The Brihadaaranyakopanishad is affiliated to the Sukla Yajur
Veda; it has six sections, of which all except the third and
fourth, describe Upanasa or Worship associated with Karma or
ritualistic Action. The third and the fourth sections deal with
the teachings of Yajnavalkya on spiritual Truth imparted to
Janaka. The grandeur of the intellectual eminence of that sage is
impressively evident in this Upanishad. For aspirants eager to
reach the goal of Liberation, this part of the Brihadaaranyaka
offers the best guide. The sections are therefore referred to as
Yajnavalkya Kanda. It is the last of the famous Ten Upanishads. On
account of its size, it is named Brihath or Big; since it is best
studied in the silence of the forest or Aranya, it is an Aranyaka;
it instructs in Brahmajnana and so is classed as an Upanishad.
Scholars have designated the first two sections of this Text as
Madhura-kanda, the next two as Muni-kanda and the last two as
Khila-kanda. Khila means appendix and hence the name is
appropriate. The first section deals with the basic principles, as
they are; the second proves their truth by reference to
experience. The third shows how to practise the same and get
mastery over it. The first section teaches Jnana, essential for
spiritual progress; it is related to the paths of Karma and
Upasana. It is not mere dry intellectual discipline.
For those eager to earn Jnana, there are four instruments or
media for acquiring that wisdom. They are: Pada, Bija, Sankhya and
Rekha. Pada means the Vedas, and the Smrithis that attempt to
explain them. Bija connotes the entire gamut of manthras learnt
direct from the Guru. Sankhya is of two kinds, Vaidika and
Loukika. Vaidika-sankhya means the calculations and quantitative
analysis of the various manthras; Loukika-sankhya refers to the
numbers and their inter-relations so far as they are related to
the external world and the interrelations of human activities.
Rekha too has two such categories, the Vaidika-Rekha being a part
of the Upasana activity mentioned in the Vedas and Loukika-Rekha
being a part of the Mathematics of the Universe.
The Madhura-kanda describes the Brahmathathwa or the Brahma
Principle in the light of the categories accepted as authoritative
by the Scriptures. Purusha is the Primeval Person, from whom or on
whom all this Name-Form Manifoldness has emanated. We conceive the
horse in the Aswamedha as Prajapathi Himself. He is directed to
impose on the Horse the characteristics and attributes of
Prajapathi, so that he might acquire the fruits of that ritual.
This portion is known also as Aswa-Brahmana. Again, the Fire which
is the central figure in the sacrifice is also to be felt and
consecrated as Prajapathi and there are descriptions attributing
the qualities of Prajapathi to Agni. So this is called
Agni-brahmana.
This Jagath, taken as true by the deluded, is just a jumble of
Names and Forms devoid of the permanence that Atma alone can have.
Hence, it breeds disgust and discontent and causes renunciation to
grow. The mind is soon free from attachment to the objects of
sensory pleasure and it moves along its natural bent to Brahmam
itself. All sounds are names; vaak or voice is the cause for its
emergence. Rupa or Form is the result of vision or sight: it
emerges from the eye. Karma similarly has the body as its source;
the body is just a context for vaak and other instruments.
Contemplation on such truths helps the process of Atma vichara to
start and progress.
The Prana or Vital Air, the Sarira which is its basis, the
Siras (head), which is the seat of the instruments for acquiring
knowledge, the strength that is derived from food - all these are
considered in this Upanishad.
As the sweetness of a thousand flowers is collected into honey,
this Jagath is a concatenation of the elements. Dharma, Sathya,
and such abstract principles, men and such concrete living beings,
the Virat-Purusha and such conceptions - all these again are the
effects of the same Brahmathathwa, that is, an immortal changeless
Thathwa. The realisation that the Thathwa inheres in every
individual is Brahma-Jnana.
Janaka, the King of Videha, celebrated a Sacrifice giving away
vast wealth in gifts. Many Brahmins attended this Yaga from the
Kuru-Panchala territory. The king had a thousand cows decorated
with anklets, necklaces and hornlets of gold; he announced that
they would be donated to whoever taught him the Brahman. Many
Brahmins, though great scholars in their own line, hesitated to
claim the cows, through fear of failure. But, Yajnavalkya was so
confident that he asked his students to drive the cows to his
Ashram! The other Brahmins got enraged at his audacity and started
testing his scholarship and experience.
The first to come forward to challenge Yajnavalkya was the
family priest of Janaka. The answers that the sage gave to his
questions clarify the method of attaining the Atma encased in the
pranas, through the conjoint yogas of Karma and Bhakthi. In the
Yajna, the Rithwik's voice is Agni, the Kala is Vayu, the Mind of
the Performer is Chandra - such is the manner in which one has to
grasp the meaning of ritual and free one-self from the limitations
of mortality.
The next to accost the sage was Bujyu; his questions were: Is
there an Entity called Purusha who is ruled by the senses and who
is entangled in this current named Samsara? Or is there no Purusha
of this type? If there is one such, what are his characteristics?
Yajnavalkya answered him thus: Your Atma is the Entity you
inquired about; just as a wooden contrivance cannot operate on its
own, but must be moved by some outside power or inside force, or
just as this arm can move like this only when the will operates on
it, so too, unless a super-spiritual power presides, the body
cannot act nor can the vital airs function as they do. He is the
seer of the seeing function of the body; He hears, and not the
ear. That Chethana or Super-consciousness that sees and hears and
feels is but a reflection of the Atma on the mind. That Chethana
sees even the Seer; what happens is that the Chethana reflected in
the mind moves out through the senses and grasps the external
world of the five elements and so it appears as if the Chethana is
engaged in activity. Really speaking, it has no activity.
That Chethana is the Atma; it is beyond the reach of the
senses, it is above and beyond the subtle and even the causal
sariras. It has been understood by experience where the Atma is to
be attained by total renunciation. Attachment to children, riches,
wife, etc., - all have to be given up; these originate in Kama,
Desire. Why, all activities whether ordinary or ritual or
worshipful are basically the products of Kama. The desire for the
fruit is present in Karma-sadhana also. There is no denying this.
And hence they are opposed to true Sanyas.
Light and darkness cannot be together, at the same place and
time. So too, Karma-activity and Atma-jnana cannot be together.
Sanyas is Sarvakriya-parithyaga; begging for food is a Karma and
against Sanyas. The Brahmins of ancient days knew this; they gave
up attachment, and, through the path of Nivritti or withdrawal,
realised the Reality. He alone is a Brahmin who has detached
himself from all things which are concerned with non-Atmic ends.
All other credentials are secondary.
In this Upanishad, the Sarvantharyamithwa of the Atma is
described. All this earth becomes habitable through association
with water. Or it would fall apart like a lump of rice flour.
Gargi asked Yajnavalkya on what is the earth based. This question
and the answer given inform us that Earth, Water, Akasa, Surya,
Chandra, Nakshatra, Deva, Indra, Prajapathi, Brahma-loka - all
these, one from the other, were woven out of the
Paramathmathathwa, which is the warp and woof, the garment of
Creation. Such truths are beyond the reach of the imagination of
man. They have to be imbibed from the Sastras by a clarified
intellect.
Yajnavalkya refuted the arguments of Gargi, for her questions
could not be solved by mere intellectual feats; they could be
solved only by intuition, earned by the guidance of a Guru. The
earth is pervaded and protected by Vayu, or air. The
individualised Universal, individualised according to the
impressions of experience in previous lives, is associated with
the 5 Karmendriyas, 5 Jnanendriyas, the 5 Pranas, Manas and Buddhi
- these seventeen instruments. The concrete body is a vikara or
mutation of the earth: it is pervaded by vayu or 'air'. There are
forty-nine 'earth-bits', or angas which can be identified in the
body and like a string that holds pearls together, 'air' holds
these together as one co-ordinate whole. When the 'air' leaves the
body for good, the angas become distinct and derelict. The body
then, becomes a 'corpse'. There is however an Antharyami, the
immanent spirit in the body-complex abode, the mystery that is
beyond the reach of that complex, the motivating force of the
impulses and intentions of that complex; that Antharyami has no
death; It is Atma.
Gargi put her second question, after taking due permission from
the gathering, for, it is not courteous to hurl problems without
such notice. Her question was: On what does the Inner Core - the
Atma - rest in the Past, Present and Future, in this Dual World?
The intention of Gargi was to bring about the discomfiture of
Yajnavalkya, for he would be forced to admit "The timeless Entity
is beyond words and cannot be described at all". This also shows
that Gargi too was an adept in Brahmajnana and hence you can infer
that in the field of Brahmavidya, there is no place for
distinctions based on sex.
"The Brahmavids or masters of Brahmic wisdom declare that the
Parabrahma is immanent in the un-manifested Akasa" said
Yajnavalkya, thus escaping from the trying situation into which
Gargi wanted to drive him. Then, he described the nature of that
Indestructible Akshara thus: It has no gross, subtle or such
changes; it has no material qualification like colour, smell,
shape etc. There are no 'measures' to comprehend It. Time is but
the execution of Its will. Why elaborate? The Sun and the five
elements all carry out its Will. Gargi then asked the assembled
Brahmins to bow before Yajnavalkya and acknowledge his supremacy.
That stopped further questionings.
The Atma is Effulgent, as the Sun is, by its very nature.
People say that they 'see' the Atma or Its effulgence. But, there
is no seeing It. Since It has no second, nothing is outside It. It
is neither seen nor can It see. It has no organs of sight or
smell; nor has it any part, which when co-ordinated can perform
any function.
From the lowest Joy to the highest Brahmanandam, each step is
an increase of the feeling. Words like Paramanandam indicate only
stages of Anandam. As a matter of fact, all types of Anandam are
derived from the primary basic source of Brahmanandam. Yajnavalkya
explained all this to Janaka, for he took great delight in
instructing the King on all that he knew.
Like a tree sprouting from a tiny seed the body grows and the
seed in the fruit grows into another tree, when the body like a
ripe fruit falls to the ground. The vaak and other Indriyas also
follow him; the breath too takes to its own path. The Atma alone
is not affected, one way or the other. It remains as ever:
unmoved, immovable.
Through sinful deeds sin; through meritorious deeds, merit ...
thus paapa and punya accumulate. They produce the impulses for a
new body, as the primary motive force of the Sarira. The Atma
leaves the old body, with its vision directed to the new one it
occupies, like the caterpillar which fixes its forelegs on a spot,
when it lifts up the hindlegs. The Atmajnani, however, has no
impulse towards bodily activities and so the Atma in this case is
not bothered by a new body at all. The Jnanamarga is the path of
the Brahmavid, the knower of Brahman.
The Karma-enthusiasts are led on to Thapas, the Atmajnani has
escaped from Kama or desire and so his mind knows no anguish or
agony or yearning, which is the mark of Thapas. He is the
Viswakartha - the very artist who has evolved the Viswa or
Creation. He who has attained the vision of Brahmam-hood has
nothing further to attain or realise or guard or seek.
The instruction that Yajnavalkya gives in this Upanishad to
Maithreyi, his consort, reveals to us clearly the Atmajnana which
comes after a study of the Sastras with Tarka as a constant
companion; it also describes the principles of Sanyas, which is
the instrument for getting that Jnana. The entire sensory world
and the senses too have to be equated with the dream-reality only;
there is no use pursuing them, as ultimate and valuable.
The Atma alone has to be loved; all other things are loved for
the sake of the Atman. When the Atman is understood, everything
else is understood. All effects are subsumed by the Cause. The
ocean is the goal of all the waters, so too all tastes find their
goal in the tongue; all forms realise themselves in the eye; all
sounds are for the ear; all resolutions have the mind as their
goal. That is to say, the entire Jagath merges in Brahmam.
In his reply to Bhujyu, Yajnavalkya reveals his knowledge of
the process of evolution of the Universe, the Brahmanda-nirmana.
In his reply to the two questions of Gargi, he reveals and
instructs the swarupa of Brahmam, which is Aparoksha. In the
Sakalyabrahmana, the sage has astounded every one by his erudition
in spiritual mysteries. He earned victory in the hall of Janaka
from the wisest of the land. He sanctified it by his teaching. He
met the hard tests of the crooked Bhujyu and the harder tests of
the eager inquirer, Gargi, with equal equanimity and skill. He was
acclaimed as the crown jewel of scholars. Of course, he himself
acknowledged greatness wherever he recognised it; he was generous
enough to recognise the greatness of the teachers who were
instructing Janaka till then. Lastly he felt that he had no more
to learn or earn and so, he became a monk. Realising that
Maitreyi, his cosort, was also eager to attain Realisation, he
instructed her in Brahma-jnana, for in those days, women were
considered equally fit to practise the Jnana-marga, which leads to
Liberation.
Contemplate on this and reach up to the Thuriya stage of
consciousness. Then Nama, Rupa, Vasthu, Bhava, all get merged in
the One All-pervasive All-inclusive Atma!
This Upanishad teaches man the essential philosophy, in the
briefest terms. It does not refer in the least to Karma or kindred
subjects. It concerns itself purely with the Science of
Atmathathwa.