Learning from Source ........

[Guest guest]

Today , i feel very ecstatic. I read the following passag in Shri

Anandaji's book 'Ways Of Truth'. Many of us on this list quote the

scriptures from time to time but Sri Anandaji has the unique talent

of picking out some very meaningful passages from the upanishads . i

specially resonated with these words in his latest book 'Ways of

Truth' .......

 

Quote begins

 

Learning from Source

 

" Implicit in this traditional approach is a reflection back to an

inner, common source:

shared by the microcosm of individual experience and the macrocosm

of the external

universe. A student learns by going down beneath the changing sounds

of learning, to

that unchanging source from where the world is understood. This is

described, a little

allegorically, in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, 4.5.8-11.

 

First (in 4.5.8-10), there is a description of changing sound and

how it may be

understood. The understanding is achieved by holding one's mind to

the instrument

that plays the sound, and thus coming to the player: the inner

source that is expressed.

• Second (in 4.5.11), there is a description of seeing. Here, the

forms of learning,

personal experience and the whole universe are described as

differentiated smokes

and vapours, breathed out from that one inner source which is beyond

all limitation.

 

The outward sounds of drumbeats can't

be captured. But, by holding on

to just the drum, or to the drummer,

what get's spoken there is grasped. – 4.5.8

 

The outward sounds blown from a conch

cannot be captured and kept held.

And yet, by holding to the conch,

or to the one who blows the conch,

what's spoken there is understood. – 4.5.9

 

The outward sounds played from a vina

can't be captured and kept held.

And yet, by holding to the vina,

or the one who plays the vina,

there what's said is understood. – 4.5.10

 

As fire burns up sap-filled fuel,

smokes and vapours issue forth

in differentiated ways.

So too, breathed out of the unlimited,

which has now come to be,

 

is this Rg-veda, Yajur-veda,

Sama-veda, the Atharva-veda,

history and myth,

the arts and sciences,

the teachings of philosophy,

verse-compositions, aphorisms,

explanations, commentaries,

sacrifices, offerings,

what's eaten, drunk,

this world, the other world,

and all created things.

They are the breaths of that alone " – 4.5.11

 

Quote ends

 

 

Wow! A Krishna premi like me RESONATES with these words " The

outward sounds blown from a conch

cannot be captured and kept held.

And yet, by holding to the conch,

or to the one who blows the conch,

what's spoken there is understood "

 

Yes! Lord Vishnu holds in his hand a special conch, Panchajanya,

that represents life as it has come out of life-giving waters.How do

we understand all about The cycle of material existence except from

learning from the source - Our beloved Gitacharya ! He is the living

Teacher !

 

 

enjoy the subtle truth!