Index…

Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 1

Lecture

Mantra

pa̱rāñci̍ khāni vya̱tṛṇa̍t svayambhū
sta̱smāt parā̍ṅ paśyati nā̱ntarā̍tman
ka̱ścid dhī̍raḥ pra̱tyag-ā̍tmānam aikṣa
dā̱vṛtta̍-cakṣur a̱mṛta̍tvam icchan

svayambhūḥ = the self-born Being; parāñci = outgoing; khāni = the orifices; vyatṛṇat = pierced; tasmāt = therefore; paśyati = one looks; parāk = outwards; na antarātman = not within oneself; kaścit dhīraḥ = some [rare] wise discriminating person; icchan = desiring; amṛtatvam = immortality, one’s true nature, freedom from suffering; āvṛtta-cakṣuḥ = turned the gaze inward, looked within the mind; pratyak-ātmānam = the indwelling Self; aikṣat = saw.

The Self-existent (Brama) created the senses with outgoing tendencies; therefore, man beholds the external universe and not the internal Self (Annan). But some wise men with eyes averted (with his senses tuned away) from sensual objects, desirous of Immortality, sees the Atman within.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

Being the opening stanza of the second part of this Upanishad we find herein not only an explanation of the sorrows and limitations of the Samsaric world, but also hints on the path trodden by the wise in getting out of this world-of-tears.

No religion in the world is without its conception of an all-powerful Controller and Director in all forms of life, who is Himself the Creator. This God-principle is conceived of, by all known prophets and sages, as Self-born. The Sruti here is repeating this universal concept of God, the Creator, has created the sense organs with a powerful tendency to go outward into the lustful fields of their own individual sense objects. Our ears can detect and listen to even the whispering songs of some distant bird, chirping on the branch of a tree, through trucks, even in the busiest market center! Our eyes can detect what our ears cannot hear; a gross example of this can be had in modern clubs where one understands what two friends are whispering between themselves, by merely watching the movement of their lips! Thus, all our sense organs ever keep on galloping outward towards their objects, but never can they be turned inward to listen, see, smell, taste or touch what is happening within the body!

This portion of the text has been more often than not completely misunderstood both by casual readers and studious scholars, Sankara’s commentary has been always the sanction for the misinterpretation. Sankara no doubt has interpreted it rightly as Parameshvara “pierced the senses”, meaning Lord “send the senses”. This is misconstrued as disrespect of a philosophy towards the external world. No such implication has been even distantly echoed here. It only says that to those who hate practicing the higher Yoga of meditation, the sense organs are a curse, inasmuch as they refuse to be easily turned within. And without taking, at least once, an inward plunge it is impossible for the Indriyas to cognize the Divinity which is the substratum everywhere for all objects.

Therefore, that the Lord cursed the sense organs is not to be understood literally; else the entire chapter would be advising a negative Yoga of suppression and not a positive Dharma Yoga of intelligent control and wise direction of our faculties towards self-perfection. And yet there are a rare few, who in themselves represent those who stand on the last landing-ground on the stairs of evolution, and who, wishing to reach the very roof-of-existence, control their sense organs and thus turn their entire attention into their own within, where they hope to discover the Well-of-knowledge, and Source-of-all-life, the Self. Unless a seeker has come to feel an irresistible urge to know the Nature of the Self and to experience as the Self the fullness of life, he will not find in himself the required sense of introvertedness nor the desired amount of moral courage, intellectual conviction, mental heroism, psychological guts and spiritual nerve to dam the outward flow of his Indriyas and thus send the stream of attention in him back again to its very source, the Atman. Indeed, such full-blown men are rare in any generation.

In the Upanishadic literature, if we accept the majority view that Kathopanishad is one of the earliest of the Hindu scriptures, we may say that the terms Prathyagatman and Antaratman are used here for the first time in our ancient Rishis’ Philosophy.

It is evident how Lord Death has in this beautiful stanza summarized the causes for the disease of death and also prescribes the specific for its remedy. No wonder then if there is no other stanza in all our scriptures which is so often quoted from platforms, from pulpits, in courts and in temples.

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