{"id":656,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=656"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","slug":"37-the-upanishad-in-aphorisms-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/12-the-upanishad-volume-12\/37-the-upanishad-in-aphorisms-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-37_The Upanishad in Aphorisms.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nThe Upanishad in
\nAphorisms<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n


\nTHE ISHA UPANISHAD<\/font><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nF<\/span>OR
\n<\/span><\/b>the Lord all this is a habitation whatsoever is
\nmoving thing in her that moves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhy dost thou say there is a world? There is no world, only
\nOne who moves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat thou callest world is the movement of Kali; as such
\nembrace thy world-existence. In thy all-embracing stillness of vision thou art
\nPurusha and inhabitest; in thy outward motion and action thou art Prakriti and
\nthe builder of the habitation. Thus envisage thy being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere are many knots of this movement and each knot thy eyes
\nlook upon as an object; many currents and each current thy mind sees as force
\nand tendency. Forces and objects are the forms of Kali.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nTo each form of her we give a name. What is this name? It is
\nword, it is sound, it is vibration of being, the child of infinity and the
\nfather of mental idea. Before form can be, name and idea must have existed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe half-enlightened say, "Whatever form is built, the Lord
\nenters to inhabit"; but the Seer knows that whatever the Lord sees in His own
\nbeing, becomes Idea and seeks a form and a habitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe universe is a rhythmic vibration in infinite existence
\nwhich multiplies itself into many harmonies and holds them well ordered in the
\noriginal type of motion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThou lookest upon a stone and sayest, "It is still." So it
\nis, but to the sense-experience only. For the eye that sees, it is built out of
\nmotion and composed of motion. In the ordered repetition of the atomic movements
\nthat compose it, consists its appearance of stillness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll stability is a fixed equilibrium of rhythm. Disturb the
\nrhythm, the stability dissolves and becomes unstable.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNo single rhythm can be eternally stable; therefore the
\nuniverse <\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 512<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nis an ocean always in flow, and everything in it is mutable
\nand transient. Each thing in Nature endures till the purpose of Kali in it is
\nfulfilled; then it is dissolved and changed into a constituent of some other
\nharmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPrakriti is eternal, but every universe passes. The fact of
\nuniverse endures for ever, but no particular world of things can last; for each
\nuniverse is only one rhythm out of an infinite number of possible movements.
\nWhatsoever system in Nature or of Nature is thoroughly worked out, must give
\nplace to a new harmony.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNevertheless all world and everything in world is eternal in
\nits essential being; for all essential existence is Brahman without end or
\nbeginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nForms and names are also Brahman and eternal; but, in world,
\ntheirs is an eternity of recurrence, not of unbroken per\u00adsistence. Every form
\nand every idea that has once been, exists still and can again recur; every form
\nor idea that is to be, already exists and was from the beginning. Time is a
\nconvention of movement, not a condition of existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which inhabits the forms of Kali is Self and Lord of the
\nMovement. Purusha is master of Prakriti, not her subject;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSoul determines Form and Action and is not determined by
\nthem. Spirit reflects in its knowledge the activity of Nature, but only those
\nactivities which it has itself compelled Nature to initiate.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in the body is master of body and not subject to its
\nlaws or limited by its experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul is not constituted by mind and its activities, for
\nthese also are parts of Nature and movements only.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMind and body are instruments of the secret all-knowing and
\nomnipotent Self within us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in the body is not limited in space by the body or
\nin experience by the mind; the whole universe is its habitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere is only one Self of things, one soul in multitudinous
\nforms. By body and mind I am separated even from my brother or my lover but by
\nexceeding body and mind I can become one with all things in being and in
\nexperience, even with the stone and the tree.<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 513<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nMy universal soul need no more be limited by my individual
\nmind and body, than my individual consciousness is limited by the experience of
\na single cell in my body. The walls which imprison us have been built up by
\nPrakriti in her movement and exist only in her inferior kingdoms. As one rises
\nhigher they become conventional boundaries which we can always stride across
\nand, on the summits, they merely mark off compartments in our universal
\nconsciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul does not move, but motion of Nature takes place in
\nits perfect stillness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe motion of Nature is not real or material motion, but
\nvibration of the soul’s self-consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNature is Chit-Shakti, the Lord’s expressive power of
\nself-awareness, by which whatever He sees in Himself, becomes in form of
\nconsciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEverything in Nature is a becoming of the one Spirit who
\nalone is Being. We and all things in Nature are God’s becomings, sarva-bhutani.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAlthough there are to world-experience multitudinous souls
\n(Purushas) in the universe, all these are only one Purusha masked in many forms
\nof His consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nEach soul in itself is God entirely, every group of souls is
\ncollectively God; the modalities of Nature’s movement create their separation
\nand outward differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod transcends world and is not bound by any law of Nature.
\nHe uses laws, laws do not use Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod transcends world and is not bound to any particular state
\nof consciousness in the world. He is not unity-consciousness nor multiple
\nconsciousness, not Personality nor Impersonality, not stillness nor motion, but
\nsimultaneously includes all these self-expressions of His absolute being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod simultaneously transcends world, contains it and informs
\nit; the soul in the body can arrive at the God-consciousness and at once
\ntranscend, contain and inform its universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nGod-consciousness is not exclusive of World-consciousness;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNature is not an outcast from Spirit, but its Image, world is
\nnot a falsity contradicting Brahman, but the symbol of a divine Existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 514<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nGod is the reverse side of Nature, Nature the obverse side of
\nGod.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nSince the soul in the body is eternally and inalienably free,
\nits bondage to egoism, law of bodily nature, law of mental nature, law of
\npleasure and pain, law of life and death, can only be an apparent and not a real
\nbondage. Our chains are either a play or an illusion or both play and illusion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe secret of our apparent bondage is the Spirit’s play by
\nwhich It consents to forget God-consciousness in the absorption of Nature’s
\nmovement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe movement of Nature is a sevenfold flow, each stream
\nsubject to its own law of motion but containing latent, expressed or
\nhalf-apparent in itself its six sisters or companions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nNature is composed of Being, Will or Force, Creative Bliss,
\nPure Idea, Mind, Life and Matter, \u2014 Sat, Chit or Tapas, Ananda, Vijnanam, Manas,
\nPrana and Annam.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Soul, Purusha, can seat itself in any of these principles
\nand according to its situation, its outlook changes and it sees a different
\nworld; all world is merely arranged and harmonised outlook of the Spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nWhat God sees, that exists; what He sees with order and
\nharmony, becomes a world.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThere are seven worlds, Satya, of pure being, Tapas, of pure
\nwill or force, Jana, of pure delight, Mahas, of pure idea, Swar, of pure
\nmentality, Bhuvar, of pure vitality, Bhur, of pure matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Sat is pure truth of being and perceives itself
\nas one in the world’s multiplicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Tapas is pure force of divine will and knowledge
\nand possesses universe omnisciently and omnipotently as its extended self.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Ananda is pure delight and multiplies itself in
\nuniversal self-creation and unmixed joy of being.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Mahas is pure idea, perceives itself in order and
\narrangement of comprehensive unity in multiplicity, all things in their unity
\nand each thing in its right place, time and circumstance. It is not subject to
\nthe tyranny of impressions, but contains and comprehends the objects it knows.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Manas is pure mentality and receives the pure<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 515<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nimpression of separate objects and from their sum receives
\nthe impression of the whole. It is Manas that measures, limits and divides.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Prana is pure vitality and pours itself out in
\nvarious life-energy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe soul in Annam is pure matter and forgets force of
\nconsciousness in the form of consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMatter is the lowest rung of the ladder and the soul that has
\ndescended into Matter tends by its secret nature and inevitable self-impulsion
\nto re-emerge out of form towards the freedom of pure universal being. These are
\nthe two movements that govern world-existence, adhogati<\/i>, the descent
\ntowards matter or mere form and ūrdhvagati<\/i>, the ascent towards Spirit and
\nGod.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMan is a Mental being, Manu or Manomaya Purusha, who has
\nentered into a vitalised material body and is seeking to make it capable of
\ninfinite mentality, infinite ideality so that it may become the perfect
\ninstrument, seat and temple of the manifest Sachchidananda.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMind in the material world is attentive to two kinds of
\nknowledge, impacts from outside, corporeal or mental, received into the
\nindividual mentality and translated into mental values and knowledge from
\nwithin, spiritual, ideal or mental similarly translated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nInert physical bodies receive all the impacts that the mind
\nreceives, but being devoid of organised mentality, retain them only in the
\ninvolved mind in matter and are incapable of translating them into mental
\nsymbols.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOur bodies are naturally inert physical bodies moved by life
\nand mind. They also receive all impacts, but not all of them are translated into
\nmental values. Of those which are translated, some are rendered imperfectly,
\nsome perfectly, some immediately, some only after a longer or shorter incubation
\nin the involved mind in matter. There are the same variable phenomena with the
\ninternal knowledge. All the knowledge translated here into mental values forms
\nthe stuff of our waking consciousness. This waking consciousness accepted by the
\nmanomaya purus<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>a<\/span><\/i>
\nas itself and organised round a central I-sense is the waking ego.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe Jiva or embodied mental being is in its consciousness<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 516<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nmuch wider than the waking ego; it has a wide range of
\nknowledge and experience of the past, present and future, the near and the
\ndistant, this life and other lives, this world and other worlds which is not
\navailable to the waking ego. The waking ego fails to notice many things and
\nforgets what it notices; the Jiva notices and remembers all experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThat which goes on in our life-energy and bodies below the
\nlevel of waking mind is our subconscious self in the world; that which goes on
\nin our mind and higher principles above the level of our waking mind is our
\nsuperconscious self. The waking ego often receives intimations, more or less
\nobscure, from either source which it fails to trace to their origin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMan progresses in proportion as he widens his consciousness
\nand renders ever wider and finer experiences available for the perception and
\ndelight of the waking consciousness and in proportion as he can ascend to higher
\nreaches of mind and beyond mind to ideality and spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe swiftest and most effective means of his advance and
\nself-fulfilment is to dissolve his waking ego into the enjoyment of an infinite
\nconsciousness, at first mental of the universal manomaya puruṣa<\/i>, but
\nafterwards ideal and spiritual of the high Vijnana and highest Sachchidananda.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe transcendence and dissolution of the waking mental ego in
\nthe body is therefore the first object of all practical Vedanta.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis transcendence and dissolution may result either in loss
\nof the waking self and relapse into some sleep-bound principle, undifferentiated
\nPrakriti, Sushupta Purusha, Shunyam Brahma (Nihil), etc., or in loss of the
\nworld self in Parabrahman or in universalisation of the waking self and the joy
\nof God’s divine being in and beyond the world, Amritam. The last is the goal
\nproposed for man by the Isha Upanishad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe waking ego, identifying the Jiva with its body, vital and
\nmental experiences which are part of the stream of Nature’s movement and subject
\nto Nature and the process of the movement, falsely believes the soul to be the
\nsubject of Nature and not its lord, anisa and not isa. This is the illusion of
\nbondage which the manomaya purusa<\/i> either accepts or seeks to destroy.<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 517<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nThose who accept it are called baddha jīvas<\/i>, soul sin
\nbondage;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nthose who seek to destroy it, mumuks<\/i><\/span>̣<\/span>u<\/span><\/i>
\njīvas<\/i>, self-liberating souls;<\/span><\/p>\n

\nthose who have destroyed it are mukta jīvas<\/i>, souls
\nfree from illusion and limitation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nIn reality, no soul is bound and therefore none seeking
\nliberation or liberated from bondage; these are all conditions of the waking
\nmind and not of the self or spirit which is īśa<\/i>, eternally lord and free.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe essence of bondage is limitation and the chief
\ncircumstances of limitation are death, suffering and ignorance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nDeath, suffering and ignorance are circumstances of the mind
\nin the vitalised body and do not touch the consciousness of the soul in Vijnana,
\nAnanda, Chit and Sat. The combination of the three lower members, mind, life and
\nbody, is called there\u00adfore aparārdha<\/i>, the lower kingdom or in Christian
\nparlance the kingdom of death and sin, the four higher members are called
\nparārdha<\/i>, the higher kingdom, or in Christian parlance, the kingdom of
\nheaven. To liberate man from death, suffering and ignorance and impose the
\nall-blissful and luminous nature of the higher kingdom upon the lower is the
\nobject of the Seer in the Isha Upanishad.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThis liberation is to be effected by dissolving the waking
\nego into the Lord’s divine being and experiencing entirely our unity with all
\nother existences and with Him who is God, Atman and Brahman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll individual existences are Jagat in Jagati, object of
\nmotion in stream of motion and obey the laws and processes of that motion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nBody is an object of motion in the stream of material
\nconsciousness, of which the principal law is birth and death. All bodies are
\nsubject therefore to formation and dissolution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLife is a current of motion in the stream of vital
\nconsciousness composed of eternal life-energy. Life is not itself subject to
\ndeath, \u2014 death not being a law of life-energy, \u2014 but only to expulsion from the
\nform which it occupies and therefore to the physical experience of death of its
\nbody.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nAll matter here is filled with life-energy of a greater or
\nless intensity of action, but the organisation of life in individual animation
\n<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 518<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>\n

\nbegins later in the process of the material world by the
\nappearance first of the plant, then of the animal. This evolution of life is
\ncaused and supported by the pressure of the gods of the Bhuvar or Life-world
\nupon Bhur.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nLife entering into body is dominated partly by the laws of
\nbody; it is therefore unable to impart its own full and uninter\u00adrupted energy to
\nits form. Consequently there is no physical immortality.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe organisation of individual animated life tends to hasten
\nthe period of dissolution by introducing shocks of an intensity of force alien
\nto matter which wastes the material form by its activity. Therefore the plant
\ndissolves while the stone and metal endure in their own equilibrium.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMind entering into the vitalised body tends still farther to
\nhasten the period of dissolution by the higher demands of its vibrations upon
\nthe body.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMind is a knot of motion in the stream of mental
\nconsciousness. Like life, it is not itself subject to death, but only to
\nex\u00adpulsion from the vitalised body it has occupied. But because the mental ego
\nidentifies itself with the body and understands by its life only this residence
\nin its present perishable gross corporeal body, therefore it has the mental
\nexperience of a bodily death.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe experience of death is therefore combined of the
\napparently mortal mind’s ignorance of its own true immortal nature and of the
\nlimitation of energy in the body by which the form we inhabit wears out under
\nthe shocks of vibrating life-energy and vibrating mentality. We mean by death
\nnot dissolution of life or of mind, but dissolution of the form or body.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nThe dissolution of body is not true death for the mental
\nbeing called man; it is only a change of media and of the sur\u00adroundings of
\nconsciousness. Matter of body changes its constituents and groupings, mental
\nbeing persists both in essence and personality and passes into other forms and
\nenvironments.<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 519<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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