Commentary on the Kathopanishad

by Swami Krishnananda

Discourse 8: Realising the Atman and the Unity Behind All Things

We have read two verses of the Second Chapter. Parāñci khāni vyatṛṇat svayambhūs tasmāt parāṅ paśyati nāntarātman: kaś cid dhīraḥ pratyag-ātmānam aikṣad āvṛtta-cakṣur amṛtatvam icchan; parācaḥ kāmān anuyanti bālās te mṛtyor yanti vitatasya pāśam, atha dhīrā amṛtatvaṁ viditvā dhruvam adhruveṣv iha na prārthayante (2.1.1-2). Children without understanding run after the pleasures of sense objects because the Creator Himself pierced the senses in an outward tendency, as it were. The senses cannot see anything that is behind; they see only what is in front. Not only do they see what is in front, they rush vigorously forward in search of more accumulation of objects for their indulgence. Then what happens? Their vigour wears away, the instruments of actions, the sense organs and the body become old, and there is decay and destruction. Death takes possession of such people who have no consciousness of there being a higher reality than the visible world of objects.

Heroes on the path of the Spirit, knowing this predicament of human nature in this world, turn their gaze within and behold within themselves, in their own selves, that light which illumines the whole world. The light of intelligence, which is within us, is also that glorious radiance of God-consciousness. Knowing this, people tread the path of the true Spirit for attaining immortality, and they do not seek the permanent attainment of Godhood through any means which are perishable and impermanent. Impermanent means are these objects of the world, which are incapable of contacting that which is permanent in nature. Everything in this world is infested with the tendency to perish one day or the other. Therefore, nothing in this world can be regarded as a suitable way or means to attain God. The Atman is the way to God, not the body, not the senses, not the objects.

Yena rūpaṁ gandhaṁ śabdān sparśāṁś ca maithunān, etenaiva vijānāti, kim atra pariśiṣyate: etad vai tat (2.1.3): That, with the help of whose light and awareness one beholds things in perception through the eyes, tastes things through the tongue, smells through the nose, hears through the ears, touches with the skin, and contacts in various ways—with the help of this one thing, all things are known. Having known this, there is nothing more to be known.

“This verily is the answer to your question, Nachiketas,” says Yama. “Here I am giving you the answer to your question, the third boon that you asked, and I am gradually revealing it here in the instruction that I have given to you in these passages. After knowing this, what remains—kim atra pariśiṣyate? This verily is that. This indeed is that which you seek, and here it is before you.”

Svapnāntaṁ jāgaritāntaṁ cobhau yenānupaśyati, mahāntaṁ vibhum ātmānam matvā dhīro na śocati (2.1.4): Wise people do not grieve when they realise this great universal Atman, which is the reason behind perceptions in dream as well as in waking. It is through this Atman that we are able to behold the world in front of us and be conscious of something being there. It is through the light of this Atman that we are dreaming and seeing things in dream. It is because of the presence of this Atman that we are able to wake up from sleep. The waking consciousness, the dream consciousness, and the unconsciousness of sleep are all vestures put on by this Atman, as it were, and one who knows this Atman as dissociated from the body, the mind and this causal sheath which we experience in sleep knows the Atman verily. These bodies, known as sthula, sukshma and karana—gross, subtle and causal—are like covers or sheaths over the light of the Atman, which shines within everybody as the sun shines behind clouds. Knowing this great Atman, the hero treading the path of the Spirit will not grieve anymore, will not have sorrow of any kind, because the true Atman is the true person. You and I and everyone, and everything in the world, are basically this Atman making life possible and giving form and shape to things, and also making things appear attractive, beautiful and worth the while. The value of things in the world, whatever that value be in any capacity whatsoever, is the value of the Atman that is peeping through the sense organs and contacting the objects by means of the perceptual process.

Ya imam madhvadaṁ veda ātmānaṁ jīvam antikāt, īśāṅam bhūta-bhavyasya, na tato vijugupsate: etad vai tat (2.1.5): One who knows this great Atman seated in the heart of all—the experiencer of the consequences of the deeds performed by itself through its association with the three sheaths—one who knows this Atman as independently reigning supreme above the three sheaths, as well as involved in the three sheaths, thereby experiences the fruits of karmas. Madhu is the word used here. Madhva: one who eats honey. Honey is the fruit of the action one performs, and the eater thereof is the jiva, the individual soul, which is nothing but a limited expression of the universal Atman reflected, peeping through the three bodies: causal, subtle and physical. This Atman is actually the Lord over the past, the present and the future. Timeless is this Atman, spaceless is this Atman, objectless is this Atman. It has no limitations of any kind. One who knows this shrinks not from anything, fears not anything, wants not anything. Here is the truth. This is verily that: etad vai tat. “What you ask, here it is. Take this knowledge, Nachiketas,” says Yama.

Yaḥ pūrvaṁ tapaso jātam adbhyaḥ pūrvam ajāyata, guhām praviśya tiṣṭhantam yo bhūtebhir vyapaśyata: etad vai tat (2.1.6): Whoever knows this Great Being which originated from the tapas of Brahman, the Absolute, prior to the manifestation of the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—and yet is embedded in the very five elements, knows the Truth. This Atman is above the body, and yet is birthing through the body. The body is the individualised symbol of the physical elements earth, water, fire, air and ether, and cosmically these elements represent the body of God Himself, the Viratsvarupa. This Virat, who has entered the five elements through the form of this universe, is the cause of all things that we call creation as we perceive it, but this Virat himself is the effect of a great tapas of concentration of the will of Brahman, the Absolute, we may say.

In the Upanishads there are statements repeatedly making out that Brahman concentrated itself; it performed tapas. What kind of tapas did Brahman perform? We do tapas by eating less, sleeping less, wearing little clothing, and not speaking much. Observing mauna, and so on, are the ways of our austerity, or tapas. But when Brahman performed tapas, what did Brahman do? Brahman's tapas did not consist of not eating, not sleeping, not speaking, or wearing less clothes. These are not the ways of the tapas of the Supreme Being. Concentration of consciousness, the projection of the will in a given direction, and the embodying of the whole of oneself in the direction which this will has taken, that is real tapas, austerity; and in our case also that would be real austerity. Merely wearing frail fragments of cloth and not speaking and not eating, these are not adequate tapas. They are inadequate. Where the mind is not cooperating, the body cannot achieve anything. Our tapas consists in what the mind is doing, and not merely in what we do to the body. We may eat or not eat, that is a different matter; but what are we doing in the mind? We may not be eating anything, not even drinking water for a month, but we may be glutting through the mind, building castles in the air and vying over the pros and cons of all the blessed things in the world, with the mind never getting concentrated. So to the extent the mind concentrates, to that extent only are we in a state of tapas.

Brahman contemplated, concentrated itself, and did tapas in the form of the will to create the universe. The first manifestation is Virat, which came out of the tapas of Brahman and is prior to the five elements, yet it is involved in the five elements in the form of this vast cosmos. This Virat, so big, so great, so expansive, the effect of the very will and tapas of Brahman, is within us. The kingdom of God is within us. 'Kingdom' means 'very big'. Such a vast area of suzerainty is within the little space of the heart of man.

Unfortunately, one knows this mystery of mysteries only through the five elements. The Virat is spreading itself everywhere in front of us as this glorious presentation of what we call creation, but we see only trees, we see twigs, we see bricks and stones, we see walls, we see rivers and mountains. Instead of seeing a person standing before us, we are seeing his skin, his hair, his bones and his sinews. This is the mistake that we make in the perception of the world. To see a person in front of us is different from seeing his limbs, as if the limbs constitute the person. The person is an enchantment, an attraction, a separate entity altogether. “I have gone and seen that person.” When we make statements of this kind, we do not mean that we have gone and seen a conglomeration of hands and feet and nose and eyes. This is not what we have seen. The person is different from the bodily limbs. Similar is this Virat that we are beholding in the form of this cosmos. We are seeing only the nose and the ears and the little things that we call the limbs of the world, whereas these are the manifestations of another thing, which is the Supreme Person, the Mahapurusha, the Purushottama of the Vedas, the Bhagavadgita and the Upanishads. The great Reality is verily in front of us, and day and night we are actually hitting our heads against it but not knowing what has happened. “This verily is that. Nachiketas, I am giving you the answer,” says Yama.

Yā prāṇena sambhavaty aditir devatāmayī, guhām praviśya tiṣṭhantī, yā bhūtebhir vyajāyata: etad vai tat (2.1.7). Brahman has been explained, Virat has been explained, and now Hiranyagarbha is being explained here—that great Prana, the cosmic Prana known as Hiranyagarbha or Sutratman, unborn among the born individualities of the world, the embodiment of all the gods. All the gods were shining in the Virat form which Lord Sri Krishna showed, as described for us in the Eleventh Chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Every divinity was shining in every part of its body. That is Hiranyagarbha-tattva, or we may call it Virat. This great unborn Cosmic Being, Sutratman, Hiranyagarbha, is in gods everywhere, seated in the heart of every person, and yet perceived only through the five elements, which are the objects of the senses. “This verily is that. Nachiketas, I have given you the answer,” says Yama.

Araṇyor nihito jāta-vedā garbha iva subhṛto garbhiṇībhiḥ: dive diva īḍyo jāgṛvadbhir haviṣmadbhir manuṣyebhir agniḥ: etad vai tat (2.1.8). Yama is driving this idea again and again into the mind of Nachiketas. “Don't be under the impression that I am not giving you the answer. Here is that, as fire is hidden between two fire sticks.” There are certain types of wood which embody the principle of fire in a greater measure than other pieces of wood. Everywhere fire is pervading. If two sticks strike each other, there will be fire in the forest. There is a particular tree called the arani, and when two pieces of wood from this tree are rubbed one over the other, sparks are produced. Sparks emanate even when we strike one stone against another. It shows that fire is embedded everywhere in a subtle, hidden form. As fire is hidden between two fire sticks, as a foetus is hidden in the womb of the mother, this Great Being is hiddenly present in the heart of all. Every day it is adored, worshipped and glorified by awakened spirits who perform sacrifices day in and day out for contacting this wonderful Being, and by all people who are seeking it. This is the cosmic fire, the eternal fire of God. Etad vai tat: “Here is the answer for you, Nachiketas. Be happy,” says Yama.

Yataś codeti śuryo astam yatra ca gacchati, taṁ devās sarve'rpitās tadu nātyeti kaś cana: etad vai tat (2.1.9): It is because of the impulsion of this Cosmic Being that the sun rises in the east, and the planets rotate on their axis and revolve around the central nucleus of the sun. The seasons come and go in proper time. There is administration in this universe. Things do not happen confusedly. There is precision, order, mathematical perfection seen in the workings of nature. Everything is beautiful. Nothing is untoward in this world. Mathematics is a poor science of precision before this great precision of the workings of nature, inwardly as well as outwardly. This perfection, this precision, this ordered manner of the movement of things like the sun and moon and stars, is all due to the universal controlling power of the Atman that is Hiranyagarbha, Virat. God controls everything. All the gods are embedded in this. The millions of gods that people worship in the forms of religion in this world are twinkling sparks of this wondrous divinity universally present everywhere and twinkling in our own hearts. Nobody can go beyond that. Once we reach that, our movement stops, as the movement of a river stops when it touches the ocean. All our activities cease there, our aspirations find a fulfilment there, and our desires are granted entirely, abundantly. We ourselves cease to be there. We become verily that which we are seeking. Etad vai tat: “This is that, Nachiketas. Take it,” says Yama.

Yad eveha tad amutra, yad amutra tad anviha, mṛtyos sa mṛtyum āpnoti ya iha nāneva paśyati (2.1.10). Yad eveha tad amutra: Whatever is here in this individual is also there in the cosmos. Yad amutra tad anviha: Whatever is in this microcosmic individuality of a person is also in the macrocosmic body of God. And conversely, whatever is in the macrocosmic body of the Almighty is to be found in the microcosmic individuality of ours. The human being is a cross-section of the cosmic ranges of worlds after worlds, realms over realms, and all the wonders and glories of the cosmos can be seen scintillating within the particles of the bodily individuality of a person. But if anyone sees duality, multiplicity, and does not realise this great oneness that is operating between us and the Supreme Being, such a person will go from death to death and from birth to birth continuously in a cycling movement of metempsychosis. No one can avoid birth, death and suffering in the form of samsara, this earthly existence, because of the fact that we do not see this unity operating in all things. We do not realise that the wonder that is everywhere is also the wonder within us. “Nachiketas, is this sufficient for you? What do you say?” asks Yama.

Manasaivedam āptavyaṁ neha nānāsti kiñ cana: mṛtyos sa mṛtyuṁ gacchati ya iha nāneva paśyati (2.1.11): It is not possible to envision this integral reality by ordinary means. It requires a great effort on the part of every one of us to chasten ourselves in order that we may become fit instruments for the vision of this glory. Otherwise, the little comforting sadhana that we may be performing in our daily life may not be sufficient. With all the effort of our mind and intellect, we will not be able to behold the unity behind things. We see only duality, duplicity, multiplicity. All unwanted things are seen in this world. What do we see when we read a newspaper, for instance, every day in the morning? All unwanted things, all useless stuff, all dirt and garbage, all horrible things are what we see, and where is the instrument in our personality that can behold the unity behind them?

The perception of the ugliness of the world is the effect of the operation of a lower instinct operating in us, the lower self, as they call it, which works through the sense organs that are our taskmasters in misguiding the jiva. They are dacoits of the first water. These are the friends that we have. Tasmat jagrata, jagrata, says Sankaracharya. There are thieves here in the form of the sense organs, and they want to deprive us of the treasure of our wisdom by compelling us to see what is not there through the distorted sense organs. And what do we see in the world? We see the world exactly as it is not. It is the topsy-turvy, erroneous vision of the sense organs that makes us feel that the world is wretched. God has never created a wretched world, because if the effect, which is God's operation, is so bad, God should also be a little bad indeed because whatever is in the effect should also be in the cause. If God is perfection, glory, wonder, honey and milk, eternity and infinity, how could such a Being create a dirty world full of evil? Such a thing is impossible. It only shows that our mind is not prepared for the insight that is necessary to behold the glory in this otherwise wretched world. Wretchedness is not actually of the world; it is the wretchedness of the process of perception.

Hence, a faculty of subtle, purified, concentrated means is necessary in order that the depth of unity can be seen in the midst of the diversity of otherwise unwanted things in the world, as it were. Actually, many things do not exist here. Neha nānāsti kiñcana. The Upanishad tells us the multiplicity that we perceive in the world is a false perception. Many things do not exist. There is only one thing. As a unity, as a blend, as a totality, as a oneness that the world is, we have to see it, but not behold it as a distracted, isolated, fractional, divided world, because the world is not so divided as we wrongly perceive it through the senses. But if we persist in seeing the world as so divided, and cannot visualise the unity behind these things if we are not endowed with that insight which is supreme and superb, what will happen to us? From death to death we go: mṛtyos sa mṛtyuṁ gacchati. Who goes from death to death? Ya iha nāneva paśyati: He who sees variety, multiplicity, and absence of unity. Therefore, may one be guarded.