THE CENTRE OF THE CENTRE:-

Chapter:-1.

Mantram:-5.

Yan-manasa-na  manute  yena  hur  mano  matam

tadeva  Brahma  tvam  viddhi  nedam  yad-idam-upasate.

What one cannot feel with the mind, but because of which they say that the mind feels............know That alone as Brahmam and not this, which people do worship here.

TheTeacher in Kenopanisad prevents the disciples attention from its usual channels of superstitious beliefs and directs it towards nobler line of thinking by which he could independently become aware of his own Real Nature. Thus, here, in this mantram, the Master says  that the principle of Reality cannot be cognized by the perceptions  of the mind but, at the same time, all the mind's  'capacities to perceive things' can function only when the mind is presided over by the 'Life Aspect' in it.

Example:-1.

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A bulb has no light of its own but it become incandescent when it is energised by electric current. Thus, the current is that which makes the filament in the bulb glow; but at the same time the illumination in the bulb is not itself the current. Similarly here, the mind cannot of its own accord feel spirituality, but all the feelings of the mind are possible only because of its contact with the spirit ( The Reality or Truth or Atma or Chaithanya  or Lord within us ).

 

 Example:-2.

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We have already seen how a driver cannot run over by the very same car he is driving. The moment the driver comes in front of the car, since it has no independent movement of its own, the car stops! Similarly, when the mind takes a 'right-about-turn' to the Conscious -Principle.  It becomes  naturally incapable of perceiving anything.

Example:-3.

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An inert pot  cannot perceive anything that is happening around it. Similarly, bereft of the Spirit. The mind has only as much power of perception as a pot in the kitchen!

Upasana:-( Devotion)

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During Upasana,  the  devotee is apt to feel that his mental vision of the Lord is the Supreme Reality. A devotee may come to see or he may feel that he is seeing, in an ecstatic experience,  visions of Rama or Krishna. Whether it be inner vision of a deity or the outer vision of a cinema star, the mental vision is only a vision and it cannot be of the Supreme Realty. The Rishi here says, That alone is Brahmam by which the mind comes to perceive things of its own accord it cannot perceive  and not which you worship here in the world.

Life Centre:-

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The life centre in us, in the presence of which the mind seems to be moving about, and because of which it has got an existence, is the Total Centre of all, the centre of centre  that vitalises you and me, the "CHAITHANYAM "that would be vitalising your children and grand children, the TOTAL TRUTH -"BRAHMAM".