in a category all alone.
It blends in itself the charm of poetry, the strength of philosophy, and the
depth of mysticism; it contains a more unified exposition of the spiritual
insights of Vedanta than is found in any other single Upanishad.

The word ‘Shraddha’ has no exact equivalent in English; it is usually translated

as faith; but it is not faith in a creed or dogma but faith in oneself, faith in the
infinite power lodged in each soul; it is also faith in the power of truth and
goodness, a firm conviction of the ultimate meaningfulness of the universe. It is
the totality of positive attitudes, ‘astikya buddhi’ as Shankara defines it. It is the
impelling force behind man’s efforts at character development, his civic virtues,
and social grace, his search for truth in science and religion.

When man looses faith in himself, he loses faith in everyone and everything else
as well, and the gate is opened to all-round deterioration.

Truth, ‘Satya’, which expresses itself as righteousness, ‘Dharma’, in human life,

is an eternal value. It cannot be moulded and shaped to suit human convenience.
The later, on the other hand, must be made to conform to Truth.

“Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to
pay homage to Truth, or die…. Practice that boldness which dares to know the
Truth, which dares show the Truth in life, which does not quake before death,
nay, welcomes death, makes a man know that he is Spirit, that, in the whole
universe nothing can kill him. Then you will be free. Then you will know your real
soul.”
- Swami Vivekananda

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The ‘Mahabharata’ exhorts man to gain his spiritual strength by constant
devotion to ‘dharma’, righteousness:

“Neither through lust, nor fear, nor greed shall man forsake ‘dharma’ even to
save his life; for eternal is ‘dharma’, ephemeral are joys and sorrows; eternal is
the soul of man, but ephemeral, however, is its cause (which makes for the
soul’s limitation in the body).” [Mahabharata 18.5.50]

“The ancient sages penetrated deeper and deeper until they found that in the
innermost core of the human soul is the center of the whole universe. All the
planes gravitate towards that one point; that is the common ground, and standing
there alone can we find a common solution.
- Swami Vivekananda

Nachiketa seeks his third and final boon from Yama in the following verse:

“When a man dies there is this doubt: some say that he exists; some (others) say
he does not exist. This I should like to know, being taught by you. This is my third
boon.” [Katha Upanishad 1.1.20]

It is the phenomenon of death that makes us ask questions about life.

This mood of questioning comes to all people at some time or other in their lives.
But the mood does not stay; the pressures of external life drive it away and man
continues his humdrum existence, shut out from the knowledge of the mystery
which alone renders life meaningful and worthwhile. But if the mood stays, man
becomes philosophical; he achieves spiritual depth. If it is not properly handled,
however, this mood will make man pessimistic and apathetic, and rob him of all
zest in life.

There is, therefore, need to discipline this mood of questioning that the
experience of death induces in man. It must be disciplined in the rigorous pursuit
of truth, unattached to passing moods and unafraid of consequences. This is the
Vedantic discipline which is also the discipline of modern science. It is such a
disciplined mind that we meet in Nachiketa. The grappling with truth on the part
of such a mind, and under the guidance of a master mind such as Yama, is what
invests this Upanishad with special significance for human thought.

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Man is his own greatest mystery. He does not understand the vast veiled
universe into which he has been cast for the reason that he does not understand
himself. Least of all does he understand his noblest and most mysterious faculty:
the ability to transcend himself and perceive himself in the act of perception.

Nachiketa is setting out to investigate precisely this mysterious internal nature of

man with its faculty to transcend himself and perceive himself in the act of
perception.

Nachiketa, and others like him, have impressed upon the Indian mind that
the object of human life is knowledge and not pleasure. Pleasure and pain
are incidental to physical existence; the animals function only on that plain
but man has the capacity and privilege to transcend it and achieve
intellectual knowledge, moral elevation, aesthetic delight, and spiritual
perfection.

Pursuit of knowledge and excellence is strenuous exercise needing all the health
and vigor of the psycho-physical system.

Yama is highly pleased with Nachiketa; he finds him a fit student of ‘Atma Vidya’,
the science of Self. Yama begins his exposition with appointed reference to good
life as the ethical precondition to spiritual striving and realization:

“One thing is ‘Shreya’ (the good) and (quite) different indeed is ‘Preya’ (the
pleasant). Leading to different ends as they do, they both bind man. The good
befalls him who accepts the good, but falls he away from the goal who chooses
the pleasant.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.1]

‘Shreya’ has two levels, namely, ‘Dharma’, the good life, and ‘Amrita’, the divine
immortal life. The good life is not an ultimate, not an end in itself; it must lead to
the realization of the Atman, the true Self of man, the birth-less and death-less
spiritual reality in him and the universe. This is the achievement of ‘Amrita’.
Religious speak of spiritual realization as the highest end; and Vedanta terms it
‘Nihshreyasa’, the ultimate ‘Shreya’, or good.

The first stage in man’s spiritual evolution is ethics, which Vedanta terms
‘Abhudaya’, welfare in the social context. At this stage, man is a producer of
wealth and social welfare and an enjoyer of the delights of social existence, in
association with his fellow men. At the ethical level man takes into account not
only himself but also others. This is called ‘Samsara’, the repetitive experiences
of worldliness, in the language of the Vedanta. But if he dares to break through
this bondage of the Samsara, he will achieve a timeless existence, characterized

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by naturalness, spontaneity, and fullness of being. This is the plentitude of
‘Shreya’, ‘Param Shreya’, which Vedanta also calls ‘Nihshreyasa’, or Moksha’,
the highest freedom of the spirit.

“Both ‘Shreya’ and ‘Preya’ approach man; the ‘dhira’ (wise man) examining the
two (well), discriminate between them. The wise man verily prefers ‘Shreya’ to
‘Preya’; but the foolish man chooses ‘Preya’ through love of gain and
attachment.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.2]

Vedanta insists that if the search for the eternal and the changeless is to come to
fruition in spiritual realization, it must be backed by renunciation of the finite and
changeful.

“He who can withstand in this very life, before the fall of the body, the flood-tide
arising from lust and anger, he is the spiritually integrated one, he is the happy
man.” [Bhagavad-Gita 5.23]

Vedanta does include in ‘Vidya’ literacy and gathering of information, and all
forms of training the mind for creative acquisition of knowledge – what is usually
termed education. But it holds that if this education fails to advance the spiritual
growth and development of man, if it fails to raise him above the sensate level, it
sheds its ‘Vidya’ quality and becomes ‘Avidya’; for Vidya is that which liberates
the human spirit from the thralldom of the senses; and where it fails to do so it
becomes Avidya, in spite of all the intellectual knowledge and sharpness of mind
gained from that education.

Avidya or spiritual blindness is characterized by absence of discrimination, with

or without learning or scholarship. If it is with learning, it becomes a greater
tragedy. For learning without inner illumination makes for greater pride and
vanity, resulting in increased spiritual blindness.

“No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the glory of the Self
that appears as man, the most glorious God that ever was, the only God
that ever existed, exists or ever will exist”
- Swami Vivekananda

The ‘Para prakriti’, higher nature in the form of an indwelling Self, is submerged
in the ‘Apara prakriti’, lower nature in the form of the material world. Evolution,

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says Vedanta, is the progressive manifestation of the Self through the
transformation it effects in the material mass around.

“Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above nature, and this nature is
both internal and external.”
- Swami Vivekananda

Spiritual knowledge helps us to swim across the sea of the world; those who are
bereft of this knowledge and are deluded by wealth, they die, not knowing how to
swim across the sea of this world.

The thinkers of the Upanishads realized that to be deathless also involves being
birthless; also that anything that is birthless and deathless cannot be finite, and,
further, that the infinite cannot be two, but must be non-dual. The sages of the
Upanishads realized this infinite non-dual Self, the Atman, as the true self of man
wherein the values of subtlety, inwardness, and infinitude reach their
consummation in supreme universality.

The Atman is beyond the grasp of the senses and the sense-bound logical
intellect or reason, but it is revealed by ‘buddhi’, philosophical Reason.

Spiritual discipline in Vedanta is meant to purify and transform the sense-bound

intellect or logical reason into ‘buddhi’, philosophical Reason. Spiritual truths and
life’s mysteries are penetrated and laid bare by this buddhi alone, the glories of
which are sung in the Gita and other Vedantic books.

Vedanta holds that reason is the most precious possession and that it should be
kept bright and pure, and that nothing should be indulged in which weakens or
destroys it.

“Beyond (waking) consciousness is where the bold search. Consciousness is

bound by the senses. Beyond that, beyond the senses, men must go, in order to
arrive at truths of the spiritual world, and there are even now persons who
succeed in going beyond the bound of the senses. These are called ‘Rishis’
(seers of thought), because they come face to face with spiritual truths.”
- Swami Vivekananda

It is the supreme function of philosophical Reason, say Upanishads, to

synthesize the results of the various disciplines, and study experience in its
totality. ‘Brahma-Vidya’ philosophy, they say, is ‘sarva Vidya pratishtha’, the
basis of every Vidya, or science.

In investigating the nature of knowledge or truth or of reality, logical and scientific

reason confines itself to the field of the ‘known’; it ignores the ‘knower’, the
subject, or the Self; this explains the limitations of its knowledge, the partial
character of the truths it finds, and the relative character of the reality it reveals.

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Buddhi or philosophical Reason reveals the ultimate truth of the unity of ‘Atman’
and ‘Brahman’, in the unity of the within and without of nature. It signifies the
complete annexation of the sub-conscious and unconscious by Reason. It
signifies according to Vedanta, the complete and true waking state, the ever-
awake and ever-free state of the Atman. This vision of unity is the meeting
ground of faith and reason, love and knowledge, poetry and philosophy, science
and art.

Man goes out of himself because he finds all is not quite well within himself; he
goes on searching here and there, trying to achieve security, happiness, welfare,
and fulfillment. At the end of all these rounds of movement, he finds himself far
from fulfillment; examining the situation critically and with calm detachment, the
knowledge dawns on him that he has been searching for something which has
been all the time nearest to him, within him, his own infinite Self.

Yama says: “The ‘Dhira’ (wise man) relinquishes both joy and sorrow when he
realizes, through meditation on the inner Self, that ancient effulgent One, hard to
be seen, profound, hidden in experience, established in the cavity of the heart,
and residing within the body. Mortal man rejoices, having heard and
comprehended well this subtle truth, the soul of the ‘Dhira’, realizes it after
proper discrimination, and having attained what is verily blissful. I consider that
the house (of truth) is wide open for Nachiketa.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.12; 13]

The Atman is never the unknowable; for as the eternal Subject or Self, it is the
basis and presupposition of all knowledge; as the very principle of pure
awareness it is more than known and knowable; for it is in and through the
Atman that all objects, entities and events are known. In every act of knowledge,
perception, and judgment the Atman is present: ‘pratibodha-viditam’.

‘Dharma’ and ‘Amrita’ are two key words in Sanskrit which convey the whole
range of values sought after by man; of these, ‘Dharma’ represents the values
which he seeks in association with his fellows. These values, which proceed from
motivations of profit and pleasures, are collectively known as ‘Abhyudaya’, which
in modern language, means social security and welfare; and it is only through
‘Dharma’, social ethics, that man can achieve this.

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“The goal which all Vedas proclaim, which all tapas (penances) declare, and
desiring which they lead the life of ‘Brahmacharya’, that goal I shall tell thee in
brief; it is ‘Om’.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.15]

“This syllable is verily Brahman; this syllable is verily the highest. Having known
this syllable, one gets whatever one desires.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.16]

“This support is the best; this support is the Supreme; knowing this support, one
is glorified in the world of Brahman.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.2]

As explained by Shankara in his comments on this verse:

“It is That which is meant by the sound ‘Om’, and That which has for its symbol
the sound ‘Om’.”

A word and its meaning are inseparable, says the great poet Kalidasa:

History has shown that human knowledge in various fields has been greatly
advanced by the invention and use of symbols. When ancient Indian scientific
thought invented the numerals, including the zero sign, the algebraic symbols,
and the decimal system, it helped immensely to simplify mathematics and its
handling of immense physical quantities.

When the Indian sages realized the Absolute and the Unconditioned in the unity
of Brahman and Atman, they felt the need for an adequate symbol to
communicate so incommunicable a truth. In their search, they came across the
symbol ‘Om’, which, as the Taittiriya Upanishad [1.8] informs us, had already
established its usefulness for the communication of particular moods and ideas.

This ‘Om’, as the unity of all sound to which all matter and energy are reduced in
their primordial form, is a fit symbol for Atman or Brahman, which is the unity of
all existence. These and possibly other considerations, led the Vedic sages to
accord to ‘Om’ the highest divine reverence and worship, and treat it as the

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holiest ‘pratika’, symbol, of divinity; they called it ‘Nada Brahman’ or ‘Shabda
Brahman’, Brahman in the form of sound.

Throwing away an advantage already gained in order to achieve a greater

advantage has been a characteristic of organic as well as cultural evolution. This
is the only safeguard against stagnation and death. It is especially the law of
moral and spiritual evolution. The lesson is not ‘hold on’, bur ‘give up, and move
on’. This is what the Isha Upanishad proclaims in its memorable opening verse:

“Enjoy life through renunciation”.

Shankara quotes from ‘Yajnavalkya Smriti’:

“The concentration (of the energies) of the mind and the senses is supreme
‘tapas’; it is greater than all virtues (dharmas); it is (in fact) the supreme virtue.”

Tapas is the very root of creation; it is also at the root of every creative act or
achievement of man, be it literary or artistic, scientific or spiritual. This
concentration of organic and psychic energy achieved by ‘tapas’ is the means to
advance evolution to the highest summit of spiritual realization.

“The discerning man (knows that he) is not born nor does he die; he has not
come into being from anything; nor has anything come into being from him. This
(Self of man) is unborn, eternal, everlasting and ancient; It is not destroyed when
the body is destroyed.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.18]

The discovery by the Indian sages that the true Self of man is free, that it is
untrammeled by the cause and effect relation and beyond the network of
relativity was a great discovery in the history of man’s search for truth.

“The Atman, smaller than the atom and greater than the cosmos, is (ever)
present in the heart of this creature. One who is free from (the thralldom of)
desire realizes the glory of the Atman through purity and transparency of the
senses and the mind, and (thereby becomes) free from grief.” [Katha Upanishad
1.2.20]

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“Realizing the Atman as the bodiless in the embodied, the changeless in all
changeful entities, infinite and all pervading, the wise one does not grieve.”
[Katha Upanishad 1.2.22]

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad [3.7.15] says:

“He who exists in all beings, who is their innermost core, whom all beings do not
know, whose body are all beings, who, remaining within, controls all beings; this
is your Atman, the ‘antaryamin’, (inner controller), the Immortal.”

“This Atman cannot be obtained by study of the scriptures, nor by sharp intellect,
nor by much hearing; by him is It attained whom It chooses – to him this Atman
reveals Its own (true) form.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.23]

It is remarkable that the Vedas themselves, in several passages, say that the
Atman cannot be attained through a mere study of them. Few scriptures in the
world have the boldness to say this of themselves; for that boldness is the
product of a deep passion for spirituality and not of a dogma or creed; and it is
sustained by the spirit of detachment and objectivity.

The Atman according to the Upanishads is the nature of pure Awareness, infinite
and undecaying. All the Upanishads ecstatically sing in chorus this characteristic
of the Atman.

A total discipline of the inner life, beginning with moral purity, is demanded of the
student who is not content to know the Atman intellectually, but seeks to realize it
spiritually. Moral purity and discipline of the senses help to lead man into the
stream of spirituality leading to the ocean of spiritual realization.

The Power of God is power of Love. Love is more potent than hatred, or fear, the
Spirit is more powerful than the sword.

Sings the Rig Veda [10.121.2]:

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“Unto Him who gives our individuality, who gives us strength, whose commands
all beings, together with the gods, obey, whose shadow is immortality as well as
death, we offer our oblations.”

Life is a journey to fulfillment. The attainment of fulfillment, however, will depend

upon the path that man takes. The path of profit and pleasure, earthly or
heavenly, the way of ‘Preyas’ can never lead to true fulfillment; though involving
much action and movement, and capable of yielding gross or refined sensate
satisfactions, it is repetitive, but not creative; it tends only to increase of tension,
sorrow, and fear. The path of knowledge and illumination, the way of ‘Shreyas’
on the other hand, offers the supreme opportunity to man. Guided by
discrimination and detachment, life forges ahead in this path to achieve fulfillment
in character and vision.

“Know the Atman as the master within the chariot, and the body, verily as the
chariot; know the buddhi (intelligence) as the charioteer, and the manas
(insipient mind), verily as reins; the sense-organs, they say, are the horses, and
the roads for them are the sense-objects. The wise call Him (the Atman) the
enjoyer of the experience (when He is) united with the body, senses, and mind.”
[Kathopanishad 1.3.3; 4]

“He who is possessed of right understanding with the manas always disciplined,
his senses become controlled like the good (controlled) horses of a charioteer.
He who is possessed of right understanding, with manas held and ever pure,
reaches that goal whence there is no birth (return to worldliness) again.”
[Kathopanishad 1.3.6; 8]

The horse provides the motive power of the journey, but they cannot be allowed
to set the pace for the journey, lest it should turn out to be their journey, with the
charioteer and master of the chariot becoming just helpless victims. The reins are
meant to prevent this; the more energetic the horses, the tougher the reins
should be. It is the charioteer who should set the pace of the journey, guided by
the purpose and satisfaction of the master behind.

Life’s journey, to be successful, needs the contribution of all constituents

of the personality: the body, the senses, the manas, the buddhi, and the

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Self. The most important thing is to ensure that the initiative and control
pass from the senses to the buddhi through the manas. This cannot
happen unless the buddhi and the manas are trained and disciplined into
their true forms. The true form of manas is its pure state when it is aligned
with buddhi, and ceases to be a mere appendage of the senses; then alone
it can stand the stress and strain in its unique situation, namely, between
the two powerful and initially opposite forces of the senses and the buddhi.

Such a buddhi is the best guide in life’s journey. It denotes the fusion of
intelligence, imagination and will in their purest forms. Its impact on life is
irresistible as well as wholesome.

When the buddhi dominates the journey, life rises to the steady ethical levels,
tastes true freedom and delight, and achieves fulfillment in universality through
spiritual illumination.

“He who has ‘vijnana’, buddhi, or Reason, for his charioteer and a (disciplined)
manas as the reins – he verily attains the end of the journey, that supreme state
of Vishnu.” [Kathopanishad 1.3.9]

The human personality, with its constituent elements of the body, the sense-
organs, the manas, the buddhi, and the Self, is the finest contrivance that nature
has evolved for the exploration not only into her world of facts, but also into her
world of values, into the world of truth, goodness, and beauty.

Gita advocates a balanced life style (middle path):

“To him who is moderate in eating and recreation, who is moderate in the
performance of actions, who is moderate in sleep and working, yoga becomes a
destroyer of misery.” [Shrimad-Bhagavad-Gita 6.17]

[To be continued]

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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