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 3

KENA UPANISHAD

“Om! May my limbs become strong; also let my speech, vital airs, sight, hearing,
and all the sense organs be vigorous. All existence is the Brahman of the
Upanishads. May I never deny Brahman; may not Brahman deny me. Let there
be no denial at all; let there be no denial at least on my part. Wherever virtues
are in the Upanishads, may they abide in me who am devoted to the Atman; may
they abide in me. Om! Peace, Peace, Peace.”

The Kena Upanishad (belonging to the Talavakar recension of the Sama Veda)
is a significant land mark in the man’s voyage of discovery of the Atman.

In dogmatic philosophy, the power of the senses and the mind to apprehend
reality is assumed. In critical philosophy, this assumption is questioned and
subjected to a rigorous examination. Through such questioning of basic
assumptions and the rigorous examination of experience, the Kena Upanishad
helps us to discover in experience itself the presence of the Infinite and the
Absolute as the pure Self.

Philosophy, according to Vedanta, is the product of ‘jijnasa’, critical enquiry. The

Gita [4.34] asks man to know truth through ‘pariprashna’, thorough questioning:

23
“Know That (Supreme Brahman), by prostrating yourself, by repeated
questioning, and by service; the ‘jnanis’, those who have realized the Truth, will
instruct you in that knowledge.”

Such critical enquiry was directed not only to things and events of the outer world
of nature, but also to the things and events of the inner world of man, including
mind and its power to know and the status of the ego.

The Upanishads present philosophical reality as a value to be sought after and

experienced by the individual. This flow of philosophy and religion into the river of
lived experience is the unique feature of Vedanta.

On matters spiritual, India was never lukewarm; in this, her chosen field, she was
deeply earnest and intensely practical. We get a glimpse of this mood in the
seeker of the Kena Upanishad referring to whom Shankaracharya says in his
commentary to this Upanishad:

“Approaching in due form a certain teacher who was well established in the
knowledge of God, finding no refuge except in the knowledge relating to the
innermost Self, and desiring (to attain) the fearless, the eternal, the good, and
the changeless, the seeker asked him (this question).”

And the question asked is, in brief, “By whom are the mind, the senses,
and the life of man directed.”

Reality as revealed by each of the disciplines of science, philosophy, and religion

is satisfying in itself but, being compartmental, is non-negotiable with others.
Shall the human mind remain content with this situation in which reality, as
apprehended by each of the three disciplines, remains fragmented, conditioned,
and therefore finite? Man’s insatiable hunger for truth and life fulfillment cannot
rest at this. He will not be fully satisfied until he unifies his experience by
discovering the One behind the many.

‘Adhyatma-Vidya’, the science of the Inner Self, eventually became recognized in

India as the king of sciences, ‘Raja-Vidya’. The contribution of ‘Adhyatma-Vidya’
to Indian religion and philosophy is immense.

“The pleasures of the world are transient, being cut-off by old age and death.
Only the infinite gives durable happiness. In religion we cry for an eternal life. All
these force upon us the conviction of a timeless being, a spiritual reality, the
object of philosophical quest, the fulfillment of our desires, as the goal of religion.
The seers of the Upanishads try to lead us to this central reality which is absolute
existence (Sat), infinite truth (Chit), and pure delight (Ananda).”
- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan [Indian Philosophy]

24
The Upanishads transformed the concept of Brahman, the Absolute of
philosophy and the God of religion, into a given fact of experience through the
discovery of the Atman, the infinite innermost Self of man behind his finite mortal
ego.

The Shvetashvatara Upanishad [2.15] says:

“When the self-controlled spiritual aspirant realizes, in this very body, the truth of
Brahman through the truth of the Atman, self-luminous, as light, then knowing
the Divinity which is unborn, eternal and untouched by the modifications of
nature, he is freed from all bonds.”

It is the young, the vigorous, the intelligent and the strong that will realize the
Atman, say the Upanishads. The Mundaka Upanishad [3.1.5] says:

“This Atman can be realized by the constant practice of truth, self-control, true
knowledge and chastity. The self-controlled ones, freed from sin, realize Him, the
luminous and the pure One, within our own being.”

The Upanishad questions the truth and validity of our sense-knowledge gained
by the logically and scientifically disciplined mind. It considers this knowledge as
knowledge of the relative and not of Absolute.

After assessing the nature and scope of human knowledge as revealed through
the senses and the mind, the Kena Upanishad tells us that there is a higher form
of knowledge, a higher form of awareness, in which knowledge and experience
become one, and which transcends the transient and the relative.

“Mind is said to be of two types: the pure and the impure. It is impure when it is
subject to the pressures of lust and pure when free from them.” [Panchadashi
11.116]

As in mountain climbing, where the unclimbed peaks of a difficult mountain range

pose a continuous challenge to the courage and tenacity of the human spirit, and
the tougher spirits continue their unwearying assaults on the peaks until the last
and highest peak is gained, so in the search for truth, the challenge and lure of
the ultimate truth will make the courageous among seekers restless with longing
to scale the highest peak of knowledge and experience.

25
Vedanta experienced the lure of the unclimbed peaks of thought ages ago. It
never admitted defeat, but marched on till the last peak was conquered.

Vedanta is not committed to any dogma; it is committed to truth only and firmly
believes in the power of truth to overcome half-truths and untruths.

“Truth alone triumphs, not untruth”, is the watchword of the Upanishads.

[Mundaka Upanishad 3.1.6]

It is the greatest misfortune of the Indian nation today that large numbers of
people have not realized the importance of self-discipline as an essential aspect
of the education and social process. Indiscipline is the way to make the mind
weaker and weaker and make it unfit either for life in the world or for life in God.
Self-discipline is the way to achieve strength of will, breadth of sympathy,
loftiness of character, and consequent all-round social and spiritual efficiency.

We make a great blunder when we think that the mind that is unfit for the
world can be made fit for God.

This great literature, the Upanishads and the Gita – and the Gita too is described
as an Upanishad – forms a single core of inspiration to lead us to higher and
higher levels of life expression and thus bring out the best in human life.

In the first verse of the Kena Upanishad the student asks the teacher:

“At whose desire and by whom impelled does the mind alight on its objects? By
whom impelled does the chief ‘Prana’ (vital force) proceed to its function? By
whom impelled do men utter this speech? What ‘deva’ directs the eyes and the
ears?” [Kena Upanishad 1.1]

The teacher replies:

“It (the Atman) is the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind, the speech of the
speech, the Prana of the Prana, and the eye of the eye. Wise men, separating
the Atman from these (sense functions), rise out of the sense life and attain
immortality.” [Kena Upanishad 1.2]

Explaining the meaning of the enigmatic words of the teacher Shankara

comments in a luminous passage:

26
“There is a changeless reality at the innermost core of man, unborn, ageless,
deathless and fearless, which is revealed to the intelligence of the wise, and
which expresses itself through the functions of the ear and other sense-organs,
being the one source of all these diverse energies.”

Shankara says in his Vivekachudamani [162]:

“The dull-witted man thinks he is only the body; the book-learned man identifies
himself with the mixture of body and soul. But the sage, possessed of realization
through discrimination, looks upon the eternal Atman as his Self and thinks, ‘I am
Brahman (the Self of all)’.”

In the next verse of the Upanishad, the teacher leads the student to a fuller
understanding of the nature of the Brahman:

“The eye cannot approach It, neither speech, nor mind. We do not therefore
know It, nor do we know how to teach It. It is different from what is known, and It
is beyond what is unknown. Thus we have heard from our predecessors who
instructed us about It.” [Kena Upanishad 1.3]

Again and again, the Upanishad speaks of Brahman as the end of a trackless
path, but they do not leave us helpless. They assure us that difficult though It is
to obtain, It is not unattainable. It is not easy to teach It in the way one teaches
other subjects, but the student can be helped and guided towards It. In the earlier
stages of education, there is much talking and instruction by the teacher, and this
becomes less and less in the higher stages where the student’s mind trained in
alertness and thinking, becomes capable of learning from hints and suggestions
from the teacher. This process reaches its highest consummation in the
communication of spiritual knowledge.

“What speech cannot reveal, but what reveals speech – know thou That alone as
Brahman, and not this (anything objective) that people worship here.” [Kena
Upanishad 1.4]

27
“What mind does not comprehend, but what comprehends mind - know thou
That alone as Brahman, and not this (anything objective) that people worship
here.” [Kena Upanishad 1.5]

“What sight fails to see, but what enables sight - know thou That alone as
Brahman, and not this (anything objective) that people worship here.” [Kena
Upanishad 1.6]

“What hearing fails to hear, but what enables hearing - know thou That alone as
Brahman, and not this (anything objective) that people worship here.” [Kena
Upanishad 1.7]

“What is not activated by ‘Prana’, but what activates ‘Prana’ - know thou That
alone as Brahman, and not this (anything objective) that people worship here.”
[Kena Upanishad 1.8]

These five verses proclaim the spiritual character of the Absolute or

Brahman: It is the Self of man, which his sense-organs and mind cannot
reveal but which enables the sense-organs and the mind.

The teacher of the Kena Upanishad denies the power of senses and mind to
reveal the reality of the Self; for that reality is the power behind even them.

“Vedanta does not condemn or destroy any faith or form of worship. Its aim is to
illumine every faith and every worship with the light of the one living God of all
religions.”
- Swami Vivekananda

“He knows It, who knows (conceives) It not; and he who knows It not, who knows
(Conceives) It. To the man of true knowledge, It is the ‘unknown’, while to the
ignorant It is the ‘known’.” [Kena Upanishad 2.3]

28
When a man thinks he knows Brahman, he has formed only a concept of It; he
does not know Brahman truly. On the other hand, he who truly knows Brahman,
knows that he cannot know It through his sense organs and mind. In the words of
the ‘Ashtavakra Samhita’ [12.7]:

“Thinking of the unthinkable One, one betakes himself only to a form of thought.
Therefore giving up that thought, thus verily do I abide.”

“Indeed, he attains immortality, who realizes It in and through every ‘bodha’

(pulsation of knowledge and awareness). Through the Atman he obtains strength
and vigor, and through (Its) knowledge, immortality.” [Kena Upanishad 2.4]

The Atman is the light of pure Awareness which lights up every act of knowledge
and awareness of the mind. As expressed by Shankara in his ‘Vivekachudamani’’
[219]:

“That which clearly manifests Itself in the waking, dream, and dream-less sleep
states; which is inwardly perceived in the mind, in various forms, as an unbroken
series of ‘I’ impressions; which is the witness of the ego, ‘buddhi’ (intellect), etc.
which are of diverse forms and modifications; and which shines as the eternal
existence-knowledge-bliss Absolute, know through this Atman, thy own Self,
within thy heart.”

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad [2.4.14] says: “The consciousness with the help
of which a person sees another, knows another or hears another, is little or
limited; whatever is limited is worthless; for the Supreme Bliss is not there; but
the knowledge established in which a person becomes devoid of the
consciousness of seeing another, knowing another, and hearing another, is the
immense or the unlimited one. With the help of that knowledge one gets
identified with the supreme bliss. What mind or intellect is able to know that
which exists as the knower in the hearts of all?”

29
Shankara says on his commentary on verse 2.4 of Kena Upanishad:

“The strength proceeding from wealth, friends, magic incantations, drugs,

austerity, and mind control cannot overcome death; because it is the product of
things which are themselves transitory. The strength proceeding from the
knowledge of the Atman, on the contrary is attained through the Atman only and
not through something else. Thus the strength arising from the knowledge of the
Atman, being self-attained, can only overcome death, it being self-attained and
not mediated by some other thing.”

All knowledge is power; but Self-knowledge is power par excellence.

“For one who realizes It here (in this world) there is true life. For one who does
not so realize It, great is the loss. Discovering the Atman in every single being,
the wise ones, dying to this world (of sense-experience), become immortal.”
[Kena Upanishad 2.5]

Truth is the very Self of man, declares Vedanta. True life for man begins only
when he turns his energies in the direction of the deathless Atman within. It
becomes fully achieved when the Atman is realized.

In the firm language of the Chhandogya Upanishad [6.8.7]:

“Everything in the universe has this subtle (infinite) Reality for its Self; That is
Truth; That is Atman; and That thou art.”

30
It is not only his true life but it is also the highest human excellence and the acme
of his life fulfillment. Vedanta further adds that it is the birthright of every human
being and the crown of the entire evolutionary process. Says the Shrimad-
Bhagavat [11.9.28]:

“The Divine One, having projected (evolved) with his own inherent power various
forms such as trees, reptiles, cattle, birds, insects and fish, was dissatisfied at
heart with all these; He then projected the human form endowed with the
capacity to realize Brahman (the universal divine Self of all), and became
extremely pleased.”

The Upanishads view man both as actor in and spectator of the drama of
existence. He transcends himself in the act of knowing himself. His supreme
uniqueness lies in his passion for truth and in his ability to realize it. He alone can
solve the mystery of existence by transcending himself. He alone has the ego
sense; and it is the supreme mark of intelligence and courage that he treats this
mysterious value within himself, fugitive in itself but suggestive of hidden depth,
not as a final conclusion but as an initial datum, as a starting point for a
penetrating investigation into the mystery of its hidden depth; and he then
discovers the Atman, the Infinite and Immortal Self, as his true nature, and as the
true nature of all beings.

This is the uniqueness of man, the uniqueness of his intelligence that the
Upanishads and the Indian spiritual tradition proclaim. Sings the Shrimad-
Bhagavat [11.29.22]:

Vedanta, however, considers the two dimensions of human excellence upheld by

the Upanishads and modern science as complementary and not contradictory.
This is clearly stated in the following verses from Shrimad-Bhagavat [11.7.19, 20,
21]:

31
“In the world, men are generally efficient in the investigation of the truths of
nature; (and through that) they uplift themselves from all sources of evil. For a
human being, particularly, his guru or guide is verily his own soul; because he
achieves his welfare through the help of direct sense experience and through
inference based on it. Wise men who have mastered the science and art of the
spiritual life realize clearly, with the human personality itself, Me (the spiritual Self
of all), the unlimited source of all the (limited psycho-physical) energies (of the
individual).”

Vedanta considers that since man shares his sensuality with the animals, his
distinctive uniqueness is spirituality only. The urge to this spirituality alone makes
him truly himself. And so Vedanta would ever strive, out of compassion for man,
to stimulate this urge in him. To quote the Shrimad-Bhagavat [11.9.29] again to
get a touch of the Vedantic concern for man’s spiritual growth:

“Having obtained, at the end of many births, this human form which is difficult to
obtain, and, though perishable, capable of conferring on man, in this very life, the
highest spiritual freedom which is his highest excellence. Sensual delights can
be had in all other bodies; (hence the human body need not be dedicated to
them).”

Vedanta alone speaks of an immortality which is realized in this very life; this is
possible because freedom is the nature of man. Whatever is conditioned is
mortal; to be conditioned is to be bound by space, time and cause; to be
unconditioned is to be free from all these bonds. Whatever, therefore, is free, in
the sense of being unconditioned, is immortal. The body and the ego, as much
as the things of nature around, are all conditioned and mortal. The Atman alone
is unconditioned, free, and therefore immortal. This Atman is the true nature of
man. Man is essentially the ‘nitya-shuddha-buddha-mukta-svabhava Parmatman’
– the eternally pure, awakened, and free self, says Vedanta and adds that, this
revelation is the goal of human life.

This idea of realizing truth runs through all Indian religious literature. Religion is a
matter of realization. Life grows; and this growth is mental as well as physical. In
the higher reaches of mental growth and development, life experiences the glow

32
of truth playing about itself; and at the summit of that development, truth
pervades and penetrates life through and through.

The ‘devas’ or gods, represent the forces of light, and the ‘asuras’, or demons,
represent the forces of darkness in Indian mythology; they are eternal enemies.
When the forces of light are pressed hard by their enemies, Brahman, the Light
of all lights, intervenes to ensure the victory of light over darkness, the victory of
spiritual man over the sensuous man.

Man in spite of his obvious limitations, thinks too much of his strength and glory;
but all this ends in death. If only he knows the One, the source of all strength,
glory and excellence in men and nature, how blessed his life would be, and how
fearless of death he would become! Life is trivial if it does not overcome death in
the knowledge of the deathless Self, the One Self of all.

Indian thought conceived an intimate unity between the macrocosm of nature

and the microcosm of human body, between the ‘’Adhibhautika’ and ‘Adhyatmika’
aspect of the nature.

The life of every man is a battle-ground between the forces of good and evil,
between the forces of light and darkness. The former tend to freedom of the soul,
and the later to its bondage.

The edifice of spiritual effort and realization can be raised only on moral
foundations. Moral life is itself the first manifestation of spiritual life.

The teacher imparts to the student the knowledge of the moral values which are
indispensable means to the realization o Brahman [Kena Upanishad 4.8]:

“Of the Upanishads, ‘tapa’ (concentration of the energies of mind and the
senses), ‘dama’ (self-restraint), and ‘karma’ (dedicated work) form the support;
the Vedas (knowledge) are its limbs; and Truth is its abode.”

The Upanishad stresses the importance of moral character in the pursuit of

spiritual knowledge; for spirituality is not mere scholarship; it is ‘being and
becoming’ in the words of Swami Vivekananda; it is growth, development,
realization. Spiritual knowledge, unlike scholarship, does not arise in the mind of
man as long as it is impure.

33
The Chhandogya Upanishad [12.26.2] says:

“When the impressions gathered by the sense organs are pure, the mind
becomes pure; when the mind is pure, the memory (of one’s divine nature)
becomes constant; when his memory is attained, one becomes completely free
from all bondage. To him (Narada), whose impurities had been completely
destroyed, the blessed ‘Sanat-Kumara’ reveals (the Light) beyond the ocean of
darkness (spiritual blindness).”

Summary: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

34