KAIVALYA UPANISHAD

Om. Ashwalayana to the Lord Parameshthi came and said, "Teach me, Lord, the highest knowledge of Brahman, the secret knowledge ever followed by the saints, how the wise man swiftly putting from him all evil goeth to the Purusha who is higher than the highest."

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Commentary

THE Lord Parameshthi is Brahma — not the creator Hiranyagarbha, but the soul who in this Kalpa has climbed up to be the instrument of creation, the first in time of the Gods, the Pitamaha or original and general Prajapati; the Pitamaha, because all the fathers or special Prajapatis, Daksha and others, are his mind-born children. The confusion between the grandsire and the Creator, who is also called Brahma, is common; but the distinction is clear. Thus in the Mundaka Upanishad, brahmā devānām prathamaḥ sambabhūva, it is the first of Gods, the earliest birth of Time, the father of Atharva, and not the unborn eternal Hiranyagarbha. In the Puranas Brahma is described as in fear of his life from Madhu and Kaitabha, and cannot be the fearless and immortal Hiranyagarbha. Nor would it be possible for Ashwalayana to come to Hiranyagarbha and say, "Teach me. Lord", for Hiranyagarbha has no form, nor is He approachable nor does He manifest Himself to man as Shiva and Vishnu do. He is millionfold. Protean, intangible, and for that reason He places in each cycle a Brahma or divine Man between Him and the search and worship of men. It is Brahma or divine Man who is called Parameshthi, — or the one full of Parameshtham that which is superlative and highest, — Hiranyagarbha. The power of Hiranyagarbha is in Brahma and created through him the nāma and rūpa of things in this cycle.

To Brahma Parameshthi Ashwalayana comes as a disciple to Master and says to him, "Lord, teach me the Brahmavidya." He specifies the kind of knowledge he requires. It is variṣṭha, the best or highest, because it goes beyond the triple Brahman to the Purushottama or Most High God; it is secret, because even in the ordinary teaching of Vedanta, Purana and Tantra it is not expressed, it is always followed by the saints, the initiate. The santaḥ or saints are those who are pure of desire and full of knowledge and it is to these that the secret knowledge has been given sadā, from the beginning. He makes his meaning yet clearer

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by stating the substance of the knowledge—yathā, how, by what means won by knowledge, vidvān, one can swiftly put sin from him and reach Purushottama.

There are three necessary elements of the path to Kaivalya, — first, the starting-point, vidyā, right knowledge, implying the escape from ignorance, from non-knowledge and false knowledge; next the process or means, escape from sarvapāpam, all evil, i.e. sin, pain and grief; last, the goal, Purushottama, the being who is beyond the highest, that is, beyond turīya, Turiya being the Highest. By the escape from sin, pain and grief one attains absolute ānanda, the last term of existence, we reach that in which Ananda exists. What is that? It is not Turiya who is śivam, śāntam, advaitam, saccidānandam, but that which is beyond śivam and aśivam, good and evil, śantam and kalilam, calm and chaos, dvaitam and advaitam, duality and unity. Sat, Chit and Ananda are in their Highest, but He is neither Sat, Chit nor Ananda nor any combination of these. He is all and yet He is neti, neti. He is One and yet He is many. He is Parabrahman and He is Parameshwara. He is Male and He is Female. He is tat and He is sa. This is the Higher than the Highest. He is the Purusha, the Being in whose image the world and all the Jivas are made, who pervades all and underlies all the workings of Prakriti as its reality and self. It is this Purusha that Ashwalayana seeks.

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