Darshan of Swami Krishnananda in 1999

by Swami Krishnananda

31. The Meaning of the Purusha Sukta

(Darshan given on June 1999)

Swamiji: ...as the waking mind becomes other than itself in the dreaming world, but yet it does not become really other. It can absorb itself into its own original condition. In the dream world, the original waking consciousness is completely changed into an object of perception. You are seeing yourself as an object in dream, but yourself, as well as the object that you see, both are included in the waking consciousness. So is the case with this world. Yourself, myself – anybody who considers oneself as a subject of perception, as well as all the universe of objects – are all contained within another cosmic mind.

That is the Purusha Sukta's meaning. Sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt, sa bhūmiṁ viśvato vṛtvātyatiṣṭad daśāgulam. Puruṣa evedaṁ sarvaṁ yad bhūtaṁ yacca bhavyam: This Purusha is past, present and future. What was, what is, what shall be, all three are bundled up in one Being. That created the world, which itself alienated itself in some other form, something like your seeing your face in a mirror. You have created yourself as an 'other than what you are' by looking at yourself in the mirror, which is different from you. But that thing which you see through the mirror is not you. So in that way, you may say this world is not actually the nature of God. Nevertheless, you cannot separate it from Him. Great cosmic mystery! All the objects of the universe are subjects in their own way. You see them, and they see you. So all the objects, whatever they are, are subjects which are observing you, which you wrongly consider as the only subject.

In this context of the apprehension of total subjectivity – because every object sees you; it is not that they are blind, and you see them – if there is only seeing everywhere, who will know the knower? The whole universe is the knower. You should not say there are objects. The so-called objects are also seeing you; you are also an object of perception, because somebody sees you. So the whole world, either it is an object only, or it is a subject. You cannot say that the entire universe is an object because it will be an object to somebody else, who is the subject, and that somebody doesn't exist. Therefore, it amounts to saying that the whole universe is pure Subject. All these things that you see around you, so-called objects – the tree and monkeys and elephants, and so on – they are as much subjective in their apprehension of themselves as you are. Hence, there is a universal unending subjectivity, which is the nature of God.

This is the art of meditation. Can you think like this? There is nothing for you to think. You have to be that. The moment you think, you are converting something into an object. You should not think the world, because the world also is as much subjective. It has got millions of eyes: sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt. With millions of eyes it sees you, and you should not think that you are the observer of it. Everybody is an observer of each one. This is exactly, they say, the situation in Brahmaloka where millions of liberated souls are there, but each one beholds the other as one beholds oneself. There is no object in Brahmaloka. Brahmaloka is only an apotheosis of the whole creation. The rightly perceived world is Brahmaloka.

The whole head will reel. An impure mind cannot contemplate like that. And if it is possible to understand what it is, and it has entered your mind, it is certain that you will attain liberation. All the knots of the heart will break. It is the simplest thing to do, but the most difficult thing – very, very highly mystical. Grīṣma idhmaḥ śaraddhaviḥ: The hot season, which is grīṣma, becomes the fire of the sacrifice. An ordinary person cannot think all these things. The whole universe is one blazing universal sacrifice taking place, the whole universe. When I say 'universe', you are included there, so who is conducting the sacrifice? If you go on thinking like this, all the karmas will melt completely like ice melting before the sun.

But the ahankara inside us, and the many kinds of prejudices and stupidities that we have got, will immediately prevent us from even touching this subject. The Vaishvanara is same as this Purusha. This Purusha and Vaishvanara mean the same thing. When you are eating, you offer it to the Purusha, or the Vaishvanara. Immediately the whole world is satisfied, all the worlds, all the human beings and all the souls. This is illustrated by Sri Krishna eating a little leaf, and the whole Brahman was satisfied. That is the epic illustration. Brahmana bhojanam, they always say that Brahmanas should be fed. By 'Brahmanas' they mean not simply ritual Brahmanas with thread and so on. Those who can understand this and are centralised in this kind of meditation, who are sunk in the Vedas, if you feed them, you are feeding the Vaishvanara himself. That's why they say Brahmans should be fed. But nowadays a mechanical thing it has become. The whole world will shake if you eat food thinking that you are the Vaishvanara Being. The whole Vaishvanara is vibrating through you. You are offering food to the prana, apana, vyana, samana. They are the eaters. Our stomach cannot digest anything. The prana agni is there, so it is called prana agnihotra. Everything is holy, everything is sacred in this universal sacrifice Purusha Sukta. It purifies the whole mind.