The Mandukya Upanishad 3.5 : Swami Krishnananda

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16/04/2020.
Section - 3. The Universal Vaisvanara-5.

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1.Now, while this Cosmic Person, the Virat, may be regarded as the Consciousness of Universal Waking; we are also, in our work of analysis of consciousness in its first phase, concerned with the microcosmic aspect, the state of Jivatva – individuality. It is here that it is supposed to have nineteen mouths. Its mouth is the organ by which we consume things, take in objects, appropriate material by assimilation into our bodies, digest them into ourselves, as it were. 

2.This is the function of the mouth. The medium of the reception of objects into our own self is the mouth. In one sense, the eyes also are the mouth, the ears, are the mouth, because they receive and absorb certain vibrations through different functions. Vibrations impinge on our personality through the avenues called the senses, viz., eyes, ears, etc., and all these may be regarded as mouths; in this sense, everything that is cognised by the senses is ahara or food for this personality. 

3.Anything that we consume with our senses is ahara. Ahara-suddhau sattva-suddhih: When there is purity of food, there is illumination by means of Sattva from within, says the Chhandogya Upanishad. It does not mean that we should take only milk and fruits every day, which we usually regard as Sattvika diet, while we may think evil thoughts, see ugly sights, hear bad news, and so on. Sattvika ahara is the purified vibration which the senses receive and communicate to the personality through all their functions, at all times. So, the senses are the mouths, and every kind of sense may be regarded as a mouth. There are nineteen functional apparatuses of this wakeful consciousness through which it receives vibrations from and establishes a contact with the outer world.

4.What are the nineteen mouths? We have the five senses of knowledge, or Jnanendriyas, as we call them: Srotra (ears), Tvak (skin), Chakshus (eyes), Jihva (tongue) and Ghrana (nose), These are the five senses of knowledge. And we have the five organs of action: Vak (speech), Pani (hands), Pada {feet); Upastha (genitals) and Payu (anus). 

5.Then, we have the five operational activities through the subtle body as well as the physical body, which are called the Pranas: Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana and Samana. The five senses of knowledge, the five organs of action and the five Pranas make the number fifteen. These fifteen functional aspects may be regarded as the outer core of individual activity. 

6.But there is also an inner core of our functions, which is constituted of the fourfold psychological organ, the Antahkarana-catushtaya; – Manas, Buddhi, Ahamkara and Citta – Manas, or the mind, which thinks and deliberates; Buddhi, or the intellect, which ratiocinates, understands and decides; Ahamkara, or the ego, which arrogates and appropriates things to itself; and the Citta which is capable of performing many functions, the main feature of it being memory, recollection, retention of past impressions, and this is what is generally known as the sub-conscious level of the psyche. 

7.This is the fourfold Antahkarana-catushtaya, as it is called, and with these four, coupled with the five Jnanendriyas, five Karmendriyas and five Pranas, we have the nineteen mouths of the Jiva, the individual. 

8.It is with these nineteen mouths that we come in contact with the world outside, and it is with the help of these that we absorb the world into ourselves. We communicate our personality to the world through these instruments, and we absorb qualities and characters of the world into ourselves through these instruments, again. 

9.These nineteen mouths, therefore, are the media or link between the individual and the Universe. How do we know that there is a world outside? Through these nineteen mouths do we apprehend all that is external. 

10.And it is not that we are merely aware of the existence of the world; we arc also affected by the world; and Samsara is this process of getting affected by the world's existence, not merely a perception of the world. Thcy say, even Maha-Purushas; Jivanmuktas perceive the world, but they are not Samsarins, because while they perceive the world, they arc not affected by it. 

11.These Maha-Purushas are in Isvara-srishti and not in Jiva-Srishti. They do not create or manufacture a world of their own. They are satisfied with the world that is already created by Isvara, or the Virat, Vaisvanara. 

12.This is the nature of the waking consciousness, both in its individual and cosmic aspects, as Jiva and Isvara. In its capacity as Virat, it is Saptanga; and as the Jiva, it is Ekonavimsadmukha, animating respectively the physical universe and the physical body.

To be continued ...

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