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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 2 Mantra 15

Mantra

na ta̍tra sū̱ryo bhā̍ti na̱ candra̍-tārakaṁ ne̱mā vidyu̍to bhānti ku̱to’ya̍m agniḥ |
tam e̍va bhāntam a̱nubhā̍ti sarva̍ṁ ta̱sya bhā̱sā sa̱rvam ida̍ṁ vibhāti ||

tatra = there [in Brahman which is one’s own Self]; sūryaḥ = the Sun; na bhāti = does not shine; na = neither; candra-tārakam = the moon and stars; imāḥ vidyutaḥ = these flashes of lightening; na bhānti = do not shine; kutaḥ ayam agniḥ = how therefore, this fire [that is seen by us]; sarvaṁ anubhāti = everything that gives light or heat; tam eva bhāntam = That [Supreme being] indeed shines;  tasya = through his; bhāsā = effulgence; sarvam idaṁ vibhāti = all this shines.

The Sun does not shine there, nor does the moon, nor do the stars, nor the lightings shine and much less this fire. “When He shines, everything shines after him; by His light, all these shine”.

(Here ends Chapter Two, Section Five.)

by Swami Chinmayananda:

Even today, long after we have forgotten our own great Bible, the Upanishads, we are hearing this Mantra almost every day repeated in all temples and pujas, since no ritual is generally concluded without chanting this Mantra soon after the common and well known “Arathi”. None of the devotees, or the Pundits, has ever come to really understand the message of this stanza, except probably some, who have a surface knowledge of its mere word meaning!’ Our religion has become hollow and without any significance to us because of our unintelligent way of living our religion. A mere parrot like repetition of stanzas, in a language unknown to us, without seeking to understand its meaning, in itself will not and cannot give benefit at all. There are some Karmakandins and orthodox monsters who claim all powers to mantras and kirtans merely repeated, even if the one repeating them knows not their meaning nor understands their significances; Chinmaya cannot subscribe to this false, unintelligent, hypocritical nonsense. Were it true, why not applaud a gramophone box for the beauty of the song it had sung or the shoulders of your radio box congratulating it for the talk it has relayed to you?

Tatra (There) — Lord Death is indicating here the Realm of the Self which is the Land of the Knowledge Absolute. In that Plane of Divine God consciousness there. is no need for another agent of light to illumine it. All the sources of physical light are denied in the Realm of Truth with this Mantra, wherein Lord Death says that there is neither the sun nor the moon nor the stars nor the lighting; and as such where can be the light of fire: In short, there is in Light no other light other than Itself. In the sun, there is no need for a torch to illumine it !!

Anubhati (shines after) — Truth is the substratum for all the seeming activities of life, where life is extinct, the activities of the sense organs, mind and intellect are also at an end. And when these three entities in man have folded themselves up, and as it were rolled out, to that individual there is no more the sun, the moon, the lightning, or the light of fire. So long as life is in him, he recognizes all the sources of light in the physical world. Naturally, it is philosophically evident, and logically it can be maintained that the Giver of All light (for the sun and other sources of light) is none other than the Intelligence of the intellect, the Self. Hence, Lord Death says that all shines after It. By Its light all these shine.

Now that we know the real significance of the stanza, it must be possible for each of us to think for ourselves the voiceless depth of self-evident suggestions, in ordering this Mantra to be repeated at the close of every Hindu ritual and sacred religious ceremony. The importance of this stanza is again emphasized in the fact that the same stanza has been repeated in two more of the ten important Upanishads! Thus, we Have this Mantra in Mundakopanishad, 11.2.10 and Swethaswatara Upanishad, V1.14. Though, in slightly different words, we have the same transcendental idea that the Self is the source of all light, hinted at in the Bhagavat Gita.

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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 2 Mantra 14

Mantra

tad e̱tad i̍ti manyante’ni̱rdeśya̍ṁ para̱maṁ su̍kham |
katha̍ṁ nu tad vi̱jānī̍yāṁ ki̱m ubhā̍ti vi̱bhāti̍ vā ||

tat = that [knowledge of the Self]; anirdeśyam = indescribable; paramaṁ sukham = of the nature of supreme bliss; etat iti = this is that; manyante = consider; kathaṁ nu = how indeed; vijānīyām = may I know it; kim u tat bhāti = does it shine of itself; vibhāti vā = or shine in reflection;

They (the sages) perceive that indescribable, Highest Bliss as “This is That. How shall I know That? Does it shine (of Itself) or does it shine by another light?”

by Swami Chinmayananda:

This Mantra can be considered as a question raised by Lord Death Himself, only to be answered by himself in the next Mantra. But, personally, Chinmaya would like to understand it as a sincere question raised by the supreme student of Vedanta in Nachiketas.

In a previous stanza Lord Death had already explained that the Self is beyond the sense perceptions or the mind’s cognitions or the intellect’s determinations, yet, in the last two stanzas, Lord Death was dilating upon the sure and permanent joys of those who come to “behold the Self”. Naturally, the intelligent students feel confused. Again, in the first half of the very same Mantra, Lord Death asserts that the men of discrimination during their deep meditations come to the divine achievement of realizing the pervading Truth intimately in a subjective experience as “This is That”.

Tadetaditi (This is That) — Truth is not perceived or felt or determined. Perception, feeling and determination are the functions of the sense organs, the mind and the intellect respectively; and these three can function only in the plane of plurality, the world of sense objects, thoughts and ideas. When the intelligent sage has successfully withdrawn all his ideas of identification with these three, at the moment (when he has thus completely transcended himself beyond the painful limitations of these three) he comes to realize that, what he has till now been seeking, was the nearest factor in him, his own Self!

At this moment the disciple is raising his doubt which is marked by his own understanding of the philosophical discourses so far given by his master. In the sense organs, the mind and the intellect are flouted and transcended, Nachiketas asks what exactly would be the nature of the instrument used and the individual who used the instrument in realizing the Self as “This is That”; Even those of you who can at least come to appreciate at this moment of our discussion the entire implications in the doubt of Nachiketas, can be considered to have thoroughly and well followed all the discussions made by the Sruti so far.

We have already shown, in a previous discussion, how, in order to cognize and understand an object, we need the help of light. We then also found that for perceiving the gross light of the physical world, and in seeing the subtler objects of the mind, such as thoughts, etc., we have the Light of Intelligence. So far, Nachiketas also seems to have understood well. But, when Lord Death says that the Vedantic seer transcending the regions of his mind and intellect comes to Behold the Self the Brahman child feels confused!

Kimubhathi (does it shine) — A lamp is seen because of its own light, as opposed to the dull objects which get their light borrowed from a lamp (Vibhati Va. or does it shine by another light ?).

In the philosophy of Vedanta, the question is answered by the great masters very vividly. It is a case of the Self becoming aware of Itself, When the meditator has successfully hushed the mind and the intellect, in the throbbing silence within, his Awareness becomes conscious of Itself. This is a state of intuitive experience and not a physical cognition. It is to show this intimate “Self-Awareness of the Self” that we have, in the inimitable language and style of the scripture, the expression, “this is that”.

The Self, being itself the Light of Wisdom, needs no other light to light irl; when the clouds have moved away, the Sun, that comes out from behind the screening clouds, needs no other torch to make us see him, he being in the nature of nothing but a mass of light. Similarly, when the veiling disturbances of the mind and the intellect, caused by our own ignorance of the Self, are stopped, the Atman, in Its own Self Effulgence comes out to shine forth in all glory. Intelligence needs no other intelligence to light Itself.

In the next Mantra we have the answer to the question raised in this stanza.

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