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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 3 Mantra 5

Mantra

yathā̍’’darśe tathā̱’’tma̍ni yathā̍ sva̱pne tathā̍ pi̱tṛ-lo̍ke |
yathā̍’psu parīva̍ dadṛśe tathā̍ ga̱ndharva̍-loke 
chā̱yā̱-ta̱pa̱yor i̍va bra̱hma-lo̍ke ||

yathā = as; ādarśe = in a mirror; tathā-ātmani = similarly in the self (intellect); yathā svapne = as in a dream; tathā pitṛ-loke = similarly in the realm of the ancestors; yathā apsu = as [a reflection] in water; pari iva dadṛśe = appears to be without clear demarcation; hazy; tathā gandharva-loke = similarly in the realm of the Gandharvas; chāyā-tapayoḥ iva = like shade and light; brahma-loke = in the realm of Brahma.

As in a mirror, so (Brahman can be clearly seen) here within one’s own Self; as in dreams so in the world of the forefathers; as in water, so in the world of the Gandharvas; as in light and shade, so in the world of Brahman.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

In the previous Mantra, we have been advised that in our life the greatest achievement would be that of realizing our own Real Nature. Now in this Mantra Lord Death is trying to explain to his disciple, Nachiketas, how realization of the Self in the human existence is much more sacred, compared with the possibilities of realization in the other different planes of existence.

As men, we are living in a plane of consciousness, where we have certain kinds of experiences which we gain through our sense organs, mind, and intellect when they react with the available external world of sense objects. Just as our experiences of the waking state world are not the same as our experiences in our dream world, so too, there can be other planes of consciousness wherein different degrees of experiences can be our lot. Thus, we have the Pitrloka (the world of the manes) where the individual has only the mind and intellect equipment and not the physical body. Naturally, the experiences gained by the subtle body must be different from our own experiences here, in as much as the body with its demands, cravings, pains, and joys will color our experiences to give us on the whole a totally different life. Similarly, the experiences in the world of the Gandharvas (divine nymphs, instinctively clever in music, dance, and such other allied arts) and the plane of consciousness called the Hiranyagarbha or the Brahma Loka (the Total Mind), must each be totally different from those in all the other worlds. Here, Sruti is trying to give the comparative clarity with which the Absolute Knowledge can be reached by the seekers in the different planes of existence.

Yathadarshe (as in a mirror) — Man, living the life of the mortal, in this world alone, can, through the required special practices, come to gain the clearest concept of Absolute Knowledge. Transcending his mind and intellect intuitively a seeker comes face to face, with the Truth, the Self, or the Atman. At this stage, there is a natural pause for all the thinking students to raise serious doubts. When one’s mind and intellect have been transcended, how can there be an ego, who can come face to face with the Center of all our Lives to recognize it? True, the question is quite intelligent, logical, and to the mark. This question has been answered here in the simple-looking comparison with the reflection in a mirror.

Friends, mirror gazing must be quite familiar to every one of you, as no day can pass, in this era of daily shaving, without you looking into a mirror. But probably, you have never tried to analyze the exact moment of your understanding of your reflection. Let this Sadhu try to help you.

Supposing, for a moment, that you are standing in front of a mirror. Now, seeing your reflection in the mirror what do you exactly understand; If, for example, your reflection showed that it needs a shaving badly, would you then start shaving the “reflection” in the mirror or would you do it on your own face? That is, though you are looking out into the reflection in the mirror, you are in fact understanding not the reflection but yourself.

Similarly, when the mind and the intellect have been transcended in the last moments of the white heat of meditation, the individual ego, peeping over its own limitations, as it were, comes face to face with the Eternal Self and when thus, the highly evolved ego, comes to reflect the Light of the Eternal Knowledge, the reflection merges itself in a process of knowing, to become one with the Self. Seeing the reflection we do not actually come to know so much the reflection as, through it, we come to understand the source of the reflection, our own face, If once we have grasped this point clearly in all its pregnant import, we shall easily understand the other comparisons, used in explaining the different degrees of clarity, with which a seeker can realize his own Self, in the different planes of conscious existence.

All those who have been regularly following so far, the Yagna discourses are sure to understand the depth of the significance in the comparisons as in dreams so in the world of the forefathers, and as in water so in the world of Gandharvas. Chinmaya does not wish to commit the sin of repetition.

Chayatapayoriva (as in light and shade): In Brahma Loka, the Sruti explains, that the Knowledge of the Self can be certainly most clear, as clear as black letters would be against a white background! In fact, Sruti is unequivocally emphatic in her assertion that Self-realization in the World of the Cosmic Mind is the clearest. But we should not forget that this Plane of Consciousness is very difficult to be reached, for, this is the lot given to such ego centers who have come to gain the required merits through a synthetic Yoga of both Karma and Upasana (worship and meditation). The one, having reached the Brahma Loka, according to the scriptures, remains there enjoying for long the subtlest joys of that world, until at last, ultimately, guided by the Creator Himself, he attains Immortality, when that Plane of Consciousness gets folded back into the Absolute, during the periodical pralayas (deluge). This process of Self-realization is termed as Krama Mukthi (liberation by stages) in the textbooks of Vedanta.

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