The Chandogya Upanishad - CH-3, SECTION 3-1. : Mind. Swami Krishnananda.

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Monday,  Novamber 22, 2021. 8:00. PM.

CHAPTER III: SANATKUMARA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA : 3-1.

SECTION 3 -Mind-1

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Mantram: 

1. Mono vava vaco bhuyah, yatha vai dve vamalake  dve va kole dvau vaksau mistir-anubhavati, evam 

vacam ca nama ca mano’nu-bhavati, sa yada  manasa manasyati, mantran-adhiyiyeti, athadhite, 

karmani kurviyeti, atha kurute, putrams-ca  pasumsceccheyeti, athecchate, imam ca lokam amum 

ceccheyeti, athecchate, mano-hy-atma, mano-hi loko mano hi brahma, mano upassveti.

2. Sa yo mano brahmetyupste yavan-manaso gatam tatrasya yatha kamacaro bhavati yo mano 

brahmetyupaste ‘sti bhagavo manaso bhuya iti manaso vava bhuyo’stiti tanme bhagavan bravatviti.

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Beyond speech, and superior to speech, is the mind. 

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Here is glorification of the functions of the mind, the capacity of the mind. Mind is superior, naturally, because unless the mind functions well, there would be no speech, no nomenclature and no learning. “Just as,” says  :  

Sanatkumara, “two small fruits like mulberry or berry can be held together in the fist of the hand, just as the palm of  one’s hand folded contains within its fold two small fruits or objects, so does the mind contain within itself both  speech and name.” Speech and name are contained within the mind. This is the power of the mind. Whatever we do,  we do only through the mind. We know it very well. We think first before we express ourselves in speech or utter a name. We think, “Let me do work,” and then we start working. We think, “Let me have this, and let me have that,” and then we put forth effort in that direction. We begin to perform various types of actions in this world, after thinking first. So, thinking is prior to every other deed or effort.

Mind is supreme in life. It is well known to every one of  us. The mind is practically our own self. When we refer to ourselves usually, in practical life, we are referring to the mind only. “It is me,” we say. What do we mean by “me”? 

We are referring to the mind, nothing more than that. And mind has assumed the selfhood, by superimposition of  characters. Selfhood really does not belong to the mind. As the mirror shines in sunlight, so does the mind assume selfhood by the transference of the character of the Self into itself. So, for all practical purposes in life, mind is the self  and it is the individuality within us. The mind isresponsible for anything that we achieve in this world or in the other world, because what we call world is nothing but the field of experience. The range of our experience is the world in which we are living. And all the experiences of our life are nothing but the expression of the actions that we perform, behind which there is the mind that thinks. 

So, our world of experience is actually controlled and directed by the mind. Therefore we may say that, in a sense, mind is the world. “As the mind is yourself in this empirical realm, O Narada, meditate on mind as Brahman, the Absolute,”  - says Sanatkumara.

To be continued ....

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