Kena Upanishad Patrt II

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Shri Ken has very nicely synthesised the Mahavakyas and blended them into the

meaning and purport of this concise Upanishad.

 

Has not Sankara stated in his Laghu Vakya Vritti as follows:

 

"Vaakya Vrityaa yatha shakti gyathvaa abhyasyataam sadaa."

 

Meaning: by the help of the Maha Vaakyaas,to the extent of one's capacity, one

should constantly practice the Unity of the self with its true Self ( which is

Brahman.)

 

Swami Sharvananda , in his commentory on Part II -Verse 4- of Kenopanishad ,

states as follows:

 

Atman is never experienced as an object like the things of relartive experience.

But along with everymental modification that gives rise to the relative

experiences of life, the Atman is , as it were, blended, just as the experience

of fire is blended in the experience of a red hot iron ball.For it is the

intelligence, that is, the Atman which gives self-awareness to thoughts or

mental modifications. The ignorant man lacking in fineness of understanding, is

not able to disentangle the Atman,Who is thus implied as their Witness, in

everyone of our cognitions as well as in the states of waking, dream and

sleep,which contain all these cognitions.For the truely enlightened man,however

,every one of these mental modifictions means the simultenious revelation of the

Atman as their Witness and substratum -Prati-bodha-viditum.

 

It must,however,be noted that It is spoken of as the witness,only as long as It

is thought of as in relation to the mental modifications which It vivifies by

Its awareness. In Nirvikalpa samaadhi (the pure and unconditioned state of

Divine conciousness) these modifications disappear,or rather sink into thei

rwitnessing and vivifying substratum,namely the Atman.Then it is no longer

spoken of as witness,though it remains the same entity;for when the objects

dissappear,there is no meaning in speaking of the witness. It is only after the

attainment of nirvikalpa samadhi that one really obtains the knowledge needed to

disentangle the Atman as witness in and through every mentral modification on

their re-appearing after the samadhi.

 

Hari Om!

 

Swaminarayan

 

 

 

 

 

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