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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 14

Mantra

yatho̍dakam durge vṛ̱ṣṭam pa̱rvate̍ṣu vi̱dhāva̍ti |
e̱vaṁ dharmān pṛ̍thak paśya̱ns tā̱n evā̍nu-vi̱dhāva̍ti ||

yathā = just as; udakam = water; vṛṣṭam = pours down; durge = on an inaccessible place, on a height; vidhāvati = flows; parvateṣu = over hills, mountains; evaṁ = in this way; paśyan = viewing; dharmān = things; pṛthak = differently, seperately; anuvidhāvati = he runs after; tān = them; eva = only, even;

As water, when rained on a mountain-ridge, runs down the rocks scattering on all sides, so does he, who beholds the objects as different, run after them only (at all times).

by Swami Chinmayananda:

Here we are again face to face with one of the celebrated Mantras of this Upanishad which is often quoted by writers and orators.

The human mind is in fact a great dynamo of superhuman energies and Godly powers. Yet we find that the ordinary human being is a slave and a servant of his own mind rather than a master of it. In a way we may say that a similar tragedy has happened to man in the outer world too, especially in our Machine Age. The engines conceived of by man to work for him, have now become the very tyrants and iron-hearted masters at whose ever-revolving wheels, man is today a helpless slave.

This tragedy in the within has come to pass because man, in his delusions and ignorance, has lost his capacity to control the promptings of his heart and the lustful surging of his mind. The supreme wisdom and power which is in man gets scattered and flows in a thousand dripping rivulets down the Mount of Ignorance to get itself lost in its downward transit. This is indicated here in this Mantra by the beautiful analogy of water that has rained on the top of a rocky mountain. If only we could conserve the total waterfall on the top of the hill with a powerful and well-engineered dam and direct the flow of the water through one single determined channel we could get out of it a lot of useful work. Similarly, if man could through his discrimination, control wasteful flow of water, conserve it and direct it intelligently into the positive channels of right living and high thinking, he could easily get out of this very same inner equipment, the power and glory of a God upon earth.

But man will not and cannot bless himself unless and until he slowly learns to remove his ignorance of his own Real Nature with the sacred Knowledge gained through a personal experience of his own eternal Godliness.

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Index…

Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 13

Mantra

aṅgu̍ṣṭha-mātraḥ pu̱ruṣo̍ jyotir i̱vādhū̍makaḥ |
ī̱śāno bhūta̍-bhavya̱sya̱ sa̱ evā̍dya sa̱ u śva̍ḥ |
e̱tad vai tat ||

puruṣaḥ = That Being; aṅguṣṭha-mātraḥ = the size of a thumb;, jyotiḥ iva = like a flame; adhūmakaḥ = without smoke; īśāna = the Ruler; bhūta-bhavyasya = of the past and the future;  saḥ = he; eva = indeed; adya = now, in all beings; u = and; saḥ = He will [exists]; śvaḥ = even tomorrow; etat vai tat = this verily is that.

That person, of the size of a thumb, is like flame without smoke, Lord of the past and future. He alone is even today, and will be verily tomorrow. This is verily That.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

That Purusha or Atman of the size of the thumb who is perceived by the meditator in his heart as Light or Jyothi, exists immutably through all times: past, present and future. He exists in all living beings now, and He will certainly be existing in all forms tomorrow also.

Some Sadhakas taking this line very literally start imagining “a thumb-like flame” as though burning bright within their bosom and meditate long upon it. Personally, this Sadhana had known an individual who had been imagining this “light” for the past twenty-three years, and who, recently approached the Swami with a very sad and melancholy face to complain of his “spiritual fall”, since he is not having now-a-days the Darshan “of his Atman!

Friends, this is only one instance of the desperation of a foolish Sadhaka who had come to believe that his imagination created delusory- flame-dream is his Atman! It is dangerous certainly to try to walk the Path of Knowledge without continuous study of the scriptures and constant Satsang with real Mahatinas; we mean, not the palm-reading, star-gazing, herb-selling-Mahatmas that flock the city streets of our unhappy land now-a-days! Let them be courted by the ignorant multitude that hustle out of the universities of India! But to a true seeker of Truth and to an intelligent follower of Religion, such Mahatmas are more ochre-clothed-criminals poisoning the very atmosphere of this sacred Land of the Rsis. When we shall have a Government, intelligent enough to feed the country better and provide its people with sufficient work, we shall have these red monsters wiped out from our market scene. Till then we must learn to endure what cannot be cured.

The thumb-like Jyothi, recommended by the great Rsis, is only to provide the meditator with a prop to develop his concentration during the early stages of his practices. The stone idol of Shiva is not in itself Shri Parameshwar; similarly, the Jyothi is but an idol for the Vedantin to meditate upon during his practices and it is Not Atman. If an idol is unfortunately stolen away from a temple, it doesn’t mean that God has been stolen away!

When a Sadhaka has developed his power of concentration he enters, by degrees, into the higher stages of meditation advised by the Sruti, in the various Upanishads, and he ultimately comes to realize his own identity with his own Atman, the Light-Power-Wisdom-Source within himself.

12-13. The self, for purposes of meditation for an early seeker, is described as a “thumb-sized person” dwelling in the heart.

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