Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Minor Upanishad
Translated by Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier
Published by
The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai
Om ! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. (Then) taking the infinitude of the infinite (universe), It remains as the infinite (Brahman) alone.
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. I shall raise and answer (questions covering) all that must be known for liquidating the misfortunes of living beings plunged in ignorance.
2. (1) What is Brahman ? (2) Who is God ? (3) Who is living being ? (4) What is Prakriti ? (5) Who is the Supreme Self ? (6) Who is Brahma ? (7) Who is Vishnu ? (8) Who is Rudra ? (9) Who is Indra ? (10) Who is (the god of) Death ? (11) Who is the Sun ? (12) Who is the Moon ? (13) Who are the Gods ? (14) Who are the demons ? (15) Who are the evil spirits ? (16) Who are men ? (17) Who are women ? (18) Who are animals and so forth ? (19) What is the immobile ? (20) Who are the Brahmanas, etc., ? (21) What is a caste ? (22) What is deed ? (23) What is a non-deed ? (24) What is knowledge ? (25) What is ignorance ? (26) What is pleasure ? (27) What is pain ? (28) What is heaven ? (29) What is hell ? (30) What is bondage ? (31) What is liberation ? (32) What is to be adored ? (33) Who is the disciple ? (34) Who is the sage ? (35) Who is the deluded ? (36) What is the demoniac ? (37) What is austerity ? (38) Which is the supreme abode ? (39) What is to be sought after ? (40) What is to be rejected ? (41) Who is the renouncer (Sannyasin) ?
3. (1) Brahman is the ineffable Spirit. It appears as the Mahat (the Sankhyan Great), the ego, (the elements) earth, water, fire, air and ether – the macrocosm and as actions, knowledge and ends. It is non-dual and free from all adjuncts. It is big with all powers and is without beginning and end. It may be spoken of as pure, good, quiescent, unqualified.
4. (2) God is the veritable Brahman that, depending on Its power called Prakriti creates the worlds and enters (into them) as the inner Controller of Brahma, etc., (He) is Ishvara, as He controls the intellect and the sense-organs.
5. (3) The living being (Jiva) is he who, through false superimposition, affirms ‘I am gross’ due to ‘the name and form’ of Brahma, Vishnu, Isana, Indra, etc. (Jiva thinks): Though I am one, due to the differences of the causes that originate the body, the Jivas are many.
6. (4) Prakriti is but the power of Brahman; it is intellectual in nature and competent to create the variegated and marvellous world from (the matrix) of Brahman.
7. (5) The supreme Self is Brahman alone being altogether different from body, etc.
8-9. (6-20) Brahma, Vishnu, Indra, (the god of) Death, the Sun, the Moon, the gods, the demons, men, women, animals, etc.; the immobile the Brahmanas, etc.; are that very Spirit.
10. (21) Neither skin nor blood nor flesh nor bone has caste; To self is caste ascribed through mere usage.
11. (22) ‘I do the deeds that are done through sense-organs’ – the deed thus done as centred in the Self alone is the deed (in question).
12. (23) The deed done with conceit as agent and enjoyer, causing birth, etc., binds; The non-deed is the obligatory and occasional action – sacrifice, holy vow, austerity, gifts, etc., done without desire for their fruit.
13. (24) Knowledge is the immediate realization, due to the disciplining of body and sense-organs, service rendered to the Teacher, hearing, thinking and meditation, that there is nothing but Spirit, the essence of both subjects and objects, which is immutable among the mutables like pots and clothes, the same in all, their innermost (essence).
14. (25) Ignorance is the illusory knowledge – like that of the snake in the rope – of Brahman that is All in all, all-pervasive and non-dual. (This illusory knowledge) is associated with a plurality of selves based on the plurality of the adjuncts of bondage and liberation, viz.; stations in life, castes, men, women, the immobiles, mankind, (lower) animals and gods.
15. (26) Pleasure is the blissful state that succeeds the knowledge of the essence of Being, Intelligence and Bliss. (27) It (Dukha - pain) is the mere Sankalpa (or the thinking) of the objects of mundane existence (or of not-Self).
16. (28) Heaven is the association with the holy.
17. (29) Association with the worldly folk who are unholy alone is hell.
18. (30) Bondage consists in imagining due to the beginningless latent impressions of nescience, ‘I am born, etc.’
19. Bondage consists in imagining a plunge into the flux of existence with its possessive claims on fields, gardens, houses, children, wives, brothers, mothers and fathers.
20. Bondage is the conceit of egoistic agency in regard to actions, etc.
21. Bondage is the imagination prompted by the desire for the eight powers, anima, etc.
22. Bondage is the imagination prompted by the yearning for adoring gods, men, etc.
23. Bondage is the imagination (leading to) the practice of Yoga with its eight limbs, Yama, etc.
24. Bondage is the planning of action and duties bound up with castes and stations of life.
25. Bondage is to imagine that Atman has qualities like doubts, fear, etc.
26. Bondage is to plan (to acquire) knowledge, to perform sacrifices, vows, austerity and (make) gifts.
27. Bondage is to plan to devote oneself exclusively to moksha.
28. Bondage is what springs exclusively from imagination.
29. (31) Liberation is the attenuation, through discrimination between the eternal and the ephemeral, of the sense of ownership in regard to objects that generate fleeting pleasures and pains in the transmigratory life.
30. (32) Adorable is the teacher who leads one to Brahman, the Spirit dwelling in all bodies.
31. (33) The disciple is Brahman indeed that remains altogether immersed in the knowledge of the world as obliterated by the awareness (of its ground, viz., Brahman).
32. (34) The sage is the knower of the essence of Self-awareness present in all as their innermost (part).
33. (35) The deluded is he who is sustained by the conceit of egoism as regards agency, etc.
34. (36) Demoniac is the austerity, rooted in entrenched attachment, aversion, destructive violence, hypocrisy, etc.; that torments oneself by performing ‘repetition of holy names’ and Agnihotra while fasting and that is prompted by the desire to secure the power of gods like Brahma, Vishnu, Indra and Isana.
35. (37) Austerity is the burning, in the fire of immediate realization of the world’s falsity, of the seed of imagination fashioned by the desire to secure the power of Brahma, etc.
36. (38) The supreme abode is Brahman’s status, one of eternal freedom, comprising Being, Intelligence, and Bliss, beyond the qualities of the inner organ and the sense-organs and the vital breaths.
37. (39) To be sought after is the essence of the pure Spirit undetermined by space, time and objects.
38. (40) To be rejected is the thought that true is the world other than one’s own Self that is perceived by the false sense organs and the intellect.
39. (41) The Sannyasin (mendicant monk) is the wandering independent ascetic who has known for certain, in the indeterminate concentration (Nirvikalpa-Samadhi), ‘I am Brahman’. He is led upto it through the experiential knowledge of the contents of Major texts like: ‘There is no plurality here’; ‘All this is Brahman’; 'That Thou Art', etc.; after renouncing all duties, sense of possession and the ego, and taking refuge in the beloved Brahman. That ascetic is liberated; he is adorable; he is the Yogin; he is the Immense; he is the Brahmana.
Om ! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite. The infinite proceeds from the infinite. (Then) taking the infinitude of the infinite (universe), It remains as the infinite (Brahman) alone.
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 Niralambopanishad belonging to the Sukla-Yajur-Veda.
(My humble salutations to Sreeman A G Krishna Warrier for the collection )
Minor Upanishad
Nirvana UpanishadTranslated by Prof. A. A. Ramanathan
Published by The Theosophical Publishing House, Chennai
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Om ! May my speech be based on (i.e. accord with) the mind; May my mind be based on speech. O Self-effulgent One, reveal Thyself to me. May you both (speech and mind) be the carriers of the Veda to me. May not all that I have heard depart from me. I shall join together (i.e. obliterate the difference of) day And night through this study. I shall utter what is verbally true; I shall utter what is mentally true. May that (Brahman) protect me; May That protect the speaker (i.e. the teacher), may That protect me; May that protect the speaker – may That protect the speaker.
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. Now we shall expound the Nirvanopanishad.
2. The Paramahamsa: I am He.
3. The mendicant monks who wear marks of renunciation inwardly. [They are the ascetics entitled to study this Upanishad.]
4. (They are) the protectors of the field in which I-ness (indicative of the separateness of the Self) is destroyed.
5. Their settled conclusion is partless like ether.
6. (Their heart) is the river of immortal waves.
7. (Their heart) is imperishable and unconditioned.
8. (Their preceptor) is the (realized) sage free from doubts.
9. The divine being (they adore is) final beatitude.
10. Their activity is free of family (and other) ties.
11. Their knowledge is not isolated.
12. (They study and/or teach) the higher scripture.
13. (They constitute) the propless monastic centre.
14. Their dedication (is to reveal Brahman) to a group (of worthy disciples).
15. The instruction is the non-existence (of things other than Brahman).
16. This dedication brings joy and purification (to the disciples).
17. Their sight is (like) seeing the twelve suns.
18. Discrimination (of the real from the unreal) is (their) protection.
19. Their compassion aloe is the sport.
20. (They wear) the garland of bliss.
21. In the cave of one seat (is) their audience of happiness, free from restrictions of yoga-postures.
22. (They) subsist on food not prepared (specially for them).
23. Their conduct is in consonance with the realization of the oneness of the Self and Brahman (Hamsa).
24. They demonstrate to disciples (by their conduct) that Brahman is present in all beings.
25. True conviction is their patched garment. Non-alignment is their loin-cloth. Reflection (of the truths of the Vedanta) is their (emblematic-)staff. The vision of Brahman (as non-different from the Self) is their yoga-cloth. Sandals (consist in avoiding contact with worldly) wealth. Activity (for bare living) at the behest of others. Their bondage (is only in the desire to direct) the Kundalini (into the Susumna). Liberated while alive, as they are freed from denial of the highest (Brahman). The oneness with Siva is their sleep. True knowledge (by denying joy in Avidya) or the Khechari-mudra is their supreme bliss.
26. The (bliss of) Brahman is free from the (three) qualities (Sattva, Rajas and Tamas).
27. (Brahman) is realized by discrimination (of the real from the unreal) (and) it is beyond the reach of the mind and speech.
28. The phenomenal world is impermanent as it is produced (from Brahman which alone is real); it is similar to a world seen in a dream and an elephant in the sky (i.e. illusory): similarly the cluster of things such as the body is perceived by a network of a multitude of delusions and it is fancied to exist as a serpent in a rope (due to imperfect knowledge).
29. The (worship of) gods named Vishnu, Brahma and a hundred others culminates (in Brahman).
30. The goad is the path.
31. (The path) is not void, only conventional.
32. The strength of the supreme Lord (is the support to the aerial path).
33. The Yoga accomplished by truth is the monastery.
34. The position (heaven) of gods does not constitute its real nature.
35. The prime source Brahman is self-realization.
36. (The ascetic) shall meditate on the absence of distinction, based on the Gayatri through the Ajapa Mantra.
37. Restraint on the mind is the patched garment.
38. By Yoga (there is) the vision (experience) of the nature of everlasting bliss.
39. Bliss is the alms that he enjoys.
40. Residence even in the great cemetery is as in a pleasure garden.
41. A solitary place is the monastery.
42. Complete quiescence of the mind is the practice of Brahmavidya.
43. His movement is to unmani state.
44. His pure body is the propless seat of dignity.
45. His activity is the bliss of the waves of immortality.
46. The ether of consciousness is the great established conclusion.
47. Instruction in the emancipating mantra results in efficiency of bodily limbs and mind for possessing divine power in practising tranquillity, self-restraint, etc., and in the realization of the oneness of the (so-called) higher and lower Self.
48. The presiding deity (of the Taraka) is the everlasting bliss of non-duality.
49. The voluntary religious observance is the restraint of the inner senses.
50. Renouncing (tyaga) is the giving up of fear, delusion, sorrow and anger.
51. (Renouncing results is) the enjoyment of bliss in the identity of the higher and lower (self).
52. Unrestrainedness is pure power.
53. When the reality of Brahman shines in the self there is the annihilation of the phenomenal world which is enveloped by the power of Shiva (Maya); similarly the burning of the existence or non-existence of the aggregate of the causal, subtle and gross bodies.
54. He realizes Brahman as the prop of the ether.
55. The auspicious fourth state is the sacred thread; the tuft (too) consists of that.
56. (To him) the created world consists of consciousness; (so also) the immovable and the group of various beings.
57. Uprooting (the effect of) karman is (mere) talk; in the cemetery (Self-Brahman), illusion, ‘mine-ness’ and ego have been burnt.
58. (The realized Parivrajaka) has his body intact.
59. Meditation on the true form which is beyond the three attributes (of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas); (even this) condition (of distinction ‘I am Brahman’) is a delusion which shall be annihilated The burning of the attitude of passion, etc., (ought to be done). The loin cloth ought to be rough and tight (so that the vital energy moves upward in perpetual celibacy). Deer-skin garment for long (and later to be unclad). The unstruck mantra (the Om in the fourth state turiya) is practised by refraining from (worldly) action. Conducting himself freely (as he has reached a stage which is beyond good and bad, he realizes) his true nature which is liberation.
60. His conduct (of serving a primary Avadhuta) as a ship (to cross the ocean of worldly life and) reach the transcendent Brahman; practising celibacy till tranquillity is attained; getting instruction in the stage of a celibate student, or learning (the truth) in the stage of a dweller in the forest (Vanaprastha) he (embraces) renunciation wherein all (true) knowledge is established; at the end he becomes of the form of the indivisible Brahman, the eternal, the annihilator of all doubts.
61. This Nirvanopanishad (the secret doctrine leading to final beatitude) shall not be imparted to one other than a disciple or a son. Thus (ends) the Upanishad.
Om ! May my speech be based on (i.e. accord with) the mind; May my mind be based on speech. O Self-effulgent One, reveal Thyself to me. May you both (speech and mind) be the carriers of the Veda to me. May not all that I have heard depart from me. I shall join together (i.e. obliterate the difference of) day And night through this study. I shall utter what is verbally true; I shall utter what is mentally true. May that (Brahman) protect me; May That protect the speaker (i.e. the teacher), may That protect me; May that protect the speaker – may That protect the speaker.
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 Nirvanopanishad, as contained in the Rig-Veda.
(My humble salutations to Sreeman A A Ramanadhan for the collection)
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