TTHEHE CCHHANDOGYAHHANDOGYA UUPANISHADPANISHAD by Swami Krishnananda The Divine Life Society Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India (Internet Edition: For free distribution only) Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org CONTENTS PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE 5 CHAPTER I: VAISHVANARA-VIDYA 7 The Panchagni-Vidya 7 The Course of the Soul After Death 8 Vaishvanara, The Universal Self 28 Heaven as the Head of the Universal Self 31 The Sun as the Eye of the Universal Self 32 Air as the Breath of the Universal Self 33 Space as the Body of the Universal Self 33 Water as the Lower Belly of the Universal Self 33 The Earth as the Feet of the Universal Self 34 The Self as the Universal Whole 34 The Five Pranas 37 The Need for Knowledge is Stressed 39 Conclusion 40 CHAPTER II 43 Section 1: Preliminary 43 Section 2: The Primacy of Being 46 Section 3: Threefold Development 51 Section 4: Threefold Development (Contd.) 53 Section 5: Illustrations of the Threefold Nature 56 Section 6: Further Illustrations 57 Section 7: Importance of Physical Needs 58 Section 8: Concerning Sleep, Hunger, Thirst and Dying 60 Section 9: The Indwelling Spirit 65 Section 10: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 67 Section 11: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 68 Section 12: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 69 Section 13: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 71 Section 14: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 73 Section 15: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 76 Section 16: The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.) 78 CHAPTER III: SANATKUMARA’S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA 81 The Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 2 Section 1: Name 82 Section 2: Speech 86 Section 3: Mind 88 Section 4: Will 89 Section 5: Memory 91 Section 6: Contemplation 93 Section 7: Understanding 94 Section 8: Strength 95 Section 9: Food 97 Section 10: Water 98 Section 11: Heat 99 Section 12: Ether 100 Section 13: Memory 101 Section 14: Hope 103 Section 15: Life 104 Section 16: Truth 107 Section 17: Truth and Understanding 108 Section 18: Thought and Understanding 108 Section 19: Faith 109 Section 20: Steadfastness 109 Section 21: Activity 110 Section 22: Happiness 110 Section 23: The Infinite 112 Section 24: The Infinite and the Finite 114 Section 25: The Ego and the Self 115 Section 26: The Primacy of Self 117 CHAPTER VI: AN ANALYSIS OF THE NATURE OF THE SELF 120 Section 1: The Universal Self Within the Heart and in the World 120 Section 2: Different Higher Worlds 126 Section 3: The Space Within the Heart 128 Section 4: Life Beyond 132 Section 5: Importance of Brahmacharya 133 Section 6: Course After Death 135 The Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 3 Section 7: Prajapati’s Instruction to Indra Concerning the Real Self 139 Section 8: The Bodily Self 142 Section 9: Indra Feels the Inadequacy of the Physical Theory 144 Section 10: The Dream Self 145 Section 11: The Self in Deep Sleep 146 Section 12: The Self as Spirit 148 Section 13: Exclamation of the Perfected Soul 159 Section 14: The Prayer of a Seeker for Eternal Life 160 Section 15: Parting Advice to the Pupil 160 APPENDIX I: SANDILYA-VIDYA 165 APPENDIX II: SAMVARGA-VIDYA 171 The Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 4 PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE The Chhandogya Upanishad is one of the most prominent among the major group of philosophical and mystical texts constituting one of the threefold foundation of India’s spiritual lore, the tripod of Indian Culture, being constituted of the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavadgita. While the Veda Samhitas are the recognised primary source of divine inspiration, their hidden intention, purported message, is supposed to be prominently revealed in the Upanishads. The Vedas are said to be capable of a variety of interpretation, - a knowledge of the adhidaiva or the transcendent divinity, adhibhuta or the created universe, adhyatma or the deepest subjective consciousness, adhiyajna or the field of action and sacrifice, and adhidharma or the function of law and order. Though, in a restricted sense, the adhyatma, in this mentioned classification, may appear as an insight into the perceiving and knowing subject as distinguished from its involvements in the objective universe and the transcendent divinity, thus categorising the Upanishads as records of inward revelations of the ancient sages, yet, the Upanishads constitute Adhyatma-Vidya or knowledge of the pure self in a wider sense, inasmuch as the self can be envisaged in the different degrees of its connotation and the many levels of its expression. God above, the universe outside, the society of persons and things in the midst of whom one’s own individuality may be included, are all, in the final analysis, comprehended within the status of the Absolute Self, so that, in its broad outlook the Upanishads may be considered as a groundwork in whose light may be studied every branch of knowledge and learning. Among the ten major Upanishads, the Chhandogya and the Brihadaranyaka stand above others in their grand stature and majesty, these two texts being viewed by scholars as representing the cosmic and the acosmic aspect of Reality. In the Brihadaranyaka there is a preponderating emphasis on the ultra-spiritual nature of every plane of existence and stage of evolution, a rather super-idealistic sweep of all the phenomena of experience. The Chhandogya, however, tries to be more realistic in its rather matter-of- fact consideration of the issues of life. This is the reason why, evidently, there is a prevalent feeling that the Chhandogya is saprapancha (considerate as to the visible forms of experience), while the Brihadaranyaka is nishprapancha (transcendent to all available experience). This exposition of the Chhandogya Upanishad is, perhaps, the most in-depth study ever made of its philosophical and spiritual message, and goes certainly as a companion to the author’s interpretative exposition of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in a separate volume. Herein, the first chapter constitutes a brilliant study of the Panchagni-Vidya and the Vaishvanara-Vidya sections occurring in the fifth chapter of the original text. This single chapter of the book may well form a classical presentation of a grand theme for the cosmical meditations characteristic of the Upanishads in general. The second chapter expounds the great content of sixth chapter of the original, constituting the instruction of Sage Uddalaka to his son Svetaketu. The third chapter is a study of the seventh section of the original, dealing with the majestic Bhuma-Vidya, being the teaching of Sage Sanatkumara to Narada. The fourth chapter studies the eighth section of the original, which actually concludes the Upanishad. The Samvarga-Vidya and the Sandilya-Vidya occurring at other places in the Upanishad are also included in the end as pieces of stimulating meditation of absorbing interest. The internal details of this vast The Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 5 study of the Upanishad can be gathered from the list of contents appended herein. May this valuable production come as a solacing blessing to seekers of Truth the world over. THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY SHIVANANDANAGAR, 23rd January, 1984. The Chhandogya Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda 6 CHAPTER ONE VAISHVANARA-VIDYA THE PANCHAGNI-VIDYA The Upanishads are mainly meditations intended to act as correctives to the binding effects that are produced by the phenomena of natural processes. While what we call a natural process subjects us to its own laws, these laws can be overcome and their imposition upon the individual can be counteracted by techniques of meditation. The philosophy of the Upanishads is that it is an ignorance of the way in which the Universe works that binds the individual to samsara,—the series of births and deaths. Our sorrows are, in a way, created by our own selves, because they follow as a consequence of our not abiding by the law of the universe. The affirmation of a reality independent of what really is, is called the ego. That is the centre of personality. This affirmation of individuality, jivatva, personality, or something separate from the organic structure of creation, is the cause of the sorrow or the suffering of the jiva, the individual manifested due to the affirmation of the ego. Births and deaths are the punishments, as it were, meted out to the individual in order that it may be reformed in the field of experience of the world for the purpose of enabling it to return to the normal state of consciousness which is universality of being, of which it is deprived at present due to the ignorance of its connection with the universe and a false notion that it has about its own self that it has an independence of its own. The sections of the Chhandogya Upanishad, which we are going to study, are a gradational ascent of knowledge for the purpose of meditations which lift us above the phenomena of ordinary experience, such as birth and death and bondage of every kind, and point to the methods of transcending all sorrow, whatever be its nature, and regaining the originality of being. The various sections that follow are a systematic teaching on what we may call Adhyatma-Vidya, or Atma-Vidya, a knowledge of the ultimate Self, which is the only remedy for the malady of empirical existence. This section which we are about to commence, is a treatise on a particular method of meditation called Panchagni-Vidya, the knowledge of the Five Fires, by which the Upanishad means the various processes of manifestation, or, we may say, evolution, it being one’s bondage and the way in which the cycle of transmigration revolves. There is a coming and going, descending and ascending in this samsara-chakra, or the revolving wheel of bondage. How it happens, and how one can be free from it, what are the methods to be employed for the purpose of freeing oneself from the clutches of this involuntary law that imposes itself upon us and binds us to its own mandate so that we do not seem to have any say in the matter of births and deaths or even the experiences that we have to pass through,—these are our themes.