The Mandukya Upanishad 6.2 Swami Krishnananda

  

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Wednesday, December 025, 2020. 12:03. PM.
Section 6: The God of the Universe-2.

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Esha yonih sarvasya prabhavapyayau: He is the womb of all things. All things come from Him as the tree comes from a seed. The tree may be vast in its extent in space; yet, it is all hidden in its potentiality in the seed. The future structure or the shape and the nature of the tree is already determined by the content of the seed. It is not that some new thing comes up when there is germination of the seed. Whatever was in the seed, that alone comes out in the form of an effect, namely, the plant, and the tree. The universe is Self-determined in the sense that it is already contained and fully present in the Being of the Causal State, Isvara. Thus, in a cosmic sense, we may say that everything is determined for ever. No change can be brought about in the cosmos by effort of any kind, because all the efforts are the activities of the Jivas whose existence and function are controlled by the seed, namely, Isvara, from whom all this comes. Omniscience includes knowledge of the future, and if the future is going to be indetermined there cannot be any such thing as omniscience. We cannot say that the future can be changed by individual effort, and the so-called change that we try to introduce in the future is already known to Isvara, and all our efforts of the future are determined by the Will of Isvara. So, while there is freedom of choice from the point of view of the Jiva, it is determination from the point of view of the Will of Isvara. While we seem to change society, God knows already the changes that we are going to introduce, the 'why' and the 'how' of it. Thus, it is cosmic determination from the point of view of Isvara, but from the standpoint of the activities of the Jiva, it appears to be a process of change with an indeterminate future. God, Isvara, therefore, is All-powerful, All-knowing, the seed of all things, the beginning and the end of everything.

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Prabhavapyayau hi bhutanam: Everything comes forth from Him and everything returns to Him, and everything is sustained, also, in His Being. Our movements cannot take us outside the Body of Isvara. Even if we travel millions of miles in the distant space, to the stars, we are within the Body of Isvara. We cannot go outside it. Let our thoughts, let the soul fly into the heights of the empyrean, or come down to the nether regions, it is within the purview of Isvara's knowledge and is contained in the Being of Isvara. Whatever be the freedom of the kite to fly to the skies, as long as it is tied with a rope to a peg on the earth, its movements are restricted. Our freedom seems to be within the radius of the operation of our Prarabdha-Karma, and beyond that limit we cannot go. We have freedom, but limited freedom, not absolute freedom. It is the freedom that a mother gives to her child. The child has a freedom, but within limits; beyond that the mother will not make any allowance. Isvara gives us freedom in the sense that there is capacity in us to understand, ratiocinate and judge situations, but all these judgments are determined by the law of Isvara, and we cannot overrule that law; we have to abide by that law. And, if our egoism so acts, occasionally, as to violate this law of Isvara, then there is a reaction set up, and this reaction is what is called the law of Karma. Karma that binds is nothing but the effect of the violation of the law of Isvara, and abidance by His Will is unselfish Karma. This is Karma-Yoga. When we abide by His Will, follow His law, and then act, we perform Karma-Yoga. But when we violate His Will and act according to the dictates of the ego, we perform a binding Karma. Isvara, therefore, is everything, the coming in and the going out of all things, of all beings. Such is the glory, the magnificence and the greatness of God, Isvara, whose integral parts, organic limbs, are the Jivas, and all things, animate or inanimate. The distinction of living and non-living beings, the inorganic and the organic, do not obtain in the realm of Isvara's Being. For Him, it is all Consciousness. There is no Jadatva, or no dead matter, for Isvara, because it is His Being. He permeates all things; He is Antaryamin. This is the Causal Condition of the universe, corresponding to which there is the causal experience of the Jiva, called Prajna. The individual causal state is Prajna; the Universal Causal State is Isvara. The individual subtle state is Taijasa; the Cosmic Subtle State is Hiranyagarbha. The individual gross state is Visva; the Cosmic Gross State is Vaisvanara, or Virat. Isvara is often understood as that Total Being, in which all the cosmic states are united.

End.

Next- Section 7: The Transcendent Presence

To be continued .....

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