70 UPANISHAD VAHINI

CHANDOGYA UPANISHAD

T
his Upanishad is incorporated in the Sama
Veda. It has eight sections, the first five
dealing with various Upasanas or Forms
of approaching the Ideal and the last three explaining the
manner of acquisition of true Knowledge. Purity of the
Consciousness is the essential prerequisite for Upasana.
Single-minded concentration is essential for Knowledge
of Brahmam. These can be got by Karma and Upasana.
Thus is Brahma Jnana won. That is the reason why in the
Sastras, Karma is first described and Upasana next and
Jnanam last.
In the First Chapter of the Chandogya, the Upasanas
which form part of the Sama Veda are detailed. In the
Second, the entire ritual of Sama is described. In the
Third, the Upasana of Surya known as Madhuvidya, the
Gayatri Upasana, and the Sandilya Vidya are all given. In
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the Fourth, the Samvarga Vidya, and the sixteen-phased

Brahma Vidya are taught. In the Fifth, the three Vidyas,
Prana, Panchagni and Vaiswanara are elaborated.
Uddalaka taught his son, Swethakethu, the
knowledge which if known, all things can be known. The
knowledge of mud and of gold will give the knowledge
of all pots and pans, as well as of all bracelets and
necklaces. The mud and the gold are the truth. Their
modifications and transformations are temporary, mere
name-forms. So too, the world, like the pot and the
bracelet, is just an effect, the cause being “Sath.” Sath
means “Is-ness” is common to all objects; the pot “is”,
the “bracelet” “is”. “Is-ness” becomes manifest through
association with the pots and pans, the bracelets and
necklaces. The “is-ness” may not be apparent to gross
intelligences, for, it needs subtlety to realise it. The rosy
colour which is manifested in the rose “is,” even in the
absence of the flower.
Similarly, the “is-ness” that is the Universal
character of all objects persists even in the absence of
objects. Prior to creation, there was only just this “is-
ness.” There was no void then. There was this “is-ness”
everywhere! When the “is” was reflected in Maya or
Primal Activity, it resulted in Easwara who partook of
that activity to manifest as the Universe with the three
elements of Fire, Earth and Wind. All creation is but the
permutation and combination of these three.
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The line of Uddalaka is steeped in the study of the

Vedas, and so it is famed as a noble high-born family.
But Swethakethu, the son, was wasting precious years
after Upanayana (rite of leading pupil to preceptor), in
idleness, without using them for Vedic Study. This
caused concern for Uddalaka, for he who neglects the
study of the Vedas, being born as a Brahmin, does not
deserve that appellation. He can only be called
Brahmanabandhu, one who has Brahmins as his
relatives! So, Uddalaka took him to task and forced him
to go to a teacher. There, by the exercise of his superior
intelligence, he mastered, before he turned twenty-four,
the Four Vedas with their meanings. He returned, proud
and pompous, swelling with egoism, declaring that there
was no one to equal him in scholarship and righteousness.
In order to prick his pride, Uddalaka asked him
one day, “You have become haughty that you have no
equal in learning and virtue. Well, did you seek from your
teacher the message that reveals the Absolute, the lesson
that only the practice of the Sastras can impart, the
message which when heard makes you hear all things
that are heard, which when imagined makes you imagine
all things imagined? Did you learn that? That message
would have shown you the Atma which is the fulfilment
of all Study and Scholarship.”
The Atma is the base of individuals like
Swethakethu. The pure Consciousness becomes
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apparently limited into a variety of individuals. In deep

sleep, the variety disappears and each individual lapses
back into this “is-ness.” Then, all the manifold activities,
and experiences, like, “I am Ranga”, “I am Ganga”, “I
am father”, “I am son”, etc., are destroyed. The sweetness
and fragrance of many flowers are collected and fused
into one uniformly sweet honey, where all the manifold
individualities are destroyed. The names Ganga, Krishna,
Indus are all lost when they enter the sea.
They are thereafter called “the sea.” The Jivi who
is eternal and immortal is born again and again, as a
transitory mortal. He continues to accumulate activity,
prompted by inherited impulses and the activity produces
consequences which he must shoulder and suffer. It is
the body that decays and dies, not the Jivi or the
Individualised Soul. The banyan seed will sprout even if
it is trampled upon. The salt placed in water, though not
available to the grasp, is recognisable by the taste!
The Jivi, befogged by Ajnana, is unable to
recognise his Reality. Discrimination will reveal the truth.
A millionaire is kidnapped and left alone in the jungle, but
he discovers the way out and comes back into his home.
So also, the Jivi is restored to his millions! Once the Jivi
reaches its real status, it is free from all the change and
chance that is involved in Samsara, or the flow of time
and space, of name and form. If he does not reach that
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status, then, like the happy sleeper who wakes into the
confusion of the day, he will be born into the world of
decay and death.
Brahmam is described as Ekam Eva Adwithiyam;
all this visible world is denoted as Thathswarupa or the
Form of Brahmam. It can be realised by Sagunopasana,
or worship of the limited qualified Divinity, just as
Sathyakama and others did. The path of Brahmopasana
is called the Sushumna Marga also. The Omnipresent
Brahmam can be enclosed and discovered in the
firmament of the heart! It is the capital of that Raja. Since
He is seated there, the heart is called Brahmavesma, or
the House of Brahmam. That firmament cannot, of course,
limit or set boundaries to the illimitable Brahmam!
Yogis who are turned away from the objective
world can attain the Parabrahmam, with Its splendour of
realised knowledge, in the pure clear sky of their hearts.
The worlds are fixed as the spokes of the wheel in the
hub of Brahmam. Decline, decay and death do not affect
It. Since that Supreme Entity can achieve whatever It
decides on, It is called Sathyakaama and Sathya-
sankalpa. Now, what exactly is the Parabrahmam? We
can know it by a single test. That which remains, after
everything is negated as ‘Not this’, ‘Not that’—that is
Brahmam.
This is the Truth that all aspirants seek. Attaining
It, they get the status of emperors and can travel wherever
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they like. The Jnani who is established in the pure Reality

sees all desires that dawn in his heart as expressions of
that Truth only.
The Atma transcends all the worlds. It is
uncontaminated. He who is aware of only the Atma is
ever in Bliss. The Brahmacharya stage is an important
step for attaining Atmic Wisdom. Yajnas (sacrifices), fasts
and other vows are also equally helpful. The solar energy
surges through the countless nerves of the body. The
senses merge in the mind, at the moment of death; the
Jivi who has realised that it was all this, while limited by
the mind, then escapes into the Hridayakasa through the
nerves. At last, on the point of death, the Jivi moves out
of the Sushumna into the solar rays and from thence to
the Surya Loka itself. The journey does not end there. It
reaches out into Brahma Loka too.
But the Jivi who is caught in the mire of Ajnana,
who is identified with the mind and its vagaries, escapes
through the ear or eye or other senses and falls into Lokas,
where Karma rules. The feeling of content and joy one
gets in deep sleep is the result of Ajnana persisting in the
individual.
The Chiththa is the source and support of
Resolution. All resolutions, decisions and plans are the
products of the Chiththa. They are of its form. They
originate there. They are registered there. That is why
when death overtakes a scholar of all Sastras, he becomes
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but the equal of ordinary men and his fate is the same as
that of the Ajnani. The Chiththa has to be saturated with
Brahmic endeavour. Then only will it be an instrument
of Liberation, freed from the shackles of Sankalpa. The
mind etc., cannot free itself, as the Chiththa can. The
Chiththa discriminates between resolutions. It tests them
as duty and not-duty, and justifies with proper reasons
the classification it has made. Once this selection is made,
the word utters it, the name signifies it. The special sound-
forms or manthras incorporate the resolutions, accepted
as duty, by the purified Chiththa; the rites become one
with the manthras. There can be no proper Karma without
Chiththa.
Next, about Dhyana, which is even superior to
Chiththa. Dhyana is the fixing of the Buddhi on the
Divine, when it transcends such inferior helps as images,
idols or saligrams. In Dhyana, all agitations cease, all
modifications are unnoticed. On account of the effect of
the Thamo Guna, and even of the Rajo Guna, all created
things like the waters, the hills and mountains, the stars
and planets, men with the spark of the Divine in them, all
are agitation-bound, change-bound.
Vijnana is better than Dhyana. Jnana based on
scholarship steeped in the Sastras is referred to as
Vijnana. It is attained by Dhyana and, hence, it is more
valuable than Dhyana.
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Superior to Vijnana is Balam—Strength, Fortitude,

Vigour. It illumines the objective world, it sharpens the
Prathibha or Intuition. Prathibha is the power by which
you can sense the Consciousness in all knowledge
objects. Now there is one thing superior even to
Prathibha: Annam, Food, Sustenance. It is the support of
life. Deprived of it for ten days, man becomes powerless
to grasp anything. It is life that makes possible study,
service of the teacher, listening to his teaching, cogitation
over what he has taught, and the earning of Thejas.
Thejas or Illumination is higher than Intuition,
Prathibha or food. Thejas is fire, heat and light. Thejas
creates water and water produces food. Thejas can make
even wind lighter. It shines as lightning and sounds as
thunder.
Akasa is superior to Thejas, remember. It is
through Akasa that sounds are transmitted and heard.
Love and play are products of Akasa. Seeds sprout on
account of Akasa.
Now, consider this. Smarana, memory, is superior
to Akasa. Without it, all experience is meaningless, all
knowledge is a waste, all effort is purposeless. Nothing
can be experienced without the help of memory. Objects
like the Akasa will be unrecognised in its absence. It can
be said that memory creates the Akasa and other objects.
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Thus analysing the value and relative importance

of objects and powers, man must give up identification
of self with the physical body and recognise his real
Reality. Such a man rises to the height of an
Uttamapurusha, the noblest of men, laughing, playing
and moving without regard to the needs or comforts of
the body. The body-bound man is caught in Samsara.
For the one who is free from that bondage, Swaswarupa
(One’s reality) is the field of activity. The wind, the
lightning and the thunder have no permanent existence.
When the rainy season comes on, they appear in the sky
and get merged in it. So too the particularised Jivi appears
as separate for a time against the background of Brahmam
and gets merged in It, at last.
This Ashtaadhyayi Upanishad teaches the
series of evolved objects from Hiranyagarbha,
Kasyapaprajapathi, Manu and Manushya. This lineage
and the lessons to ennoble it are vital for mankind. It has
to be learned by sons and students from father and
teachers.