The Chandogya Upanishad - 3-11. .Swami Krishnananda.

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Sunday, March 27,  2022. 21:00.

Chapter Three: Sanatkumara's Instructions on Bhuma-Vidya : 

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SECTION 11: HEAT :

Subtler principles are always superior to the grosser ones, because they are more pervasive in character. Hence, if water is superior to the earth principle, fire is superior to the water principle.

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Mantram-1.

"Tejo vava adbhyo bhuyah, tasmad-va etad-vayum

agra-hyakasam abhitapati, tad-ahuh, nisocati,

nitapati, varsisyati va iti, taja eva tat purvam

darsayitva’tha’pah srjate. tat-etad urdhvabhis-ca

tirascibhis-ca vidyudhih ahradas-caranti;

tasmadahuh vidyotate, stanayati, varsisyati va iti,

teja eva tat purvam darsayitvatha’pah srjate, teja

upassveti."

Mantram-2.

"Sa yastejo brahhmetyupaste tajasvi vai sa tajasvato

lokanbhasvato’pahata tamaskan abhisidhyati yavat

tejaso gatam tatrasya yatha kamacaro bhavati

yastejo brahmetyupaste’sti bhagavah tejaso bhuya iti,

tajaso vava bhuyo’iti tanme bhagavan bravitviti." 

“O Narada,” says the great master Sanatkumara, “the fire element is superior to the water element which again is superior to all that has been said before, viz., name, speech, mind, will, memory, contemplation, understanding, strength and food.” Therefore it is that heat, which is the function of fire, can dry up air and create such an atmosphere of warmth in the whole space or sky that you will feel that air itself is not present. 

In the atmosphere fire can intensify its function, so much so that the working of air can appear to cease altogether. Then people say, “Oh, it is very hot, extremely hot, intolerably hot.” They say, “It is going to rain.” When it becomes very hot, we infer that perhaps it is going to rain. So, water comes after heat. First there is an intense burning in the air, and then water comes. 

So is the case with every other circumstance of intense heat. Whether it is outward or inward, there is the production of the water principle on account of the  intensity of the heat principle. Then we will have, in the atmosphere, as a result of this heating up of the space and the air, lightning and thunderbolts from every direction. We begin to hear rumbling sounds from various quarters of the heavens, indicating that it is about to rain, all of which is the work of the heating function of fire. 

Then it falls in the form of rain. So prior to the principle of water in all its functions, is fire. In other words, fire, having manifested itself first, it expresses itself as water thereafter. Having recognised the superiority of fire as the cause of water and therefore subtler than water, one must regard the fire principle as the Absolute, for the purpose of meditation.

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“So is the case with air and space. Superior to the fire principle is the air principle and higher than that also is space which contains everything within itself. All the elements can finally be reduced to space. During the pralaya, the dissolution of the universe at the end, the whole world is supposed to get absorbed into space. Only akasa exists. Earth gets dissolved in water, water gets dried up by fire, fire gets extinguished by air, and air is absorbed into space. 

So, finally, space is the ultimate visible reality, most comprehensive, very expansive, inclusive of everything, almost resembling omnipresence, which one should now take as the object of one’s meditation.”

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Next - SECTION 12 : Ether

To be continued ....

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