KENOPANISHAD : Section-1, Mantram-2 Post : 5 - Swami Krishnananda

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Tuesday, August 25, 2020. 8:03. AM.
SECTION -1
Mantram -2
Post-5.
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Mantra 2 :

"Srotrasya Srotram manaso mano yad
vaco ha vacam sa u pranasya pranah
cakshusas-cakshur-atimucyadhirah
pretya-smallokad-amarta-bhavanti."
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Translation :

Srotrasya = of the ear;
srotram = the ear;
manasah = of the mind;
manah = the mind;
yad vacah = of the speech;
ha vacam = this is the speech;
sa u = the very same He is;
pranasya = of the "life";
pranah = the 'life';
cakshusah = of the eye;
cakshuh = the very eye;
atimucya = having abandened ( having transcended );
dhirah = the bravely wise;
pretya = having gone away;
asmanu lokad =  from this world ( of senses );
amruta = Immortal;
bhavanti = become.
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Discourse :

1.
The Self is the hearing consciousness of the ear, and similarly, the consciousness of the other different sense-functions. The organs of hearing, seeing, etc. are not capable of functioning without Self awareness. The nature of the Self can be defined by what it is not and not by what it is. The Self, as it is in itself, is indefinable, because it is devoid of the characteristics that a definition requires. It is not a substance with attributes, nor is it an individual directing the senses, etc. It is nothing to the senses and the mind, though it is everything to itself.

Through the acts of deliberation, volition and determination, it is possible for us to infer the nature of the Self. The born, the originated and the compounded substances cannot be explained and accounted for except on the basis of an unborn, an unoriginated and an uncompounded being. The world of experience is the indicator of the existence of an eternal being. The acceptance of our finitude posits the existence of the Infinite. That we are imperfect means that there is a perfect being. But it is not possible for us to presume that we are perfect now itself, because our experience revolts against that conclusion.

When the absence of anything brings about troubles and calamities, the value of its existence is realised. When, without something, nothing can be explained, we have to admit the reality of that something. No experience is explicable except on the substratum of a permanent Self. The feeling of “I” within us refuses to be rejected and asserts itself even before we begin to think. Consciousness is presupposed by thinking. Anything that is a composite of parts must be dependent on a non-composite wholeness of being.

Differences can be explained only by non-difference. Corporeality has got a value only on the hypothesis of an incorporeal being. We give value to our bodily existence because we confound the indivisible Self with the divisible body. The senses disagree among one another, but this disagreement is reconciled and set into harmony by the unifying Self within.

2.
In the state of waking, consciousness pervades the body, even as fire makes an iron ball red hot, when it is heated. It becomes difficult to distinguish between the fire and iron in that condition. Similarly the body appears to be the Self because of this pervasion of consciousness over the senses and the body.

But consciousness is different from the senses and the body, even as fire is different from the iron ball. Self-revelation is the nature of the Self. Because of it the senses reveal to us objects. They die without it. As the sun illumines the world, the Self illumines the mind and the body. Thus it is proved that the body is not the Self and that the mind also is not the Self.

To be continued ...

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