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THE TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD
THE TAITTIRIYA UPANISHAD
I
The world is the infinite self-formation of a Spiritual Reality on different levels of itself, covering over covering and sheath within sheath, within and within, over and over. It is not a static formation; it is an infinitely flowing movement all through, from within outward and from without inward. The originating Reality resides within the ultimate ether in the inmost centre of its self-formations, as in a cave of secrecy. Knowing it, we attain to the Highest. Knowing it, we know all there is to know. Knowing it, we reach the fulfilment of all desires "along with Brahman" — that is, we share, so to say, in the perfect fulfilment of all desires which dwells in the truth-aware, blissful being of the Supreme. Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma / Yo veda nihitam guhayam parame vyoman / So'snute sarvan kaman / Saha Brahmana vipascita. The knowledge that is spoken of here is, it is evident, quite unlike intellectual knowledge. Knowing is here equated with becoming. To know Brahman is to become one with Brahman and therefore, it is to become one with the All. It is to participate in the infinite being of Brahman, in its infinite consciousness with its self-effectuating force or will, in its utter fulfilment of all desires and so in its self-existent delight. For Brahman is spoken of by the Chhandogya as the Treasure of Gold deep-hidden in the inmost recesses of the heart while, unsuspecting of its presence there, we go about seeking for trifles. But in this Treasure lies the fulfilment of all of man's desires, his utter self-fulfilment. For desires are the translation in the terms of Life of the great creative movement of the Spirit, one in its impulsion outward into expression and in its impulsion inward towards its source. The Chhandogya1 speaks of desires as belonging to truth, but as being covered up by untruth, — the untruth of a part which loses the vision of the whole. It is this loss and limitation of vision, this untruth of a separative ego, that vitiates the aim and direction and working of desire and splits it up into man's good and evil, right and wrong. The rajasic activity of desire is used by Nature to counter the effects
1 Ta ime satyah kama anrtapidhanah, 8-3-1. Page-111 of its own lower mode of tamas, inertia, stolidity, animal contentment, etc. But rajasic desire itself has to be up-graded into its sattwic form.1 But still, even that has the separative ego as its source. It has been subdued by controls and checks, not mastered. Until it is mastered and the ego ceases to be the centre of man's being, he cannot go beyond grief and suffering. Man, recovering his unity with the one Vast, the Supreme, the Brahman, reaches the fulfilment that is in Him of all desire. Then is he not troubled by the thought, "Why did I not do this right, why did I fall into that wrong?" For he now knows the nature of good and evil and has transcended them both and his desire has become one with the movement of truth. And because for him the distinction between them is abrogated, it is not an empty or unreal one or one that belongs to a dream or illusory existence. The distinction is based on truth in its application to a particular region of existence and when it is passed beyond the distinction vanishes. This self-formation of Brahman, or Creation, is founded in joy and its culmination is in joy. But how is it that suffering is the badge of life? Partly because life is desire-stricken kama-hata, that is, it is stricken by the accretion of the untruth on desire; and partly because life has to put on a material vesture in a world founded on Matter. It is these special conditions of a particular mode of existence that bring in infelicity and suffering, but otherwise being is joy. For pleasure and pain do not touch him who remains free from the body — asariram'vava santam na priyapriye sprsatah, as the Chhandogya declares. It is material existence that, as it diffracts truth of desire into various shades of good and evil, also breaks up joy of being into various shades of pleasure and pain. And all this suffering's well-nigh infinitude in material existence is borne and sustained and triumphed over by just an infinitesimal measure of that joy which is the deep foundation of existence, etasya eva anandasya anyani bhutani mdtram upajivanti (Br. Up. 4-3-32). And with a quiet sublimity of expression the Taittiriya says: Verily, who should stir at all, who should breathe at all, if this boundless Space in itself be not joy — ko hyevanyat kah pranyat yad esa ākasa anando na syat. The seeker who reaches the goal of his world journey reaches this joy, and goes beyond law and fear. He enters and irradiates with this bliss every sheath of his being even to the outermost. To him
1 Dharmaviruddhah kamo'smi, Gita 7-11. Page-112 comes the freedom of the Universe. And he ranges through all realms of existence taking whatever food of enjoyment he may like and whatever form or body he may choose, — an unshackled rapture breaking forth into this paen of victory and triumph: "O ye! I am both the Food and the Eater. I am the maker of the harmonies of the revelatory word. I am the first-born of Truth, and prior to the gods am I. I am the navel of immortality. I front and master all existence, like Light the world of Heaven!" This is how the Taittiriya Upanishad presents the Ancient Knowledge, the Knowledge handed down by the Rishis of a previous age, the Knowledge as particularly taught by Varuna to Bhrigu. But how is one to enter into this Knowledge?
II
The Upanishad represents the human being as a five-fold person, one inside another. The outer is the material bodily person, the physical being. It is called the annamaya purusa. The outer person is constituted of food, that is, Matter, for life feeds on matter and is sustained by it. Matter is the basic creative principle of our world-existence. They who commune with Food, that is, Matter, as Brahman they come by all Food, says the Upanishad; that is, they come to know Matter fully and entirely and have access to the riches of sustaining and renovating power locked up in the physical body or the food-sheath, the annamaya kosa. For food is the eldest of things and is rightly called the all-healer, and all living beings are constituted out of it and grow by it. Permeating and filling the physical being, enselfing it, presiding over it as soul over body, is there within it the vital being, the pranamaya purusa. And this self or being is figured by the Upanishad in the likeness of the physical body. The up-moving energy of life is its head; the pervasive energy of life is its right arm or wing; and the down-moving energy of life is its left arm or wing, while its main body is ether16 and earth its rump or supporting bottom. After
1 Akasa. Sankara makes ākasa mean the samana which is situated in the and he retains the earth, taking it to mean its presiding deity, who holds firm the apana. Sayana gets rid of the earth too by making it stand for the udana, on the ground that we are concerned here with the vital being,
Page-113 Matter, life is the next creative principle of our world existence. They who commune with Life as Brahman, reach the entire length of life, that is, the fulness of life, the whole extent and depth of its active functioning; for to them are opened up all its capacities that lie coiled up in it like a spring, its inherent supremacies over matter. Permeating and filling this vital being, enselfing it, presiding over it as soul over body, is there within it the mental being — the manomaya purusa. Yajus, the Veda of the holy rite is its head; Rik, the Veda of the illumining hymn is its right arm or wing; saman, the Veda of the divine melody is its left arm or wing; Commandment or Teaching is its main body; and the Secret Knowledge handed down by the Rishi Atharvan and the Angirasas is its rump or support. Mind is the next creative principle of our world-existence and in reference to this principle occurs the following verse: "He who knows the joy of Brahman, from which fall back both speech and mind getting no hold, him no more does fear visit."17 Permeating and filling this body, enselfing it, presiding over it as soul over body, is there within it the knowledge-being — the vijnanamaya purusa. The faith of Truth is his head; Truth Creative is his right arm or wing; Truth actualized is his left arm or wing; union with the Spirit is his main body or self; and the world of the vast Truth is his rump or support. Vijnana is the eldest of creative principles. It is vijnana which effectuates the purifying worship, and works also it accomplishes. He who knows vijnana as Brahman
―———————————— who should be all made up of the motions of life, and thus completes the system of the five vital motions constitutive of the life principle, There are passages in the Upanishads in which the vital principle seems to be regarded as complete with the three division s of prana, apana and vyana. Taking this to be the case here, ether and earth may be taken to have been intended as entering into the composition of the life sheath in their subtle forms, There should be no difficulty on this score, seeing that mind itself is regarded as annamaya. 1 From the regular pattern followed in the text, we should expect here a verse of authority showing mind as a creative principle and then a statement of the results that would ensue from its realization as such. On the other hand we find here a verse showing the mind's constitutional incapacity to arrive at the joy of Brahman. The original passage here seems to have been lost and its place filled up by the verse of authority in the section on the anandamaya purusa with just one slight verbal alteration, simply because the word manas occurs in it, Sankara, however, makes an unconvincing effort to show that the verse is intended " in praise of mind", Page-114 and does never fall away from the knowledge, he throws out all the sins in his body and obtains all desires completely. Permeating and filling the vijñānamaya being, enselfing it, presiding over it as soul over body, is there within it the joy-being or the anandamaya purusa. Love is its head; gladness its right arm or wing; delight is its left arm or wing; joy is its main body or self; and Brahman its rump or support. He who knows the joy of Brahman, from which both speech and thought turn back unable to reach, for him no more is there anything that can give rise to fear. For it is Brahman who has created all that is and entered into it. He is the sap of ecstatic sweetness, the sap that builds the worlds. Only by getting at this sap does man become a being of Joy. He finds fearless station in the invisible, ineffable, abodeless Reality that transcends all selfhood. He sees that he who dwells in the human being and he who dwells in the Sun — that is, the Truth which is the source, life and light of all existence, — both are one. His is the highest knowledge and the supreme realisation, for ananda is the supreme Brahman himself. With this realisation he enters into sheath after sheath of his being and ranges through the worlds, singing the paen triumphal: "O Ye! I am both the Food and the Eater. I am the maker of the harmonies of the revelatory word; I am the first-born of Truth, and prior to the gods am I. I am the navel of immortality. I front and master all existence, like Light the world of Heaven!"
III
Page-115 but a real fulfilment and victory, a triumphal re-entering1 into all the levels of consciousness of our being with the luminous and blissful truth and a ranging forth over all realms of becoming in joyous freedom. The Upanishad shows existence as having a divine purpose and goal — something entirely different from the views which make it out to be a kind of illness or disease for which a completely effective cure has to be found without possibility of relapse. We shall now concern ourselves to examine a little more closely the Upanishad's description of the manomaya purusa and the vijnanamaya purusa; for between these two, evidently, it places the great Crossing from the Ignorance into the Knowledge. He who knows vijnana as Brahman and gets himself firmly fixed in the knowledge, the Upanishad declares, casts away the sins in his body and reaches the entire fulfilment of all his desires — vijnanam brahma ced veda, tasmat cen na pramadyati, sarire papmano hitva sarvan kaman samas-nute. So, the crossing from sin to sinlessness, from desire, suffering and evil into fulfilment has been effected by the knower of vijnana. Sinlessness and fulfilment the manomaya purusa has not, and it is for them that he seeks. In order to find what he seeks, he has according to the Upanishad to transform himself into the vijñānamaya purusa. It represents the head and arms and the support of the manomaya purusa as constituted by the highest knowledge attained or attainable by the mind of man — the highest, of course, in the view of the Upanishad. The highest knowledge to which the human mind aspires is, obviously, the knowledge about the Reality of existence and the way of reaching it; this for the Upanishad is embodied or symbolized by the Yajus, the Rik and the Saman, which are figured as the head and the two arms of the mental being. The secret knowledge of the truth whose discovery has been ascribed by Vedic Tradition to the Rishi Atharoan and the Angirasas, the Ancient Fathers of the Race, is represented as the foundation on which the structure of the mental being rests. But all this knowledge of the mental being is external to it, so to say; something based upon inference or belief or tradition or teaching. So the Upanishad calls the main body of the manomaya purusa, as distinguished from his limbs, ādesa that is, Commandment or Teaching. The why and wherefore of things is
1The word used is "upa-samkramya." The Upanishad seems to attach great significance to it. 2Sankara makes ādesa mean the Brahmanas. Page-116 above the reach of the mind, for the world is urdhvamula, it has its roots above. The why of right and wrong, of good and evil, mind cannot satisfactorily tackle; for its knowledge and guidance on these things it has to rely on a categorical imperative, either within man's own heart, or, when it is not sufficiently imperative, within the accumulated experience of the human race.1 So, in respect of fundamentals, both as regards knowledge and action, the human mind has to rely on "Teaching" or "Commandment". Ades'a, therefore, forms the fundamental part of man's mental life.ññā The vijñānamaya purusa is described as constituted of quite a different order of knowledge. sraddhā, the implacable urge of the inmost truth of the being for expression, known or unknown, ever exerting its pressure; not to be deceived; not to be refused; no mental belief or matter of assent or dissent, but if belief, a belief of the entire being itself— this sraddhā is what is represented as the head of the vijñānamaya purusa.2 Rita, the rhythm of the Spirit going forth into the ways of manifold being; the free creative Truth presiding over the manifestation and beckoning to the sraddhā in the depths of manifested being; the unerring and inviolable working of the Divine Agencies — this is what is called Rita by the Rig-vedic Rishis; this Rita is the right arm of the vijñānamaya purusa. The truth of the Spirit that has been realised and become a part of the being is his left arm. And the support for this structure is mahah3—the Vast Truth, the world which is the "foundation above" of the three worlds, bhuh, bhuvah and suvah and which are called the three vyahftis or the three great Utterances of the Spirit. These are the several limbs; but yoga, union with the Spirit, is the main body, the essential part of the vijñānamaya purusa, in contrast to ādesa, Commandment or Teaching, which has been said to be the main body of the manomaya purusa. Ever-present union with the Spirit is the essential characteristic of the vijñānamaya purusa-, it is his main self. It is through this union with the Spirit that for him is illumined the why of things, the why of right and wrong, the why of good and evil. Now he is gone beyond
1Dharmasya tattvam nihitam guhayam, mahajano yena gatafr sa pantkah. 2Yo yacchraddafi, sa eva sah. Gita 17-3. * Mahah. In the earlier portion of the Upanishad Mahachamasya is said to have announced it as the fourth vyahriti. Sankara says the word means mahat-tattva which is identified by him with Hiranyagarbha. But why stray into what is probably a different order of ideas when the Upanishad itself gives an explanation of the word ? Page-117 the ādesa, which is the light on the path of the mental being. Yoga is his light; he knows through yoga, he acts through yoga. Now, what should we understand by the term vijnana? There is the difficulty that it is used with varying significance in the Upanishads and the precise meaning of the term in any place can be fixed only by the context. We have in this place a sufficiently detailed description of vijnana and the vijñānamaya purusa to enable us to understand its import with some definiteness, though it would be hazardous to fix too precisely the connotations of the psychological terminology of the ancient mystics of a far-away age. First, we can see that vijnana is regarded as a creative principle, like Matter, Life and Mind, and not as a particular activity or working of the mind. Secondly, it is not the "Revealed Word" conveying the truth that forms the parts of its body, as is the case with the Mind. Truth itself—the fundamental truth of Being and the truth of its going forth, the divine law and harmony of the universal movement — goes to make up its body. So in the vijnana knowing is becoming; it is experience, not report; it is a growth and flowering of the very nature of the being, not a growing store, as it were, in its room of memory as is the case with the mind: and buddhi uses this acquisition for its reflective thinking, its constructions or representations. Thirdly, he who is fixed-in the knowledge that vijnana is the first Creative Principle, jyesfham brahma, casts away sin and suffering, sarire papmano hitva, and reaches the utter fulfilment of all desires, sarvan kaman samasnute. From this it is clear that vijnana is the consciousness of that level of being where, freed from suffering and sin, it reaches fulfilment. The separative ego has been dissolved, the divorce between consciousness and its force has been abrogated. These are the fundamental afflictions of the mental being which are cast away by the truth-aware being on the plane of vijnana or gnosis. But Sankara makes vijnana mean the determining buddhi. The antahkarana, man's inner instrument of knowledge, is said to function in three ways — as manas, buddhi and ahamkara. That which helps us to come to a definite conclusion or decision on the given content of a perception is called adhyavasaya, and this is made the distinguishing characteristic of buddhi. And the vijñānamaya purusa in the human being, according to Sankara, is he that proceeds on the basis of proved definite knowledge which he reaches through Page-118 this activity of the inner instrument. But surely, mental adhyavasaya or buddhi cannot be "the eldest of creative principles which the Divine Agencies wait upon and serve"; and the vijñānamaya purusa who is described as constituted of truth-knowledge and as founded on mahah:, the fourth world of truth-being, — bhuh, bhuvah and suvah standing for the three worlds of Matter, Life and Mind respectively, where the truth of being is broken and distorted — cannot be the being that proceeds, as Sankara says, on definite knowledge ascertained to be true through proper logical ways of proof. If we follow Sankara, we are still in the province of the antahkarana, and even when we reach the anandamaya purusa we are still concerned with another working of the antahkarana. And from the antahkarana we have to take the great leap into the Ineffable, — the adrsya, anatmya, anirukta, anilayana, and in between there is nothing but void. IV From all this it is clear we cannot follow Sankara in his interpretation. The Upanishad speaks of the vijñānamaya purusa as the inner self of the manomaya purusa and of vijnana as a creative principle superior to the mental. Vijnana is knowledge which is quite different from the mental knowledge, it is the knowledge of the spiritual being in man. The Upanishads speak of the self in the human being as vijñānamaya — atma vijñānamaya purusa, and of the Infinite Being as vijnanaghana. Obviously vijnana is gnosis, the knowledge in the spiritual consciousness. But Sankara says that the self is called vijñānamaya because it is realised in the buddhi, with the buddhi as the instrument and by the buddhi as the agent, and it is this buddhi which is meant by vijnana and that vijnanaghana is Pure awareness or Intelligence and is so called because there is nothing else but awareness or intelligence in it. And upon this misunderstanding of vijnana and the wrong turn which it gave to philosophy hangs a tale which has been of grave consequence to Indian life and spirituality. We shall, therefore, make no apology for quoting here a passage from Sri Aurobindo touching upon this important matter. " .... But the vijnana or gnosis is the very working of the infinite and divine nature; it is the divine knowledge one with the divine will in the delight of spontaneous and luminous self-fulfillment. By the gnosis, then, we change our human into a divine nature.
Page-119
"What then is this gnosis and how can we describe it? There are in the ordinary philosophical notions of the term vijnana two opposite errors which disfigure two opposite sides of the truth with regard to the gnosis. In one vijnana is used as synonymous with the buddhi and the Indian term buddhi as synonymous with the reason or discerning intellect. The classifications which accept this significance, pass at once from a plane of pure intellect to a plane of pure spirit; they recognize no intermediate power, no diviner action of knowledge than the pure reason. In the other error it is supposed that vijnana is the consciousness which gives us the knowledge of the Infinite free from all ideation or with ideation packed into one essence of thought, lost in the single and invariable idea of the one, the caitanyaghana of the Upanishad. But the gnosis, the vijnana is not only this concentrated consciousness of the infinite Being, it is also the infinite knowledge of the play of the Infinite; it contains all ideation in itself though it is not limited by ideation. This ideation, however, is not in its character intellectual ideation, not what we call the reason; for that is mental in its methods, mental in its basis, mental in its acquisitions, but the ideation of the gnosis is supramental in its methods, its basis, its yield of thought-light. There is a relation, even a sort of broken identity between the two forms of thought, one indeed proceeds from the other; but they act on different planes and reverse each other's process. Even the purest reason, the most luminous rational intellectuality is not the gnosis."1 What the Taittiriya teaches is the discovery by man the mental being, of the vijnamaya purusa who is his self. And the means of casting out suffering and evil, papman from his body is to establish himself in vijnana, the consciousness of the vijñānamaya purusa. vijnana is a power not only for the purifying adoration which lifts the being to the ultimate goal, yajna, but it is also a power for works which help forward the world, karmani—vijnanamyajnam tanute, karmani tanute'pi ca. And evil touches him not who is fixed in vijnana, for he lives and acts in union with the Spirit — that is, in yoga. And the entire teaching of Sri Aurobindo is hinged on the true conception of this Upanishadic vijnana. Man's fullest spiritual development is through vijnana. It is not merely to reach the ripple-
1 Arya. Vol. 4. Page 86. Page-120
less peace and joy of the Brahman-consciousness and then to wait till the body falls away for the final mergence. Man is called to a greater adventure. He is to bring down the power of vijnana into his life here, and free it from evil and suffering. And to that end, he has to transform his nature from top to bottom — the very physical nature of the body must see and act with the light and power pf vijnana. — May I, O Lord of Light, become a vessel for immortality! May my body be wide visioned! Rapturous-sweet be my tongue! May I with my ears hear the Vast! — Amrtasya deva dharano bhūyāsam, sariram me vicarsanam, jikvā me madhumattamd, karnabhyām bhuri visruvam. |