Thursday, January 19, 2012
Aruni Upanishad
Translated by Swami Madhavananda
Published by Advaita Ashram, Kolkatta
Om ! Let my limbs and speech, Prana, eyes, ears, vitality And all the senses grow in strength. All existence is the Brahman of the Upanishads. May I never deny Brahman, nor Brahman deny me. Let there be no denial at all: Let there be no denial at least from me. May the virtues that are proclaimed in the Upanishads be in me, Who am devoted to the Atman; may they reside in me. Om ! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment ! Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
1. Om. Aruna’s son went to the sphere of Brahma, the Creator, and reaching there said, “Lord, in what way can I relinquish work altogether ?” Brahma said to him: You must give up your sons, brothers, friends, and the rest, your hair-tuft and the holy thread, your sacrifices and books regulating them, your scriptures; must give up the (seven upper) spheres entitled Bhur, Bhuvar, Svar, Mahar, Jana, Tapas, and Satya, and the (seven nether) spheres, viz., Atala, Patala, Vitala, Sutala, Rasatala, Talatala and Mahatala, together with the (whole) universe; and must take on the staff and the scanty clothing of the Sannyasin; you must renounce everything else, aye, everything else.
2. The householder, or the Brahmachari, or the Vanaprashta should commit the fires that lead to the different spheres to the fire that is in the stomach, and consign the sacred Mantra, Gayatri, to the fire that is in his own speech, should throw the holy thread on the ground or into water. The Kutichara living a Brahmachari’s life should give up his relatives, and discard his begging bowl, and the straining-cloth, should give up his triple staves, and the fires that lead to particular spheres. (So said Prajapati). Henceforward he should behave like one who has got no Mantra to repeat, should give up the desire to go to the higher spheres, bathe at the beginning of the three meeting-points of the day, viz., morning, noon, and evening, should effect a union with his Atman through the highest concentration, and from amongst the (whole range of the) Vedas should repeat only the Aranyakas, only the Upanishads, aye, nothing but the Upanishads.
3. Verily I am Brahman, the Sutra; the Sutra is Brahman for It originates (the cosmos); I myself am the sutra because I am a man of realisation – the wise one who has realised this should give up his triple holy thread. “I have renounced, I have renounced, I have renounced” – uttering this thrice he should declare – “From me there is no fear (in word, thought, or deed) to any being, for from me everything has proceeded”. Uttering the Mantra – “That art my friend, so protect me (from cows, serpents, etc.), thou art strength and my friend, in all seen and unseen danger thou art the Thunder of the Lord of the Universe”, etc., he should hold up high the bamboo staff and put on the loin-cloth. He should take food as if it were medicine, aye, as if it were medicine. Carefully guard (oh, ye all who are concerned) your chastity (in thought, word and deed), non-injury, non-acceptance of (superfluous) gifts, non-thieving and truthfulness – guard them by all means, aye, do guard !
4. Now then the duties of the highest class of itinerant monks – the Paramahamsa Parivrajakas (are as follows): They must sit and lie down on the ground. Those having already taken the vow of chastity etc., should use an earthen bowl or one made of gourd, or a wooden bowl; they should give up lust anger, avarice, infatuation, ostentation, haughtiness, jealousy, attachment to objects, egotism, falsehood and the like. The Sannyasin should stay at one place during the four months of the rainy season and during the remaining eight months wander alone, or with a single companion, aye, a single companion.
5. Verily one who has realised the (true) import of the Vedas may give up those things (previously enumerated) after the investiture with the holy thread, or he may do so even before that ceremony – (give up) his father, son, his sacrificial fires, and the holy thread, his works, his wife and all else that he may possess. Sannyasins enter a village for begging purposes only, with their palms or their stomach as the receptacle for food. Uttering “Om” “Om” “Om”, they should mentally place this Mantra, the Upanishad, in the different parts of their body. He who realises the Truth in this manner is really the wise one. He who knows this (and is a Brahmachari taking on the monastic vow) should give up the staff made of the wood of the Palasha (Dhak), Bilva (Marmelos), or Audumbara (Fig) trees, his skin and girdle and the holy thread, etc., and thus be a hero. “That supreme state of the all-pervading Deity the sages realise for all time like the eye pervading from one end of the sky to the other.” “Sages purged of all impurities like anger etc., who have awakened from the sleep (of ignorance), kindle that Truth (in the minds of the enquirers), that supreme state of the all-pervading Deity.” Such indeed is the injunction of the scriptures leading to liberation – the injunction of the Vedas, aye, of the Vedas.
Om ! Let my limbs and speech, Prana, eyes, ears, vitality And all the senses grow in strength. All existence is the Brahman of the Upanishads. May I never deny Brahman, nor Brahman deny me. Let there be no denial at all: Let there be no denial at least from me. May the virtues that are proclaimed in the Upanishads be in me, Who am devoted to the Atman; may they reside in me. Om ! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment ! Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Here ends the Arunyupanishad, included in the Sama-Veda.
Minor Upanishads -
Atma Upanishad
Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier
Published by
The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai
Om ! O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious; May we see with our eyes what is auspicious, O ye worthy of worship ! May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the Devas, Praising them with our body and limbs steady ! May the glorious Indra bless us ! May the all-knowing Sun bless us ! May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us ! May Brihaspati grant us well-being ! Om ! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment ! Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
I-1. Now Angirah: The Spirit, manifests Itself, in three ways: the self, the inner Self and the supreme Self.
I-2. There are the organs – the skin, inner and outer: flesh, hair, the thumb, the fingers, the backbone, the nails, the ankles, the stomach, the navel, the penis, the hip, the thighs, the cheeks, the ears, the brows, the forehead, the hands, the flanks, the head and the eyes; these are born and these die; so they constitute the self.
I-3. Next this inner self is (indicated by the elements) earth, water, fire, air, ether, desire, aversion, pleasure, pain, desire, delusion, doubts, etc., and memory, (marked by) the high pitch and accentlessness, short, long and prolate (vowel sounds), the hearer, smeller, taster, leader, agent and self of knowledge vis-à-vis stumbling, shouting, enjoying, dancing, singing and playing on musical instruments. He is the ancient spirit that distinguishes between Nyaya, Mimamsa and the institutes of law and the specific object of listening, smelling and grasping. He is the inner Self.
I-4. Next the supreme Self, the imperishable, He is to meditated on with (the help of) the Yogic steps, breath control, withdrawal (of sense organs), fixation (of mind), contemplation and concentration, He is to be inferred by the thinkers on the Self as like unto the seed of the Banyan tree or a grain of millet or a hundredth part of a split hair. (Thus) is He won and not known. He is not born, does not die, does not dry, is not wetted, not burnt, does not tremble, is not split, does not sweat. He is beyond the gunas, is spectator, is pure, partless, alone, subtle, owning naught, blemishless, immutable, devoid of sound, touch, colour, taste, smell, is indubitable, non-grasping, omnipresent. He is unthinkable and invisible. He purifies the impure, the unhallowed. He acts not. He is not subject to empirical existence.
II-1. The good named the Atman is pure, one and non-dual always, in the form of Brahman. Brahman alone shines forth.
II-2. Even as the world with its distinctions like affirmation, negation, etc., Brahman alone shines forth.
II-3. With distinctions like teacher and disciples (also), Brahman alone appears. From the point of view of truth, pure Brahman alone is.
II-4. Neither knowledge nor ignorance, neither the world nor aught else (is there).
What sets empirical life afoot is the appearance of the world as real.
II-5(a). What winds up empirical life is (its) appearance as unreal.
II-5(b)-6. What discipline is required to know, ‘this is a pot’, except the adequacy of the means of right knowledge ? Once it is given, the knowledge of the object (supervenes). The ever present Self shines when the means of Its cognition (is present).
II-7. Neither place nor time nor purity is required. The knowledge ‘I am Devadatta’ depends on nothing else.
II-8. Similarly, the knowledge ‘I am Brahman’ of the Knower of Brahman (is independent). Just as the whole world by the sun, by the splendour of the Knowledge of Brahman is everything illumined.
II-9-10(a). What can illumine the non-existent, and illusory, non-Self ? That which endows the Vedas, Shastras, Puranas and all other beings with import – that Knower what will illumine ?
II-10(b)-11. The child ignores hunger and bodily pain and plays with things. In the same way, the happy Brahman-Knower delights (in himself) without the sense of ‘mine’ and ‘I’. Thus the silent sage, alive and alone, the embodiment of desirelessness, treats the objects of desire.
II-12. Existing as the Self of all, he is ever content abiding in his Self. Free from all wealth, he rejoices always: though companionless, he is mighty.
II-13. Though not eating, he is ever content, peerless he looks on all alike: though acting, he does nothing: though partaking of fruit, yet, he is no experiencer thereof.
II-14-17. Living in a body, he is still disembodied; though determinate, he is omnipresent; never is this Brahman-Knower, disembodied and ever existent, affected by the pleasant and the unpleasant or by the good and the evil. Because it appears to be encompassed by Rahu (the darkness), the unencompassed sun is said to be encompassed by deluded men, not knowing the truth. Similarly, deluded folk behold the best of Brahman-Knowers, liberated from the bondage of body, etc., as though he is embodied, since he appears to have a body. The body of the liberated one remains like the shed Slough of the snake.
II-18. Moved a little, hither and thither, by the vital breath, (that body) is borne like a piece of timber, up and down, by the flood waters.
II-19-20. By fate is the body borne into contexts of experiences at appropriate times. (On the contrary) he who, giving up all migrations, both knowledge and unknowable, stays as the pure unqualified Self, is himself the manifest Shiva. He is the best of all Brahman-Knowers. In life itself the foremost Brahman-Knower is the ever free, he has accomplished his End.
II-21. All adjuncts having perished, being Brahman he is assimilated to the non-dual Brahman, like a man who, with (appropriate) apparels, is an actor and without them (resumes his natural state),
II-22(a). In the same way the best of Brahman-Knowers is always Brahman alone and none else.
II-22(b)-23. Just as space becomes space itself when the (enclosing) pot perishes, so, when particular cognitions are dissolved, the Brahman-Knower himself becomes nothing but Brahman, as milk poured into milk, oil into oil, and water into water become (milk, oil and water).
II-24(a). Just as, combined, they become one, so does the Atman-knowing sage in the Atman.
II-24(b). Thus disembodied liberation is the infinite status of Being.
II-25. Having won the status of Brahman, no longer is the Yogin reborn, for his ignorance-born bodies have all been consumed by the experimental knowledge of Being as the Self.
II-26-27(a). Because that Yogin has become Brahman, how can Brahman be reborn ? Bondage and liberation, set up by Maya, are not real in themselves in relation to the Self, just as the appearance and disappearance of the snake are not in relation to the stirless rope.
II-27(b). Bondage and liberation may be described as real and unreal and as due to the nescience (concealment of truth).
II-28-29. Brahman suffers from no concealment whatsoever. It is uncovered, there being nothing other than It (to cover It). The ideas, ‘it is’ and ‘it is not’, as regards Reality, are only ideas in the intellect. They do not pertain to the eternal Reality. So bondage and liberation are set up by Maya and do not pertain to the Self.
II-30. In the supreme Truth as in the sky, impartite, inactive, quiescent, flawless, unstained and non-dual where is room for (mental) construction ?
II-31. Neither suppression nor generation, neither the bond nor the striving: neither the liberty seeking nor the liberated – this is the metaphysical truth.
Om ! O Devas, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious; May we see with our eyes what is auspicious, O ye worthy of worship ! May we enjoy the term of life allotted by the Devas, Praising them with our body and limbs steady ! May the glorious Indra bless us ! May the all-knowing Sun bless us ! May Garuda, the thunderbolt for evil, bless us ! May Brihaspati grant us well-being ! Om ! Let there be Peace in me ! Let there be Peace in my environment ! Let there be Peace in the forces that act on me !
Here ends the Atmopanishad, as contained in the Atharva-Veda.
(My humble salutations to Sree Swamyji and Sree A G Krishna Warrier for the collection)
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