Swami Krishnananda-Essays on the Upanishads, en
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ESSAYS ON THE
UPANISHADS
by
Swami Krishnananda
The Divine Life Society
Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, India
(
Internet Edition: For free distribution only
)
Website: www.swami-krishnananda.org
CONTENTS
Isavasyopanishad
3
Kenopanishad
16
Kathopanishad
34
Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
1
ISAVASYOPANISHAD
S
ANTI
M
ANTRA
That is full; this is full. From the full the full proceeds. Taking the full from the full, the
full alone remains. That Absolute is full. This created being is also full. Brahman is
infinitude and is therefore full. That which proceeds from the full or the infinite must be
either real or unreal. If it is real, it must also be full, because a part cannot be ever-
enduring, and that which is not always enduring is not real. If it is unreal, nothing
proceeds at all. This means to say that either infinity is the product of infinity or nothing
proceeds from infinity. Infinity cannot proceed from infinity, because, thereby, there
would be two infinities. Hence, the proceeding of infinity from infinity does not change
infinity, because infinity alone remains even after that. The drift of the statement is that
infinity is unchanging and this
mantra
is a figurative way of saying that nothing
proceeds from infinity. Even the idea of something proceeding from infinity is based on
its essential character of infinity. That which is produced, namely,
hiranyagarbha
, or
the universe, must be infinite. Otherwise there should be something outside
hiranyagarbha
, or the universe. The universe includes space, also, and beyond space
there is nothing. Therefore, the universe is infinite. Even the individual that is created is
essentially infinite. Taking infinity from infinity is only an idea and not a possibility.
Therefore, the infinite alone exists without change in past, present and future.
Om
Santih
,
Santih
,
Santih
- May the three
taapas
(afflictions) cease, and may there be
peace.
Note:
The three
taapas
are: Subjective trouble, objective trouble and heavenly trouble.
Subjective trouble:
Hunger, thirst, grief, delusion, ignorance, disease and death.
Objective trouble:
Ferocious animals, poisonous creatures and wicked human beings.
Heavenly trouble:
Thunderbolt, storms, floods, heat, cold, earthquake, etc.
INTRODUCTORY
The nature of the Self is not in any way connected with the processes or the results of
action that takes the Self to be limited, impure and diverse. Knowledge pertains to the
essential nature of the Self. Knowledge neither creates nor modifies nor obtains nor
purifies the Self, because the relationship between knowledge and the Self is not one of
doer and doing. All the Upanishads exhaust themselves in ascertaining the fundamental
characteristics of the Self. The
mantras
of the Isavasyopanishad negate the conception
which the Mimamsakas have of the Self, and assert that the true Self is secondless, non-
doer, non-enjoyer, pure and ever untainted by sin.
M
ANTRA
1
All this is pervaded by the Lord, whatever is moving (and not moving) in this world. By
such renunciation enjoy (or protect). Do not covet the wealth of anyone.
Vasyam
or
avasyam
means fit to be dwelt by or clothed by or covered over by. The universe is to be
covered over by the consciousness of God. It means that God indwells every being of the
Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
2
universe. But this indwelling does not in any way create a distinction between the
indweller and the indwelled. The Lord exists as the innermost Self of all. The Self,
however, cannot pervade itself. Pervasion, here, means existence. The universe in
essence is the truth of God Himself. It does not exist as an object to be covered over by
God, like cloth, etc. There is nothing in this universe which can have any value or being
without the existence of God. This is to say that God is the sole existence.
It also means that one has to fill the whole universe with the consciousness of Divinity.
Divinity should be felt as the
pratyagatman
or the Inner Self of oneself. This is a clue to
meditation on Brahman, also. One should assert that the whole existence is, in its
objective form, unreal and that oneself in fact is the essential
atman
existing as the basis
and the truth of everything. This is to assert that one’s Self is the Supreme Lord, not
merely pervading everything, but existing as the only reality.
Even as a scented stick begins to give out its fragrance when the external fungus growing
over it is rubbed out, the light of the Self reveals itself when the external crust of the
sense of doership and enjoyership which is falsely imagined is completely erased out.
The multiplicity and the duality of the universe should be denied in the light of the fact
that the Lord, the one Self, alone exists. This omnipresent Self cannot be associated with
individual functions, like doership and enjoyership. Name, form and action which
characterise the world cannot be the natures of God, because these are objective
perceptions and not eternal values. The universe, thus, gets renounced, because God is
the only Truth.
Tena tyaktena
means “by such renunciation” consequent upon the
knowledge of the only existence which is God. Renunciation is the result of the
knowledge of Truth. Anything that is abandoned as unconnected with the Self does not
become useful to the Self in any way. Everyone in the world is dependent on the not-
Self. But when the not-Self is denied one cannot be dependent on it. The denial of the
not-Self or the renunciation of the universe means that the Self is not helped by any
external agency and it has to save itself through itself. It also means that previous to
knowledge, i.e., when the Self appeared to be entangled in the not-self, it was in
bondage, as it were, but now because of disentanglement it saves itself and protects
itself and is dependent on itself. Because the Self is permanent its independence also is
permanent.
Bhunjeetbhah
may also mean “enjoy”, in which case the sense would be that
through the renunciation of the not-Self there accrues to the Self the highest enjoyment,
everything becomes its, and it experiences the Bliss of Liberation. It is a law that the
greater the renunciation, the greater is the joy experienced because of the absence of
desires. “Do not covet the wealth of anyone” means that, because God is the only reality,
there is nothing worth coveting in this world. Because, “whose is wealth”? The wealth
does not belong to anyone. All possessions are perishable. Therefore, there is no need of
coveting anything. Only the knowledge that the Self is all, the Lord of all, should be
acquired and everything else should be renounced. Everything is the
atman
and, hence,
there is no value in desiring anything. As other than the
atman
nothing is, nothing can
be desired or loved.
Dhanam
may also mean the dearest possession, which is one’s own
body. In this case the meaning would be: Do not covet any kind of body, not even a
celestial body or even the body of the creator himself. Do not wish to be reborn in any
kind of body, and aspire for liberation alone.
Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
3
M
ANTRA
2
The first
mantra
refers to
jnana-nishtha
, and is meant for those who have the ability to
abandon all desires and establish themselves in knowledge alone. But on others who are
not yet ready for such a state the performance of action in conformity with the natural
inclination of the individual is enjoined: “By doing action alone here one should wish to
live a hundred years. Thus it is in your case; there is no other way than this. Action dose
not cling to man.” One can wish to live as an individual only by performing actions. As
long as there is the strong feeling that on is a human being alone, the laws pertaining to
the human being have to be observed. One cannot live in one plane and observe the
rules of another plane. The notion of one’s being an individual is inseparably connected
with the ideas of and the necessity for desire and action. The very fact of individuality
denotes that individuality is not complete and one can never rest with peace in an
incomplete condition. There is an involuntary urge from within to strive to become
perfect. The individual, however, thinks that perfection consists in the acquisition of
what is not already possessed. Moreover, the feeling of the need for certain external
acquisitions is based on a special want felt within, though this want may change its
nature from time to time. Every want manifests itself as an action and goads the body to
move towards what is wanted. Even breathing and thinking are the implications of the
necessity to exist as an individual ever striving in nature. There seems to be no other
way of living as an individual than by the performance of action. If one refuses to
perform action one shall be forced to perform action by the law of individual life.
Instead of yielding to involuntary urges for action it is advisable to perform action
consciously with good determinations, without a desire for selfish enjoyments, and with
a knowledge of the law of action and reaction.
Shankara discusses the nature of action and knowledge and their relation between one
another. Knowledge as Shankara understands it is not the knowledge that the human
being is familiar with. The knowledge of the human being is knowledge of something
other than the knower. It is always knowledge of some object or objects. It is divided
knowledge that separates the object from the subject. It is incomplete knowledge, for, by
it, it is not possible to know the subject and the object at one and the same time. When
the one is known, the other is discarded and forgotten. It is not possible to have whole
knowledge through a process, and perception or human knowledge is evidently a
process. Process means change, and change is movement towards some thing or some
state which marks the process as distinct from perfection. Hence, human knowledge is a
perishable process of an ever non-enduring struggle for perfection. A struggle is not the
same as an achievement, and truly speaking, human knowledge never achieves
anything, substantially. The knowing faculty knows an object only as it wants to know it
and as it is capable of knowing it, and not as the object is really in itself. The form and
the nature of objects are determined by the form and the nature of the conceptual
modifications of the faculty of knowing. Thus human knowledge is simply coating an
existing object the true nature of which is never known. The knowledge of an individual
is simply artificial. This is not the knowledge that Shankara is speaking of when he
distinguishes it from action. Human knowledge is an action alone, because it is
produced by the motion of the mind and the senses. The knowledge propounded in the
Advaita Vedanta is objectless knowledge, and it is never produced but realised. It is not
the knowledge of something but the knowledge of the knower himself. It is
atma-
Essays on the Upanishads by Swami Krishnananda
4
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