The Principal Upanishads by Alan Jacobs

Author:Alan Jacobs
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Sacred Texts: Principal Upanishads
ISBN: 9781780284514
Publisher: Watkins Media
Published: 2011-12-30T05:00:00+00:00

Part 4

1. Then Gargya asked Pippalada:

“What is it that sleeps in the individual?

What keeps awake in him or her?

What God enjoys the dreams?

Whose is the enjoyment?

To whom is all this happening?”

2. Pippalada replied:

“As all sunbeams

At sunset become one

And then spread out at dawn,

So does this all become One

In the Supreme.

In that state

The person does not hear,

See,

Smell,

Taste,

Touch,

Speak,

Taste,

Rejoice,

Emit,

Or move.

He sleeps.

3. The fires of Life Force alone

Burn in this City.

The householder’s fire is the exhalation,

The southern sacrificial

Fire is the retention,

Inhalation is the fire of

The offering.

4. Retained breath

Equalizes the inhalation

And exhalation.

The fruit of the sacrifice

Is the inhalation.

The ego is the sacrifice,

It leads to Brahman every day.

Life is seen as a sacrifice – in modern terms the ego is sacrificed or surrendered to God or the Self or Consciousness. The ancient science of pranayama is invoked here. Verse 5 refers to dreams.

5. In sleep, God ruling as mind

Experiences majesty.

He or she sees again the objects,

He or she recalls

Whatever he or she has heard,

Whatever he or she has experienced,

He enjoys all and is all he sees.

6. When overwhelmed

By light of the Self,

Then the ruler God of mind

Does not dream,

Happiness arises.

As in dreamless sleep – an analogy of Self-Realization, or the no-mind state. See also the Mandukya Upanishad.

7. Even as beautiful birds

Fly to a tree and rest,

So do all here fly

To the Supreme Self,

Where they find rest

In dreamless sleep.

8. There is Earth,

Water,

Fire,

Air,

Ether,

Seeing,

Hearing,

Smelling,

Tasting,

Touching

The phallus,

And what can be enjoyed,

The organ of excretion

And what can be expected,

The feet and its walking,

The mind-brain and what can

Be cognized.

The sense of Self-Awareness

And its connection,

Thinking and what can be thought,

Radiance and what can be lit up,

Life Breath and all it supports.

This is a statement of the Sankhya philosophic categories, five cosmic elements and ten organs of action.

9. He truly is a Seer,

A Rishi who sees,

Hears,

Smells,

Farts,

Perceives,

Conceives,

Acts,

Whose essence

Is Self-Knowledge,

The Supreme Person

Who dwells in

The imperishable Self

Of Consciousness, Reality, Love.

10. He who knows

The shadowless,

Bodiless,

Transparent,

Pure,

Imperishable

Self,

Touches the Supreme Atman-Brahman,

Self of Consciousness,

Reality, Love.

He who knows ‘That’ Self

In which resides intelligence,

Vital breaths,

The elements,

The divine powers,

Omniscience,

Enters the ‘All’.”

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