re Kena Upanisad/tadvana

[Guest guest]

Help please.

 

Having waffled my way through the Kena Upanishad I had

a question arise for myself. Then last Saturday I was

having a group of friends round and the same question

arose. I could only speculate on an answer so I am

sending out smoke signals to you all for help.

 

In the 4th. Part of the Kena there is the

extraordinary verse mentioning tadvana and Swami

Gambhirananda says that meditating on tadvana was an

ancient tradition of the Rishis.

 

At first glance the word means: 'his forest' and I

could speculate on this being in the terms of the

abundant growth of the forest hence: his abundance.

This makes some kind of sense but is only speculation.

 

Does anyone know of any tradition in the use of

tadvana and/or have any comment to make on this verse

in the light of advaita?

 

Many thanks

 

Ken Knight

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

ken knight <hilken_98 wrote:

Help please.

 

In the 4th. Part of the Kena there is the

extraordinary verse mentioning tadvana and Swami

Gambhirananda says that meditating on tadvana was an

ancient tradition of the Rishis.

 

--------------

 

Dear Ken,

 

Your reference is to sloka 6 in Part 4 of the Upanishad.The relevent portion

being:

 

"Taddha tadvanam naama tadvanamitupaasitavyam."

 

meaning: 'tat'-that (Brahman) 'ha tadvanam'- Tadvanam (lit.adorable as being the

Atman of all) 'naama'- known.('tasmat Brahma'-therefore Brahman)'tadvanam

iti'-as Tadvanam 'upaasitavyam'-should be meditated upon.

 

Explaining this further, Swami Sharvananda in his commentary on this Upanishad

states:

 

Brahman is well known as Tadvana,the one deserving to be worshipped as Atman of

all living beings.So it is to be meditated upon as Tadvana.

 

The Swami goes on to explain further stating as follows:

 

It may be noted here that in the first Part, the Upanishad seems to criticize

the worship and meditation of the common pople by the repeated expression "And

not this that they worship here". here however,worship of Brahman as Tadvana is

inculcted.The idea here seems to be that what is at first discouraged is the

worship of minor deities for gaining worldly blessings. The worship of the one

Deity,immanent in all,is always desirable as the best means of progress in

spiritual life.

 

Hari Om!

 

Swaminrayan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

--- Swaminarayan T <tvswaminarayan wrote:

>The idea here seems to be that what is at

> first discouraged is the worship of minor deities

> for gaining worldly blessings. The worship of the

> one Deity,immanent in all,is always desirable as the

> best means of progress in spiritual life.

 

Namaste Swaminarayan,

 

Thanks for picking this up. The movement from the

gross spiritual activity eg. meditating to feel

better.......to the refined seems in this upanishad to

once more bring us to the idea of j~nAna being sown in

the womb of bhakti to produce parabhakti.

There is no doubt that we all know of the immense,

ineffable beauty of that which calls/directs us to a

path. We also know how we superimpose a tamasic

quality by clinging to some remembered form. The

tendency is then to reject the form and look

elsewhere. Then the same process will begin. I have

seen many people go from teacher to teacher, getting

inspiration each time, but then finding it all rather

stale; but this beauty, tadvanam, cannot be stale as

it is ever new and immediate. Hence I can understand

the rishis directing us to meditate on such a one.

So the question is: How?

By turning away from the unreal through 'Neti, Neti'

purification begins.

It seems that in the story of the Yaksha there is a

very important teaching in Indra going to 'that very

place where the Yaksha disappeared.'

This is an inward 'movement' away from the

superimposition placed by the aspects of mind that try

to locate a single point of focus,an object, finally

this is a limited state through the preponderence of

tamas that holds the experience for the ahaMkAra,

towards that same point that is also the point of

expansion....brahman.

There, in that place, is meditation and I find in the

practice of meditation that this is very practical

teaching.

 

There are some words relevant here from Meister

Eckhart which are a contemplation on St. John's Gospel

which begins 'In the beginning was the Word' and

follows shortly with 'In him was life'. Eckart

writes:

'Life' indicates a certain pushing out by which

something, swelling up in itself, pours itself into

itself, whatever of it into whatever,before pouring

out and boiling over.

 

This statement comes in a section on the way of

affirmation which I feel is coeval with the way of

negation....neti, neti.....and would take the Kena

Upanishad to be confirming this position. It also

seems to fit the etymological meaning of brahman very

well,

 

Happy weekend

 

Ken Knight

 

 

 

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