Sat Chit Ananda the Philosophy of the Upanishads SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA
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Sat Chit Ananda The Philosophy of the Upanishads SWAMI SARVAPRIYANANDA The Vedas are the core scriptures of Hinduism and the Upanishads are texts which form the philosophical essence of the Vedas. The Upanishads are collectively called the Vedanta. The Vedantic world-view permeates all aspects of Indian culture and way of thinking. Literally, Vedanta means ‘end of the Vedas’ and indeed, many of these texts are found at the end of each of the four Vedas. The Upanishads are also the end or culmination of the Vedas in the sense that they embody the highest philosophical knowledge of the Vedas. ‘The essence of the knowledge of the Vedas was called by the name of Vedanta, which comprises the Upanishads.’1 We hear of 108 Upanishads, ten of which are especially important because they were selected for commentary by Adi Shankaracharya. There is a traditional shloka which lists these major Upanishads: ‘Isha-Kena-Katha-Prashna Munda-Mandukya Tittirih Aitereyam cha Chhandogyam Brhadaryankam tatha’ Often these Upanishads are in the form of dialogues between sages and truth-seekers. For example in the Mundaka Upanishad, the enquirer, Shaunaka asks the sage Angiras, ‘Sir, what is that, which becoming known, everything here becomes known?’ In the Katha Upanishad, a little boy, Nachiketa asks about what, if anything, survives death—and he asks this to none other than Yama, Lord of Death! Let us go straight into the heart of the Upanishads. What is their central message to us? A monk of the Ramakrishna Order, the author teaches at the Monastic Probationers’ Training Centre at the Belur Math, Howarh, West Bengal. The V edanta K esari ~ 544 ~ DECEMBER 2012 105 You Are Pure Existence sufferings. Enlightenment is just the reverse— In the sixth chapter of the Chhandogya being aware of yourself as Sat and being free Upanishad, we find a dialogue between a sage of the body, mind and all samsara. You are the and his son, Shvetaketu. The enquiry here is, immortal, unchanging Sat and the world is a ‘What is that knowledge by which everything mere shadow, the projection of maya, passing becomes known?’ And to grasp the answer over you. This does not actually destroy the to this bold question, we must appreciate the body or the world—rather you begin to see concept that by knowing the cause one can things as they really are. know the effects. Thus if you know clay, you Your true Self, Sat, is not a thing, an know all pots made of clay (you know that all object, among other objects of the universe. such pots are nothing but clay), by knowing Rather It is the very existence of all things and iron one understands all implements made of they are not apart from It. To a jnani, each iron, by knowing gold, all gold ornaments are object reveals Sat. understood as nothing but gold and so on. In the same way, if we enquire deeply You are Pure Consciousness enough, the Upanishad claims, we shall In the Kena Upanishad, we find a very see that all existent things are nothing but interesting question. We see, hear, speak and existence itself or pure existence. Sat is the think—but what power impels our mind to term used for pure existence. think, our tongue to speak, our eyes to see To explain further, take the traditional and ears to hear? In other words, what are we example of a pot—the pot is nothing but its in the deepest, most profound depths of our cause, clay; clay is nothing but its cause prithvi being? Like most deep questions, it appears or the earth element, prithvi is nothing but deceptively simple. its cause ap or the water element, and in this Consider our bodies. They are made of way we trace everything back to the primeval matter. Yet, we have a first-person experience cause, pure existence or Sat. It is Sat appearing in our bodies. There is something like as this world through the mysterious agency experiencing the redness of a rose or ‘being of maya. myself’. In modern philosophy, these are And ‘Thou, O Shvetaketu,’ says the sage, called qualia. Modern neuroscience is unable ‘art That!’ By ‘That’ of course, he means, Sat, to account for the vivid living conscious pure existence. You, your mind and body, experiences which we have all the time. and indeed, everything you see around you, This vivid first person experience cannot be are essentially nothing but pure existence, captured by a materialistic account like the appearing in multifarious forms, courtesy firing of neurons. This is the so-called ‘hard of maya. Ignorance means being unaware of problem’ of modern consciousness studies. your Sat nature, and The Kena Upanishad begins with this consequently being question about consciousness—the inner identified with experience of thinking, hearing, seeing, the body-mind speaking. What is that shining within us which complex with enables all these conscious experiences and all its attendant functions? Who is that Being or what is that problems and mechanism which makes these possible? The V edanta K esari ~ 545 ~ DECEMBER 2012 106 The Guru’s answer is extraordinary and immortal (rather, you realize that you are profound (and, at first, rather enigmatic). immortal and always were). Chit identified ‘It is the Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, with body and mind appears to be mortal. Eye of the eye …’! Let us try to understand Note that the bodies are mortal—equally for this. The answer, simply put, is pure the jnani and ajnani. Ramakrishna, Christ and consciousness—Chit. The moment we use a Buddha—all had physical bodies and those term like consciousness, we have to be very bodies are gone, just as our bodies will perish careful because the immediate temptation is one day. But as Chit we are immortal. This is to understand it in the sense of thoughts and to be realized and this is the Upanishadic ideal feelings. This is how consciousness is usually of moksha or freedom. understood by modern psychology. But when Our true Self, Chit, is not an experience, the Upanishads speak of pure consciousness yet all experiences shine in Chit. Chit is the we must carefully distinguish it from the consciousness illumining every thought, every ordinary understanding of consciousness. experience. To the jnani, Chit is experienced in Science says consciousness is a product each experience. of the body (the brain to be specific). But the Upanishads hold that Chit or consciousness We Are Pure Bliss is not a product of the body or even the mind. In the final analysis, what we all want Our bodies are made of matter and our minds is happiness. What is happiness? And more too are made of matter, albeit of a subtle kind, importantly, how can we be truly happy? while Chit is radically different from matter. The search after happiness forms the field Chit pervades and illumines the mind and of enquiry in a remarkable section of the body enabling all functions—thinking, seeing, Taittiriya Upanishad. What exactly is studied hearing, feeling, speaking and so on. Chit is about happiness? The answer is: whether ‘known’ only through its manifestations in happiness is born of sense contacts between the various functions of the mind, organs and subject and object (as is usually understood) body. Without the body and mind, as in deep or whether happiness is the very nature of the sleep, Chit cannot be known or experienced— Self. The Upanishad starts by looking at sense yet, It continues to exist. enjoyments as the source of happiness. Now we are in a position to understand If we want to study happiness scien- the Guru’s enigmatic reply: ‘Since It is the Ear tifically, it would be helpful to actually of the ear, the Mind of the mind, the Speech measure happiness and for this we need a of speech, the Life of life, and the Eye of eye, unit of happiness. The Upanishad proceeds therefore (realizing It) the jnanis transcend to construct a model of maximum human the world and become immortal.’ Since Chit happiness. Imagine a young man, physically enables each organ to perform its specific strong, bursting with vitality and energy. He function, it is appropriate to call It the essence is highly educated and morally upright. Old of all organs—Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, age, physical weakness, ignorance and moral etc. corruption—all causes of misery—are ruled Chit is what you really are—pure con- out. Poverty, of course, is one of the greatest sciousness. It is unchanging and undying and barriers to the fulfillment of desires and so if you realize yourself as Chit, you become the Upanishad endows this fortunate young The V edanta K esari ~ 546 ~ DECEMBER 2012 107 man with plenty of cash—all the wealth of the How can we make the mind calm? By world, in fact. Now imagine the happiness of renunciation of desire, says the Upanishad. this person—young, vital, energetic, noble, One who has the deepest conviction of the very highly educated and extremely wealthy. Vedantic truth—that one’s own Self is of the This is the unit of human happiness: ‘ekah very nature of bliss—and does not hanker manusha ananda’. after sense pleasures, will get a hundred times Is it possible to get even greater happi- the maximum human happiness in this very ness? Yes, but not in this human existence. For life, right now! He doesn’t have to earn merit this earthly existence, these material objects of and wait for death to go to the higher heavens.