Therefore with this support, in truth, a knower reaches one or the other. 3. If he meditates on one element [namely a], having been instructed by that alone he quickly comes into the earth [after death]. The Rig verses lead him to the world of men. There, united with austerity, chastity, and faith, he experiences greatness. 4. Now, if he is united in mind with two elements [namely a+u], he is led by the Yajus formulas to the intermediate space, to the world of the moon. Having experienced greatness in the world of the moon, he returns hither again. 5. Again, he who meditates on the highest Person (Purusha) with the three elements of the syllable Om [namely a+u+m], is united with brilliance (tejas) in the sun. As a snake is freed from its skin, even so, verily, is he freed from sin (pāpman). He is led by the Saman chants to the world of Brahma. He beholds the Person that dwells in the body and that is higher than the highest living complex. As to this there are these 6. The three elements are deadly when employed One after the other, separately. In actions external, internal, or intermediate When they are properly employed, the knower trembles not. 7. With the Rig verses, to this world; with the Saman chants, to the intermediate space; With the Yajus formulas, to that which sages (kavi) recognize; That Which is peaceful, unaging, immortal, fearless, and supreme!' SIXTH PRAŚNA Concerning the Person with sixteen parts 1 1 1. Then Sukesan Bharadvaja asked him [i. e. Pippalāda]: 'Sir, Hiraṇyanābha, a prince of the Kośalas, came to me and 1 In VS. 8. 36 Prajapati, 'Lord of Creation,' is addressed as soḍaśin,' with sixteen parts.' In Brih. 1. 5. 14 the year is identified with Prajapati and explained asked this question: "Bharadvāja, do you know the Person with the sixteen parts?" I said to the youth: "I know him not. If I had known him, would I not have told you? Verily, he dries up even to the roots, who speaks untruth. Therefore it is not proper that I should speak untruth." In silence he mounted his chariot and departed. I ask it of you: "Where is that Person?” 2. To him he then said: 'Even here within the body, O friend, is that Person in whom they say the sixteen parts arise. 3. He [ie. the Person] thought to himself: "In whose departure shall I be departing? In whose resting firm, verily, shall I be resting firm?" 4. He created life (prāna); from life, faith (śraddha), space (kha), wind, light, water, carth, sense-faculty (indriya), mind, food; from food, virility, austerity, sacred sayings (mantra), sacrifice, the worlds; and in the worlds, name [i. e. the individual]. 5. As these flowing rivers that tend toward the ocean, on reaching the ocean, disappear, their name and form (nāma-rūpa) are destroyed, and it is called simply "the ocean"—even so of this spectator these sixteen parts that tend toward the Person, on reaching the Person, disappear, their name and form are destroyed, and it is called simply "the Person." That one continues without parts, immortal! As to that there is this verse: as having sixteen parts because its component half-months each consist of fifteen days and a turning-point. According to Brih. 1. 5. 15 the human person who understands this fact becomes similarly characterized. A practical proof of a person's sixteenfoldness is adduced at Chãnd. 6. 7, and an etymological proof at Sat. Br. 10. 4. L. 17. These old conceptions, namely that the Lord of Creation' is sixteenfold and that a human person also is sixteenfold, are here philosophically interpreted in accor dance with the general pantheism of the Upanishads. Analysis: §§ 2, 3, the cosmic Person is immanent in the human person, which is His most distinctive manifestation; § 4, the human person is the culmination and recapitulation of the sixteenfold evolution of the thought of the creative Person; 5, the sixteenfold human person tends to return to, and merge into, the immortal Person, and therein to lose his finite individuality; § 6, an appreciation of the unitary basis of the manifold world as being a knowable Person, removes the fear of death. 6. Whereon the parts rest firm Like the spokes on the hub of a wheel- Conclusion of the instruction 7. To them then he [i.e. Pippalāda] said: "Thus far, in truth, I know that supreme Brahma. There is naught higher than It.' 8. They praised him and said: 'You,truly are our fatheryou who lead us across to the shore beyond ignorance.' Adoration to the supreme seers! Adoration to the supreme seers! MĀṆDŪKYA UPANISHAD The mystic symbolism of the word 'Om': (a) identified with the fourfold, pantheistic time-Brahma 1. Om! This syllable1 is this whole world. Its further explanation is: The past, the present, the future-everything is just the word Om. And whatever else that transcends threefold time 2- that, too, is just the word Om. 2. For truly, everything here is Brahma; this self (ātman) is Brahma. This same self has four fourths. (b) representing in its phonetic elements the four states of the Self 3. The waking state (jägarita-sthāna), outwardly cognitive, having seven limbs,3 having nineteen mouths, enjoying the gross (sthula-bhuj), the Common-to-all-men (vaiśvānara), is the first fourth. 4. The dreaming state (svapna-sthāna), inwardly cognitive, having seven limbs, having nineteen mouths, enjoying the exquisite (pravivikta-bhuj), the Brilliant (taijasa), is the second fourth. 1 Inasmuch as akṣaraṁ means also 'imperishable,' the word may in this connection be used with a double significance, namely, ‘This imperishable syllable ...' 2 A similar phrase occurs at Svet. 6. 5 b. 3 Sankara refers to the enumeration of the several parts of the universal (vaiśvānara) Self at Chand. 5. 18. 2; there, however, the list is longer than seven. The exact significance of the number here is uncertain. 4 Sankara explains this to mean: the five organs of sense (buddhīndriya), namely those of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell, the five organs of action (karmendriya), namely those of speech, handling, locomotion, generation, and excretion, the five vital breaths (prāņa), the sensorium (manas), the intellect (buddhi), egoism (ahaṁkāra), and thinking (citta). 5. If one asleep desires no desire whatsoever, sees no dream whatsoever, that is deep sleep (sușupta). The deep-sleep state (suşupta-sthāna), unified (eki-bhūta),2 just (eva) a cognition-mass (prajñāna-ghana), consisting of bliss (ānanda-maya), enjoying bliss (ānanda-bhuj), whose mouth is thought (cetas-), the Cognitional (prājña), is the third fourth. 6 6. This is the lord of all (sarveśvara),5 This is the allknowing (sarva-jña). This is the inner controller (antarjamin). This is the source (yoni) of all, for this is the origin and the end (prabhavāpyayau)' of beings. 8 7. Not inwardly cognitive (antaḥ-prajña), not outwardly cognitive (bahih-prajña), not both-wise cognitive (ubhayataḥprajña), not a cognition-mass (prajñāna-ghana), not cognitive (prajña), not non-cognitive (a-prajña), unseen (a-dṛṣṭa), with which there can be no dealing (a-vyavahārya), ungraspable (agrahya), having no distinctive mark (a-lakṣaṇa), non-thinkable (a-cintya), that cannot be designated (a-vyapadeśya), the essence of the assurance of which is the state of being one with the Self1o (ekātmya-pratyaya-sāra), the cessation of development (prapañcopaśama), tranquil (śānta), benign (śiva), without a second (a-dvaita)-[such] they think is the fourth." He is the Self (Atman). He should be discerned. 8. This is the Self with regard to the word Om, with regard to its elements. The elements (mātra) are the fourths; 6 1 The part of the sentence up to this point has occurred already in Bṛih. 4. 3. 19. 2 A detailed description of the condition of being unified' occurs at Bṛih. 4. 4. 2. This compound has already occurred in Brih. 4. 5. 13. A description of the self consisting of bliss' occurs in Tait. 2. 5. It is declared to be the acme of attainment over every other form of self at Tait. 2. 8. 1 and 3. 10. 5. 5 A phrase in Brih. 4. 4. 22. 7 The subject of discourse in Brih. 3. 7. A phrase in Katha 6. 11. A phrase in Mund. 1. 1. 9; 2. 2. 7. 8 Literally, womb.' 10 Or, according to the reading ekātma-, 'the oneness of the Self' or 'one's own self.' 11 The designation here used for the fourth,' or super-conscious, state is caturtha, the usual and regular form of the ordinal numeral adjective. In Brih. (at 5. 14. 3, 4, 6, 7) it is named turīya, and in Maitri (at 6. 19; 7. 11. 7) turya— variant forms of the same ordinal. All later philosophical treatises have the form turiya, which came to be the accepted technical term. |