The Chandogya Upanishad - CH-2, SEC: 10. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Thursday, May 13, 2021. 08:39. PM.
Chapter Two: Uddalaka's Teaching Concerning the Oneness of the Self
SECTION 10: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT (CONTINUED)—ILLUSTRATION OF RIVERS AND THE OCEAN
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Sa ya esho 'nima aitadatmyam idam sarvam, tat satyam, sa atma, tat-tvam-asi, svetaketo, iti; bhuya eva ma bhagavan, vijnapayatv-iti; tatha saumya, iti hovacha.

"O Svetaketu, you are That," instructs the father, Uddalaka. "Please explain further," says the boy. He is not satisfied. "I shall explain to you further," replies the father.

SECTION 10: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT (CONTINUED)—ILLUSTRATION OF RIVERS AND THE OCEAN

Imah, saumya, nadyah purastat pracyah syandante, pascat praticyah tah samudrat samudram evapiyanti, sa samudra eva bhavati, ta yatha yatra na viduh, iyam aham asmi, iyam aham asmiti.

There are the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Krishna, Cauvery, etc. They all go to the same ocean and fall into the same body of water. When they enter the ocean they become a mass of water and you no longer can make out which is Ganga, which is Yamuna, or any other. If you take a tumbler of water from the ocean you do not know which river-water you are taking. Why? Because the distinguishability of character in the river has been abolished in the body of the waters of the ocean. No river thinks "I am Ganga", "I am Yamuna", etc., after it has entered the ocean. The bodily distinction of the river is completely transcended, overcome, abolished from the roots. All is now the ocean. This is an analogy to describe what pure Being is, in respect of the various individuals here. 

These created individuals in bodies are, like rivers, tending towards the ocean of the Absolute. Their reaching the pure Being, which is the Absolute, is just like the rivers entering the ocean. The rivers become the ocean and they do not know where they are, yet they are there. We cannot say that the rivers are absent in the ocean. They are there. So, it is not a negation of individuality, but a transcendence of individuality. It is not that the rivers are destroyed there, but they are absorbed into a larger Being, into a greater reality of themselves, which is their Self. We may say in a sense, the ocean is the Self of the rivers towards which they go and get absorbed, which they become in the end. So is the case with all of us, all individuals. All beings in creation tend towards the ocean of the ultimate Being. When they go there, they cannot distinguish themselves, for they become one with the Being.

Evam eva khalu, saumya, imah sarvah prajah sata agamya na viduh, sata agacchamaha iti, ta iha vyaghro va simho va, vrko va, varaho va, kito va, patango va, damso va, masako va, yad-yad-bhavanti tad-abhavanti.

Sa ya esho'anima etad-atmyam-idam sarvam tat satyam sa atma tat-tvam-asi, svetaketo-iti, bhuya eva me bhagavan vijnapayatviti tatha somya iti hovacha.

When they have gone there and come back, they do not know that they have gone there and have come back from there. They have touched, entered, practically become one with the Being in deep sleep, but they do not know that. Their eyes have been blindfolded, as it were. When they come back, each one says, "I am so-and-so". That is all. They have no other consciousness-Sata agamya na viduh sata agacchamaha iti. Whatever they were, animals or human beings, that they become again. The particular species and the particular body with which they entered into sleep or die, they wake up or are reborn into that very species and body, because of the presence of the subtle body which has not been destroyed through Perfect Knowledge. Therefore, after waking up from deep sleep or after being reborn in another body they are not conscious of having come from the Being.

"Now this is the Reality, this is the Being of all things, and you too are that-Tat-tvam-asi, Svetaketu." "Bhuya eva ma bhagavan vijnapayatviti-explain further," says the boy. "It does not appear that you have concluded the instructions. There is something more. This is the life of all Beings. That you call the Existence or the Being of things is also the Vitality in all. It is what is called life. We say, there is life in this and there is no life in that. A tree has life, but a stone has no life. What is meant by Life? Is it that Being has not manifested Itself adequately in one thing, and It has manifested Itself in a greater proportion in something else? It seems that there is a greater manifestation of Reality in plants and the vegetable kingdom than in stones and the mineral kingdom, for instance. Kindly explain this so that my doubts may be cleared."

SECTION-10. ENDS.
NEXT-SECTION-11.
To be continued ...

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