Bhagavad Gita 15:11, Katha Upanishad 1:2:23 and the Mundaka Upanishad 3:2:3
These three texts are the subject of the lecture; they’re connected – the Gita 15:11, the Katha Upanishad 1:2:23 and the Mundaka 3:2:3. I’ll read them:
The Gita:
“Those who strive, being yogis, perceive Him dwelling in the Self; though striving, those of unrefined self, without wisdom, perceive Him not.”
In his commentary on this verse, Shri Shankara follows very closely, though he doesn’t quote it, the Katha Upanishad:
“This Self cannot be known through many words, nor through the intellect, nor through much hearing. It can be known through the Self alone, that one prays to. This Self of that seeker uncovers its true nature to him. One who has not ceased from bad conduct, whose senses are not controlled, whose mind is not set in samadhi, who is not free from anxiety, cannot attain this Self even through knowledge.”
In the Mundaka, the first verse is the same as the Katha above:
“This Self cannot be known through many words, nor through the intellect, nor through much hearing. It can be known through the Self alone, that one prays to. This Self of that seeker, uncovers its true nature to him. This Self is not attained by one devoid of strength, nor through delusion, nor through knowledge if not associated with sannyasa (renunciation), but the Self of that Self-knower, who strives through these means, enters into the abode of Brahman.”
The Gita verse: “Those who strive, being yogis (‘when they are yogis’, Shankara says), they perceive Him dwelling in the Self. Though striving, those of unrefined self, perceive Him not.” In his commentary, Shankara says even though they pursue the quest for the Self through the proper means – the study, the scriptural texts and reasoning on them – they do not know him unless they are yogis. He defines yogis as those who are expert in meditation. This theme comes again and again in Shri Shankara – knowledge is the means to liberation; karma is the means to experience in the world. Knowledge is the means to liberation. Yet he gives accessories to knowledge which are essential; and yet in other places he says knowledge alone; and in still other places, he says these things follow naturally from knowledge; and in other places he enjoins them as though they didn’t follow naturally from knowledge.
We can say, “Well, too many contradictions.” Our teacher said there are no contradictions in Shri Shankara – but we must study everything that he says, not only one or two [points]. At a certain time of the year a tree is brought into the house and the children admire it. It’s set down, and they expect it to grow. The older one says, “It’s very, very slow to grow, but we’ll measure some of its little branches and after a week I expect they’ll be an inch longer.” Then they put ornaments on it and a star at the top, but it still doesn’t grow. Then, to the disappointment of the little ones, it begins to wither; and they think, “Perhaps it’s just for a little bit.” But then another branch begins to wither and turn brown and finally it’s thrown away. This is a tree, but it’s not a tree. It’s called a tree, but it’s no tree. Two of the oldest systems of writing which, as far as we can tell, were developed independently have a picture for a tree. The Egyptian one – they had time in Egypt – they drew a trunk and the branches, and then little branches. Or, if they were in more of a hurry, they drew it [more simply]. That is their picture of a tree. But the Chinese picture of a tree is quite different. The top part of the tree is very small compared with the roots. They had insight. They knew this (the trunk and branches) isn’t the whole tree – the tree goes on down [below]. In the same way, the Egyptian symbol for grass showed [the grass above the ground], but the Chinese picture, with insight, showed the roots.
Because the Christmas tree had no root, however attractive it looks, however many ornaments we may put on it, we shall never have the fragrance or the beauty, because it’s not ours. It has been developed somewhere else, by someone else. Then it’s been taken away from its root and it’s been brought like a present. In the same way, the spiritual truth grown by someone else can be, so to speak, packed up and brought, and it looks very beautiful; but it has no roots and so, when the time comes, we can’t rely on it. It will give us no fragrance, no beauty in the garden. The proper way to make the tree our own is to take a seed from a living tree. Then we must plant it in our own garden, and we must help it to grow – we can’t make it grow, but we help it to grow by removing the obstructions. Then this will grow downwards, not only upwards – and then it will become our own. In the same way, the spiritual truth has to be planted like a seed and go very deep into the man, not only upwards into the intellect and the feeling; and however many ornaments it may have on it, unless it has deep roots, it’s not a living thing. This is one illustration. It must go deep.
In the classic called the Ramayama, translated in to three volumes by our teacher, another example is given, which is called ‘churning the ocean’. Churning is a spiritual process, in which the depths of the being are touched. The gods and the demons cooperate to churn the ocean, because they are told by the supreme Spirit that something wonderful will come out. These are cosmic actions put in this form, just as we now say the ‘big bang’ for a particular creation theory. Although it couldn’t have been a big bang, because it couldn’t have been big or small if it was all there was; and a bang is a sound, a pressure wave travelling through a medium, and there was then no medium through which it could travel. But, nevertheless, the phrase very well sums up the cosmological theory. It has a very vivid and explicit significance to tell us – it sums up the theory very well.
In the same way these stories that are told us are not imaginary in the sense that they have no basis.
Titles in this series are:
1. Bhagavad Gita, Katha the Mundaka Upanishads
3. Spiritual energy springs up
The full talk is Seeking the Self
© Trevor Leggett