Index…
Kathopanisad
Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 15
Lecture
Mantra
yas tu a̍vi̱jñāna̍vān bhavaty a̱mana̍skas sa̱dā’śu̍ciḥ
na sa̍ ta̱t pada̍m āpno̱ti̱ sa̱ṁsāra̍ṁ cādhi̱gaccha̍ti
yaḥ tu = but that [intellect]; bhavati = becoming; avijñānavān = unskilful, having no insight and discrimination; amanaskaḥ = whose mind is uncontrolled; sadā = always; aśuciḥ = impure; saḥ = he, that person; na = does not; āpnoti = obtain; tat = that; padam = goal; ca = and/but; adhigacchati = obtains, reaches; saṁsāraṁ = worldly existence.
The sense (and the instincts) they say, are the horses, and their roads are the sense-objects. The wise call Him the enjoyer (when He is) united with the body, the senses and the mind.
by Swami Chinmayananda:
Continuing the analogy, the Mantra here explains what the horses in the chariot-picture stand for. The senses are the horses. Without the sense-organs such as the ear, the eyes, the nose, the tongue and the skin the body-chariot cannot move. It is a well-known truth observed in modern psychology that a child born without any of the sense-organs is a dead one. We generally observe that a blind man has invariably an extra power of hearing. Rarely do we find in life an individual who is both blind and deaf. And still more rare are persons (or indeed, such men are not) who have neither the eyes nor the ears nor the sense of touch. In short, we may have among us an unhappy man who has not one or two sense-organs but rarely, indeed, do we have one living among us who has at once, more than two sense-organs missing in him.
This is not a strange phenomenon. After all, there is a purpose behind our taking up the bodies and coming here to live this mortal existence, The individual ego-center take their individual embodiments and come to live under a set of circumstances, during fixed periods of time, to Earn the experiences of living that fixed life. The instruments through which we can gain the experiences of the outer world are our five Indriyas. If our Indriyas are all shut up, the world outside rolls up into nothingness so far as we are concerned. For example, in our deep-sleep state we are not aware of the outer world at all, because, none of our sense-organs functions for us during our sleep-state.
If the eyes are not, the forms are not; with our ears surely, we know we cannot grasp ideas of forms. So too, with every other sense-organ. If the organs were not with us, our birth in this life would have been a mad man’s maddening extravagance, purposeless and idle. Lord, the Creator, is no mad man. There is a purpose, definite and sure, in each one’s arrival here; ‘be it a worm or be he a king. Since without the sense-organs the purpose of our embodiment is defeated, the Law sees to it that no child is born with none of the sense-organs, for, in that case, the child would be defeating the purpose of its Creator.
The Sruti here says that the horses that draw the body chariot are the sense-organs. The word Indriyas collectively means pot only the sense-organs, but also the organs of actions and, as such, it would be complete only if we translate the term as organs of sense and instincts. This interpretation is according to the fully developed Sankhya and Vedanta philosophies. The first clear reference to the ten sense-organs is in Prasna, which is a later composition than the Kathopanishad. There is, indeed, a masterly thoroughness in the inimitable expressions of the Hindu scriptures. Though they are so brief in their style, they never leave any statement half said. When they have discussed the chariot, the rider, the driver and the horses, the picture would not have been complete without the explanation of the road on which the horses are to run. The Upanishad says that the sense horses trot on the sense objects.
The eye can illumine or function only in the realm of form; that is, we can never come to hear with our eyes | So too, the ears; they can perceive only sound; with the cars we can never come to “see” | The tongue can walk only the path of taste, and the skin, the road of touch. On the whole, it means that the sense-organs, because of which the body exists, function each only in its own field of objects.
The wise, in the stanza, means the sages and saints, who have realized in their life the Total Perfection, which is God-head and also those who, in declaring their intuitional experiences, have become the authors of the Upanishads, They, declare that the true entity in us, who seems to experience the joys and sorrows of life, is not the Atman, the All-witnessing Intelligence, but the conditioned Atman. The Supreme Intelligence as conditioned by the body and mind is the ego-center (Jiva), which seems to enjoy and suffer the passing Circumstances of this evanescent life, called the Samsar. By thus defining the enjoyer in us the Sruti is definitely making a differentiation between the two entities in us, one, the Truth Principle, the non-doer and the non-enjoyer, and the other, the delusion-created ego-center (Jiva), which is but a reflection of the Supreme Intelligence in the mental lake.
by Swami Gurubhaktananda:
- Yah tu vijnānavān bhavati But he who is of a discriminating intellect
- yuktena manasā sadā; having restrained his mind always
- tasya indriyāni vashyāni his senses are controllable
- sad ashvāh iva sāratheh. like the tame horses of the charioteer.
The Vijnana-vani: This is the discriminating driver who is cautious about following all the road rules, who is skilled in driving, who takes great care to rein in the mind so that the horses are well-controlled. A good intellect is the key to a successful journey.
A good charioteer is sane and sober, thoughtful and discerning, understanding and knowledgeable, he is patient, careful and alert to avert any danger on the road. For the owner’s peace of mind, it is worth giving the intellect the highest salary.
The Vijnana-vani is capable of choosing Sreyas instead of Preyas. He possesses the fortitude to walk the path of Vidya. As discrimination is the key to the whole journey, it pays to take time and get the intellect trained to do this task well – even if that means spending two years on a Vedanta Course!
The message we take from these two verses is: “Let the Lord be the charioteer of our lives. He makes all the difference. Let us place our intellect in His hands. Let us invoke the Grace of Gayatri to raise our Buddhi towards the Light and keep it there. Let it not linger in the darkness of ignorance.”
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