The Chandogya Upanishad - CH-2, SEC: 13.2.. Swami Krishnananda.

 


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Monday, July 12, 2021. 6:51. PM.
Chapter Two: Uddalaka's Teaching Concerning the Oneness of the Self-12.
SECTION 13: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT (CONTINUED)—ILLUSTRATION OF SALT AND WATER -2.
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1.

"What is this other way? Please instruct me about this," asks the boy. 

How is it possible for us to get an insight into this Reality present in all particular forms? 

Neither one's own intellect nor the senses will be of any use here. The senses are used to a kind of contact with externals, and whatever is not an external cannot become an object of their perception. Whatever is outside, that alone the senses can perceive, and this Being we are speaking of is not outside and, therefore, It cannot be an object of the senses. 

Nor can the mind conceive the Being, because the function of the mind is principally a synthesis of the perceptions of the senses, an organisation of these sensations and perceptions. It introduces a kind of coordination and method into the chaotic mass of perceptions of the senses. The mind does not see something which is not seen by the senses.

 It is only introducing a logical sequence and coherence into the mass of sensations. We are not in any way better off by employing the mind or the intellect as a means of cognition or perception. What the mind does, what the intellect does, is merely a corroboration and confirmation of what senses tell us. And if the senses are of no use, the mind and intellect also are of no use. 

The only importance that you can attach to the function of the mind or intellect is that it has a peculiar capacity to reflect an inferential presence of a higher reality, due to the fact that it is less distracted than the senses and that it has an integrating power which is absent in the senses on account of their isolated activities. 

Now, the mind which is endowed with this special power which is ordinarily not visible, has to be employed for the purpose of gaining an insight into Reality by means of guidance received from a master.

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2.

To this subject Uddalaka, the sage, reverts by means of an illustration. :

Take for instance, there is a person who has been waylaid by robbers, blindfolded, handcuffed, legs tied together, dragged into a wilderness and thrown into a pit somewhere in an unknown place. He has been taken a long distance away from his house. He does not know where he has been taken, because his eyes have been covered by a patch of cloth. He only knows that he has been removed to a distant place. He is in a state of despair. 

The only thing that he can do under that condition is to cry for help. His intellect will not help him there, his mind will not help him, his sense of sight has failed. Under such conditions, the only help can be from another who has sight. A person with eyes who can see the way can come, help, and guide him. There is no other way out. Even so, every one of us has lost sight of Reality. Every one of us has been spiritually blindfolded. Everyone is in complete spiritual darkness. 

And there is sorrow, as a consequence thereof. 

What is the way out?

Section-13. Ends.

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Next - SECTION 14: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT (CONTINUED)—THE NEED FOR A GURU

To be continued ....


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