The Mandukya Upanishad 3.4 : Swami Krishnananda

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13/03/2020.
Section - 3. The Universal Vaisvanara-4
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1.

#This Ananda is equivalent to Chit and Sat – Consciousness and Being. All that was in the lower levels gets absorbed into this Ananda. Whatever meaning we saw in the inanimate level, in the levels of the plants, animals and humans, all this meaning is found in the level of Reality as Ananda; and here, existence, consciousness and bliss become one, while in the lower levels they get separated. There is only existence or 'Sat' in rocks, no Chit and Ananda. Rocks exist, but they do not think; they do not feel; they do not understand; and do not experience joy. 

##But a slow process of the revelation of thought-functioning takes place in the higher levels, until it reaches a kind of perfection in the human consciousness. Here we have Sattva mixed up with Rajas and Tamas, on account of which we are very active; sometimes lethargic, and due to the element of Sattva manifest as a fraction, we feel happy at times, though not always. But happiness at times is of no use, being undependable.
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2.

*All our efforts in life are towards the attainment of a permanent happiness, which is the attainment of Ananda. 

#For this we have to reach pure Sattva, unfettered by the chains of Rajas and Tamas. These distinctions obtain in the realm of the Jivas. We see these distinctions; but the Virat does not have these distinctions. 

*To the Virat, it is all 'I', without a 'he', 'she', or 'it'. "Aham asmi", 'I-AM" – is the awareness of the Virat, while our awareness is "I am, and you also are, in addition to me". "I am, and the world is also there outside me". But, to the Virat, the Consciousness is, "I am; there is no world outside Me". 

#The whole world is 'I'; therefore He is called Vaisvanara, the Cosmic Being, the Person who feels, and has the Consciousness that He is all-this-cosmos. 

*According to the Upanishad, the description is as if He has seven limbs. He has, indeed, infinite limbs. Thousands of arms has He. He is Visvammti, omnifaced is this Lord of the cosmos; and when we say He has seven limbs, we only give a broad outline of His Cosmic Personality, just as we can describe a human being as one with seven limbs – head, heart, arms, nose, eyes, ears, feet, etc. 

##But if we give a more detailed description, we may go into the minutiae of the personality.

To be continued ...


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