The end becomes the means. The causeless cause becomes everything. This transformation is supernormal; impossible to understand. It is not an achievement of the future, like the achievements of the world. Motion is possible until the purusha is touched. Then, the process becomes processless. This transformation is final. It is a spiritual transformation, and not a physical or mental one, a change which the preceding effects cannot know. The effect cannot know the cause until it reaches it, and when it reaches its cause, it is no longer there. Thus, there is no such thing as knowing God. You do not know God when you are away from Him and until you reach Him, and when you reach Him, you are not there.

The senses feel far away from physical objects, on account of which they feel drawn towards them. The panchagni acts as incentive for the senses to move. The five elements as well as the five essences behind them act reciprocally and produce a sense of mutual attraction. The tanmatras pervade not only the objects, but are behind the senses also. And something happens when they unite, like a friend meeting a friend after years. It is not union of two objects, but something more, like the mother’s embrace of her child. More than a mere meeting of two objects, there is a feeling which is of greater significance: a consciousness swallowing up the consciousness of particulars, and the two become one; not in the physical sense of the term; a union not even psychological merely, but more fundamental.

The essence behind sense-perception is not properly understood, and so we are caught up in moha; we are in a helpless condition. This condition of helplessness is samsara. It is a pitiable state of affairs when there is a mutual reaction between subject and object caused by a force of which no one knows. Is there no hope out of this situation? The Upanishad says that there is. It lies in a higher integration of our feeling, thinking and understanding. We should not be limited to the objects and senses, that is, we should not be reduced to the level of objects. We are friendly to them because we have reduced ourselves to their status.

The tanmatras are the deeper essence behind objects—including our body, which is also an object. They are not electric energy, but finer than the molecules, protons and electrons of the scientists. While electric energy is wholly inert, without intelligence to direct itself, the tanmatras are midway between the cosmic prana and the world, being the vital forces regulating the physical objects and thus superior to and higher than these and the senses. There are three gunas of prakriti; and the sattvic element of these constitutes the tanmatras, the rajasic element constitutes the prana, and the tamasic one the physical world. Hence, beyond the physical world, there are the tanmatras; and beyond them, there is the mind constituted of their subtle, sattvic principles like: sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa and gandha.

Still superior in function to the mind is the intellect. While the mind functions indeterminately, there is decision and clarified understanding in buddhi; it makes decisions in all matters. The senses give distorted reports, the mind collects them and the intellect passes judgment. Here, we have reached the end of the human world. The highest faculty in man is the intellect. So man is said to be a rational being. But, says the Upanishad, there is something superior to the intellect. He has to rise beyond himself by a process of self-transcendence which is described in these two mantras. What is beyond the intellect? We cannot know, because knowing ceases there. The Upanishads are intuitional declarations and go further than mere knowing. Internal and transcending, but unknown to it, are the wider cosmic powers.

When we exceed the intellect, we go beyond the physical. The jiva goes to the virat when his intelligence rises to an understanding of what is beyond it. There, human consciousness reaches a state of existence feebly felt in ecstatic moments. The Upanishad now goes to the universal Reality in its lower manifestations. Virat is superior to the jiva who is part of It, just as limbs are parts of the body. Virat, hiranyagarbha and ishvara are the threefold manifestations on the cosmic level—corresponding to the threefold manifestations of the individual: the waking, the dream and the deep sleep states. While we are aware of the body in waking, of the psychological condition in dream and the causal one in deep sleep, there is a lot of difference in regard to the character and function between these individual and universal states; the virat is not just like waking, and so on. Higher than the virat is the Cosmic Mind or Intellect or Ego which makes up the hiranyagarbha in Vedantic terminology, or Brahma, the Creator, in the Puranas.

What is beyond virat and hiranyagarbha? There is a twofold answer to this: from the point of view of the experiencing consciousness, and from the point of view of the state itself. Seen from the latter, it is avyakta, mulaprakriti or mahamaya; the precondition of everything. But seen from the former, the experiencing consciousness, which is ishvara, we may ask: ‘What is in deep sleep?’ The answer to this question is the answer to His character. From one point of view, there is nothing in deep sleep, and from another, there is pure consciousness. Since no phenomena take place, there is nothing; but yet there is awareness. Likewise, the awareness of existence of prakriti is the universal ishvara.

He is the cosmic Witness of all things, and there must be something even beyond Him because, even here, is duality. Transcending Him is the purusha. The purusha is not a male, It is Being. That which is cosmically existent always is the purusha. It is another name for the Absolute. Beyond the mahat is avyakta; beyond avyakta is the purusha. What is beyond the purusha? Beyond It, there is nothing. Once you reach It, you have reached the end. This is the limit of experience, and the goal of all life; not merely of life, but also of non-life. There is no such thing as dead matter. There is only difference in the degrees of life; and everything tends to This.

This description of the gradation of evolution is given in the context of self-control. Unless we take the help of the higher power, this is not possible. We try to control the senses by will-power, which is wedded to them. If it were wholly independent of them, it would work, but because reasoning is based on the report of the senses, self-control demands the use of the superior power. The intention behind the gradation stated in the mantras here is to show that we control the senses by the mind, the mind by the intellect, the intellect by the cosmic virat, the virat by the Cosmic Mind , the Cosmic Mind  by the Cosmic Intellect or ishvara, and finally by the purusha.

Self-control reaches its paragati, or culmination, in atmasakshatkara, or God-realisation. It is therefore not merely a closing of the senses; it is the practical side of yoga. The whole description is one of dhyana, or meditation. The best way of self-control is to think of God-realisation. A mere thought of Him is enough to exert and exercise a control on the mind. When you are overpowered by a thought of God, the senses cannot function. When you are in a holy shrine, in the presence of holy men, in an intense feeling of God, self-control automatically comes, without effort. But yoga is conscious withdrawal. A deliberate attempt is called upon by the jiva, and for this, a meditative process is prescribed. All yoga is meditation, finally, whatever be the technique adopted.

That the senses perceive the world, is the present fact, but you are not seeing what is behind the object, says the Upanishad. So let the senses begin to visualise what is behind the forms, internal to the objects and our own bodies. The tanmatras operate behind both; let the consciousness be fixed on the tanmatras. Meditate on the fact that the objects are not all. There is prana-shakti behind them and our body, without which these cannot be active; let the consciousness be fixed on this. It is not that the prana-shakti is all, there is the Cosmic Mind  behind it; let the consciousness be fixed on That. Higher than this Cosmic Mind  is the Cosmic Intellect; let the consciousness be fixed on This. Consciousness should extend itself beyond: just as I am, others also are, and just as there is consciousness within me, there is consciousness behind others. There are not many consciousnesses: there is a totality of consciousness behind everything. This Consciousness is the base; let the consciousness be fixed on it. There is, beyond all this, a potentiality for all creation, ishvara-Consciousness; let the consciousness be fixed on It. This is one kind of meditation.

What are objects? They are known by a consciousness; it envelops them. Because the objects are known by consciousness, it is also ultimately inherent in them. Finally, there is only a flood of consciousness which fills all. This is satchidananda. This ananda is sufficient to exert control over our senses.

The Taittirya Upanishad given the gradation of happiness. Human happiness in a higher degree than we experience – the happiness of an emperor of the whole world, youthful, capable of enjoying everything without disease, without any limitations – is the lowest unit.

Higher than this is that of the gandharvas. Higher than this is that of the pitris, higher than this is that of the devas; higher than this is Indra’s; higher than Indra’s is Brihaspati’s; higher than Brihaspati’s is Prajapati’s; higher than Prajapati’s is Brahma’s. You can meditate on this, too. There is such a reservoir of bliss. Why go to the tinsels of objects?

God is Supreme Existence, is one aspect of meditation described in these mantras. God is Supreme Knowledge, is another aspect of meditation. God is Supreme Bliss, is another one. So you can meditate on these three aspects: God as Supreme Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. This is the internal implication.

The Method of Yoga

eṣa sarveṣu bhῡteṣu gῡdho’tmᾱ na prakᾱśate,
dṛśyate tvagryayᾱ buddhyᾱ sῡkṣmayᾱ sῡkṣma-darśibhiḥ. (12)

“This atman is not visible, though hidden in all beings.”

With all the efforts of the mind and senses, the atman does not reveal Himself to them because He is hidden in all things and therefore does not manifest Himself. In the earlier mantras we have been given to understand that there is a gradation of density in the manifestation of the atman from senses to mind, mind to intellect, and intellect to the universal denominator of all things. In all these the atman is hidden, in every stage of being, in every object visible and conceivable. He is hidden in a peculiar way, not like a treasure hidden in the earth which can be dug out and taken. The secret lodgment of the atman is incapable of perception due to a mysterious difficulty of ours, and it is such that we do not have time to think of it, we are so one with it that we cannot see it. We are involved in it so deeply that we are unable to detach ourselves from it and stand apart from it as a witness of the world-process.

The atman is hidden in the senses; He is hidden in the mind; He is hidden in the intellect; and it is enough if we speak of these, though the atman is hidden in the beyond, too. So we cannot open our eyes and see Him, and also we cannot close our eyes and see Him, because while we open our eyes, we see the objects and not the atman, and when the eyes are closed, we see the mental process, and not the atman. Thus, when we do the former, we are in the world of objects, and when we do the latter, we are in the psychological world. For the atman, the psychological world is as tangible as the physical. If the senses regard the object as external to them—to the atman, the mind is external. Who is then to behold the atman? He is hidden behind even the subject who wants to behold. The solution to this problem does not lie in anything known to us. We ourselves are an object to the atman, and so we cannot see Him. Such is the mysterious difficulty of atmasakshatkara.

The word ‘atman’ has been merged into the word ‘gudhah’—this is in Vedic style. The secretly hidden atman is not visible. No one can say he sees the atman, because he who sees is still outside Him. What is the process, then? This atman is beheld mysteriously by the saints and sages.

“He is known by the subtle, sharp intellect of those subtle seers who are capable through their purified intelligence.” The intelligence, or buddhi, is not logical intellect, or the calculative one of the ordinary individual, but verily the atman Himself. He is intelligence, rather than the intellect; the flame hidden in the fire rather than the fire. He is Self-illumination. The atman as the subtlest principle reveals Himself as the Supreme Subject; never as an object. He has to be revealed within, and not imported from outside. The subtlety of the perceiving faculty should reach such an extent that even the subject should cease. In this extreme subtlety of being, we become less and less subjective and are also not objective, and thus become That which Is, or ‘That-ness’. It is called ‘tathata’ in the Buddhist language. It is not subjectivity, not objectivity, but something more. It is not seeing the atman, but you become the atman; you are He. As said in an earlier mantra: it is the atman beholding the atman, not the intellect, mind or senses.

A small effort will not bring the atman. It requires the total sacrifice of your personality, not merely of family, home, etc. This is the treading: of the subtle inner path. The following mantras can be regarded as explanatory notes of mantras ten and eleven.

yacched vᾱṅ manasī prᾱjñas tad yacchej jñᾱna-ᾱtmani,
jñᾱnam ᾱtmani mahati niyacchet, tad yacchec chᾱntav-ᾱtmani. (13)

Vak is speech, representing all senses. The speech has to be offered in the mind. ‘Manasi’ is Vedic style. “The intelligent seeker, the person of knowledge, should offer up the senses into the mind.” This process is called pratyahara in Patanjali’s Yoga System. It is that condition in which the senses stand together with the mind in such a way that they are indistinguishable from it. They lose their lustre in the radiance of the mind. The sun’s light falls on a vessel; the former is different from the latter. Even so, when you see an object, the sense-powers get so much attuned that they may be said to be one with it. You become one with the object. They are not conscious. They are given an internal light and act as an instrument in communicating it. The mind is the source which gives adequate power to the senses for them to behold objects. The senses get attuned to their form. They are not in physical contact. It is psychological energy that pervades the object, called vritti-vyapti.

The mind takes the form of the object, and for the time being you are psychologically identified with the object. You become the object. This is an undesirable state of affairs, because you have become what you are not. The atman has become the anatman through a vritti. This is sensory perception and attachment. We become not merely conscious of objects, but also attached to them in an emotional manner. So the senses have to be withdrawn into the mind. These senses are not the psychological organ. It is a mental force which channelises itself through the senses and covers the object. The mind, again, is inert, which is revealed in deep sleep. Just as the mirror is not capable of reflection without another light, so is the mind merely a conglomeration of prakriti. Only the purusha is intelligent.

So neither the mind nor the senses are wholly responsible for perception.

The enjoyer is a peculiar combination of the light of the atman the mind and the senses, as explained in verse four of this section. The sunlight passes through a doorway, and inside the room is a mirror on which the light falls. The mirror receives and reflects the light, illumining the dark corner of the room. Even so, the atman does not directly illumine the objects. The mind receives the atman-light and reflects It on them. The technique of pratyahara starts with recognising the difference between the objects—the light reflected and the original light. The sunlight is different from the mirror light and the wall; there is only a shine seen on the wall. The light has to be withdrawn from the wall, which is to say that the senses have to be withdrawn from the objects. This cannot be done unless the mind is moved. But the mind cannot be taken away since it is not an object like a mirror, and sense-withdrawal is different from any kind of laboratory investigation. It is an internal isolation to be done.

Truly speaking, meditation starts with pratyahara; no asana or pranayama is necessary. The Upanishad goes straight to the psychological stage, teaching that by an act of concentration attended with intelligence, the objects are being isolated from object-knowledge, just as the light shining on the wall is different from it. Not to know this is samsara. For the atman to become anatman is samsara. The affirmation, therefore, should be: “I am not the object. I cannot be the object.” The mind which sees it is different from it. The senses are the five rays of the mental light, like a candle in a pot with five holes through which the rays jet out. This radiance coming out through the five holes is sensory perception, which is really mental perception. We are different from the objects illumined by the mental rays, but the rays are not different from the light, and neither are the senses from the mind.