THE MESSAGE OF THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD

Book: Swami Ranganathananda

Review: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

“The words of the Upanishads are great music, the tunes of which have the
power to fascinate the hearts of all sensitive people, century after century.
Everyone who studies the Upanishads reverently, and in a seeking mood,
will realize for himself or herself the charm of their deep, profound
utterances couched in language, direct and deep, poetic and sublime. A
spiritual seeker who reads the Upanishads will feel that he is dealing with a
theme that is very close to his life and destiny, a reality which is in himself
as well as in the world outside. The deep pulsations of that reality have
been caught up in the beautiful music of the Upanishads.
- Swami Ranganathananda

Introduction

Knowledge begins with wonder. With wonder the child begins its great strides in
knowledge.

The great sages of the Upanishads gave to humanity a science of a

different field of experience, which is today’s modern science taken a step
ahead over to the realm of a new datum i.e. the ‘Self’. It is a real scientific
inquiry into a realm where the ordinary sense organs cannot go. The
ordinary mind subject to the sense organs also cannot go to that realm. A
new training of mind is needed to probe into that field.

The Upanishads study experience in its other dimension, the dimension of the
‘Self’, just as we study in physical sciences the dimension of ‘non-self’.

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The study of the Upanishads, the subject matter of which no sensory system can
understand or cope with, makes itself a matter of supreme interest to men and
women.

The philosophy of the Upanishads gave a basis to the development of

culture in India. The Upanishads have continued to be its great stimulus
and support all these several thousand years.

East or West, a truth is always a truth because we can rediscover and

check it for ourselves.

‘Shruti’ is called ‘Sanatana Dharma’, the eternal Dharma. ‘Smriti’ is called ‘Yuga
Dharma’, the Dharma for a particular age and for a particular people. ‘Sanatana
Dharma’ and ‘Yuga Dharma’ exist side by side, and it is accepted in all our
literature that if there is a conflict between ‘Shruti’ and ‘Smriti’, ‘Smriti’ will have to
go and ‘Shruti’ will remain.

Adherence only to ‘Smriti’ makes for rigidity. But adherence to ‘Shruti’ along with
flexibility in ‘Smriti’ makes for a continuous progress as experienced in India.

India developed its culture based upon the supreme vision of the Vedic
sages who accepted both the departments of science – one dealing with
the external world within the sensory reach, and the other dealing with the
internal world lying beyond the sensory level.

The word ‘Vidya’ in Sanskrit means science. Vidya belongs to ‘Apara’ and ‘Para’
category; ‘Apara’ being ordinary and ‘Para’, higher. Apara-Vidya is at the sensory
level, where we deal with sense objects. Para-Vidya deals with the perceiver of
the objects. The combination of Apara-Vidya and Para-Vidya is known as
‘Brahma-Vidya’ or ‘Adhyatma-Vidya’ or ‘Atma-Vidya’. That is because ‘Brahman’
is the Self of the universe, and the universe itself is the manifestation of the
Brahman. The Self and the non-self, the internal and the external, become
unified in Brahman.

In the Upanishads the words ‘Brahman’ and ‘Atman’ are used repeatedly.
Brahman deals with the totality of reality seen from outside and ‘Atman’
refers to the reality seen from inside, and the beautiful conclusion is: “This
Atma and Brahman are One”.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad represents great sages and thinkers among both

men and women, such as ‘Yajnavalkya’, ‘Janaka’, ‘Gargi’ and ‘Maitreyi’.

“The Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to
invigorate the whole world; the whole world can be vivified, made strong,
energized through them. They will call with trumpet voice upon the weak, the
miserable, and the down-trodden of all races, all creeds, and all sects to stand

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upon their feet and be free. Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom, and
spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads.”
– Swami Vivekananda
–
The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad starts with the peace chant:

“The invisible (Brahman) is the Full; the visible (the world) is also Full. From the
Full (Brahman), the Full (the visible universe) has come. The Full (Brahman)
remains the same, even after the Full (the visible universe) has come out of the
Full (Brahman).”

Chapter 1: A Universal Prayer

“Lead me from the unreal to the real, lead me from darkness (ignorance) to
light (knowledge), lead me from death to immortality.”

“This Self is dearer than a son, dearer than wealth, dearer than everything else,
and is innermost. Should a person (holding the Self as dear) say to one calling
anything else dearer than the Self, ‘(what you hold) dear will die’ – he or she is
certainly competent (to say so) – it will indeed come true. One should meditate
upon the Self alone as dear, the dear ones are not mortal”. [Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad 1.4.8]

The one thing to be known and realized is the ‘Atman’, which is dearer than
anything else in this world. Knowledge of ‘Brahman’ consummates in the
experience of Brahman. The Mundaka Upanishad says:

“The knower of the Brahman becomes Brahman.” [Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.9]

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“This (universe) was indeed ‘Brahman’ in the beginning. It knew only itself as, ‘I
am Brahman’. Therefore, it became all. And whoever among the gods knew It
also became That; and the same with sages and human beings”.
[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10]

It is knowledge that makes us realize our true worth. Knowledge is power.

Knowledge is what liberates.

“This (universe) indeed consists of three things: name, form and action
(process).” [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.6.1]

“These three (name-form-process) together are one – this body, and the body,
although one, is these three. The immortal entity is covered by truth (the five
elements). The vital energy is the immortal entity, and name and form are truth;
(so) this vital energy is covered by them”. [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.6.3]

Whatever has a name and form is subject to mortality. Name-form-process

constitutes this relative universe which is the subject matter of ‘Apara-Vidya’ or
ordinary science. Once we finish off with relativity, then comes the study of the
‘Atman’ which is the concern of the ‘Para-Vidya’.

“To the Hindu, man is not traveling from error to truth, but from truth to
truth, from lower to the higher truth”.
– Swami Vivekananda

Chapter 2: ‘Apara-Vidya’ sans ‘Para-Vidya’ – Its Dangers

The Self of the universe and the Self in every man, woman and living being
is One. That is the great Advaitic vision.

“It is surely astonishing that such a system as the Vedanta should have
been slowly elaborated by the indefatigable and intrepid thinkers of India
thousands of years ago, a system that even now makes us feel giddy, as in
mounting the last steps of the swaying spire of an ancient Gothic
cathedral. Stone follows on stone after regular succession after once the
first step has been made, after once it has been clearly seen that in the
beginning there can have been but One, as there will be but One in the end,
whether we call it ‘Atman’ or ‘Brahman’.
Max Muller [Six Systems of Indian Philosophy]

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The whole universe we perceive is the waking-state universe, and all knowledge
that we have acquired about the universe is the waking-state-knowledge. When
we go into the non-waking state of dream and sleep, new dimensions of reality
open up before us as challenges. The whole universe of multiplicity is essentially
that One infinite reality from which it has come, in which it lives and unto which it
returns.

“As a spider moves along the thread (it produces), and as from a fire tiny sparks
fly in all directions, so from this Self emanate all organs, all worlds, all gods, and
all beings. Its secret name (Upanishad) is ‘The Truth of truth’. The ‘Prana’ (vital
force) is true, and It is the Truth of that”. [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.1.20]

The world is non-different from Brahman; remains filled with Brahman

during its existence and finally merges back into the Brahman.

We are truly infinite, but as if caught in the coil of this body-mind complex, and
through that, caught in a sect, creed, nation and race. We have forgotten our true
nature. Slowly we realize we are not bound by any of these limitations. We are
something special, something wonderful. We are one with the ultimate reality.
This knowledge then comes to us, and that is all about spiritual growth and
realization.

The same divine spark is in you, in me, and in all of us according to the Indian
system of thought. Advaita goes one step ahead and says that we are one with
Brahman.

“I take refuge in the self-existing Reality, in Whom is this universe, from Whom is
this universe, by Whom is this universe, Who Himself is this universe, Who is
beyond this universe”. [Shrimad-Bhagavata 8.3.3]

Truth is eternal because there can never be any change to it.

‘Mimansa’ means investigation or examination. It dealt with the text of the Vedas
and probed into their meaning. There were two divisions in it – ‘Purva-Mimansa’
and ‘Uttara-Mimansa’. ‘Purva-Mimansa’ dealt with the ritualistic and the
ceremonial portion of the Vedas. It had a spiritual inclination, no doubt, but
mostly heaven-based. The last one is ‘Uttara-Mimansa’, the ‘Vedanta’.

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We strengthen religion with intellect, but we never say religion is based on
intellect alone. Intellect has to be transcended. The ultimate truth is a matter of
experience and not intellectual quibbling.

The entire Vedanta is there to take us towards the unification of all experience in
the Atman, one and absolute.

The affirmation that ‘God is’, and the negation that ‘God is not’, do not
touch God at all. That is because God is the eternal Self behind all
affirmations and negations.

When we forget our intrinsic value, we become subject to all pressures coming
from the objects of the external world. Then we think these objects have a high
value and we have none, that we are nothing and the world of objects is
everything. We then become absolutely a slave in this world. There is no
freedom for us in such a situation. But when we know our true nature, we realize
that we are supreme and not the objects. That is the freedom Vedanta speaks of.
Vedanta is concerned with rescuing men and women from the subordination to
things. Real freedom comes only when we are truly independent of things.

“All dependence is misery, and all independence is happiness. Know this to be

the characteristic of happiness and misery.” [Manu Smriti 4.160]

Isha Upanishad says:

The whole world is to be understood as filled with Divinity. With the

understanding that all this is Divine, we renounce our wrong notion about the
world. What we until then undertook to be the world; we realize it as ‘Brahman’.
Through that renunciation we are free to enjoy life. Then only we are truly free.
We can then live with tremendous zest in this world, and at the same time, in a
spirit of complete renunciation. We can enjoy life fully thereby.

Speech is the first great capacity that brought the human being into the world of
knowledge, and all progress started thereby. Therefore ‘Vak’, the power of
speech is highly respected in India, and ‘Saraswati’, the goddess of speech is
called ‘Vag-Devi’.

The organ of speech and the capacity to confront the forefinger with the thumb
are highly commended in our literature. In fact, the ‘Jnana-mudra’, in which gods
and sages are usually seen, represents this capacity to control the thumb with
the forefinger. It is uniquely a human capacity.

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The word ‘Deva’ has been used in the Upanishads to describe the sensory
system. The word ‘Deva’ and ‘Div’ mean luminous. Deva is that luminous reality
which we have in the body. The sense organs are therefore called ‘Devas’. All
the organs appear to be luminous only due to the light of the ‘Atman’, without
which they are inert like clods of earth.

“Brahman has but two forms – gross and subtle, mortal and immortal’ limited and
unlimited, defined and undefined”. [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.3.1]

“Therefore the description (of Brahman): ‘Not this, not this’. Because there is no
other and more appropriate description than this ‘Not this’. Now Its name: ‘Truth
of truth’. The vital force is truth, and It is ‘Truth of truth”. [Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad 2.3.6]

“By elimination of all differences due to limiting adjuncts, the words ‘Neti, Neti’
refer to something that has no distinguishing mark such as name, or form, or
action, or heterogeneity, or species, or qualities. Words denote things through
one or other of these, but Brahman has none of these distinguishing marks.
Hence, it cannot be described as, ‘It is such and such’, as we describe a cow by
saying, ‘There moves a white cow with horns’. When, however, we wish to
describe Its true nature, free from all differences due to limiting adjuncts, then it
is utter impossibility. Then there is only one way left, viz. to describe It as, ‘Not
this, not this’, by eliminating all possible specifications of It that one may know of.
When through the elimination of all limiting adjuncts the desire to know about
space, time and everything else (that is not Brahman) is removed, one realizes
one’s identity with Brahman, the ‘Truth of truth’, which is homogeneous like a
lump of salt, is Pure Intelligence, and is without interior or exterior …. Therefore
the two negative particles in ‘Not this, not this’ are used in all-inclusive sense.”
- Shankaracharya

Unless we get detached from the world of truth, we cannot understand the world
of ‘Truth of truth’.

The future of man, if it is to be progress and not merely a standstill or

degeneration, must be guided by a deliberate purpose. We had discussed in
India the common purpose of human evolution long ago. Our great and profound
thinkers formulated a wonderful theory. They called it the theory of
‘Purusharthas’.

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The four human pursuits are: ‘Dharma’, ‘Artha’, ‘Kama’, ‘Moksha’. We need
‘Artha’ (money and other resources) to satisfy ‘Kama’ (sensory satisfaction). All
the sensory values are included in these two – Kama and Artha. To regulate
them at the human level, we need a third value that is called ‘Dharma’ (duties).
Though in our day to day life, Kama comes first, then Artha, Dharma is always
stated first in our formula for human development. The sequence of
‘Purusharthas’ therefore is: Dharma, Artha, and Kama.

Finally, comes the fourth and the supreme ‘Purushartha’ called ‘Moksha’. There
we are perfectly alone. Dr. Radhakrishnan says: “In the last stage of life’s
journey man walks in single file.”

These Purusharthas are the greatest contribution to social thought from India to
the world.

Upanishads are never interested in projecting human beings. They are interested
in projecting the truth – the truth about our Self and about the world. They are
intensely impersonal in their approach. There is no question of accepting the
truth because a person has told it. The fact has been stated. You can check for
yourself.

“It is not for the sake of the husband, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own
sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the wife, my dear, that she is loved,

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but for one’s own sake that she is loved. It is not for the sake of the sons, my
dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for
the sake of wealth, my dear, that it is loved, but for one’s own sake that it is
loved. It is not for the sake of the brahmana, my dear, that he is loved, but for
one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the ksatriya, my dear,
that he is loved, but for one’s own sake that he is loved. It is not for the sake of
the worlds, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are
loved. It is not for the sake of gods, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s
own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of beings, my dear, that they
are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of all,
my dear, that all are loved, but for one’s own sake that all are loved. The Self,
my dear Maitreyi should be realized – should be heard of, reflected on, and
meditated upon. By the realization of the Self, my dear, through hearing,
reflection and meditation, all this is known.” [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
2.4.5]

The three steps to be taken are – ‘shravana’ (hearing), ‘manana’ (thinking), and
‘nididhyasana’ (meditating). Through this we realize our true Self. Only when
these are combined does the true realization of the unity of ‘Brahman’ takes
place.

In the evolutionary process, the ego is necessary to make us feel our

individuality, but we have to transcend it.

Presently our body constricts our Self, and the genetic consciousness makes us
a tiny creature, whereas there is an infinite element in us lying hidden.

Anybody who is very egoistic will repel others. He or she will not attract anybody.
Anybody who is slightly spiritual and less egoistic attracts others.

Because the ultimate reality in Vedanta has Intelligence as the principle, we can
say that the knowledge it had was ‘I’. Brahman knew Itself as ‘I am Brahman’.
The Upanishad says that we too can realize that truth. If Brahman can do so, we
too can. Why? The same Brahman is pulsating in us as our Self. That is the
understanding of Brahman about Itself.

We must realize this ‘Atman’. If you realize the Atman, you realize
everything, because everything has come from the Atman.

Vedanta stands as a sponsor to all the finest dreams and aspirations of the
human mind in the modern period when physical sciences are destroying
distance between countries leaving the ego-born distance between one
another intact. That separation can be avoided only through
implementation of this philosophical and spiritual vision.

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“As from a fire kindled with wet faggot diverse kinds of smoke issue, even so, my
dear, the Rig-Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sama-Veda, Atharvangirasa, history,
mythology, arts, Upanishads, pithy verse, aphorisms, elucidations, and
explanations are (like) the breath of this infinite Reality. They are like the breath
of this (Supreme Self.” [Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.4.10]

To emphasize that the whole creation is a natural, spontaneous outpouring of

that infinite reality, the natural and effortless act of breathing has been taken as
an illustration. They are like the breath of the Supreme Self.

The Upanishad says that the whole of knowledge has come from Brahman.
Vedas means knowledge. They are nothing but the breath of that Infinite One,
and therefore, knowledge is sacred. The Hindu concept is that all knowledge is
sacred.

This universe is of the same nature as the Self. It emerges from It, remains
in It, and merges back into It. Throughout there is nothing but the Self,
Brahman. This Brahman is pure consciousness.

(To be continued)

Review: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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