The Chandogya Upanishad - CH-2, SEC: 16.2. Swami Krishnananda.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, August 29, 2021. 7:57. PM.
Chapter Two: Uddalaka's Teaching Concerning the Oneness of the Self-16-2.
SECTION 16: THE INDWELLING SPIRIT (CONTINUED)—ILLUSTRATION OF THE ORDEAL -2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In spite of the fact that the senses are withdrawn into the mind, the mind is withdrawn into the prana, the prana into the fire or heat in the system, and heat into the Supreme Being, in both cases, in the case of the liberated, it is a gradual transcendence and a conscious process of ascent. When one consciously moves in a particular direction towards one's destination, one knows what is happening, what one is moving through, what are the stages one has crossed, what is the distance still ahead, etc. When one knows the distance that has yet to be covered, one is not fatigued on the way, because one is aware of how much one has already covered. 

One is fully conscious of every stage of the travel or journey. But, suppose one does not know what the distance is, how much one has covered, how much is left and whether the direction towards which one marches is correct or not. One then feels much fatigued. In addition to all this, suppose one is blindfolded; then we know what the suffering of that man is. This is the difference between a liberated one while living in the body and the one that is unliberated and caught in the body. This is the difference between self-transcendence in liberation and compulsive withdrawal of the senses in death. 

This is the difference between death and Self-realisation. This is also the difference between sleep and Self-realisation. The desires of the mind are not destroyed in sleep, and therefore there is return to the waking or dreaming state after sleep. The desires of the mind are not destroyed even in death, and therefore, there is reincarnation after death. But the desires of the mind are destroyed in Self-realisation, and therefore, there is no return.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The cause of the birth of a body in the process of reincarnation is the presence of a desire for a particular experience. The karmas referred to as sanchita constitute the reservoir of the potencies of actions which emerge out one day or the other, as a plant emerges from a seed. The seed may be lying in dry soil waiting for the rain and suitable conditions or circumstances to sprout up. Even so are the sanchita-karmas, which are the seeds for future rebirths. The conditions suitable for the sprouting have not yet come, because the prarabdha-karma prevents their manifestation. 

The pressure of the prarabdha, which is under the process of experience, does not allow the sprouting up of other karmas in the sanchita group, because of the weight of the former, and so they, the latter, lie in ambush waiting for an opportunity to rise up. When the prarabdha is over, which means to say the experiences which one has to undergo through this body are exhausted, then there is death. Then the next set of karmas comes up. That is the conditioning factor of the new birth. What one will become in the next life, in the next incarnation, will depend upon the nature of the next set of strong or important karmas lying in ambush in the reservoir of the sanchita. These are difficult things to understand, because one cannot know which karma comes up for maturation. 

Whether one action gives rise to one birth or two births, or whether two or three actions join together to give a birth, or many actions join together to give one birth, whether the karmas of this birth give rise to the next birth, or whether the karmas of some other previous birth come into action and give birth to the next body, all this cannot be understood by one who is not omniscient. But, the principle is this, that actions which are performed leave behind them a residue called apurva which becomes the content of the sanchita or the anandamaya-kosa within us. We carry them wherever we go, and these are not destroyed even if death takes place, because death is nothing but the exhaustion of a particular allotted portion of karma and not the entirety of it. But the sanchita is destroyed by the fire of knowledge in the case of a person who has attained Self-realisation. So there is no rebirth for him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thus the distinction is drawn between a person who ascends to the Reality consciously by self-transcendence and the other one who merely dies for taking another birth. This is, in essence, the teaching of Uddalaka to Svetaketu, in this section.

First, the sage starts by giving an explanation of the process of creation, how the objective universe is created from the Supreme Being, the Sat, and by means of the triplicated elements of fire, water and earth—how everything in the world in all creation is constituted of these three elements only in spite of the variety of particulars. He then explains that inside the body also these very same principles work and that what the world outside is made of, of that this body also is made. Then he describes how the mind and the pranas are also influenced tremendously by the activity of these three elements—fire, water and earth—so that the external universe as well as the individual within are both constituted of the same elements, and that essentially they are indistinguishable. He has explained how this one Being is present both outwardly in the universe and also inwardly in the individual. 

Then he has told us that this Being is the goal of realisation of all individuals and that this Being is present subtly in every particular manifestation. He has also said that It is invisible to the eyes, because It is the Subject of all knowledge, that It is the all-pervasive principle, It is the subtlest essence and that It is the background of all existence, and therefore, the senses and the mind cannot perceive It. Ordinary knowledge, he has said, is inadequate here and It can be known only through the grace and guidance of one's own Guru or master; and when a knower lives in the world with this body as other people live in this body, we draw a distinction between the former's way of living and conducting himself and the ordinary people's way of living. For all practical, outward purposes, the liberated man and the bound man look alike. 

One cannot know who is a Jivanmukta and who is a bound one, for both speak in the same way, eat in the same way, live in the same way. The distinction is within. It is that the liberated one knows what he is, whereas in the other case he does not know what he really is. So, here is the distinction between knowledge and ignorance, and here is also the explanation of the path to liberation as propounded by Sage Uddalaka.

Chapter-2. Ends.

Next - CHAPTER III: SANATKUMARA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA : 1. Introduction -

To be continued ...

=========================================================================