The Mandukya Upanishad : presented the quintessence of the acme of thought and experience reached in ancient times, – the Upanishads. 4-1.4.

22/09/2018
Section 1: The Pranava or Omkara :-4.

Now, we come from what we call Isvara-Srishti to Jiva-Srishti. Isvara-Srishti is the form corresponding to a name, as it is by its own right. Jiva-Srishti is the psychological connection that you have established between yourself and the corresponding form of a particular name. You are affected because of the Jiva-Srishti, and your understanding of the form corresponding to a name signifies merely Jiva-Srishti.

We are now concerned not merely with Isvara-Srishti, but also Jiva-Srishti; perhaps with the latter we are more concerned than with the former because what binds us or liberates us is the nature of Jiva-Srishti, not so much the nature of Isvara-Srishti. Things as they are do not concern us very much. But things as they are to us mean very, much to us, and this meaning it is that binds us to what we call Samsara (earthly existence).

Every name has a corresponding form, and the form is a content of Isvara-Srishti; the creation of Isvara, God; and you, as a Jiva or an individual, though you are also a part of Isvara-Srishti, create a cocoon round yourself, coil yourself in a web that has been created by your own imagination, and this imagination connects you with the other Jivas, other things, other contents of creation, socially. You do not merely exist as a content of creation; you also have a connection with other contents in creation in several ways.

This is the difference between you as a part of Isvara-Srishti and you as a centre of Jiva-Srishti. You have an aspect of Isvara in you, and you have also a Jivatva in you. The aspect of Isvara is your dignified nature, and the aspect of Jiva in you is what binds you to this realm of Samsara. So, you have a twofold nature, a double personality, a character that distinguishes you by means of your relation to Isvara, and your relation to this earthly life.

This is the situation we find ourselves in through Nama and Rupa, name and form, the designator and the designated, in this creation of which we are parts or contents. Now, it is the summoning of the forms into relation with ourselves that has been the cause of our pleasures and pains. Every day we summon into our consciousness different forms of the world, and this summoning is nothing but a psychological contact that we establish between ourselves and these forms.

This is Samsara. Every relationship, external, is Samsara, and the whole life of ours, throughout the days and nights that we pass, all this is Samsara from which we seek liberation or freedom.

We want Moksha from Samsara and Moksha is that status in which we establish ourselves not in a relation of Jivatva, but in the condition of Isvara, that is, existence by its own right, and not existence by means of a relation to other things. You are something by yourself, independent of what you mean to others, what you may appear to others or what others may appear to you.

You want to transfer your existence from Jivatva to Isvaratva. You want to exist by your own right, in your own essential nature, to be independent rather than dependent on things. You do not want to think objects for your subsistence. You want to be absolutely independent as a Kevala. You want to attain Kaivalya.

This is called Moksham; – absolute freedom.

To be continued ...