23. yad vai tan na paśyati, paśyan vai tan na paśyati; na hi draṣṭur dṛṣṭer viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yat paśyet.
    
    
24. yad vai tan na jighrati, jighran vai tan na jighrati: na hi ghrᾱtur ghrᾱter viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yaj jighret.
    
    
25. yad vai tan na rasayati, rasayan vai tan na rasayati na hi rasayitῡ rasayater viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yad rasayet.
    
    
26. yad vai tan na vadati, vadan vai tan na vadati, na hi vaktur vakter viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yad vadet.
    
    
27. yad vai tan na śṛṇoti, śṛṇvan vai tan na śṛṇoti; na hi śrotuḥ śruter viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yat śṛṇuyᾱt.
    
    
28. yad vai tan na manute, manvᾱno vai tan na manute, na hi mantur mater viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato'nyad vibhaktam yan manvīta.
    
    
29. yad vai tan na spṛśati, spṛśan vai tan na spṛśati, na hi spraṣṭuḥ spṛṣṭer viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt, na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yat spṛśet.
    
    
30. yad vai tan na vijᾱnᾱti, vijᾱnan vai tan na vijᾱnᾱti, na hi vijñᾱtur vijñᾱter viparilopo vidyate, avinᾱśitvᾱt; na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato’nyad vibhaktam yad vijᾱnīyᾱt.

These passages are very beautiful. Yājñavalkya says: "While one does not see anything there, one sees everything there" - yad vai tan na paśyati, paśyan vai tan na paśyati. Seeing, one sees not. It is enigmatic no doubt, very difficult to understand how it is that seeing, one sees not. One sees all and yet sees not anything as a particularised entity. It is a single comprehension and not a perception in succession. It is not looking at things, seeing objects one after another in a linear series. It is a total, instantaneous awareness of all things. You cannot say that anything is being seen there, because anything that is to be seen has become a part of the Seer himself. Inasmuch as the Seer has absorbed into his being all that is to be seen, you may say that one sees nothing except one's own Self. Because there is no such thing as 'seeing' one's own Self, you may say that there is no seeing at all. Yet, one sees all because the Self cannot be oblivious of its own existence. It is non-seeing of anything because of the fact that everything is one with the Self that sees. It is non-seeing because there is no such thing as the Self seeing Self, because the Self is not an object of Itself. Yet it is not non-seeing because the Self is conscious of Itself, Its very nature being Consciousness. So it is a highly transcendent exposition of a supernormal experience which is eternity and infinity come together in a fraternal embrace of timelessness and spacelessness.

Na hi draṣṭur dṛṣṭer viparilopo vidyate: How can you have any desire to perceive anything there, inasmuch as what you want to perceive has become you? How can there be a necessity for the mind to move towards an object, inasmuch as it, the object, has already moved towards the very source of the mind? The mountain has come to Mohammad, as they say; Mohammad did not have to go to the mountain. The object has come to the Self. Why should the Self go to the object? And, inasmuch as there has never been any real difference between the Self and its object, the two have come together as two lost brothers uniting themselves, as it were, in an intense feeling of joy. Much more than that, indeed, is the union of being. In that condition there is an eternal awareness of unity, and so there is no question of a transitory movement of the mind from the individual self's location to the location of an object outside for the purpose of a sensory contact. Such a thing does not exist there, and so there is no sensory perception. It is Universal Awareness.

The perceptional process through the senses is not permanent because it is a transition and a movement, something like a chain made up of different links, a momentary activity of the mind with discrete jumps like the movement of a reel of film in a cinema, one picture being different from the other, looking like a series, yet one different from the other. So there is a temporary appearance of a continuity of perception of our awareness of objects outside, yet it is not a continuity, really. It is made up of little bits of movements of the mind, looking like a continuity on account of the animation of consciousness from inside. The continuity of the picture in a cinema is due to the presence of a screen behind it. If the screen were not to be there, you would not be able to see the picture. The screen behind, here, in this perceptional activity, is the consciousness which is universal. But if that consciousness is withdrawn, there would be a sudden dropping down of all these transitory processes of mental activity. Avināśitvāt: Here there is eternal knowledge and not merely a temporary activity of the mind in the form of perception of objects.

Na tu tad dvitīyam asti, tato'nyad vibhaktam yat paśyet: Why should there be a movement of the mind towards an object? Where is the need for it when the object has entered the heart of the seer and become the being of the seer? The being of the object has become the being of the Self which sees and which has to see. Inasmuch as there is a total transcendence of duality, a complete abolition of the distinction between one and the other, the desire to perceive ceases. And so, there is a 'non-seeing' of anything, and yet a seeing eternally of everything.

So is the case with every other sensation, a description of which is given in the succeeding passages of the Upaniṣhad, viz., smelling, tasting, speaking, hearing, touching, thinking, understanding. Inasmuch as there is such an eternity of experience coming to consciousness in the state of freedom, there is no perception of 'outside' objects. Likewise, there is no smelling, there is no tasting, no speaking, no hearing, no thinking, no touching and no understanding of anything outside, because the content of understanding has become one with the process of understanding, and the process of understanding has become one with the source of understanding. There is a reversal, Pratipathva, of the whole activity of knowledge. Instead of the self projecting itself through a moving process towards an object of knowledge, the object traces back its steps to the Self itself, so that the object has become the Self, in which condition you do not know whether it is the object that knows or the subject that knows. Such is the glory of ultimate freedom, the supreme liberation of the spirit.

31. yatra vᾱnyad iva syᾱt, tatrᾱnyo’nyat paśyet, anyo’nyaj jighret, anyo’nyad rasayet, anyo’nyad vadet, anyo’nyat śṛṇuyᾱt, anyo’nyan manvīta, anyo’nyat spṛśet, anyo’nyad vijᾱnīyᾱt.

Yājñavalkya speaks to King Janaka: "My dear friend; if there is something outside you, you can see that; if there is something outside you, you can taste that; if there is something outside you, you can hear, that; if there is something outside you, you can speak to that."

32. salila eko draṣṭᾱdvaito bhavati, eṣa brahma-lokaḥ, samrᾱḍ iti. hainam anuśaśᾱsa yᾱjñavalkyaḥ; eṣᾱsya paramᾱ gatiḥ, eṣᾱsya paramᾱ sampat, eṣo'sya paramo lokaḥ, eṣo'sya parama ᾱnandaḥ; estasyaivᾱnandasyᾱnyᾱni bhῡtᾱni mᾱtrᾱm upajīvanti.

But where there is only an ocean of experience in which all the bubbles of objects have immersed themselves in their unity with the body of the ocean - salila eko draṣṭᾱ, where it is like a vast expanse of consciousness merely, single in its nature, Seer alone without a duality, where only the Experiencer exists without an object that is experienced, there what would one speak about and to what one would speak and what is there to be seen, what is there to be touched, what is there to be sensed? Yājñavalkya thus teaches King Janaka: "Please listen to me. You have reached the state of the Absolute." If your mind can be fixed in this Awareness, you are liberated today at this very moment. If you can station your consciousness in this feeling of unity with things, if you can fix yourself in this identity and free yourself from the trammels of desire for external objects, you are in Brahma-loka just now. Brahma-loka is not the distant world of Brahma. It is the world which itself is Brahman, the Absolute - eṣa brahma-lokaḥ. The two, the world and Brahman, become one. The universe itself is the Absolute, and vice versa. Salila eko draṣṭᾱdvaito bhavati, eṣa brahma - lokaḥ, samrᾱḍ iti. hainam anuśaśᾱsa yᾱjñavalkyaḥ: "Your Highness, this is the ultimate teaching for you. What else do you want to learn? Eṣᾱsya paramᾱ gatiḥ: This is the goal of everyone. Eṣᾱsya paramᾱ sampat: This is the highest blessing to everyone. Eṣo'sya paramo lokaḥ: This is the highest abode which anyone would like to reach. Eṣo'sya parama ᾱnandaḥ: This is the highest bliss that you can expect anywhere. Estasyaivᾱnandasyᾱnyᾱni bhῡtᾱni mᾱtrᾱm upajīvanti: All the joys of the entire cosmos put together would be only a small drop of the bliss of this Supreme Being." Whatever little satisfaction we have, whatever pleasures we have, whatever joys we are experiencing, whatever be the happiness of life - all this is but a little reflection, a fractional, distorted form, a drop, as it were, from this ocean of the Absolute.

The Supreme Being is the pinnacle of happiness. The Absolute is the climax of all joys. Nothing can be compared to that state of perfection. The glories of the world pale before Its presence. The powers that we can conceive of in our minds, even the highest forms of strength and authority, they all fall short of this ideal of the perfection of the Absolute. The various inadequate forms of perceptions, the forms of completeness and perfection that we aspire for in this world are minute reflections, fractions as it were, of the great perfection of the Absolute. Whatever happiness can be there in this world, even the highest conceivable happiness, is said to be only a jot of this ocean of bliss which is Brahman, the Absolute. This is the greatest glory, the greatest magnificence. This is the highest abode that we are aspiring for in our lives. This is the greatest achievement we can ever imagine in our minds. This is the perfection of all the worlds. This is the supreme, foremost bliss. All the happiness of the world is a reflection of it, a fraction of it, a tiny part of it, a jot of it, a distorted shape which it has taken by reflection through the medium of individual minds and bodies.

The extent of the joy that we can experience in this world depends upon the instrument through which the Supreme Bliss is manifest, like the electric current which manifests itself weakly or strongly, depending on the conductivity of the medium. The brilliance of the electric bulb depends upon the extent of the wattage rating, as they call it - a hundred watts or five hundred watts or one thousand watts, whatever it is. The wattage of the bulb construction will tell you the extent of the brilliance it will give by the absorption of the current which passes through it. Likewise, we may say, in some sort of a comparison, the bliss of the Absolute cannot fully be experienced in this life because of inadequate, imperfect and transient instruments which we are utilising for manifesting it or expressing it. The bodies in which we are encaged, the minds through which we are experiencing happiness in life, are all limited in their structure. How can an infinite content pass through a limited vehicle? You cannot carry the whole ocean in a tumbler or a glass or a katorie (bowl). The little tumbler can carry only a little water. Though the ocean is so big, if you dip this bucket or tumbler in the vast ocean of the Pacific or the Atlantic itself, you cannot lift much water. What is the capacity of the tumbler? The capacity is so little. What is the use of dipping it in the ocean? It is of no purpose. Likewise, how can the mind which is finite, which is located within the body, which can think only in terms of specific objects, and whose structure therefore is restricted to the operations of its own aspiration, desires, etc. in terms of the body and its relationships - how can such a finite mind aspire to hold within it the infinite content of Absolute Bliss? It is impossible for us to imagine what Absolute Bliss is. We are asking for better and better things and larger and larger things and more and more of things, not knowing what this more means. We can never reach the end of it because the end is infinitude. It is only a word for us which carries no sense because the infinite cannot be imagined by the mind. The mind which is finite can think of only that which can be contained within it, and so even its imagination stretched beyond conceivable limits, cannot conceive the extent of the Absolute and the intensity of its bliss and power.

But the Upaniṣhad, for the purpose of giving us an idea of the magnitude of the Bliss, gives a staggering description of what this Absolute is, what that happiness is, what that perfection is, what the depth of that bliss is in comparison with the greatest perfection we can think of in this world. To give us a faint idea, as it were, of the perfection of the Absolute, it goes on explaining, in a beautiful way, the gradations of bliss. There are degrees and degrees of happiness. Are you not more happy than an ant? Perhaps you are in a position to imagine that your capacity of comprehension is greater, your capacity to appreciate is deeper, and your understanding is more intense than those of the lower species of animals. A cow, a bull, a horse - they are also happy. But an intelligent human being is supposed to be capable of enjoying better the things of the world compared to the animals, beasts, the flies, and the mosquitoes, because of a comprehensiveness of understanding, a better capacity to grasp, etc. Perfection is equivalent to consciousness itself. The deeper and more expansive is the consciousness, the greater is the perfection. It is not a question of physical possession or the magnitude of the physical body. It does not mean that an elephant is happier than a human being because its body is larger and it is physically stronger. Its happiness cannot be equal to that which is experienced by an intelligent human being who has the capacity to grasp the mysteries of things and the intricacies of human experience.

The degrees of happiness, therefore, depend upon the degrees of the subtlety of the manifestation of being. The subtler you are in your capacity of comprehension, the more expansive is your being, the greater is your capacity to include within your being the beings of others. Happiness also increases correspondingly. Happiness is identical with Being, ultimately. It is a form of existence itself. So, the measure of the expanse of your being will determine the measure of the happiness that you experience. Your being is now limited to the body. You cannot include within your physical being the beings of other people, other existences. Hence, you exclude from your experience the experiences of others. To that extent, your experience is limited, and to the same extent, your happiness also is limited. But if your being expands, comprehends within itself other beings and becomes subtler in its capacity, it becomes more powerful, greater in knowledge and intenser in the experience of happiness. Gradations of happiness are explained in this passage here in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad. (A similar description also occurs in the Taittirīya Upaniṣhad, with a slight modification.)