The Golden Prayer

[Guest guest]

Gummuluru Murthy on 18th Dec. asked for an interpretation of verses 15

and 16 of IzopaniSad. I have attempted one below

 

The Golden Prayer

 

The verses 15 and 16 of IzopaniSad translate as follows:

 

The face of Reality is hidden by the golden container. Reveal it, O

Sun, so that I may visualise the dharma of the Self as Truth. O Lord

of Light, the only Seer, Controller of all, the Sun, Giver of Life to

all, spread apart your rays, gather up your brilliance, so that I may

perceive the wondrous Form of your being; For I myself am That.

 

The Sun is the only visible representative of the Supreme Truth,

Divine Light, brahman. There are only three locations in which one can

visualise that brahman in this earthly world: One is the Sun, the

second is the inside of the heart, the third is the space between the

eyebrows. Incidentally, this last one gives the esoteric reason why

Hinduism insists on a tilak or mark between the eyebrows. Of these

three since the Sun itself can be visualised as brahman, the worship

of brahman, the ultimate, through worship of the Sun is the easiest to

practise. He is the One therefore who illuminates from within. Our

limited consciousness has to open up to the infinite Consciousness

represented by the Sun. The allegory of the golden container is full

of meaning. The Sanskrit word 'pAtra' is derived from the definition:

'pIyate anena iti pAtram' - that by which we 'drink', i.e.,

experience. We experience the good and bad results of our past karma

from this reservoir of our samskAra which brings forth our cycle of

births and deaths. There are three seeds for this sprouting forth of

our samskAras or vAsanas. The three are: Light (cit), Existence (sat)

and Love (Ananda). They respectively activate, our Intelligence from

its states of ignorance and inertness, our Life (i.e., birth and

death) from its state of formless subtlety and our Mind through its

states of Love and Hate. These activations express themselves in our

wish to know, our wish to live, and our wish to enjoy - these three

being in turn sustained by one's father through knowledge, one's

mother through food, and one's spouse through pleasure and

companionship. This then is the whole cycle of our samsAra. The

resservoir for all this is the golden container representing the

reservoir of all our vAsanAs.

The Creator, brahmA through whom this blossoms in the world as Life is

called hiraNya-garbha (= Golden Conception) in this charge of His. So

the rays of the Sun which are golden in colour, and which constitute

the blinding factor (the veil of ignorance) for not allowing us to

see the Sun, the Reality, constitute, as it were, the golden

container of our vAsanAs. The only Seer is hiraNya-garbha, who sees

it all through. Our individuality, our names and forms, our inner

organ of Mind with all its ramifications, its accessories in the form

of sense organs - all these are created by this hiraNya-garbha, who

gives the Light, to all of them. He is therefore the savitA, the Sun.

So we ask Him, plead with Him and request Him to remove the blinding

rays from himself, because the seeds of our samskAras are with Him,

so that we can see Him as He really is. He is the one who can make us

transcend our individuality and make us see the Oneness and realise

that 'What I see is Myself; I am this Purusha' I am brahman - aham

brahma asmi.

V. Krishnamurthy