“The Upanishads, being vehicles of illumination and not of instruction, composed for seekers who had already a general familiarity with the ideas of the Vedic and Vedantic seers and even some personal experience of the truths on which they were founded, dispense in their style with expressed transitions of thought and the development of implied or subordinate notions” (CWSA 17:13)
Sri Aurobindo described
the Upanishads; the fountainhead of Vedanta, as ‘vehicles of illumination’
which the seers had designed based upon their own style and technique of
imparting the higher wisdom so that the seekers too would gain an entry into the
kingdom of the Bramhan, that is beyond the realm of mental logic and reason.
The ways very many but the destination was the same. The Kathapanishad
prodded the readers to raise their consciousness through the story of
Nachiketas choosing what was right -shreyas over what was dear-preyas.
The Ishavasyopanishad introduced the seekers to the Bramhan from
within and without by inviting them to move beyond the dualities of
manifestation and dissolution, knowledge and ignorance and so on. The Kenopanishad
began with the metaphysical question of how and why the descent of the
divine consciousness took place whereas the Mandukya in just 12 short
verses speaks about the fourth and hidden dimension of consciousness that can
be understood by a complete realization of the metaphysical and primordial
syllable – Om. In the Muktika Upanishad, where Sri Rama parts the way of
Mukti to Hanuman, it is said a complete understanding of the Mandukya
Upanishad is sufficient to attain moksha. While a canonical list of 108
Upanishads classified 13 Upanishads as Mukhya or of main, many scholars push
the number to over 200. Sadly, many have either been lost or been ignored in
the passage of time.
There is no fixed format
for a work to be classified to be an Upanishad. Rather it is the Bramha vidya
that is contained in it that makes the text a vehicle of raising the
consciousness. It bodes us well to look at what may very well the newest
Upanishad that the world received; a collection of untitled Sanskrit verses
written by Sri Aurobindo in his initial years of stay in Pondicherry between
1910-1914. While Sri Aurobindo himself did not translate his Sanskrit work nor
did he give it a title, in 1978 that Pt. Jagannath Vedalankar, a renowned
Sanskrit scholar at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, translated the text into English and
the same was published by the Sanskrit karyalaya of the Ashram under an apt
title, Sri Aurobindopanishad.
While an in-depth
analysis is beyond our scope, we will have a prefatory look at the text for it
is truly the kernel of Sri Aurobindo’s vedanta- the high philosophy of Integral
Yoga.
The First Movement: The
Principle of Brahmic consciousness
In the first, the truth
of the Brahman is lain bare. The Bramhan to transcend the limitations of time,
space and form with the words “Jagadapi Brahma, Satyam na mithya” declaring
quite explicitly that this truth is present in the mortal realm too.
The Brahman is the omnipresent existence, formed and formless, both at the same time, dwelling in and transcending the dimensions time and space, permeating the entire cosmos and found in all the entities, living or non-living whatsoever, whose worldly presence for matters of human perception can be termed as –Chit - or pure consciousness.
The Second Movement: The
Sun of Truth
Sri Aurobindo prods us in
the second movement which begins with the triple mantra – Om tat Sat, to see
beyond the physical sun to what lies yonder. This is where the transition into
the kingdom of Bramha vidya begins. We are invited to look at the spiritual sun
whose consciousness manifests as the physical sun. To
simplify the phenomenon of the Brahman, Sri Aurobindo brings to us the imagery
of the physical sun and its reflection in the water. The beautiful sun and its
image are reflected in the waters. When there are no ripples on the surface, the
reflection is singular. When the water is disturbed, multiple reflections of
the same sun can be found in the water. What we see when we are awake is not an
illusion or a dream but very much a real experience that is perceived through
our senses by us.
The Third Movement:
Ananda & Nirananda, A Game of Light & Shadow
In the third movement,
the mode of functioning of the Brahman; who conceals His own strength by a garb
of weakness, His own light of knowledge with a veil of darkness, is described.
Sri Aurobindo asks us to look beyond this veil and tells us that weakness is
but a ploy where strength is concealed by itself. Sorrow is but happiness
hiding its own self with a mask of sadness. Darkness too is naught but light
hiding itself in its own shadow. The Jiva- life form that is present inside
each individual is in a constant state of bliss, even though the outer
individual goes through the experiences of sorrow, pain and suffering due to
the various outer torments and tortures it has to experience in the game of the
Prakriti.
The Fourth Movement: The
Celestial Adesh: Collective Moksha
The final movement concludes with the divine message and instruction of Sri Aurobindo to all seekers. It is not very often that we see Sri Aurobindo giving a direct order to sadhaks invoking his divine experiences. Here we see, the both the aim of Integral Yoga and also the path to raise our consciousness; by becoming instruments of the divine manifestation that is underway
“This world is naught but
His play divine
His Lela, created to
enjoy all that is fine 158
O Children divine, in
this joyous play partake
The bliss of creation;
enjoy, experience and take
Unite with Him, seeing
Him in all become one
Celebrate this bliss
highest, that is comparable to none.
Under the command
celestial, I verily pronounce
The way to the blissful
consciousness, I thus announce164”
“O Children of bliss,
harbingers of His celestial light
Removing darkness, With
His bliss divine, Set the world alight!”166
Thus, if we look at the flow of the Sanskrit text “Sri Aurobindopanishad”, we can see through four distinct movements how the master introduces the world to the foundation of the Vedantic path of Purna Yoga. Right from the recognition of the phantom Bramhan embedded in the consciousness of matter, to the divine light that illumines the physical sun and the way to extricate oneself from the trap of prakriti’s maya to the way forward to experience the Leela of Krishna in the universe and of course, the final Yogic adesha to dispel the darkness of ignorance by celebrating a life divine. While the complete works of Sri Aurobindo are exhaustive in themselves, conveying secrets of the ancient divine morns and the luminous noons to come, this beautiful untitled Sanskrit text of Sri Aurobindo in a nutshell describes the way forward for sadhaks to become divine instruments. This is of great significance as it is only the divine instruments who can become harbingers of the much awaited phenomenon of the supramentalization of humanity. Yes, there may be debates and arguments on whether or not this text should be called an Upanishad, but in the darkness of such pointless arguments, may no one forget the luminous message conveyed in it for it is unarguably of prime importance for posterity.
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