Quotes from Upanishads & Nisargadatta

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Namaste,

 

In my WAVES paper, I quote several times from the Upanishads and once

from Nisargadatta. Here is that passage for your edification and

enjoyment. Please be sure to read as far as Nisargadatta. Highly

relevant to the current topic of discussion.

 

Hari Om!

Benjamin

 

 

 

Let us now quote some passages from the Advaitin literature to

confirm our interpretation in terms of nondual consciousness. One of

the most famous passages is from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

(II.4.9-14), where sage Yajnavalkya is speaking to his wife Maitreyi,

 

'For when there is duality, as it were, then one smells another, one

sees another, one hears another, one speaks to another, one thinks of

another, one knows another. But when everything has become the Self,

then what should one smell and through what, what should one see and

through what, what should one hear and through what, what should one

speak and through what, what should one think and through what, what

should one know and through what? Through what should One know That

owing to which all this is known-through what, my dear, should one

know the Knower?'

 

Equally famous is this passage from the Chandogya Upanishad (VII.24.1)

 

'Where one sees nothing else, hears nothing else, understands nothing

else, that is the infinite. But where one sees something else, hears

something else, understands something else, that is the small (the

finite).'

 

That this nondual reality is consciousness is emphasized in the final

verses of the Aitareya Upanishad,

 

'He is Brahman, He is Indra, He is Prajapati; He is all these gods;

.... All this is guided by Consciousness, is supported by

Consciousness. The basis is Consciousness. Consciousness is Brahman.

 

'He, having realized oneness with Pure Consciousness, soared from

this world and having obtained all desires in yonder heavenly world,

became immortal-yea, became immortal.'

 

The Vivekachudamani, the Yoga Vasistha, the Ashtavakra Gita, the

talks of Ramana, Nisargadatta and Atmananda, are all full of similar

passages (though one must never forget that these texts, like

Shankara, sometimes speak from the dualistic standpoint for the

benefit of the student). For example, Nisargadatta (Ch. 2 of I AM

THAT) says,

 

'You know only what is in your consciousness. What you claim exists

outside conscious experience is inferred ... You may postulate a

world beyond the mind, but it will remain a concept, unproved and

unprovable ... The world appears to you so overwhelmingly real

because you think of it all the time ... All happens in

consciousness. The world is but a succession of experiences ... Your

conviction that you are conscious of a world is the world ... What

you do not know is that the entire universe is your body, and you

need not be afraid of it ... The pure mind sees things as they are -

bubbles in consciousness ... Once you realize that the world is your

own projection, you are free of it ... The world can be said to

appear, but not to be ... Even space and time are imagined. All

existence is imaginary ... In reality all is here and now and all is

one. Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only ... The very

idea of 'else' is a disaster and a calamity.'