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1 The Upanishads For Awakening by Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri) ©2021 Light of the Spirit Monastery Light of the Spirit Press Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA LightoftheSpiritPress.com OCOY.org “Let those truths which are in the Upanishads live in me dedicated to the Self.” (Invocation at the beginning of the Kena Upanishad) 2 Preface The sacred scriptures of India are vast. Yet they are only different ways of seeing the same thing, the One Thing which makes them both valid and ultimately harmonious. That unifying subject is Brahman: God the Absolute, beyond and besides whom there is no “other” whatsoever. The thirteen major Upanishads are the fountainhead of all expositions of Brahman. The word “upanishad” itself comes from the root word upasana, which means to draw or sit near, and is usually considered to mean that which was heard when the student sat near the teacher to learn the eternal truths. We do not know who wrote the Upanishads. This has a distinct advantage in that the image of a historical, finite personality does not intervene to obscure the revelation handed on to spiritual aspirants. The authority of the Upanishads rests not upon those who wrote them, but upon the demonstrable truths they express. They are as self-sufficient and self-evident as the multiplication tables or the Table of Elements. They are simply the complete and unobscured truth. And realization of that Truth alone matters. The teachings of the Upanishads are the supreme expressions of the eternal wisdom, the eternal vision of the ancient rishis (sages) of India. Consequently, though simple in their mode of expression, they can be extremely difficult to grasp. There are many things in this world that we need not know, but the truths embodied in the Upanishads and their inspired digest-summary, the Bhagavad Gita, are invaluable for all who would ascend to higher consciousness. The Upanishads have long interested students of philosophy in the West. The English philosopher David Hume translated some of them into English in the eighteenth century. Later he travelled to America where he taught Sanskrit to Thomas Jefferson and together they studied the Upanishads in their original form. In this commentary I am using the translation of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, one of India’s most distinguished scholars in religion and philosophy. He was also the first Vice President of India (1952–1962) and the second President of India from 1962 to 1967. His works, which included English translations of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada, are of continuing value both intellectually and spiritually. Here I am giving only his translation of the upanishadic texts, but his translation, The Principal Upanishads, contains the original Sanskrit text in transliteration and a great deal of notes to clarify the text. So I recommend you obtain this most valuable book as a major element in your spiritual library. The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal by Swami Prabhavananda is a beautiful interpretive translation like his marvelous translation: Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God. I recommend that you obtain them both. I have only commented on passages that seemed to need it. But I have included all the passages that convey eternal truths and need no comment. I have omitted 3 passages that do not deal directly with realization of the Self or those which are so obscure (especially in symbolism as well as the ancient form of Sanskrit) it is anyone’s guess as to what they really mean. 4 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad In the beginning this (world) was only the Self [Atman], in the shape of a person. Looking around he saw nothing else than the Self. He first said, I am Soham [I am That]. (1.4.1) Soham is the “first speaking” of the Absolute Itself: the expression of the knowledge and knowing of the Self. Soham is the Name (Embodiment) of the Primeval Being, the Self of the Universe and the Self of our Selfs. Soham is the Consciousness of Brahman and of the Self of each one of us. We, too, are Soham. In the section of the Yoga Sutras (1:27) dealing with Ishwara, the Supreme Lord, also known as Viraj, Patanjali makes this statement: Tasya vachakah pranavah–“His vachaka is the pranava.” “Vachaka” means speech or speaking. “Pranava” means Life, Life-Giver and Breath Principle: the Breath Word. It is commonly thought of as Om, but integrating this with the verse we have been considering, we see that the Breath Word is Soham. For “he first said: ‘Soham.’” Patanjali continues regarding the Pranava: “Its constant repetition and meditation [is the way]. From it [result] the disappearance of obstacles [to enlightenment] and turning inward of consciousness” (1:28-29). Soham is the Breath and Life Word. Ishwara “speaks” Soham as the foundation of the universe, as the evolutionary life force within the cosmos and every individual being. This is a key verse in the Upanishads, as it relates to both the philosophy of our true nature and the interior yogic process by which we realize it. We invoke our lower self when we say “I,” but in meditation we invoke our higher, divine Self when we mentally intone Soham in time with the breath: So when we inhale, and ham when we exhale. (See Soham Yoga: The Yoga of the Self regarding this as the means to Self-realization.) In the sixteenth verse of the Isha Upanishad it says: “I am that Purusha: I am Soham.” At that time this [universe] was undifferentiated. It became differentiated by name and form. He [the Self] entered in here, as a razor is [hidden] in the razor-case, or as fire in the fire-source. The Self is to be meditated upon, for in it all these become one. (1.4.7) At that time this [universe] was undifferentiated. It became differentiated by name and form. At first only undifferentiated Unity existed, but inherent in It was all relative existence. Consequently it expanded into the cosmos–causal, astral, and physical– which is nothing but endless variations of name (nama) and form (rupa). This could only be true because the universe is fundamentally ideational (conceptual) in nature, and only an idea or dream in the consciousness of God and all sentient beings. Everything we see or experience is a thought in the minds of God and ourselves. That is why liberation is only a matter of awakening, of the 5 transformation of consciousness. Even good deeds are really just good thoughts. Thought and act are the same thing, however differently they may seem to us who are asleep in the dream. Enlightenment is living awake in the dream. (See the recording of Paramhansa Yogananda, Awake in the Cosmic Dream.) This is why all true yoga takes place solely in the mind, even if we experience physical phenomena during its practice. And the results we are after are purely psychological. This is a major fact for yogis to know. The only way we can manage in the world of duality is to acknowledge and deal with name and form as realities, which they are, but only temporary ones. It is when we think they are all there is to life, here or hereafter, that we get into delusion and the misery of samsara begins and lasts long, through creation cycles. To awaken from the dream and be free is an option open only to the yogi who knows, “I am Soham.” Meditation on that which is not the Self is pointless. Leaving name and form behind we must begin with the invocation of non-dual Reality that in the beginning was Soham. (Again, see Soham Yoga: The Yoga of the Self.) That Self is dearer than everything else and is innermost. (1.4.8) Nothing that is finite and external to us can satisfy us, because the only reality is infinite and within us. And that infinite and inmost entity is our own Self. Those who seek the Self as not just the highest but the only good, certainly see the world around them in a manner totally opposite to those who do not hold the Self as dearer than everything else and innermost. Whoever worships another divinity (than his Self) thinking that he is one and (Brahman) another, he knows not. (1.4.10) If we begin with ignorance we will end up with ignorance. Those who approach spiritual life with any perspective other than the truth of their identity with the Self and the Supreme Self, Brahman, will not come to the Knowing that is really Self- realization, the awakening into the consciousness of the Self and Brahman, the Self of the Self. Even if one performs a great and holy work, but without knowing this, that work of his is exhausted in the end. One should meditate only on the Self as his (true) world. The work of him who meditates on the Self alone as his world is not exhausted for, out of that very Self he creates whatsoever he desires. (1.4.15) All that we attain outside the knowledge of the Self will melt and vanish away. This is the simple truth. Therefore Atmajnana, knowledge of the Self, should be the central pursuit of our life. Only a matter of days before commenting on this verse, I read in a book of the teachings of Sri Gajanana Maharaj, a great twentieth century master yogi, that the yogi who applies himself to sadhana for the realization of the Self becomes himself 6 the granter of all his desires. The great teacher, Ajatashatru, was asked by a man named Gargya to teach him the truth about Brahman.
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