The Chandogya Upanishad - 3-24. : Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya International Foundation (CIF) :

CIF campus is always abuzz with activity and yet at its heart it is the serene silence of divinity that rings true for those who tune in.

This last weekend CIF was hosting two camps – the first was the Narada Bhakti Sutra Camp, facilitated by Br. Anand Chaitanya for participants from the upcoming centre at Chinmaya Mission Vellore and members of CM Chennai. 

Participants reveled in the sessions as well as learnt more about the history of Adi Sankara Nilayam and visited various temples in Ernakulam.  

Also on campus was the enthusiastic Youth Alliance team, from Uttaranchal, who made the best use of the various spaces on campus to conduct a fun orientation workshop for young participants from the Southern zone. 

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

Wednesday, March 01,  2023. 07:00.

Chapter Three: Sanatkumara's Instructions on Bhuma-Vidya - 24.

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

SECTION 24: THE INFINITE AND THE FINITE

Mantram-1.

"Yatra nanyat pasyati nanyac-chrnoti nanyad-vijanati sa bhuma, 

atha yatranyat pasyati anyac-chrnoti anyadvijanati tad-alpam; 

yo vai bhuma tad-amrtam, atha yadalpam tan-martyam, sa, 

bhagavah, kasmin pratisthita iti, sve mahimni, 

yadi va na mahimniti."

"Do you want to know what Completeness is? And do you want to know what finitude is? Here is the definition," says Sanatkumara. "Where one sees nothing except one's own Self, where one hears nothing except one's own Self, where one understands nothing except one's own Self, that is Bhuma, the Absolute; and where one sees something outside oneself, where one hears something outside oneself, where one understands or thinks something outside oneself, that is the finite."

So here is the whole matter clinched in a single sentence, describing what is Fullness and what is not-fullness. What is immortal is the Bhuma alone, and what you call mortal or perishable, is the finite. "O great master, where is the Bhuma situated? Which place?" asks Narada. "You ask me where it is situated, this great eternal All-Presence! It is situated in Its own Glory. Well, or perhaps, It has no situation at all," replies the master. "It cannot be that It is located in something else, that It is dependent on something else, that It has something else as its support, just as we have some support or the other in this world. How can the All-Being be supported by something else! It is the support of all things. What is this strange question that you are putting to me? Its support is Its own Self. Rather I say It has no support, for It is the support of all. What do you mean by support? What is the meaning of this question, 'Where is it located, where is it situated?' You have got some wrong notion in your mind, Narada, because you are thinking in terms of objects in this world.

Mantram-2.

"Go-asvam iha mahmety-acaksate, 

hasti-hiranyam dasa-bharyam, 

ksetrany-ayatananiti, 

naham evam bravimi bravimiti 

hovacanyo hy-anyasmin pratisthita iti."

People in this world regard cattle and horses as greatness itself. A man is very rich, well-supported and sustained if he has plenty of cattle, plenty of horses, elephants, and gold, if he has plenty of servants, attendants, palatial buildings, vast property, and a beautiful house to live in. This is called a well-to-do life in this world. This is called good support; this is called sustenance. Not so is this Bhuma supported. It does not require any of these things for Its support. Its being is not dependent on anything that is of the nature of support in this world.

"I am not speaking of the Absolute in the sense that you have in your mind, thinking that it requires something else to lean upon," says the master. The relativity of things is the support of things in this world. Everything hangs on something else in this world. I hang on you, and you hang on me. That is how we live in this world. But, no such hanging is possible in the Bhuma. It is self-sufficient, self-supported, self-complete and self-existent. It is not any relative being. It is the absolute Being. While everything in this world is relative in the sense that everything is supported by something else, everything is defined by something else, everything is determined by the existence of something else, Bhuma does not exist in this sense. It is absolutely independent. Therefore, It is non-relative in every sense of the term. It is everywhere. It is difficult to say where It is, because the question 'where' implies the existence of space.

"O my dear Narada, your question itself is unfounded and unwarranted. Why do you ask where It is, as if It is in space? But if you want me to tell you where It is, I say It is in space, It is in every nook and corner, in every pinpoint of space. There is no space where It is not; there is no space which It does not occupy."

*****
Next
SECTION 25: THE EGO AND THE SELF
To be continued

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