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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 6

Mantra

yaḥ pū̱rvaṁ tapa̍so jā̱tam a̍dbhyaḥ pū̱rvam a̍jāyata |
gu̱hām pra̱viśya̍ tiṣṭha̱nta̱m yo̱ bhūte̍bhir vya̱paśya̍ta |
e̱tad vai tat ||

yaḥ = anyone [desirous of liberation] who; vyapaśyata = sees; pūrvaṁ jātam = the First-born (Hiranyagarbha); yaḥ = who; ajāyata = was born; tapasaḥ = from austerity [contemplation]; pūrvam = earlier; adbhyaḥ = than water; bhūtebhiḥ = associated with the elements; guhām praviśya = having entered into the heart of all beings; tiṣṭhantam = exists; etat vai tat = this is indeed That.

He (Mumuksu) Who beholds him seated within the five elements, him who was born of Tapas of (Brahma), who was created before the waters, who entered the Cave of the Heart and dwells there (that Mumuksu verily sees Brahman). This is verily that (Brahman, which thou hast asked for).

by Swami Chinmayananda:

The theory of creation is a knotty problem in the Upanishadic literature. Modern book grazers and hasty students of the Upanishads come to the fantastic conclusion that intuitive understanding is not true, since these sacred books have self-contradicting theories to explain the how and whence of the worlds’ creation. No two Upanishads concur among themselves as regards the details of the processes in which creation had taken place. Each Upanishad explains to us in its own inimitable style a method and a process; each of them in itself has a charm of its own and can give the student a convincing explanation quite satisfactorily, till the same student comes to read and understand a totally different process expounded by another Upanishad.

The Upanishad Rsis in their firm understanding of the Truth could not take the problem of creation with any seriousness at all. They knew, in their wisdom, that this manifested world of names and forms is but a delusion created by the human mind.

The world has only as much reality as our dreams have. But the Rsis knew at once that to the seeker who had approached them, steeped as he was in the impressions created by his own delusions, in his early stages, the world is absolutely real. Each student is to be delicately and softly raised to the higher realms of knowledge from the state in which he finds himself at the time of his approach to the Guru.

Again, no two students are of the same temperament, culture, attitude or aptitude. The teacher learns the nature of each student through patient and close observations and classifies him according to his temperament.

The great Rsis explain to each type, a particular Myth-explanation for the Myth-world! The authors of the Upanishads were not in the least serious about their explanations of a non-existent world. Whatever be the explanation given and processes elaborated, to explain the creation of the world, each master had to lead the student ultimately to a State of Pure Consciousness, viewed from the Absolute Nature of which the creation had actually never taken place, except in the deluded Jiva’s own mind!!

If we were to explain the fallacy of the snake in the rope, we too would adopt an explanation according to the condition of the bitten, and shall modify our own explanations when the victim of the snakebite changes to be another individual of a different temperament and belonging to a different class of culture.

In this Mantra we have just some hasty cross-references to the processes of creation which have been much more elaborately dealt with in other Upanishads.

Brahman of the Supreme Reality in the (Samasti) macrocosmic aspect is Hiranyagarbha and in the (Vyasthi) microcosmic aspect is the Jiva. He who knows Brahman through both these aspects is a true Knower of Reality.

Adbhya Poorwam (prior to waters)— The Hiranyagarbha or the Total Mind was born prior to the “five elements”. Here water stands for all the “five elements”; Akasha (space) is a grosser manifestation risen up from the Total Mind.

Tapasah (by penance or of knowledge)— There are passages in the different Upanishads where the processes of creation are explained; one of them is “the Supreme willed Himself to be many and many came or became”. It is this theory that is echoed in this Mantra.

In short, the Mantra says that a seeker finally realizes the Supreme Reality, the Eternal Factor, both in the microcosm and in the macrocosm (Vyashti and Samashti). Brahman appears as Jiva through the conditioning of Avidya and as Hiranyagarbha through the conditioning of Maya.

When the conditionings drop off the Hiranyagarbha and Jiva, they become identical with the transcendental Brahman. “This is verily that”, which you had enquired for.

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