Swami Nikhilananda - Upanishads I - Katha, Isa, Kena, Mundaka - English PDF
Swami Nikhilananda - Upanishads I - Katha, Isa, Kena, Mundaka - English PDF
Swami Nikhilananda - Upanishads I - Katha, Isa, Kena, Mundaka - English PDF
VOLUME I
THE UPANISHADS.
K.a-tha., Ifa., Kena., and Mundaka
NIKHILANANDA
Thousand Island Park, N. Y.
September 8, 1948
CONTENTS
Preface V
List of Abbreviations xi
Note on Pronunciation xiii
General Introduction I
Discussion of Brahman in the Upanishads 25
KATHA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION 109
Sru SANKARACHARYA's INTRonucnoN 113
INVOCATION II6
PART ONE
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
PART Two
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
ISA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION 195
Sru SANKARACHARYA's INTRODUCTION 197
INVOCATION 200
IsA UPANisHAD 201
KENA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION 221
SRr SANKARACHARYA's INTRODUCTION 223
INVOCATION 227
Chapter I 229
Chapter II 236
Chapter III 241
Chapter IV 244
ix
X CONTENTS
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION
Sru SANKARAcHARYA's INTRODUCTION
INVOCATION
FmsT MuNDAKA
Chapter I
Chapter II
SECOND MuNDAKA
Chapter I 2 79
Chapter II 288
THIRD MuNDAKA
Chapter I
Chapter II
Glossary
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
THE VEDAS are the basic scriptures of the Hindus and their highest
authority in all matters pertaining to religion and philosophy. They are,
moreover, the earliest extant Indo-Aryan literary monuments. The
Hindus regard them as eternal, without beginning, without human
authorship. The primary meaning of the name Veda is Knowledge,
super-sensuous wisdom. The secondary reference is to the words in
which that Knowledge is embodied. And so the term Veda denotes not
only the orthodox religious and philosophical wisdom of India, but also
the books in which the earliest utterances of that wisdom are preserved.
The Hindus look upon these books with the highest reverence. They
are known as the Word-Brahman, the Sabda-Brahma.
Knowledge is of two kinds. The first is derived from the sense-organs
and corroborated by various evidences based upon the experiences of
the sense-organs. This is the form of kno'Yledge that falls within the
scope of the physical sciences. The second, however, is transcendent and
is realized through the mental and spiritual discipline of yoga. This is
the subject matter of the Vedas. According to Patanjali, the tradi
tional master of the yoga doctrine, it is not the words of the Vedas
that are eternal, but the Knowledge or ideas conveyed through them.
This Knowledge, also called the Sphota, has existed always. At the con
clusion of a cycle both the Sphota and the created universe merge in
the undifferentiated causal state, and at the beginning of the new cycle
the two together again become manifest. The Lord brings forth the
universe with the help of the Knowledge of the Vedas. He Himself
utters the words that express this Knowledge and confers upon them
their appropriate meanings. That is to say, it is the Lord, the Creator
of the universe, who has determined the precise meaning that is to be
attached to every Vedic word. He is the first teacher of Vedic truth.
Though the words may be different in different cycles, the ideas con·
veyed through them remain unalterable: no human intellect can inter
fere with them. According to Vedanta, the words of the Vedas come
from the Lord spontaneously, like a man's breathing.
I
2 THE UPANISHADS
prayers and hymns, while the Brahmana contains the rules and regula
tions for the sacrifices, deals with their accessories, and also reveals
the meaning of the Mantra, which otherwise would remain obscure.
Therefore both the Mantra and the Brahmana were indispensable for
the orthodox worship and propitiation of the gods.
A further development of the Brahmana, and included therein, was
the Aranyaka, the so-called "forest treatise." This was intended for
those people who had retired into the forest in accordance with the
ideal of the third stage of life, and were consequently unable to perform
in the usual way the sacrifices obligatory for all twice-born house
holders.3 The sacrifices required many articles and accessories impossible
to procure in the forest. Hence the Aranyaka prescribes symbolic wor
ship and describes various meditations that were to be used �s substi
tutes for an actual sacrifice. To give an illustration from the first chapter
of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: instead of actually performing the
Vedic Horse-sacrifice (Asvamedha), the forest-dweller was to meditate
in a special way upon the dawn as the head of the horse, the sun as
the eye, the air as the life, and so on. The worship was lifted from
the physical to the mental level.
THE FOUR STAGES
The full life-period of an Indo-Aryan was divided into four stages,
namely, brahmacharya, garhasthya, vanaprastha, and sannyasa. The
first stage was devoted to study. The celibate student led a life of
chastity and austerity and served his teacher with humility. He learnt
the Mantra and the Brahmana sections of the Vedas. And when he
left the teacher's house, after completing his studies, he was commanded
not to deviate from truth and not to forget to persevere in the study
of t1-ie Vedas. The second stage was devoted to household duties. The
young man took a wife. Both together performed the V cdic sacrifice
with the hymns of the Mantra and in accordance with the rules laid
down in the Brahmana. The third stage commenced when the hair
turned grey and the face began to wrinkle. The householder consigned
the responsibility of the home to his children and rctircd with his
8
The members of the three upper castes in Hindu society-the briihmins,
the kshattriyas, and the vaisyas-were called "dvija," twice-born. Their first
birth refers to their coming out of their mother's womb; the second, which is
a spiritual birth, to their initiation by a religious teacher, who i:qvests them
with the sacred thread, thus entitling them to study the Vedas and participate
in the Vedic rituals.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5
wife into the forest. He was then known as a vanaprashtha or liranyaka,
a forest-dweller. The Aranyaka portion of the Vedas prescribed for
him sacrifice by meditation and symbolic worship.
The final stage, called sannyasa, was the culmination of the strictly
regulated life of an Indo-Aryan.4 During this period, having totally
renounced the world, he became a sannyasin, or wandering monk, free
from worldly desires and attachments and absorbed in the uninter
rupted contemplation of Brahman. It was no longer necessary to worship
God by means of material articles or even mental symbols. One ex
perienced directly the non-duality of God, the soul, and the universe
-Spirit communing immediately with the Spirit. The sannyasin took
the vow of dedicating his life to Truth and to the service of humanity,
and was honoured as a spiritual leader of society. And it was for him
that the Upanishads ( which are mostly the concluding portions of the
.A.ranyakas) were intended. The Upanishads are concerned with the
direct experience of Brahman, which liberates one from the bondage
of the relative world.
Thus the Indo-.A.ryan seers arranged the Vedas to conform to the
four stages of life. The brahmachari studied the Sarnhita, the house
holder followed the injunctions of the Brahmana, the forest-dweller
practised contemplation according to the Aranyaka, and the sannyasin
was guided by the exalted wisdom of the Upanishads. According to the
Hindu view, all four portions of the four Vedas were revealed simul
taneously and have existed from the very beginning of the cycle. They
are not to be regarded as exhibiting a philosophical development or
evolution in the processes of thought.5
It has already been stated that Vyasa systematized the Vedas in four
books. He taught the Rig-Veda to his disciple Paila, the Yajur-Veda
to Vaisampayana, the Sama-Veda to Jaimini, and the Atharva-Veda
to Sumanta. Among the disciples of Vaisampayana was the celebrated
Yajnavalkya, one of the great teachers of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
A legend states that this disciple became so vain of his knowledge that
he incurred the displeasure of his guru and was expelled from the
hermitage, with the command that he should leave what he knew of
the Veda behind. The proud disciple spat out everything that he had
learnt and went away. But some other disciples of the sage Vaisampayana
were grieved at the sad plight of the Vedic lore and so, assuming the
forms of partridges (tittira), they swallowed it, and later on taught that
Vedic knowledge to their own disciples. Since then that portion of
the Vedas has been known as the Black Yajur-Veda (Krishna Yajur
Veda) and also as the Taittiriya Samhitii (from tittira). Yajnavalkya,
however, worshipped the sun god, who was so pleased with his devo
tion that he appeared before him in an equine form. The god committed
to him the Vedic knowledge that later on became known as the White
Yajur-Veda (Sukla Yajur-Veda) or the Vajasaneyi Samhitii (from vaja,
meaning energy, strength). This was the version of the Veda that
Yajnavalkya taught to his disciples.
The four basic Vedas gradually branched off into many recensions,
or sakhas, at the hands of various teachers, after whom they were
named. Thus the Satapatha Briihmana of the White Yajur-Veda sur
vives in the Kanva and Madhyandina recensions, according to the two
disciples of Yajnavalkya. They differ from each other greatly in con
tent as well as in the number and arrangement of tl1e sections and
·chapters, the former having seventeen and the latter fourteen sections.
The concluding portion of the last book of both recensions is the
known to the rishis for unnumbered years. In short, the dates of the
Vedic hymns and collections are far from clear.
One reason for the obscurity is that the ancient Hindus lacked the
historical sense. They seldom kept records of the dates of their literary,
religious, or even political achievements. The Vedas, furthermore,
which had been handed down orally for so many centuries, were never
believed by them to have had human authorship: they had either been
taught to the sages by God or had become manifest of themselves to
the primordial rishis, who were the seers of the mantras. Hence in
India the tendency has always been to regard the Vedas as eternal,
rather than as compositions of a certain historical moment. But even
from the modem historical point of view it is not easy to determine the
origin and trace the gradual development of the Vedic tradition. The
Rig-Veda, which is generally recognized as the earliest of the four,
contains lofty philosophical concepts, and sentiments of a monistic cast
such as Western thinkers are inclined to assign to a later and highly
developed stage of human thought. "The Reality is one," we read, for
example, "but the sages call it by various names." Moreover, we find
that a critical spirit has already developed. The ability of the gods
who themselves exist in time and space and are victims of causality
-to create the universe is questioned. Such ideas indicate a maturity
of philosophical insight and by no means the primitive infancy of
thought.
Following their historical method, the European Indologists regard
the Upanishads to be of later composition than the Mantras and Brah
manas. They do not admit any of them to be earlier than the eleventh
century B.c., while to many are assigned a much later date. In this
respect the Hindu tradition, as we have seen, is totally different, the
orthodox belief and teaching being that all parts of the Vedas were
revealed at the same time, though the various collections might have
been compiled in different periods.
THE UPANISHADS
Now about the number and divisions of the Upanishads. With the
disappearance of many of the recensions of the Vedas, many Brahmanas,
A.ranyakas, and Upanishads also disappeared.6 The fact that the sacred
0 The Rig-Veda is said to hnve existed in twenty-one recensions, the Yajur
Veda in a hundred, the So.ma-Veda in a thousand, and the Atharva-Veda in nine.
But there are differences of opinion among the authorities on this subject.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 9
books were not committed to writing in ancient times is partly respon
sible for this lamentable loss. Furthermore, among the works surviving,
it is difficult to ascertain the exact number that should be regarded as
authentic Upanishads. A religious system is considered valid in India
only when it is supported by Sruti (the Vedas); hence the founders of
religious sects have sometimes written books and called them Upani
shads in order to give their views scriptural authority. The Allah
Upanishad, for instance, was composed in the sixteenth century, at
the time of the Mussalman emperor Akbar.
One hundred and eight Upanishads are enumerated in the Muktika
Upanishad, which is a work belonging to the tradition of the Y ajur
Veda. Among these, the Aitareya Upanishad and Kaushitaki Upanishad
belong to the Rig-Veda; the Chhandogya and Kena, to the Sama-Veda;
the T aittiriya, Mahanarayana, Katha, Svetasvatara, and Maitrayani, to
the Black Yajur-Veda; the Isa and Brihadaranyaka, to the White Yajur
Veda; and the Mund.aka, Prasna, and Mandukya, to the Atharva-Veda.
It may be stated, also, that these Upanishads belong to differing re
censions of their respective Vedas. Thus, for instance, the Mundaka
Upanishad belongs to the Saunaka recension of the Atharva-Veda,
while the Prasna Upanishad belongs to the Pippalada recension. The
Brahma Sutras, which is the most authoritative work on the Vedanta
philosophy, has been based upon the Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya,
Brihadaranyaka, Kaushitaki, Katha, Svetasvatara, Mundaka, Prasna,
and possibly also the Jabala Upanishad. Sankaracharya wrote his cele
brated commentaries on the Isa, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka,
Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Chhandogya, Brihadaranyaka, and
possibly also the Svetasvatara Upanishad. These are regarded as the
major works.
The teachings of the Upanishads, the Brahma S1,1,tras, and the
Bhagavad Gita constitute Vedanta. Three main schools of Vedanta
exist: the Dualist, Qualified Non-dualist, and Non-dualist, their prin
cipal teachers being, respectively, Madhvacharya (A.D. 1199-1276),
Ramanujacharya (A.D. 1017-n37), and Sankaracharya (A.D. 788-820).
Madhvacharya has written commentaries on some of the major
Upanishads according to Dualistic doctrines. Some of the disciples
and followers of Ramanujacharya have done likewise to prove that
Qualified Non-dualism is the underlying philosophy of Vedanta. But
neither of these systems has won such wide acceptance and prestige as
that of Sankaracharya.
10 THE UPANISHADS
TESTS BY TEACHERS
Aspirants desiring the knowledge of the Upanishads were subjected
to severe ordeals by their preceptors. The Katha Upanishad describes
the case of Nachiketa, who was tested in various ways by Yama, the
god of death, to ascertain his fitness for the Knowledge of Brahman.
He was offered horses, elephants, and cattle; children and grandchil
dren; rulership of the earth and many years of life; heavenly damsels
and their music; and numerous other desirable things which do not
fall to the lot of an ordinary mortal. But he spurned them all, under
standing their transitory nature, and persisted in his prayer for the
Knowledge of the Self. Pratardana was tested by lndra,15 Janasruti
Pautrayana by Raikva,16 Aruni by Pravahana,17 Janaka by Yajna
valkya, 18 and Brihadratha by Sakayana. 19
In the Prasna Upanishad20 the teacher Pippalada demanded of his
six disciples that they should spend one year practising austerities, con
tinence, and faith. "Afterwards you may ask me any question you like;
if I know the answer I shall give it to you." The Chhandogya Upan
ishad,21 in a celebrated passage, tells how the teacher Prajapati re
quired Indra and Virochana to practise spiritual disciplines for thirty
two years. Even after that, Virochana, the king of the demons, who had
not acquired the necessary purity of heart, went away satisfied with
the erroneous idea that the Self was identical with the body, while
lndra, the king of the gods, had to continue in the austere life of a
brahmachari for another seventy-three years (one hundred and five
in all) before he could realize the true knowledge of the Self.
RECONCILING THE TEACHINGS OF THE UPANISHADS
One finds in the Upanishads various strands of thought: Dualism,
Qualified Non-dualism, and Non-dualism. Further, the Upanishads
describe both the Brahman with attributes (Saguna Brahman) and
the attributeless Brahman (Nirguna Brahman). They also deal with
1� Kau. Up. III. 1.
16 Chh. Up. IV. i.
17 Br. Up. VI. ii. 6.
18 Br. Up. IV. iii. 1.
10 Mai. Up. I. 2.
20 I. 1-2.
21 VIII. vii. S; VIII. xi. S.
THE UPANISHADS
1908.
THE UPANISHADS
others. The chief priest of the court arose and said: "Are you, then,
the best Vedic scholar among us?"
Yajnavalkya answered: "I bow to the best Vedic scholar. I only want
the cows."
Thereupon the other brahmins were determined to test his knowl
edge of Brahman. A learned debate ensued, and this was presided over
by the kshattriya king.
In chanter four of the same work Yajnavalkya and the emperor
Janaka again appear. This time the kshattriya is the disciple and the
brahmin the preceptor. Janaka receives from Yajnavalkya the supreme
Knowledge of Brahman �nd demonstrates his appreciation by making a
suitable gift: "I give you, sir, the empire of Videha, and myself with it,
to wait upon you."
At the conclusion of the £fth chapter, this wise emperor Janaka in
structs Buc;lila, the son of Asvatarasva, concerning the Gayatri, a verse
the knowledge of which consumes a man's sins and makes him "pure,
cleansed, undecaying, and immortal."
Pravahana Jaivali, another kshattriya king, appears in the eighth
section of the £rst chapter of the Chhiindogya Upanishad, where he is
described as teaching the secret of the Udgitha, discussed in the Sama
Veda. He appears again in the third section of the £fth chapter of the
same Upanishad, where he plays a more important role. In this case,
the sage Aruni's son, Svetaketu, is having an interview with the king,
and the king asks him if he has been instructed by his father. The
youth replies that he has received instruction; whereupon Jaivali con
founds him by asking a number of questions regarding a man's depar
ture from this world, his return, the Way of the Gods, the Way of the
Fathers, and the rebirth of the soul. When Svetaketu confesses that he
does not know the answers, the king inquires: "Then why did you
say that you had been instructed? How could anybody who did not
know these things say that he had been instructed?" Svetaketu returned
to his father sorrowfully and described to him what had taken place.
Then Aruni went to the king, who said to him: "Sir, ask as a boon
such things as men possess." The brahmin: said to him: "May such
things as men possess remain with you! Repeat to me those words which
you addressed to my boy." The king was disturbed. He said to Aruni:
"Remain with me for some time." Then he added: "As to what you
have just asked of me, sir, this knowledge has not gone to any brahmin
before you. That is why, in ancient times, all over the world, the
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
state the purpose for which he has come. At the present time, you are
the one who possesses the knowledge of the Vaisvanara Atman. Please
give us instruction." "Tomorrow," said the king, "I shall give you my
reply." Next morning the brahmins approached him, like disciples,
carrying fuel in their hands, and received the instruction for which
they had come.
One more illustration. It is told in the seventh chapter of the
Chhandogya Upanishad that Narada once came to the kshattriya Sanat
kurniira and humbly begged him for instruction. Sanatkumara said:
"Please tell me what you know; after that I shall tell you what is
beyond." The learned Narada enumerated the subjects that he had
studied. These included, among others, the Vedas, mythology, grammar,
the science of numbers, the rules of sacrifice for the ancestors, the
science of portents, logic, ethics, etymology, the science of pronunciation
and prosody, the science of demons, the science of weapons, astronomy,
the science of serpents, and the sciences of perfume-making, dancing,
and singing. "But sir, for all of this," concluded Narada, "I know only
the mantras, the sacred words, and not the Self. I have been told by
such men as yourself that he who knows the Self overcomes grief; I
am in grief. Good sir, assist me beyond this grief." Thereupon Sanat
kumara began to lead Narada, step by step, to the Knowledge of
Brahman. Sanatkumara said: "Where one sees nothing else, hears
nothing else, understands nothing else-that is the Infinite. Where one
sees something else, hears something else, understands something else
that is the finite. The Infinite is immortal; the finite, mortal."23 "The
Infinite," continued the king, "is, indeed, below, above, behind, before,
to the right, and to the left. It is, indeed, all this.''24 Thus it was that
the venerable Sanatkumiira revealed to Narada, when the impurities
of his heart had been removed, "that which lies beyond darkncss."25
It is apparent from all of this (and this is not by any means an
exhaustive list of the possible citations) that the kshattriyas exerted a
profound influence on the teachings and teachers of the Upanishads.
They were versed in rituals, in the mysteries of rebirth, in the identity
of jiva and Brahman, and in the Knowledge of the Infinite, which is
the culmination of the spiritual wisdom of the Inda-Aryans. This, as we
have said, has led certain eminent Vedic scholars of the West to con-
23 VII. xidv. 1.
2� VII. XXV. 1.
25 VII. xxvi. 2.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 19
elude that the Upanishads, containing the Knowledge of the Self, must
be a later development by the kshattriyas in reaction against the rituals
and sacrifices of the Mantra and Brahmana portions of the Vedas: the
brahmins, occupied solely with the details and paraphernalia of sacri
fice, were ignorant of the philosophy of the Self and so had to learn
Self-Knowledge from the teachers of the military caste.
Such a conclusion, however, is hardly valid. It is true, indeed, that,
according to Advaita Vedanta, the Knowledge of Brahman and the. per
formance of sacrifices cannot coexist. They are incompatible. He who
has realized the oneness of jiva and Brahman and the unreality of the
relative world cannot participate in Vedic sacrifices, the aim of which
is to enable the performer to enjoy happiness in heaven. However-and
this is the great point-sacrifices and the Knowledge of Brahman are
meant for two different classes of aspirants. A sannyasin, who has
experienced the transitory nature of enjoyment, is qualified for Self
Knowledge; but such enlightened ones do not constitute the major
portion of society. It is the duty of others, who belong to the £.rst three
stages of life and who identify themselves with the body and mind and
seek material happiness, to engage in sacrificial action. This is a basic
principle, understood and taken for granted by every member of Hindu
society. It is neither necessary nor possible for a sannyasin to perform
sacrifices. To suppose that there were among the brahmins no
sannyasins who were endowed with Self-Knowledge would be wrong.
The fact is that as there were both illumined and unillumined persons
among the kshattriyas, so there were. among the brahmins those who
were devoted to sacrifices and also those who cultivated the Knowledge
of Brahman. The passages of the Upanishads that condemn sacrifices
and other actions cannot possibly apply to the performers of sacrifices;
for they are still householders. Such passages were directed to, and can
apply to, sannyasins alone.
As already stated, according to the Vedic tradition, the Lord alone
is the source of Vedic knowledge. He is, indeed, the embodiment of
that knowledge. At the beginning of a cycle He reveals it for the pro
tection of creation, making it known through the pure hearts of the
rishis. Rishis, according to the Vedas, are highly spiritual beings who
attained perfection in previous cycles but have assumed human bodies
in the new creation to become divine instruments for the propagation
of the wisdom of the Vedas. Kapila, Vyasa, and Vasishtha belong to this
number. Then, as time goes on, the Vedic knowledge is dissem-
20 THE UPANISHADS
Tantra has also left its impression upon the worship in many parts of
the country. Yet underlying all of this there are certain fundamental
truths, taught in the Upanishads, to which the Hindus have always
adhered. It is this flexibility of the Hindu mind in adapting itself to
the demands of changing circumstances, while remaining true to the
immutable ideals of religion, that accounts for the marvellous vitality
and the enduring character of the spiritual culture of India. Even now
the Vedic rituals are observed at the time of birth, marriage, death, and
other important occasions of a man's life. Every orthodox Hindu belong
ing to the three upper castes recites, three times a day during his
prayers, the same selections from the Vedas which his forbears repeated
£.ve thousand years ago, while his daily obligatory religious devotions
are the remnants of similar obligatory sacrifices of the Vedic period.
Indian philosophy is divided into two classes: orthodox and heter
odox. The orthodox philosophy is, again, subdivided into six groups.
These groups are called orthodox because they rest upon the Vedas, not
because they accept the idea of a Creator God. The Samkhya
philosophy, one of the orthodox systems, does not believe in God as the
Creator of the universe. Jainism and Buddhism, on the other hand, are
called unorthodox because they do not accept the Vedas as their
authority. Yet they, too, have incorporated in their systems many of the
Vedic doctrines. Thus the Vedas have influenced every vital phase of
Hindu life. The Smritis and other canonical laws, which govern the
life of a Hindu, derive their validity from the Vedas. In Hindu society
the laws that regulate the inheritance of property, adoption of children,
and other social, legal, domestic, and religious customs, claim to
derive their authority from the Vedas. Hindu society has always drawn
its power and vision from the spiritual experiences of its ancient seers.
Under the crust of the many superstitions of the present-day society,
the penetrating eye can still discern the shining core of the Vedic
wisdom.
Yet this wisdom, the Knowledge of Brahman, is not the monopoly of
any country, sect, or race. It was developed in a special manner on
the banks of the Ganges and the Indus by the Indo-Aryan seers; never
theless, like Brahman Itself, Brahmavidya is universal. It belongs to
all peoples and all times. It is the universal truth that is the common
essence of all religions and faiths.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN IN THE
UPANISHADS
moisture, neither shadow nor darkness, neither air nor akasa, unattached,
without savour or odour, without eyes or ears, without vocal organ or
mind, non-luminous, without vital force or mouth, without measure,
and without interior or exterior."8 The Inferior Brahman, Brahman
with positive attributes, on the other hand, has been described as He
"whose body is spirit, whose form is light, whose thoughts are true,
whose nature is like akasa, from whom all works, all desires, all odours,
and all tastes proceed."9 The Upanishads tend to designate Brahman
with attributes by the masculine "He," and the attributeless Brahman
by the neuter "It."
But what is the final conclusion of the Upanishads concerning the
ultimate nature of Brahman? Is the ultimate Brahman devoid of
attributes or is It endowed with them? Sankaracharya affirms that the
purpose of Vedanta is to establish the attributeless Brahman as Ultimate
Reality. He states, in his commentary on Brahma Sutras III. ii. 11, that
though Brahman has been described in the Upanishads as both Nirguna
and Saguna, yet the goal of the scriptures is to uphold the uncondi
tioned and attributeless Brahman as the Supreme Truth, and not the
other; for the Upanishads, everywhere, when attempting to describe
the ultimate nature of Brahman, have spoken of It as free of all
attributes-for example, in such passages as the following: "Which is
soundless, intangible, fonnless, undecaying."10
Ramanuja, the chief exponent of the Qualified Non-dualistic School
of Vedanta, declares, on the other hand, that the goal of the scriptures
is · to demonstrate the ultimate reality of Brahman as endowed with
benign qualities only and free from all blemish. Sankaracharya, there
fore, stands as the upholder of an unconditioned and attributeless
Brahman, while Ramanuja represents the belief in a Brahman abound
ing in blessed attributes.11
Which is the true purport of Vedanta? We shall attempt to show, in
the following pages, that Brahman is one and without a second and that
the same Brahman has been described in two ways from two points of
view. The one may be called the empirical or ordinary (vyavaharika)
point of view, and the other, the real or transcendental (paramarthika).
8 Br. Up. III. viii. 8.
9 Chh. Up. III. xiv. 2.
1° Ka. Up. I. iii. 15.
11 There are other schools of Vedanta. One, for example, propounded by
Nimbarka, says that there are in Brahman both non-duality and duality
( dvaitadvaita), and that the two aspects are equally real.
THE UPANISHADS
The first is upheld by those who regard the world as real and there
fore describe Brahman as its omnipotent and omnipresent Creator,
Sustainer, and Destroyer; such a Brahman is, to be sure, Saguna,
endowed with attributes. But according to the opposite opinion, the
world of names and forms is finally unreal and only Brahman exists. All
that is perceived anywhere is Brahman alone, and this Brahman is
unconditioned, free from all qualities or attributes. Therefore there
can be, in truth, no such thing as a Creator, Sustainer, and Destroyer
of the universe, endowed with omnipotence, omniscience, and other
qualities. From this point of view Brahman is Nirguna. Thus the same
indefinable Reality is descri-bed in two different ways according to the
point of view of the perceiver.
In order to show that Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman refer
essentially to the same Reality, the Upanishads sometimes use in the
same verse both neuter and masculine gender in connexion with
Brahman: 'Which otherwise cannot be seen or seized, which is without
origin and qualities, without eyes and ears, without hands and feet;
which is eternal and omnipresent, all-pervading and extremely subtle;
which is imperishable and is the source of all beings."12 The italicized
words in the original text are in the neuter gender, and the rest are in
the masculine.
What we shall see is that Brahman, in association with maya, which
is Its own inscrutable power, becomes the Creator of the universe and
is then called Saguna Brahman. It is then also known as the Great
Lord (Mahesvara) and Bhagavan. "The non-dual Consciousness, which
the knower of Truth describes as the Reality (Tattvam), is also
Brahman and the Supreme Soul (Paramatman) and God (Bhaga
van)."13
NIRGUNA BRAHMAN
Nirguna Brahman, as has already been stated, cannot be characterized
by any indicative marks, qualities, or attributes. Therefore It is not de
scribable by words. "From whence all speech, with the mind, turns away,
unable to reach It."14 Sri Ramakrishna has said that all the scriptures
and statements of holy men have been polluted, as it were, like food
that has come in contact with the human tongue; Brahman alone
12 Mu. Up. I. i. 6.
18
Bh. I. ii. 11.
14 Tai. Up. II. iv. 1.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
and so on; but each time he was told that these deities occupy sub
ordinate positions in the whole of nature. The king then instructed
Balaki about Brahman through the illustration of deep sleep, which is
the negation of all attributes and is, at the same time, the source of the
positive experiences of the waking and the dream states.19
A great school of Buddhist philosophers has described Ultimate
Reality as the Void (Sunyam). A tangible object, a fruit for instance,
is only a combination of attributes, such as colour, smell, taste, or touch.
If these are eliminated, one by one, what remains is the Void of the
Buddhists and the Brahman of the Vedantists. Vedanta emphasizes the
unknowability and indescribability of Ultimate Reality. Though
unknown and unknowable, Brahman is yet the eternal "Knower of
knowing" and also the goal of all knowledge. It is the Consciousness
that functions through the senses but cannot be known by them.
"How can you know the eternal Knower?" "It is different from the
known; It is above the unknown."20 Brahman is neither the subject nor
the object; It is neither the knower nor knowledge nor what is known;
It is neither the seer nor the seeing nor what is seen; It is neither gross
nor subtle, neither great nor small, neither being nor non-being, neither
happiness nor unhappiness, neither mind nor matter. It is beyond all
notions of substance and attributes. Nothing whatsoever can be
predicated of It. Yet the search for Brahman is not futile. The Upan
ishads reiterate that Its realization is the supreme purpose of life:
"Having realized Atman, ... one is freed from the jaws of death."21
It is the Supreme Unity of all contradictions: in It alone all differences
are harmonized. "That which you see as other than righteousness and
unrighteousness, other than all this cause and effect, other than what
has been and what is to be-tell me That."22
Sometimes the Upanishads ascribe to Brahman irreconcilable attri
butes in order to deny in It all empirical predicates and to show that
It is totally other than anything we know. "That non-dual Atman,
though never stirring, is swifter than the mind. The devas cannot reach
It, for It moves ever in front. Though standing still, It overtakes others
who are running."23 "Though sitting still, It travels far; though lying
down, It goes everywhere. \Vho but myself can know that luminous
18 Br. Up. II. i.
20 Ke. Up. I. 4.
21 Ka. Up. I. iii. 15.
22 Ka. Up. I. ii. 14.
231§. Up. 4.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
light of the Self that he sits, goes out, works, and returns home."
What is this Self? It is the infinite Consciousness dwelling within
him, in the midst of his organs, and identified with his intellect. It is
the light within his heart. It roams through the world of waking and
dreaming, assuming the likeness of the intellect. It moves through this
life and the hereafter and shares in their experiences of good and evil.
In dreams it puts aside the waking body and creates a dream body.
It creates dream objects: chariots, animals, and roads; pleasures, joys,
8nd delights; lakes, pools, and rivers. The Self is the creator in the
dream and Itself is the light to illumine the dream objects. lt enjoys
Itself in the company of women, laughing; sometimes It sees frightful
things. Afterwards the Self moves into a state of deep sleep and there
experiences complete rest and peace, owing to the absence of subject
and object and of desires. Like a great fish swimming alternately to
both banks of a river, the infinite Self moves to both these states,
dreaming and waking; then, just as a hawk or a falcon flying in the
sky becomes tired and, stretching its wings, proceeds, soaring, to its
nest, so does the infinite Self proceed to the state of deep sleep, where
It feels no desires and sees no dreams. In that state the Self has no
consciousness of objects and yet is not unconscious.
But nevertheless, though moving-as it were-through the three
states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, or through different births,
the Self remains-in reality-untouched by their experiences; for
"nothing cleaves to the Self."
It is the inner Consciousness, the Self, that is the real agent of per
ception; the senses are mere instruments. "He who knows: 'Let me
smell this'-he is .Atman; the nose is the instrument of smelling. He
who knows: 'Let me say this'-he is .Atman; the tongue is the instru
ment of saying. He who knows: 'Let me hear this'-he is .Atman; the
ear is the instrument of hearing. He who knows: 'Let me think this'
-he is .Atman; the mind is his divine eye."81 "Into Him, as eye, all
forms are gathered; by the eye He reaches all forms. Into Him, as
ear, all sounds are gathered; by the ear He reaches all sounds."
As Brahman is the essence of Being, so It is the essence of Conscious
ness or Light. Brahman needs no other light to illumine Itself. It is
self-luminous. "It is pure; It is the Light of lights; It is That which they
know who know the Self."82 All material objects, such as trees, rivers,
81 Chh. Up. VIII. xii. 4-5.
82
Mu. Up. II. ii. 9.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN 45
houses, forests, are illumined by the sun. But the light that illumines
the sun is the light of Brahman. "The sun does not shine there, nor the
moon a�d the stars, nor these lightnings, not to speak of this fire. \i\Then
He shines, everything shines after Him; by His light everything is
lighted."83
BRAHMAN AS ANANDAM (BLISS)
"He perceived that Bliss is Brahman."84 The Brihadiiranyaka Upani
shad describes Brahman as Consciousness and Bliss.85 Bliss is not an
attribute of Brahman; it is Brahman Itself. Brahman as Bliss means
that Bliss is Its very being, as is Consciousness. Brahman is the immeas
urable ocean of Bliss-the Bliss that knows no change. It is important
to remember that no real Bliss is possible without Knowledge or
Consciousness-natu jnanad bhinnam sukhamasti.
Needless to say, the Bliss that is the very substance of Brahman is
not to be confused with the happiness that a man experiences when in
contact with an agreeable sense-object. Worldly bliss is but an infini
tesimal part of the Bliss of Brahman, the Bliss of Brahman coming
through an earth! y medium.
The Bliss of Brahman pervades all objects. Without it a man could
not live. "He who is self-created is Bliss. A man experiences happiness
by tasting that Bliss. Who could breathe, who could live, if that Bliss
did not exist in his heart?"86 For a more vivid description: "It is not
for the sake of the husband, my dear, that the husband is loved, but
for the sal(e of the Self that he is loved. It is not for the sake of the wife,
my dear, that the wife is loved, but for the sake of the Self that she is
loved. It is not for the sake of the sons, my dear, that the sons are loved,
but for the sake of the Self that they are loved. It is not for the sake
of wealth, my dear, that wealth is loved, but for the sake of the Self
that it is loved."87 The same formula is repeated in reference to the
brahmin and kshattriya castes, the worlds, the gods, created beings,
and all things. Then the magnificent passage concludes with the
following exhortation: "The Self, my dear Maitreyi, should be
realized-should be heard about, reflected on, and meditated upon. By
88 Mu. Up. II. ii. 10.
84
Tai. Up. III. vi. 1.
85
III. ix. 28.
86
Tai. Up. II. vii. 1.
81 Br. Up. II. iv. 5.
THE UPANISHADS
100
Soet. Up. IV. 10.
THE UPANISHADS
fixed."104 "This entire universe is the Purusha alone, both that which
was and that which endures for the future."105
The celebrated Hymn of Creation, known as the Nasadiya Sukta,106
indicates that the multiple names and forms of the visible universe,
prior to the state of manifestation, were in a state of non-duality:
Then there was neither Aught nor Nought, no
air nor sky beyond.
What covered all? Where rested all? In watery
gulf profound?
Nor death was then, nor deathlessness, nor
change of night and day.
That One breathed calmly, self-sustained;
nought else beyond It lay.
Gloom hid in gloom existed first-one
sea, eluding view.
That One, a void in chaos wrapt, by
inward fervour grew.107
The diversity or plurality that we encounter in our daily life is maya,
non-existent from the standpoint of Ultimate Reality.
so also pleasure and pain; the gods, heaven, and the after-life all are
real. The lndo-Aryans sought celestial happiness by propitiating the
deities through sacrifice, according to the directions of the Vedas. "This
is the truth: The sacrificial works which were revealed to the rishis in
the hymns have been described in many ways in the three Vedas.
Practise them, being desirous to attain their true results. This is your
path leading to the fruits of your works."121
Admitting the empirical reality of the individual ego and the mani
fold universe, the Vedic seers developed an elaborate system of theology,
cosmology, ethics, spiritual disciplines, and methods of worship. Their
division of Hindu society into four castes, and of the individual life
into four stages, was based upon their recognition of the relative world.
Their acknowledgement of the ideals of righteousness (dharma),
wealth (artha), sense pleasure (kama), and final Liberation (moksha)
as worthy human pursuits (purushartha) shows that they appreciated
human values and were solicitous for human happiness. Had they
considered the world to be non-existent or unreal, like a "barren
woman's son," such injunctions as they laid down for these four ends
of life would have been meaningless. Nevertheless, this world is not
real from the standpoint of the Absolute, or Brahman; for duality
disappears when the absolute Truth is known, and all the activities and
thoughts associated with duality drop away. The teaching of Vedanta
demonstrates the ultimate reality· of Brahman. Sarvam khalvidam
Brahma-"All that exists is Brahman."
Non-dualists describe the creation as the illusory superimposition
(adhyaropa or vivarta), through maya, of names and forms upon
Brahman. They explain this subtle concept by means of various illustra
tions. One or two may be cited here. Kama, a hero of the Mahabharata,
was a son of Kunti, born before her marriage. In order to avoid a
scandal, she put the baby in a pot and floated it down the river. The
baby was picked up by a carpenter's wife named Radha and brought
up by her as her own son. As a result Kama was known to himself and
others as Radha-putra, Radha's son. Many years later his true parentage
was revealed and he came to be called Kunti-putra, Kunti's son.
Through ignorance Kama was given the epithet of Radha-putra. This
is a case of illusory superimposition. There is also the story of the lion
cub born in a flock of sheep. It bleated, ate grass, and regarded itself in
all respects as a sheep. One day it was pounced upon by a lion from the
121 Mu. Up. I. ii. 1.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN 55
forest and dragged to the water. There it was shown its reB.ection and
a piece of meat was pressed into its mouth. Then suddenly the veil
dropped off and the sheep-lion discovered itself to be a real lion.
Through the power of maya, or ignorance, names and forms are
attributed to Brahman and the relative universe comes into existence.
Through the negation (apavada) of the illusory manifold, Brahman, or
Pure Consciousness, is revealed again. The true narure of Brahman is
not in the least affected by the superimposition of illusory notions.
Relativity is maya. The fact that the One appears as the many, the
Absolute as the relative, the Infinite as the finite, is maya. The doctrine
of maya recognizes the reality of multiplicity from the relative stand
point-and simply states that the relationship of this relative reality
with the Absolute cannot be described or known. How it can be that
the infinite Brahman should appear as the finite world cannot be
grasped by the finite mind; the very limitation of the mind precludes a
satisfactory answer to this question. In fact, there is no relationship
between the One and the many, since there can be a relationship only
between two existing entities. The One and the many do not exist,
however, in the same sense. When a man sees the One, he does not
see the many; when he sees the non-dual Brahman, he does not see the
universe. When anyone, seeing the manifold universe, establishes a
relationship of any kind between it and the non-dual Brahman, the
Non-dualists call that notion of relationship maya. A mirage is maya;
so also its relationship with the desert. It is due to maya that one sees
a snake in place of a rope, water in the desert, and multiplicity in place
of the non-dual Brahman. Vedantists admit that for our practical life
there is a difference between illusions, dreams, and the experiences of
the waking st::ite, yet ins1st that from the standpoint of the Absolute they
are all equally unreal.
Sankara described maya as the "power of the Lord"--paramesa sakti.
It is the inscrutable power of Brahman, resting in Brahman and having
no existence independent of Brahman. This is illustrated by £re and
its power of burning. Maya makes possible the appearance of the mani
fold universe, and it endows names and forms with apparent reality.
Non-dualists ascribe creation, preservation, and destruction to Saguna
Brahman, or Brahman associated with maya. Sadananda de£nes maya
as "something positive, though intangible, which cannot be described
either as being or as non-being, which is made of three gunas, and
THE UPANISHADS
Supreme Lord, greater than the Great, and free from the least trace
of suffering."132
"Everywhere are His eyes, everywhere is His mouth, everywhere are
His arms, everywhere His feet. He has endowed men with arms, and
birds with wings. He is the Creator of earth and heaven. He is one
and without a second."133
"Devoid of senses, yet reflecting the qualities of all the senses, He is
the Lord of all and the Ruler of all; He is the great refuge of all."134
"He is above the World Tree and beyond time; He is the Other from
whom this world proceeds and around whom it moves. The giver of
virtue, the remover of evil, the Lord of powers-know Him in your
own self as the immortal Abode of all.
"He who is the supreme Lord of lords, the supreme Deity of deities, the
supreme Ruler of rulers-Him let us know as God, adorable and para
mount, the Lord of the world.
"Neither body nor organ is found in Him. There is not seen His
equal or His superior. His exalted powers are innate and various:
they are knowledge, will, and action."135
Saguna Brahman was later worshipped under various personifica
tions-as Siva, Vishnu, Rama, and so on, the ideal deities (ishta devatas)
of various Hindu sects. In the Upanishads He is described as Mahesvara,
the Great Lord, and also as Isa, lsana, and Isvara-all meaning the
Lord.
and its Creator. Thus He becomes immanent in the universe, from the
relative standpoint, even though from the standpoint of Pure Con
sciousness the universe of names and forms does not exist. The Upan
ishads contain descriptions of both these aspects of Brahman.
The Immanent Brahman dwells in the universe and is to be sought
therein. "He wished: May I be many, may I grow forth. Accordingly
He practised austerity in the form of intense meditation. After He had
thus practised austerity, He created all-whatever there is. Having
created it, He entered into it."154 "In the beginning, Prajapati (the
Creator) stood alone. He had no happiness when alone. Through
meditation He brought into existence many creatures. He looked on
them and saw they were without understanding, like a lifeless post,
like a stone. He had no happiness. He thought: 'I shall enter within,
that they may awake.' Making Himself like air, He entered within."155
The Bhagavad Gita says that the Lord uses His lower nature to
project material forms, and then through His higher nature enters into
them and animates them. We read in the Upanishad that, having
entered the world, He becomes covered by it like a spider by its web.
"May that non-dual God, who spontaneously covers Himself, like a
spider, with the web produced from His prakriti, grant us entrance into
Brahman!"156 The Lord has saturated the universe through and through.
"This Self has entered into these bodies up to the tips of the £nger
nails-as a razor may be put in its case, or as £re, which sustains the
world, is contained in its source (£rewood)."157 He is lost, as it were,
in the universe, as when "a lump of salt, dropped into water, dissolves
in the water, so that no one is able to grasp it."158 But just as where
soever one tastes the water, it tastes salt, so also Brahman is to be felt
everywhere in the universe as life and consciousness. The Isa Upanishad
begins with the exhortation that the whole universe "should be covered
with the Lord."
The Upanishadic passages describing the Immanent Brahman show
a pantheistic trend of thought. Brahman has become the universe,
like milk transformed into curds, or clouds into rainwater. But does
Brahman exhaust Himself in the universe? The texts contain passages
supporting realism, theism, and pantheism, according to the different
154 Tai. Up. II. 6.
155 Mai. Up. II. 6.
156 Svet. Up. VI. 10.
157 Br. Up. I. iv. 7.
m Br. Up. II. iv. 12.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
vast universe is but a little thing. One beam of His light illumines it.
A fraction of His power creates, preserves, and destroys it. The mani
festation and non-manifestation of the universe proceed from Him
without any effort whatsoever on His part-like a man's breathing out
and breathing in. "They are like the breath of this [Supreme Self]."163
BRAHMAN: CREATOR, PRESERVER, AND DESTROYER OF
THE UNIVERSE
The very de£.nition of Brahman (Saguna Brahman is understood)
in the Vediinta Sutras is, as we have stated: Janmiidasya yatah (janma
iidi-asya yatah)-"Whence is the origin, continuance, and dissolution
of the universe." The Taittiriya Upanishad puts it this way: "That
whence these beings are born, That by which, when born, they live,
That into which at death they enter-try to know That. That is
Brahman."164 The Chhandogya Upanishad reveals "Tajjalan" as a
secret name of Brahman by which He should be worshipped. 165 The
meaning of the formula is this: From this (tad) Brahman the universe
has arisen (ja). So, on the reverse path to that by which it has arisen,
it disappears (li) into this identical Brahman. And in the same way,
finally, it is Brahman in whom the universe, after it is created, breathes
(an), lives, and moves. Therefore in the three periods (past, present,
and future) the universe is not distinct from Brahman. The formula
succinctly summarizes the principal attributes of Brahman as Creator,
Preserver, and Destroyer of the universe. In the same Upanishad166
the teacher, wishing to explain the root of the universe, asks the pupil
to bring a fruit of the banyan tree.
"Here is one, sir."
"Break it."
"It is broken, sir."
"What do you see there?"
"The seeds, almost in£.nitesimal."
"Break one of them."
"It is broken, sir."
"What do you see there?"
"Not anything, sir."
The teacher then gives the instruction: "My son, that subtle essence
108 Br. Up. II. iv. 10.
164 Tai. Up. III. I.
m Chh. Up. III. xiv. 1.
166 Chh. Up. VI. xii.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
which you do not perceive there-in that very essence this great banyan
exists. Believe it, my son. That which is the subtle essence-in It all
that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self. And thou, 0
Svetaketu, art It."
The Katha Upanishad describes the universe as the eternal Asvattha
tree, rooted in Brahman, with its shoots spreading downward.167
Brahman alone, as the inmost essence of things, preserves them all.
"He is the sun dwelling in the bright heavens. He is the air dwelling
in the interspace. He is the £re dwelling on earth. He is the guest
dwelling in the house. He dwells in men, in the gods, in truth, in the
sky. He is born in the water, on earth, in the sacrifice, on the moun
tains. He is the True and the Great."168 "He, indeed, is the Deva who
pervades all regions: He is the first-born [as Hiranyagarbha] and He
is the womb. He has been born and He will be born. He stands behind
all persons, looking everywhere. The God who is in £re, the God who
is in water, the God who has entered into the whole world, the God
who is in plants, the God who is in trees-adoration be to that God,
adoration!"169 We have seen that Brahman is described in the Brihad
aranyaka Upanishad as a setu, which means both bridge and dike.
As bridge He connects one being with another and the present world
with the future world; as dike He keeps asunder these worlds to
prevent their clashing together. On account of Hirn there is no con
fusion in the world of diversity. Everything moves along its allotted path.
Brahman is the womb into which the universe again returns. Hence
He is called the Destroyer. The Vedantists have formulated a doctrine of
cycles, by which is described the unceasing process of creation and
destruction, or, more precisely, manifestation and non-manifestation. The
actions of one's present life find their recompense in the next life.
Again, the present life is the result of the preceding one. Therefore
each existence presupposes an earlier one and consequently no existence
can be the first. The rebirth of the soul (jiva) has been going on
from all eternity; and so samsara, or the relative universe, is without
beginning. Indeed, it is absurd to speak of the beginning of a causal
chain. When the Upanishads speak of a beginning or creation, they
mean, really, the beginning of the present cycle. From all eternity, the
universe has been going periodically into a state of non-manifestation
161 Ka. Up. II. iii. 1.
168 Ka. Up. II. ii. 2.
169
Svet. Up. II. 16-17.
68 THE UPANISHADS
and then again returning into the manifest state of names and forms.
At the conclusion of each cycle the universe and all those living beings
that have not been liberated from maya return to Brahman, that is to
say, to His prakriti, or primordial nature.
"At the end of a cycle all beings, 0 Son of Kunti, enter into My
prakriti, and at the beginning of a cycle I generate them again."170
The Rig-Veda says: "The Lord creates in this cycle the sun and moon
as they existed in the previous cycle." So creation is a never-ending
process, following an invariable, monotonous pattern. It has been com
pared to the breathing out and in of the Cosmic Person, reposing on
the Ocean of the Great Cause. "In Him the universe is interwoven
-whatever moves or is motionless; in Him everything disappears, like
bubbles in the ocean. In Him the living creatures of the universe,
emptying themselves, become invisible; they disappear and then come
to light again like bubbles rising to the surface." "For there is one
Rudra only-they do not allow a second-who rules all the worlds
by His powers. He stands behind all persons, and after having created
all the worlds, He, the Protector, rolls them all up at the end of time."171
"He, like akasa, is everywhere, and at the destruction of the universe
He alone is awake. From akasa, again, He rouses all this world. "172
"In Me the universe had its origin, in Me alone the whole subsists,
in Me it is lost: this Brahman, the Limitless-It is I Myself."173
The individual self liberated from mii.ya merges in Brahman. The
self is always Brahman-before its manifestation as the individual soul
and also during the state of embodiment. \i\lhen it knows its true
nature, knowingly it becomes Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, again.
182
Svet. Up. III. 9.
188 Ka. Up. I. iii. 11.
72 THE UPANISHADS
The planets and their satellites, which revolve with the sun as
their centre, constitute our solar system. The earth, which is a tiny
speck in comparison with the sun, is one of the planets. The moon is
a satellite of the earth. Other planets also have their satellites. These
satellites move along their orbits with the planet as their centre; and
the planets move with the sun as their centre. The ellipse which de
termines the boundary of the solar system may be called the sun's
circumference.
Countless stars shine in the £rmament of the night, and yet only
a few of all that exist come within the ken even of the most powerful
telescope. It takes many, many years for the light of a star-travelling
at the rate of one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles per second
to reach the earth. It is said that the light of some stars has not yet
reached us. Each is a sun-most of them many times larger than our
own sun. Probably many are the centres of their own solar systems,
having their own planets and satellites. No one can count, or even
estimate, the number of solar systems in the creation.
The earth supports life in various forms, and there is no reason to
suppose that such life exists only here. The Hindu seers state that
life is to be found-it may be in different forms-in other solar sys
tems also; but such knowledge, of course, is beyond the veri£cation
of physical science as it is known to us at the present time.
The Brahmanda (Cosmic Egg) of the Puranas may be likened to
a single solar system. Each Brahmanda has its own Lord, its Governor
or Controller, who, needless to say, is a manifestation, in maya, of
Brahman, or the Absolute. This Lord, or Isvara, has three aspects: as
Brahma He creates, as Vishnu He preserves, and as Siva He destroys.
These three form one Lord, or God, who is known by three different
names according to His three functions. Since the Brahmandas are
without number, so too are the Brahmas, Vishnus, and Sivas without
number. The Purana says: "One may be able to count the number of
sands on the seashore, but one cannot count the number of the
Brahmandas or the deities controlling them."
He who is the Lord of these countless deities is Mahesvara, or the
Supreme Lord-Saguna Brahman. Brahmas, Vishnus, and Sivas are
innumerable, ·but Mahesvara is one and without a second. Each Isvara
is the Lord of one Brahmanda alone; but Mahesvara is the Lord of all
Isvaras and also of the millions of Brahmandas. "Endowed with in
finite power, Brahman is the Lord of Lords." He is the Emperor, and
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAL"\f 73
the Isvaras are kings, more or less autonomous in their respective
realms. Further, under each of the Isvaras are many subsidiary deities
performing various duties in the Brahmanda.
Thus there are innumerable Brahmandas in the creation, each with
its independent ruling Lord, and under Him, in each universe, many
subsidiary deities. And at the head of all is Mahesvara, the King of
Kings. Mahesvara is sometimes called the Eternal Lord (Nitya Isvara);
and Isvara, sometimes, the Created Lord (Janya Isvara). The latter is
known also by the general name of Brahma, whereas the former is
Saguna Brahman. Brahma is the first created being in the relative
universe. "Brahma, the Maker of the universe and the Preserver of
the world, was the first among the devas."184 "He who first creates
Brahma and delivers the Vedas to Him."185 "The £rst-bom, the off
spring of austerity."186 "Brahma revealed the knowledge of the Vedas
to Hiranyagarbha, Hiranyagarbha to Manu, and Manu to \is oft
spring."187
Rudimentary matter, the first stage in the manifestation of the rela
tive universe, was evolved from Saguna Brahman Himself. This matter
is sometimes called the "primeval waters" (ap), the unmanifested
prakriti. Brahman "saw Hiranyagarbha arise" from these waters.188
As we have noted above, the sun is the centre of a solar system, or
Brahmanda. The Lord of the Brahmanda is described as dwelling in
the sun. The Upanishads often describe Him as the "Person in the
sun." "The Person that is seen in the sun-I am He, I am He
indeed."189 "O Nourisher, lone traveller of the sky! Controller! 0 Sun,
Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would
see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. I am,
indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there."190 This Person in the
sun is sometimes called Vishnu, because He pervades all-the entire
solar system. Here is a further description of the Deity: "Now that
Person, bright as gold, who is seen within the sun, with golden beard
184 Mu. Up. I. i. 1.
185 Svet. Up. VI. 18.
18° Ka. Up. II. i. 6.
187 Chh. Up. III. xi. 4.
1ss Brahma is created from pralcriti; He is not eternal. The Supreme Brahman
alone is eternal.
199 Chh. Up. IV. xi. 1.
100 Is. Up. 16.
74 THE UPANISHADS
and golden hair-golden altogether to the very tips of His nails ..."191
Who is this Person dwelling in the sun; and why is the solar deity
called a person? Sankaracharya, in his commentary on the Brihadiir
anyaka Upanishad, 192 states that He, Prajapati, is like a person, being
endowed with a head, hands, and other parts. He was the fost to be
created. The Prajapati of the present cycle had practised meditation
in a previous cycle and performed Vedic rites, with a view to occupying
the position of the Lord in the next cycle. Others, too, had done the
same, but among them all, He was the fost to be freed from such
obstacles as gross ignorance and attachment. What this means is this:
that in the previous cycle many aspirants practised spiritual disciplines
but did not attain complete Liberation because they still possessed traces
of desire and attachment. Of these, the most advanced was reborn in
the present cycle, as the Prajapati of the Brahmanda, in which capacity
He now enjoys great power and bliss. But this position of Brahma
must not be confused with the attainment of the Highest Good, or
Liberation; for even He is said to be afflicted by fear and unhappiness.
His life is impermanent, lasting for the duration of a Brahmanda. His
position, though an exalted one, still belongs to the relative world.
Only the courageous aspirant who can renounce the position of Brahma,
which is non-eternal, can attain the Highest Good.
To give a brief outline of this interpretation of the creation: In the
beginning-that is to say, before the evolution of names and forms,
time and space-Atman, or Brahman, alone exists. Then It becomes
conditioned by maya, Its own inscrutable power. At that time Brahman
is called Saguna Brahman-Mahesvara, or the Great Lord. The idea
of creation arises in His mind. Sa aikshata-"He thought." Then Brah
man, on account of miiya, forgets, as it were, Its infinite nature and
regards Itself as an individual entity. It says: "I am one; I shall be
many."
Three "moments" are to be distinguished in creation: First, the
Supreme Brahman accepts the limitation of maya and becomes Ma
hesvara. Second, the desire for creation arises in His mind. Third, He
feels His loneliness and decides to multiply Himself. Then, with the
help of maya, He creates akasa, air, and the other elements.
Mahesvara, who is the Ruler of all the Brahmandas, is thus the
First Person in the creation. Hiranyagarbha, or Brahma, who as a
191 Chh. Up. I. vi. 6.
102
I. iv. 1.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN 75
result of spiritual disciplines practised in a previous cycle, becomes
the Ruler of a Brahmanda, is the Second Person. Though possessed
of an individuality, He identifies Himself with the whole universe;
He is described in the Vedas as endowed with innumerable heads,
innumerable eyes, and innumerable feet. And the Godhead dwelling
in every heart is the Third Person. He is Antaryiirnin, or the Inner
Guide.
MICROCOSM AND MACROCOSM
One of the most significant symbols of Brahman, both Personal and
Impersonal, is Aurn, pronounced and often written Orn.193 "The goal
which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which
men desire when they lead the life of continence, I will tell you
brieB.y: it is Orn. This syllable Orn is indeed Brahman. This syllable
is the Highest. Whoso knows this syllable obtains whatever he desires.
This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whoso knows
this support is adored in the world of Brahmii."194 The Miindukya
Upanishad discusses Brahman through Om. "Orn, the syllable, is all
this."19� Patanjali states in the Yoga Sutras: 196 "Om is the signifying
word of Isvara."
The word as written in Sanskrit consists of three letters: A, U, and
M. These are called the three quarters, or letters, of Om. There is a
fourth quarter, denoted by the prolonged undifferentiated sound M,
which comes at the end, as the word is pronounced. This is the symbol
of Nirguna Brahman, or Pure Consciousness. "That which is partless,
incomprehensible, non-dual, all bliss, and which brings about the
cessation of the phenomenal world, is Orn, the Fourth, and verily the
same as Atman. He who knows this merges his self in the Self."197
The first three quarters, or letters, of Orn apply to the relative universe.
A, called Vaisvanara, is the first quarter; it functions in the waking
state. U, called Taijasa, is the second quarter; it functions in the
dream state. And M, called Prajna, is the third quarter; it functions
in the state of dreamless sleep. Vaisvanara is the experiencer of the
gross, Taijasa of the subtle, and Prajna of the causal.198 The fourth
198
To be pronounced as in home.
194 Ka. Up. I. ii. 15-17.
193 Ma. Up. 1.
196
I. 27.
197 Ma. Up. 12.
198 See Ma. Up. VI; also Ma. Up. Gau. Ka. I. 1.
THE UPANISHADS
SYNTHESIS
We have already spoken of the two aspects of Brahman: Nirguna
and Saguna. Nirguna Brahman is characterized by an absence of all
attributes. It is Pure Consciousness and the immutable foundation of
the universe. Again, in association with maya, Brahman appears as
Saguna· Brahman, which, from the standpoint of the Absolute, is
mutable and impermanent. The knowledge of the former is called the
Higher Knowledge, and that of the latter, the lower knowledge.
The Higher Knowledge brings about immediate Liberation, resulting in
the utter cessation of all suffering and the attainment of supreme Bliss.
The lower knowledge leads to the realizatio� of the position of Brahma
and thus paves the way for ultimate Liberation. It offers the highest
happiness in the material world. But still it is not Immortality. The
attainment of the Higher Knowledge, or Para Vidya, is the goal of
the spiritual life. But the lower knowledge, or apara vidya, is not to
be neglected or despised. As long as a man is conscious of the ego and
200 I§. Up. 8.
�01 B. G. IX. 4.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN 79
the outside world, and as long as he takes these to be real, so long
must he cultivate this knowledge. The Bhagavad Gita says that if a
man who is identified with the body follows the way of the Unmani
fest, he only courts misery. The Mundaka Upanishad exhorts the pupil
to cultivate both the Higher Knowledge and the lower knowledge.
"The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubts are resolved, and all
works cease to bear fruit, when He is beheld who is both high and
low."202
As we have seen above, Brahman, in association with maya, becomes
Mahesvara. His glories have been described in the Upanishads. He is
the Ruler of all, the Controller of all, and the Inner Guide of all
beings. The sun, moon, and stars obey His commands. Under His
wise providence the seasons and years follow each other in orderly
succession. He is the thunderbolt, ready to be hurled at transgressors
of His laws-"He to whom brahmins and kshattriyas are mere food,
and death itself a condiment."203 He covers the universe and also ex
tends beyond.
This universal aspect of the Lord has been described in most vivid
language in the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita in Arjuna's
hymn to Sri Krishna:
"I behold Thee with myriads of arms and bellies, with myriads of
faces and eyes. I behold Thee, infinite in form, on every side, but I
see not Thy end nor Thy middle nor Thy beginning, 0 Lord of the
universe, 0 Universal Form! ... Into Thee enter these hosts of gods,
and some in fear extol Thee with folded hands. And bands of rishis
and siddhas exclaim: 'May there be peace!' and praise Thee with
splendid hymns." The Lord describes Himself in the Gita as "mighty,
world-destroying Time." This Form embodies the vast extent of crea
tion, preservation, and destruction; past, present, and future; gods, men,
animals, and inorganic things. One blest with the exalted vision be
holds all this simultaneously and in one instant. Naturally mortal
eyes become dazed with the manifestation of so much glory, power,
and splendour. Arjuna, terrified by the spectacle, obtained peace of
mind only when the Lord withdrew His effulgence and appeared
before him again as the Personal God whom he had always loved and
cherished in his heart.
There is another aspect of Saguna Brahman, which is tender, gentle,
202 Mu. Up. II. ii. 8.
208 Ka. Up. I. ii. 25.
80 THE UPANISHADS
are prana (the vital breath), vayu (wind), akasa (space), manas
(mind), aditya (the sun), and Orn. A pratima, or image, as seen in
the popular religions, is also a symbol of the Godhead. Beginners, with
their restricted understanding, need a symbol in order to contemplate
the Highest. Thus a Cross, an Ark, a Crescent, a statue, a book, fire,
and temples have all been used as so many symbols. In the minds of
the unworthy a symbol often degenerates into an idol which is wor
shipped: to wor_ship a symbol as God is idolatry. But to worship God
through a symbol is a legitimate means of divine communion. In the
one case the Godhead is brought down to the level of a material object;
in the other case, the image itself is spiritualized. The Upanishads stress
the method of knowledge more than that of formal worship. The Truth
is to be realized by hearing about It from a qualified teacher, reasoning
about It in one's own mind, and lastly by contemplating It.
Prajapati taught Indra about Atman by stages.208 He had once de
clared: "The Self (.Atman), which is free from sin, free from old age,
from death and grief, from hunger and thirst, which desires nothing
but what it ought to desire and imagines nothing but what it ought to
imagine-That it is which we must search out, Th.at it is which we
must try to understand." Indra, the king of the gods, and Virochana,
the king of the demons, had approached Prajapati and asked him about
the Knowledge of .Atman. He taught them first through the illustration
of the reflection one sees by looking into another's eyes, into water,
and into a mirror, saying that what they saw there was Atman. Both
disciples took the body _for the Self and went away satisfied. But
lndra, after some contemplation, found limitations inherent in the
corporeal self, which therefore could not be "immortal and fearless,
free from hunger and thirst, sinless, and free from old age." He asked
the teacher for further instruction and was taught that the self which
roams about untrammeled in dreams was Atman. In dreams it is free
from the limitations of the waking body and yet it remains real and
individual. But lndra thought that though the limitations of the waking
state might not affect the dream soul, yet it remained bound by cor
poreal conditions. For instance, in dreams also one "becomes conscious,
as it were, of pain and sheds tears." At last Prajapati said: "When a
man, being asleep, relaxed, and at perfect rest, sees no dreams-that
is the Self. This is the Immortal, the Fearless; this is Brahman." Indra
had thought that the state of deep sleep was surely a state of annihila-
208 Chh. Up. VIII. vii-xii.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
out, and return when she returns, thus deed, speech, eye, mind, and
ear follow the prana."209 "As the spokes of a wheel hold to the nave,
so does all this hold to the prana."210 Relinquished by the prana, a
living being is reduced to a corpse, without value or significance. The
Chhandogya Upanishad, quoted above, says that a man must not
treat roughly his. father or mother, or sister or brother or teacher; if
he does so he is condemned by all. But after the prana has left them,
their bodies, now corpses, may be struck even with a spear, as is done
to a burning body on a funeral pyre.
Several Upanishads describe the rivalry of the organs to determine
which one is supreme. Once, for example, the vital organs came to
Prajapati to learn which of them was essential to a living being. Praja
pati said: "He on account of whose departure the body seems worse than
the worst-he is the best among you." The tongue (speech) departed.
Having been absent for a year, it came back and asked: "How have
you been able to live without me?" The other organs replied: "Like
mute people, not speaking, but breathing with the nose, seeing with
the eyes, hearing with the ears, and thinking with the mind. Thus
we lived." Then, one by one, the eyes, the ears, the mind, departed.
But the body continued to live, like one blind, one deaf, or one whose
mind, like that of an infant, is not yet formed. But-"the prana, when
on the point of departing, tore up the other senses, as a horse, when
he breaks loose, tears up the pegs to which he is tethered. They all
came to him and said: 'Sir, be thou our lord. Thou art the best among
us. Do not depart from us.' "211
Prana is not only the life principle in the individual; it is also a
cosmic principle. The Upanishads speak of the identity of the micro
cosm and the macrocosm: that which is manifest in the universe as a
whole, with all its phenomena, finds complete expression in man as
well. Thus it is said of a man that his head is heaven, his navel is the
interspace, his feet the earth, his eyes the sun, his mind the moon, his
mouth Indra and Agni, his ears the heavenly regions, and his prana
the wind. Prana, on account of its pervasiveness, is identified with
vayu, the wind. Just as in the contest among the organs the prana was
declared to be the chief, so also in the contest among the gods-fire,
the sun, the moon, and vayu, which are the cosmic equivalents of the
209 Pr. Up. II. 4.
21° Chh. Up. VII. 15.
211 Chh. Up. V. i. 6-12.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
organs-vayu came out supreme. For when all the gods became weary,
vayu alone retained its energy. Other deities fade; but not so, vayu.
Regarding vayu it is declared: "From which the sun rises and in which
it sets."212 Prana, as vayu, is identified with Hiranyagarbha, or Su
tratma. "Through this Sutra, or Vayu, this and the next life and all
beings are held together."213 The senses, at the time of deep sleep,
enter into the prana, and the deities, at the end of a cycle, into
Sutratma, or the cosmic prana.
Thus we find in the Upanishads that one of the most important
symbols of Brahman is prana, the life principle that pervades and sus
tains the universe and the individual body. "Prana is verily Brahman"
--prano vai Brahma.214
three feet in heaven, and as the Gayatri] is the same as the akasa which
is around us; and the akasa which is around us is the same as the
akasa which is within us; and the akasa which is within us is the same
as the akasa which is within the heart. That akasa which is within the
heart is omnipresent and unchanging."218 The akasa "within the lotus
of the heart" is to be meditated upon as Brahman. In the Chhandogya
Upanishad,219 kham (akasa) is declared to be identical with Kam
(Bliss): "Kam is Brahman; kham is Brahman." Through these mutual
quali£.cations both sensual· pleasure and corporeality are denied with
respect to Brahman.
THE SUN
Of all phenomenal objects, the sun was regarded with the greatest
wonder and admiration by the ancients everywhere. Its rays dispel
darkness, and the daytime is generally £.lled with the various activities
by which a civilization is created and developed. Even modern scientists
are looking to the cosmic rays, associated with the sun, as a source of
matter. The Upanishads describe the sun as a symbol of Brahman.
The Gayatri mantra is directed to the Purusha dwelling in the sun.
The natural sunlight is a symbol of spiritual light. Brahman is the
real Sun of the universe; and the natural sun is the phenomenal form
of Brahman. The Purusha in the sun, whose counterpart is the purusha
in the right eye, was worshipped by the Vedic seers. A dying man
prays to the sun: 'The door of the Truth is covered by a golden disc.
Open it, 0 Nourisher! Remove it so that I who have been worshipping
the Truth may behold It. 0 Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky!
Controller! 0 Sun, Offspring of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw
Your light. I would see, through Your grace, that form of Yours which
is the fairest. I am indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there."220
But the most important symbol of Brahman is Orn. It is, as stated
before, the symbol of both Nirguna Brahman and Brahman with
attributes. Ordinary worshippers cannot disregard symbols. Only the
highest man, in the depths of his meditation, sees Truth face to face
and gives up symbols. As the times change, so do the symbols. Most of
the Vedic symbols are out of date; their places have been taken by
other and newer ones.
218 Chh. Up. III.
xii. 7-9.
219
IV. x. 5.
220 B
r. Up. V. xv. l; compare Is. Up. 15-16.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
them, is seen as different beings, through the qualities of his acts and
the qualities of his body."226
It has already been stated that the Supreme Soul, through maya,
assumes a limited body and becomes finite and individualized. The
great mystery is that even while subjected to all the limitations and
sufferings of the relative world, It does not in reality lose, even in the
slightest degree, Its perfect nature. While the jiva, compelled by the
bright and dark fruits of its actions, enters on a good or a bad birth,
follows a course upwards or downwards, and roams about overcome by
the pairs of opposites, "his immortal Self remains like a drop of water
on a lotus leaf.227 He himself is overcome by the gunas of nature. Then,
because he is thus overcome, he becomes bewildered, and because he
is bewildered he does not see the Creator, the holy Lord, abiding within
himself. Carried along by the waves of the gunas, darkened in his
imagination, unstable, fickle, crippled, full of desires, vacillating,
sensual, disordered, and a prey to delusion, he fancies: This is I,' This
is mine,' and fetters himself by his own action, as a bird by its nest." 228
Sankaracharya explains the cause of his bondage as "the result of his
works, which have originated from such functions of the mind as will
and desire"-manah-sankalpa-icchii-adi-nispannakarmanimittena.
''From Atman are born prana, mind, and all the sense-organs."229
After creating the body, Atman enters into it as the living soul. ''Right
to the tips of the fingers," He £lls the body and is hidden in it like a
knife in its sheath or fire in fuel. ''When It does the function of living,
It is called the prana; when It speaks, the organ of speech; when It
sees, the eye; when It hears, the ear; and when It thinks, the mind.
These are merely Its names according to Its functions."230
THE SENSE-ORGANS
There are ten indriyas, sense-organs, all subordinate to the mind as
the central organ. A sense-organ-the eye, for instance-is not the
outer instrument that one sees, nor the optic nerve, but its subtle
counterpart, which accompanies the subtle body after death. The
sense-organs are different from the prana; the latter is active even in
sleep; when the senses do not function. As the rays of light are gathered
22s Svet. Up. V. 10-12.
227 I.e. unattached.
228 Mai. Up. III. 2.
2211 Mu. Up. II. i. 3.
2so Br. Up. I. iv. 7.
THE UPANISHADS
in the sunset, "so also [on a man's falling asleep J is all this gathered in
the manas, the supreme deity. Therefore at that time the man does not
hear, see, smell, taste, or touch; he does not speak, grasp, beget, evacuate,
or move about. He sleeps-that is what people say."231 The sense-organs
are ten: £ve of perception, £ve of action. The former comprise the ears,
nose, tongue, skin, and eyes; the latter, the hands, feet, tongue, and the
organs of evacuation and generation.
The mind is the inner organ, the antahkarana. "Desire, deliberation,
doubt, faith, want of faith, patience, impatience, shame, intelligence,
and fear-all these are but the mind."232 The mind is the central organ
of the entire conscious life. The impressions carried by the sense-organs
are shaped by the mind into ideas; for "we see only with the mind,
hear with the mind." Further, the mind changes the ideas into resolu
tions of the will (sankalpa). "When a man directs his manas to the
study of the sacred hymns and sayings, he then studies them; when
to the accomplishment of works, he then accomplishes them; when to
the desire for sons and cattle, he then desires them; when to the desire
for the present and the future worlds, he then desires them."233
PM.NA
A variety of meanings is attached to prana-for instance, breath, life,
and .the sense-organs. Primarily prana means that vital force in a
living being which is incessantly active in waking and sleep. In sleep
the organs of sense enter into the mind and "the £.res of the prana keep
watch, as it were, in the city of the body."234 According to its different
functions, the prana is given five names: prana, apana, vyana, udana,
and samana. "Now the air which rises upwards is prana; that which
moves downwards is apana."235 Vyana "sweeps like a Bame through all
the limbs"; it is what sustains life when, for instance, in drawing a
stiff bow, a man neither breathes in nor breathes out.238 Udana con
ducts the soul from the body at death. 237 By virtue of samana, food
is assimilated. 238
According to the later Vedantists the five organs of action, the five
281 Pr. Up. IV. 2.
282 Br. Up. I. v. 3.
288 Chh. Up. VIL iii. I.
284 Pr. Up. IV. 3.
285 Mai. Up. II. 6.
288 See Chh. Up. I. iii. 5.
281 See Pr. Up. III. 7.
288 See Mai. Up. II. 6.
DISCUSSION OF :BRAHMAN 91
organs of perception, the £ve pranas, the manas, and the buddhi con
stitute the "subtle body," which accompanies the soul at the time of
rebirth. The gross body is dissolved at death; the subtle body departs
with the organs. The relation between the subtle body and the gross
body is like that between seed and plant. According to some Vedantists
another entity, called the "shelter of karma" (karma-asraya), which
determines the character of the new body and life, accompanies the
subtle body. This entity is formed of impressions created by the actions
performed in the course of life. "As it (the jiva) does and acts, so it
becomes; by doing good it becomes good and by doing evil it becomes
evil-it becomes virtuous through good acts and vicious through evil
acts."239
THE GROSS PHYSICAL BODY
Vedantists analyse the material body into £ve kosas, or sheaths,
namely, the gross physical sheath (annamayakosa), the sheath of the
prana (pranamayakosa), the sheath of the mind (manomayakosa), the
sheath of the buddhi or intellect (vijnanamayakosa), and the sheath of
bliss (anandamayakosa). They are called sheaths because they conceal
Atman, as a sheath conceals a sword. They are described as being one
inside another-the physical sheath being the outermost and the sheath
of bliss the innermost. Each succeeding sheath is £ner than the pre
ceding one. As a £ne substance permeates a gross one, so the finer
sheath permeates the grosser sheath. Atman is detached from the
sheaths. Its light and consciousness permeate them all, though in vary
ing degrees according to their density. By cultivating detachment toward
these sheaths, one by one, and gradually penetrating deeper, a man
realizes Atman as Pure Consciousness.240
The body is often described as the city of Brahman.241 The gates of
the body are sometimes described as eleven,242 and sometimes as nine.243
The nine gates consist of the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, the mouth, and
the organs of evacuation and generation. Two additional gates are the
navel and the aperture at the top of the head (Brahmarandhra). With
out the soul, the body is absolutely valueless-a mere corpse. "This ill-
23� Br. Up. IV. iv. 5.
2�° For a detailed description of the sheaths, see Self-Knowledge, by Swami
Nilchilananda, p. 81 ff.
m See Br. Up. II. v. 18.
�2 Ka. Up. II. ii. 1.
2'11 Svet. Up. III. 18.
92 THE UPANISHADS
DREAMING
The dream world is a private world of the dreamer-from the waking
standpoint, of course. The soul, while dreaming, is known by the
technical name of Taijasa. The experiences of a dream are as real as
waking experiences, so long as the dream lasts. On awaking from a
dream, a man discovers that his body and senses were inactive and
thus concludes that he was dreaming. "When he dreams, he takes away
a little of [the impressions of] this all-embracing world (the waking
state), himself puts the body aside, and creates [a dream body in its
place], revealing his own lustre by his own light-and dreams. In this
state the man himself becomes the light. There are no chariots, no
animals to be yoked to them, no roads there, but he creates the chariots,
animals, and roads. There are no pleasures, joys, or delights there, but
he creates the pleasures, joys, and delights. There are no pools, tanks, or
rivers there, but he creates the pools, tanks, and rivers; for he is the
creator."248 "In the dream world the Shining One, attaining higher and
lower states, puts forth innumerable forms. He seems to be enjoying
himself in the company of women, or laughing, or even seeing frightful
things."249 The subject and the object in the dream, and their relation
ship, are all created by .Atman from the mind-stuff and illumined by
Its own effulgence. This is evidence that Atman is the inner light of
man.
DREAMLESS SLEEP
The dreamer passes into profound sleep, in which state Atman is
known by the technical name of Praina. 'When a man, being thus
asleep, sees no dream whatever, he becomes one with Prana alone; then
speech enters therein with all names, the eye with a!! forms, the ear
246 See Bt. Up. IV. iii. 18.
247 Br. Up. IV. iii. 16.
248 Br. Up. IV. iii. 9-10.
240 Br. Up. IV. iii. 13.
94 THE UPANISHADS
with all sounds, the mind with all thoughts."250 In deep sleep the
soul is united with the Consciousness that is Brahman (Prajnena
Atmana).251 There are no longer any contrasted objPcts; there is no
consciousness in the empirical sense.There is a union with the eternal
Knowing Subject, that is to say, with Brahman. But this union is only
apparent and is unlike the true union that follows the Knowledge of
Brahman. The sleeper returns to consciousness of the waking world
and becomes again his old self. In dreamless sleep Atman remains
covered by the thin layer of the veiling-power of maya; that is why,
unlike Turiya, It is unconscious of the world.Like two extremes, which
sometimes meet, the state of deep sleep in many respects resembles
perfect Knowledge. It is a state where a man is fearless, beyond
desires, and free from evils. Like a man in perfect communion with
Brahman, he does not know anything at all of the world witl,in or
without. "In this state a father is no father, a mother no mother, the
worlds are no worlds, the Vedas no Vedas. In this state a thief is no
thief, the killer of a noble brahmin is no killer ... [this form of his]
is untouched by good works and untouched by evil works; for he is
beyond all the woes of his heart (intellect).'252
' In the state of deep
sleep the soul does not really become unconscious. The Consciousness
belonging to Atman is not destroyed, because this Consciousness is
immortal. It appears, therefore, that in the relative world the nearest
approach to the peace and desirelessness of Brahman is the experience
of deep sleep.
TURIYA
Atman in Its purest form, detached from the three states arid sub
sisting alone and by Itself, is called Turiya, which is the same as
Nirguna Brahman. That Turiya is different from the state of dePp
sleep has been emphasized by Gaudauada. "Prajna (the Self associated
wi th deep sleeu) does not know anything of the Self or the non-Self,
neither truth nor untruth. But Turiva is ever existent and ever all
seeing. Non-cognition of duality is common to both Prajna and Turiya.
But Prajna is associated with sleep, in which relative experiences remain
in seed form; there is no sleep in Turiya."258 "To dream is to cognize
Reality in a wrong manner. [Even an awakened man, under the spell
26° Kau. Up. III. 3.
261
Br. Up. IV. iii. 21.
2G2 Br. Up. IV. iii. 22.
2Gs
Ma. Up. Gau. Ka. I. 12-13.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN 95
of ignorance, acts as if he were dreaming.] Deep sleep is the state in
which one does not know at all what Reality is. When the erroneous
knowledge associated with dreaming and deep sleep disappears, one
realizes Turiya. When the jiva, asleep under the influence of the
beginningless maya, is awakened, it then realizes [within itself] Non
duality, eternal and drearnless."25� Turiya is free from the notion of
the empirical subject and obiect. It pervades all the phenomena of the
relative universe, as the desert pervades a mirage. It is the unrelated
foundation of the three states and is realized by the illumined soul
always and in everything, once ignorance is dispelled by the Vedantic
discipline.
"O Fire, lead us by the good path for the enjoymen't qf the fruit of
our action. You know, 0 god, all our deeds."258 The ignorant are sent
to a region of ''blind darkness,"259 but not to hell. Since each soul is a
258 Br. Up. I. iv. 10.
257 Ri. IX. cxiii. 7, 10, 11 (from the translation by Deussen).
258 Is.
Up. 18.
2119 Is. Up. 3.
THE UPANISHADS
LIBEMTION (MOKSHA)
The Plane of the Moon and the worlds of the insignificant creatures
fall to the lot of those who are attached to material things, cling to
individual life, cherish desires, and seek the results of action. Those
who seek release from death and practise spiritual discipline, on the
other hand, gain Brahmaloka, where one experiences immortality in a
relative sense. But the reflective man, in whom the higher faculties of
the mind are awakened, longs for release from phenomenal existence
itself, with all its fetters and bonds that keep the senses tied to the
world.
The assurance of rebirth may bring happiness to those who are
afraid of annihilation after death or of the boredom of heaven; but
life on earth in any fonn cannot escape old age, disease, and death.
The law of karma is inexorable here and in heaven, or, as a matter of
fact, anywhere in time and space. The individual soul is bound by this
chain of cause and effect. The seeker after Liberation, therefore, resolves
upon "cutting the knot" by turning away from the entire phenomenal
existence of time, space, and causality. True, the destruction of
individuality and the suppression of the natural cravings are regarded
by many as the severest punishment; but these are the supreme reward
for the spiritual .endeavour of those who aspire to true Immortality.
What impelled the rishis of the Upanishads to regard the whole of
phenomenal existence as evil and the absorption of individuality in
Brahman as the Highest Good? It was not their desire to escape the
sufferings of existence, well known to all; it was not their unwillingness
to face the problems of life� Nor was it the result of frustration, which,
it is often stated, was experienced by the majority of the Hindus
because they were always exploited by a handful of b:rahmin priests
and kshattriya rulers. Life on the banks of the Ganges and the Indus
was happy, affiuent, and colourful. It was filled with the joy of
adventure, as evidenced by the many-sided development of Hindu
society at that time. Moreover, the longing for Liberation was not
cultivated by the downtrodden masses, but by reflective minds belonging
to the upper castes. The brahmin boy Nachiketa spurned all the
happiness of earth and heaven in order to attain Liberation. Maitreyi
refused to accept from her brahmin husband her share of wealth, which
makes a worldly person happy, because she wanted to know the secret
of Immortality. The desire for Liberation, as we shall presently see,
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN IOI
was not the result of any extraneous conditions; it was the necessary
consequence of the doctrine of Brahman and Atman developed in the
Upanishads.
One studying this Upanishadic doctrine, unique and original in the
entire range of human thought, cannot but admire the daring of the
Hindu mind in the field of metaphysical speculation. And as one wit
nesses men and women, in all stages of life, ready to sacrifice everything
for the sake of Immortality and Freedom, one cannot but be impressed
by their tremendous will power. The complete renunciation of every
thing one holds near and dear in the mortal world-including inordinate
attachment to one's own body, ego, and individual self-is the sine qua
non of the realization of Freedom. And yet the Vedas and the books of
the Hindu dharma ask a Hindu to cultivate a ·warm love of life. One
must enjoy, on earth, one hundred years-the life-s;:an allotted to man
by God. Marriage is compulsory for Hindu men and women, except
in a few specified cases. One without progeny goes, after death, to the
abode of suffering. Without money no all-round happiness can be
enjoyed. One must heighten the power of the senses so that, through
enjoyment of material pleasures, one may relieve the drab grey of every
day existence. The first period of life should be devoted to the acquisi
tion of learning, the second, to the enjoyment of material pleasures, and
the third, to the contemplation of the gods, so that after death one may
attain untold happiness in heaven. ''Through wealth one conquers this
world, through progeny, the World of the Fathers, and through
sacrificial offerings, the World of the Gods." All of this is minutely
described in the Vedas, which, to a Hindu, are the source of spiritual
wisdom. He must not only study the Vedas but actually perform the
sacrifices that they enjoin.
And yet the three worlds-earth, heaven, and the interspace-will
one day disappear. Brahma, the Creator God, with all the dwellers in
the Highest Heaven, will also perish. The Vedic sacrifices bring rewards
that are contaminated by maya and the three gunas. The inquirer after
Immortality must transcend the Vedas. He is required to cut at the
very foundation of the attachment that supports the phenomenal exist
ence here and hereafter. He must relinquish the longing for wealth,
progeny, and the heavenly world. These make one forgetful of Atman.
The forgetfulness of one's true Self is the greatest suffering for a man.
Everything that is not Atman is trivial (alpam). There is no real
happiness in the trivial; the only happiness is in the Infinite (Bhuma).
102 THE UPANISHADS
Why, then, did the Vedas lay down injunctions for a religious life
and the propitiation of the gods through sacrifices? The earthbound
soul must learn through actual experience the futility of attachment to
material things. It must pass through the whole gamut of empirical
existence, from that of the "blade of grass" to the noble life of Brahma.
Only then will it cultivate dispassion for maya and its effects. Those
alone who have renounced all longing for the pleasures found on earth,
and also for the felicity in heaven described in the Vedas, can cultivate
vairagyam, dispassion, and become entitled to the Knowledge of Atman.
Every soul, it is true, after going through all the worldly experiences,
will in course of time attain Liberation; but the Vedic scheme of life
shortens the period of our sojourn in the relative world.
It is quite natural for people to regard that as the highest aim of
personal endeavour which they consider to be the basis of the universe
and the First Principle of things. Those who regard the deities in that
light seek union with them after death. Thus they worship various
gods in order to obtain fellowship and companionship with them in
heaven. Again, those who consider Brahman to be the origin and end
of things naturally want union with It. Brahman, Pure Consciousness,
is the same as Atman. Therefore the attainment of Atman becomes the
supreme goal of life. That is why the realization of .Atman has been
stressed in the Vedas. "Only he who knows the Purusha escapes from
the realm of death; by no other road is it possible to go."269 "The Self
is his path£.nder; he who finds Him is no longer stained by action, that
evil thing."270 "He is my Soul; thither to this Soul, on my departure
hence, shall I go."211
The nature of Brahman, or .Atman, is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss
Absolute. It dwells in every heart. On account of maya a man is not
conscious of his true Self. So the only way to Liberation is that of the
Knowledge of the Self. Ethical laws, sacri£i.cial ceremonies, philanthropic
works, austerities, study of scripture, worship, and other similar spiritual
disciplines only serve to remove the impurities of the mind, which hinder
the manifestation of .Atman. .Atman is to be known now and here, and
not elsewhere after death. "If a man knows .Atman here, he then attains
the true goal of life. If he does not know It here, a great destruction
awaits him."272 Therefore the Upanishads lay down, again and again,
209 Viij. Sam. XXXI. 18.
270 Tai. Br. III. xii. 9. 8.
271 Sa. Er. X. vi. 3.
272 Ke. Up. II. 5.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN I 03
What happens to a knower of the Self after death? What path does
he follow?-What path could he follow? He finds himself everywhere
in the whole universe. "The east is the eastern prana; the south, the
southern prana; the west, the western prana; the north, the northern
prana; the direction above, the upper prana; the direction below, the
nether prana; and all the quarters, the different pranas."280 Whither will
the soul of the knower of Atman go? It does not go to any place where
it has not been from the very beginning, nor does it become anything
other than what it has always been-that is to say, Brahman, Pure
Consciousness.
Unillumined souls go to heaven or return to earth for the satisfaction
of their unfulfilled desires. He who desires is reborn. "But the man who
does not desire is not reborn. Of him who is without desires, who is
free from desires, the objects of whose desire have been attained, and
to whom all objects of desire are but the Self-the pranas do not depart.
Being but Brahman, he is merged in Brahman. Regarding this there is
this verse: 'When all the desires that dwell in his heart are gone, then
he, having been mortal, becomes immortal and attains Brahman in
this very ,body.' Just as the lifeless slough of a snake is cast off and
lies on an ant-hill, so does his body lie. Then the self becomes dis
embodied and immortal; it becomes the Supreme Brahman, the
Light.''2s1
The knower of Atman is like a man who is awakened from sleep and
dreams no more of empty things. He is like a man who, having been
sick, is now whole again; he is like a man who, having been blind, has
received back his eyesight.
The Knowledge of the Self liberates a man from desire, fear, and
death.
"He who sees this does not see death or illness or pain; he who sees
this sees everything and obtains everything everywhere.''282
"He who knows the Bliss of that Brahman, from whence all speech,
with the mind, turns away, unable to reach It, fears nothing."283
"There is one Supreme Ruler, the inmost Self of all beings, who
makes His one form manifold. Eternal happiness belongs to the wise
who perceive Him within themselves-not to others.''284
280 Br. Up. IV. ii. 4.
281 Br. Up. IV. iv. 6-7.
282 Chh. Up. VII. xxvi. 2.
288 Tai. Up. II. 9.
2&1 Ka. Up. II. ii. 12.
DISCUSSION OF BRAHMAN
"When all the desires that dwell in the heart fall away, then the
mortal becomes immortal and here attains Brahman. When all the ties
of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes im
mortal-this much alone is the teaching."28.5
"When the Light has risen, there is no day, no night, neither exist
ence nor non-existence; the Blessed One alone is there. That is the
eternal, the adorable light of the Sun-and the ancient wisdom pro-
ceeded thence."286
"As £owing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their names and forms,
so a wise man, freed from name and form, attains the Purusha, who is
greater than the great."287
How does a jivanmukta, a liberated soul, act? How does he move?
How does he live? Ordinary minds cannot understand his actions, life,
or movements, any more than a dreaming man can see the world of the
awakened. The rishis of the Upanishads declare that a jivanmukta is
free from desires (akamayamana). "The ancient sages, it is said, did
not desire children, thinking: What shall we achieve through children
-we who have attained this Self, this world? They renounced, it is
said, their desire for sons, for wealth, and for the worlds, and lived a
mendicant life."288
A jivanmukta is no longer vexed by fear: "For what was there to fear?
It is from a second entity that fear comes.''289 As he himself is without
fear, he does not become a cause of fear to anyone; he regards all beings
as projections of himself.
A jivanmukta is free from the illusion of individuality and there
fore from the possibility of pain. "He who knows Atman overcomes
grief.''290 "When in the body [thinking this body is I, and I am the
body], the Self is held by pleasure and pain; but when He is free from
the body [when He knows Himself to be different from the body],
neither pleasure nor pain touches Him."291
A jivanmukta is free from the binding effects of past action. "All
works cease to bear fruit."292 It is consciousness of individuality that
285 Ka. Up. II. iii. 14-15.
268 Svet. Up. IV. 18.
287 Mu. Up. III. ii. 8.
288 Br. Up. IV. iv. 22.
2s9 Br. Up. I. iv. 2.
290 Chh. Up. VII. i. 3.
291 Chh. Up. VIII. xii. 1.
292 Mu. Up. II. ii. 8.
106 THE UPANISHADS
impels a man to selfish action, whose good or bad result he must reap
at a future date. But the liberated man has realized his individuality as
a part of the co">mic illusion and, wich the attainment of Knowledge,
freed himself from its spell. The awakened person does not reap the
fruit of his dream actions.
A liberated man is not given to inactivity, which is a characteristic
of tamas. He sees acrion in non-acdon and non-action in action. Actions
do Mt cling to him. Even while perforrmng acnons through his body
and senses, he knows his inner Self to be actionless and detached. He
knows that the Self is not the doer, but the Witness; It is not the actor,
but the Spectator. He can never perform an evil action. All his evil
instincts were destroyed when he practised spiritual discipline. Only
good comes out of him-and that, too, without any effort. "This is the
eternal glory of a knower of Brahman: it never increases or decreases
by work. [Therefore] one should know the nature of that alone. Know
ing it one is not touched by evil action. Therefore he who knows it
as such becomes self-controlled, calm, withdrawn into himself, endur
ing, and concentrated, and sees the Self in his own body; he sees all as
the Self. Evil does not overtake him, but he transcends all evil. Evil does
not trouble him, [but] he consumes all evil. He becomes sinless, taint
less, free from doubts, and a knower of Brahman."293
A liberated soul has attained the blessed state of being free from
doubt. "All doubts are resolved."294 His knowledge of Atman is not
based upon intellect but is the result of direct experience. And the
illusion, once destroyed, does not come back.
A jivanmukta is no longer concerned about bondage or Liberation;
for these really do not belong to Atman, the Self ever free. Bondage and
Liberation are characteristics of the mind. On account of maya an
ignorant person thinks of himself as bound and then strives for Libera
tion; but Atman is always free. In the inspiring words of Gauc;lapada:
"There is neither death nor birth, neither a struggling nor a bound
soul, neither a seeker after Liberation nor a liberated one-this, indeed,
is the ultimate truth."
298 Br. Up. IV. iv. 23.
294 Mu. Up. II. ii. 8,
KATHA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION
THE KATHA UPANISHAD is widely read both in the East and in
the West. The Knowledge of the Self is here described in a lucid style
almost unparalleled in the philosophical writings of the world. Max
Muller has said that the French, German, and English translators of
the Upanishads regard this treatise as "one of the most perfect speci
mens of the mystic philosophy and poetry of the ancient Hindus."
The Upanishads form, for the most part, the concluding portions of
the Brahmana section of the Vedas. But the exact relationship of the
Katha Upanishad to the Vedas is a controversial subject, some associat
ing it with the Sama-Veda, some with the Yajur-Veda, and others with
the Atharva-Veda. The Brahmana of the Taittiriya Yajur-Veda contains
a story of N achiketa very similar to the one found in the Katha
Upanishad.
Like all the Upanishads, the Katha Upanishad aims at inculcating
the Knowledge of Brahman, which alone, according to Vedanta, enables
a man to attain Immortality and Freedom. As the subject is profound
and difficult to grasp, the Upanishad, following an ancient Hindu
method, begins with an illustrative tale.
There once lived a rishi named Vajasravasa, who performed a sacrifice
that required, among other things, the giving away by the sacrificer
of all his wealth. He had a son named Nachiketa, who, though young,
cherished a reverence for spiritual things. When the cows were brought
for distribution among the brahmins and priests who were to conduct
the sacrifice, Nachiketa found them to be old and unfit for any use.
Such an unworthy gift, the boy realized, would only bring misery to
his father after death. And so, since he was eager to save his father
from this impending calamity, he said to him that a son was also
property and should be included among the things for distribution. He
wished to know, therefore, to whom he was going to be given. Three
times he asked the question. But Vajasravasa was only annoyed by
what he regarded as impudence on the part of his son, and he answered
angrily that he would give him to Yama, the King of Death.
109
I 10 KATHA UPANISHAD
Nachiketa obeyed his father and proceeded to the abode of Yama. The
latter, as the arbiter of man's final destiny and the bestower of punish
ments and rewards, held a high position among the gods. He was
reputed, moreover, to be a teacher of the Knowledge of Brahman.
Yama was away when Nachiketa arrived, and only returned after
three days. He sought to make amends for not having been there to
receive his worthy guest, and for any discourtesy that might have been
shown to him during his absence, by allowing him three boons, one for
each night. Nachiketa asked, as the first boon, the allaying both of his
father's anger and of his anxiety on account of his son's absence from
home. As the second boon, he desired to know the Fire-sacrifice, by
which one goes to Brahmaloka, the Plane of Brahma, and enjoys there
a long life of felicity, free from disease and old age, sorrow and fear.
Both boons were granted. Then, with the asking of the third boon, the
teachings of the Upanishad begin.
Nachiketa wished to know whether or not there was an immortal
substance in a man that survived the death of the body. He asked, in
other words, for the most treasured secret of the lndo-Aryan wisdom,
the secret of Atman, Its nature, Its origin, and Its destiny.
A teacher, however, must first test the fitness of his pupil, before
instructing him in the secret of Atman. If the latter is to assimilate this
Knowledge, he must have cultivated keen discrimination, utter detach
ment, a sincere longing for Truth, and a tranquil mind. He must have
renounced all desire for the perishable pleasures both of earth and of
heaven. Therefore Yama offered Nachiketa various temptations, both
earthly and celestial, such as sons, grandsons, wealth, cattle, world
empire, long life, and heavenly damsels and music. The young aspirant,
endowed with a sharp intelligence and calm mind, discarded them all,
since he knew them-belonging, as they did, to the mortal order of
things-to be impermanent. Since he was a seeker of Immortality, he
persisted in his determination to pierce the veil that hides Self-Knowl
edge. And Yama granted him his desired boon.
Yama taught that the Self in man is none other than the Spirit
behind the universe, which is described in the Vedas through the
sacred symbol Orn. "The knowing Self is not born; It does not die. It
has not sprung from anything; nothing has sprung from It. Birthless,
eternal, everlasting, and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed.
If the killer thinks he kills and if the killed man thinks he is
1i:illed, neither of these apprehends aright. The Self kills not, nor is
INTRODUCTION III
nounces finite desires, which are created by ignorance and are alien to
his Self, he realizes Immortality in this very life. Others remain victims
of birth and death in the world of untruth. Therefore anyone desiring
Freedom and Immortality should separate the immortal Self from the
mortal body -with the help of a steady and vigilant mind.
It is reiterated by Vedantic teachers that the truth of Atman is
revealed when a qualified aspirant, instructed by an illumined teacher,
practises the disciplines of self-control, meditation, and inwardness of
mind.
S. N.
,
SRI SANKARACHARYA'S INTRODUCTION
Om. May Brahman protect us both! May Brahman bestow upon us both
the fruit of Knowledge! May we both obtain the energy to acquire Knowl
edge! May what we both study reveal the Truth! May we cherish no ill
feeling toward each other!
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
u6
PART ON-'-"--------------
CHAPTER I
2-3
When the gifts were being distributed, faith entered into the heart
of Nachiketii, who was still a boy. He said to himself: Joyless, surely,
are the worlds to which he goes who gives away cows no longer able
to drink, to eat, to give milk, or to calve.
FAITH: The Sanskrit word sraddha means an intuitive belief in the
existence of a Reality underlying the universe. Hence it also signifies faith
in the words of the scriptures and of a qualified preceptor: both teach the
reality of Brahman and the immortality of the Soul. Sraddha is an affirmative
attitude of mind as opposed to a sceptical and negative one. This basic
spiritual virtue includes humility, sincerity, earnestness, single-mindedness,
reverence, and an unwavering determination to find out the truth at any
cost. Endowed with it, the aspirant does not shrink from any risk or diffi
culty. Possessed of such faith, Nachiketa, as will be seen later, entered the
Abode of Death and spurned all temptations for the sake of truth. The
term does not signify a mechanical belief in the words of a man or book.
Boy: The word conveys the idea that Nachiketa was on the threshold of
youth and led the life of a brahmacharin, observing the vow of celibacy and
continence. His body and mind were fresh, young, vigorous, and untainted
by worldliness. According to the Vedas, such a person is pre-eminently
qualified for the Knowledge of Brahman.
Evidently Nachiketa's father was giving away only old, decrepit, and
useless cows which would not do any good to their receivers. For making
I 17
II8 KATHA UPANISHAD [I. i. 3·
such a gift he would go to unhappy worlds after death. The first effect of
sraddha on Nachiketa was a desire to save his father from suffering.
Nachiketa thought that, as a dutiful son, he must ward off the harm
ful consequences which would befall his father for giving away useless
cows at the sacrifice. For that purpose he was willing to give up even
his own life.
4
He said to his father: Father! To whom will you give me? He
said t his a second and a third time. Then his father replied: Unto
death I will give you.
GrvE ME: The rules of this particular sacrifice demanded the giving away
of all possessions. The son is a possession of his father. Nachiketa wanted
to know to which priest or brahmin he would be given away. He did not
want his father to deviate from truth. Sraddha, or faith, had created in
Nachiketa's mind an unflagging devotion to truth.
UNTO DEATH ETC: Twice the father did not pay any attention to what
he considered to be impertinence on the part of the boy. At last he lost his
temper and told him to go to death.
5
Among many I am the £rst; or among many I am the middlemost.
[But certainly I am never the last.] What purpose of the King of Death
will my father serve today by thus giving me away to him?
Nachiketa realized in no time his father's plight but did not want
him to go back on his word. In the meantime the father, too, had begun
to lament his hasty statement. The son consoled him.
6
Nachiketa said: Look back and see how it was with those who came
before us, and observe how it is with those who are now with us. A
mortal ripens like corn, and like corn he springs up again.
How IT WAS ETC: Nachiketa indicated that neither his forefathers nor
the righteous people of his own time ever deviated from truth, and that only
wicked people practised falsehood.
RIPENS: When corn is ripe, either it falls to the ground or it is cut away.
SPRINGS UP: When it is sown again the next season.
Rishi Viijasravasa sent his son to Yama, the King of Death, to keep
his word. When Nachiketa arrived, Yama was away. He spent three
nights there without taking food. When Yama returned he was in
formed of it by his ministers and others. They said to him:
7
Verily, like £.re a brahrnin guest enters a house; the householder
paci£.es him by giving him water and a seat. Bring him water, 0 King
of Death!
FmE: If a brahmin is not shown proper hospitality, he consumes, like
:fire, the happiness of the family to which he has come as a guest.
BRAHMrN: Because the brahmins were the custodians of the spiritual
culture of the Indo-Aryans, they were treated with great respect in Hindu
society.
GuEsT: Respect for a guest is a time-honoured custom in India. He is
regarded by the Hindus as a veritable manifestation of God.
Grvmo HIM ETc: In a hot country like India, water is offered to a guest
for washing his feet; then a seat; and then food.
120 KATRA UPANISHAD [I. i. 8.
The harm that befell a householder for being inhospitable to a guest
was described by Yama's ministers:
8
The brahmin who dwells in a house, fasting, destroys that foolish
householder's hopes and expectations, the reward of his intercourse
with pious people, the merit of his kindly speech, the good results of his
sacrifices and beneficial deeds, and his cattle and children as well.
HoPES: For wished-for objects unseen but attainable, such as enjoyments
in heaven.
EXPECTATIONS: For objects both seen and attainable, such as wealth,
horses, cattle, children.
BENEFICIAL DEEDS: Works of public welfare, such as the digging of
wells, the planting of fruit trees by the roadside, and the building of high
ways and rest-houses.
The meaning is that a guest must under no circumstances be slighted.
As the first boon, N achiketci asked Yama to remove his father's worry
and bring about his happiness.
10
Nachiketa said: 0 Death, may Gautama, my father, be calm, cheer
ful, and free from anger toward me! May he recognize me and greet
me when I shall have been sent home by you! This I choose as the
first of the three boons.
I. i. 13.] KATHA UPANISHAD 121
As the second boon, Nachiketli asked Yama to teach him the sacrifice
that enabled its performer to go to Brahmaloka and enjoy immortality.
12-13
Nachiketli said: In the Heavenly World there is no fear whatsoever.
You, 0 Death, are not there, and no one is afraid of old age. Leaving
behind both hunger and thirst, and out of the reach of sorrow, all
rejoice in Heaven.
You know, 0 Death, the Fire-sacrifice, which leads to Heaven.
Explain it to me, for I am full of faith. The inhabitants of Heaven
attain immortality. This I ask as my second boon.
HEAVENLY WoRLn: The phrase refers to Brahmaloka.
FEAR: Due to sickness, old age, and so on. The King of Death has power
only over the inhabitants of earth, and none whatsoever over those of
Brahmaloka.
IMMORTALITY: Relative immortality. Compared to the life of people on
earth, the life enjoyed by the inhabitants of Brahmaloka is very long; yet
it is very short from the standpoint of Brahman.
According to the Vedas, those who dwell in Brahmaloka are free from
old age and death. Living on nectar and ambrosia, they do not experience
thirst and hunger. They are not victims of sorrow, fear, and the other
limitations of earthly life.
122 KATHA UPANISHAD [I. i. 14·
14
Yama said: I know well the Fire-sacrifice, which leads to Heaven,
and I will explain it to you. Listen to me. Know this Fire to be the
means of attaining Heaven. It is the support of the universe; it is
hidden in the hearts of the wise.
SuPPORT ETC: One form of the Fire is Virat, which is the totality of the
material bodies seen in the universe. Virat is the body of the World Person.
(See p. 68.)
HEARTS: The secret of this sacrifice is revealed only to the intellects of
wise men. The intellect is usually located by Vedantic mystics in the heart.
Non-dualistic Vedanta states that Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, is
free from attributes and actions. Through maya It appears to be associated
with attributes. Then It becomes known as Saguna Brahman, who is the
Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer of the universe. Saguna Brahman roughly
corresponds to the Personal God of the Dualistic religions. He is also known,
according to His different aspects and functions, by such epithets as
Hiranyagarbha (the Golden Egg), Brahma (the World Soul), Sutratma
(the Atman, or Soul, which holds together all things, like the thread of a
garland), Agni (Fire), Prana (Life), and Virat (the Cosmic Person). He
is immanent in the creation, but at the same time He is the Lord of
Brahmaloka, the highest plane in the relative universe. Those fortunate
human beings who worship Saguna Brahman with whole-souled devotion
go, after death, to Brahmaloka and enjoy there great felicity on account of
their participation in the cosmic life of Brahma. They live there till the
end of the cycle and afterwards, together with Brahma, realize their identity
with Brahman, or the Absolute. According to the Vedic seers, two other
classes of men, namely, those who have performed one hundred Horse
sacrifices and those who have lived all their lives as brahmacharis without
entering into the life of sannyasa, also go to Brahmaloka. On account of
their imperfect knowledge, however, they return to earth after the enjoy
ment of the fruit of their meritorious actions is over. Other householders,
who perform the prescribed duties of life and participate in humanitarian
works, go after death to a . lower heaven called Chandraloka and enjoy
celestial happiness. After the exhaustion of the results of their actions they
return to earth. The inhabitants of the heavenly worlds are called devas,
or gods. Though the happiness in Brahmaloka or any other heaven far
exceeds that of earth, it is nevertheless a relative happiness. The immor
tality enjoyed by the gods is also relative. True Immortality, as taught in
the Upanishads, is attained here on earth through the Knowledge of the
l. i. 17.] KATHA UPANISHAD 123
Self. According to Vedanta, earth, heaven, and the other planes are different
manifestations of Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, in time and space.
16
High-souled Death, being well pleased, said to Nachiketa: I will
now give you another boon: this Fire shall be named after you. Take
also from me this many-coloured chain.
WELL PLEASED: Because Nachiketa had demonstrated that he had all
the qualifications of a true disciple.
MANY-COLOURED CHAIN: A chain of precious stones of many colours.
Or the words may mean the knowledge of karma, or action, which leads
to diverse results.
18
He who, having known the three, has performed three times the
Nachiketa sacrifice, throws off, even here, the chains of death, over
comes grief, and rejoices in Heaven.
THE THREE: Namely, the kinds of bricks required for the altar, their
number, and the way to light the sacrificial fire.
HAs PERFORMED ETc: At the time of the sacrifice, the sacrificer meditates
on the Fire as one with himself.
EVEN HERE: Before the death of the body.
CHAINS OF DEATH: That is to say, vice, ignorance, attachment, hatr�d,
and the rest, which make one a victim of repeated deaths.
REJOICES IN HEAVEN: Having attained the status of Virat and par
ticipated in His cosmic life.
The result of the Nachiketa sacrifice, when performed according to the
L i. 20.] KATIIA UPANISHAD 125
prescribed rules, is the attainment of the plane of Virat, where one com
munes with Saguna Brahman, or Brahman with attributes. (See note on
I. i. 14.)
Yama now was ready to offer Nachiketii the last of his three prom
ised boons.
19
This, 0 Nachiketa, is your Fire-sacrifice, which leads to Heaven
and which you have chosen as your second boon. People will call this
Fire by your name. Now, 0 Nachiketa, choose the third boon.
Because of his promise to grant three boons to Nachiketa, Yama still
considered himself a debtor; therefore he asked the boy to select the third
boon and absolve him from the debt.
Lura YOU: Yama, the King of Death, holds a very high position among
the Hindu gods. He is the personification of dharma, or righteousness, and
of self-control. Because of his supreme detachment he is given the power
of deciding men's destiny after death.
No OTHER BOON: Self-Knowledge alone bestows upon man the Highest
Good. All other forms of knowledge produce transitory results.
LIVE HERE ETC: For a short-lived person earthly enjoyments too quickly
pass; to make his suggestion seem worth accepting, Yama offers Nachiketa
an endless period of enjoyment.
24
If you deem any other boon equal to that, choose it; choose wealth
and a long life. Be the king, 0 Nachiketa, of the wide earth. I will
make you the enjoyer of all desires.
Furthermore:
27
Wealth can never make a man happy. Moreover, since I have beheld
you, I shall certainly obtain wealth; I shall also live as long as you
rule. Therefore no boon will be accepted by me but the one that I have
asked.
WEALTH ETc: It is well known that a man earns money through untir
ing labour and great suffering yet does not derive from it enduring
satisfaction.
SINCE I HAVE ETc: Since Nachiketa had found favour with Yama, he
would have both wealth and a long life, if he so desired.
28
Who among decaying mortals here below, having approached the
undecaying immortals and coming to know that his higher needs may
be fulfilled by them, would exult in a life over long, after he had
pondered on the pleasures arising from beauty and song?
I. i. 29.] KATHA UPANISHAD 129
ilNDECAYING: The gods are free from old age and infirmity, though
subject to eventual death.
HIGHER NEEDS: To one seeking Immortality the cultivation of knowledge,
discrimination, and renunciation are more desirable than wealth. When the
gods are propitiated they can bestow upon man spiritual virtues.
ExuLT ETC: A man must eventually part with his material possessions.
The longer he enjoys them, the more regrets he feels at the moment of
parting.
PONDERED: A thoughtful man realizes that worldly pleasures are nothing
but transitory sensations resulting from contact of the sense-organs with
their objects. They cannot save him from decay and death.
These and the previous verses show how deeply Nachiketa was impressed
by the ephemeral nature of all enjoyment on earth and in heaven. His
longing for Liberation through Self-Knowledge was intense indeed.
YAMA SAID: The good is one thing; the pleasant, another. Both of
these, serving different needs, bind a man. It goes well with him who,
of the two, takes the good; but he who chooses the pleasant misses
the end.
Goon: The Highest Good.
THE PLEASANT: Sense pleasures enjoyed through wealth, wife, children,
and other material objects.
DIFFERENT NEEDS: Leading their devotees to the different goals of Liber
ation and bondage.
BIND A MAN: The text refers to unillumined persons belonging to the
various stages of life and engaged in the performance of what they con
sider to be their duties. Some among them seek pleasure, and some, the
Highest Good, or Liberation, according to their respective spiritual evolu
tion. The former pursue avidya, or the lower knowledge, and the latter,
Vidya, or the Higher Knowledge. So both are said to be bound by their
respective sense of duty. Even the striving after Liberation indicates a state
of bondage. For an illumined person, who has realized the full freedom
of the Self, there are no strivings, no duties, no obligations-such as the
practice of meditation or the observance of spiritual vows. He is free from
all the bondage of the relative world.
GoEs WELL: Because the ideal of the good confers ultimately the Highest
Good.
OF THE TWO: Namely, the good and the pleasant. They are mutually
opposed and cannot be pursued simultaneously by anyone.
END: Self-Knowledge, which is the supreme end of human effort.
good to the pleasant; but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed
and avarice.
CALM SOUL: This calmness is the result of discrimination between the
Real and the unreal.
D1sCRIMINATEs: Like a swan separating milk from a mixture of milk
and water, or an ant sifting sugar from a mixture of sugar and sand.
PREFERS ETC: Because, from the standpoint of man's ultimate welfare, the
good far outweighs the pleasant.
OuT OF GREED ETc: That is to say, the fool is impelled by the motive of
greed and avarice. He seeks material things for the nourishment and pro
tection of his body.
Most people are devoid of the power of discrimination. They are swayed
by greed and attachment. Therefore they prefer worldly pleasures to
spiritual bliss.
It has been said that it goes well -with the follower of the good and
that the follower of the pleasant misses the end. Why so?
4
Wide apart and leading to different ends are these two: ignorance
and what is known as Knowledge. I regard you, 0 Nachiketa, to be
one who desires Knowledge; for even many pleasures could not tempt
you away.
WIDE APART: The two paths of the pleasant and the good, being of the
nature of ignorance and Knowledge, are mutually exclusive, like darkness
and light.
KATHA UPANISHAD II. ii. 4.
DIFFERENT ENDS: That is to say, bondage and Freedom.
TEMPT YOU AWAY: From the path of the good, by making Nachiketa
succumb to worldly enjoyment.
Many there are who do not even hear of Atman; though hearing of
Him, many do not comprehend. Wonderful is the expounder and rare
the hearer; rare indeed is the experiencer of Atman taught by an able
preceptor.
EXPOUNDER: Only a man who has directly realized the Self can teach one
about It.
HEARER: A seeker endowed with the necessary qualifications. (See pp. 12
and 114.)
According to Vedanta, a man who has performed righteous actions in
many previous lives develops, in his present birth, a spirit of renunciation
for material objects and manifests a keen longing for the Knowledge of
Atman. Three things are indeed very rare: birth in a human body, the
longing for spiritual freedom, and the guidance of an able teacher.
The Self cannot be known when taught by one who is merely erudite
in the letter of the scriptures but who has not realized their essence.
Yama praised Nachiketii's great wisdom because the latter had re
jected even the offer of a heavenly position. The King of Death him
self, though aware of its impermanence, had sought by means of
sacrificial worship the position of a god.
10
Yama said: I know that the treasure resulting from action is not
eternal; for what is eternal cannot be obtained by the non-eternal. Yet
I have performed the Nachiketa sacrifice with the help of non-eternal
things and attained this position which is [only relatively] eternal.
TREASURE: That is to say, the result of karma. As a man seeks treasure,
so also he seeks a reward for righteous action.
WHAT 1s ETERNAL: The Supreme Self.
CANNOT BE OBTAINED ETc: The effect is destroyed when the momentum
of the cause comes to an end. It does not exist prior to its manifestation.
It has a beginning and an end.
YET: The force of the word is that though Yama knew the eternal
Atman could not be realized through non-eternal means, yet he employed
non-eternal means to obtain the position of a god in heaven.
NaN-ETERNAL THINGS: Such accessories of sacrifice as animals, butter,
and barley.
PosITION ETc: That is to say, the position of a god, the King of Death.
The life of a god is eternal in comparison with a man's life on earth, but
it is non-eternal from the standpoint of the Absolute.
The Knowledge of Brahman is possible only for him who has re
nounced all the enjoyments of the relative universe, including those of
Brahmaloka, or the Highest Heaven.
KATRA UPANISHAD lI. ii. I I.
11
The fulfilment of desires, the foundation of the universe, the endless
rewards of sacrifices, the shore where there is no fear, that which is
adorable and great, the wide abode, and the goal-all this you have
seen; and being wise, you have with £.rm resolve discarded everything.
THE FULFILMENT ETc: All a man's relative desires £nd their cuhnina
tion in the happiness of Brahmaloka.
FouNDATION ETC: Brahma, the controlling deity of Brahmaloka, is the
World Soul.
ENDLESS: That is to say, from the relative point of view.
SHORE ETc: Again, from the relative point of view. One who has
attained to Brahmaloka is free from the fear of old age, disease, and death,
which are the lot of mortals on earth. Yet this is not real Freedom.
GREAT: Endowed with many supernatural powers.
WIDE: Lasting for years without number.
GoAL: The place where one enjoys unsurpassable happiness.
All the objects described in the text belong to Brahmaloka. But though
they had been offered to Nachiketa as a boon by Yama, he had £rmly re
fused them. He was indeed a rare seeker after Self-Knowledge.
Furthermore:
13
The mortal who has heard this and comprehended it well, who has
separated that Atman, the very soul of dharma, from all physical objects
and has realized the subtle essence, rejoices because he has obtained
that which is the cause of rejoicing. The Abode of Brahman, I believe,
is open for N achiketa.
MORTAL: Only man, among mortal beings, is capable of attaining
Immortality here on earth by cultivating Self-Knowledge. Subhuman beings
and the gods, who only reap the results of their past karma, do not
perform any new actions leading to the realization of Immortality.
HAS HEARD: From a qualified teacher.
Tms: Self-Knowledge.
SouL OF DHARMA: The word dharma denotes the inner foundation of all
beings, without which they can neither exist nor further evolve. The
phrase in the text is used as an epithet of Atman, which is the ultimate
basis of all.
PHYSICAL OBJECTS: Such as the body, the mind, the senses, and the ego.
Meditation on Atman is not possible without discrimination.
ABonE ETC: The King of Death is convinced that Nachiketa is worthy
of Self-Knowledge and Liberation.
religious rites prescribed by the scriptures, together with their fruits and
their requisites. Unrighteousness is its opposite.
ALL THIS ETC: That is to say, the relative universe, which is held to
gether by the law of cause and effect.
WHAT HAS BEEN ETC: That is to say, in the past and the future. The
present is also implied. Atman is not limited by time.
Atman is beyond all relative experiences, which are limited by time,
space, and the law of cause and effect. It is not realized as the result of
performing any of the rites laid down in the scriptures.
Furthermore:
17
This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows
this support is adored in the world of Brahma.
BEST SUPPORT: That is to say, Orn is the best of all the means by
which one can attain Pure Consciousness.
HIGHEST SUPPORT: Because Orn leads to the realization both of Brah
man with attributes and of Pure Consciousness.
Orn is the best means for the attainment of Brahmaloka and also for the
realization of one's identity with Pure Consciousness. The worshipper of
Orn communes with Brahman alone, either in Its relative or in Its absolute
aspect. He who has realized the true significance of Orn is worshipped
like Brahma Himself.
18
The knowing Self is not born; It does not die. It has not sprung from
anything; nothing has sprung from It. Birthless, eternal, everlasting,
and ancient, It is not killed when the body is killed.
KNoWING SELF: That is to say, the knower of Atman. The knower
realizes himself to be Atman, which is Pure Consciousness. Because It is
self-existent, any change--such as birth or death-is denied with regard
to the knower of the Self.
NoT BORN ETC: A thing that is born cannot be eternal, because prior
to its birth it had no existence. Such an object undergoes six changes: birth,
existence (relative), growth, maturity, decline, and death. All material
I. ii. 20.] KATIIA UPANISHAD
Only those who identify Atman with the body speak of killing It
or being killed by It.
19
If the killer thinks he kills and if the killed man thinks he is killed,
neither of these apprehends aright. The Self kills not, nor is It killed.
APFREHENDS ARIGHT: That is to say, knows his true Self. In both
instances Atman is identified with the body through ignorance.
The agent of killing is the ego (I-consciousness), and the object is the
body. The ego identified with the mind, the senses, and the body
known as the phenomenal being-kills another body. The real Self, Pure
Consciousness, is the detached witness. As Atman does not kill, neither does
It participate in any other action. The life of the world, characterized
by virtue and vice, good and evil, and the rest, is regarded as real only
by the person who identifies himself with the body, and not by the knower
of the Self.
Atman, smaller than the small, greater than the great, is hidden in
the hearts of all living creatures. A man who is free from desires beholds
the majesty of the Self through tranquillity of the senses and the mind
and becomes free from grief.
KATRA UPANISHAD [I. ii. 20.
SMALLER I!Tc: Atman is smaller than a barley grain and greater than
the wide universe. It is the inmost essence of all things that exist, great or
small. It gives all tangible things the appearance of reality. Without It
nothing would exist. Atman is one and non-dual. It appears to be many
because of Its association, through maya, with various forms. In Its true
nature, Atman is free from all attributes.
LIVING CREATURES: From Brahma to the blade of grass; all embodied
beings. The infinite Atman is the essence of all.
WHO 1s FREE ETC: That is to say, who has renounced all desires for
enjoyment of objects on earth or in heaven.
MAJESTY: The unique greatness of the Self consists in the fact that
It undergoes neither expansion nor contraction by Its association with
upadhis, great or small. It does not become holy through good action or
sinful through evil action, because Its association with the upadhis is
illusory and not real. It always remains unchanging Pure Consciousness.
But evil action creates a barrier and hinders a man from beholding the
vision of the effulgent Self, whereas good action destroys the barrier.
TRANQUILLITY ETc: One feels tranquillity when the sense-organs are
restrained from external objects and the mind is desireless. Through this
serene mind one gains a vision of the Self.
Commentators who uphold Dualism explain the compound word dhiitu
prasiidat ("tranquillity of the senses and the mind") in the text as "by
the grace (prasadii.t) of the Creator (dhatu)." It is true that one does not
feel the grace of God without desirelessness, inner calmness, and purity.
Obstacles to Self-realization:
24
He who has not first turned away from wickedness, who is not
tranquil and subdued, and whose mind is not at peace, cannot attain
Atman. It is realized only through the Knowledge of Reality.
SunDUED: One develops the power of concentration by subduing the
senses.
NoT AT PEACE: A man may be capable of concentration yet distracted
by desire for the fruit of his spiritual discipline. At the £.nal stage the
seeker renounces all desires for fruit, including the desire for Knowledge
I. ii. 25.] KATHA UPANISHAD 145
and Liberation. He remains absorbed in communion with Atman. All
desires, however lofty or spiritual, disturb the serenity of the mind.
The meaning is that he alone who has refrained from evil conduct and
has controlled the desires of the senses, who has gathered his mind from
the outside world and does not disturb it any longer by seeking even the
fruit of his meditation, attains Self-Knowledge with the help of a qualified
teacher.
How can one devoid of spiritual discipline ever expect to know the
true glories of Atman?
25
Who, then, knows where He is-He to whom brahmins and kshat
triyas are mere food, and death itself a condiment?
WHo, THEN, BTc: An ordinary man cannot, with his worldly mind,
know the true nature of Atman.
BRAHMINS AND KSHATTIUYAs: They constitute the two upper castes of
Indo-Aryan society. The brahmin is the teacher of the spiritual culture, and
the kshattriya, or military man, its protector.
DEATH: The all-destroyer.
Such is the glory of Atman that the all-powerful brahmins and kshattri
yas and death itself are only Its articles of food. In Atman everything dis
appears; by It even death is swallowed up.
TWO THERE ARE who dwell within the body, in the buddhi, the
supreme akasa of the heart, enjoying the sure rewards of their own
actions. The knowers of Brahman describe them as light and shade,
as do those householders who have offered oblations in the Five Fires
and also those who have thrice performed the Nachiketa sacrifice.
The embodied soul, identi-fi.ed with the world through ignorance, can
either perform ac tion for the ful-fi.lment of desires or cultivate Knowl
edge for the attainment of Freedom. If it follows the -first course, it
KATRA UPANISHAD [I. iii. 3·
travels up and down in samsara, the ever changing universe of names
and forms characterized by the pairs of opposites. But if it cultivates
Knowledge, it becomes free. Both these courses are described by the
illustration of a chariot.
3
Know the atman to be the master of the chariot; the body, the
chariot; the buddhi, the charioteer; and the mind, the reins.
THE ATMAN: Here the word does not mean Pure Consciousness, which
is not related to the body or any material object. It signifies the jiva, or
living being, which, though identical with Pure Consciousness, appears,
through maya, as the embodied soul, subject to birth and death, hunger and
thirst, and the rest. Unlike Pure Consciousness, the jiva is the experiencer
of the results of action.
THE BODY ETC: The body is compared to a chariot because it is moved
here and there by the sense-organs, which are compared to horses.
THE BUDDHI ETc: The word buddhi denotes the discriminative faculty.
The Hindu psychologists divided the sense-organs into two groups: the
outer and the inner. The former consists of the organs of action and the
organs of perception. The organs of action are the hands, the feet, the
tongue, and the organs of procreation and evacuation. The organs of per
ception are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the skin, and the tongue. The inner
organ is known by four names according to its different functions: the
manas, or mind, characterized by doubt and volition; the buddhi, or intellect,
endowed with the power of discrimination and determination; the chitta,
or mind-stuff, which is the storehouse of past impressions; and the aham,
or ego, characterized by I-consciousness. A man is mainly dependent for
his action upon the buddhi, which determines what he should be doing and
what he should refrain from.
THE MIND ETC: Through the mind the buddhi directs the senses to
their respective objects, as the charioteer guides the horses along the right
path by means of reins.
4
The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects, the roads. The
wise call the atman-united with the body, the senses, and the mind
-the enjoyer.
THE SENSES, ETc: The five organs of perception and the five organs
of action are compared to horses because they draw the body hits.er and
thither.
I. iii. 6.] KATHA UPANISHAD
THE OBJECTS, ETC: The different objects--including form, touch, smell,
taste, and sound-are the roads pursued by the senses.
THE ATMAN ETc: The word atman here means the individual soul. The
Supreme Self, or Pure Consciousness, cannot be the enjoyer of any relative
experience. Under the influence of maya, the Supreme Self appears as
the individual soul endowed with mind, buddhi, and other organs. It is
the latter that experiences the various objects in the relative universe.
By means of the spiritual disciplines presently to be described, the indi
vidual soul gives up these false superimpositions and realizes its true
nature. The jiva and Brahman cannot, in reality, be two different entities;
for in that case the jiva could never become Brahman. It is impossible
for an entity to discard its own nature altogether and become something
completely different. If agency, action, and the enjoyment of results are
essential characteristics of the soul, it then can never be Brahman, which is
utterly free from them. Like a mirage in the desert, jivahood is falsely
superimposed upon Brahman.
trolled his mind and discriminated between the Self and the non-Self,
and who contemplates Atman. Pure in heart and freed from all obstacles, he
obtains an uninterrupted vision of Brahman; he is not deluded by the life
of ignorance in the world of names and forms.
V1sHNU: That is to say, Brahman, which is the all-pervading Conscious
ness. He is also called Vasudeva, because all created beings dwell in that
self-luminous Reality.
Verses three to nine describe the meaning of self-control and the means
of its attainment. A struggling aspirant is endowed with body, discrimina
tive faculty, mind, and senses. He is surrounded by various objects.
Identified with the body and the mind, he cherishes desires, engages in
many actions, and experiences their results. Thus again and again he
assumes a body in the relative world. But in the course of time he seeks
freedom from birth and death and the suffering of life. He then practises
spiritual disciplines, of which the most important is self-control. But this
control does not signify mortification of the body, the senses, or any other
faculty. All these are necessary if a man is to attain his goal; but they
must be properly trained and controlled. This is graphically described
by the illustration of the chariot, which can take its rider to his destina
tion only when it is well built, when the driver knows his way, and when
the reins are strong, the horses £nnly held, and the roads well chosen. The
aspirant for Freedom should possess a healthy body and vigorous organs,
unfaltering discrimination, and an undistracted mind. His discrimination
should guide his senses to experience only those objects which are help
ful for Self-Knowledge. If, on the contrary, his body or mind or any other
faculty is injured or suppressed, he cannot attain the goal, as the rider
cannot reach his destination if the chariot and the other accessories men
tioned above are not in fit condition. The Katha Upanishad. here emphasizes
discrimination and inner calmness as the two most important elements in the
practice of self-control.
Does the goal described in the preceding verse lie in some external,
far-off region that can be reached by following a certain path? Accord
ing to Vedanta, the goal lies within man himself. It is neither in heaven
nor anywhere else in space. It is man's inmost Self, which remains
hidden because of his ignorance. As soon as the ignorance is dispelled
he knows this Self. In the following verses the Self is pointed out as
a very subtle essence, and this is done by distinguishing It from the
senses, the mind, and all other material things.
KA'IHA UPANISHAD [I. iii. I O.
10-11
Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind;
beyond the mind, the intellect; beyond the intellect, the Great Atman;
beyond the Great Atman, the Unmanifest; beyond the Unmanifest,
the Purusha. Beyond the Purusha there is nothing: this is the end, the
Supreme Goal.
[A rudimentary knowledge of the Vedantic cosmology and psychology
is necessary for understanding the text. The first manifestation of Pure
Brahman, due to Its association with ajnana, is called the Unmanifest. This
latter may be compared to a seed just before the coming forth of the sprout.
The first entity to emerge from the Unmanifest is Hiranyagarbha, also
known by such other epithets as Brahma (the World Soul, or the Cosmic
Mind) and Prana (the Cosmic Life). Again, from Brahman associated
with ajnana evolve the five elements, namely, akasa (space), vayu (air),
agni (fire), ap (water), and prithivi (earth). As they evolve, they remain
in a subtle and uncompounded state, endowed respectiveiy with their
unique attributes, namely, sound, touch, form, taste, and smell. Sound is
the attribute of akasa; touch, of vayu; form, of agni; and so on. From the
subtle elements evolve the subtle bodies of living beings and the gross
elements. The subtle body consists of the five organs of perception, the
intellect, the mind, the five organs of action, and the five pranas. The
organs of perception are the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongue, and the
nose. They are produced, respectively, from the sattva particles of space,
air, fire, water, and earth. (Maya, which is the material cause, or upadana
karana, of the universe, consists of the three gunas, namely, sattva, rajas,
and tamas. These gunas are present in all the products of maya, or nature.
Therefore each of the five elements contains them.) Thus, the organ of
hearing is produced from the sattva particles of akasa; the organ of touch,
from the sattva particles of vayu; and so on. The mind, the buddhi, the
chitta, and the ahamkara are produced from the combined sattva particles
of the five subtle elements. The inner organ (antahkarana) is called the
manas (mind) when it considers the pros and cons of a subject. It is called
the buddhi (intellect) when it comes to a decision. The chitta (mind
stuff or memory) is that aspect of the inner organ which remembers.
The ahamkara (egoity) is characterized by I-consciousness. The five organs
of action (the organ of speech, the hands, the feet, and the organs of
evacuation and generation) are produced, respectively, from the rajas par
ticles of space, air, fire, water, and earth. The five pranas (prana, apana,
vyana, udana, and samana) are produced from the combined rajas particles of
the five subtle elements. Afterwards the subtle elements combine with one
I. iii. I 1.] KATHA UPANISHAD 1 53
another and produce the five gross elements, namely, visible space, air, fire,
water, and earth. Whether gross or subtle, these five elements alone are
found in nature. Nothing else can be apprehended by a man's five sense
organs. From the five gross elements evolve the gross physical universe, the
gross bodies of living beings, and the food and drink by which the gross
bodies are sustained. (For a detailed description of the cosmology, the reader
is referred to any authoritative Vedantic treatise, such as Vedantasara or
Panchadasi.) It may be stated here that the purpose of the Vedantic
cosmology is to explain the universe and its origin in such a way that it can
establish the sole reality of Brahman, apart from which the universe is
unimportant either from the standpoint of reality or from the standpoint of
ultimate value. In the deepest spiritual experience the material universe
is found to be non-existent. For Vedantic philosophers it is far more im
portant to realize Brahman than to analyse or understand the universe.
The interpretation of the phenomenal world must not lead to a denial of
Brahman. Knowledge of the world must lead to the Knowledge of Brah
man; otherwise such knowledge is without significance. The real purpose of
the Vedantic cosmology is to help the student to realize Brahman, and not
merely to explain the universe of names and forms.]
BEYOND: The word in the text is para, which Sankaracharya explains as
subtler, greater, and more inward. Thus the objects are subtler, greater, and
more inward than the senses. They are the inner stuff of the senses.
SENSES: The gross organs of perception and action.
OBJECTS: The word means here the subtle rudimentary elements. They
are beyond the senses, or superior to and subtler than the senses, because the
senses are produced from them. Though the five objects (elements) exist
independent of the senses, yet their existence cannot be perceived with
out the senses. Therefore, as Sankaracharya says in his commentary, the
objects create the senses so that they (the objects) may be apprehended.
THE MIND: The mind is superior to the objects because they are under
the mind's control. It is the inner stuff of the objects. Mind is a subtle
form of matter.
lNTELLECT: The intellect, or buddhi, is superior to the mind because it
comes to a conclusion regarding the doubts raised by the mind.
GREAT ATMAN: Hiranyagarbha, or the first tangible manifestation of
the Absolute in the relative universe.
liNMANIFEST: That is to say, Brahman, or the Absolute, associated with
undifferentiated ajnana. The Absolute Itself is beyond causal relations. The
Unmanifest is the ultimate cause of all the causes and effects perceived in
the material universe. Names and forms lie in it in a potential manner.
As already stated, the Unmanifest may be compared to a seed ready to
154 KATHA UPANISHAD [l. iii. I I.
burst into a sprout. Hence it is called the seed of creation. Prakriti, maya,
the Urunanifest, and Avyakta (the Unexpressed) are synonymous terms.
PuRUSHA: The Spirit that fills everything or that dwells in the body. It
is the Absolute, Brahman, the Supreme Goal, which is described as Pure
Consciousness devoid of all attributes.
THE END: All objects, subtle or gross, are finally absorbed in the Absolute.
The different entities described in the text in an ascending degree of
subtlety ultimately merge in Brahman, the Reality underlying all things.
SUPREME GoAL: The realization of Brahman is the final goal of evolu
tion. One attaining it never comes back to the world of relativity.
man's being so instructed, he does not grasp the truth that he is the
Supreme Self. On the contrary, without any instruction whatever he says to
himself: 'I am the son of such and such a person,' and mistakes for Atman
the aggregate of the body, the senses, and the mind, which is really non
Self and is perceived as an object by the Self, like any other object, such as
a pot or a jar. Alas, how deep, unfathomable, and inscrutable is this
divine maya! 'Veiled by My maya born of the gunas, I am not revealed
to all. This deluded world knows Me not as the unborn and eternal.' (B. G.
VII. 25.)'' (Sankariicharya.)
The wise man should merge his speech in his mind, and his mind in
his intellect. He should merge his intellect in the Cosmic Mind, and
the Cosmic Mind in the Tranquil Self.
SHOULD MERGE ETc: The reference is to the practice of yoga. The
activities of the senses should be stopped and the· attention directed to
the mind. Then the mind should be drawn into the buddhi, or dis
criminative faculty. Next the aspirant should sink the buddhi into the
Cosmic Mind, or Hiranyagarbha. In other words, he should make his
mind as pure as the Cosmic Mind, which is free from all notions of discrete
individuality. Last, the thin veil of the Cosmic Mind should be rent,
and the seeker should merge in the Absolute, which is calm because of an
utter absence of any distinction or difference either with regard to others
or within Itself.
SPEECH: Stands for all the sense-organs.
INTELLECT: The buddhi reflects the radiance of Atman more than does
the mind, or manas.
MERGE ms INTELLECT ETC: The intellect is the upadhi, or limiting
adjunct, of the jiva, or individual soul: that is to say, Atman, when con
ditioned by the buddhi, appears as the individual soul. In this stage
of discipline the soul loses its individuality in the Cosmic Soul and becomes
one with it. Hiranyagarbha is associated with the upadhi of the cosmic
body and mind.
TRANQUIL SELF: The unchanging and inmost Self of all, which is
free from attributes and is the unaltered Witness of the changes that take
place in the body and the mind.
KATHA UPANISHAD [J. iii. I 4.
Like a beneficen t mother, the Upanishad exhorts all to cultivate
Self-Knowledge, because that alone leads to Peace a nd Blessedness.
14
Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge
of a razor is that path, so the wise say-hard to tread and difficult
to cross.
ArusE: That is to say, from the sleep of ignorance, which conjures up
dreams of worldly objects and is the seed-bed of all misery.
THE GREAT: illumined teachers.
LEARN: The knowledge of one's identity with Brahman.
THAT PATH: The path of knowledge and discrimination, which leads
to Brahman.
A confused traveller in the desert sees a mirage and runs toward the
water in the vain expectation of quenching his thirst. A man in darkness
mistakes a rope for a snake and trembles with ill-grounded fear. But when
the true nature of the desert and rope is revealed by a wise person, those
who were deluded no longer suffer from false expectations and fears. They
regain peac::e of mind. Likewise, a deluded man, who associates Atman with
name, form, and action and through ignorance regards It as the doer, the
instrument, and the enjoyer of the fruits of action, subjects himself to false
expectation and false fear and experiences endless miseries. But when,
through the instruction of an illumined preceptor, he attains the Knowledge
of the Self, he becomes free from ignorance, realizes the illusory nature of
multiple objects, and enjoys peace. The path to Self-Knowledge is extremely
difficult. The aspirant is asked to practise the discipline of discrim ination,
following the instruction of a teacher.
17
And he who, pract.Ismg self-control, recites the suprem e secret in
an assembly of brahmins or at a sraddha ceremony obtains thereby
infinite rewards. Yea, he obtains infinite rewards.
REcITEs: That is to say, recites the text and also explains its meaning.
SUPREME SECRET: The story deals with Atman, which remains a pro
found secret for the unillumined.
KATH.A UPANISHAD [I. iii. 17.
SR.ADDHA: The after-death ceremony of the Hindus, in which food and
drink are offered for the grati£.cation of departed souls. It is quite appropriate
that the Katha Upanishad, describing the immortality and divinity of the
soul, should be recited and explained on an occasion of this kind.
CHAPTER I
It has been stated in the previous section that the Self, hidden in all
beings, does not manifest Itself and is seen only through the one-pointed
mind of an illumined seer. What is the obstacle to Self-Knowledge? If the
nature and the cause of the obstacle are known, one can then try to
remove it.
159
160 KATRA UP ANISHAD [II. i. 2.
How can one realize That, knowing which the wise do not c011et
any worldly object?
3
It is through Atman that one knows form, taste, smell, sounds,
touches, and carnal pleasures. Is there anything that remains unknown
to Atman? This, verily, is That.
ATMAN: Which is Pure Consciousness and the ultimate Knower.
II. i. 5.] KATHA UPANISHAD
The inmost Self, described as the Supreme Lord, is the Self of all
beings.
6
He verily knows Brahman who knows the First-born, the offspring
of austerity, created prior to the waters, and dwelling, with the elements,
in the cave of the heart. This, verily, is That.
FmsT-BORN: That is to say, Hiranyagarbha. He is the first manifestation,
through maya, of Brahman in the relative universe.
OFFSPRING OF AUSTERITY: Desirous of creation, the Lord (Saguna
Brahman) practised austerity, which consisted of intense thinking or
brooding. All creation is the result of intense thinking.
WATERS: That is to say, the £.ve elements. The £.ve elements were
evolved after Hiranyagarbha.
ELEMENTS: The material elements constituting the body and the senses
are held together by the law of cause and effect.
Desirous of creation, Brahman subjects Itself to intense thinking. The
first result of this thinking is Hiranyagarbha, or the World Soul. Next are
evolved the five material elements, which, in tum, produce the bodies of all
KATHA UPANISHAD
creatures-gods, men, animals, birds, trees, and so on. Then Brahman enters
into these bodies as their souls. Thus individualized, He dwells in the
hearts of all, surrounded by the pranas and the organs, and experiences
various objects. Hiranyagarbha and the individual souls, being the offspring
-0f Brahman, are of the same nature as Brahman, as ornaments made of
gold are nothing but gold.
Furthermore:
7
He verily knows Brahman who knows Aditi, the soul of all deities,
who was born in the form of Prana, who was created with the elements,
and who, entering into the heart, abides therein. This, verily, is That.
AmTI: Lit., the Eater, or Experiencer; an epithet applied to Hiranya
garbha because, as the World Soul, He is the experiencer of sound, taste,
and all other objects of the universe.
SouL ETc: That is to say, who contains within Himself all beings. The
d.eities are mentioned here because they are superior beings in the relative
universe.
PRANA: The word refers to Hiranyagarbha, who is the cosmic life.
CREATED WITH THE ELEMENTS: The reference is to the individual soul,
which appears to be born with the material elements that constitute the
physical body.
ABIDES ETC: As the individual soul.
This verse, like the previous one, refers to Hiranyagarbha, the £.rst mani
festation of Brahman in the relative universe. Another manifestation of
Brahman is the jiva, or individual living being. Both, in essence, are identi
cal with Brahman. He who knows Brahman in Its aspect of Hiranyagarbha
and. jiva knows It well indeed.. Knowledge of the manifest universe and the
World Soul leads to the Knowledge of the Absolute. The Upanishads,
contrary to the opinion of superficial critics, insist on knowledge of the
manifest universe as a prerequisite for the Knowledge of Ultimate Reality.
The Indo-Aryans of Vedic times cultivated a thorough knowledge of the
world. Such knowledge, in the end, creates dispassion for the world and
spurs the seeker to the search for Brahman, the unchanging Reality. If a
person is born with true disp assion for material objects, the Vedantic
teachers explain it by saying that he must have acquired a thorough knowl
edge of the manifold universe in previous incarnations. The manifest
Brahman, or the universe, is in reality non-different from Pure Conscious
ness. It is maya �at makes the apparent difference.
KATHA UPANISHAD [II. i. 8.
The same idea is reiterated:
8
Agni, hidden in the two £re-sticks, and well guarded-like a child
in the womb, by its mother-is worshipped day after day by men
who are awake and by those who offer oblations in the sacrifices. This,
verily, is That.
AGNI: The word refers both to the visible fire into which sacrificers offer
their oblations and to Virat, or the World Soul, whom the yogins contemplate
in their hearts.
FmE-sncxs: In Vedic sacrifices fire was produced by the rubbing of
two sticks of wood, known as the lower and upper arani.
WELL GUARDED: By both the sacrificers and the yogins, like a mother
who protects her unborn child by means of well regulated food and drink.
BY MEN WHO ETC: Refers to the yogins, who are always alert and watch
ful regarding their spiritual discipline.
BY THOSE WHO OFFER ETC: Refers to householders, who daily offer
oblations in the sacrificial fire as one of their spiritual disciplines.
It is Hiranyagarbha who is variously worshipped by the yogins and the
sacrificers as Agni, or Fire. One who knows Hiranyagarbha knows Brahman.
In this verse, too, the Vedic seer asks the aspirants to cultivate knowledge of
the universe and its controlling soul.
\Vhence the sun rises and whither it goes to set, in whom all the
devas are contained, and whom none can ever pass beyond-This,
verily, is That.
WHENCE: Refers to Prana, the World Soul, which is the seed of all
the tangible objects in the universe.
DEvAs: The word refers to the deities, such as the god of fire, the god
of wind, the god of heaven, and so on, and also to the various sense-organs
of living beings.
ARE CONTAINED: Like the spokes of a wheel attached to the nave.
The text describes the manifestation of Brahman as Prana in both its
cosmic and its individual aspect. All the shining deities arise from Prana,
II. i. 1 o.] KATRA UPANISHAD 165
are sustained by it, and in the end, during the state of non-manifestation,
become one with it. At the time of the next creation they again emerge from
Prana. This is also true of the sense-organs and the individualized prana.
They too merge in the prana at the time of dreamless sleep and again
emerge from it in the waking state. According to Vedanta, the different
forms of consciousness that control the activities of the gods are the same
as those that control the activities of the sense-organs. The foregoing four
verses describe the ultimate non-duality of the attributeless Brahman, the
World Soul, and the individual soul. Brahman is the final cause of the other
two. The cause appears as effect through maya. There is no intrinsic differ
ence between the cause and the effect. The whole creation is maya. Brahman
alone is real.
10
What is here, the same is there; and what is there, the same is here.
He goes from death to death who sees any difference here.
WHAT IS HERE: That is to say, what appears to non-discriminating
persons as a phenomenal being subject to the laws of time, space, and
causation, but, from the standpoint of Truth, is nothing but pure Brahman.
THE SAME IS THERE: Refers to Brahman, which is absolute and immu
table Consciousness, free from all relativity.
WHAT IS THERE: Pure Consciousness, which is the inmost Self of all.
THE SAME IS HERE: What appears to be a phenomenal being subject to
the conditions of name and form, cause and effect.
DEATH To DEATH: The unillumined soul is subject to repeated births
and deaths, which are characteristic of the relative world.
ANY DIFFERENCE: Such notions as "I am other than the supreme
Brahman" or "The supreme Brahman is other than me." The apparent
difference between the jiva, or individual being, and the Creator results from
the upadhi, or limiting adjunct. The upadhi is created by maya, or ignorance.
That is to say, Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, appears through maya to
be conditioned by cosmic ignorance and then becomes known as the Creator;
166 KATRA UPANISHAD [II. i. IO.
and the same Brahman, when conditioned by the individual buddhi, appears
as the jiva. With the destruction of ignorance, the limiting conditions are
also destroyed. Then one sees Brahman alone everywhere.
HERE: That is to say, in Brahman, which has never become the many.
When a man dreams he takes the dream objects to be real. On awakening,
he realizes them to be unreal but takes the waking objects to be real. On the
attainment of Knowledge, the same person realizes the waking experiences
to be as illusory as the dream ones. Though Vedanta makes a distinction,
from the relative standpoint, between waking experience, dream experience,
and illusory perceptions, yet, from the standpoint of Absolute Reality, all
three experiences are equally unreal. Therefore the aspirant should discard
all multiplicity and see everywhere Brahman, the all-pervading Conscious
ness. Thus alone can he overcome fear, which is caused by the perception of
duality.
Furthermore:
13
The Purusha, of the size of a thumb, is like a flame without smoke.
The Lord of the past and the future, He is the same today and tomor
row. This, verily, is That.
FLAME ETC: This is how Atman should be meditated upon. It is pure
light without a trace of smoke or worldliness.
TODAY ETC: Atman always remains the same, unaffected by the actions
of the body and the mind.
The yogins contemplate Atman in their hearts as the Lord of the past and
the future. The same everlasting and unchanging Atman, the Upanishad
says, dwells now in the hearts of all and also will dwell there in the future.
The idea is that there exists none who is equal to Atman or separate from
Atman. Nor will there be any such being in the future.
CITY BTc: That is to say, the body. The eleven gates are the eleven
apertures: the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, the mouth, the navel,
the two lower organs, and the aperture at the top of the head through
which the life-breath of a yogin goes out at the time of death.
BELONGING TO: Under the lordship of.
UNBORN: Free from such characteristics of matter as birth, growth,
decay, and death.
UNDISTORTED CoNSCIOUSNESS: As, from the position of the sun, there
is no change in its light, so also, from the position of Atman, there is no
change in Its Consciousness. Such modifications as growth and decay cannot
be associated with Consciousness. Were this not so, one would have to think
of another unchanging Consciousness to be the witness of all these changes.
Atman, being the ultimate witness of all external and internal changes, is
the Lord of the body.
MEDITATES: This meditation is accompanied by true Knowledge.
GRIBVBS NO MORE: Because the meditator is free from all desires and
sees Atman in all beings. The Knowledge of Brahman makes him fearless
and consequently free from grief.
LIBERATED: The knower of Atman, even while living in the body, is
free from the bondage of desire and action created by ignorance.
BECOMES FREE: After death he attains final Liberation and is not under
any compulsion to assume a body in the relative world.
A city and its master are quite different from each other. A change in
the former does not affect the latter. Likewise, Atman is entirely different
from the body. The growth or decay of the body does not in any way
affect Atman. Immutable and changeless, It is independent of the body.
Self-Knowledge is very subtle and profound. The present chapter explains
it from another approach.
KATRA UP ANISHAD [II. ii. 2.
There are not different Atmans in different bodies. The same Atman
dwells in all bodies. He is omnipresent.
2
He is the sun dwelling in the bright heavens. He is the air dwelling
in the interspace. He is the £.re dwelling on earth. He is the guest
dwelling in the house. He dwells in men, in the gods, in truth, in the
sky. He is born in the water, on earth, in the sacri£.ce, on the mountains.
He is the True and the Great.
GuEST ETC: Or the sentence may be translated: "He is the soma-juice
dwelling in the sacrificial jar."
TRUTH: Or the word rita may mean sacrifice.
WATER: He is bom in the water as conchs, pearl-oysters, £sh, and other
sea creatures.
EARTH: That is to say, as barley, corn, and other cereals.
SACRIFICE: As its various auxiliaries.
MouNTAINS: As" streams and rivers.
TRUE: Of unchanging nature.
GREAT: Because He is the cause of all.
There is only one Atman without a second, which is the all-pervasive
Self of the universe. Atman, being non-different from Brahman, completely
excludes multiplicity and difference.
The sense-organs bring the impressions of the outside world to the atman,
like subjects bringing offerings to a king. That is to say, all their activities
are for the atman's enjoyment. The atman uses the sense-organs and the
priinas to serve its purpose, as a king uses his officers; it is totally different
from them.
The individual soul uses the body as its instrument to gain experi
ences, which ultirnately lead to its emancipation. When it abandons the
body, the latter disintegrates, like a city after the king has abandoned it.
4
When the soul, identi£.ed with the body and dwelling in it, is torn
away from the body, is freed from it, what then remains? This, verily,
is That.
WHAT ETc: At the rime of death the subtle body, consisting of the
:five priinas, the £.ve organs of perception, the :five organs of action, the
mind, and the intellect, leaves the gross body along with the soul. The gross
body deteriorates and falls into ruin.
THIS, VERILY, ETC: The .Atman whom Nachiketa wanted to know is
that spiritual entity in man in whose absence the body cannot live even
for an instant. It is quite different from the body.
The doctrine of karma and rebirth is laid down for those who die
without the Knowledge of Brahman:
7
Some jivas enter the womb to be embodied as organic beings, and
some go into non-organic matter-according to their work and according
to their knowledge.
ORGANIC BEINGS: I:iving creatures endowed with physical organs.
NON-ORGANIC MATTER: Such as trees, plants, and so on.
According to the doctrine of karma and rebirth, the future of the embodied
soul is determined by its present action and knowledge. By good action it
becomes good, and by evil action it becomes evil. One can assume any body
in the relative universe, from that of a god to that of a plant. If sattva
II. ii. 9.] KATHA UPA.i""l'ISHAD 173
preponderates at the time of death, one obtains a god's body; if rajas, a
human body; and if tamas, a subhuman body. But it must be remembered
that the nature of Atman is not altered by the fact of Its assuming a body.
Atman uses the body to serve Its purpose. All will ultimately attain Libera
tion.
Another illustration:
10
As the same non-dual air, after it has entered the world, becomes
different according to whatever it enters, so also the same non-dual
Atman, dwelling in all beings, becomes different according to what
ever It enters. And It exists also without.
DIFFERENT ETc: The air, entering a physical body as the prana, is
known l::y different names according to its different functions. The illustra
tion is also given of the air sounding differently as it passes through differ
ent musical instruments.
The objection may be raised that i f the Supreme Self is the Self of
all things, It must then be coloured by their traits. The objection is
answered:
11
As the sun, which helps all eyes to see, is not affected by the blemishes
of the eyes or of the external things revealed by it, so also the one
Atman, dwelling in all beings, is never contaminated by the misery of
the world, being outside it.
BY Til:E BLEMISHES ETc: A reference to the contact of the eyes with
impure things and also to the befouling of the mind which sometimes
follows such contact. These do not stain the sun, without whose light no
external object can be seen.
II.ii. 12.] KATHA UPANlSHAD 1 75
So ALSO ETc: It is the reality of Atman that makes worldly objects
appear real. Yet Atman, because It is unattached, remains unaffected by
pain and pleasure, good and evil, and the other pairs of opposites, which are
falsely superimposed upon It through ignorance. The same is true of the
desert and a mirage. The mirage appears to be real on account of the desert,
but its traits cannot affect the desert because the two are unrelated.
The following is adapted from Sankara's commentary:
"All beings, on account of the avidya, or ignorance, superimposed on
Atman, suffer misery arising from desires and action; but such ignorance
does not in reality exist in Atman. It is through illusion that one sees a
snake, silver, water, and greyness, respectively, in a rope, mother-of-pearl,
the desert, and the blue sky. The rope and the rest are not, in reality,
touched even in the slightest degree by the objects falsely attributed to
them, because they are totally external to the contrary notions so super
imposed. Likewise, through ignorance men superimpose the wrong notion
of agency, action, and the fruit�omparable to the wrong notion of the
snake, silver, and so on-upon Atman, and consequently experience misery,
old age, and death. But Atman Itself, though the Self of all, is not touched
by the misery created by the superimposition of a contrary notion. Why so?
Because It is, as in the case of the rope and the rest, quite external to the
contrary notion superimposed by ignorance."
Furthermore:
13
There is One who is the eternal Reality among non-etemal objects,
the one [truly] conscious Entity among conscious objects, and who,
though non-dual, fulfils the desires of many. Eternal peace belongs to
the wise, who perceive Him within themselves-not to others.
NaN-ETERNAL: The Lord is the one unchanging ground of the entire
phenomenal existence, which is superimposed upon It through avidya.
According to the Vedas, at the beginning of a new cycle the Lord creates
the sun, the moon, the planets, and other material objects just as they
existed in the previous cycle. At the end of the cycle they are not totally
annihilated; they remain in causal form, merged in undifferentiated prakriti.
The Lord is the unchanging substratum of the entire changing universe
during its creation, preservation, and dissolution.
AMoNc CONSCIOUS ETC: The deities and other living beings derive
their intelligence and consciousness from the Supreme Self, as a piece of
hot iron derives its power of burning from fire. Without the Consciousness
of Atman all beings would become inert.
FuLFILS ETC: Brings about the fruition of man's actions according to
the law of karma. The law, by itself, cannot function; it must he admin
istered and guided by the intelligence of the Lord.
MANY: The embodied beings entangled in maya.
One enjoys real and everlasting peace only through communion with the
Supreme Lord.
II. ii.15.] KATHA UPANISHAD 1 77
The bliss that arises from the realization of the Self is no doubt
beyond thought and speech, which belong to relative existence; but it is
directly experienced by illumined souls. Therefore one should not give
up the effort for Self-realization as impossible; one should rather strive
with faith and reverence.
14
15
The sun does not shine there, nor the moon and the stars, nor
these lightnings-not to speak of this £.re. He shining, everything
shines after Him. By His light all this is lighted.
THE SUN: Which illumines all material objects.
THERE: That is to say, in Brahman, which is the inmost Self of every
thing.
It is only the heat in boiling water that scalds: water, of itself, cannot
scald. Likewise, the sun, the moon, and other bright objects are not them
selves luminous: it is the light of Brahman that endows them with light.
The self-luminosity of Brahman is known directly by the seers in the depth
of their meditation; it may also be inferred from the light of the sun, the
moon, and other objects. That Atman is self-luminous may also be known
K.ATHA UPANISHAD [II. ii. r 5.
from the various manifestations of ego, such as "I feel," "I think," and "I
know." The ego itself is inert and non-intelligent.
THIS IS THAT eternal Asvattha Tree with its root above and branches
below. That root, indeed, is called the Bright; That is Brahman,
and That alone is the Immortal. In That all worlds are contained, and
none can pass beyond. This, verily, is That.
ETERNAL: The Tree of Samsara, or the relative universe, is characterized
by a continuous series of births and deaths, without beginning or end.The
only way to cut it down is through the knowledge and realization of Atman's
identity with Brahman.
AsvATnIA TREE: The well-known :fig tree of India, which sends down
its branches so that they strike root and form new stems, one tree growing
into a sort of forest.
RooT A.BOVE: In an ordinary tree, the tap-root extends downward; but
in the Tree of Samsara, this root is high up. The root is Brahman, which
is the ultimate cause of everything. According to Non-dualistic Vedanta,
the Absolute (Nirguna Brahman) is beyond the category of causality.
Brahman with maya (Saguna Brahman) is the root of the universe. Maya,
however, has no existence independent of Brahman. Therefore Saguna
Brahman is, in reality, the same as the Absolute.
BRANCHES BELOW: Heaven, earth, hell, and all other spheres of relative
existence inhabited by either embodied or disembodied souls are described
here as the downward-spreading branches of the Tree of the Universe. Or the
branches may mean such cosmic principles as the universal mind (mahat),
I-consciousness (ahamkara), and the :five subtle elements (tanmatras).
THAT ROOT: That is to say, the root of the universe.
BRIGHT: Self-luminous because It is Pure Consciousness.
BRAHMAN: Of exceeding majesty.
IN THAT ... CONTAINED: The universe of names and forms is super
imposed by maya on Brahman, like a mirage on the desert. As the mirage
arises from the desert, rests in it, and, when the truth is known, ultimately
disappears in the desert, so also the universe arises from Brahman, rests in
It, and ultimately disappears in Brahman. As the mirage is perceived to be
unreal when the truth regarding the desert is known, so also the universe
of names and fo�s is perceived to be unreal when the truth regarding
Brahman is known.
179
180 KATRA UPANISHAD [II. iii. 1.
NoNE ETC: The effect can never transcend the cause. A product of
gold cannot transcend the gold itself. Brahman is the cause, and the
universe, the effect.
Tms ETC: The Atman about which Nachiketa asked the King of Death
is none other than Brahman.
2
Whatever there is-the whole universe--vibrates because it has gone
forth from Brahman, which exists as its Ground. That Brahman is
a great terror, like a poised thunderbolt. Those who know It become
immortal.
WHATEVER ETc: The whole universe, otherwise inert, vibrates with
life because it is a projection of Brahman, which is Life itself. It is the
reality of Brahman that makes everything in the universe appear real. It
is the reality of the desert that imparts the appearance of reality to a mirage.
Therefore the existence of Brahman as the cause of the universe cannot be
denied.
PoISED THUNDERBOLT: The thunderbolt (vajra) is the terrible weapon
of lndra with which he killed Vritra, the king of the demons.
At the sight of the master armed with a drawn sword, the servants
unfailingly obey his commands; likewise, the sun, the moon, the stars, and
the planets obey the co=ands of Brahman without allowing themselves a
moment's respite. It is the power of Brahman that controls the movements
of the universe. (See pp. 61-62; Br. Up. III. viii. 9.)
3
From terror of Brahman, £.re burns; from terror of It, the sun shines;
from terror of It, Indra and Vayu, and Death, the fifth, run.
lNDRA: The king of the gods.
VAYU: The god of wind.
DEATH: The god of death.
RuN: Perform their functions expeditiously.
That fire, the sun, the senses (lndra), the wind (Vayu), and death
perform their functions without the slightest deviation from law is the
result of the stem control exercised over them by Brahman, the Supreme
Lord.
KATHA UPANISHAD (II. iii. 4.
Liberation follows the Knowledge of Brahman.
4
If a man is able to realize Brahman here, before the falling asunder
of his body, then he is liberated; if not, he is embodied again in the
created worlds.
According to Non-dualistic Vedanta, the Knowledge of Brahman is Libera
tion. The Soul is always free, illumined, and pure; maya, or ignorance,
conceals Its nature and conjures up the illusory notions of individuality,
desires, actions, birth, death, rebirth, and the rest. When the ignorance is
destroyed, It becomes aware of Its true nature, of what It always is. The law
of cause and effect functions in the world of becoming and not in the realm
of pure being. One devoid of the Knowledge of Brahman falls a victim
to the ever recurring cycle of birth and death.
It has been said that Atman is distinct from the senses and that It is
the inmost Self of all, and further that It cannot be realized from out
side. This idea is expressed in the following two verses:
7
Beyond the senses is the mind, beyond the mind is the intellect,
higher than the intellect is the Great Atman, higher than the Great
Atman is the U nmanifest.
GREAT ATMAN: Hiranyagarbha, which is the totality of all minds.
For the explanation of the various terms in the text, see p. 153.
KATHA UPANISHAD [II. iii. 8.
8
Beyond the Unmanifest is the Person, all-pervading and imperceptible.
Having realized Him, the embodied self becomes liberated and attains
Immortality.
The knower of Atman is free from ignorance while alive, and after death
attains Immortality.
It is seen that, even among those who have heard Vedanta and appear
to have understood its philosophy, there are some who do not have the
actual experience of the oneness of jiva and Brahman. This is the
result of certain obstacles which can be removed only through the prac
tice of yoga. This practice is now described:
10
"When the five instruments of knowledge stand still, together with
the mind, and when the intellect does not move, that is called the
Supreme State.
II. iii. I 2.] KATHA UPANISHAD
STAND STILL ETc: The :6.ve sense-organs are withdrawn from their
respective objects in the outer world, and the mind is controlled. The
intellect also remains unmoving.
The yogic disciplines are prescribed to acquire concentration. Mere
listening to the instruction of the scriptures and reasoning about it do not
remove the restlessness or the distraction of the mind.
ANY OTHER WAY: Referring to non-believers, who state that there exists
no such thing as Atman, the cause of the universe, that the tangible universe
is without a cause, and that ultimately it ends in void.
186 KATRA UPANISHAD [II. iii. 12.
WHo SAY ETc: The gist of the text is that one should respect the teach
ings of the seers and accept their views about .Atman as the ultimate cause
of the universe.
The following is adapted from Sankara's commentary:
"The statement of the Vedantists that the Self is realized when, through
the practice of yoga, the mind and the senses cease to function is chal
lenged by the materialists. They say that a thing exists when it is per
ceived by the senses and that beyond the mind one sees nothing but
void. Therefore, if Atman is beyond the senses and the mind, in reality
It is non-existent. In reply, the Vedantists say that though Brahman is
devo:id of attributes and imperceptible to the senses, Its existence can be
inferred as the ground and ultimate cause of the universe. A tangible
effect cannot disappear into a non-existent void; it only merges into some
thing that also exists. For instance, when a pot, which is an effect of
clay, is destroyed, it disappears into the clay. That into which the effect
disappears must be an existent entity. The mirage ultimately disappears into
the desert. A gross object disappears into a subtle one, and the latter into
something which is subtler, and so on. Thus if, in order to find out the
cause of an object, one proceeds from a subtle to a subtler entity, one cannot
but come to the conclusion that the ultimate cause must be an existing
entity. That cause may be very subtle, but it exists none the less. Though
with the disappearance of an object its perceiving consciousness, or buddhi,
also disappears, yet this phenomenon can take place only on the appearance
of the consciousness of something else that exists. Further, no concept of
existence or non-existence is possible without a perceiving consciousness. He
who says that the ultimate reality is non-existent also admits the existence
of a consciousness which is the witness of non-existence. If the universe had
non-being for its cause, then the effect (the universe), being the product of
non-being, would itself have appeared as non-being. But one perceives the
universe to be existent. Even an illusion is perceived to exist because it
inheres in a real object. A pot made of clay is perceived as inseparable from
the clay. Therefore .Atman, the cause of the universe, must be recognized as
existent or real."
Thus one should discard the views of the heretics and accept the
existence of Atman.
13
14
When all the desires that dwell in the heart fall away, then the
mortal becomes immortal and here attains Brahman.
DEsIREs: The three main desires are related to progeny, wealth, and
happiness in heaven.
HEART: It is the buddhi to which desires cling. Atman is always free
from desires.
188 KATHA UPANISHAD [II. iii. 14.
FALL AWAY: Because for a knower of Brahman there is nothing else to
be desired. Desires arise in the mind during the state of ignorance, when a
man regards himself as a finite entity.
MORTAL: The notions of birth and death result from ignorance of man's
true nature and identification with the body.
IMMORTAL: The infinite and omnipresent Atman is beyond time and
space and free from the law of causality. Hence birth, death, and rebirth
cannot be applied to It.
HEira: A man can destroy all his bondage and attain Freedom while
dwelling in this very body. Immortality is the realization of the timelessness
of Atman. This realization is attainable here on earth.
15
When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the
mortal becomes immortal. This much alone is the teaching.
Tms: Desires fasten the soul to the world. They are products of ignorance
and create such notions as "This is my body," "This is my position," "I am
happy," "I am unhappy," and the rest.
SEVERED: Ignorance and its effects are destroyed by the Knowledge of
Brahman, which creates in man the awareness that he is Brahman, the
Absolute, free from all touch of relativity. Only the Knowledge of Brahman
can cut ignorance to its very root.
ON EARTH: Freedom is attained through Knowledge and has nothing to
do with death or what follows.
THIS MUCH ALONE ETc: The essence and conclusion of the instruction
of Vedanta.
Brahman, he has severed, while living in the body, aU the manifold ties
of ignorance. For such an iUumined soul no rebirth is possible. "He
attains Brahman here." "His priina does not go anywhere else for re
birth; it merges here in the Supreme Brahman." "Always one with
Brahman, he attains Brahman." The following verses refer to those
who, after death, either go to Brahmaloka or return to earth from a lower
heaven to continue their phenomenal existence. Their purpose is to
show, by contrast, the unique good that follows the Knowledge of
Brahman. Furthermore, Nachiketii had asked the King of Death about
the Fire-sacrifice as his second boon, and received a suitable reply. Now
the Upanishad describes how the fruit of that sacri-fi.ce is reaped.
16
There are one hundred and one arteries of the heart, one of which
pierces the crown of the head. Going upward by it, a man [at death]
attains immortality. But when his prana passes out by other arteries,
going in different directions, then he is reborn in the world.
ONE OF WHICH: Called sushumna by the yogins.
A MAN: Referring to the worshipper of Saguna Brahman, who at the
time of death controls the atman in the heart by the power of yoga and
makes it go upward through the sushumna artery.
IMMORTALITY: Not the absolute Immortality experienced by the knower
of the Supreme Brahman, but the relative immortality enjoyed by the
dwellers in Brahmaloka.
BuT WHEN ETC: Refers to those who are attached to the world and come
back to earth after experiencing the results of their past actions.
Non-dualistic Vedanta speaks of various courses after death, depending
upon the relative merit of one's action and knowledge while living on
earth. The worshippers of Saguna Brahman go, after death, to Brahmaloka.
Those who, with a view to enjoying material rewards, perform their daily
duties and ritualistic worship, and also engage in humanitarian work, go
to a lower heaven, from which they come back to earth and assume human
bodies. Those who are devoid of spiritual consciousness and indulge in vile
actions are born as subhuman beings. These too are reborn, however, in still
later incarnations, as human beings, when they take up again the thread
of their higher evolution. All the courses mentioned above pertain to those
who fail to attain complete Self-Knowledge while living on earth. But the
knower of Brahman becomes free from all notions of time, space, and
causality, which are created by ignorance, and attains Immortality even
in this body.
K.ATHA UPANISHAD [II. iii. 17.
The Upanishad is concluded:
17
The Purusha, not larger than a thumb, the inner Self, always dwells
in the hearts of men. Let a man separate Him from his body with steadi
ness, as one separates the tender stalk from a blade of grass. Let him
know that Self as the Bright, as the Immortal-yea, as the Bright,
as the Immortal.
SEPARATll HBr: Atman can be separated from the body, mind, and the
rest by means of such spiritual disciplines as discrimination, detachment,
and self-control.
STEADINESS: Infinite patience and perseverance are necessary for the
attainment of Self-Knowledge. Inadvertence and sloth are its greatest enemies.
STALK ETC: The tender shoot generally lies hidden in a blade of grass.
One needs a steady hand and a well controlled mind to separate the one
from the other.
YEA, ETC: The repetition shows that the Upanishad ends here.
Om. May Brahman protect us both! May Brahman bestow upon us both
the fruit of Knowledge! May we both obtain the energy to acquire Knowl
edge! May what we both study reveal the Truth! May we cherish no ill
feeling toward each other!
0m. Peace! Peace! Peace!
The peace chant is recited by both the teacher and the disciple in order
to remove any blemish incurred while imparting or receiving the instruction.
,
ISA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION
not perishing when they perish-verily he alone sees." (B. G. XIII. 27.)
5 Compare: "The Self, though one and non-dual, appears to dwell in all
beings, like the moon, which, though one, is seen reflected in many waves."
( Mahiibhiirata.)
6
The desire to seek a result is due to ignorance. Atman is in reality de
tached, like the sky. Uncontaminated by sorrow, It is Supreme Bliss. Work
which is undertaken to satisfy an unfulfilled desire-to obtain what is agree
l!_ble or to shun what is disagreeable-cannot, therefore, be associated with
Atman.
7 An explanation_is necessary regarding the relationship between action and
the Knowledge of Atman. The term "work" is generally used in the U_panishads
to mean sacrificial, ritualistic, and devotional action, or such philanthropic
action as the digging of a well or construction of a road, all of which are
associated with _!he idea of a doer, an instrument, and an expected result. The
Knowledge of Ab:nan, according to the Vediintic seers, reveals the unity of
existence and enables one to realize that the Self is always pure, free, illumined,
and of the nature of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, and that It is
devoid of all the desires that belong to a finite being. Therefore the Knowledge
of the Self and the performance of action are incompatible.
But there is an undeniable need of action for a man's spiritual evolution.
Though his nature is that of infinite Spirit, yet he is ignorant of it and acts,
to all intents and purposes, like a finite creature. The goal of spiritual discipline
is the attainment of Self-Knowledge. The necessity of work for a man is
emphasized by Hindu philosophers as long as, on account of ignorance, he
identifies himself with the body and regards himself to be a finite being.
Through the performance of uns!:lfish action his heart becomes pure and he
develops a real desire to know "4tman. Then he receives instruction from a
qualified teacher, reasons about Atman, and contemplates It. At last, in the
depths of meditation, he realizes himself to be Pure Spirit, free from birth
and death, grief and delusion, desire and action. He attains Immortality.
But an illumined soul is by no means inert. The seers of the Upanishads
and Sankara himself were not inactive. Every moment of their lives was
dedicated to the welfare of the world. The words action and inaction, as
used in the Upanishads, have a philosophical significance. The former is
associated with the notions of I-consciousness, the instrument of action, and
>
1 99
I
SANKARA S INTRODUCTION
Therefore the mantras of the Isa Upanishad reveal the true nature
of Atman and thereby destroy the natural ignorance regarding It.
Further, they produce in us the knowledge of the oneness of Atman
by means of which we can uproot grief, delusion, and other char
acteristics of samsiira.
One who is eager to rid himself of the suffering and delusion of
samsara, created by ignorance, and attain Supreme Bliss is entitled
to read this Upanishad. The true nature of Atman is its subject matter.
The relationship between the treatise and the subject matter is that the
former establishes the latter. The purpose served by the scripture is that
it enables one to attain the knowledge of the identity of Atman
and Brahman and thereby destroys grief and delusion, which are the
result of ignorance.
We shall now brie�y ex-plain the mantras.
the result; the latter is free from such notions. 'When an illumined person
works, he clearly sees that the Soul is inactive, the action being carried on
by the sense-organs, the mind, and the ego at the prompting of the three
gunas. The Gita describes the wise man as one who sees inaction in action.
In his case knowledge and action are inseparable. Thus in eating, sleeping,
walking, and playing he sees only the activities of the sense-organs, the Self
remaining the umuffled witness. His ego has bee� completely burnt up in the
£re kindled by the knowledge of the identity of Atman and Brahman. Where
an illumined person is seen to retain any I-consciousnes, it has been totally
transformed by the Knowledge of Brahman. Even while active, he never forgets
the infinite nature of the Self. Absence of I-consciousness and total detach
ment from the result characterize the activities of a knower of the Self.
INVOCATION
Om. That is full; this is full. This fullness has been projected from that
fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is full
ness.
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
THAT: Pure Consciousness, or the attributeless Brahman.
Fur L: Perfect.
THIS: Hiranyagarbha, the first manifestation of Pure Brahman in the
relative universe characterized by a name and a form. It is the World
Soul, the totality of all individual souls. The word this in the text also means
the manifest universe, which, like Pure Consciousness, is perfect, names
and forms being miiyii.
PROJECTED: On account of miiya, or the incomprehensible power of
Brahman. This projection or creation is like that of a mirage in a desert, or
like that of the snake which a man sees, through illusion, in a rope. This
projection does not effect any change whatsoever in Brahman, as the
illusory snake does not alter the real nature of the rope, or the mirage, the
real nature of the desert.
MERGES: That is to say when, by means of Knowledge, the universe is
realized as Brahman.
· ALL THAT ETC: It is because the Supreme Brahman is the only Reality.
The idea of the phenomenal universe is falsely superimposed upon It.
200
;
ISA UPANISHAD
the desire for Self-Knowledge, and endows the seeker with power to practise
the spiritual discipline which leads to such Knowledge.
WORK: It means unrighteous work.
A person attached to his human body and desirous of enjoying on earth
his full span of life should devote himself to religious duties and other
unselfish actions; if not, he will engage in evil action. It is clear that this
verse does not apply to the illumined person, who is not attached to material
things and is indifferent about the length of his life. According to Sankara
the discipline of Self-Knowledge and the way of worldly enjoyment are
totally incompatible. A sannyasin, seeking Self-Knowledge, is indifferent
to both life and death.
It has been said that the unillumined person, the slayer of Atman,
whirls back into samsiira. _Contrariwise, the illumined person, through
204 ISA UPANISHAD
NEVER STIRRING: Atman never deviates from Its true nature but always
remains the same. There is no other entity besides Atman which can destroy
Its immutability.
SwrFTER ETc: The mind is characterized by ever changing thoughts.
The objection may be raised that the Vedic seer has contradicted himself
by describing Atman as both motionless and swifter than the mind. But
there is no such contradiction, as the two epithets are used from two different
points of view. Atman, when free from upadhis, that is to say, in Its true
nature, is certainly motionless and actionless. But movement is attributed
to Atman on account of Its association, through ignorance, with such
upadhis as the mind and the senses. It is well :known that the mind, though
encased in a body, can travel in the twinkling of an eye, and by its mere
will, to such a distant place as the farthest heaven. But behold! what does
the mind £.nd on reaching its destination? It £.nds the Self, or Atman,
already there. The drift of the text is that before one is conscious of any
object one must be conscious of oneself. Self-Knowledge must be admitted
before the knowledge of any object. Further, the mind is a material thing.
It cannot know an object without the light of Atman. Because Atman is
all-pervading and infinite, It is said to be swifter than the mind.
DEVAS: Lit., gods; here refers to the senses. The root div means to
enlighten or reveal. The senses, such as the eyes and the ears, reveal objects;
the gods, too, are luminous beings.
CANNOT REACH ETc: The senses are farther away from Atman than
the mind. They are grosser and denser than the mind. Their activities are
controlled by the mind. Therefore if Atman outstrips the mind, certainly
It is beyond the ken of the senses, which cannot even get a glimpse of It.
THOUGH STANDING ETc: "Atman is all-pervading Spirit, devoid of the
characteristics of samsara. From Its own standpoint, that is· to say, when
free from all limiting conditions, It is not subject to modification. But a
5.] ISA UPANISHAD
deluded person, through ignorance, superimposes upadhis upon It and thus
speaks of Atman as diverse and enclosed in different bodies. Then it seems
that Atman travels faster than the mind and the senses. But in reality
Atman is actionless and motionless." (Sankarachiirya.)
BECAUSE OF ATMAN: Because Atman is eternal Consciousness, without
which no action is ever possible.
VXYU: The first cosmic manifestation of the Absolute in the relative
universe, also known by such epithets as the World Soul, Hiranyagarbha,
and Prana. It sustains the whole universe by apportioning to everyone his
function. But the World Soul can exercise its lordship because .\tma,1 is
its inner Self. Without Atman even the highest cosmic entity becomes
powerless and ceases to exist.
APPORTIONS ETC: That £.re bums, that the clouds give rain and the
sun light, and that the other powers of nature perform their respective
functions is due to Atman. That is why there is no confusion in the uni
verse. The meaning is that all the activities of the universe, following the
law of cause and effect, are possible because the eternally conscious Atman
exists as the inmost essence and ultimate Reality of all. The word dadhati
in the text may also mean to sustain.
5
It moves and moves not; It is far and likewise near. It is inside all
this and It is outside all this.
IT MOVES ETC: Though by nature actionless, yet Atman appears to
move in association with Its upadhis, like the reflection of the sun in
moving water.
FAR: For the ignorant, who cannot realize Atman even in millions of
years.
NEAR: For the wise, who know It to be their inmost Self.
lNsIDE: Because It is the essence of all; or because It is the omnipresent
Spirit, subtle as akasa.
ALL THIS: That is to say, the universe characterized by name, form,
and movement.
OUTSIDE: Because Atman is all-pervading.
By associating Atman with contradictory attributes, the Upanishad indi
cates that It is really Pure Consciousness, free from all attributes. (See pp.
3o-31.)
ISA UPANISHAD [ 6.
One who is endowed with Self-Knowledge loves all beings.
6
The wise man beholds all beings in the Self, and the Self in all
beings; for that reason he does not hate anyone.
ALL BEINGS: From the World Soul, the highest cosmic manifestation,
to the blade of grass.
SELF: Other beings are not distinct from one's Self. The Spirit is one
and indivisible. It is the names and forms superimposed by ignorance that
create the apparent multiplicity. They are transitory and ultimately unreal.
THE SELF IN ALL BEINGS: This refers to Pure Consciousness, which is
the inmost Atman of all embodied beings. Transcendental in Itself, Atman
is the witness of all acts of perception. One sees difference only in the
physical and mental planes.
DoEs NOT ETc: Hatred arises when one sees evil in something which
is other than oneself. But the very root of hatred is destroyed when one
sees Atman alone in oneself and others.
The perception that Pure Consciousness is the essence and reality of
all is the foundation of the Golden Rule. He who is firmly established in
the perfect equality of Atman, samatva, has overcome all repulsion, secre
tiveness, shrinking, dislike, fear, hatred, and other perverse traits which
arise from the perception of separation. A man endowed with Self-Knowl
edge remains undisturbed by the outer manifestation of ugliness or beauty,
strength or weakness, saintliness or sinfulness; he feels love and compassion
for all and works for the welfare of all. His sympathy goes much deeper
than that of the social reformer or philanthropist.
comes the illusory distinction between the means and the ends of actions.
This is because of his attainment of the Knowledge of Atman, which does
not admit of any · distinctions. This Knowledge cannot be harmonized, by
anyone except a fool, with karma or with any other kind of knowledge
(that is to say, knowledge of a deity). Verse nine condemns ignorant
people with a view to harmonizing work with knowledge of a deity. Work
can be harmonized with such knowledge both through reason and on scrip
tural authority. That harmonization is suggested in this verse. The knowledge
of a deity, which is to be combined with work, cannot be the Knowledge of
Atman; for the former enables one to attain Devaloka (the Plane of the
Deities), whereas the latter gives one Liberation. But the knowledge of a
deity can very well, be harmonized with the performance of action. Such
harmonization is the real purport of the text, and not condemnation either of
the worship of a deity or of the performance of action; for both the work and
the worship produce their appropriate results; both are prescribed by the
scriptures and therefore cannot be unworthy of being pursued. Those who
are devoted to ignorance, that is to say, to work, enter into darkness, which
is characterized by an absence of light. Here ignorance (avidya) is work, be
cause the latter is opposed to Knowledge (Vidya). Those who devote them
selves to such a ritual as the Agnihotra enter into darkness; into a greater
darkness enter those who renounce work and engage in the knowledge of a
deity alone. The fruits of both knowledge and work are separately mentioned
in order to harmonize knowledge and work. Otherwise the one which was
without fruit would be a mere appendage of the one bearing fruit, and in
that case no harmony would be possible."
Or the text may mean that there are people who, through conceit, give
up work though they are not entitled to do so. They are mere theorists.
Some of them indulge in the pursuit of occult knowledge about various
deities and neglect the ordinary duties prescribed by religion. They fall
victims to greater nescience.
According to a third interpretation, the word vidya in the text means
only the theoretical knowledge of Brahman obtained from study of the
scriptures. Those who are endowed with such knowledge are certainly less
fortunate than the ritualists, because the latter enjoy some kind of reward,
whereas the former obtain nothing at all.
A fourth interpretation of the text is that those who perform ritualistic
action go, after death, to a lower heaven called Pitriloka and, after reaping
there the result of their action, quickly come back to earth and resume the
thread 'of their spiritual evolution; but those who are devoted to the con
templation of a deity go, after death, to Devaloka, the Plane of the Deities
(Chandraloka, or the Plane of the Moon). There they dwell a long time
enjoying intense material pleasures. Those who come back from the lower
heaven perhaps quickly realize the transitory nature of material pleasures;
2IO ISA UPANISHAD
but those dwelling in the higher heaven, deluded by the enjoyment of
more intense pleasures, remain oblivious of the final spiritual goal for a
longer time.
Though verse ten has described separate results for work and for
meditation on a deity, yet the real aim of the Upanishad seems to be
their harmonization, which is described in the following verse. In order
to emphasize this harmonization, work ( or ritualistic action) and
meditation on a deity (without appropriate ritualistic action) pursued
separately have been condemned in verse nine. When anything laid
down by the scriptures meets elsewhere with scriptural disapproval, the
real purpose is not the condemnation of the thing in question, but the
glorification of something else.
11
He who is aware that both knowledge and ignorance should be
pursued together, overcomes death through ignorance and obtains
immortality through knowledge.
DEATH: The action and knowledge natural to an unillumined person
are here called death. Such a person does not see anything beyond the
sense-perceived world.
IGNORANCE: That is to say, ritualistic actions which reveal to their per
formers the other planes of existence not perceived by the senses.
IMMORTALITY: The relative immortality enjoyed by the gods in Devaloka.
Absolute Immortality, or deathlessness, is not possible without Self-Knowl
edge.
ISA UP ANISHAD 21 I
The text is obscure. It seems, according to verse ten, that those who
contemplate a deity ( without harmonizing their contemplation with action)
go, after death, to Devaloka and dwell there till the result of their good
action is exhausted, and those who perform ritualistic actions go to Pitriloka
to enjoy the results of their actions. According to verse eleven, it appears
that those who harmonize both attain, in the end, the status of a deity and
dwell in the heavenly world as long as the cycle lasts, enjoying, as gods,
what is called relative immortality.
13
One thing, they say, is obtained from the worship of the manifested;
another, they say, from the worship of the unmanifested. Thus we have
heard from the wise who taught us this.
212 ISA UPANISHAD
ONE THING ETc: As a result of worshipping Hiranyagarbha, the devotee
obtains such supernatural powers as the ability to reduce himself to the
size of an atom, to make himself light as a feather, and to pervade the
entire universe. These are characteristics of Hiranyagarbha.
ANOTHER ETC: According to the Puranas, the result of such worship is
absorption in prakriti.
The scriptures say that whatever a person worships he becomes after
death. He who worships prakriti, characterized by nescience, remains merged
in prakriti for untold years. And he who worships Hiranyagarbha, who is
only a manifestation of prakriti, obtains a corresponding result.
16
0 Nourisher, lone Traveller of the sky! Controller! 0 Sun, Offspring
of Prajapati! Gather Your rays; withdraw Your light. I would see,
through Your grace, that form of Yours which is the fairest. I am
indeed He, that Purusha, who dwells there.
THAT FORM BTC: Referring to Brahman manifest through the symbol
of the sun.
I AM INDEED ETC: The devotee is not, like a servant, asking a favour.
He is conscious of his identity with the deity.
HE: That is to say, the resplendent figure in the sun.
PuRUSHA: Lit., Person. It also refers to the Godhead, who lies in the
hearts of all, or who fills the whole universe with life and consciousness.
214 ISA UPANISHAD
The prayer of the dying man continues:
17
Now may my breath return to the all-pervading, immortal Prana!
May this body be burnt to ashes! Orn. 0 mind, remember, remember
all that I have done.
PRANA: Cosmic Life; another name of Brahma, or Hiranyagarbha.
MAY TIDS BODY ETC: That is to say, may the subtle body (linga sarira)
come out of the gross body. According to the Vedic seers, a subtle body
dwells inside and pervades the gross body. The impressions of a man's
good and evil deeds and thoughts remain embedded in this subtle body.
The individual soul dwelling in this body experiences, after death, the
happy or unhappy results of its actions. The gross body is destroyed after
death, but the subtle body remains unimpaired till the attainment of Libera
tion through Knowledge.
OM: Om is a symbol of Brahman. It is used here as a symbol of the
sun to show the identity of Brahman and the deity controlling the sun. The
word Om is uttered at the beginning of a worship. (See p. I 38.)
REMEMBER: That is to say, a man should think only of his good deeds
at the time of death.
The thought occupying the mind in the hour of death determines the
course of the soul after death. An evil thought brings an evil result, and
a good thought, a good one. Therefore the dying man should fill his mind
with good thoughts alone. That is why the name and glories of God are
chanted at the time of death. But it should be remembered that only he
who leads a righteous life can, while dying, spontaneously and sincerely
cherish good thoughts; otherwise the exhortations of priests or friends to lift
the mind to a higher plane do not produce any result. The impressions of
the thoughts and actions of a whole life crowd into a man's mind when
he is dying.
The dying man again prays for a higher course a�er death:
18
0 Fire, lead us by the good path for the enjoyment of the fruit of
our action. You know, 0 god, all our deeds. Destroy our sin of deceit.
We offer, by words, our salutations to you.
FIRE: During Vedic times twice-born householders worshipped fire and
offered their oblations in it. Fire was considered as the intermediary god
through whom oblations to the other gods were made.
ISA UPANISHAD 215
Goon PATH: That is to say, the Northern Path, travelling by which the
departed soul attains, by stages, to Liberation. The text refers to the devotee
who has gone to heaven many a time by following the Southern Path and
is satiated with it. Now he wants to follow the Northern Path, which will
not bring him back to earth again. (See p. 70.)
DEEDS: This also includes thoughts.
DESTROY ETc: The devotee wants to acquire purity in order to attain
his cherished goal.
BY WORDS: At the time of death the devotee cannot offer any other
worship to the god. As his limbs become inert, he cannot prostrate himself;
hence the salutations through words alone.
The following is adapted from Sankara's commentary:
''Verses eleven and fourteen mention the results of devotion to ignorance
(avidya) and Hiranyagarbha as death, and of devotion to knowledge
(vidya) and the unmanifested prakriti as immortality (relative). Some
take exception to our interpretation of these verses. We shall now try
briefly to answer their objections. The objector asks why one should not,
by knowledge, mean the Knowledge of the Supreme Self, and by immor
tality, the ultimate Liberation. The Upanishad here explicitly lays down,
they say, the injunction to pursue together the Knowledge of the Supreme
Self and ritualistic worship. The words of scripture are the final authority.
Though Knowledge and ignorance (ritualistic worship) are said to produce
contradictory results, yet this objection cannot stand in view of the clear
statement of the Upanishad referred to above. To this objection we answer
that Knowledge and ignorance cannot, by any means, be reconciled, because
they are contradictory both as to their nature and as to their ultimate result.
The cause of ignorance is false identification of Atman with the body and
the rest, but true Knowledge is completely different. The result of ignorance
is entanglement in the world, and that of Knowledge, liberation from the
world. Therefore they cannot be harmonized. It cannot be contended that
Knowledge and rituals may be pursued alternately, because no sooner does
a man attain Self-Knowledge than his identification of the Self with the
body disappears. In that case not even the slightest trace of ignorance can
inhere in him. If one has known that it is the nature of £.re to be luminous
and hot, one can never again doubt this conclusion or form a different
idea about fire's nature. The knower of the Self is beyond doubt and delu
sion. For him ignorance has been totally destroyed. Hence he cannot prac
tise any ritualistic action, which, as we have repeated, is the result of
ignorance. Therefore in verse nine the word vidya does not refer to Self
Knowledge, but to knowledge of a deity. Had it not been so, the dying man
would not have asked, in verse eighteen, for a good path leading to immor
tality; for the knower of the Self does not follow any path after giving
216 ISA UPANISHAD [ I 8.
up the body, nor does he go anywhere. He at once attains identity with the
supreme, attributeless Brahman. Hence the word immortality mentioned in
verses eleven and fourteen does not mean ultimate Liberation but means
only a long life in heaven. For all these reasons we think that our inter
pretation of the verses referred to above, namely, the harmonization of
ritualistic worship with the contemplation of a deity and not with the
Knowledge of the Supreme Self, is correct."
The Isa Upanishad, according to Sankara's interpretation, states clearly
the position of Non-dualistic Vedanta with reference to Christianity, Juda
ism, Islam, popular Hinduism, and other faiths. These religions exhort their
devotees to combine worship with the contemplation of a deity, the result
being immortality in a heavenly world. Non-dualistic Vedanta accepts all
this but points out that the immortality sought by this method is not the
Vedantic Liberation but a long life of happiness either in Brahmaloka or in
-a lower heaven. As we have said before, those who go to lower heavens
return to earth after exhausting the results of their meritorious actions, and
the fortunate dwellers in Brahmaloka attain :6.nal Liberation after the com
pletion of the cycle.
Om. That is full; this is full. This fullness has been projected from that
fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is full
ness.
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
217
KENA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION
Therefore the inquiry into Brahman as being connected with the inmost
Self, by a person who has renounced all visible9 and invisible10 rewards
achievable by external means, is introduced in the Kena Upanishad
beginning with Keneshitam etc.
The subject matter is extr,emely subtle. Hence its elucidation in the
form of a dialogue between a disciple and his preceptor for the purpose
of its easy understanding. The dialogue also clearly points out that
the Knowledge of Brahman cannot be attained by means of mere
logical discussion. The Vedas say: "This Knowledge cannot he attained
by reasoning." "He who has studied under a preceptor knows." 'The
knowledge that is obtained from a teacher becomes fruitful." The
Bhagavad Gita says: "Learn it by prostration [before a teacher]." There
fore it can be imagined that someone who had not found refuge any
where except in the Knowledge of the inmost Self and who desired
what was fearless, eternal, all good, and immutable, duly approached a
teacher who was firmly established in Brahman and asked him the
questions with which the Kena Upanishad begins.
8 On this earth.
10 In the world beyond.
INVOCATION
Om. May Brahman protect us both ( the preceptor and the disciple) !
May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of Knowledge! May we both
obtain the energy to acquire Knowledge! May what we both study reveal
the Truth! May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other!
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
0m. May the duferent parts of my body, my tongue, prana, eyes, ears,
and my strength, and also all the other sense-organs, be nourished! All,
indeed, is Brahman, as is declared in the Upanishads. May I never deny
Brahman! May Brahman never deny me! May there never be denial on the
part of Brahman! May there never be denial on my part! May all the virtues
described in the Upanishads belong to me who am devoted to Brahman!
Yea, may they all belong to me!
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
227
CHAPTER I
THE DISCIPLE ASKED: Om. By whose will directed does the mind
proceed to its object? At whose command does the prana, the foremost,
do its duty? At whose will do men utter speech? Who is the god that
directs the eyes and ears?
DoEs THE MIND ETc: It is commonly believed that the mind thinks of
objects independently of any outside will. But this is not true. The mind is
not its own master; otherwise an intelligent person would not contemplate
evil. It is a common experience that the mind, although conscious of the
harmful result to follow, sometimes thinks of an evil object. In spite of being
warned by others, it is impelled to undertake an action fraught with serious
consequences. Therefore it is but right to surmise that the mind is not
altogether free in its activities.
THE PR.ANA ETC: The prana, or life-force, is described as the foremost,
since without it the sense-organs cannot engage in their activities.
THE GOD: Lit., luminous being. The sense-organs, themselves inert and
unintelligent, must be directed in their activities by some intelligent power.
It is a common belief that the body, consisting of senses and limbs,
directs a person to action, and that the mind also is under the control of
the body. But an intelligent person realizes that the body, the senses, and
the mind-in fact, all things in an embodied person except the inmost
Self-are mutable, material, and impermanent. The mind and the rest
engage in their respective functions by the mere will of Atman. The disciple
asks the teacher about this immutable and everlasting Atman.
The disciple being well quali-fi,ed for knowledge, the First Principle
was explained to him.
2
The teacher replied: It is the Ear of the ear, the Mind of the
mind, the Speech of speech, the Life of life, and the Eye of the eye.
Having detached the Self [from the sense-organs] and renounced the
world, the wise attain to Immortality.
229
KENA UPANISHAD [I. 2.
THE EAR oF nrn EAR: The second word ear in the text denotes the
instrument of hearing which is the subtle organ behind the outer ear, by
means of which one hears a sound. According to the Upanishads, however,
the organ itself is not the real agent of hearing. It functions in that way
because of the presence of Atman, the luminous, all-pervading, and eternal
Intelligence. Compare the following Vedic statements: "Man shines by the
light of Atman." "Illumined by that Light, the sun shines." Also compare
the following statement of the Bhagavad Gita: "The light that is in the
sun and illumines the whole universe, the light that is in the moon and is
likewise in fire--know that light to be Mine." The false notion that the
sense-organs themselves are endowed with intelligence is denied by the
text. "There is something which can be comprehended only by the under
standing of the wise and which is the innermost Self of all, immutable,
undecaying, immortal, fearless, and birthless, and at whose direction the
ear, the tongue, the mind and the other senses perform their respective
functions. The reply of the teacher to this effect and our interpretation of
it are correct." (Sankaracharya.)
THE MIND E'I'C: See the foregoing note. Unless animated by the intel
ligence of Atman, the mind cannot perform its functions of volition and
determination. The word mind here includes both the manas (the doubt
ing faculty) and the buddhi (the determinative faculty).
THE LIFE ETc: The word in the text is prana. It is Atman which
endows the prana with the power to discharge its functions, such as breath
ing, ejecting unassimilated food and drink, and carrying nourishment all
through the body. Compare the following statements of the Vedas: 'Who
could live and who could breathe if there were no Brahman, the Embodi
ment of Bliss?" "He leads prana up and apana down." "That alone is
Brahman which endows the prana with activity. Know That."
THE EYE ETc: The eyes reveal forms. The power of revealing objects is
derived from Atman, which is of the nature of intelligence.
HAVING DETACHED ETC: The knowledge that Atman is the Eye of the
eye, and so on, enables the seeker to detach himself from the sense-organs.
This knowledge leads to the attainment of Immortality. But the unillumined
person identifies the eyes, the ears, and the other sense-organs with Atman
and thus becomes a victim of recurring birth and death in the relative
universe.
RENOUNCED ETC: The wise man turns himself away from this world,
where life is characterized by attachment to transitory objects, such as
friends and relatives. He renounces all worldly desires. "Neither by action
nor by offspring nor by wealth, but by renunciation alone is Immortality
attained." ''The wise man seeking Immortality withdraws his senses from
I. 4.] KENA UPANISHAD
the world." Or the word in the text may mean after the discarding of the
body. Even for a knower of Brahman, the physical body lasts as long as
the residue of the past karma that has given rise to it is not exhausted. He
must reap its fruit.
According to Vedanta, Atman, or Pure Consciousness, is free from
activity, yet Its existence can be inferred from the activities of the sense
organs. A sense-organ is not a simple substance. It consists of particles of
various material elements. Such a substance is under the control of another
entity whose purpose it serves, as is true of a house or a vehicle. Tiris
entity is Atman, for whose sake the sense-organs perform their respective
functions. Furthermore, an unintelligent object cannot work without the
direction of an intelligent entity, as is true of a coach. The sense-organs
by themselves are unintelligent. It is the intelligent Atman who directs
them.
3-4
The eye does not go thither, nor speech, nor the mind. We do not
know It; we do not understand how anyone can teach It. It is different
from the known; It is above the unknown. Thus we have heard from
the preceptors of old who taught It to us.
THE EYE ETc: Brahman alone exists. All other objects, such as the body,
the senses, and the mind, are falsely superimposed upon It, like an illusory
snake upon a rope. As the rope is the true essence and self of the illusory
snake, so Brahman is the essence and self of the eye, speech, the mind,
and the rest. This essence, or Brahman, is Consciousness, the eternal and
infinite Subject; It cannot be made an object of the material and £.nite
senses.
SPEECH: The tongue defines an object by means of words. The words
are said to meet the object. But Brahman is the very essence and self of
all, including both the words and the tongue that utters them. Therefore
speech cannot define Brahman. Fire, which bums and illumines other
objects, cannot bum or illumine itself.
MIND: The mind applies its volitional and determinative power with
respect to other objects and not to Brahman, which is its inmost essence.
WE Do NOT KNOW ETc: Only objects are perceived by the senses and the
mind; Brahman, the eternal Subject, cannot be known by them.
KENA UPANISHAD [I. 4·
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND ETC: It is not possible for a teacher to explain
Brahman to a disciple, as he would a sense-perceived object, which is
described with reference to its class, attributes, and modes of activity.
Brahman is devoid of all these. This part of the text is meant to spur the
teacher to an intense effort to instruct the disciple about the inscrutable
Brahman and also to spur the disciple to an intense effort to understand
the instruction. "It is no doubt true that one cannot be made to believe in
Brahman by the evidence of the sense-organs; yet one can cultivate faith
in It from the evidence of the scriptures." (Sankari:i.chiirya.)
IT 1s ABOVE ETc: Brahman is different from the known, that is to say,
from the tangible world of name and form, because It is the Eye of the eye,
and so on. All tangible objects can be known somehow, by someone, and to
some extent. Brahman is quite different from such objects. Lest the disciple
should misunderstand the statement of the teacher and conclude that
Brahman is altogether unknown, the preceptor says that It is above the
unknown. The word unknown means the unmanifested avidya, which is
the seed of the gross universe. By describing Brahman as both distinct
from the known and above the unknown, the text indicates that Brahman is
Atman, or the inmost Self of the knower; for none other than one's own
Atman can be distinct from both the known and the unknown. The purpose
of this verse is to reiterate the oneness of Brahman and Atman.
THUS WE HAVE ETc: The Knowledge of Atman has been handed down
through a succession of preceptors and disciples. "Brahman can be known
only by instruction from preceptors, and not by means of argument, expo
sition, the scriptures, intelligence, austerities, sacri£ces, and the like."
(Sankariichiirya.)
5
That which cannot be expressed by speech, but by which speech is
expressed-That alone know as Brahman, and not that which people
here worship.
SPEECH: The term denotes both the words and the organ of speech. The
organ is a finite instrument.
BY WHICH ETC: That is to say, the inert tongue can utter words only
through the light and sentiency which are the true nature of Brahman.
Compare: "Remaining inside speech, Brahman directs it." "That is speech
by which one speaks in dreams." The Power behind speech is eternal and
by nature intelligent. Compare: "The Power behind the speech of the
speaker always exists."
THAT ALONE: The light which is the Self, devoid of the limitations of
the organs, the body, and the rest.
BRAHMAN: The word is derived from the root brimha, which indicates
greatness that has not been surpassed by anything else. Brahman is one
and without a second. Devoid of attributes, utterly transcendent, the
Supreme, and a homogeneous mass of Consciousness, It has been described
-in association with such upadhis, or limiting adjuncts, as speech, the
eye, and the ear-as "the Speech of speech," "the Ear of the ear," and the
"Eye of the eye." The seeker of Brahman should discard all upadhis and
realize It as Pure Consciousness.
NoT TIIAT ETC: Referring to the deities endowed with positive attri
butes. They are not the real Brahman, but Brahman limited by specific
names and forms. This clause is added in order to emphasize the idea that
what is non-Self is also not Brahman. Atman alone is to be regarded as
Brahman. One should not see Brahman in what is not Atman.
The Vedanta philosophy recognizes in all experience a fundamental
distinction between the Subject and the object, the "Seer" and the "seen,"
the Ego and the non-Ego. The Subject is the perceiver, identical with the
"Seer" and the Ego. It is, by nature, Consciousness and Intelligence. The
object is the thing perceived, identical with the "seen" and the non-Ego.
It is inert and insentient. The Subject is Atman, or Brahman; the object
includes the material universe, the body, the senses, and the mind, as all
of these are perceived or apprehended by the Consciousness that is the true
nature of Atman. The activity or the intelligence associated with such
material objects as the body, the senses, and the mind is derivative and not
intrinsic. When a red-hot iron is seen to burn an object, the burning is
really done by the fire in the iron and not by the iron itself. Likewise,
when the sense-organs perceive or apprehend an object, it is really Atman
that does so, using them as Its instruments.
2 34 KENA UPANISHAD [I. 6.
Furthermore:
6
That which cannot be apprehended by the mind, but by which, they
say, the mind is apprehended-That alone know as Brahman, and not
that which people here worship.
THAT WHICH ETC: The word manas in the text includes both the mind
(the doubting faculty) and the intellect (the determinative faculty). The
mind is the inner organ by which one thinks. Hence it is equally connected
with all the sense-organs; it pervades all objects. According to the Brihad
iiranyak.a Upanishad, desire, volition, deliberation, scepticism, patience,
impatience, bashfulness, intellect, fear-all these are mind, that is to say,
they are states of mind. A man cannot know what Atman is by means of
the mind described above. Atman is the controller of the mind and the
perceiver of its different states. The mind's power to think is derived from
the light of Atman shining within, by which the mind and all its different
states are pervaded. Therefore one should know That to be Brahman which
is the Consciousness behind the mind.
The seer sees an object because the seer is one and unchanging. The
various objects of the world, different from one another in size, colour, or
shape, and changeable by nature, are perceived by the eye. The eye itself,
relatively speaking, is one and unchanging. The same is true of the other
senses. Again, the eye, with its changing characteristics of keenness, dull
ness, or blindness, is the object, and the mind is the subject, because the
mind, relatively speaking, is a unity. Finally, the mind, endowed with such
changing characteristics as desire, doubt, determination, constancy, belief,
fear, and fearlessness, is the object, and it is perceived by the Self, or
Consciousness, because the latter is a unity. The Self, unlike the senses
and the mind, is the ultimate Subject or Perceiver. The Consciousness be
longing to the Self exists eternally. One cannot speak of Its birth, growth,
decay, or death. As stated in the note on the previous verse, the intelligence
or the activity associated with the mind and the sense-organs is derived
from Atman.
Furthermore:
7
That which cannot be perceived by the eye, but by which the eye
is perceived-That alone know as Brahman, and not that which people
here worship.
I. 9.] KENA UPANISHAD 2 35
PERCEIVED: As an object.
BY WHICH ETC: It is by the light of Atman that one perceives the
different conditions of the eyes.
Furthermore:
8
That which cannot be heard by the ear, but by which the hearing
is perceived-That alone know as Brahman, and not that which people
here worship.
BY WHICH ETc: The ear, like the other sense-organs, is inert. Its power
of hearing is derived from .Atman.
Furthermore:
9
That which cannot be smelt by the breath, but by which the breath
smells an object-That alone know as Brahman, and not that which
people here worship.
SMELT ETC: It is by means of the breath (prana), which functions in
the nostrils, that one smells an object. The nature of Atman cannot be
known by smell.
BY WHICH ETC: When illumined by the light of Atman, the organ of
smell functions.
THE TEACHER SAID: If you think: "I know Brahman well," then
surely you know but little of Its fonn; you know only Its form as
conditioned by man or by the gods. Therefore Brahman, even now, is
worthy of your inquiry.
The disciple said: I think I know Brahman.
IF YOU THINK ETC: The teacher was afraid that the disciple, after hear
ing that Brahman was Atman, might conclude that Brahman was the ego.
"I KNOW BRAHMAN WELL": Brahman cannot, like other tangible ob
jects, be an object of a man's knowledge. Fire can burn all combustible
things, but not itself. Likewise, the knower can know all such objects as
are capable, by their very nature, of being known by him; but he can never
know, in a like manner, his own Self. That Brahman alone is the inmost
Self of all knowers is the unanimous conclusion of all Vedantists. The
previous verses have described Brahman as the Eye of the eye, the Ear of
the ear, and so on, and thus have emphasized the non-duality of Brahman
and Atman. Furthermore, there is no other knower or perceiving conscious
ness by which Brahman can be known. Therefore any false notion of the
disciple to the effect that he has known Brahman well, as an object, should·
be dispelled. It is a common experience that a teaching extremely difficult
to comprehend is understood only by the man whose mental barriers have
been destroyed, and not by others. It is also noticed that of several disciples
receiving the same instruction from a common teacher, some understand
his words properly, some twist them, some get a completely opposite mean
ing, and some do not understand at all. If it is so in the case of ordinary
matters, it is all the more true in regard to Atman, which belongs to the
realm of the supersensuous. The logicians have con:Hicting views regarding
Atman. Some say that Atman is eternal and enjoys after-death experiences;
some say that It is non-eternal and perishes with the destruction of the
body. Therefore the doubt with which the text begins is quite pr9per.
BuT LITTLE ETc: Many, indeed, are the manifestations of Brahman
in the relative world conditioned by names and forms. All objects-from
the highest Deity to the blade of grass-are so many forms of Brahman
limited by upadhis, which are created by maya. Not one of them represents
236
II. 2.] KENA UPANISHAD 2 37
the true nature of Brahman. Brahman, according to the Vedas, is free of
sound, touch, form, name, and other attributes.
lTs FORM AS CONDITIONED ETc: The forms of Brahman conditioned by
the bodies and minds of men and gods are only insigni£.cant manifestations
of It in time and space. The gist of the passage is that Brahman, free from
all limitations, is infinite, non-dual, sublime, and eternal and therefore
cannot be described as well known by anyone.
I THINK I KNOW ETc: The disciple listened to the advice of the
teacher, went into solitude, and deliberated on the instruction with one
pointed mind. Then he understood its import by means of proper reasoning
and, what is more, experienced it as tangibly as one sees a fruit in the
palm of one's hand. Then he returned and said to the teacher that he had
known the truth regarding Brahman.
The disciple was not shaken by the words of the teacher, who wanted
to test his conviction. He remembered what the teacher had said about
Brahman, namely, that It is distinct from the known and above the un
known. He reasoned about the statement and verified its truth by his
own experience.
2
The disciple said: I do not think I know It well, nor do I think
I do not know It. He among us who knows the meaning of "Neither
do I not know, nor do I know"-knows Brahman.
It may appear that there is a contradiction in the disciple's statement.
If a thing is unknown, then it cannot be said to be known. If, on the other
hand, a thing is known, then certainly it cannot be said to be unknown.
To describe a thing as both known and unknown is possible only for a
person who is a victim of doubt or hallucination. Such a statement about
Brahman is contradictory, because the Knowledge of Brahman removes
all doubts, errors, and con:8.icts. Deeper re:8.ection on this verse wil1, how
ever, remove the apparent contradiction. Brahman is devoid of attributes
and actions; therefore It cannot be known as a pot or a jar or any other
external object can be known. Hence it is proper to say that one cannot
know Brahman well. On the other hand, Brahman exists in all beings as
their inmost Self. No one can deny the Self. Even a doubter or negator of
the Self thinks only in the light of the Self. Everyone is sure of his self
but does not know its true nature. So it is not altogether unknown. There
fore one cannot say that one does not know Brahman at all. That is why
it was not improper for the disciple to say: "Neither do I not know, nor
do I know."
KENA UPANISHAD [II. 3·
The Upanishad now discontinues the method of questions and
answers and states its own views regarding the attitude of the illumined
soul toward Brahman.
3
He by whom Brahman is not known, knows It; he by whom It is
known, knows It not. It is not known by those who know It; It is
known by those who do not know It.
The gods were frightened to see this wondrous form and wanted to
know who it was.
3-6
They said to Agni (Fire): "O Agni! Find out who this great Spirit
is." "Yes," he said, and hastened to It. Brahman asked him: "Who
are you?" He replied: "I am known as Agni; I am also called Jataveda."
Brahman said: 'What power is in you, who are so well known?" Fire
replied: "I can bum all-whatever there is on earth." Brahman put a
straw before him and said: "Bum this." He rushed toward it with all
his ardour but could not burn it. Then he returned from the Spirit
and said to the gods: "I could not £nd out who this Spirit is."
Aam: The two principal epithets by which Fire was known among the
Vedic seers were Agni and Jataveda. He was called Agni because, according
to the root meaning of the word, he was the first among the gods to obtain
the offering at sacrifices. He was called Jataveda because of his being nearly
omniscient, which is one of the etymological meanings of the word.
I AM KNOWN ETC: Fire mentioned the two epithets in order to show
his importance among the gods.
BuRN ALL BTC: All the animate and inanimate objects on earth and
in the 'i.nterspace.
7-10
Then they said to Vayu (Air): "0 Vayu! Find out who this great
Spirit is." "Yes," he said, and hastened to It. Brahman asked him: 'Who
III. 12.] KENA UPANISHAD 243
lndra, Vayu, and Agni are the leaders of the gods because of their
intimate knowledge of Brahman.
2
Since they approached very near Brahman and were the first to know
that It was Brahman, these devas, namely, Agni, Vayu, and Indra,
excelled the other gods.
APPROACHED ETC: These three deities came very near Brahman and
conversed with It.
DEvAs: The literal meaning of the word deva is "shining one." It is
often translated as "god."
ExcELLED: In regard to power, quality, and affiuence.
Agni and Viiyu were told by lndra that the Spirit was Brahman; but
Indra came to know about Brahman from Umii. Therefore Indra
excelled all the other gods.
3
Since Indra approached Brahman nearest, and since he was the first
to know that It was Brahman, lndra excelled the other gods.
244
IV. 5.] KENA UPANISHAD 245
4
5
Now the instruction about Brahman with regard to the individual
self: The mind, as it were, goes to Brahman. The seeker, by means of
the mind, communes with It intimately again and again. This should be
the volition of his mind.
WITH REGARD ETC: See the first note of the foregoing verse.
THE MIND: The mind is superimposed upon Brahman, as a mirage is
superimposed upon the desert. The modifications of the mind, such as
volition and memory, are in reality directed to Brahman. They seek to reveal
Brahman alone.
THE MIND, AS rr WERE, ETC: While meditating on Brahman, the
aspirant should think that his mind has attained to the luminous Brahman
and is established in It.
THIS SHOULD ETC: The aspirant, while meditating on Brahman, should
direct his volition, memory, and other modifications of the mind to Brah
man alone. The idea is that Brahman manifests Itself in an individual
KENA UPANISHAD [IV. 5.
through the mind. The degree of this manifestation is determined by the
measure of purity of the mental state.
The previous verse describes the revelation of Brahman with reference
to the macrocosm by the illustration of lightning and the wink of an eye.
This revelation is instantaneous and Beeting. The present statement, with
reference to the microcosm, describes Brahman's manifestation as con
comitant with the modifications of the mind. This also points to the
instantaneous revelation of Brahman. In this way alone can the finite
mind of the beginner meditate on Brahman. The attributeless and tran
scendent Absolute is beyond its comprehension.
7
The disciple said: ''Teach me, sir, the Upanishad."
The preceptor replied: "I have already told you the Upanishad. I
have certainly told you the Upanishad about Brahman."
UPANISHAD: The word denotes here the secret and profound wisdom re
garding Brahman, which one can obtain only from a qualified preceptor.
(See pp. rr-12.)
What was the real intention of the disciple in asking the preceptor to
narrate again the Upanishad, which had already been explained to him?
Certainly he did not want the preceptor to repeat what had already been
stated. The question, further, does not imply that the description of Brah
man given above is incomplete and therefore should be elaborated. The
purpose of the pupil is to know whether or not the Knowledge of Brahman
IV. 8.] KENA UPANISHAD 247
Austerities, self-restraint, and sacrificial rites are Its feet, and the
Vedas are all Its limbs. Truth is Its abode.
Om. May Brahman protect us both (the preceptor and the disciple)!
May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of Knowledge! May we
both obtain the energy to acquire Knowledge! May what we both study
reveal the Truth! May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other!
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
Orn. May the different parts of my body, my tongue, prana, eyes, ears,
and my strength, and also all the other sense-organs, be nourished! All,
indeed, is Brahman, as is declared in the Upanishads. May I never deny
Brahman! May Brahman never deny me! May there never be denial on
the part of Brahman! May there never be denial on my part! May all the
virtues described in the Upanishads belong to me, who am devoted to
Brahman! Yea, may they all belong to me!
Orn. Peace! Peace! Peace!
249
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
INTRODUCTION
edge (Para Vidya)5 from, the lower knowledge, in the passage beginning:
"Fools, dwelling in darkness." (I. ii. 8.) Ultimately the Upanishad, in
the passage beginning: "A�er having examined all these worlds which
are gained by works" (I. ii. 12.), describes the Knowledge of Brahman,
which is the means to the attainment of the Absolute and which can
be obtained, by the grace of the preceptor,6 only a�er the aspirant has
cultivated dispassion for all things considered as ends of worldly pur
suit and as means to the realization of such ends. The result of this
Knowledge7 is repeatedly stated by the Upanishad in such passages as:
"He who knows the Supreme Brahman verily becomes Brahman" (III.
ii. 9.) and "Enjoy here supreme Immortality." (III. ii. 6.)
Although people belonging to all stages of life (asramas)8 are equally
entitled to the Knowledge of Brahman, yet the knowledge culminating
in complete renunciation (sannyasa) becomes the means to Liberation
(Moksha), and not the knowledge combined with action. This is shown
by such passages as: "Who live in the forests on alms" (I. ii. r 1.) and
"Having purifoed their minds through the practice of sannyasa."
(III. ii. 6.) The Knowledge of Brahman is incompatible with action.
One realizing the identity of Atman and Brahman cannot perform
action even in a dream. Knowledge is independent of the time factor;
it is not the eflect of any defonite cause. Therefore it is not reasonable
to consider the Knowledge of Brahman to be conditioned by time.9
edge that guides the individual soul in its worldly activities is called the lower
knowledge. It is quite compatible with life in the relative world; but it does
not enable one to destroy ignorance and attain Immortality. Through illusion
one walking in the moonlight takes an oyster-shell to be a piece of silver.
This illusion can be got rid of only by true knowledge of the shell, and not
by any other means.
5
The Knowledge of Brahman is called the Higher Knowledge because it
is the means to realization of the Highest Good. The knowledge of rituals
and sacrifices is called the lower knowledge because it is the means to enjoy
ment of transitory happiness in the relative world.
6
According to the Vedic pronouncement, independent study of the scrip
tures, unaided by a teacher, does not bring the desired result of Liberation.
7
The fruit of the Knowledge of Brahman is the utter annihilation of suffering
and the realization of immeasurable bliss.
8
See p. 4.
9
When Sankara speaks of the incompatibility of work and the Knowledge
of Brahman, he generally means by the former the rituals and ceremonies
prescribed by the Vedas for the attainment of a definite result, namely, happi
ness here and hereafter. Work also includes philanthropic activities and all
duties in general which are associated with the ideas of a doer, an instrument,
258 MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
Orn. May we, 0 gods, hear with our ears what is auspicious! May we,
0 worshipful gods, see with our eyes what is good! May we, strong in limbs
and body, sing your praise and enjoy the life allotted to us by Prajapati!
Orn. Peace! Peace! Peace!
259
FIRST MUND AK .....__________
CHAPTER I
OM. BRAHM.A, the Maker of the universe and the Preserver of the
world, was the first among the devas. He told His eldest son Atharva
about the Knowledge of Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge.
BRAHMA: The first manifestation of the unconditioned Brahman in
time and space. He is also known as the World Soul, the sum total of all
souls and minds. Brahma is endowed with unique knowledge, renuncia
tion, powers, and righteousness. (See pp. 68-69.)
FmsT: On account of His uncommon virtues, Brahma is pre-eminent
among the gods; or He is the first among them to be created.
ELDEST SON: At the beginning of a particular cycle Brahma first created
the sage Atharva.
FouNDATION ETC: Because all forms of knowledge rest upon the Knowl
edge of Brahman. The objects of all knowledge are known through the
Knowledge of Brahman. Compare: "Have you ever asked for that instruction
by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what can
not be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known?" (Chh. Up. VI.
i. 3.)
3
Saunaka, the great householder, approached Angiras in the proper
manner and said: Revered sir, what is that by the knowing of which
all this becomes known?
4
To him he said: Two kinds of knowledge must be known-that is
what the knowers of Brahman tell us. They are the Higher Knowledge
and the lower knowledge.
For him who knows all and understands everything, whose austerity
consists of knowledge-from Him, the Imperishable Brahman, are born
Brahma, name, form, and food.
WHo KNOWS ALL: That is to say, in general. This refers to the cosmic
aspect of Brahman (Brahman with attributes) associated with maya, or
cosmic ignorance. Saguna Brahman surveys the created universe as a
totality.
UNDBRSTANDS EVERYTHING: That is to say, in particular. This refers to
the individualized aspect of Brahman (that is to say, the jiva), associated
with avidya, or individualized ignorance.
AusTERITY: The word refers to omniscience, endowed with which Brah
man creates the universe. In the case of ordinary people austerity is associ
ated with great effort. But Brahman creates the universe without the slight
est effort. It appears to be the spontaneous manifestation of Brahman.
NAME: By which a created being is known.
FoRM: Denoting a particular colour or shape.
Poon: Corn, barley, and other foods, by which living beings are sustained.
with a description of the lower knowledge, dealing with sacrifices and other
meritorious deeds. It will be shown that their results are ephemeral. Only
when a man understands this does he desire to cultivate the Higher
Knowledge, which leads to Liberation.
7
But frail indeed are those rafts of sacrifices, conducted by eighteen
persons, upon whom rests the inferior work; therefore they are de
structible. Fools who rejoice in them as the Highest Good fall victims
again and again to old age and death.
EIGHTEEN PERSONS: Sixteen prjests, the sacrificer, and his wife.
UPON WHOM :RESTS ETC: Eighteen persons are indispensable for the per
formance of the Agnihotra sacrifice.
INFERIOR woRK: Refers to the sacrifices performed without knowledge
of, or meditation on, the deities.
THE:REFOIU! ETc: It is because the eighteen persons who conduct the
sacrifice are themselves liable to destruction. "As curds or milk kept in a pot
are destroyed when the pot is destroyed, so also the results of the sacrifices
come to an end because the eighteen persons who perform them are mortal."
(Sankariichiirya.) The effect is determined by the cause. A permanent result
cannot be prpduced by an impermanent cause.
FALL VICTIMS ETC: When the result of the sacrifice is exhausted through
enjoyment in heaven, the sacrificer comes back to earth, is born as an
embodied being, and experiences old age and death.
What is true of the sacrifice is true also of worship and action. They
are performed through instruments which have a beginning and an end and
so are impermanent. Therefore no work or worship can produce Immortality,
or the Highest Good.
8
Fools, dwelling in darkness, but wise in their own conceit and puffed
up with vain scholarship, wander about, being affiicted by many ills,
like blind men led by the blind.
WANDER ABOUT ETC: As a result of their past actions they assume the
bodies of men or lower creatures.
MANY ILLS: Such as old age, illness, and death.
Lnrn BLIND MEN ETC: These unfortunate souls meet with a dire fate.
They who devote themselves to ritualistic worship and seek thereby
ephemeral results cannot attain Liberation.
Furthermore:
9
Children, immersed in ignorance in various ways, Hatter themselves,
saying: We have accomplished life's purpose. Because these performers
of karma do not know the Truth owing to their attachment, they fall
from heaven, misery-stricken, when the fruit of their work is exhausted.
CHILDREN: The ignorant, whose minds are undeveloped, like those of
children.
FLA'ITER TIIEMSELVES ETC: Because they enjoy material happiness on
earth and are assured of pleasures in heaven.
TRUTH: The Knowledge of Brahman, which excludes all rituals and
actions.
ATTACHMENT: To the fruit of action.
The Upanishad points out that ritualistic worship is inadequate for the
attainment of Liberation. It admits that heaven is the reward of sacrificial
worship but also points out that the happiness enjoyed therein is im
permanent. This happiness cannot be the ultimate goal of human endeavour.
the heights of heaven, gained by good w orks, they enter again this
world or a lower one.
IGNORANT FOOLS: Those who, through delusion, are attached to family,
friends, or material possessions.
HUMANITARIAN WORKS: Works of charity such as digging ponds, sinking
wells, building roads, and establishing almshouses, as enjoined in the
Smriti.
THE HIGHEST: The most effective means of attaining what they consider
to be life's goal.
H1G11ER GOOD: That is to say, the means leading to true Blessedness.
It is Self-Knowledge.
LowBR ONE: That is to say, a subhuman plane.
Generally speaking, a man's actions can be divided under three heads:
good, bad, and mixed. If good action prevails, he obtains a god's body
and dwells in heaven; if bad action prevails, he obtains an animal's or a
still lower body; and if he performs mixed action, he is born in a human
body. He reaps the result of his action in one of these bodies. From heaven
or from a subhuman plane he again returns to earth as a human being
and takes up the thread of his higher evolution.
The inadequacy of sacrificial worship to obtain Liberation has already
been pointed out. Philanthropic works are in the same category. They are
generally undertaken to acquire fame or power, soothe a guilty conscience,
or kill the boredom of life. The performer of such actions believes in the
diversity of the relative world. Any work based upon diversity cannot lead
to the Highest Good. True and unselfish service to others can be rendered
only by those who have realized the unity of existence.
According to the Hindu scriptures there exist six planes above the
earth (Bhuh). They are known as Bhuvah, Svah, Mahah, Janah, Tapah,
and Satya. Bhuvah (interspace) is the intermediary world between the
earth and Svah, or heaven. Janah, Tapah, and Satya form Brahmaloka.
Mahah is located between it and the plane of Svah. Performers of
meritorious action attain to these heavenly worlds according to the nature
of their works. Dwellers on these planes, except those who live in
Brahmaloka, return to the earth after the exhaustion of the results of
their action. Some of the dwellers in Brahmaloka also come back. But
others attain Liberation from Brahmaloka after the completion of the
cycle. The six higher planes and the earth, together with the seven
nether worlds, constitute the relative universe. The happiness of the
lower heavenly worlds, attained through Vedic sacri'{ices and philan-
l. ii. I r.] MUNDAK.A UP ANISHAD 2 75
They alone who have understood the utter unsubstantiality of the world
and become detached from it can be called true seekers of the Knowledge of
Brahman.
MUNDAKA UP ANISHAD [I. ii. I 3.
The transmission of the Knowledge of Brahman:
13
To that pupil who has duly approached him, whose mind is com
pletely serene, and whose senses are controlled, the wise teacher should
indeed rightly impart the Knowledge of Brahman, through which one
knows the immutable and the true Purusha.
DuLY APPROACHED: Following the injunctions of the scriptures. He must
be endowed with humility, the spirit of service, and genuine yearning.
COMPLETELY SERENE: That is to say free from pride and other similar
blemishes.
SHOULD INDEED RIGHTLY ETc: "The duty of the preceptor is to help the
qualified pupil who has duly approached him to cross the great ocean of
ignorance." (Sankariichiirya.)
KNOWLEDGE OF BRAHMAN: Compare: I. i. 6.
PuRUSHA: Person. Etymologically the word means that which fills all
(pumatvat) or that which dwells in the body (puri sayanat). The Dualists
and the Quali6.ed Non-dualists use the word to denote the Personal God
associated with a form. According to the Non-dualists it signifies the Supreme
Being, or Brahman. The word also means an individual person.
CHAPTER I
The previous verse has described Saguna Brahman as the cause and
the ultimate goal of all living beings. The following verse indicates
Nirguna Brahman, or Pure Consciousness, which is higher than Saguna
Brahman, being free from the diversity of upadhis. It is described by a
negation of attributes.
2
He is the self-luminous and formless Purusha, uncreated and existing
both within and without. He is devoid of prana, devoid of mind, pure,
and higher than the supreme Imperishable.
the seminal fluid which a man pours into a woman. Thus many living
beings are born of the Purusha.
FrnE: The heavens.
FuEL: The heavens are illumined by the sun.
This verse refers to the Five Fires described in the third chapter of the
fifth part of the Chhandogya Upanishad. According to the story, Svetaketu,
the son of the rishi Gautama, visited Pravahana, the king of Panchala.
The king asked him five questions, one of which was whether Svetaketu
knew how the fifth oblation offered at the sacrifice was transformed into a
human body. Unable to give the answer, the boy went to his father,
who also was ignorant about it. The king explained the matter thus to
Gautama: The heavens that one sees above are a Fire; the other four Fires
are rain, earth, man, and woman. The meaning of the above statement is
this: The oblations offered in the sacrificial £ire consist mostly of a liquid
substance which accompanies the soul of the sacri6.cer to the Plane of the
Moon after his death. After enjoying the apportioned happiness there, the
soul comes down to the sky (the heavens) and dwells in a cloud. Next it
falls to earth with the rain and is absorbed by herbs and plants. When the
plants are eaten by man and transformed into his semen, the soul dwells
in the semen. Last of all it enters the womb of a woman and is born in
a human body. Therefore the heavens, rain, earth, man, and woman
are described as five kinds of sacrificial foe, and the soul's journey through
them is compared to the offering of an oblation. The Purusha, or Brahman,
is the final cause of all beings. The Upanishad explains man's origin and
journey as a spiritual act.
Furthermore:
6
From Him have come the Rik, the Saman, the Yajus, the Diksha,
all sacri£.ces, the Kratus, gifts, the year, the sacri£.cer, and the w�rlds
which the moon sancti£.es and the sun illumines.
Rxx: A group of versified Vedic mantras. The mantras of the Rig-Veda,
whose letters, feet (one fourth part of a stanza is a foot), and endings are
determined by rule, and which are marked by chhandas (metres) such as
tl1e Gayatri.
SXMAN: A group of Vedic mantras with their various classifications. These
are set to music.
YAJUS: A group of Vedic mantras written in prose, whose letters, endings,
and so on, are not determined by any rule.
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD [II. i. 6.
DIKsHA: A ceremony preliminary to a sacrifice, in which, among other
details, the sacrificer wears a cord of munja grass.
SACRIFICES: Such as the Agnihotra.
l<RATus: A sacrifice which requires a sacrificial post and in which animals
are slaughtered.
GIFTS: Ranging from the giving of a cow to that of untold wealth.
YEAR: The stipulated time for the performance of a sacrifice.
WoRLDS: The planes where the sacrificers go after death to enjoy the
fruit of their religious rites.
MooN: Refers to Chandraloka, or the Plane of the Moon, where un
illumined souls go, after death, following the Southern Path. (See p. 70;
B. G. VIIL 25.)
SuN: Suryaloka, or the Plane of the Sun, where illumined souls go after
death, following the Northern Path; another name of Brahmaloka. (See
p. 70; also B. G. VIII. 24.)
The scriptures and the religious rites prescribed by them all have a
spiritual origin.
Furthermore:
7
By Him are begotten the various devas, the sadhyas, men, cattle,
birds, and also prana and apana, rice and corn, penance, faith, truth,
continence, and law.
DEVAs: Lit., shining ones. The sacrifices are performed to propitiate
these deities in order to enjoy, through their favour, happiness here on earth
and hereafter.
SADHYAs: A class of celestial beings.
CATTLE: Both domestic and wild.
PRANA AND APANA: Prana is that part of the vital force which regulates a
man's breath. Apana works downwards and helps in the ejection of unassim
ilated food and drink. (See p. 90.)
RICE AND CORN: Which are used in the sacrifices.
PENANCE: Men performing sacrifices are required to practise spiritual
austerities for the purification of their minds. The penance also produces
its own result.
FAITH: An affirmative attitude of mind which accepts as true the revela
tions of the scriptures regarding the immortality of the soul and the reality
of Brahman. Such an attitude begets inner calmness and helps in the ful
filment of various endeavours.
II. i. 8.] MUNDAKA UP ANISHAD
TRUTH: A true report which at the same time does not hurt others' feel
ings.
This verse describes the spiritual origin of various beings, forces, and
objects.
nothing but Brahman. Therefore when one knows Brahman one knows the
universe. This Knowledge is to be attained here on earth, when one still
dwells in the body, by realizing the identity of the self with Brahman. Its
attainment is known as jivanmukti, or Liberation in life.
That which is radiant, subtler than the subtle, That by which all
the worlds and their inhabitants are supported-That, verily, is the
indestructible Brahman; That is the pra.na, speech, and the mind;
That is the True and That is the Immortal. That alone is to be struck.
Strike It, my good friend.
RADIANT: It is by the light of Brahman that luminous objects like
the sun, the stars, £.re, and lightning are illumined.
SUBTLE: The reference is to small objects, such as a grain of barley.
It is also to be understood that Brahman is greater than the great. Brahman
permeates all objects, subtle and great.
WORLDS: Including the celestial planes.
SuPPORTED: Consciousness (Chaitanyam) is the substratum of all rela
tive existence.
THE PRANA ETC: The prana, the senses, and the mind cannot exist
without the substratum of Pure Cons'ciousness.
To BE STRUCK: That is to say, to be known by the mind.
STRIKE h: That is to say, concentrate your mind on Brahman.
GIVE UP ETC: After knowing Atman as such, one should strive for Its
realization, giving up everything relating to the lower knowledge.
TALK: All talk related to the lower knowledge is futile, nay harmful,
for the seeker of Brahman.
BRIDGE To IMMORTALITY: Only through Self-Knowledge can one cross
the ocean of interminable births and deaths and attain Immortality. Atman
is immortal, and to know oneself as Atman is Immortality. Compare: "By
knowing Him alone one goes beyond death; there is no other way to Libera
tion."
The preceptor gives his blessings to the quali-fied student for the
attainment of Knowledge:
6
He moves about, becoming manifold, within the heart, where the
arteries meet, like the spokes fastened in the nave of a chariot wheel.
Meditate on Atman as Orn. Hail to you! May you cross beyond the
sea of darkness!
BECOMING MANIFOLD: The individual self reflected in the mind (jivatma)
identifies itself with pleasure, pain, anger, love, and other states of mind.
Thus one says: "I am happy," "I axn unhappy," "I am angry," and so on,
depending upon a particular state of mind. But this identification is the
result of maya. Atman is in reality non-dual and unchanging.
HEART: The seers of the Upanishads often describe the heart as the
dwelling-place of Atman, or Brahman (Brahmapuram). In meditation one
feels Its presence very vividly in the heart.
OM: Om is to be used as a symbol of Brahman.
SEA OF DARKNESS: Ignorance, or maya.
It is the injunction of the scriptures that a qualified teacher should
transmit the Knowledge of the Self to a disciple who, desirous of Libera
tion, has renounced the longing for material happiness here and hereafter.
8
The fetters of the heart are broken, all doubt:s. are resolved, and all
works cease to bear fruit, when He is beheld who is both high and low.
FETTERS: That is to say, the various desires that cling to the heart prior
to the Knowledge of Atman.
Doml'I's: The continuous stream of doubt that plagues a man as long
as he lives, is destroyed with the attainment of Self-Knowledge.
ALL WORKS ETc: The Knowledge of Atman destroys the effect of the
karma performed by a man in his previous lives and also of that performed
in the present life prior to the attainment of Knowledge-the karma which
II. ii. 10.] MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
has not yet begun to bear fruit. It also destroys the karma performed by
him at the time of or subsequent to the attainment of Knowledge. But
this does not apply to the karma that has produced his present body
and has begun to bear fruit. Such karma is destroyed only when all the
fruit has been reaped. The body lasts as long as the momentum given to it
by this karma endures. An illumined soul, however, on account of his total
detachment from the body and mind, is not affected by any kind of karma.
THE SUN ETc: The sun illumines all material objects. But this power
is not inherent in the sun itself; it is derived from the self-luminous
Brahman, which is the inmost .Atman of all things, including the sun.
\Vhen a torch illumines our path, it is the £.re and not the £.re-brand
that destroys the darkness. Likewise, material objects are illumined by the
light of Brahman through the sun, the moon, the stars, lightning, and fire.
Again, it is the light of Brahman, the inmost .Atman, that illumines the
states of the mind. Thus from the observation of outer objects, such as the
sun and moon, and also of the inner states of the mind, one can infer
the light of Brahman. A thing that is non-luminous in itself, like a pot, can
not reveal another object. \Vhen the external world disappears and the
mind itself ceases to function, as in the deepest contemplation of the
mystics, Brahman shines directly, without the help of any medium.
According to the Upanishadic teachings, as explained by the Non
dualists, the entire objective universe is possible only in so far as it is sus
tained by a Knowing Subject. It is the Consciousness of Atman as Knower
which manifests the universe. Even such luminous objects as the sun, the
moon, and £.re cannot reveal themselves unless they become manifest by
the Consciousness of the Knower. These material objects have no light of
their own. Everything shines by the light of Atman, the Subject.
Brahman alone is real. It alone exists. All that one perceives, through
ignorance, to be endowed with changing names and forms is in reality
nothing but the immortal and unchanging Brahman.
11
That immortal Brahman alone is before, that Brahman is behind,
that Brahman is to the right and left. Brahman alone pervades every
thing above and below; this universe is that Supreme Brahman alone.
PERVADES EVERYTHING: Brahman is the reality of all things endowed
with name and form.
Through ignorance one sees, in place of Brahman, the universe of names
and forms outside oneself, and in place of .Atman, or Pure Conscious
ness, the individualized body and mind. This false vision creates the illusion
of such pairs of opposites as good and evil, life and death, freedom and
bondage, light and darkness. It is the cause of man's grief and suffering.
Since the multiplicity of names and forms is the result of ignorance, what
he is really seeing outside and inside is Pure Brahman and Atman, which
are identical. Thus a man is nothing but Pure Consciousness, eternally
free, illumined, and blest, and the universe, too, is of the same nature,
II. ii. I 1.] MUNDAKA UP ANISHAD 295'
even when, under the spell of ignorance, he regards himself as a bound
creature living in a finite universe and practises spiritual discipline to obtain
freedom. When the Truth is known, the illusion of duality disappears and
the universe, known as non-Brahman to the ignorant, reveals itself as the
effulgent Brahman.
CHAPTER I
TWO BIRDS, united always and known by the same name, closely
cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit; the other looks
on without eati ng.
Two BIRDS: The literal meaning of supama, the Sanskrit word in the
text, is "of good wings." The two birds refer to the jivatma, or individual
soul, and the Paramatma, or Supreme Self. The former is Pure Conscious
ness conditioned by the body and mind on account of Its association with
ignorance (avidya). The latter is Pure Consciousness, the Lord Himself,
who is etemally pure, free, and illumined and is the master or controller of
avidya.
UNITED ALWAYS: The jivatma is the reflection of the Paramatma in the
buddhi. The two are inseparable companions, like an object and its reflection.
SAME NAME: That is to say, Atman.
TREE: Refers to the body. "Like a tree, the body is subject to destruc
tion. It has its root above, in Brahman; and its branches (such as the prana
and the organs) spread downward. It is supported by maya, or ignorance;
and on it hang the diverse fruits of the actions of living beings." (Sankarii
chiirya.) (See Ka. Up. II. iii. 1.)
ONE OF THEM: Namely, the individual soul, or jiva.
EATS: On account of lack of discrimination. The jiva identifies himself
with the body and experiences the fruits of action.
SwEET FRUIT: The fruits have various tastes and are characterized by
pain and pleasure.
THE OTHER: The Lord who is the Witness. The word refers to Pure
Consciousness, which is endowed with such attributes as omniscience and
omnipresence. He is the controller of both the individual soul and the
body and is the detached Witness of their activities.
The Para Vidya, or Higher Knowledge, by which the Truth can be
realized, has already been explained. This Knowledge destroys the "fetters
of the heart" and all doubts. Yoga, the practical discipline for the realiza
tion of Truth, has been described by the illustration of the bow. The present
chapter deals with such other disciplines as continence and truthfulness,
without which yoga cannot be practised.
297
MUNDAKA UP ANISHAD [III. i. 2.
6
Truth alone prevails, not falsehood. By truth the path is laid out,
the Way of the Gods, on which the seers, whose every desire is satis
fied, proceed to the Highest Abode of the True.
TRUTH: That is to say, the truthful person.
LAID OUT: That is to say, the Way of the Gods is built and constantly
maintained by truthful persons.
THE WAY OF THE GoDs: By this path the seers arrive at the Abode of
Brahma (Brahmaloka). (See p. 70.)
WHOSE EVERY DESIRE ETC: That is to say, who are freed from deceit,
delusion, pride, and falsity, and also from worldly desires. They have re
nounced all desires and all longing for worldly enjoyments.
III. i. 8.] MUNDAKA UPANISH.AD 301
HIGHEST ABODE ETc: The supreme realization to be attained by the prac
tice of truth.
Self-Knowledge is eulogized:
10
Whatever world a man of pure understanding envisages in his mind
and whatever desires he cherishes, that world he conquers and those
III. i. 10.] MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
desires he obtains. Therefore let everyone who wants prosperity wor
ship the man who knows the Self.
WoRLD: That is to say, heavenly world.
OF PURE UNDERSTANDING: Endowed with Self-Knowledge.
CHERISHES: Either for himself or for others.
PROSPERITY: Worldly success and happiness.
Since the knower of Brahman becomes Brahman, a prayer to him is a
prayer to Brahman Itself.
2
He who, cherishing objects, desires them, is born again here or there
through his desires. But for him whose desires are satisfied and who is
established in the Self, all desires vanish even here on earth.
OBJECTS: They may belong to this earth or to heaven.
BoRN AGAIN ETC: According to the doctrine of rebirth, a man's future
birth is determined by the intense desires he cherishes in his present life.
These desires make him assume a body in an environment where he will
have opportunities for their fulfilment.
DESIRES ARB SATISFIED: Through the knowledge and realization of
Ultimate Truth. The thirst for objects can never be quenched by their
enjoyment.
304
III. ii. 4.] MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
There are two kinds of desires, namely, good and evil. By them are
created the righteous and unrighteous tendencies in men. They are re
sponsible for men's rebirth. When all desires are destroyed through Self
Knowledge, a man attains to Brahman and is free from rebirth. But a
knower of Brahman, if he so chooses, can assume a body for the service of
the world. He is born as a free soul.
5
Having realized Atman, the seers become satis£.ed with that Knowl
edge. Their souls are established in the Supreme Self, they are free
from passions, and they are tranquil in mind. Such calm souls, ever
devoted to the Self, behold everywhere the omnipresent Brahman and
in the end enter into It, which is all this.
BECOME SATISFIED ETC: They do not derive satisfaction from the mate
rial things of the world.
EVER DEVOTED ETC: No happening in the world can distract their minds
from Brahman.
EVERYWHERE: Within and without: with eyes closed in meditation
and with eyes open while engaged in action.
ENTER INTO IT: As the water inside a pot immersed in the ocean becomes
one with the water of the ocean when the pot is broken, so likewise the
atman of the seer becomes one with Brahman when the body is discarded
at the time of death.
6
Having well ascertained the Self, the goal of the Vedantic knowledge,
and having purified their minds through the practice of sannyasa,
the seers, never relaxing their efforts, enjoy here supreme Immortality
and at the time of the great end attain complete freedom in Brahman.
The unillumined soul, after death, either returns to the earth or goes
to an upper or a lower world. He moves in a £nite plane of existence
because he is still subject to ignorance and attached to desires. But the
illumined soul is free from maya, or the limitations imposed by time, space,
and causality. He has realized his oneness with Brahman, which transcends
time, space, and causality. Brahman is the all-pervading Pure Conscious
ness, without beginning, without end, immortal, incorporeal, and im
mutable. Therefore the knower of Brahman, after death, does not go to
any particular plane belonging to the relative universe. His death is often
compared to the blowing-out of a Rame: the total annihilation of the
individualized ego. But he does not, by any means, become non-existent,
because Brahman is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The knower of
Brahman leaves behind no footprint by which he can be traced. "As a bird
Ries in the air, as a £sh moves in the water, without leaving any trace, so
likewise the illumined soul leaves behind no footprint."
MUNDAKA UPANISHAD [III. ii. 7.
The death of an illumined soul:
7
The fifteen parts go back to their causes, and all the senses to their
deities; the actions, and the atman reflected in the buddhi, become one
with the highest imperishable Brahman, which is the Self of all.
F1FTEEN PARTS: These are described in the Prasna Upanishad (VI. 4.)
as faith (sraddha), space (kham), air (vayu), foe (jyoti), water (ap),
earth (prithivi), the sense-organs (indriyas), the mind (manas), food
(annam), vigour (viryam), austerity (tapas), hymns (mantras), sacrifices
(karma), the worlds (loka), and the name (nama). They, with prana,
constitute the purusha, or man.
SENSES ETc: The sense-organs go back to their cosmic sources. They
are produced from the sattvic parts of the five subtle elements. The organ
of hearing is resolved back into subtle akasa; the organ of touch into subtle
vayu; the organ of vision, into subtle fire; and so on. Or the text may mean
that the psychical forces that control the sense-organs go back to their
cosmic counterparts.
AcTIONs: The reference is to those actions which have not yet begun
to bear fruit. (See pp. 292-293, note on II. ii. 8.)
ATMAN REFLECTED ETc: The jivatma, or individual soul, which assumes
body after body till the attainment of Liberation, is the reflection of Pure
Consciousness in the buddhi. It is like the reflection of the sun in the
water in a tray. When the water and the tray are destroyed the reflection
merges in the sun. Likewise Atman (Pure Consciousness), which through
avidya becomes conditioned by the buddhi and then identifies Itself with
the body, the senses, and the rest, merges, after the destruction of ignorance,
in Pure Consciousness.
BRAHMAN: "The Highest, the Immutable, the Infinite, the Imperishable,
all-pervading [like the sky], birthless, undecaying, immortal, fearless, with
out beginning and end, without exterior, the Non-dual, the Good, the
Serene, the All." (Sankariichiirya.)
The individuality associated with birth, death, and rebirth is the result
of ignorance, avidya. Liberation is the destruction of ignorance. It is like
the removal of the cloud, which is followed by the revelation of the sun.
Liberation, or Immortality, is not the effect of any action. An effect does not
exist before it is produced; but the immortal Brahman always exists.
III. ii. I o.] MUNDAKA UPANISHAD
in the Vedas and devoted to Brahman, and who, full of faith, have
offered oblations in the Ekarshi Fire and performed, according to rule,
the rite of carrying fire on the head.
Om. May we, 0 gods, hear with our ears what is auspicious! May we,
0 worshipful gods, see with our eyes what is good! May we, strong in limbs
and body, sing your praise and enjoy the life allotted to us by Prajapati!
Om. Peace! Peace! Peace!
312
GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
Bhagavan (Lit., One endowed with the six attributes, namely, infinite
prosperity, strength, glory, splendour, knowledge, and renunciation.)
An epithet of the Godhead; also the Personal God of the devotee.
bhakti Love of God.
Brahma The Creator God; the First Person of the Hindu Trinity, the other
two being Vishnu and Siva.
hrahmacharin A celibate student who lives with his teacher and devotes
himself to the practice of spiritual discipline.
hrahmacharya The first of the four stages of life; the life of an unmarried
student.
GLOSSARY
Chandraloka The Plane of the Moon, where souls repair after death to
enjoy the fruit of their meritorious deeds done with a selfish motive.
Afterwards h t ese souls are reborn on earth.
Chit Consciousness.
cycle A world period, representing the duration of the universe between
its manifestation and its return to the unmanifested state.
karma Action in general; duty. The Vedas use the word chie:B.y to denote
ritualistic worship and humanitarian action.
Karmakanda The part of the Vedas that deals with rituals and sacrifices.
kshattriya A member of the wanior caste.
Mahesvara (Lit., the Great Lord.) The Lord of all the Isvaras, or Gover
nors, of the innumerable Brahmandas, or world systems; an epithet of
Saguna Brahman.
manas The faculty of doubt and volition; sometimes translated as "mind."
mantra Holy Sanskrit text; also ( with capital M) one of the two main
sections of the Vedas, which describes the hymns used in the sacrifices.
Orn The most sacred word of the Vedas; also written Aum. It is a
symbol both of the Personal God and of the Absolute.