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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 3 Mantra 17

Lecture

Mantra

aṅgu̍ṣṭha mātraḥ pu̱ruṣo̍’ntarātmā sadā̍ janā̱nām hṛ̱daye̍ sanniviṣṭaḥ |
taṁ svāc cha̍rīrāt pra̱vṛhe̍n muñjā̍d iveṣīkāṁ dhairye̱ṇa |
taṁ vidyāc chu̱kram a̱mṛta̱ṁ taṁ vidyāc chu̱kram a̱mṛta̍m iti ||

aṅguṣṭha mātraḥ puruṣaḥ = the Person the size of a thumb; antarātmā = within one’s very own Self; sadā = always; janānām hṛdaye sanniviṣṭaḥ = seated in the hearts of all people; taṁ = him; pravṛhet = one should draw out, separate; svāt śarīrāt = from one’s own body; iṣīkāṁ iva muñjāt = like a stalk from within the munja grass; dhairyeṇa = unerringly, steadily; taṁ = that separated consciousness; vidyāt = one should know; śukram amṛtaṁ = as pure and immortal; taṁ vidyāt śukram amṛtam iti = the repetition indicates the end of the teaching.

The Purusha of the size of a thumb, the Inner Self, is always seated in the heart of all living beings; one should draw Him out from one’s own body with steadiness, as one draws the pith (stalk) from a reed; one should know Him as Pure and Immortal.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

We have already discussed in the earlier Mantras the concept of the Supreme Reality as a mere presence, “in the shape of one’s own thumb”, residing in the center of one’s heart. We noted there that the size and shape have been given to the Self to facilitate our meditations, during the earlier stages of the Path of Dhyan. In fact, the Atman is formless although here Self is described as having a shape and a form. This is only for the purpose of providing the seekers with a prop for their mind at meditation to concentrate upon.

It is quite appropriate that Lord Death should conclude his Upanishadic declarations to his disciple, Nachiketas, with a direct call upon him to continue his meditations and discriminate the Real Divine presence in the center of the center, from the unreal concentric coating for matter, which the Spirit has seemingly put on to play its game of hide and seek; Beyond the five Koshas (sheaths) lies the Spirit.

The analogy employed here (to show how through discrimination one reaches the Final State of Self cognizing the Self) is, true to the style of the Upanishads, most emphatic and voluminously Self-expressive, Nachiketas, and through Nachiketas the entire ‘world of seekers, is advised to extricate the element of Absolute Consciousness, the Pure Chit Essence, from the delusory consciousness of the body, by continuous and deep practices of discrimination and meditation.

That, during meditation, one should not, in the least, strain oneself, is so vividly brought out by the analogy of “drawing out the Pith from the reed”; the reed itself is the most delicate of plants, and its stalk is more so; and to draw out this flimsy and subtle pith from its outer envelopments constituted of the stalks of the leaves themselves, is a delicate act, which needs a softness of touch, a measured and practiced application of force, and a subtle silky defines in handling the entire process!

Pure Consciousness, that is the Controller and the Director of all physical, mental, and intellectual activities in a human being is the Soul or the Atman. The Upanishad concludes with the repeated assertion that we must know Him to be pure and immortal.

He is “pure’, in the sense that impurities of the mind as Kama (desires), Krodah (anger), Lobha (avarice), etc., are not in him. He is ‘immortal’ in as much as He is the Eternal Unborn Truth, All-pervading and the Uncaused Cause of all effects seen in His manifestations!

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