The Meaning of Happiness - Part 1(For Ananda Wood)

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advaitin, ken knight <anirvacaniya> wrote:

>  Ananda Wood <awood@v...> wrote:

> Hope you can make something of the above but if the

> 'sweetness' excites you I would love to hear any

> comments from you on that line of thought in sanskrit

> :cf.madhu

>

 

Namaste,

 

Here are some thoughts on the subject:

 

http://www.vedah.com/vedah/upanish/upan_i.htm

 

Madhu Vidya or the Doctrine of Delight

 

"The Madhu vidya or the doctrine of mystic honey is found in the 5th

chapter of the second book of the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad which is

itself part of the Shatapatha Brahmana. Often this Upanishad is

quoted by some monists to demonstrate this world to be an, "utter

illusion" and that world is irrelevant to the attainment of the

highest spiritual experience called as nirguna

brahman.

Such passages upholding the, "lofty illusionism" are found in the

maitreyi brahmana of the same Upanishad which precedes the Madhu Vidya

chapter.

Madhu Vidya provides the required corrective and teaches us that the,

"diversity in creation is the manifestation of a secret delight,

that all things, however heterogeneous and warring they may appear,

are held together by a secret harmony effected in them by the hidden

creative self delight of the supreme who is the effulgent self,

immortal".

The Upanishad states, "This earth is honey for all beings and all

beings are honey for this earth- and he who is in this earth the

effulgent, immortal purusha and he who is within one's being,

in the body, the effulgent, immortal purusha are indeed the same. He

who is this self, this immortal, this brahman, this all". It gives

fourteen illustrations

to reinforce the above statement. It further adds that, "this self

does not merely represent the basic principle of madhu, the bliss

that abides in the heart of things but he is the master of all things

and beings and holds together all beings, all Gods, all worlds, all

selves and all lives".

Next the Upanishad quotes three verses of the Rigveda Samhita

(1.116.2, 1.117.2, 6.47.18) stating that the doctrine of mystic honey

given here is not new, but was already revealed to the sages of the

Rigveda, specifically dadhyan atharvan by Ashvins, the twin

powers. Sri Sayanacharya explains these verses by using a legend in

the Shatapatha Brahmana involving the God Indra, Dadhyan, son of

Atharvan, and the twin powers Ashvins. Sri Kapali Sastry explains

that these verses make much more sense if they are interpreted along

esoteric lines, using the clues supplied by the meanings of names of

personages like Dadhyan Atharvan.

The two parts of the word Dadhyan, dadhi and anc, gives us the

meaning that, "it is a distinct lustrous power moving in the yield of

Light fixed in the intellectual mind". Dadhyan, like the Atharvan or

the Angirasa, is either a deified sage or humanized God. Ashvins are

an inseparable dual Godhead who always appears together. The Ashvins

embody the twin forces of harmony and beauty, health and joy. Their

own archetypical interdependence and harmony in the cosmic

functioning brings to bear on us the necessity of realizing the

interdependence of things and beings, the balance and harmony that

is preserved by a great unifying principle referred to as the madhu.

It is the delight of being in all existence which explains and

unfolds the necessity of diverse forms in the manifest existence and

gives them their value. The particular chapter in the Upanishad

closes with the following Rig Vedic verse due to the sage Bharadwaja

RV (6.47.18), "To every form he has remained the counter form:

that is his form for us to face and see. Indra by his creative

conscious powers (maya powers) moves on endowed with many forms; for

yoked adore his thousand steeds".

The purport is that just as we can make various objects having

different shapes by pouring the sugary syrup into various moulds, all

the different aspects of manifestation are made from the vital force

and the moulds which are represented by Indra himself.

 

Madhu is interpreted by Shankara as the principle of mutual aid. The

beginning line, "This earth is like madhu honey to all beings and all

beings are like honey to this earth", is interpreted as follows by

Shankara. "Honey is like effect; just as a beehive is made by a great

many bees, so this earth is made by all beings. Thus all beings are

the honey or effect of this earth."

 

The Spirit who is here in a man and the Spirit who is there in the

Sun, it is one Spirit and there is no other. He who knows this, when

he hath gone away from this world, passes to this Self which is of

food; he passes to this Self which is of Prana; he passes to this

Self which is of Mind; he passes to this Self which is of Knowledge;

he passes to this Self which is of Bliss. Whereof this is the

Scripture."

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder