Failure to Comprehend the Essential Unity of Being is the Cause of Rebirth

yad eveha tad amutra yad amutra tad anviha,
mṛtyos sa mṛtyum ᾱpnoti ya iha nᾱneva paśyati. (10)

“To this Universal Being there is no near and far. What is there is here, and what is here is there. Who perceives manyfoldness, goes from death to death.” If you go to the Pacific Ocean, you find water everywhere—above, below, after a hundred miles. In the Universal, everything is everywhere.

What you can see after travelling millions and millions of miles, you can see right here, and what you can see after many births, you can see now. If anyone makes any distinction in this infinite Reality, he will enter into death because of the false notion he created. Birth and death cannot be obviated as long as there is attraction and repulsion, and they cannot be avoided as long as many things are perceived. So do not be under the misconception that there are many things here. All these forms are the forms of the One thing only.

This mantra describes another aspect of the Glory of the Supreme Being. In the Supreme Absolute, there are no distinctions of any kind, as you observe among the things of the world. It is a mysterious sameness. Whatever reference we make in this world, all is defined in terms of objects that are extended in space and attributed to one another. We have differences as well as uniformities in the world, but neither of these obtains in God. The differences are of three kinds: between two dissimilar objects, vijatiya-bheda, as between man and animal; between one man and another man, between one tree and another tree, sajatiya-bheda; internal distinction, such as between one eye and another, one limb and another in the same man, svagata-bheda. All these are differences of some kind or another. Yet there is a uniformity in the whole body of ours on account of which we are one person and have an equal attitude towards all the limbs of our body. But the presence of God is of a different type altogether, and ishvaratva is defined as sarvatmatva, sarvadesikatva—Omnipresence attended with Universal Selfhood is God’s Universality of Presence. What is relevant to God cannot be said because no one has seen Him.

In the Gita, God’s uniformity is mentioned: ‘sarvatah panipadam tat sarvato kshishiromukham...’ In the Rig Veda, it is said: ‘sahasrasirsha purushah, sahasrakshah sahasrapat...’ descriptions of God’s uniformity in terms of human language. He has eyes everywhere, and also ears, legs, etc., everywhere. It is a quantitative contradiction which is not acceptable in logic. But God’s eyes are everywhere, and there He has ears, too, meaning to say that in one spot in space He has eyes, ears and so on. A most strange thing! If eyes are everywhere, ears cannot be there! How can they all be present in one place? An impossibility for us! But such is His existence, at the same time pointing out that He has no eyes, etc., because He does not need them. He has no physical eyes. All our arms spread everywhere will not equal God’s spreading His arms. He is not a quantitative collection of all our arms. And His perception is different from ours. If all persons look at an object, it will not be an intuition, but God’s perception is intuition.

This is the difference between God’s omniscience and the sensations of an individual. Human sensation is debarred from an entry into the object of perception: our ears cannot enter the sound they hear, nor can our eyes enter the objects seen. Human perception is therefore not anubhava in the spiritual sense. We cannot see without the help of lightrays, but God can see. Similarly, He can move without legs. While the Gita says He has eyes everywhere, the Upanishad says He has no eyes and yet He sees everything. A single point in space, as subtle as an atom, becomes resplendent with the intelligence which is God’s Substance. That resplendence of God’s presence is simultaneous knowledge of all matter.

We have to open our eyes to see, and need ears to hear and a nose to smell to get the diverse knowledge of the sense objects. Our knowledge is a joint action of the five senses, and if we had more than five, it would be possible to know more facets of the same object. But ishvara-jnana is anubhava. It is satta of the objects. Therefore, He is called satchidananda: the very existence of the object is His existence. He is everywhere in the same intensity—not that God is here and not there, is now and not then. He is the same in all relations. Our relationships are different from person to person, but His is equal and the same to all. But this uniformity is not the same as that of water in the ocean which we get tired of seeing because it is a dead and monotonous sameness. This uniformity is a gorgeous variety, a tremendous richness which anyone can conceive of in any way. Such is the majestic uniformity and abundance which make the supreme existence of God.

But in this omnipresence, in this equality, in this indivisibility, our senses create a difference which leads to death. To them, something is here and something not, and due to this there is sensory activity for possession and enjoyment. Inasmuch as difference is created where it is not, because it is a false creation, the soul is bound and suffers because Truth alone triumphs, and not falsehood. So, in the Supreme Reality which is everywhere, if one is to make a false distinction, he cannot avoid death.

manasaivedam ᾱptavyaṁ neha nᾱnᾱsti kiñca
na,mṛtyoṣ sa mṛtyuṁ gacchati ya iha nᾱneva paśyati. (11)

In the Gita we are told: ‘sukhamatyantikam yattad budhhirgrahyam atindriyam ....’ A similar thing is said here: “This majesty of God cannot be seen by the senses, but can be grasped by the higher, purified mind.”

Reflection brought about by the sattva guna alone can reveal knowledge. While tamas prevents knowledge completely, rajas distracts. Tamas may be compared to a glass painted with coal tar, thus not allowing light to pass, as it happens to us in deep sleep. But rajas is like a broken or corrugated glass. It allows light, but the light is not straight. The light becomes bent or distorted; it gets projected in a diverted way. Both are not conducive to knowledge. But in sattva, light passes through a clarified medium which is transparent enough to give a clear picture of reality. Though reality is transcendent to the senses, sattva is capable of giving an idea of it. It is rajas that creates a distinction. “He whose senses do not see the truth, goes from death to death perpetually, due to the necessity of fulfilling unfulfilled desires, brought about by a false perception of variety.” 

The Eternal Lord Abides in Oneself

aṅguṣṭha-mᾱtraḥ puruṣo madhya ᾱtmani tiṣṭhati,
īśᾱno bhῡta-bhavyasya na tato vijigupsate: etad vai tat.

“This Supreme Absolute, Brahman, is also the atman of all beings. Of the size of a thumb, He resides in the middle of the body.” This mysterious Existence, God, cosmically present and extra-cosmically pervading, is also in one’s heart. When He enters the heart, He is the atman, present there in a special manner: ever a Seer and never a seen. He is satta-samanya; the same in all. He is the light in everything, on account of which the atman is seen. God never becomes an object, and so no one can see Him; He sees. When He reveals Himself as the atman, He appears to be located in that part of the body, but He is not so located. When the sun is reflected in various pots filled with water, many suns will be seen reflected in them and one may wrongly feel that there are many suns. Similarly one may be under the impression that the atman is many. Our bodies are like a vessel containing the thought process or mind in which the Supreme reflects in a mysterious manner.

From this point of apparent localisation in the body, and on account of the secondary process of thought, the atman is described as angusthamatra, or the size of a thumb. When the sun is reflected in an ounce-glass, she appears to be of that size. It is said in psychophysical science that our body is constituted of centres of nerve current, and that some are narrow and some broad, some more transparent than others. If water passes through an iron tube it will not be visible, but it will be visible in a plastic tube. Certain nerve currents in the heart, brain etc., which are known only to the mystics or yogins and not to the scientists, are very transparent, and when the intelligence within us passes through them as it does through every part of the body, there appears to be a larger intensity of light manifestation. So we are told in a figurative or special sense that intelligence is present there, because it is made visible only in these places. Intelligence is stronger felt between the eyebrows, in the throat and heart. These are the centres of the waking, dream and sleep states. It enters the heart when we are asleep, or in death or the super-conscious state. From this point of view it is said that the size of the atman is as a thumb.

There is a lot of controversy on this subject. Some say the atman is only in one part of the body, and some others say that it is all over it, just like even though the candle stands in one place its light will fill the whole room. All these ideas are wrong because the Universal cannot be only somewhere; it is everywhere. It manifests as the atman or the knowing Self and passes as a separate being on account of the limitations of the mind and senses.

When this Supreme Master of the past, present and future is known, we will not only turn away from everything, we will also not want anything of this world. “Once having beheld the majesty of God, you will want nothing of this world.” Just as once you get up from dream you do not want to enter it again, likewise once having seen It you will not want to see anything of this world—like Dhritarashtra, who requested Krishna to take away his eyesight after having beheld His divine form, lest he should see anything else.

aṅguṣṭha-mᾱtraḥ puruṣo jyotir ivᾱdhῡmakaḥ,
īśᾱno bhῡta-bhavyasya sa evᾱdya sa u śvaḥ: etad vai tat. (13)

“This so-called angushthamatra purusha, Supreme God lodged in bodies, minds, intellects, is a flame without smoke, resplendence alone, devoid of shadow.” People who have beheld this Light, have given testimony in various ways. Some say it is like a flash of lightening blinding one’s eyes. Some describe it as a steady golden light like that of the rising sun. Some say it is cool like that of the moon. Some say it is like a star twinkling in the space of one’s heart. Some say it is a flame without smoke. Not only the visions, but also the sounds we hear as we approach the atman, are described in different scriptures. “This marvel is the Master of past, present and future. He is always the same, today and tomorrow.” A grand immediacy of Presence and Wealth which can be described only as Omnipresence.

The descriptions of the atman in this Upanishad are not exhaustive because not everything can be said in a textbook. All descriptions of all the scriptures put together cannot describe fully the Glory of God, such is His Infinite Might. But the word ‘infinite’ has been so much used that it has lost its meaning. Larger than the widest of spaces, more intensively rich than anything you have seen—all this is ishvara. People go mad on account of the indescribability of His Glory. Some mystics say that when He enters this body, it is like an elephant entering a thatched rut, breaking it into pieces. The body cannot bear it. It is said that Ramakrishna Paramhamsa suffered from his final illness on account of repeated God-experience. Everything in regard to God is a marvel: How to meditate on Him, how He comes, how He is, how we behold Him.

Inasmuch as we know the great Reality as It has been described, to pursue a path that is contrary to Its nature would be adharma or unrighteous. Unrighteousness is all activity that is directed against the nature of the atman, primarily a forgetfulness of His supremacy within. This forgetfulness hardens into a self-affirmation of individuality, or jiva. This, again, materialises into love and hatred, and actions determined by these instead of by Him. When He determines our actions, we are said to perform dharma, and when love and hate determine them, we are said to perform adharma. This is the secret of righteousness and unrighteousness.

The Result of Seeing Variety and Unity is Sickness

yathodakam durge vṛṣṭam parvateṣu vidhᾱvati,
evaṁ dharmᾱn pṛthak paśyaṁs tᾱn evᾱnuvidhᾱvati. (14)

“Just as rain that falls on the crest of the mountain may be scattered into many streams of water rushing forth in different directions, all getting dissipated and not collected; so the energies or the intelligence of a person gets distributed and channelised in many says, exhausting him thoroughly.”

Like a rivulet moving in the forest, the senses of the jiva direct his energies without any aim. The objects of the world are constructions of these diversified runnings of the intellect, endowed with a practical utilitarian value, vyavaharika-satta, but having no reality in themselves (paramartika-satta). Things in the world have value and meaning so long as they are related to us. Hence, they have a relative value. When the constituents change, the values change, because there is no fundamental reference to consciousness. We are living in a state of motion, just as the rushing torrents which have no being of their own, except their motion. When they do not move, they will have no existence. Man has no knowledge of what is happening to him. There is a fundamental ignorance which covers our substantiality. When the parts which make our personality return to their sources, we cease to be an individual. Because motion is mistaken for being, the world is called an illusion.

The dharmas mentioned in this verse are the qualities and relations that determine the world. Objects are not substances, but relations. As we found out before, they appear as solid because their velocity cannot be grasped by the mind, and so it is stupefied when it is presented with them who are the gunas of prakriti. And so, the world is indeterminable. This doctrine of anatma-vada is extended even to the ego; not even it is substance. A cosmic illusion of the world’s substantiality is presented to all of us. The same sickness seems to afflict the whole of humanity, and therefore a common remedy is prescribed. While mantra fourteen tells of the sickness, mantra fifteen describes the remedy.

Our mistake is to take objects for solid, letting our consciousness getting lost in the world, just as water falling from mountain tops gets dissipated. Consciousness rushes forth in various stages and passes through various mediums—the universal consciousness getting tethered to a personal centre which is called ego, just as the sun’s light gets projected through an aperture in a ceiling, looking weak and small. Not only this: it concretizes and materializes concretises and materialises further and becomes the thinking mind, the energizing prana, the senses of cognition and action, and finally the physical body, landing itself into the world of objects, descending from the realm of the heavens. We have forgotten our grand Father, God, and are aware of this material world. This is the state of all beings when they run to objects, mistaking them for substances.

yathodakaṁ śuddhe śuddham ᾱsiktaṁ tᾱdṛg eva bhavati,
evaṁ muner vijᾱnata ᾱtmᾱ bhavati gautama. (15)

“Just as water poured into water becomes water alone, so the self of one who has understanding becomes the Supreme.” If the water falling from a mountain top were to collect and move towards the ocean, it would be one with the ocean. Likewise does the consciousness that collects itself, rather than dissipates itself, bring itself to a focus of power and joins the ocean of consciousness. When our thoughts are determined by the ocean of consciousness, we are dhira purushas, our actions become self-determined. When we are rooted in ego-consciousness, we become divided into bodies and objects. One who has love for a hundred people and things is like someone cut into a hundred persons. Though physically he may appear as one, psychologically he is split up, because we are what our mind is. Our personality gets dispersed, and when this goes too far, we become sick.

Everyone is sick in one way or another, because no one thinks of one thing always. If the mind and intellect did not draw their sustenance from objects but from their own source, they would be self-determined and not object-determined. At present we are determined by the objects of the world. This is not independence. Independence would be self-determined. Likewise is this process of self-collection: while samsara is the movement of mind in the direction of objects, moksha would be the opposite, the reverse of it; the collection of consciousness and merging it into Consciousness. A knowing person becomes the atman of all. Just as many drops become water in the ocean, many thoughts collect themselves in the atman. This is the condition of a knower, called jivanmukti, O Nachiketas. Thus have I explained to you what you have asked.