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by Swami Krishnananda
Gone above the fear of death are the senses when they took refuge in the Maha-Prāṇa. The Hiraṇyabargha-Prāṇa is the overcoming principle of death, where death is consumed. 'Mṛityu', or death, is like a condiment to this great All-consumer, says the Kaṭha Upaniṣhad. Death consumes all, but this Being consumes death itself. That enabled the senses to overcome death, that is, to free themselves from desire for things. What happened to them when they were free from desire? What was the condition of the senses and the deities thereof when they were freed from the principle of death? One by one, each sense-organ is described in the following Mantras.
Speech was freed from the evil of death, first of all. Then, what happened to speech? It ceased to be a mere instrument as speech. The principle of speech is not merely an organ to express words in language, as it is ordinarily in human beings. It assumed its original form. Fire is the deity of the organ of speech, and Fire is the causative principle of speech, and speech is the effect of the principle of Fire in individuals. Speech is subject to the principle of Fire, as an effect of the function of Fire. But the original condition of speech is something quite different. What we call speech, or the principle of speech, is something like a reflection of the true form of speech. We observed how an object can appear topsy-turvy when it is reflected, as when we stand on the bank of a river and look at our body. The top looks as the bottom; the head is lowermost in the reflection. The highest principle has become the lowest principle in the individual. Speech, in the Virāt, is the highest principle, superior to the principle of Fire, whereas in the individual it is an effect. It is far below the principle of Fire, here. Fire (Agnī) is the Devatā, the deity, the presiding principle over the sense of speech in the individual, so that Fire stands above the senses as a cause. But in the Virāt, it is an effect of the principle of speech. From the mouth of the Virāt, Fire came, says the Aitareya Upaniṣhad, and certain other passages in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad.
When we contemplate the Universal Subjectivity of things, the sense-organs become causes rather than effects, not as they are now in our individual cases. What this contemplation means, is a hard thing to grasp. But, once it is grasped, all fear vanishes in a moment, because fear is due to dependence on things, and independence is assumed the moment this art of transmuting individual consciousness to the Universal Reality is gained. That is real meditation, in the light of the Upaniṣhad. And this contemplation, this meditation on Hiraṇyagarbha, which is actually the subject of this chapter, and which is the reason behind the purification of the senses and their overcoming death, completely converts the effect into the cause, so that speech becomes Fire, the effect becomes the cause, and Fire finds its proper place in the Being of Reality. It does not move about like a servant wanted by nobody, but it becomes an organic part, or limb, of the Universal Being, who is the Virāt, just as the mouth or the principle of speech in the individual is an organic part of the individual body. The Cosmic Body becomes the abode of the cosmic principle of speech which is prior to the operation of creation, during which process the Fire principle is supposed to have emanated from the mouth of the Virāt. Thus, what happened when the principle of speech was freed from the principle of death? The moment speech was freed from the evil of death, it became the Fire principle, not the fire that is used in the kitchen for cooking the food, but the original, subtle Satya, or reality behind fire, the deity of fire, Agnī-Devata, who is the mouth of the Virāt, as stated in the scripture. This fire shines in the realm of reality in its own pristine glory. And if we read the Purāṇas and Epics, we shall find that whenever the Virāt-Puruṣha is described, Fire is mentioned there as coming out of His mouth. When Sri Krishna opened up His Cosmic Form in the court of the Kauravas, it is said that the mouth opened, and Fire came out from His mouth. And, in the Upaniṣhad also, we find references to this fact.
This sort of freedom from death was achieved by every sense, and they all became the deity, rather than the effect. The eye became sun, and the sun assumed his location in the Virāt, and so on every sense-organ is thus described as having regained its original status. They got over their limitations. They were reinstated in their original forms – smell, taste, hearing and touch became their own deities. The object does not any more control the activity and the existence of the individual subject, as it is the case ordinarily. Individuals, we people, are all dependent on the objects of sense. We are helplessly driven to objects on account of the fact that we live in a world of diversity, multiplicity and the separation of one thing from another thing. That element of separation has been completely mastered here in this deep technique of meditation, and all the senses, including the mind, became integrated in the body of the Virāt, while they were all scattered in different directions, disintegrated in the organism of the individual. When the mind, in our case, moves towards objects outside, thus depleting its energy, disintegrating itself, gets integrated in the Virāt and moves back to its source, it becomes one with the great source of energy.
The Divine Prāṇa carried the mind, too, beyond death, and then the mind became the moon, and the moon got fixed in the mind of the Virāt. Even as the mind and the senses are freed from the evil of death, you and I and everyone also can be freed from the evil of death, says the Upaniṣhad. It is a moral applicable to all, provided we follow the course followed by the senses. What did they do? They surrendered themselves to the Cosmic, and the element of Cosmic Reality took hold of them by the hand and governed them through and through, and there was no fear. If anyone knows this art, follows this technique, and lives a life in consonance with this principle, that individual also will cease to be an individual caught in the meshes of death, and shall become a principle of reality, identical with that which truly is, and not moving as a transitory link in the process of becoming in this world of death.
Whatever is done in this body is done by the Prāṇa. For instance, the absorption of the food that is drawn in by the sense-organs into the organism is done by the Prāṇa. It is by the Prāṇa that the senses draw food into the system, and it is the Prāṇa that digests the food, absorbs it into the organism. If the eyes see anything, it is the Prāṇa that sees. If the nose smells, it is the Prāṇa that smells. If the ears hear, it is the Prāṇa that hears. If anything happens, it is done by the Prāṇa. It is the support of the senses and their activities, and it is supported by these activities and principles. There is a mutual dependence of the senses and the Prāṇa. The Prāṇa-Śakti within and the activities without are interconnected, that is, the subjective force which we call vitality and the objective element that we call the food outside – these two are interconnected in the Body of the Virāt. One is dependent on the other. Therefore, we cannot say which is what in this interconnected realm of Universality.
Now, the anecdote continues. The senses feel highly exhilarated with the victory that they have won over the demoniacal elements. Then they tell the Prāṇa, "Wonderful is the victory that we have gained on account of you. Great is your achievement, indeed."
The Devas, the gods who have been freed from death, proclaim to the Prāṇa. What did they say? "All this food is yours. Whatever is within us is your presence, and whatever is of any meaning in us, is the meaning that is yours. May we also be able to partake of your food and your glory. Share with us the food that you consume. Let us also take food with you. Let us sit beside you, and partake of your energy, become connected with you as friends, not as isolated individuals as we have been upto this time." The Prāṇa said, "Sit beside me," that is, be in consonance with me. "Then I shall feed you." If the senses are in consonance with the Prāṇa, the Prāṇa will feed the senses, but if they are dissonant, naturally the energy will not flow to the senses. This fact decided, they became one with it in organic connection. If the Prāṇa is satisfied, every sense is satisfied. If the vital force inside is happy, every part of the body is happy. The mind also is happy, the intellect is happy. The whole being is happy.
Here is a long passage which means that this fruit, this result, accrues to anyone who connects oneself with this Prāṇa in the manner in which the senses connected themselves with the Prāṇa. He becomes the lord of all; he becomes a master; he becomes the source of dependence for others; he becomes the best; he becomes the foremost among people; he is never in want of anything. Everything shall come to him, as everything automatically comes to the Prāṇa, unasked. One who is in union with this Prāṇa is the lord of all in the sense that everything belongs to him, and his wish shall instantaneously be fulfilled. No one can contend with this person who has this knowledge. The person who vies with a person with this knowledge will not succeed. This is what the Upaniṣhad means. If you try to compete, in any manner, with one who has this knowledge, you will not succeed. But, you will succeed if you follow his precepts and live in consonance with his methods of living and his way of understanding; that is, no one can stand against his wisdom, and no one can even stand in the presence of this individual, who is endowed with this wisdom. But one who follows him becomes victorious, as he who is endowed with this knowledge is himself victorious.
This great master principle in us, which is Prāṇa, is the essence of all the limbs of the body, and therefore he is called Āṅgirasaḥ. Prāṇa is the essence of the limbs of the body, of all the senses, and so he is called Āṅgirasaḥ. If Prāṇa departs from any part of the body, that part dries up immediately. There is no vitality in that part of the body from which Prāṇa is withdrawn. So, life is Prāṇa; Prāṇa is life.
This Prāṇa which is Āṅgirasaḥ, is also Bṛihaspati. Why? Speech is Bṛihati, and the lord of Bṛihati, or the Pati of Bṛihati, is Bṛihaspati. Therefore, Prāṇa is Bṛihaspati, as it is the lord of speech. Here, speech means the entire sacred lore, including the Vedic wisdom, symbolised here by what is known as the Bṛihati, or metre of the sacred Mantra. The Bṛihati is the longest Mantra in the Veda, and therefore Bṛihati is regarded as symbolising the principle of speech itself, not merely one word that we utter or a language that we speak, but the entire operation of the vocal organ in any manner whatsoever, and that is possible only because of the function of the Prāṇa, was the lord thereof. Prāṇa is, thus, regarded as Bṛihaspati.
Prāṇa is also Brahmaṇas-pati. Why? The Vedas are the ultimate reach of the principle of speech which is known as Brahma. The lord of it is Prāṇa Therefore it is called Brāhmaṇas-pati.
Bṛihati stands for the Ṛg Veda, and Brahma stands for the Yajur-Veda, and the third one is Sāma mentioned here. The speech and the Prāṇa are regarded here as Sā and Ma. The union of them is Sāma, the harmony of the system. This equalising Prāṇa, which is the harmonising principle between the speech and the whole body inside, is subtly present equally in all beings. This Prāṇa is not only in human beings. It is everywhere. This is what the Mantra says here. It is in a very minute creature like the white ant or the honeybee. It is in a mosquito. It is in an elephant. It is in all the three worlds, and the whole cosmos. It is equally present in the smaller and the larger, and it is an impersonal, invisible something.
It is not the breath that we speak of as the Prāṇa here. It is invisible to even the subtlest operation of the senses. It cannot be conceived of even by the mind. It is the principle behind personalities, individuals and social bodies. We know what a principle is. A principle can never be seen with the eyes. It is manifest sometimes as a concept. The concept of universality, for instance, is supposed to be the highest of principles. But, we cannot see universality anywhere. Nobody can open the eyes and look at it, but it is there. Everyone knows that it exists, but no one can see where it is. We know that universality must exist. It is the general principle operating behind individuals. But the general principle can be conceived as manifest, tentatively, in a particular form, through the mind of an individual, or a group of individuals, but cannot be identified with any object of sense. Inasmuch as it is a principle, it is present everywhere, in every form. For example, the principle of money is present in a dollar; it is in a pound; it is in a rupee; and so on. But, rupee is different from pound; pound is different from dollar. Yet, the money principle is universally present in all these formations. It is the value that is called the universal principle, and the form that it takes is immaterial. The essence of it is the same. The principle of administration, for instance, cannot be seen with the eyes; the principle of organisation cannot be seen with the eyes; the principle of government cannot be seen with the eyes; the principle of beauty cannot be seen with the eyes. Every principle is invisible, but these are the ruling, guiding principles in life. These so-called invisibles are the realities, and the visibles are not the realities. Again, for example, the currency note is not the reality; the value behind it is the reality. And similarly, the beauty of an object is invisible. It is not the shape of the object that is beautiful. It is something else that is vital and internally connected, in the shape of it, with the mind within that is called beauty. And so are all things.
So, the point is that the principle of universality is what is called here, Prāṇa, that is, Hiraṇyagarbha, or Virāt, that is God, ultimately; and He cannot be seen with the eyes, as one cannot see a principle, as one cannot see universality. Forms do not exist, shapes do not exist, individuals do not exist, in the end. They are only vehicles to tentatively convey the meaning or value which is universal, which is the principle, and which is equally present in all, irrespective of the passage of time – past, present and future – and spatial distinction. It is everywhere, in all the three worlds it is, right from an ant up to the Cosmic Being.
In all the Upaniṣhads, we will find a passage ending with 'ya evaṁ veda' – one who knows this. Knowledge is regarded as the highest possession. One who knows this, gets everything. It is strange that knowledge should be 'being', but this is the truth made out in all the Upaniṣhads. In the branches of learning we find that learning is not 'being'. We may learn many things, but we will not be possessors of the things connected with that learning. An engineer who knows how to build a house may not own a house. He may have no house at all, but he has the knowledge of building a house. In such instances, knowledge is different from the 'being' of the object connected with knowledge. But, this knowledge is not like that. The knowledge that is propounded in the Upaniṣhad is identical with the 'being' of the object that is connected with that knowledge, and therefore the Upaniṣhad says that one who knows this, becomes that, obtains that, is that – ya evaṁ veda.