The Chandogya Upanishad - CH-3, Sec-1, Name-3.. Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, September 12, 2021. 7:15. PM.
HAPTER III: SANATKUMARA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA : 2.
SECTION 1: NAME. 3.
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Everything that is an indicator has an indicated. Every name has a form corresponding to it. If we utter a particular name corresponding to an object, we immediately have an idea of that object. But we do not possess that object merely because we have an idea of that object. So is the case with all this learning. It is only an idea about certain things, but the things themselves are beyond one’s control. We can have an idea of the inner structure of the sun, the solar system, but we cannot have any sway over the sun or any control over the sun because of that knowledge alone. We may have information about every blessed thing in the world. This is only an ideological knowledge of the contents of everything in this world.

But by such knowledge they do not come under our control.They are not our property. They cannot be said to help us in any manner whatsoever. So, this is the position of the theoretical learning of Narada. And so is the case with any kind of theoretical learning. It has no connection with the Reality, with the fact as such, with that indicated by the name. So, Narada is a knower of the mantras, the names, the ideas. 

He has an intellectual knowledge, theoretical information. He is an expert in understanding the nature of things, but the Self of these things is beyond him. He has not known the Self of these things.

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Narada says: “Srutam hyeva me bhagavad-drsebhyah tarati sokam atma-vit—even from people like you, I have heard once that if one knows the Self of a thing, he would e free from sorrow. Soham bhagavah sochami— here I am a specimen of sorrow seated before you. Tam ma, bhagavan, sokasya param tarayatv-iti—I have no other resort except you, O great master. Take me across this sea of sorrow.”

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Sanatkumara replies: “There is a great point in whatever you have learnt, no doubt, but this knowledge has not helped you for the simple reason that nothing can help you unless it is a part of your Being, unless it is a part of your Self. Nothing that is outside you can be of any help to you. 

Anything that is extraneous to your Self is not going to free you from sorrow. The source of your sorrow is what is outside you and that is an external self for you. It is not the Primary Self. Thus, the knowledge that you have about these things which you have mentioned just now is not the knowledge of the Self of these things, but the knowledge of the names of these things, the nomenclature of these things, and you have an idea of all these things. 

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This is what they call theoretical knowledge of the things in the world. But what is the good of it? So, my dear Narada, all this is name only: these are words, all this is language, this is theory, this is information, nothing more than this. As a matter of fact, what you enumerated just now, Rigveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, Itihasas, Puranas, this science, that science, this art, that art;—all this is nothing but words and words. They seem to tell you a lot, but they cannot ultimately help you unless you enter into their Being, unless you become their Self.”

To be continued ....

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