AWAKENINGS

Chapter 4 - Characteristics of Brahman Uma, the Goddess Parvathi, replied to Indra who enquired to know ‘Who is This Yaksha actually?’ thus: That is Brahman by whose power the battle was won. Only because through this victory, you have thus become great. Thus Indra had realized the truth behind their victory and glory. As Indra was the first god to meet and know Brahman, Indra did excel other gods. Fire God and Air God had also excelled other gods like Indra, as they had also met Brahman in the most proximities. Power of Brahman is enormous and all pervading. Whether in the flash of the lightning, or in the wink of the eyes, the power that is shown is the power of Brahman. In respect of man, the man’s mind is to be powered by the power of Brahman. For proper propelling of the mind, a man needs to meditate upon Brahman day and night. Brahman is the adorable being in all beings. Hence, one should meditate as such. He who mediates upon Brahman as such is honored by all other beings. A d...

Chapter 3 - Ego There were fierce battle between Asuras and Devas. The Brahman had sided with Devas and got them the victory. The Brahman had concealed Himself in obtaining victory to Devas. Therefore, the Devas thought that the victory were theirs only and that they were really great in this Universe. The Devas had thus become egoists and thought that they were very powerful. The Devas who fought the battle against the Asuras were Fire God, Air God and Indra, the Chief God. The Brahman wanted to make these Gods to know their limitations and also to eschew their egoism. Hence the Brahman appeared before the Devas as a Yaksha – a venerable being or spirit. The Devas – Fire God, Air God and Indra – Chief God, could not make out about that Being. In order to find out ‘who was that spirit?’, the Fire God was asked to find out thoroughly about that Being. Fire God went to that spirit. Spirit: Who are you? Fire God: I am Fire God. Spirit: What power is there in you? Fire God: I can burn all ...

Chapter 2: Know and Know Not Preface: ‘Know and Know Not’ are the phrase used to those who try to know the Limitless Brahman. These principles of ‘Know and Know Not’ are fully exploited in Chapter 2 of Kena Upanishad in the five stanzas. One may be confronted with directly opposite meanings which will necessarily confuse any one, however much one is capable of. These phrases are in vogue from time immemorial from Confucius down to the modern authors. The modern version of ‘Know and Know Not’ is as follows: “He who knows not and knows not he knows not: he is a fool - shun him. He who knows not and knows he knows not: he is simple - teach him. He who knows and knows not he knows: he is asleep - wake him. He who knows and knows he knows: he is wise - follow him.” In these five stanzas of Kena Upanishads, you will undergo yourself the four stages as indicated in the above quotes. Foolishness, Simplicity, Sleepiness and Wise ness are all to be experienced in knowing Brahman in all its splen...

Chapter 1: What is Brahman? Kena is the first word in the Upanishad and hence it is titled as such. Kena means ‘By Whom’ in Sanskrit. It is also a short Upanishad like Isa Upanishad. Kena Upanishad has four parts. Parts 1 and 4 contain 9 stanzas each, part 5 contains 5 stanzas and part 3 contains 12 stanzas – totaling 5 parts of 35 stanzas only. Kena Upanishad deals with Brahman – Ultimate Power of the Universe. The various aspects of this Ultimate Power of the Universe are revealed in the form of questions and answers between the student and the Teacher. The invocation song itself sets the tone for the heavy subject to be discussed by the teacher and the student. Om! May Brahman protect both the teacher and the student. May Brahman bestow upon both the fruit of knowledge. May we both obtain energy to acquire knowledge. May we both reveal the Truth of our studies. May we cherish no ill feeling towards each other. Protection, Knowledge, Energy, Truth and Understanding are all invoked an...

Harvest No. 4 - Mahatma Gandhi’s Crusade Against Christian Harvest of Hindus Before Independence there were many attempts made by Christian Missionaries to convert Gandhi into Christianity. Gandhi, as a true follower of Truth and Non-violence, had faced them in his own way which had portrayed him as a crusader against their nefarious attempts to make India as Christian Nation. Some of the Christian missionaries, recognizing his deep interest in Sermon on the Mount and resulting pacifism, were attracted to him with an ulterior motive of using him as a “tool” in mass conversion because of his extraordinary stature around the globe and particularly India. But, nothing had succeeded. Gandhi had ridiculed the Missionaries as ‘vendors of goods’ with no spiritual attitudes in their activities. In this context, Gandhi, in his Harijan Paper of November 5, 1937, had quoted a specific instance about the activities of a Christian missionary thus: ‘Only the other day a missionary descended on a f...

Harvest No. 3 - General Personal Experiences with Conversions ‘O Sinners! Listen to us. Jesus Christ had shed his blood for all your sins. Convert to Christianity to eschew all your sins and start a new life and save yourself from hell!’ - I heard in my native town as a young boy studying in government school a few white clad Christian missionaries preaching in corners of streets. Some of them would be playing music - prominent amongst them the drummers and cymbals. First, they would sing some Christian prayer songs to attract the passers-by and after some crowd being gathered around them, they would start to preach and then distribute Christian literatures - denigrating the Hindu gods and canvassing to join Christianity for their salvation. I used to these propaganda from my early age and had never been affected by it - perhaps due to my family background. I loved my School Teacher whose name was Jesudass. He was a bachelor and was permitted to live at the school premises itself. He u...

Chapter 5: Truth, Mind and Deeds In this essay, the last four verses of Isa Upanishad from 15th to 18th are being dealt with. In these verses, the Sun, Air and Fire are being prayed to have a truthful, fruitful and fulfilling life. In the process, the powerful forces of Sun, Air and Fire are described. Sun is described in two verses, while air and fire in one verse each. The descriptions are being made by a seer who is a seeker of truth like Sun God with all its splendors, illuminations, brightness and golden rays. A seer speaks to the Sun: O, Sun! You are the face of truth. You have veiled your face with a golden shining disc which prevents the humans to view your face. I am a seer and am a seeker of truth. Please remove the disc so that I may see the Truth. O, Sun! You are the source of all life and source of everything. You are the son of Prajapathi. You are the solitary traveler. Your dazzling rays prevent me from viewing your form which is the most benign. I am also the seeker of ...

Isa Upanishad sheds light on the following words: 1. Vidhya and Avidhya. 2. Manifested and Unmanifested. The explanations and indepths meanings of these four important words are dealt with in the six verses from 9 to 14 of the Isa Upanishad. Vidhya is normally attributed to knowledge. Such persons are devoid of rites or karma or work or avidhya. They are engaged only in vidhya i.e.spending their entire time in worshiping or meditation. They are of the strong faith that vidhya is enough to achieve the ultimate aim of salvation from the pranks of deaths. Avidhya is rites or karma or work or even ignorance. They are engaged in such religious duties driven due to the desires of senses which are the hallmark of ignorance. They do not worry much about ‘Vidhya’, as they feel that the paths chosen by them are enough to give them the salvation from this world. What does Isa Upanishad say about the adequacies of Vidhya and Avidhya? Isa Upanishad declares that if one practices only Avidhya, he en...

The characteristics of Soul are being described in stanzas 4 to 8. Hence it would be advisable to deal these four stanzas together. One will be bewildered on reading the most contradictory statements being stated in these stanzas. The soul, it declares, unmoving, but, moves faster than the mind. It is one, but, it is manifold. Remaining stationary, it outruns all other runners and it ran ahead. It is very near and it is far off. It is inside all and it is outside all as well. How can we reconcile such contradictory statements? On the face of it, one can simply view them as the statements of a mad man. Let us take the case of a man traveling in a train from Madurai to Madras. Actually the man had not moved himself, but, he was simply sitting or sleeping in the train. The train took him from Madurai to Madras. Without himself moving, the man could move a long distance and had reached the destined place. How is it possible? Simple. The locomotive power in the form of a train could make th...

Everyone wishes to live for long. A hundred years of life is the maximum period for any human being. For worthwhile life, a man should perform his work. Only by clinging with his work, a man can achieve his desire to live for long years. Work can be good or bad. But man should do only good work which alone will give him longevity, happiness and well being. Such work will not fetch the person any salvation from further births, as his work is being performed with desires to live long with health and wealth. Such an outlook is antithesis of renunciation which alone can make one to realize the Soul or Self which is the ultimate purpose of life leading to salvation i.e. birth-less state. ‘Live one hundred years on this earth by performing action. With such desire, one can cling to the work and not in any other way’ is the plain meaning of the second stanza. The next verse is to criticize those who perform work only to live longer and who do not apply their mind to realize the True Self wit...

Isa means Lord or God. Hence its name itself is indicative of its importance i.e. It is named as God’s Upanishads. Like the Kena Upanishad, the Isa Upanishad takes its name from its first word, Isa. Isa Upanishad is said to be the essence of all Upanishad teachings so far as practical life is concerned. It is comparatively a very short Upanishad, though it is an integral gospel. Its invocation song itself is very famous and has an universal and unique appeal. The meaning of the song is as follows: Om. That is full; this is full. This fullness has been projected from that fullness. When this fullness merges in that fullness, all that remains is fullness. Om, Peace, Peace, Peace! Apart from the above invocation song, there are 18 verses only. But, all these 18 verses are full of eternal truths to lead a meaningful life here in this world and then to attain salvation thereafter. Mahatma Gandhi extolled the spiritual message contained in the first verse of this Upanishad. Apart from other ...

In this Brahdaranya Upanishad’s series, the present article deals with the Vital Force in the body which needs to control three factors – name, form and action. Some liberties have been taken with a view to make the concepts clear, though the core thoughts have been kept intact. - The Editor. As per Brahdaranya Upanishad, this Universe consists of three things. They are name, form and action. Let us examine each one by one. Let us take the case of Name. The actual source of name is speech. The source of speech is sound and the source of sound is tongue, an organ in the body. The next thing is form. The source of form is sight. The source of sight is eyes, which are the organs of the body. The last one is action. The source of action is body. The source of body is its organs including mind and intellect. The man should realize that these three factors viz. name, form and action need to be abandoned to realize the presence of God in us. To achieve this, the mind, which is also conside...

Some anecdotes, discourses and selective meaningful episodes from various Upanishads are being shared with the readers through the columns of this magazine. This essay is based on Brahadaranyaka Upanishad and deals with the characteristics of Immortality of the Supreme Soul. To make the subject matter simple and understandable, some liberties had been taken in the presentation without anyway deviating the core theme. - The Editor. The hermitage of Sage Yajnavalkya was amidst the thick forest. He was living with his two wives – Maitreyi and Katyayani. One day, Yajnavalkya was in deep thoughts. He addressed Maitreyi thus: ‘My dear, I am going to renounce this life. Before my renunciation, I have to divide the wealth possessed by me between you and Katyayani.’ Maitreyi: Well, why do you want to renounce your life? Yajnavalkya: To attain the Immortality. Maitreyi: Then, whether the wealth that you propose to give me, will fetch...