Index…

Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 4

Mantra

svapnānta̍ṁ jāga̍ritā̱nta̱ṁ co̱bhau ye̍nānu̱paśya̍ti |
mahānta̍ṁ vibhu̍m ātmā̱na̱m ma̱tvā dhī̍ro na̱ śoca̍ti ||

yena = That by which; anupaśyati = one perceives; svapnāntaṁ = the content of dreams; jāgaritāntaṁ = the content of the waking state; ca-ubhau = both of them; matvā = having  realized; mahāntaṁ = the great; vibhum = all-pervading; ātmānam = Self; dhīraḥ = the wise person; na śocati  = does not grieve.

The wise, when he knows that, by which he perceives all objects in dream or in ‘waking, is the great omnipresent Atma, grieves no more.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

Here Lord Death is slightly elaborating upon the greatest significance and the practical application in life of the Knowledge of Atman in us. In these days of skepticism and lustful madness for profits and material hoardings the educated class of Hindus all over the country ask sarcastically of what use is this wonderful Knowledge of Atman which the Vedanta preaches: Can it set us on our progress Can it cure the poverty in the world or bring about universal peace and joy.

Though one is tempted to curse this generation for its unintelligent approach to religion we must at once admit that there was, probably, never in the history of the world a generation born so sensitive as ours, and so sincerely seeking to establish communal peace and universal brotherhood, as ourselves.

Here, in the stanza, we have a sufficiently broad hint as to the mental state, the physical condition and the intellectual attitude of a seeker who has come to grasp this true great Knowledge and fix his own identity with the Real Factor, Pure Consciousness, that lies in him,

We already found in the previous Mantra that the world of the waking state, experienced through our five senses of knowledge, is made possible, only because of the Vital Intelligence, the Life Force, that presides in our body.

If life were not in any particular body, however great and noble that Mahatma might have been, however intelligent the Scientist, however emotional the poet, however great a genius the painter, none of them would any more function, when once the life has ceased to preside over the body! Thus, we have already found out that the intelligent entity, the Awan, is the illuminator of our awareness of the waking-state-world during the periods of our wakeful existence.

There could be none who had not yet experienced what a dream is. Now, supposing, you take up a book in hand; how do you read it ¢ Is not the presence of some light necessary for the illumination of the letters and words in the book, so that you may read: Supposing it were night, you might read in the moonlight; in the dark fortnight by starlight; in a cloudy starless pitch darkness you may bring the light of fire to light up the letters. In short, without some sort of light we cannot see objects. Yet; we will “see” our daily dreams. The dream world certainly exists only within ourselves; and since we “see” them, and they are objects, we surely must needs have some sort of a light to illumine for us the inner objects in jour mental region. Lord Death explains that the dream-world is also illumined for us by the Light of the same Divine Intelligence that presides in us as our Real Nature,

One and the same Consciousness illumines for us not only the world of our waking state but it also lights up for us the experiences of our dream-state.

The goal of life, the highest achievement of man, is to get himself completely detached from his false identifications with his body, mind and intellect, and come to rediscover himself to be nothing other than that Divine Spark, which is the director and controller of all the activities, manifested in Its outer envelopments!

Mahantham Vibhum (Great, Omnipresent) – In the final experience of God-consciousness the perfected one establishes his identity with his soul and thereby at once realizes his own nature as great and omnipresent; for, we have already found that the individual Self is the Supreme Self.

Having realized this Factor, this Truth, the realized saint grieves no more (Na Sochati). Sense of limitation is the mother of desires in the human heart, desires raise the storm clouds of whistling thoughts to shriek through a noisy bosom, and drive the sense organs to gallop out into the muddy mesh work of sense objects. In the hustle and tussle to achieve a satisfaction in each of our desires, we strive and struggle and, in the end, find ourselves in a vale of tears. Even when the desires are fulfilled, we, alas | discover that the joy of success we expected to enjoy is not there. When the desires are not fulfilled, in tearful disappointments, men grieve and sigh, make their life a burning avenue of wretchedness. Thus, desires ultimately give us nothing but sorrow whether they are fulfilled or not.

Desire, we found, can rise only when there is a sense of imperfection in us. Soon after a full dinner, at least for some time, even the worst of gluttons will not desire for something to eat; for the time being there is no lack of food within him. Soon after a couple of hours he may desire for some light tiffin! Here he has started feeling a sense of incompleteness, hence the desire.

When a perfect human being who has ended all his mis understandings about himself and has come to the Knowledge that he is the Supreme Awareness in himself, he, in his Absolute sense of Perfection, shall desire no more for anything that the world of the sense objects can give. Such a perfected one is a God-man upon earth. This is the Goal pointed out by the greatest of all religions known to man, Hinduism. The Religion of Vedanta calls upon man to rediscover himself to be nothing short of God Himself. And when a mortal has fully realized and come to live continuously the God-consciousness, him, certainly, no sorrows can approach.

If there be but a generation of such Supermen, will it not most satisfactorily solve all our problems: political, economic, cultural and religious: In fact even when a man has just begun to live the Life of the Spirit, all the above-mentioned problems of life will recede as though at the waving of magic wand’ Is there anything, then, more practical than the Religion of Vedanta?

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