{"id":658,"date":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=658"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:29:31","slug":"24-readings-in-the-taittiriya-upanishad-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\/24-readings-in-the-taittiriya-upanishad-vol-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","title":{"rendered":"-24_Readings In The Taittiriya Upanishad.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\nReadings
\nIn The Taittiriya Upanishad<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nThe Knowledge of Brahman<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The knower of
\nBrahman reacheth that which is supreme.<\/p>\n

This is that
\nverse which was spoken; \u201cTruth, Knowledge, Infinity the Brahman,<\/p>\n

He who knoweth
\nthat hidden in the secrecy in the supreme ether,<\/p>\n

Enjoyeth all
\ndesires along with the wise-thinking Brahman.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This is the
\nburden of the opening sentences of the Taittiriya Upanishad’s second section;
\nthey begin its elucidation of the highest truth. Or in the Sanskrit,<\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

brahmavid
\nāpnoti param\u2014<\/i><\/p>\n

tad eṣā<\/span>bhyuktā
\n\u2014 satyam j\u00f1ānam anantam brahma \u2014<\/i><\/p>\n

yo veda
\nnihitam guhāyām \u2014 parame vyoman \u2014<\/i><\/p>\n

so’ śnute
\nsarvān kāmān \u2014 saha brahmaṇā<\/span> vipaściteti.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But what is
\nBrahman?<\/p>\n

Whatever
\nreality is in existence, by which all the rest subsists, that is Brahman. An
\nEternal behind all instabilities, a Truth of things which is implied, if it is
\nhidden in all appearances, a Constant which supports all mutations, but is not
\nincreased, diminished, abrogated,\u2014there is such an unknown X<\/i> which makes
\nexistence a problem, our own self a mystery, the universe a riddle. If we were
\nonly what we seem to be to our normal self-awareness, there would be no mystery;
\nif the world were only what it can be made out to be by the perceptions of the
\nsenses and their strict analysis in the reason, there would be no riddle; and if
\nto take our life as it is now and the world as it has so far developed to our
\nexperience were the whole possibility of our knowing and <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 347<\/span><\/p>\n

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

doing, there would be no problem.
\nOr at best there would be but a shallow mystery, an easily solved riddle, the
\nproblem only of a child’s puzzle. But there is more, and that more is the hidden
\nhead of the Infinite and the secret heart of the Eternal. It is the highest and
\nthis highest is the all; there is none beyond and there is none other than it.
\nTo know it is to know the highest and by knowing the highest to know all. For as
\nit is the beginning and source of all things, so everything else is its
\nconsequence; as it is the support and constituent of all things, so the secret
\nof everything else is explained by its secret; as it is the sum and end of all
\nthings, so everything else amounts to it and by throwing itself into it achieves
\nthe sense of its own existence. <\/p>\n

This is the
\nBrahman.<\/p>\n

If this unknown
\nbe solely an indecipherable, only indefinable X<\/i>, always unknown and
\nunknowable, the hidden never revealed, the secret never opened to us, then our
\nmystery would for ever remain a mystery, our riddle insoluble, our problem
\nintangible. Its existence, even while it determines all we are, know and do,
\ncould yet make no practical difference to us; for our relation to it would then
\nbe a blind and helpless dependence, a relation binding us to ignorance and
\nmaintainable only by that ignorance. Or again, if it be in some way knowable,
\nbut the sole result of knowledge were an extinction or cessation of our being,
\nthen within our being it could have no consequences; the very act and
\nfructuation of knowledge would bring the annihilation of all that we now are,
\nnot its completion or fulfilment. The mystery, riddle, problem would not be so
\nmuch solved as abolished, for it would lose all its data. In effect we should
\nhave to suppose that there is an eternal and irreconcilable opposition between
\nBrahman and what we now are, between the supreme cause and all its effects or
\nbetween the supreme source and all its derivations. And it would then seem that
\nall that the Eternal originates, all he supports, all he takes back to himself
\nis a denial or contradiction of his being which, though in itself a negative of
\nthat which alone is, has yet in some way become a positive. The two could not
\ncoexist in consciousness; if he allowed the world to know him, it would
\ndisappear from being. <\/p>\n

But the Eternal
\nis knowable, He defines himself so that we <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 348<\/span><\/p>\n

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

may seize him, and man can become,
\neven while he exists as man and in this world and in this body, a knower of the
\nBrahman.<\/p>\n

The knowledge
\nof the Brahman is not a thing luminous but otiose, informing to the intellectual
\nview of things but without consequence to the soul of the individual or his
\nliving; it is a knowledge that is a power and a divine compulsion to change; by
\nit his existence gains something that now he does not possess in consciousness.
\nWhat is this gain? it is this that he is conscious now of a lower state only of
\nhis being, but by knowledge he gains his highest being. <\/p>\n

The highest
\nstate of our being is not a denial, contradiction and annihilation of all that
\nwe now are; it is a supreme accomplishment of all things that our present
\nexistence means and aims at, but in their highest sense and in the eternal
\nvalues.<\/p>\n

To live in our
\npresent state of self-consciousness is to live and to act in ignorance. We are
\nignorant of ourselves, because we know as yet only that in us which changes
\nalways, from moment to moment, from hour to hour, from period to period, from
\nlife to life, and not that in us which is eternal. We are ignorant of the world
\nbecause we do not know God; we are aware of the law of appearances, but not of
\nthe law and truth of being.<\/p>\n

Our highest
\nwisdom, our minutest most accurate science, our most effective application of
\nknowledge can be at most a thinning of the veil of ignorance, but not a going
\nbeyond it, so long as we do not get at the fundamental knowledge and the
\nconsciousness to which that is native. The rest are effective for their own
\ntemporal purposes, but prove ineffective in the end, because they do not bring
\nto the highest good; they lead to no permanent solution of the problem of
\nexistence.<\/p>\n

The ignorance
\nin which we live is not a baseless and wholesale falsehood, but at its lowest
\nthe misrepresentation of a Truth, at its highest an imperfect representation and
\ntranslation into inferior and to that extent misleading values. It is a
\nknowledge of the superficial only and therefore a missing of the secret
\nessential which is the key to all that the superficial is striving for; a
\nknowledge of the finite and apparent, but a missing of all that the apparent
\nsymbolises and the finite suggests; a knowledge <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 349<\/span><\/p>\n

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

of inferior forms,
\nbut a missing of all that our inferior life and being has above it and to which
\nit must aspire if it is to fulfil its greatest possibilities. The true knowledge
\nis that of the highest, the inmost, the infinite. The knower of the Brahman sees
\nall these lower things in the light of the Highest, the external and superficial
\nas a translation of the internal and essential, the finite from the view of the
\nInfinite. He begins to see and know existence no longer as the thinking animal,
\nbut as the Eternal sees and knows it. Therefore he is glad and rich in being,
\nluminous in joy, satisfied of existence.<\/p>\n

Knowledge does
\nnot end with knowing, nor is it pursued and found for the sake of knowing alone.
\nIt has its full value only when it leads to some greater gain than itself, some
\ngain of being. Simply to know the eternal and to remain in the pain, struggle
\nand inferiority of our present way of being, would be a poor and lame advantage.\n<\/p>\n

A greater
\nknowledge opens the possibility and, if really possessed, brings the actuality
\nof a greater being. To be is the first verb which contains all the others;
\nknowledge, action, creation, enjoyment are only a fulfilment of being. Since we
\nare incomplete in being, to grow is our aim, and that knowledge, action,
\ncreation, enjoyment are the best which most help us to expand, grow, feel our
\nexistence.<\/p>\n

Mere existence
\nis not fullness of being. Being knows itself as power, consciousness, delight; a
\ngreater being means a greater power, consciousness and delight. <\/p>\n

If by greater
\nbeing we incurred only a greater pain and suffering, this good would not be
\nworth having. Those who say that it is, mean simply that we get by it a greater
\nsense of fulfilment which brings of itself a greater joy of the power of
\nexistence, and an extension of suffering or a loss of other enjoyment is worth
\nhaving as a price for this greater sense of wideness, height and power. But this
\ncould not be the perfection of being or the highest height of its fulfilment;
\nsuffering is the seal of a lower status. The highest consciousness is integrally
\nfulfilled in wideness and power of its existence, but also it is integrally
\nfulfilled in delight.<\/p>\n

The knower of
\nBrahman has not only the joy of light, but<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 350<\/span><\/p>\n

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

gains something immense as the
\nresult of his knowledge, brahmavid apnoti.<\/i><\/p>\n

What he gains
\nis that highest, that which is supreme; he gains the highest being, the highest
\nconsciousness, the highest wideness and power of being, the highest delight;
\nbrahmavid āpnoti param.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Supreme is
\nnot something aloof and shut up in itself. It is not a mere indefinable,
\nprisoner of its own featureless absoluteness, impotent to define, create, know
\nitself variously, eternally buried in a sleep or a swoon of self-absorption. The
\nHighest is the Infinite and the Infinite contains the All. Whoever attains the
\nhighest consciousness, becomes infinite in being and embraces the All.<\/p>\n

To make this
\nclear the Upanishad has defined the Brahman as the Truth, Knowledge, Infinity
\nand has defined the result of the knowledge of Him in the secrecy, in the cave
\nof being, in the supreme ether as the enjoyment of all its desires by the soul
\nof the individual in the attainment of its highest self-existence. <\/p>\n

Our highest
\nstate of being is indeed a becoming one with Brahman in his eternity and
\ninfinity, but it is also an association with him in delight of self-fulfilment,
\naśnute saha brahmaṇā<\/span><\/i>. And that principle of the
\nEternal by which this association is possible, is the principle of his
\nknowledge, his self-discernment and all-discernment, the wisdom by which he
\nknows himself perfectly in all the world and all beings, brahmaṇā vipaścitā.<\/i><\/p>\n

Delight of
\nbeing is the continent of all the fulfilled values of existence which we now
\nseek after in the forms of desire. To know its conditions and possess it purely
\nand perfectly is the infinite privilege of the eternal Wisdom.<\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 351<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readings In The Taittiriya Upanishad   The Knowledge of Brahman   The knower of Brahman reacheth that which is supreme. This is that verse which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12-the-upanishad-volume-12","wpcat-14-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658","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=658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}