{"id":1554,"date":"2013-07-13T01:35:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1554"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:35:39","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:35:39","slug":"28-notes-on-the-chhandogya-upanishad-vol-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/18-kena-and-other-upanishads\/28-notes-on-the-chhandogya-upanishad-vol-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","title":{"rendered":"-28_Notes on the Chhandogya Upanishad.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\n
\n Notes on the Chhandogya
\n<\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n Upanishad <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n First Adhyaya <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\nOM is the syllable (the Imperishable One); one should follow
\nafter it as the upward Song (movement); for with OM one sings (goes) upwards; of which this is the analytical explanation.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n So, literally translated in its double meaning, both its exoteric, physical and symbolic sense and its esoteric symbolised
\nreality, runs the initial sentence of the Upanishad. These opening lines or passages of the Vedanta are always of great importance;
\nthey are always so designed as to suggest or even sum up, if not all that comes afterwards, yet the central and pervading
\nidea of the Upanishad. The Isha Vasyam of the Vajasaneyi, the Keneshitam manas of the Talavakara, the Sacrificial Horse of
\nthe Brihad Aranyaka, the solitary Atman with its hint of the future world vibrations in the Aitareya are of this type. The
\nChhandogya, we see from its first and introductory sentence, is to be a work on the right & perfect way of devoting oneself to the
\nBrahman; the spirit, the methods, the formulae are to be given to us. Its subject is the Brahman, but the Brahman as symbolised in
\nthe OM, the sacred syllable of the Veda; not, therefore, the pure state of the Universal Existence only, but that Existence in all its
\nparts, the waking world & the dream self and the sleeping, the manifest, half-manifest and hidden, Bhurloka, Bhuvar & Swar,\u2014the right means to win all of them, enjoy all of them, transcend all of them, is the subject of the Chhandogya. OM is the symbol
\nand the thing symbolised. It is the symbol, aksharam, the syllable in which all sound of speech is brought back to its wide, pure
\nindeterminate state; it is the symbolised, aksharam, the changeless, undiminishing, unincreasing, unappearing, undying Reality
\n <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 258<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nwhich shows itself to experience in all the change, increase, diminution, appearance, departure which in a particular sum &
\nharmony of them we call the world, just as OM the pure eternal sound-basis of speech shows itself to the ear in the variations and
\ncombinations of impure sound which in a particular sum and harmony of them we call the Veda. We are to follow after this
\nOM with all our souls, upas ta,\u2014to apply ourselves to it and
\ndevote ourselves to its knowledge and possession, but always to OM as the Udgitha. Again in this word we have the symbolic
\nsense and the truth symbolised expressed, as in aksharam and OM, in a single vocable with a double function and significance.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe Sanscrit has always been a language in which one word is naturally capable of several meanings and therefore carries
\nwith it a number of varied associations. It lends itself, therefore, with peculiar ease and naturalness to the figure called slesha or
\nembrace, the marriage of different meanings in a single form of words. Paronomasia in English is mere punning, a tour-de-force, an incongruity, a grotesque and artificial play of humour. Paronomasia, slesha, in Sanscrit, though in form precisely the
\nsame thing, is not punning, not incongruous but easily appropriate, not grotesque or artificial, but natural and often inevitable,
\nnot used for intellectual horseplay, but with a serious, often a high and worthy purpose. It has been abused by rhetorical
\nwriters; yet great and noble poetical effects have been obtained by its aid, as, for instance, when the same form of words has been
\nused to convey open blame & cover secret praise. Nevertheless in classical Sanscrit, the language has become a little too rigid
\nfor the perfect use of the figure; it is too literary, too minutely grammatised; it has lost the memory of its origins. A sense of
\ncleverness and artifice suggests itself to us because meanings known to be distinct and widely separate are brought together
\nin a single activity of the word which usually suggests them only in different contexts. But in the Vedic slesha we have no
\nsense of cleverness or artifice, because the writers themselves had none. The language was still near to its origins and had, not
\nperhaps an intellectual, but still an instinctive memory of them. With less grammatical and as little etymological knowledge as
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 259<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Panini and the other classical grammarians, the Rishis had better possession of the soul of Sanscrit speech. The different meanings
\nof a word, though distinct, were not yet entirely separate; many links yet survived between them which were afterwards lost; the
\ngradations of sense remained, the hint of the word’s history, the shading off from one sense to another. Ardha now means half
\nand it means nothing else. To the Vedic man it carried other associations. Derived from the root ridh which meant originally
\nto go and join, then to add, to increase, to prosper, it bore the sense of place of destination, the person to whom I direct
\nmyself, or simply place; increase, also addition, a part added and so simply a part or half. To have used it in any other sense than
\n“place of destination” or as at once “half, part” and “a place of destination” would not be a violence to the Vedic mind, but
\na natural association of ideas. So when they spoke of the higher worlds of Sacchidananda as Parardha, they meant at once the   higher half of man’s inner existence & the param dhama or high
\nseat of Vishnou in other worlds and, in addition, thought of that high seat as the destination of our upward movement. All this
\nrose at once to their mind when the word was uttered, naturally, easily and, by long association, inevitably.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

OM is a word in instance. When the word was spoken as a solemn affirmation, everyone thought of the Pranava in
\nthe Veda, but no one could listen to the word OM without thinking also of the Brahman in Its triple manifestation and
\nin Its transcendent being. The word, aksharam, meaning both syllable & unshifting, when coupled with OM, is a word in
\ninstance; “OM the syllable” meant also, inevitably, to the Vedic mind “Brahman, who changes not nor perishes”. The words
\nudg\u00ed<\/font>tha and udg\u00e1<\/font>yati are words in instance. In classical Sanscrit the prepositional prefix to the verb was dead and bore only   a
\n\t\t\tconventional significance or had no force at all; udg\u00e1yati or  prag\u00e1<\/font>yati is not very different from the simple g\u00e1<\/font>yati; all mean merely sing or chant. But in Veda the preposition is still living &
\njoins its verb or separates itself as it pleases; therefore it keeps its full meaning always. In Vedanta the power of separation is
\nlost, but the separate force remains. Again the roots g  and ga <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 260<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nin classical Sanscrit mean to sing and have resigned the sense of going to their kinsman gam; but in Vedic times, the sense of
\ngoing was still active and common. They meant also to express, to possess, to hold; but these meanings once common to the
\nfamily are now entrusted to particular members of it, gir, for expression, grih, for holding. G\u00e1<\/font>th\u00e1<\/font>, g\u00ed<\/font>tha,
\ng\u00e1na, g\u00e1yati, g\u00e1t\u00e1, g\u00e1<\/font>tu, meant to the Vedic mind both going and singing, udg\u00ed<\/font>tha  meant ascension as well as casting upward the voice or the soul
\n   
\nin song. When the Vedic singer said Ud g\u00e1y\u00e1mi, the physical idea was that, perhaps, of the song rising upward, but he had
\nalso the psychical idea of the soul rising up in song to the gods and fulfilling in its meeting with them and entering into them
\nits expressed aspiration. To show that this idea is not a modern etymological fancy of my own, it is sufficient to cite the evidence
\nof the Chhandogya Upanishad itself in this very chapter where Baka Dalbhya is spoken of as the Udgata of the Naimishiyas who obtained their desires for them by the Vedic chant, ebhya
\n\u00e1g\u00e1yati k\u00e1<\/font>m\u00e1<\/font>n; so, adds the Upanishad, shall everyone be a “singer to” & a “bringer to” of desires,
\n\u00e1g\u00e1t\u00e1 k\u00e1m\u00e1n\u00e1m, who with this
\nknowledge follows after OM, the Brahman, as the Udgitha. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThis then is the meaning of the Upanishad that OM, the
\nsyllable, technically called the Udgitha, is to be meditated on as a symbol of the fourfold Brahman with two objects, the “singing
\nto” of one’s desires & aspirations in the triple manifestation and the spiritual ascension into the Brahman Itself so as to meet
\nand enter into heaven after heaven & even into Its transcendent felicity. For, it says, with the syllable OM one begins the chant of
\nthe Samaveda, or, in the esoteric sense, by means of the meditation on OM one makes this soul-ascension and becomes master
\nof all the soul desires. It is in this aspect & to this end that the Upanishad will expound OM. To explain Brahman in Its
\nnature & workings, to teach the right worship and meditation on Brahman, to establish what are the different means of attainment of different results and the formulae of the meditation and worship, is its purpose. All this work of explanation has
\nto be done in reference to Veda & Vedic sacrifice and ritual of which OM is the substance. In a certain sense, therefore,
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 261<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

the Upanishad is an explanation of the purpose & symbology of Vedic formulae & ritual; it sums up the results of the long travail
\nof seeking by which the first founders & pioneers of Vedantism in an age when the secret & true sense of Veda had been largely
\nsubmerged in the ceremonialism & formalism of the close of the Dwapara Yuga, attempted to recover their lost heritage partly
\nby reference to the adepts who still remained in possession of it, partly by the traditions of the great seekers of the past Yuga,
\nJanaka, Yajnavalkya, Krishna and others, partly by their own illuminations and spiritual experience. The Chhandogya Upanishad is thus the summary history of one of the greatest & most interesting ages of human thought.
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 262<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Satyakama Jabala <\/font><\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The story of Satyakama Jabala occupies five sections, the third to
\nthe eighth, of the fourth chapter in the Chhandogya Upanishad. The Chhandogya seems to be the most ancient of the extant Upanishads. It speaks of Krishna, son of Devaki, and Dhritarashtra Vaichitravirya in a tone that would justify us in assuming that
\nit regarded them not as ancient and far-off names but as men who had walked the earth in living memory. The movement of
\nphilosophic speculation of which the Upanishads are the extant record, was an attempt to pass from the old ritualistic
\nkarma <\/i>to
\nthe freedom of the jnanamarga<\/i>. According to the writer of the Gita, this was not a new movement, but a return to a past and
\nlost discipline; for Sri Krishna says to Arjuna of the true or sajnan<\/i>
\nkarmamarga <\/i>he reveals to him, “This is the imperishable Yoga
\nI declared unto Vivaswan, Vivaswan revealed it to Manu and Manu to Ixvacu told it. Thus was it known to the royal sages by
\nhereditary transmission, till by the great lapse of time this yoga was lost, O scourge of thy foes. This is the same ancient Yoga
\nthat I have told unto [thee] today, because thou art my lover and my friend; for this is the highest of all the inner truths.”
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The Dwapara Yuga was the age of Kuru preeminence and the Kurus were a great practical, warlike, ritualistic, juristic
\nrace of the Roman type, with little of the speculative temper or moral enthusiasm of the eastern Coshalas, Videhas, Kashis,
\nChedis. The West of India has always been noted for its practical, soldierly, commercial bent of mind in comparison with
\nthe imaginative and idealistic Eastern races and the scholastic, logical and metaphysical South. According to the Hindu theory
\nof the Yugas, it is in the Dwapara that everything is codified, ritualised, formalised. In the Satya Vishnu descends among men
\nas Yajna. Yajna is the spirit of adoration and sacrifice, and in the Satya yajna reigns in the hearts of men, and there is no need
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 263<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

of external ritual, external sacrifices, elaborate law, government, castes, classes and creeds. Men follow the law by the necessity of
\ntheir purified nature and their complete knowledge. The kingdom of God & the Veda are in the hearts of His people. In the
\nTreta the old perfect order begins to break and Vishnu descends as the chakravarti raja<\/i>, the warrior and ruler, Kartavirya, Parsurama, Rama, and the sword, the law and the written Veda are instituted to govern men. But there is still great elasticity and
\nfreedom and within certain limits men follow the healthy impulse of their nature, only slightly corrupted by the first descent
\nfrom purity. It is in the Dwapara that form and rule have to take the place of the idea and the spirit as the true governors of
\nreligion, ethics and society. Vishnu then descends as Vyasa, the great codifier and systematiser of knowledge.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

At the end of the Dwapara, when Sri Krishna came, this tendency had reached its extreme development, and the form
\ntended to take the place of the idea and the rule to take the place of the spirit not only in the outward conduct but in the hearts
\nof men. Nevertheless an opposite tendency had already begun. Dhritarashtra himself was an earnest inquirer into the inner
\nmeaning of things. Great Vedantists were living and teaching, such as the rishi Ghora to whom Sri Krishna himself went for the
\nword of illumination. Sri Krishna was the intellectual force that took up all these scattered tendencies and, by breaking down
\nthe strong formalism of the Dwapara, prepared the work of the Kali. In the Gita he denounces those who will not go outside the
\nfour corners of the Veda and philosophises the whole theory of the sacrificial system; he contemptuously dismisses the guidance
\nof the set ethical systems and establishes an inward and spiritual rule of conduct. To many of his time he seems to have appeared
\nas a baneful and destructive portent; like all great revolutionary innovators, he is denounced by Bhurisravas as a well known
\nmisleader of men and corrupter of morals. It is the work of the Kali Yuga to destroy everything by questioning everything in
\norder to establish after a struggle between the forces of purity and impurity a new harmony of life and knowledge in another
\nSatyayuga. <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 264<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAfter the destruction of the conservative Kurus and Panchalas at Kurukshetra, the development of the Vedanta commenced and went on progressing till in its turn it reached its extreme & excessive development in the teachings of Buddha
\nand Shankaracharya. But at the period of the Chhandogya it is in its early stage of development. The first sections of the
\nUpanishad are taken up with an esoteric development of the inner meaning of certain parts of the sacrificial formulae, which
\nin itself is sufficient to show that the work belongs to the first stratum of Vedantic formation.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\nThe story of Satyakama is one of the most typical in the Upanishad. It is full of sidelights on early Vedantic teaching, Yogic
\nsadhan and that deep psychical knowledge which the writer took for granted in the hearers of his work. So much knowledge, indeed, is thus taken for granted that it is impossible for anyone not himself a practiser of Yoga, to understand anything
\nbut its broad conclusions. The modern commentators, Shankara included, have approached it in order to establish particular
\nmetaphysical doctrines, not to elucidate its entire significance. I shall take the side that has been neglected; for what to the
\nEuropean inquirer are merely “the babblings of children”, bear to the Yogin an aspect of infinite truth, value and significance.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n
\n Chapter II <\/b>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n “Now Satyakama Jabala spoke unto his mother Jabala and said
\n`Mother, I shall go and lead the life of the Brahmacharin; tell me what is my
\ngotra<\/i>.’ But she answered him, `This I know
\nnot, my son, of what gotra thou art; resorting to many as a serving woman in my youth I got thee, therefore I know not
\nof what gotra thou art. But Jabala is my name and Satyakama is thine, Satyakama Jabala therefore call thyself.’ So he came
\nto Haridrumata the Gautama and said, `I would stay with my Lord as a Brahmacharin, let me therefore enter under thee.’ And
\nhe said to him, `My son, of what gotra art thou?’ But the other answered, `This, alas, I know not of what gotra I am; I asked my
\n\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 265<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

mother and she answered me, Resorting to many in my youth as a serving woman I got thee, therefore I know not of what
\ngotra thou art, but Jabala is my name and Satyakama is thine; Satyakama Jabala therefore am I.’ And he said to him, `None
\nwho is not a Brahmin can be strong enough to say this; gather the firewood, my son, I will take thee under me, for thou didst
\nnot depart from the truth.’ He admitted him and put forth four hundred cows weak and lean and said, `These, my son, do thou
\nfollow as a herd,’ and he set the cows in motion and said, `Return not until they are a thousand.’ And he fared abroad with them
\nduring the years till they were a thousand.”
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

So the story opens, and simple as it seems, it already contains several points of capital importance in understanding the ideas of the time and the principles of the old Vedantic
\nsadhana<\/i>.
\nSatyakama, as we gather from other passages, was one of the great Vedantic teachers of the time immediately previous to the
\ncomposition of the Chhandogya Upanishad. But his birth is the meanest possible. His mother is a serving girl, not a
\ndasi <\/i>attached to a permanent household whose son could have named his father and his gotra, but a
\nparicharika<\/i>, serving for hire at
\nvarious houses, “resorting to many”, and therefore unable to name her son’s father. Satyakama has, therefore, neither caste,
\nnor gotra, nor any position in life. It appears from this story as from others that, although the system of the four castes
\nwas firmly established, it counted as no obstacle in the pursuit of knowledge and spiritual advancement. The Kshatriya could
\nteach the Brahmin, the illegitimate and fatherless son of the serving girl could be guru to the purest and highest blood in
\nthe land. This is nothing new or improbable, for it has been so throughout the history of Hinduism and the shutting out of
\nanyone from spiritual truth and culture on the ground of caste is an invention of later times. In the nature of things the usual
\nrule would be for the greater number of spiritual preceptors to be found in the higher castes, but this was the result of natural
\nlaws and not of a fixed prohibition. It is noticeable also from this and other instances that it was the father’s position that fixed
\nthe son’s, and the mother’s seems to have been of very minor <\/span> <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 266<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t<\/font>
\n\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

\nimportance. The question about the gotra was of importance, probably, with regard to the rites and other circumstances of
\ninitiation. Satyakama must have known perfectly well that he was the illegitimate son of a serving woman, but he wished to
\nknow his father’s name and gotra because he would have to tell it to his guru. Even after knowing the worst, he persisted in
\nhis intention of taking up spiritual studies, so that he can have had no fear of being rejected on account of his base origin. His
\nguru, impressed by his truthfulness, says, “None but a Brahmin would have the moral strength to make such an avowal.” It can
\nhardly be meant by this that Satyakama’s father must have been a Brahmin, but that since he had the Brahmin qualities, he must be
\naccepted as a Brahmin. Even the Kshatriya would have hesitated to speak so truthfully, because the Kshatriya is by nature a lover
\nof honour and shuns dishonour, he has the sense of mana <\/i>and apamana<\/i>; but the true Brahmin is
\nsamo manapamanayoh<\/i>, he
\naccepts indifferently worldly honour and dishonour and cares only for the truth and the right. In short the Gautama concludes
\nthat, whatever may be Satyakama’s physical birth, spiritually he is of the highest order and especially fitted for a sadhaka;
\nna<\/i>
\nsatyad agat<\/i>, he did not depart from the truth.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n The second point is the first action of the guru after the ceremony of initiation. Instead of beginning the instruction of this promising disciple he sends him out with four hundred miserable
\nkine, more likely to die than prosper and increase, and forbids him to return till he has increased them to a thousand. Wherefore
\nthis singular arrangement? Was it a test? Was it a discipline? But Haridrumata had already seen that his new disciple had the high
\nBrahmin qualities. What more did he require?
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n The perfect man is a fourfold being and one object of Vedantic discipline is to be the perfect man, siddha<\/i>. When Christ said, “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” he was
\nonly repeating in popular language the Vedantic teaching of sadharmya<\/i>, likeness to God.
\n\t\t\t<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n  <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tPage – 267<\/font><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Notes on the Chhandogya Upanishad   First Adhyaya     OM is the syllable (the Imperishable One); one should follow after it as the upward…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18-kena-and-other-upanishads","wpcat-35-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1554\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}