C. THE ENCOUNTER
Yoga
Having realized “I am Brahman,”
one is released from all bondage.
KAIV U 17971
We climbed in search of the absolute object only to find that the very concept is contradictory, but we were not disappointed because we discovered pure consciousness, which is not an object. We descended by another way, the interior path, looking for the absolute subject, and when we thought we had found it, it eluded us, for we certainly are not the absolute subject. It is only the same absolute subject that can say “I am.” But where are we? Is there any place at all for what we definitively, or at least provisionally, are? It is too cold on the peak. It is too hot on the plains. Going up the way of transcendence we lost trace of Man. Coming down the path of interiorization we did not find any upward track. Is there any crossing, any encounter? Then only in these terms can we speak of salvation. A salvation that saves nobody is not truly salvation; it is a mockery. To install us as little monarchs in the realm within, and to try to convince us that the realm without is only an illusion, appears too much of an alienation and is in any event a lie. We spoke of a middle way and of an integrating experience. The traditional term for integration is yoga, the union of all polarities. Yoga leads to liberation. This is the moment to see whether moksa means freedom or flight, liberation or escapism.
a) The Fulfillment of the Person
Tat tvam asi
That art thou
We are still searching for the full meaning of advitiya. We have already seen that the nonduality of the One can be safeguarded only if the nature of the One is pure consciousness; thus we were introduced to the universal character of reality. But reality is not only universal; it is also concrete. The purusha or personal character of reality, that is, its polarity and interrelatedness, represents its concrete aspect. Concreteness, unlike particularity, is not incompatible with universality, but only with abstraction and generality. This personal or relational aspect of reality has already emerged. We have seen in fact how the third person and then the first person appeared on the horizon. This provided the only possible way to maintain empirical multiplicity without endangering metaphysical oneness. No wonder the personal character of reality is stressed in an Advaitic world view. In point of fact, what is the person if not pure relationship devoid of unrelated opaque points? Is personhood not precisely communion within polarities? Personality or personhood is pure Advaita. A real person is neither one nor two. It is not one, because an isolated, individualized “person” is a contradiction in terms. An I is only such if there is a thou, and the thou can only be such if there is a he/she/it giving scope to the utterance of the I to the thou and to the latter’s response. On the other hand, a real person is not two either. The thou is totally dependent on the I, of and from which it is the thou that it is. The I, furthermore, is not if the thou does not “make” it, does not allow it to be the I (of the thou) that it is. One cannot really isolate two “things” in the person.
The real person is beyond the singular and the plural. The person is never in the singular or properly in the plural. A plurality of “persons” is only a plurality of personified objects, a collectivity of individuals, not of real persons. Plurality can be posited only of the nonpersonal aspects of individuals. A plurality is always somewhat homogeneous qua plurality, and thus it is interchangeable. Personal relationships are not interchangeable. They are unique. In a word, the person does not belong to the realm of quantity. 98
Everything in the person is interrelated. Person is a net of relationships. An individualized person is an abstraction made for practical purposes. Any single person is a knot in that net of relationships. As a knot, it is unique and that concrete crossing of threads is irreducible to anything else. But the knot is made of threads. The threads--personal relationships--are not accidental relationships between two things or individuals; they constitute the person. Any other type of relations, that is, those that do not touch the knot, are precisely nonpersonal. What we call personal relationships are constitutive of the person in such a way that apart from them there is no other independent nucleus of relationships. Person is really one without a second. Each person is unique and has no second, no equivalent; it is a “moment” in this particular crossing within the cosmic web of reality. What is unique in each person is precisely the different--irreducible--situation and function of each one. Each knot is unique because it is that particular crossing of threads which constitutes precisely that knot and not another. It is not unique because it has a peculiar “substance” of its own but because the threads of reality cross in that particular point and not elsewhere. The knot is not just the threads, but it is nothing besides that particular crossing of threads. The Vedic metaphor of the loom is a valid contemporary symbol for the purusha character of the entire universe.
The clue to the mystery of the person is the thou. Without thou there is no I, but only a monolithic and lifeless block in a solipsistic pit. There is only an I when he is capable of uttering, discovering, creating, a thou. We have tried to catch this cry of the I from the beginning of this anthology. 99 But, again, the thou in order to be such is not a passive and lifeless receiver of the emanation of the I, but a living response, an answer, even at times a resistance. A thou is only such if there is room for his reaction, that is, if there is an empty space between the I and the thou. This empty space is the guarantee of personal intimacy and of freedom. In other words, only the existence of a common he/she/it discovered by both, or rather made possible by the very relationship between the I and the thou, makes this relationship possible, personal, and free. The I and the thou encounter each other in the he/she/it of the third person. If the response of the thou to the I could not go its own way, if it were obliged to return on the same track on which it came as an invitation and a challenge, there would be no freedom but simply an automatic reaction. It is the third person that permits a free response from the thou (which can then create its own way back) and itself is constituted by that very act. To discover oneself as a thou does not imply that one recognizes oneself as a mere puppet or imitation of the I. It does imply that one is aware of the many free responses the thou can give. This gift of the thou is the third person, the other, the world, the interval in which my being reaches its fulfillment responding to the I. The third person is the gift; there is here not a dialectical but a free dialogical relationship.
Now this is what the most important of all mahavakyas, according to tradition, is going to disclose to us. Because Brahman is the I, there is place for the thou: that art thou, the thou of the I, the thou of Brahman. This is what you are, a thou, nothing more and nothing less; nothing more, so that without the I you are sheer negative nothingness and have no consistency or existence of your own and do not belong to yourself, to your ego; but also nothing less, so that you are Brahman, of Brahman, equal to Brahman and have infinite value and are like Brahman, sat cit and ananda being, spirit, and glory. 100 That is what this Great Utterance affirms.
Brahman is the absolute, the One without a second. There is really no second, but there is an aham and also an ayam, a sa, a tad, a he. Significantly enough, the place for the thou is discovered only when the aham-brahman is realized in its proper way as an existential statement and not as a mere mental construct.
Before coming to the main text we may note that if this mahavakya were telling us only that we are Brahman, that is, “thou art that,” it would not be telling us anything new or different from the other mahavakyas we have already studied. We would not understand why tradition has accorded such immense importance to this particular one and has linked salvation with the realization of it. This mahavakya, however, has undoubtedly something very special to reveal: that we are the thou of Brahman, his partners, his offspring, his relation and relationship, and that we are the thou of the I.
We are not attempting at this point to elaborate a philosophical theory, to trace its outworkings in the different schools, or to discuss the many problems that arise from it. Our saying does not rule out the philosophical approach, but we are not concerned with that approach here. For instance, we are not obliged to agree with the much discussed doctrine of the one-sidedness of the relation “Brahman-world,” though one could defend that doctrine without contradicting the present interpretation. In other words, we do not present this mahavakya in a polemic way but simply try to convey an intuition.
This intuition entails the great conversion that the mahavakya is demanding from us, namely, that we should completely reverse the apparent order of things in order to acquire the true vision of reality. It requires from us a change of heart, just as it also demands the change of object into subject and vice versa, the overcoming of egocentrism, and the recovery of the true thou-character of the creature. It represents a radical change of perspective: we are a thou and the thou has meaning only for the I and existence only from the I. The thou is only “be-ing,” that is, a response, thanksgiving, and love. This response, moreover, is completely free; otherwise it would not be a response at all, but simply a mechanical echo. According to this intuition, our proper relationship with the Supreme--or the supreme relationship, for that matter--is not one of I-thou but, just the opposite, one of thou-I. The Absolute or Brahman or God (or any other term we may prefer) is not the thou (to whom we may pray or about whom we may think) but the I, and we are his thou. This personal aspect makes room for the total development of my being and my person.
We have already met Shvetaketu and his father, who has been instructing his son for a long time. We have now arrived back at the same chapter of the same Upanishad, perhaps accidentally. The culmination of this particular instruction starts, as did our previous text, with a reference to sleep within a context that stresses sat, being, as mula, the root, of everything. When a person sleeps, the text affirms, it is said that he has been unified with sat. 101 In a word, “All creatures, my friend, have sat as their root, have sat as their abode, have sat as their support [ground, pratishtha ].” 102 And now nine times in succession the great teaching is imparted, each time preceded by an analogy and concluded by the same sentence: “That which [is] this ultimate element, all this [world] has as its self, that is reality, that is atman, that art thou, Shvetaketu.” 103 There is a significant change of person from the original elliptic third person of the verb “to be” to the second person in the last part of the sentence--from the asti to the asi.
The tenor of all the examples is to reduce an empirical reality to its elements, to the ultimate animan or minutest element, the subtlest part, the atom. 104 Then the text proceeds to say that this simplest constituent part of that empirical reality is the same in the whole universe, in the idam sarvam, which we have often met. This is the atman of all, and it is through this atman that all that is, is. This is satyam, truth, reality, and this is also the atman. Up to this point we have been given the already familiar Upanishadic instruction: this is the atman, which is also brahman. Now comes something new. The subject of the sentence is the same and each time is explicitly repeated, tat, that. But the person of the verb changes; it becomes the second person and the discourse is now directed to Shvetaketu: “that are you,” “that art thou,” tat tvam asi. Literally, we may note, the text does not say “thou [subject] art that,” but just the reverse: “that [subject] art thou [predicate]” and rightly so, for if that refers to Brahman it can never be the predicate of anything. The sanskrit only acknowledge two personal pronouns: aham and twam, I and thou. Tad is a demonstrative pronouns.
That is atman, that is Brahman, that is reality. Now, that which you are, which is in you, the animan residing in you, that is, namely, tvam, a thou, the thou. It is not a different thing, it is not another “that,” it is your thou. You are, Shvetaketu, not an undiscriminated part of the universe, you are not just a thing among things; you are neither a faceless and amorphous atom lost among the myriad particles populating the universe, nor are you a totally different thing, you are not apart, you are not of another class, you do not belong to a second category of beings; there is no second in the ekam evadvitiyam. You are the thou of all this, you are the partner of Brahman, not different from him and much less separated, but you are his thou, his other pole, his tension, his “person,” as we might cautiously add. We say his person because, properly speaking, in the personal structure of being what is properly a person, in our common use of that word, is always the thou, the respondent, the beloved, the known. The I can be called a person only in what is for us a secondary way, while it is the thou that presents all the features of a personal existence. The human being is a person because he is a thou and he emerges as a person, not when he begins to feel or to know objects but when he realizes that he is being loved, known, watched, sought, and cared for, or, on the contrary, neglected or despised. Personhood arises with thou-awareness.
Shvetaketu, you are a person, a human person, a thou; you are inasmuch as you are loved, known, produced, by the I, inasmuch as you respond to this call, to this act of the I. You are not the I, Shvetaketu, there is only one I, only one I capable of saying in truth I am, aham-asmi, I am Brahman, aham-brahman. This is the paramatman, the ultimate atman. It resides in you, is you, and is you in such a way that only by realizing it can you become and are you, your-self. Tat tvam asi: Tat, Brahman, is a tvam, a thou in you. Brahman! you are a thou in Shvetaketu. This is possible, Shvetaketu, precisely because atman-brahman, that is, because that he, which you have discovered as being the I, that atman, which has been disclosed, revealed to you as brahman, is, has a thou in you--otherwise you would not be. But you are, you are a thou, the bridge between the atman and brahman, the link that unites and identifies them. It is this discovery of pure consciousness of prajnanam brahman which makes this possible, because neither are you without the I nor is He without you. And it is this realization of yours which makes you emerge as a tvam, a thou which is not dvandva, not duality, but the very expression of the advitiyam, of the nonduality of the ekam, of the One.
The whole of reality subsists in this relational or personal structure. Brahman, the nature of which is pure consciousness is the unique and ultimate I which exists precisely because it has a thou, which responds to its own constitutive calling by responding via the he, the atman, without splitting the pure oneness of all. This stretching of the Nonduality, this tension and polarity within the One, making it really nondual but without breaking its oneness, is precisely the mystery of life disclosed in the Upanishads, whose climax is found in the experience of tat tvam asi.
No wonder that Shvetaketu asks his father for nine different explanations until he finally understands. It is significant that the last example is no longer of a material but of a moral kind. The fact that the innocent man is not burned in the ordeal, that is, that the truth, “this is the that which is the whole world, reality, the atman,” is self-authenticating--this is what brings Shvetaketu to the realization that he is a thou: tat tvam asi.
The many texts expounding the thou help us to grasp this notion better, and once we have discovered it experientially it will bring us to all the peace and bliss of Brahman.
You
Tvam
10 We have already seen many texts that stress the importance of idam, this; and of tat, that. They are intended to sharpen our awareness of all that there is. They lead us to pierce the veil of appearances and discover the satyasya satyam, the truth of the real.
The following texts no longer stress ecstatic consciousness, but emphasize the tvam, the thou. They intend to make us aware of the unique position of the thou, of the person, of the nonobjectifiable in ourselves. We recover what had seemed lost in the pure awareness of the I.
Tvam
CU VI, 8-14; 16
i) 8, 1. Uddalaka Aruni spoke to his son Shvetaketu:
“Learn from me, my son, concerning the state of [deep] sleep. When a person here sleeps, my dear, then he has attained Being; because he has entered into himself, therefore they say ‘he sleeps,’ for he has entered into himself.
2. “Just as a bird, tied to a string, after flying about in different directions and not finding any other resting place, finally finds a perch in the place of its captivity, so also the mind, my dear, after flying about in different directions and not finding any other resting place finally finds a support in the breath of life, for the mind, my dear, is tied to the breath of life.
3. “Learn from me, my son, concerning hunger and thirst. When a person here is hungry, it is water that carries off his food. Just as people speak of a carrier-off of cows, a carrier-off of horses, a carrier-off of men, so also water is called the carrier-off of food.
So, you must know, my dear, that this [body] is an offshoot, for there nothing will be without a root.
4. “What else could be [the body’s] root but food? Likewise, my dear, if we regard food as an offshoot, we must look for water as its root, if we regard water as an offshoot, we must look for heat as its root, and if we regard heat as an offshoot, we must look for Being as its root.
“All these living beings, my dear, have their root in Being, have their resting place in Being, have their support in Being.
5. “When a person here is thirsty, it is heat that carries off his drink. As they speak of a carrier-off of cows, a carrier-off of horses, a carrier-off of men, so also heat is called a carrier-off of water.”
“So you must know, my dear, that this is an offshoot for there nothing will be without a root.
6. “Now, what else could be [the body’s] root but water? Likewise, my son, if we regard water as an offshoot we must look for heat as its root, and if we regard heat as an offshoot, we must look for Being as its root.”
“For, my dear, all these living beings have Being as their root, have their resting place in Being, have their support in Being.
“Now my dear, it has already been explained how these three divinities, having entered the realm of the human, each become threefold.
“When a person, my dear, departs from here his speech is absorbed in his mind, his mind is absorbed in his breath of life, his breath of life in heat, and heat in the highest divinity.
7. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self:
“That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
9, 1. “Just as, my dear, the bees prepare honey, collecting the juices from different trees and making one juice out of them,
2. “and just as these juices cannot distinguish anymore that ‘I am the juice of this particular tree, I am the juice of that particular tree,” likewise, my dear, all these living beings, once they have been united with Being, do not know that they have been united with Being.
3. “Whatever they are here, either a tiger or a lion or a wolf or a bear or a bird or an insect or a mosquito, they become that.
4. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self: That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
10, 1. “The rivers, my dear, flow, those in the East toward the East and those in the West toward the West. They flow from ocean to ocean and they become the ocean. Just as these rivers do not know any longer that ‘I am this one, I am that one,’
2. “likewise, my dear, all these living beings, having attained Being, do not know that “ we have reached Being,” whatever they are here, either a tiger or a lion or a wolf or a bear or a worm or a bird or an insect or a mosquito, that they become [again].
3. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self:
That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
11, 1. “If my dear, someone were to cut this mighty tree at its root, its sap would flow because it is alive. If someone were to cut it in the middle, its sap would flow because it is alive. If someone were to cut it at its top, its sap would flow because it is alive. Thus it stands, pervaded by the living atman rejoicing and full of sap.
2. “If life abandons one of its branches, that branch dries up. If it abandons a second branch, that too dries up. So too if it abandons a third, it dries up. If it abandons the whole tree, the whole tree dries up. In the same way, my dear, you should know!” Thus he said,
3. “This body dies when deprived of life, but life does not die. That which is this finest element the whole world has for its self. That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
12, 1. “Bring me a fruit of the fig tree!”
“Here it is, sir.”
“Break it open!”
“There it is, sir!”
“What do you see?”
“These fine seeds, like tiny particles.”
“Break one open!”
“There it is, sir.”
“What do you see?”
“Nothing at all, sir!”
2. He said to him: “Believe me, my dear! This finest element, which you cannot perceive--out of this finest element, my dear, comes this big fig tree!
3. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self: That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
13, 1. “Put this salt in the water and come to me again tomorrow morning.” He did so. Then he said to him: “Bring the salt that you put in the water last evening!”
When he searched for it, he could not find it, for it was all dissolved.
2. “Taste the water on this side! How does it taste?”
“Salty.”
“Taste from the middle; how does it taste?”
“Salty.”
“Taste from that side; how does it taste?”
“Salty.”
“Taste once more and come to me!”
He did so, [saying] “it is always the same.”
Then his father said to him: “In the same way you do not perceive Being here, although it is always present.”
3. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self: That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
14, 1. “Imagine, my dear, that a person is led away blindfold from the land of the Gandharas and abandoned in the wilderness. This man would stray toward the East or the North or the West or the South, for he has been abandoned blindfold.
2. “But if someone were to undo his bandage and tell him, ‘In this direction is the land of the Gandharas, go in this direction,” the man, if he were intelligent and wise, by asking his way from village to village, would reach the land of the Gandharas. In the same way a person who has found a master knows, ‘I shall remain here as long as I am not liberated and after that I shall attain the goal.’
3. “That which is this finest element, the whole world has for its self: That is truth: that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!”
“Let me learn even more, sir!”
“Very well, my dear,” he said.
16, 1. “Imagine, my dear, that people bring a man handcuffed [to the ordeal], asserting: ‘He has stolen, he has committed a theft! Heat the ax for him [to test him]!” If he is the culprit then his untruth will be demonstrated. By telling untruth he tries to protect himself with untruth and, touching the heated ax, he is burned, and then he is killed.
2. “But if he is not guilty, his truth will be demonstrated. By telling the truth he protects himself with truth and, touching the heated ax, he is not burned, and then he is released.
3. “That [truth] on account of which he is not burned, is of the same nature as all this. That is truth; that is the atman; that are you, Shvetaketu!” Thereupon he realized, yes, he realized.
TU I, 1
ii) Hari OM.
May Mitra give us peace,
may Varuna give us peace,
may Aryaman give us peace,
may Indra and Brhaspati give us peace,
may Vishnu, the far-striding, give us peace!
Adoration be to Brahman!
Adoration be to Vayu!
You are in truth the visible Brahman.
I will proclaim you as the visible Brahman.
I will speak the right, I will speak the truth.
May this protect me, may it protect my teacher!
May this protect me, may it protect my teacher!
OM peace, peace, peace!
KAIV U 16
iii) That which is the supreme Brahman
the atman of all, the great foundation
of this whole universe, more subtle
than the subtle, eternal--that are you!
You are that!
i) 8, 1. State of [deep] sleep: svapnanta, lit. end of the dream.
Attained Being: sata . . . sampanno bhavati; may be meant as another popular etymology.
The text connects the root svap- (to sleep or dream) with sva, self (cf. SP X, 5, 2, 14; BU II, 1, 17; § VI 4; etc): He sleeps (svapiti).
He has entered into himself: svam hy apito bhavati.
8, 2. Cf. SB X, 3, 3, 6. Mind: manas.
Breath of life: pranah
8, 3. Uddalaka teaches his son to search for the root of every phenomenon (vv. 3-6), which leads ultimately to the discovery of the ultimate indivisible particle (animan), the atman (v. 7). Another play on words: naya, carrier, leader; ashanaya, hunger; asha-naya, carrier-off, (leader) of food. The verbal root ash- means, in fact, to eat, but there is no word asha for food. The underlying biological conception is that water washes away food, thus producing hunger.
Offshoot: shunga, the sheath or calyx of a bud; here in the figurative sense of result, effect.
Without a root: amula, without a cause.
8, 4. Being; sat.
8, 6. See CU VI, 5, 1-4, where food (anna) is related to mind (manas), water (apah) to life breath (prana), and heat (tejas) to speech (vac).
Divinities: devatah, potencies, realms principles (tejas, apah, anna). The next sentence of this paragraph undoubtedly belongs to the following one, and it has been shifted accordingly.
8, 7. Finest element: animan, from anu (atom), minuteness, atomic nature. Cf. the ordinary use of this word above (CU VI, 6, 1): “When churned the finest element of the milk becomes butter.”
That are you: tat tvam asi (mahavakya).
9, 1. Juices: rasah, nectar Cf. MaitU VI, 22 (§ VI 12) for the same metaphor of honey.
9, 3. They become that: tad abhavanti, controversial sentence which may indicate that particular things remain particular--also in their self-consciousness or identity--insofar as they remain “individualized.”
10, 2. Having attained Being . . .or having come forth from Being: they don’t know that they have attained or come forth from Being.
11, 1. In the example of the tree (vrksha), atman is identical with life (jiva).
11, 3. Life does not die: na jivo mriyata iti.
12, 1. Fig tree: nyagrodha, banyan tree.
14. Salvation is a return home from exile, and the way is shown both by a guide (acarya) and by one’s own intelligence. Cf. KathU II, 8.
15, 1-2. Cf. § IV 5.
15, 3. The same refrain as in 14, 3.
16, 1. The simile of the ordeal shows the power of truth, in the sense of “truthfulness” (satya).
16, 3. Realized: vijajnau, he knew or understood.
ii) This is the invocation (shanti-mantra) of the TU.
You: tvam, probably referring to Vayu, the divinity invoked by the student, but we may understand it in a broader sense. The “you” (any “you”) is the visible, perceptible (pratyaksha) aspect of Brahman: tvam eva pratyaksham brahmasi.
iii) 16. That are you . . .: tat tvam eva, tvam eva tat.
17 b. Cf. § VI C Antiphon.
Liberation
Moksha
11 The entire purport of the shruti is liberation or freedom. Freedom may be interpreted in many ways. It is Brahman, it is atman, it is nirvana. Or it can be said to consist in Being, in Happiness, in Release from all bondage. More numerous still are the ways supposed to lead to it. Right action, true knowledge, and real love are the classical ways.
Our selection stresses only some features of moksha. The thrust of most of the texts is true to the basic meaning of the word, from the root muc- or moksh-, to loose, to free, release, let loose, let go, and thus also to spare, to let live, to allow to depart, to dispatch, to dismiss, and even to relax, to spend, bestow, give away, to open. There is a climate of simplification, of elimination, of utter freedom and even unconcern, which forms one of the fundamental features of the entire Vedic experience. Not by accumulation and increased concern, but by simplification and unconcern, will Man reach his final destination. The consequences of this attitude are a whole life-style.
Moksha
YV XXXI, 18
i) I know that Primordial Man, golden as the sun,
beyond darkness. Knowing him a man even now
becomes immortal. This is the way
to attain him; there is no other.
BU IV, 4, 3-7; 15-21
ii) 3. Just as a caterpillar, having reached the end of a blade of grass and approaching another one, collects itself [for making the transition], even so this atman, having discarded the body and overcome ignorance, approaching another one collects itself [for making the transition].
4. Just as a goldsmith, taking an object of gold, fashions it afresh into another new and more beautiful form, so the atman, discarding this body and dispersing its ignorance, makes for itself another new and more beautiful form: that of the Fathers, the spirits, the Gods, Prajapati, Brahman, or of other beings.
5. This atman is in truth Brahman, consisting of consciousness, mind, life, eye, ear, earth, water, air, atmosphere, light and no light, of desire and desirelessness, of anger and freedom from anger, of righteousness and unrighteousness, consisting of all that. Hence it is said: it consists of this, it consists of that. According to one’s deeds, according to one’s behavior, so one becomes. The one who does good becomes good, the one who does evil becomes evil. One becomes virtuous by virtuous action and evil by evil action. But others say: Man consists of desire; as is his desire, so is his intention, and as is his intention, so is his action. And whatever action he does, that he obtains.
6. On this there is a verse:
That to which the heart is attached,
toward this the subtle body moves
together with its action which still adheres.
Attaining the goal of whatever actions
he performed here on earth, he goes once more
from that world to this world of action.
This refers to the man of desire.
The man free from desire, the one who is without desire, released from desire, whose desires are fulfilled, whose only desire is the atman--his life does not depart. Being just Brahman, he goes to Brahman.
7. On this there is a verse:
When he is released from all the desires
that bind the heart, then mortal man
even here becomes immortal and realizes Brahman.
Just as the cast-off skin of a snake lies on an anthill, dead, discarded, even so does this body lie. This disembodied immortal life is in truth Brahman, it is indeed Light; O king!
“I give you a thousand [cows],” said Janaka, [the lord] of Videha.
15. If one sees God face to face as the atman,
as Lord of what has been and what shall be,
one shrinks not from him.
16. That in the wake of which the year
revolves together with its days--
that the Gods worship as Light of lights,
as life immortal.
17. On whom are established the five times five
beings, and space--him I believe
to be the atman, knowing him, the deathless,
as the deathless Brahman.
18. Those who know the breath of breath,
the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear,
and the mind of the mind--they have realized
Brahman, ancient and primeval.
19. Only by the mind is it to be seen.
In it there is no plurality. The man
who perceives what seems to be plurality here
proceeds from death to death.
20. Only in oneness is it to be seen,
the stable atman, immeasurable.
Free from blemish is it, beyond space,
unborn, great, unwavering.
21. Let the wise, the knowers of Brahman, realizing Him,
practice their wisdom. Let them not ponder
many words, for in speech is mere weariness.
KEN U II, 4-5
iii) 4. [Brahman] is grasped in a flash of awakening.
Then it is thought that one attains immortality.
By the atman one achieves spiritual strength,
and by wisdom is found immortality.
5. Wherever he is known, there is truth;
wherever not known, ruination.
Discerning him in every being,
the wise, departing from this world, become immortal.
KATH U VI, 4-11
iv) 4. If here and now one knows him before
the decay of the body, then one is prepared
to receive a body in the worlds of creation.
5. In the atman one sees as it were in a mirror,
in the world of the Fathers one sees as in a dream,
in the world of the spirits, as reflection in water,
in the world of Brahman, as light and shade.
6. When the wise man knows the sense perceptions--
their rising and their setting, each one in separation--
and the origin of each, then he grieves no more.
7. Beyond the senses is the mind,
beyond the mind, pure intellect,
beyond the intellect, the great atman,
beyond the great, the Unmanifest.
8. Beyond the unmanifest, moreover, is the Person,
all-pervading, uncharacterized.
When a man knows him, he attains liberation
and proceeds to immortality.
9. His form is not in the field of vision.
No one is able to see him with the eye.
Apprehending him by heart, by thought, and by mind,
those who know him thus become immortal.
10. When the five organs of perception are still,
together with the mind, when the reason does not function--
this they aver to be the highest state.
11. This they deem to be yoga--the steady
concentration of the senses. Man then becomes
pure attention, for yoga is both
origin and extinction.
SU I, 6-10; 12
v) 6. In this great wheel of Brahman, the life
and foundation of all, the soul wanders like a swan,
thinking himself and the Inspirer to be separate.
When grace comes from Him, he attains immortality.
7. This has been praised as the supreme Brahman
in which the threefold reality is established
and imperishable. Those who know Brahman within,
realizing Brahman and absorbed in Brahman,
are released from birth.
8. The Lord encompasses this all, composed
of things perishable and imperishable, formed and unformed.
The self, a mere enjoyer, suffers without a Lord,
but he who knows God is freed from all fetters.
9. Two are unborn, the knower and the ignorant;
the Lord and the not-Lord. The one, an enjoyer,
is chained to enjoyments; the other, the atman,
is infinite, of universal form, nonactive.
By knowing the threefold, one also knows Brahman.
10. Perishable is matter; immortal, imperishable
the Lord, who, the One, controls the perishable
and also the soul. Meditating on him,
uniting with him, becoming more and more like him,
one is freed at the last from the world’s illusion.
12. The Eternal which resides in the atman should be known.
Beyond this there is nothing that needs to be known.
The enjoyer, the object of enjoyment, the Inspirer--
this has been declared to be the All, the threefold Brahman.
SU II, 14-15
vi) 14. As a mirror covered with dust, when cleaned,
shines with fresh brightness, so the embodied self
is unified on seeing the atman’s true nature,
attains its goal and is released from sorrow.
15. He who with the truth of the atman, unified,
perceives the truth of Brahman, as with a lamp,
who knows God, the unborn, the stable, the One free
from all forms of being, is released from all fetters.
MUND U II, 2, 9
vii) When the knot of the heart is loosened, then
all doubts are dispelled and all works abolished
of the one who has seen the highest and the lowest.
MUND U III, 2, 1-9
viii) 1. He knows the supreme abode of Brahman,
established in which the universe shines brightly.
Free from desires, the wise worship the Person,
and thus transcend the state of impurity.
2. He who is full of desires and hankerings
is reborn here and there, owing to his desires.
But he whose desires are fullfilled, whose self is perfected--
the desires of that man disappear here on earth.
4. The atman is not reached by the man devoid of strength,
or by the careless one, or by vain practice of austerity.
But if one who knows strives by these means,
his self enters the abode of Brahman.
5. Attaining him, the seers, replete with knowledge,
perfected, free from all passion, tranquil,
pass into him who pervades all things everywhere
and enter the All with wisdom and steadiness.
6. Those who have mastered Vedantic wisdom
and purified their natures by sustained renunciation,
are all liberated completely and dwell, immortal,
at the end of time in the world of Brahman.
7. The fifteen parts return to their origin,
and all the powers, to their respective divinities.
One’s deeds, united with the wise atman,
merge in the supreme, immutable Being.
8. Just as rivers flowing to the ocean
merge in it, losing their name and form,
so the wise Man, freed from name and form,
attains the supreme, divine Person.
9. Who knows the supreme Brahman himself becomes Brahman.
Among his people no one ignorant of Brahman will be born.
He overcomes sorrow and sin; released
from the secret inner knots he becomes immortal.
KAIV U 7-10
ix) 7. Contemplating him who has neither beginning,
middle, nor end, the One, the all-pervading,
who is intellect and bliss, the formless, the wonderful,
whose consort is Uma, the highest Lord, the ruler,
having three eyes and a blue throat, the peaceful--
the silent sage reaches the source of Being,
the universal witness, on the other shore of darkness.
8. He is Brahma, he is Siva, he is Indra,
he is the Imperishable, the supreme Majesty.
He is Vishnu, he is life, he is time,
he is fire, and also the moon.
9. He is all, what has been and what shall be, eternal.
Having realized him, one overcomes death.
No other path leads to liberation.
10. When he sees the atman dwelling in all beings
and all beings within the atman, he departs
to the supreme Brahman. There is no other way.
i) This verse has been integrated in SU III, 8 (§ VI 7, with a slightly different translation).
Primordial Man: purusha.
ii) 1-2. Cf. § V 12.
3. Collects itself. atmanam upasamharati, also meaning to withdraw, to absorb, hence the double meaning (physical in the example of the caterpillar, spiritual in the case of the atman).
atman: the Madhyandina recension has purusha, i.e., here the sense of person is implied in atman.
4. More beautiful form: kalyanataram rupam. Cf. IsU 16 (§ VII 31).
Spirits: Gandharvas.
5. Consisting of consciousness: vijnanamaya; cf. BU II, 1, 16 (§ VI 4), etc.
Righteousness: dharmamaya.
According to one’s deeds yathakarin, i-e., karman.
Behavior: yathacarin, i.e., carita, “ay of life.” There is a distinction between actions and behavior; cf. TU I, 11, 2.
Consists of desire: kamamaya.
Intention: kratu, will.
Action: karman.
6. Heart: manas, the mind, the spirit.
Subtle body: linga.
Man of desire: kamayamana.
Whose only desire is the atman: atma-kama.
Life: pranah.
7. Cf. KathU VI, 14 (§ V 5).
Realizes: samashnute, attains, reaches, unites with Brahman.
Disembodied immortal life: a-shariro ‘mrtah, pranah.
Light: tejas.
8. Cf. § V 27.
12. Cf. § V 19.
13-14. Cf. § IV 6.
15. God: deva.
Face to face: anjasa, straight, direct, immediate, clear.
Lord: isha.
Cf. KathU IV, 12 (§ VII 52).
16. Life immortal: ayur . . . amrtam; life span, time, world, . . . immortal.
17. Five times five beings: according to the commentator, the Gandharvas, the Fathers, Gods, asuras and rakshas (cf. AB III, 31). The expression can also refer to the sense organs, or to five groups of people. Cf. also SU I, 5.
Space: akasha.
19. Plurality: nana, variety, diversity.
20. Immeasurable: aprameya, or indemonstrable.
21. Practice . . . wisdom: prajnam kurvita; it can mean that spiritual practices should be continued as well as that the wisdom should not remain theoretical but be put into practice.
In speech is mere weariness: vaco viglapanam hi tat, to reflect on words leads to weariness; words lose their original strength.
22-25. Cf. § VI 6.
iii) 1-3. Cf. § VI 4.
4. Flash of awakening: pratibodha, illumination; cf. BU IV, 4, 13 (§ IV 6).
Spiritual strength: virya; energy.
Wisdom: vidya; cf. IsU II (§ VII 21).
5. He: or it, Brahman, or also the atman. Cf. BU IV, 4, 14 (§ IV 6).
Ruination: mahati vinashtih, great loss or destruction.
iv) 1-3. Cf. V 5.
4. This difficult text has received many interpretations and also readings. Either it says that the knowledge of Brahman is not enough to liberate man from bondage to the body (against tradition), or the embodiment does not seem to be the imprisonment of the atman.
5. The different modes of vision in the different states. Cf. BU IV, 4, 4 (§ VI 11).
Spirits: Gandharvas, beings dwelling in the air Cf. BU IV, 3, 33 for the different worlds.
As light and shade: lit. as shade and heat, i.e., with clear distinction.
6. Sense perceptions: indriyas, senses. Observing the process of sense perception is a yogic exercise.
7. Mind: manas.
Pure intellect: sattva.
Unmanifest: avyaktam uttamam, lit. the supreme unmanifest (atman).
8. Unmanifest: avyakta.
Person: purusha.
9. Cf. SU IV, 20.
In the field of vision: samdrshe.
By heart, by thought, and by mind: hrda mansha manasa. Cf. RV X, 129, 4 (§ I 1).
10. Organs of perception: jnanani, i.e.; indriyani.
Reason: buddhi, the highest mental organ.
Highest state: paramam gatim, supreme attainment.
11. Concentration: dharana, the “holding fast,” a discipline of yoga. (Cf. YS II, 29; III, 1).
Pure attention: apramatta, lit. vigilant, attentive.
Origin and extinction: prabhava-apyayau. Another interpretation says that yoga is coming and going and that, as it can be lost, one has to be attentive to maintain one’s concentration.
12-13. Cf. § VI 9.
14-18. Cf. § V 5. These shlokas should also be considered here.
v) 6. Wheel of Brahman: brahma-cakra, the samsara.
The soul wanders like a swan: hamso bhramyate.
Inspirer: preritr, from the verb pra-ir-, to move, to impel, hence the impeller, the mover, the inciter. Cf. also KenU I, 1 (§ VI 3), (keneshitam . . . ).
7. Threefold reality: the world, the Self, and the Lord; or nature, the soul, and God. Cf. vv. 6; 9.
Imperishable: akshara.
Who know Brahman within: antaram brahmavidah, or the Brahman-knowers, discerning that which is within it.
Released from birth: yoni-muktah, freed from the womb.
8. Formed and unformed: vyaktavyakta, manifest and unmanifest.
Lord: isha. Cf. KathU III, 4.
God: deva.
9. Unborn: aja; both the Lord and the individual soul are unborn.
Threefold: cf. v. 7. Brahman is the reality underlying the three and is thus realized when the three are known.
10. Matter: pradhana, primary nature.
Lord: hara, the remover, the destroyer, i.e., Siva.
The One: deva ekah, the unique God.
Becoming more and more like him: tattva-bhavad bhuyah, becoming more and more of his being, essence, nature. Cf. KathU VI, 13 (§ VI 9).
Freed . . . from the world’s illusion: vishva-maya-nivrttih, cessation of the universal ignorance, released from the power of this world.
11. C.f. § IV 21.
12. Eternal: nitya.
Enjoyer bhoktr, the soul.
Object of enjoyment: bhogya, the “food” of the soul, the world.
Inspirer preritr, the Lord.
Threefold Brahman: trividham brahman, i.e., Brahman in its threefold manifestation as bhoktr, bhogya, and preritr.
vi) 14. Mirror: bimba; the only occurrence in the Veda.
Unified: ekah. . . bhavate.
True nature: atma-tattvam.
Released from sorrow: vita-shoka, transcended sorrow.
15. Truth of the atman: atma-tattva, reality, “thatness” of the atman (and of Brahman).
Unified: yukta (cf. yoga).
Who knows God: jnatva devam.
vii) Cf. CU VII, 26, 2 (§ VI 3); KathU VI, 15 (§ V 5).
The highest and the lowest: paravare; the ultimate vision includes also the lower realms of reality (cf. also the later Vedantic conception of Brahman as para and apara).
viii) 1. Supreme abode of Brahman: paramam brahma dhama.
Worship the Person: upasate purusham, meditate on the purusha. Cf. MaitU VI, 24 (§ VI 12).
Transcend the state of impurity: ashukram . . . ativartanti; the common variant reading is shukram, in which case it would mean: transcend the seed (or semen), i.e., do not procreate.
2. Self is perfected: krtatmanah.
Cf. KathU II, 23 (§ VI 5), the same stanza.
4. By the man devoid of strength: bala-hinena; both physical and psychic strength are prerequisites for the spiritual path.
Vain practice of austerity: tapaso vapy alingat, i.e., asceticism without understanding, proper direction, and proper attitude.
5. Perfected: krtatmanah, cf. CU VIII, 13 (§ IV 21), corresponding to yuktatmanah in 1. 4 ("with concentrated, controlled Self").
Free from all passion: vita-ragah, beyond attachment (an important concept in Jaina spirituality).
6. Mastered Vedantic wisdom: vedanta-vijnana-sunishcitartah, who have understood the meaning of Vedantic knowledge, the wisdom of the Veda’s end.
By sustained renunciation: sannyasa-yogat, lit. by the yoga (practice) of sannyasa.
7. Fifteen parts: the constituent parts of the person; cf. PrasnU VI, 2-5.
Powers: devah, i.e., the sense organs dissolve into their respective elements.
One’s deeds; united with the wise atman: karmani vijnanamayash catma, the two aspects of the person, the material and the spiritual.
8. Cf. VI B a Introduction. Cf. PrasnU VI, 5.
Freed from name and form: nama-rupad vimuktah, released from the phenomenal world.
Supreme: parat param, higher than the high, the highest.
Divine Person: purusham . . . divyam.
9. Overcomes sorrow and sin: tarati shokam tarati papmanam. Cf. CU VII, 1, 3; 26, 2 (§§ IV 6; VI 3).
Secret, inner knots: guha-granthibhyah, the knots of the (hidden) cave, the heart.
10. Cf § I 37.
ix) 2-6. Cf. § III 31.
7. Formless: arupa.
Wonderful: adbhuta, surprising.
Whose consort is Uma: i.e., Siva, whose description follows (trilocana and nilakantha are classical epithets of Siva).
Highest Lord: parameshvara.
Source of Being: bhuta-yoni.
Supreme Majesty: paramah svara.
Life: prana.
Time: kala, a great power extolled in AV XIX, 53; 54 to which this U belongs (§§ II 7; 8).
9. Cf. YV XXXI, 18 (i).
10. Cf. BU IV, 4, 23 (§ VI, 6).
No other way: nanyena hetuna, lit. by no other cause.
11. Cf. § VI 12.
b) The Absolute Simplicity
OM
Deep down in the most profound recesses of Man’s being there is a longing, even a need, for the simplification of his entire life, not only in words but also in deeds. After a period of almost unquenchable thirst for experience and knowledge there comes a period of saturation which leads to maturity, provided Man is wise enough to check at the right time the continuing intake of information and stimuli through which he tries to elaborate his personal and unique synthesis, his own world view, his wisdom. He then becomes conscious of the littleness of both his knowledge and his ignorance. He has, at this stage, two ways open to him: either to begin all over again and increase and broaden the flow of information, or to begin to simplify, to condense, to concentrate, so that all once again becomes simple, more transparent, as if he were recovering his lost innocence, though in a higher degree and a deeper sense. This may happen because he has attained enlightenment, though it may also occur when a Man, realizing that he will never master the whole domain of knowledge and human experience, makes a virtue of necessity and acts accordingly. Man is beginning to grow old and wise. He is no longer so quick and alert as he was; he does not even know as much as the next generation which has profited almost painlessly from the efforts of his own. He is now simplifying things, both outwardly and inwardly; more and more he finds that he prefers sutras to lengthy treatises; indeed, he is becoming a sutra himself. In an unsurpassable way one Upanishad puts it: “Just as all the leaves of a sprig are held together by its stem, so all words [sarva vak] are held together by the sound OM.” 105 This om is not mere reductionism of the bountiful reality: “The omkara is idam sarvam, all this, the entire universe.” 106 Simplification does not mean amputating reality; it has, certainly, the danger of degenerating into reductionism, just as a false sublimation becomes sheer repression, but authentic simplification does not chop away the real. Simplicity is the power of concentrating the real in bringing it to the full human scale, to the unity and dimensions of the purusha.
By virtue of the anthropocosmic homology peculiar to the shrautic wisdom, the process we have just described as affecting Man is not regarded as a mere sign of psychological maturity but is also interpreted in all its cosmic and divine implications. It is not only Man who feels the need to simplify; the cosmos also strives toward unification and God himself desires, as it were, to regain the pure
source from which the whole creation has come about; or, in the words of one Upanishad, 107 the threefold offspring of Prajapati, devas, Men, and asuras, listening to the teachings of their Father, all alike said om, yes. 108
The first function or meaning of om is to condense and simplify without jettisoning anything of value. The second function is to be a response to Man’s need for affirmation, for acceptance, for saying yes (or amen, which some earlier scholars would have liked to connect with om). Om is yes, fulfillment, or, as the Chandogya Upanishad puts it, “truly this syllable is assent--and this is indeed fulfillment.” 109 It is not so much, as a hurried reading of some texts might induce us to believe, that the mere pronounciation of om fulfills all desires and forgives all sins, but the other way around, that he who has fulfilled and is fulfilling his desires is led to exclaim and to chant the imperishable om. 110
This anthology of hymns, prayers, and meditations starts with the Gayatri mantra and concludes with om. The first is the most important of all mantras; the second is the best known of all syllables throughout the centuries, the most used day by day. Though differing in origin and import, both express in different ways the Ultimate Reality.
The sacred syllable om is extremely simple. It is formed of three elements, A and U, which combine to make the sound O, and M, which prolongs the O in a nasal resonance. It is thus composed of three letters in a single sound. The syllable om is not found in the Rig Veda or the Atharva Veda. We find its first veiled appearance in the Taittiriya Samhita of the Black YajurVeda, 111 and it is frequently used in the Brahmanas where it is generally the response of the priest, who presents the offerings (the adhvaryu), to versicles of the Rig Veda pronounced by the officiating priest (the hotr). It appears that in that period this sound expressed acquiescence in the action that was taking place or in the formulas that were being uttered: “So be it!” In the Aitareya Brahmana, however, a deeper significance is attached to om. It now signifies the “essence” both of the Vedas and of the whole cosmos. The Upanishads, pursuing this meaning further, not only saw in this syllable an expression of Brahman but also identified om with Brahman, that is, with brahman as manifested by the sound of om.
Several Upanishads endeavor in various ways to describe and explain more fully the syllable om. In the Katha Upanishad, when Naciketas requests Yama to give him instruction concerning eternal reality, the latter replies that the whole revelation of the Vedas and the aim of all ascetic practice and holy living has no meaning apart from Brahman, which the syllable om alone is capable of expressing: “This syllable indeed is eternal Brahman.” 112 One can only say, perhaps, that the sound om, so simple, so inarticulate, passing as it does into complete silence, constitutes the last possible support upon which a Man may lean before returning into the silence of the Absolute, of Brahman. It is in fact the word “support” that verse 17 of this same chapter uses to define om, the final, supreme support; once one has comprehended its nature one has already passed to the other side, into Brahman. This implies that om is indeed for Man, although in the process of disappearance into the One and at that ontological level one may equally say that om is Brahman. Each time that om is uttered there is a progressively deeper penetration into the One, proportionate to the recollection, detachment, and degree of awareness with which it is pronounced. It is pronounced at the beginning and/or the end of readings or chantings of the Scriptures, before the performance of actions that are considered holy and as a salutation of those to whom reverence is due. It is the utterance par excellence of ascetics, some of whom repeat it tirelessly and without ceasing.
The processes and techniques by which verbal prayers are interiorized (japa) are known in many traditional cultures. Om is an example. By constant repetition the name, as it were, reenters the place from which it emerged and thus assists in the reintegration of Man. Om is extreme and it can be said to represent the acme of a religious path. Unlike may other prayers, om has no specific content or peculiar meaning. Thus it does not need interpretation; any exegetical device weakens its power. Om is, further, not predominantly psychological or even anthropological but rather theanthropocosmic. Om is not the prayer of Man uttering the name of God in order to absorb it and thus effect his reunion with God; it is not the human communion with the divine; it is rather the very cry of the whole of reality, the very pulse of the human being as the priest, the sacrificer of all that there is.
The tale of Shunahshepa 113 ends with a cultic explanation for the use of these prayers in the royal sacrifice, the rajasuya, and also for those who desire a son. There, after the injunction to answer om to a rc-verse and yes to a gatha or epic verse, it is said: “Om is divine and yes is human,” 114 as if stressing the sacramental or cosmotheandric purport of om. It is not a mere affirmation, not mere passive acceptance, but it entails effective commitment and active involvement in the action thus performed. Whereas in the human field a fictitious yes, that is, a lie, is possible, in the divine realm a false om is radically impossible, since it lacks the underlying basis on which the simulation could rest.
Strength, courage, and concentration are absolutely necessary for the practice of the art of the archer. Keeping in mind Gandiva, Arjuna’s famous bow, and many legends of the Mahabharata and the Puranas, we may readily understand the Upanishadic metaphor that speaks of hitting Brahman, the target, with the arrow of one’s atman and the bow of om. 115 The arrow has to be sharpened by concentration and meditation. 116 The bow has to be bent by the study of the wisdom of the Vedas, by courageous living, and by the strength of the faith that, like the om which accompanies all cultic recitation, is the very soul of any real and fully human act. 117
The need for simplification is the outcome of a desire for affirmation, but this is not all. It also answers the ultimate longing to transcend everything, not by negation but by acceptance and affirmation. To say nothing, to think nothing, to express nothing, does not constitute liberation until one realizes that there is no-thing, not-a-thing, to say and that it is possible to say, to express, to affirm all, but in a way that is devoid of particular content which would weaken the power of expression and affirmation. The sphere of om is the self-affirmation of Brahman: shabda-brahman.
As already noted, we do not call om a mahavakya because it is properly not a vakya, a sentence. The implicit statement, “Om is Brahman, om is all this [world],” 118 even assuming an elliptical verb, 119 cannot be said to be identical with om, the pure sound alone, with no explicit meaning and no interpretation. Om is vac, pure word, the simple word of the beginning. 120 In this sense it is not even a Great Word, but Word as such. For this reason the next step is the utter silence from which the word has sounded. That is why the Maitri Upanishad says that at the beginning this, all this, the idam, this world, was unuttered, 121 although, recognizing that it is by sound alone that the soundless Brahman is revealed, 122 it can affirm without hesitation that “Om is both the higher and the lower Brahman.” 123 Shabda-brahman is certainly not the higher soundless Brahman, yet it is the one and only revelation of it. The sound om, the imperishable syllable om, is truly imperishable, is shabda-brahman. But om is not only the sound. It is also the silence following the utterance of om. This is the fourth state described in the Mandukya Upanishad, the turiya: 124 the silence achieved by having spoken out all sound, all thought (meaning and content), and even all being (cf. the shunyata of the Buddhist tradition). And yet this ontic silence is still connected with the word, for this is that empty, soundless om which is the highest Brahman, the ultimate wisdom, the groundless ground, the absolute mystery.
The Mandukya Upanishad consists of a brief, condensed exposition of the identity of the syllable om and the Supreme Reality. Man passes through successive stages of awareness before merging into the supreme silence, a silence that is “soundless unmanifest Brahman.” 125 It is to this silence and this alone that the hymns of the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda, the sacred rites of the Brahmanas and the Grhya-Sutras, and the verses of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita have led us. All these praises, prayers, rites, speculations, and fervent devotions reveal to us above all else the fascination of Man with the divine, along with his agony, disquiet, and yearning for final salvation, his longing to attain plenitude of being and realization in the One. Scripture teaches us that to arrive at true knowledge and self-realization a Man must hold himself in silence--no elation, no sacrifice, no ritual, no speculation, no desire of any sort whatever, but silence. True worship springs from silence and loses itself completely in utter, eternal Silence.
Om is the first Word, the first symbol of the entire universe, the first manifestation, the concentrated reality made word, that is, sound, content, form, matter, spirit. It is the Word before the world, it is Word according to which the world is formed. It does not say any thing; it simply says. It is the saying of all that can be said, of the whole world. It has no meaning of its own, because it stands at the root of all meanings and gives meaning to everything. It is the primordial word. It is the symbol of the whole, it expresses all that is real and true in every word, in everything that is said: Om tat sat.
The Sacred Syllable
Pranava
12
CU I, 1, 1-9
i) 1. OM. One should meditate on this syllable as the Udgitha chant, for every chant starts with OM. Of this the explanation is as follows:
2. The essence of all beings is the earth;
the essence of the earth is water;
the essence of water is plants;
the essence of plants is man;
the essence of man is speech;
the essence of speech is the Rig Veda;
the essence of the Rig Veda is the Samaveda,
and the essence of the Samaveda is the Udgitha chant.
3. The Udgitha chant is the most essential of all essences, the supreme, the highest, being the eighth [in the series].
4. Which is the Rig Veda? Which is the Samaveda? Which is the Udgitha chant? This is to be considered.
5. Speech is the Rig Veda, breath is the Samaveda, the syllable OM is the Udgitha. Now, these [two] form a union, speech with breath and the Rig Veda with the Samaveda.
6. Their union consists in OM; it is in this syllable that they are united. Whenever they come together and unite, they fulfill each other’s desire.
7. He who knows this and meditates on this syllable as the Udgitha chant--he himself becomes a fulfiller of desires.
8. This is the syllable of assent, for when one agrees with something, one says: OM, “yes.” That [prayer] to which assent is made will be fulfilled. He who, knowing this, meditates upon the Udgitha chant as the syllable OM will have all his desires fulfilled.
9. In it moves the threefold wisdom [the Vedas]. With OM they recite, with OM they offer praise, with OM they sing, paying reverence to the greatness and essence of this syllable.
CU I, 4, 1-5
ii) 1. OM. One should meditate on this syllable as the Udgitha chant, for every chant starts with OM. Of this the explanation is as follows:
2. When the Gods feared death, they took refuge in the threefold knowledge [the Veda]; they covered themselves with meters. Because they covered themselves [acchadayan] with them, these are called meters [chandas].
3. Death perceived them as one sees a fish in water. He saw them [hidden with-]in the hymns [Rig Veda], the chants [Samaveda], and the sacrificial formulas [Yajur Veda]. When they discovered this, they arose out of the hymns [Rig Veda], chants [Sama Veda], and sacrificial formulas [Yajur Veda] and took refuge in sound alone.
4. When one recites a hymn or a chant or a sacrificial formula, one ends with OM. This sound is that imperishable syllable, that immortal and tearless one. When the Gods took refuge in it, they became immortal and fearless.
5. He who knows this and makes this syllable resound takes refuge in this syllable, in the immortal and fearless sound; having taken refuge, he becomes immortal like the Gods.
CU VIII, 6, 5
iii) When he leaves the body, he proceeds upward on the rays [of the sun], or he arises by saying OM, as quickly as his mind can think. From there he goes to the sun. This is the door of the world by which those who know enter, while those who do not know are barred.
TU I, 8
iv) Om is Brahman.
OM is this whole [world].
OM is a response, for at the bidding, “Recite,” he recites.
With OM they sing the saman-chant, with OM shom they praise and pray, with OM the officiating priest gives his reply, with OM the Brahman-priest starts the invocation, with OM [the sacrificer] gives his assent at the fire sacrifice. With OM the brahmin begins his recitation, adding, “May I attain Brahman,” and with this petition he attains Brahman.
KATH U II, 15-17
v) 15. The word which all the Vedas extol,
toward which all asceticisms point,
in quest of which men live disciplined lives,
that will I tell you: that is OM.
16. This syllable, indeed, is imperishable Brahman;
this syllable, indeed, is the End supreme.
The one who knows this selfsame syllable
will surely obtain whatever he desires.
17. This is the best support of all
and the highest. The man who knows
this support is deemed great in the world of Brahman.
MUND U II, 2, 3
vi) 3. A mighty weapon, the Upanishad! Take it as a bow.
Affix an arrow, sharpened by devotion.
Bend the bow by a thought concentrated on That.
Hit the target, my dear--the Imperishable!
4. OM is the bow, the atman is the arrow;
Brahman, they say, is the target, to be pierced
by concentration; thus one becomes
united with Brahman as an arrow with the target.
MAHANAR U 540-541
vii) By the saying of OM let the atman be unified!
This in truth is the great teaching,
the mystery of the Gods. He who knows this
attains the greatness of Brahman!
PRASN U V, 1-7
viii) 1. Then Satyakama Shaibya asked Pippalada: “Sir, which world does he win at the end of his life who, among men, meditates upon the sound OM?”
2. He replied to him: “The sound OM in truth is both the higher and the lower Brahman. Therefore the one who knows, if he takes this as his support, attains the one or the other.
3. “If he meditates on one element, A, he will be enlightened even by that and he will quickly return to life. The hymns lead him to the world of men. There he experiences greatness by the practice of ascetic fervor, chastity, and faith.
4. If he meditates in his mind on two elements, A and U, he will be led by sacrificial formulas to the atmosphere, to the world of the moon. Having experienced glory in the world of the moon, he again returns [to this world].
5. But if he meditates on the Supreme Person with the three elements, A, U, and M, of that syllable OM, he attains to the light, to the Sun. As a snake is freed from its skin, so he will be liberated from evil. He will be led by the chants to the world of Brahman. Then he sees the Person dwelling in the city of the body who is higher than the highest existence. On this there are two verses:
6. If the three elements are used singly,
they lead to death, but if properly combined,
in outward, inward, or intermediate actions,
then the knower does not tremble.
7. By means of the hymns [one attains] this world,
by the sacrificial formulas the space inbetween,
by holy chant the world revealed by the Sages.
With the syllable OM as his sole support
the wise man attains that which is peaceful,
unaging, deathless, fearless, the Supreme.
MAIT U VI, 22-25
ix) 22. Now this has been said elsewhere: There are two Brahmans to be contemplated: Brahman as sound and the soundless Brahman. Now it is by sound that the soundless is revealed. The sound here is OM. By the sound OM one proceeds upward and attains rest in the soundless. This is the goal, this is immortality, this is union, this is happiness. Just as a spider that climbs up its own thread reaches free space, so also one who meditates rises up by saying OM and reaches ultimate freedom. But those who believe in [Brahman as] sound proceed differently. They listen to the sound within the space of the heart by placing the thumb on the ear. This is compared to seven things: a river, bells ringing, a copper vessel being struck, the creaking of a wheel, frogs, rain, speaking in a quiet place. Having transcended all characterization, [these sounds] merge into the supreme, soundless, unmanifest Brahman. There they are free from individualizing characters and differentiations, just as different sorts of nectar having blended into honey have lost their individualizing characters. Thus it has been said:
Two Brahmans there are to be known: one as sound
and the other Brahman supreme. Having known
Brahman as sound one reaches Brahman supreme.
23. Now this too has been said elsewhere: [Brahman as] sound is the syllable OM. Its culmination is tranquil, soundless, free from fear and sorrow, full of sheer joy, lacking in nothing, steadfast, motionless, immortal, unfailing, enduring forever. Its name is Vishnu the omnipresent. One should meditate on both to attain the supreme state. For thus it has been said:
The God who is both higher and lower,
who is called by the name of OM, is soundless
and devoid of being. Therefore a man
should concentrate on the highest place.
24. Now it has been said elsewhere: The body is the bow, the syllable OM is the arrow, the mind is its tip, darkness is the goal. Piercing darkness one reaches that which is not wrapped in darkness. Piercing that which is wrapped in darkness one beholds Brahman--as it were a sparkling wheel of fire, of the color of the sun, powerful, beyond darkness, the Brahman that shines in yonder sun, in the moon, in fire, and in lightning. Having seen him, one enters upon immortality. Thus it is said:
Inward-directed contemplation on the Highest
is often deflected to outside objects.
Unqualified understanding thus becomes qualified.
But the happiness obtained when the mind is absorbed
has only the atman as witness.
That is Brahman, the pure, the immortal,
that is the goal, that certainly is the world!
25. Now this too has been said elsewhere: If a man has the senses withdrawn as in sleep and a perfectly pure heart, he sees as if in a dream in the emptiness of the senses the pranava [OM], the leader whose form is light, who is beyond sleep, old age, death, and sorrow. Then he himself becomes the one who is called pranava, the leader whose form is light, who is beyond sleep, old age, death, and sorrow. Thus it is said:
When the yogin unites his breath with OM
or is united with the all in manifold ways,
it is called yoga.
This oneness of breath, mind, and senses,
the renunciation of all existence--
this is termed yoga.
KAIV U 11
x) Taking his atman for one firestick
and the syllable OM as the second one,
a knower, by a vigorous kindling of knowledge,
burns away the bonds [of ignorance].
MAND U 1
xi) OM, this indefectible word, is the whole universe, and this is advanced in explanation of it:
What was, what is, and what shall be--
all this is OM.
Whatever else is beyond the bounds of threefold time--
that also is only OM.
i) 1. Syllable: akshara.
Udgitha chant: cf. BU I, 3, 1 sq. (§ IV 9).
2. Essence: rasa.
Speech: vac, used both as the organ of speech in Man and as the revealed word, the Veda. Cf. § I B
5. Union: mithuna, a couple. Cf. also BU VI, 4, 20, where the husband says to his wife: “I am Saman, you are Rc."
7. Fulfiller of desires: apayita ha vai kamanam.
8. Assent: anujna, agreement.
Fulfilled: samrddhi.
Desires fulfilled: or, he becomes a fulfiller of desires (for others); cf. v. 6.
9. Threefold wisdom: trayi vidya, of the three Vedas. Recitation, praise, and song of the RV, YV, and SV, respectively.
Essence: rasa.
10. Cf. § I 37.
ii) 1. Cf. CU I, 1, 1 (i).
2. Threefold knowledge: trayi vidya, of the RV, YV, and SV.
They covered themselves with meters: chandobhir acchadayan, a play with words. Because the meters are the form of the Veda, they serve as a “covering” for the Gods.
3. As one sees a fish in water. yatha matsyam udake . . . ; i.e.the Vedas are transparent like water.
Sound: svara, i.e., OM (v. 4), the ultimate substratum of all the Vedas. Cf. also CU I, 3, 2.
4. Hymn: rc.
Chant: saman.
Sacrificial formulas: yajus.
Ends: atisvarati, sounds out.
iii) In the utterance of OM at the time of death, one crosses to the world beyond (on the devayana). Cf. § V 4. There are several variations and suggested readings of this text.
For CU VIII and ref., cf. § VI 6 (v) and notes.
iv) Response: anukrti, or assent. No sacred action can be performed without OM. Cf. YV II, 13.
For the syllable shom, cf. AB III, 12, 1. It has been suggested that shom is a contraction of sham and om.
Brahman here is Prayer, the Sacred Word (cf. one of the possible etymologies).
v) 12-14. Cf. § V 5.
15. Word: pada, or goal; also way, place.
Asceticisms: tapamsi, austerities, spiritual exercises.
Disciplined lives: brahmacarya, chaste lives or study of Brahman. Cf. BG VIII, 11.
16. Cf. MaitU VI, 4.
17. Support: alambana.
World of Brahman: brahma-loka. Cf. § V 4.
18. Cf. § V 5.
vi) 3. Devotion: upasa, or meditation.
Thought concentrated on That: tadbhava-gatena cetasa.
Imperishable: akshara, also the syllable OM.
4. OM: pranava.
By concentration: a-pramattena, without distraction.
One becomes united: tanmayo bhavet. Cf. KathU VI, 11 (§ VI 11).
For reference to MandU II, 2, cf. § VI 3 (vi notes).
vii) Unified: yunjita, yoked, concentrated.
Great teaching: mahopanishad.
Mystery of the Gods: devanam guhyam.
viii) 2. The higher and the lower Brahman: param caparam ca brahma. Cf. MundU I, 1, 4; MaitU VI, 22 sq. (below). In later Vedantic interpretation, these are the unqualified (nirguna) Brahman and ishvara, the Lord (saguna brahman).
Support: ayatana.
3. Element: matra.
Enlightened: samvedita.
Hymns: rcah.
World of men: manushya-loka.
Ascetic fervor, chastity, and faith: tapas, brahmacarya, shraddha. i.e. he who is thus reborn, will become a holy man.
4. Sacrificial formulas: yajus.
Atmosphere: antariksha.
World of the moon: soma-loka, the world of the Fathers (Cf. § V 4).
Glory: vibhuti.
5. Supreme Person: param purusham.
Liberated from evil: papmana vinirmuktah.
Chants: saman.
Person dwelling in the city of the body: purishayam purusham (a play on words).
Higher than the highest existence: jivaghanat parat param.
6. The three matras of AUM have to be meditated upon in all situations, in order to lead one beyond death.
7. By means of the hymns: rgbhih, corresponding to the earth.
By the sacrificial formulas: yajurbhih, corresponding to antariksha, the space in between.
By holy chant: samabhih, leading to heaven.
Wise man: vidvan.
ix) 22. Sound: shabda, word.
Soundless: ashabda, nonword.
Proceeds upward . . .: cf. the yogic practice of letting the sound OM ascend to the crown of the head, but here the context is cosmic.
Goal: gati, also way.
Union: sayujyatva, the state of unification.
Happiness: nivrtatva, cessation.
Ultimate freedom: svatantryam, independence.
Those who believe in . . . sound: shabdavadinah; suggests the school of thought for which shabda is the highest reality. Their practices are here described.
Having transcended all characterization: tam prthag-lakshanam atiya. after experiencing the subtle, internal sounds.
Cf. CU VI, 9, 1-2 (§ VI 10) for the metaphor of honey.
Brahman as sound: shabda-brahman, Brahman as logos.
23. God . . . higher and lower: paraparo devah.
Soundless: nihshabda.
Devoid of being: shunya-bhuta.
Highest place: the head or the heart in anthropomorphic interpretations.
24. Bow: cf. MundU II, 2, 3-4 (vi).
OM is the arrow: cf. KathU II, 17 (v).
Sparkling wheel of fire: alatacakra, famous simile developed by Gaudapada in MandKar IV, 47-52.
Unqualified understanding: avishesha-vijnana.
Pure: shukra, radiant, the semen (of the whole world). Cf. MundU III, 2, 1 (§ VI 11).
25. Perfectly pure heart: shuddhitamaya dhiya.
Beyond sleep . . .: vigata-nidra, vijara, vimrtyu, vishoka.
United: yunakti, from the same root yuj- from which yoga is derived.
Renunciation of all existence: sarva-bhava-parityaga. Yoga is both unification of body and mind and abandonment of “becoming” (bhava).
x) Illumination is compared with the kindling of fire.
Bonds [of ignorance]: pasha, fetter.
Cf. SU I, 14, and mark the difference (here it is said that one may see God).
For ref. to KaivU, cf. § VI 11 (ix notes).
xi) Indefectible word: akshara: both meanings--syllable and imperishable--are here combined.
2. Cf. § VI 6.