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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 2 Mantra 8

Mantra

ya e̍ṣa su̱pteṣu̍ jāga̱rti̱ kā̱mam kā̍mam pu̱ruṣo̍ nirmimāṇaḥ |
tad e̍va śu̱kraṁ tad bra̱hma tad e̍vāmṛ̱tam u̍cyate |
tasmi̍n lo̱kāś śri̍tās sa̱rve̱ ta̱d u nā̍tyeti̱ kaśca̍na |
e̱tad vai tat ||

yaḥ eṣaḥ = He who; jāgarti = remains awake; supteṣu = when the functions of the body sleep; nirmimāṇaḥ = shaping; kāmam kāmam = desire after desire; puruṣaḥ = the Person, Being; tat eva = that indeed is; śukraṁ = white, pure; tat brahma = that itself is Brahman; tat eva ucyate = that indeed is said to be; amṛtam = immortal, indestructable; tasmin = on it; sarve lokāh śritāh = all the worlds are fixed, have their support and existence; na kaḥ cana = no one; tat u atyeti = ever goes beyond That; etat vai tat = this verily is That.

The Purusha who remains awake, shaping (all sorts of) objects of desires (into dreams) even while we sleep, verily, that is the pure, the Brahman, and that is also called the Immortal. In That rests all the world and none can transcend That. This verily is That (which you asked for).

by Swami Chinmayananda:

The waking state world of sense objects and their cognition are not possible without the presence of Pure Intelligence within the body. So too, we have already found that the dream world would not have been available for our experience had it not been again lit up by the very same Intelligence. In the deep sleep state too, the Intelligence continuously illuminates for us. The idea of “I do not know”. Thus, Pure Intelligence, the Self, ever remains as a Witness of the three states. It is neither awake, nor does It ever dream, nor does It ever sleep! In Its presence, the three different states play the relay race.

During the Kenopanishad discussions we had made this point amply clear with the analogy of a street lamp. The light of the street lamp illuminates everything that comes into its pool of light. It may illumine at one time a honey mooning couple singing and dancing in their new found joys of physical companionship; at another moment it may light up a drunken party laughing and dancing in their intoxication; and yet, at another moment, it may tight up a mournful procession of a sad funeral pyre. In all the three cases the light of the street lamp is neither happy as the honey moon couple nor drunk as the revelers, nor sad and sorrowful as the bereaved in the funeral procession!

Similarly, the Intelligence, that reigns within us, illuminates for us the world of the waking state, the world of the dream state and that of sleep state, without Itself ever undergoing any of these experiences.

Lord Death is now trying to point out to his disciple, Nachiketas, what the Self is, through a consideration, and in terms of the experiences known to the student during his present existence in the world of ignorance. A school master knows that the best way to start teaching a student addition or subtraction is not by directly making the child play with the numerical figures, but to make him understand the idea of addition through familiar objects. Thus, it is very well known that a school master always takes examples from the child’s own life; “supposing you have ten mangoes” starts the master, “and your friend has five mangoes; how many mangoes are there with both between you and him: This question is asked by the master not for the purpose of keeping the mango accounts but to make the child understand the greater principles of arithmetic through what are already familiar to the child, Similarly, the Upanishad texts always adopt the method of raising a seeker into the Highest Realms by explaining to him the Truth Absolute in which he is well versed at the moment of his approach to the feet of his teacher.

No human can be unaware of the three planes of consciousness through which he daily passes; namely, the waking state, the dream state, and the deep sleep state. If now a teacher approaches us and explains to us that there is one constant Illuminating factor, in the presence of which alone the experiences of the three planes of consciousness become real and cognizable for us, it must necessarily ‘be easy for us to feel for ourselves intuitively this factor, the eternal Self.

Since the Self is not polluted by our criminal intentions, low lustful desires, jealousies and selfishness of our life (just as the street light is untouched by the varied scenes it comes to illuminate), the Atman, as the sole Witnessing Factor, is indeed ever Sukram (pure).

The rest of the words in the Mantra stand explained by themselves, to all those who have followed our detailed commentary so far.

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