Week 7 , Class 36, Oct 26 2022
Class Notes by Sharmila
In Srimad Bhagavatam, Rishi Dattatreya shares with Raja Yadu that one of his Gurus is a AjagaraH (meaning python). From the python we learn to be content and so it is considered a Guru. If we think of our lives, worldly dejection and worldly sorrows come into our lives unasked and unworked for. So logically, worldly pleasure and enjoyment will come into our lives unasked too and without working for them. So more specific than contentment is that we should not live for pleasure and not exert even one percent for pleasure. Just like pain comes into one’s life, pleasure will too. One is wasting their resources, time and effort on pleasure, instead we should invest those resources, time and effort into peace. This is the vision of our Upanishad course, to train us not in a scholarly way but rather through our own Vichara to be ready to change our identification. We pursue whatever we identify with. If we identify as a seeker/Mumukshu then how can we plan for pleasure!
Recap: The 16th lesson continues to focus on the MahaVakyas. The Vishaya (subject matter) determines our Sadhya. We will become as deep as our understanding of the subject. Our nature is ‘chit’ (awareness), we have forgotten that so our awareness is always extrovert towards articles, beings and circumstances. So our ‘chit’ becomes ‘chitta’ (thoughts). We are living in our own heads through our thoughts. The example that Pujya Swami Tejomayananda uses is – we are a clear crystal and when that crystal gets pushed into a red mug, then we feel that the crystal is red, and we go about living like that and forgetting that the crystal is actually clear, that thoughts depend on awareness. The Mahavakyas are still in line with ‘chitta’, it is thinking about a subject , but that subject is taking us back to ‘chit’. When we think of worldy objects, it makes us extrovert, whereas when we think of the Mahavakyas, it makes us more Antareeksha (inward looking). When we are completely inward looking, we rediscover ‘i am awareness’.
In Aittareya Upanishad 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 (3rd Adhyaya, 1st Khanda. 2nd and 3rd mantras):
In this mantra, words used are ‘samjnana’, meaning awareness ; ‘aajnana’ meaning Ishwara ; ‘vijnaana’ meaning secular knowledge; and ‘prajnana’ meaning sacred knowledge. The Rishis is sharing that there is awareness and all sorts of understanding that is founded on that awareness. ‘Mati’ means thought and ‘Manisha’ means independent thinking; ‘Jooti’ means depression and ‘vasha’ means sex – so there are thoughts towards depression and there are thoughts towards sex. In the beginning of chapter 10 of Bhagavad Gita, Bhagavan Krishna tells Arjuna ‘Purve chatvara’ – that there is the ancient four, which is our inner world (memory, mind, intellect and ego), which is older than any facet of creation. Bhagavan’s point is that He gave birth to them (referring to the ancient four). The same is being shared in the Upanishad, that there are so many types of thoughts but they are just thoughts (chitta) and we are ‘chit’. The Rishi then shifts from the inner world to the outer world and shares – All emerge, exist and end in awareness – all of this is in awareness. In Vishnu Sahasranama, there is a verse where the names of Bhagavan Vishnu are ‘KaH Kim Yat Tat’ (meaning who, what etc), and the implication is that every name is a name of Bhagavan Vishnu. Everything that is created has come from consciousness. Finally the Rishi says ‘Prajnanam Brahma’.We interact with creation in the outer world as we interact with creation in the inner world, and that which is ever present is consciousness, Brahma or infinite. It is the same outside and it is the same inside.
This Class: The lighter definition of ‘Upanishad’ is ‘near below sit’. The implication of ‘near below sit’ is to know who we are, and go deeper into who we are, by having the humility to learn from someone who knows who they are. The more intense/rigorous definition of ‘Upanishad’ is ‘near determination destroy’ who we are not. So Upanishad means ‘knowing who we are’, and ‘knowing who we are not’. Knowing who we are is ‘Viveka’ and knowing who we are not is ‘Vairagya’. In the language of Bhagavatam, knowing who we are is ‘Anvaya’, knowing who we are not is ‘Vyatirekha’. Knowing who we are not is withdrawing, and knowing who we are is contemplating.
Kathopanishad (1st Adyaya, 3rd Valli, 3rd Mantra) 1.3.3: “Atmanam rathinam viddhi shariram rathamevatu buddhism tu sarathim viddhi manaH pragrahameva cha”
Viddhi means to know/knowledge, rathinam means the owner of the chariot or jiva or ego, the chariot is the body, the charioteer is the intellect, the reins that the charioteer is holding is the mind. The whole visual here starts with the road, which represents the sense objects. On this road there are the horses which are the sense organs (four horses are part of this chariot). The chariot is the body, and the chariot (representing body) and horses (representing sense organs) are connected by the reins which is the mind. These reins are being held by the charioteer which is the intellect. And the ego owns all of this! Road, horses, chariot, reins, charioteer and owner – correspond to sense objects go into the sense organs – which is part of the body – which is managed by the mind – which is supervised by the intellect and propelled by the ego.
A scene with a chariot implies movement. The Rishis have consciously used the chariot as an example because all of us are in a ‘Jivan Yatra’. Yatra means to go/to move, which means to go outside but to move inside. The fulfillment of this is where we feel our Atma is not the jiva but our Atma is the Parama , jivatma to Paramatma. When we analyze our samskaras, the last of the sixteen samskaras is ‘Antyeshti’, which means the end. Here it means the end for the ego, we are born as jivas but that jiva must die not the body! If the jiva does not die, then the jiva does not change but the ‘ratha’ changes. This jiva feels that he/she owns this whole scene, and in our lives this is the sense of doership. Ownership and doership are synonymous. Wherever there is doership, deservership comes with that. That is why the horses just go towards recognition, appreciation and inclusion. So the Rishi says ‘dushta ashvaaH’ – dushta means wild/wicked. Taming of the wild horse (dushta asvaaH) is possible only by a ‘Vijnaanavaan’(one who is wise). A wise person knows the horses and trains the horses, they know the source of why the sense organs are wild and train them accordingly. A Vijnaanavaan knows the purpose of this journey, and the purpose of this journey is ‘Vishnu’ (one who is all pervading) which is synonymous with awareness. The Vijnaanavaan knows the path to the purpose, and the path to the purpose is emphasized in the verses as disciplining these horses. Pujya Swami Tejomayananda has shared that just as physical fitness is needed to be an athlete, disciplined senses are a general requirement for evolution.