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Kathopanisad

Chapter 1 Valli 2 Mantra 20

Lecture

Mantra

a̱ṇor aṇī̍yān maha̱to mahī̍yān ā̱tmāsya ja̱ntor nihito̍ guhāyām
tam a̍kratuḥ paśyati vīta-śo̱ko dhā̱tuḥ-pra̱sādā̎n mahi̱māna̍m ātmanaḥ

aṇīyān = subtler; aṇoḥ = than an atom; mahīyān = greater; mahataḥ = than the greatest; ātmā = the Self; nihitaḥ = is lodged; guhāyām = in the cave of the heart; asya jantoḥ = of this creature; tam = That; akratuḥ = a desireless person; dhātuḥ-prasādāt = through the serenity of the organs; paśyati = sees,  realizes; mahimānam = the greatness; ātmanaḥ = of the Self; vīta-śokaḥ = [becomes] freed from suffering.

The Atman subtler than the subtle, greater than the great is seated in the heart of each living being. He who is free from willing and wishing with his mind and the senses composed, beholds the majesty of the Self and becomes free from sorrow.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

This is one of the much-quoted stanzas, a favorite one with all preachers and philosophic writers. In its charming style of brevity, the Mantra hints at a treasure of suggestions, indicating almost directly the Atman which is the Goal of all seekers.

By defining the Atman as the smallest of the small, a merc dull intellect might understand that the Atman is not yet seen or discovered because the scientific world has not yet constructed a sufficiently powerful microscope. But to a philosophic mind, cultured in the ways of the Sastras, the statement is an ample explanation of the most subtle nature of the Atma Tattva. Had Sruti ended her definition with the above statement alone it would have denied the volume and girth of things and beings any connection with Truth. This probable misunderstanding is negated by the additional epithet that the Atman is also greater than the greatest. Here the greatest is meant to cover the entire universe of manifested existence; and Truth, according to the Sruti, not only pervades, envelops and penetrates through and through the Jagat, but also extends farther than the crores of universes that whirl round in space. This is endorsed by a similar statement in the Gita, made by the Lord Himself, wherein He says, the Jagat formed of the entire manifested worlds spreads itself out in their delusions and disturbances, Oh! Arjun, only a fraction of my real nature. This means that the remaining vast portion of Truth is yet in its Pure Nature, untouched by the play of duality, created by the mysterious jugglery of the mind, called Māyā.

Truth is described here as both the tiniest of the tiny and also the biggest of the big. This means that Pure Consciousness is an Eternal, All-pervading-essence, and that even the minutest space conceivable is pervaded by this great Divine Influence. And after these statements, when a Western student reads the description that it is lodged in the heart of all living beings, he becomes baffled, and hence his cry – Kathopanishad is a compilation of floating slokas that had worn out in their usage even at the time of their compilation!

These are but some false evidences to prove anything of this sort about this Upanishad. To say that Kathopanishad is a compilation is to tell a lie. Truth is here expressed as residing in the heart only to indicate the point where the individual, through meditation, ultimately comes to realize It.

The Vedantic sadhana of hearing and reflecting culminates in its final fulfilment only through the Godly vocation, to which man alone is heir, namely, meditation. Meditation is the process by which man can rise above from his subjective bondages and come to the State of Freedom and Joy of a God. And this process by which we can realize the ideal of perfection, Eternal Bliss, indicated by the previous epithet, is hinted at in this stanza,

He who is free from willing and wishing (Akrathu) – In using this qualification to the seeker who is noted for success a lot has been said by Sruti with her suggestive style used in the Upanishads. Akrathu has been rendered as “desireless” by Sankara; here it does not mean the impotency born out of an indolence misunderstood as Vairagya and a complete inaction and the consequent morbidity glorified in vain as Viveka by the misled Hindus. Sankara clearly points out that it is a natural freedom from desires for external sense objects, which dissipate the energies of the seeker and make him unfit for the true life’s Realization. “The Knots of the Heart: Ignorance (Avidya), Desire (Kama) and Work (Karma)”

Even the desire for the Supreme may as an anxiety destroy the peace and poise of the personality. In the last stage even this anxiety is renounced when the individual rests in the Supreme – as the Supreme will. Thus, by Akrathu the means as well as the goal are indicated.

Indeed, the Aryan personality is not satisfied with a mere ideology, however great it may be, if it is not advocated alone with a practical system of methods by which one can realize and live that ideology. Free from desires, if one, through long and arduous practices, gains control over one’s sense-organs and mind, that sacred one shall come to experience the self-effulgent, eternal, Self. Therefore, in his realization of his true identity as the Atman he goes beyond the destinies of sorrow and pain, because they are the destinies of the body and the mind only. ‘As Atman I am not the body or the mind-intellect-instrument’; the fatigue of the car is not the fatigue of the owner riding in it and the owner knows full well that he is not his car.

With a view to entertaining you all the Swami may invite you here to a short ramble into the woods of the endless quarrel between non-dualism and dualism. Both of them exist on the authority of the Srutis. Here in the stanza under discussion we have the phrase ‘dhatu-prasadat’ which is interpreted by the dualists as to mean Lord’s grace (dhatr-prasadat) where dhatr means the supporter, namely, the Creator of the Universe, which is of course the God Principle. Hence, the dualists claim that this Atma tattva can be realized only when the seeker gets the grace and the blessings of the dhatr.

The same epithet is interpreted by the advaitins as to mean ‘dhatuh samprasadat’ meaning, ‘by the purification of the senses and the mind’ (Dhatu – element). To the non-dualists the outer world of sense objects has an existence only in relation to their corresponding sense-organs and the synchronizing machine of a mind behind them all.

Thus, the same word is explained in two different ways by the two schools of philosophic thinking. Both when viewed independently, or approached intellectually, would seem to overpower us with the strength of their individual arguments and the efficiency of their irresistible logic. Naturally, the lesser folks who have studied these great masters only partially grow fanatical and fight among themselves in support of their beliefs as though they were anointed for that purpose. But to a true seeker who is walking the path and is trying industriously to live the life Divine, the seeming contradictions in the Philosophies of Madhva, Ramanuja and Sankara wither away into a perfect understanding of the different standpoints from which each of them is talking to us.

The difficulty arises when the commentators try to discover in the Upanishads scriptural sanction for their pet Doctrine of Grace”. The Vedas accept the Doctrine of, ‘Devata Prithi’, the Joy of the Goes at the proper rituals when a true performer invokes the Gods properly. Parallel to this there is no Grace of Atma to descend upon something other than Itself. Hence, Sankara is indeed well justified in clearly making it dhatu-prasadat; by the purity of the subtle elements in the seeker, viz, the purified intellect and the single-pointed mind. Tranquility is the atmosphere of Grace required for the blessed Self-communion to take place.

The sum-total of the efforts put into any piece of work slowly rises in its potency until at last when it equates with the quantity of power and dynamism required, the work gets accomplished in a glorious success, so too, in the various efforts put in by a seeker in perfecting himself. These practices add on their share to the total pool until at last the cumulative effect of all the practices becomes a divine power by the blessing of which the final achievement is gained. To us pure Vedantins, living the principles of Vedanta, there can never be any school that opposes us: for Vedantins wisdom can bring its light into any problem and resolve it in terms of the eternal Truth.

by Swami Gurubhaktananda:

This is a favorite and much quoted verse among preachers and writers. It holds a full house of ideas that would make ornaments in the halls of Sadhakas.

Anor anīyān: “large and small”. The first sentence points to the fact that the Self is in another plane altogether, totally unlike the relative one that we know through our Small and big do not feature in the realm of the Self. Size is not of any consequence to the Infinite. This is the Truth behind the apparent contradiction. Acharyaji took great care to point out that the contradiction was not intended simply to blast our mind by placing in it two opposites side by side. No purpose is served by doing that. The intention here is to bring out the subtle quality of the Self. That is the purpose of using such a contradictory statement.

Nihitah Guhāyām: “the core of our being”. To make that statement clearer, the Self is said to be lodged in the heart of every being. No size is referred to, but a Presence of Being, or an “I am-ness” is to be understood. Every creature feels certain that he exists. That sense of existence is the core of our heart. The pure existence of any being is entirely the All else are only the walls of the ‘cave’.

Desirelessness – the Essential Quality to Behold the Self:

Akratuh: Why is “desirelessness” so essential for God-vision? Desire – any desire – has the effect of engaging our mind upon it. To the extent we are engaged in this way, we are distracted; we cannot be serene enough to focus on the Self. Only the desireless person can be serene enough to make his mind vacant for the experience of the Self. The term ‘Kratu’ refers to one who devotes himself to action to obtain a desire. Conversely, ‘Akratu’, refers to one who is actionless because he has no desire. He alone can behold the Self.

Vīta-Shokah: “freedom from sorrow”. This is the freedom one gets as a result of being desireless. The word used here is actually ‘Vīgata Shokah’,  meaning “sorrow that is well-gone”, that is, sorrow that is gone for good, never to return. This has far-reaching meaning, but in brief it is nothing short of the end of all transmigration of the soul into this trouble-ridden world which produces the sorrow. Liberation from all sorrow is the goal achieved when the mind is totally free from all desire.

Dhātu-Prasad: This term is worthy of note. In this context, Dhatu means that which “holds the body together”, that is, the subtle body, mainly the mind and senses. When the mind becomes tranquil, and senses become calm, serenity is the fruit or Prasad it confers upon us. Thus, the real blessing all are seeking comes from our own mind! We may, of course, seek the blessings of saints and holy men, but their blessings are directed towards conferring upon us the blessings of our own mind.

When this term is taken to refer to help from outside, there arises the Doctrine of Grace, which says that in the final analysis, God-realization is due to the Lord’s Grace alone. This is an interpretation favored by Dualists. When it is taken to refer to help from inside, one speaks of the Blessing of a Serene Mind. This is favored by Advaitins (Non-dualists).

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