The Chandogya Upanishad - 4-2- 31 Swami Krishnananda.
Wednesday 15, July 2026, 19:00.
Chapter 4: An Analysis of the Nature of the Self
Section 3: The Space Within the Heart
Post-31.
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Section 3: The Space Within the Heart:
The capacity to fulfil a desire is actually the power of the vision to find out where the object of desire is and what connection the object has with one's own self. The lack of this vision in respect of the object of desire is the impediment which acts as an obstacle to the fulfilment of the desire. Desires are really the visions of consciousness which act in different ways, in different levels of experience. When, due to the locking up of consciousness in a particular level of experience, it cannot visualise what is outside it or beyond it, then it becomes difficult for it to come in contact with the objects of its desires.
Mantram-1.
Ta ime satyah kamah anrtapidhanah, tesam satyanam satam anrtam apidhanam, yo yo hy-asyetah praiti, na tam iha darsanaya labhate.
The words satya and anrita literally mean truth and untruth. Truth is the capacity to visualise things as they are in themselves, and untruth is that which obstructs this vision. Things as they are in themselves are not vitally disconnected from one another. There is really no distance between one object and another object. If distance does not exist, the difficulty in contacting objects should not arise. But the distance does exist for a particular type of consciousness which has limited itself and which therefore thinks that it is different from that which the whole universe is capable of in its completeness. This is the reason why those who are not in this physical world cannot be seen by people living in this physical world, and why the former cannot be contacted by the latter. There is no communicating medium between this world of experience and the other world of experience. There is, really speaking, no such thing as this world and the other world. There are not many worlds, there is only one vast continuum of experience. The distinction of this world from the next world and many other worlds arises on account of the varying densities of consciousness which appear to cause different levels of experience.
We cannot actually establish a conscious communication between dream and waking, for instance, notwithstanding the fact that there is no real gulf physically speaking between waking and dream experiences. There is absolutely no distinction, if you seriously investigate into the structure of dream as well as of waking. Yet they appear to be so different that one who is awake cannot have entry into the dream world, nor can one who is dreaming have entry into the waking world. It is the distinction of the capacities of certain levels of consciousness which is the reason behind the distinctions made between the two different worlds, viz., the dream and the waking worlds. Worlds are fields of experiences and experiences vary in their intensities corresponding to the particular level in which one finds oneself at any time. Corresponding to the correlative objective world in which one finds oneself, there is the possibility or impossibility of knowing what is beyond the ken of the physical senses. People who are dead are not really dead. They are in some other level of experience. They are in a different realm, in a different density of consciousness. Those in that particular density cannot contact those in another density.
Now, another startling remark is made here by the Upanishad when it says that all these people who have passed on from this world, those who are born and those who are not yet born, those who have come and those who have gone to other worlds are in our own hearts. They are not outside somewhere. We carry them in our own hearts, in the ether of our consciousness. It has been said earlier that whatever is outside is also inside. So whatever is in the various levels, in the various lokas or realms of being, in the so-called external universe, is present in our own hearts. They can be invoked from within our own selves by the strength of the mind. This cannot be done ordinarily on account of the untruth of bodily attachment and externality-consciousness interfering with the truth of the universality of experience. The great obstacle to the perception of the things that are there in the whole universe is the locking up of consciousness in a particular body. It is imprisoned in a particular individuality, jivatva, and it cannot think more than what is finite and limited. This is the untruth referred to here. It is something that is not really there, but which one experiences by habit and by repeated application of oneself to that type of experience which falsely goes by the name of reality to the exclusion of every other possibility of experience. Thus, those people who have passed away cannot be seen, and those who are not born also cannot be seen. But those who are not born also still exist somewhere in the world. We say this with reference to a distance that appears to exist between ourselves and those unborn ones, as if they are outside us. The question of outsideness just does not arise in a world of a continuum of consciousness. But still it appears to interfere with our experience on account of body consciousness, individuality and egoism.
Mantram-2.
Atha ye casyeha jiva ye ca preta yac-canyad-icchan na labhate, sarvam tad atra gatva vindate, atra hi asyaite satyah kamah anrtapidhanah, tad-yathapi hiranya-nidhim nihitam aksetrajna uparyupari sancaranto na vindeyuh, evam evemah sarvah praja ahar ahar gacchantya etam brahmalokam na vivdanti, anrtena hi pratyudhah.
If only one were to dive into the ocean of one's own heart, one would see there everything that one cannot even dream of in one's mind. All those who have died since ages, millions and millions of years ago, and all those who have not yet come into being at all but are to manifest themselves now or in the ages to come—all these forms are capable of being perceived in one's own heart. But in this world this is not experienced, because this is a world of physicality and intense bodily awareness. On account of this, everything seems to be scattered hither and thither, as if one thing has no connection with the other thing, while really in the heart of all things can be discovered the treasure of the whole universe wherein you find the entire population of the cosmos right from the time of creation till the time of dissolution.
An example is given here to illustrate this. It is something like people walking over a treasure and not knowing that there is a treasure underground, says the Upanishad. Someone might have buried some treasure-trove under the earth and many people may be walking over it without knowing that a big treasure is underneath. Similar is the case with us who carry treasures in our own hearts. In our own selves, all these are contained. But we cannot have entry into them on account of the absence of the awareness of the fact that they are there. The consciousness of this fact is repelled by the very existence of interest in something else. We stumble upon the treasure every day. We fall upon Truth and contact everything, everywhere, in all our experiences—past, present and future-throughout the various incarnations we take, but we cannot know that we are coming in contact with it, just as subtle, etheric waves and light waves may be passing through this very hall in which we are seated but we cannot know that they are passing. These waves are of high frequency. Neither that which is too low in frequency nor that which is very high can be comprehended by us who can experience only a particular range of frequency. Thus it is that we ourselves do not know what we contain in ourselves.
It is impossible to know this great treasure by a projection of the mind outwardly, because it is seated within the heart of things. It is not external. As a matter of fact, it is the search we make externally that is the obstacle in knowing that which is within one's own self. Things do not exist as externals. They are not exclusive. In fact, everything is inclusive. The knowledge of this internal connection is denied by the very desire to see things externally. Thus we see that the contradiction that arises on account of the desire which projects itself through the senses in respect of externality of things prevents the knowledge of things as they really are.
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Mantram-3.
Sa va esa atma hrdi, tasyaitad-eva niruktam hrdy-ayam iti, tasmad-hrdayam, ahar ahar va evam-vit svargam lokam eti.
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