BHUMA-VIDYA 30 *CONCLUSION*

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Om Namah Sivaya The Chhandogya Upanishad SANATKUMARA'S INSTRUCTIONS ON BHUMA-VIDYA Section 26 The Primacy of Self Tasya ha va etasyaivam pasyatah, evam manvanasya, evam vijanata atmatah pranah, atmata asa, atmatah smarah, atmata akasah, atmatas-tejah, atmata apah, atmata avirbhava-tirobhavau atmato'nnam atmato balam, atmato vijnanam, atmato dhyanam,

atmatas-cittam, atmatah samkalpah, atmato manah, atmato vak, atmato nama, atmato mantrah, atmatah karmani, atmata evedam sarvam iti. To such a blessed one everything comes, rises from his own Self. He need not go hither and thither in search of things, because he has this knowledge. He does not have to go to things, but things go to him. The ocean does not go to the river, the river goes to the ocean. Whoever is endowed with this great experience, this knowledge, the possession of this wisdom, for such a person everything that has been mentioned in the gradation of the categories earlier, right from 'name' onwards up to the point we are discussing now, arises automatically from his own Self, because the supreme cause contains within itself everything else mentioned as its own effects. All these worlds, space, time and the five

elements, all created beings, everything that we have been studying up to this time in the various stages of development of thought - all this need not be approached separately or individually for satisfaction. They all come simultaneously rising from his own Self, the true Self, the Bhuma, because that Self being all, contains all, and therefore, all things come to that person who ceases to be an individual person any more. He is only a lodgment, apparently looking like a person in this world. He is a Jivanmukta, as they call him. He is really a repository of the absoluteness that he has realised. Everything comes to him, everything flows from his own being, because he himself is the all. Tad-esa slokah: na pasyo mrtyum pasyati na rogam nota duhkhatam; sarvam

ha pasyah pasyati sarvam apnoti sarvasah; iti.sa ekadha bhavati, tridha bhavati, pancadha saptadha navadha caiva punas-caikadasah smrtah, satam ca dasa caikas-ca sahasrani ca vimsatih ahara-suddhau sattva-suddhih, sattva-suddhau dhruva smritih, smrtilambhe sarva-granthinam vipra-moksah; tasmai mrdita-kasayaya tamuasah pararm darsayati bhagavan sanatkumarah; tam skanda ity-acaksate, tam skanda ity-acaksate. The chapter is here concluded. The Bhuma-Vidya has been expounded. One who has this realisation (direct experience) is free from every kind of affliction - physical, mental or otherwise. To him there is no death, no transmigration and no sorrow. No grief, no adhibhautika, adhyatmika, adhidaivika sorrow can afflict this person. Becoming all, this person sees the

all. Having known this, he knows the all, because he is the all. Everything is attained at one stroke, not in succession as we hear of in this world. In every manner everything comes to him. Things come to us only in certain ways, not in every way. All things do not come to us at the same time. Certain things alone come to us, not all things. And even those certain things come to us at some times, not all times. And even at those times, they come not in every way but only in a certain manner. But in his case, everything comes at all times, in every way. This is the great result that follows from this realisation. In every manner of manifestation, in every possible pattern of existence or being, things flow into this person, because this person is inclusive of every pattern of being, of every place of existence, of every realm

conceivable. That is the meaning of sarvam apnoti sarvasah. The Upanishad reiterates this very same meaning by saying that he becomes all - one, two, three, four, a thousandfold, a millionfold - whatever you can think of. All things are contained in this single experience, is the meaning which is made out by this exclamation of the Upanishad: "It is onefold, it is twofold, it is threefold, it is fivefold, it is sevenfold, it is ninefold, it is hundredfold, it is thousandfold, it is millionfold, as wide as this creation itself." Such is the glory of this creation. The sun has one ray or seven rays or a million rays. Interpreters of the Upanishad try to find a specific intention behind these numbers. They say that It is onefold as the one, non-dual Being. It is

threefold, being adhyatmika, adhibhautika and adhidaivika or the three elements fire, water and earth. It is fivefold as the senses can catch, and sevenfold as the constituents of the body. It is ninefold as the five sense-organs and the four subdivisions of the mind. It is elevenfold as the ten organs and the mind. It is hundred and tenfold, and a thousand and twentyfold, when It includes many other categories. All these things are comprehended within this single Being. The manifoldness mentioned here is merely a categorising of this singleness of Being through the channels of perception and experience in various manifestations - human, celestial, subhuman, etc. As is the nature of the incarnation, so is the nature of perception and experience. So all these categories are consumed by this single Being. What you call the inanimate world or the vegetable kingdom or the animal world, what you call the human level and

superior worlds of celestials right up to Brahma-loka - all these are comprehended within this single Reality in which there are no different levels of Being. It has no inanimate or animate category there. It has no distinction of subject and object, and It is the seer as well as the seen. This knowledge comes if your effort is properly directed. It does not suddenly drop from the sky, like a fruit that falls from the branch of a tree. Great effort is needed to acquire this knowledge. Aharasuddhau sattvasuddhih - Purity of thought is a consequence of purity of diet. Here, some people are of the opinion that it means that we must take pure food - sattvik diet. But other thinkers opine that if you think wrongly and see evil things, even if you eat good pure food as cow's milk, fruits, etc., it

is not going to help you. So Sankaracharya particularly is of the opinion that it is an exhortation to receive pure things through every sense-organ including the mind. We must see purity, hear purity, touch purity, think purity, and sense purity. And what is purity? Purity is that which is compatible with the nature of the Absolute. This alone is purity. What is that which is compatible with the nature of the Absolute and what is not? Whenever we cognise a thing, perceive a thing, that thing should, from the point of view of our cognition or perception, be capable of being harmonised with the Absolute. We should not be incompatible with nature. That thing alone is purity, and when that purity arises in the mind, there will be that capacity of concentration of mind which retains the consciousness of the Bhuma. That is the perpetual retention of memory, the smriti which this mantra mentions. We can never forget the Being, the Absolute in our own

Being. Then all granthis, the knots of the heart, get broken The knots of the heart are avidya, kama and karma - ignorance, desireful movement of the mind, and activity towards the fulfilment of desire. Sometimes they are called brahma-granthi, vishnu-granthi and rudra-granthi, all meaning one and the same thing, viz., the ties of the mind, the psychological knots by which we are tethered to earthly experience. They break immediately, and we enter into the ocean of Being. Thus, Bhagavan Sanatkumara, the great master, initiates Narada who is free from all impurity of every kind, a fit disciple to be instructed by an exceptionally great master, into this great

mystery of the Supreme Being, and takes the disciple across the ocean of sorrow. "This Sanatkumara," says the Upanishad, "is called Skanda - tam skanda ityacaksate." Sanatkumara is called Skanda, because he has crossed or leaped over the phenomenal existence, which is one interpretation of the word 'Skanda'. There is also a story that Sanatkumara himself was born as Skanda or Kartikeya, the second son of Lord Siva, for the purpose of fulfilling a great purpose of the gods, as we read from the Puranas and epics. Whatever it be, we take the great master either as that divinity that took birth as Skanda in the next incarnation, or one who has crossed the ocean of sorrow, jumped into the Absolute across the phenomenality of life. To that divine person is our obeisance. He is Skanda - he has reached the Absolute, and he takes us to the Absolute. ----Sri Swami Krishnananda Sivaya Namah

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