Vol 01.

011 Pre-SaraNAgati Issues 23 October, 1996

In this Issue:
1. NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
2. FROM RAHASYA TRAYA SARA
    Adhikara 20: Niryana Adhikara(The Departure of the soul)(Contd) Anthima Smriti
3. From Chapter 3 of " Hinduism Rediscovered" "Sources of Knowledge"- (Contd)
    Other Supplementary Upanishads
4. From Chapter 6 of " Hinduism Rediscovered"
   " What is God?" on Sath, Chit, Satyam, Soundarya and Ananda

1. NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

Dear Bhagavatas,
Hope you are going through the postings and perhaps preserving them also for future reference.
I would request you to send by e. mail your Surface mail address, Telephone / Fax numbers etc
to facilitate a more intimate and fruitful interaction.

Dasoham
Anbil Ramaswamy

2. FROM RAHASYA TRAYA SARA- Niryana Adhikara

SECTION 4 : THE LAST THOUGHT ( ANTHIMA SMRITI)

The Prapanna will attain Moksha even if he is unconscious and unable to remember the Lord or
utter any Mantra ( especially Dvaya) at the time of his death.

In the famous VARAHA CHARAMA SLOKA , the Lord assures- " The man who, when his
mind is in its normal condition, when the body is not shattered and when the Dhatus (elementary
constituents of the body ) are in perfect equipoise meditates on me as the one who has the world
as my body and as the one who is not subject to births due to karma-- when that man lies like a
log of wood or a piece of stone in his dying moments, I think of him ( my devotee) and lead him
to attain the highest state" 16 Thus, for the Prapanna, the Lord will himself appear in his last
thoughts and save him and he need not strive to effect it as an Upaya.

It is said that in the case of others destined to be born again, they become in their next birth what
they were thinking of at the time of their death. This is expressed by Lord Krishna in BG17 This
happened in the case of JADABHARATA, a great sage who reared a deer and became so much
attached to it that his last thoughts were hitched on to that dear deer. He was himself born as a
deer in his next birth.

The last thought is that which arises when all sense organs have ceased to function and the
person is in a state similar to a deep dreamless sleep (Sushupti). It will not be known to the
onlookers who may be near the dying person. It can be cognized only by the dying person
especially, if he is a Prapanna and the Lord who confers this remembrance to him purely as a
matter of his Grace-' Kevalam Madeeya Dayaaya' in the words of Sri Ramanuja. As for the place
of death and the omens or signs under which the death occurs, Swami Sri Vedanta Desika says
that wherever and whenever and under whatever omens or signs a Prapanna dies that becomes
auspicious. This is because like a father who descends into a well full of slushy mire to take out
his beloved child that had fallen into it, the Lord himself who abides in the cave of the heart
(dahara) condescends to help the Prapanna to enter the special 101st Nadi through which he
reaches Paramapada.

3. From Chapter 3 of "Hinduism Rediscovered" Sources of

Knowledge
PART -B : Other Supplementary Upanishads.

21. AMRITA BINDU Up. speaks of the mind having 2 parts-the pure and the impure.

22. AMRITA NADA Up. speaks of the efficacy of Pranayama ( breath control)

23. ARUNEYA Up. A short one dealing with Sannyasa as preached by Prajapathi that one could
take to Sannyasa (Renouncement) even from Brahmacharya ( celibate) or Grihasta
( householder) ashrama provided one has attained the requisite evolution in knowledge and
determination as Sannyasa requires lying on the floor, using mud or wooden utensils, constant
wandering except during rainy season, renouncing all relationships and all emotional attachments
and ceaseless recitation of Pranava Mantra.

24. ASHTAKSHARA NARAYANA Up. draws authority from all the 4 Vedas. Rig Veda siras
establishes that all beings including Vasus, Rudras and Adityas are creations of Lord Narayana.
Yajurveda siras establishes that Lord Narayana is the only permanent entity who pervades both
within and without and is devoid of all blemishes. Samaveda siras establishes that one who
recites the Ashtakshara Mantra of Sri Narayana will be blessed with full life in this world and
attain Moksha thereafter. Atharva veda siras establishes how such a soul attains Moksha. This is
a kind of summing up of all the 4 Vedas.

25 ATMA Up. deals with Bahyatma, Antaratma and Paramatma.

26. BRAHMO Up. This also deals with the 4 stages of wakefulness, dreamful sleep , dreamless
sleep and the fourth to be recognized in the navel, heart, neck and the crown respectively. To
indicate that Paramatma is the supreme soul, the vital air and the knowledge incarnate, the three
strings of the sacred thread is worn. The famous sloka recited at the time of wearing the sacred
thread is found here..

"The best among those that purify, that which emerged along with the four-faced Brahma at the
time of creation that which bestows life and prominence- I wear that sacred thread. Let it confer
on me both knowledge and power"

"Yagnopaveetam paramam pavitram prajapatheh yat sahajam Purasthath ayushyam agriyam

pratimuncha subram yagnopaveetam Bhalam asthu tejah."

Sutra means thread. ; it also means a signpost, an indicator. The thread indicates the way to the
highest Paramapada. The famous statement "That point which mind and speech being unable to
reach return is the point where lies supreme happiness and realizing which the wise ones attain
Mukti"

Yato vacho nivartante apraapya manasaa saha Anandametad jeevasya yat gnatva muchyate
budhah The references to God indwelling in every thing like oil in oilseeds etc., as well as the
spider example occur in this up. also.(19 and 20).

27. DARSANA Up. stipulates that Pranayama should be practiced throughout life.

28.GARBA Up. Part of KYVS and imparted by Pippalada Rishi describes how the foetus grows
in the mother's womb and the travails it undergoes during this period. Long before the modern
scientists what with their instruments, gadgets , X-Rays etc., were tracing this, this Up. had
already done it with minute details by sheer supersensory perception.
AN INTERESTING REVELATION IS THAT WHEN IN THE 9 TH MONTH , THE MENTAL
AND SENSE FACULTIES HAD FULLY DEVELOPED, THE JEEVA REMEMBERS ALL
THE GOOD AND BAD DEEDS IT HAD DONE DURING ITS PREVIOUS BIRTHS AND
LOOKS FORWARD TO CORRECT AND EVOLVE ITSELF ON BIRTH. BUT, THE
MOMENT IT FALLS DOWN ON DELIVERY, THE STRANGE ILLUSION THAT IS MAYA
OVERTAKES IT AND IT FORGETS ALL THAT AND STARTS ASSOCIATING WITH THE
MUNDANE OBJECTS THAT LEAD AGAIN TO REBIRTHS.

29. HAMSA Up. (SYVS) It is so called because it deals with the Hamsa Mantra prescribing the
procedure for doing yoga for raising the Kundalini from the Mooladhara to Sahasrara. Breathing
in is called 'Ham' and breathing out as 'Sa' to be done 21,600 times in a day. Hence, Hamsa
a.k,a.Ajapa Hamsa Mantra Japa through which the practitioner hears 10 kinds of sounds
progressively, the 10th when he reaches 'Mega nadham' and attains Brahma Sakshatkara

30. JAIMANEEYA Up.(SVS) deals with death, passage to other worlds and reincarnation.

31. MAHO Up. establishes that Lord Narayana alone was there and being lonely he created all
beings including Rudra from his forehead. His sweat formed itself into a golden egg
(Hiranyagarbha) a.k.a Brahmanda ( the great egg) from which emerged the four-faced Brahma.
That Lord Narayana resides in the hearts of all beings is explained. YADHAVAPRAKASA, a
great Saivite has written a commentary accepting this fact.

32. MAITRI Up.(KYVS) Also called Maitryaniya Up. This is a later day up. dealing with
AUM, outer nature, the self and control of the mind. It contains 7 Chapters of which the last 2
are relatively recent. There is, for the first time, a reference to the TRIMURTI concept relating
Brahma, Vishnu and Siva to the three Gunas of Rajo, Sattva and Tamo respectively.

33. MAITRAYANI Up. deals with futility and dangers involved in strenuous exercises in
Hatayoga.

34.MUKTIKA Up. also deals with yoga especially the Kumbaka ( potting up) part of
Pranayama.

35. NARADA PARIVRAJAKA Up. regarding asceticism and true brahminhood.

36. NARAYANA Up. cites how authorities from all the 4 Vedas prove that Lord Narayana
created all beings (RVS), how he pervades everything (YVS), the explanation of the Ashtakshara
Mantra- the 8 lettered Mantra and the benefits accruing from reciting it (SVS) how it obliterates
all sins (AVS).

37. PAINGALA Up. (SYVS) A 12 verse dialog between Sage Yagnavalkya and his disciple
Paingala covering a wide range of subjects including salvation and the five sheaths.

38. PRANAVAGNI HOTRA Up. A minor one explaining how to transform external ritual of
sacrifice into a sacrifice offered in the fire of Prana in one's own body.

39. PURUSHA SUKTAM. All  Vedas refer to this. There is nothing greater than this Sukta
which deals with the  Parama purusha ( i.e.) Lord Narayana. It explains the Purusha yagna
(Sacrifice of the Supreme Lord) and the creation of the world. While reciting the Mantras of
Purusha Sukta in the daily Tiruvaradana ( a holy honoring ritual), the mantras have been so
arranged to be employed for a specific service to the Lord. Thus , it lists the 16 kinds of services
(Shodasa Upachara) .viz.,

1.Aavahana, (invoking)
2.Aasana ,(offering seat)
3 Paadya,(offering water for cleansing feet)
4. Argya ( offering water for cleansing  the palms),
5..Achamaneeya ,(sipping water)
6 Snana, ( ceremonial bath)
7.Vastra,( offering dress)
8.Yagnopaveeta, (offering Sacred thread)
9. Chandana (offering Sandal paste)
10. Pushpa (offering flowers),
11..Dheepa,(waving lighted camphor)
12  Dhoopa ( burning incense),
13 Naivedya.( offering food)
14. Anjali ( praying with folded hands)
15. Pradakshina ( Circumambulation)
16. Udvasana.(Send off)
Purusha Sukta establishes also the Para Tattva ( the Supreme deity), Parama Hita ( the supreme
solace) and Parama Purushartha. (the supreme objective)

40. SANDILYA Up. (AVS) deals with 8 forms of yoga , restraints, observations, Pranayama,
meditation and the nature of truth.

41. SANNYASA Up. (AVS) describes the transition of a Grihasta to Vanaprasta to Sannyasa.

42. SUBALA Up. (SYVS) a dialog between Sage Subala and Brahma about Lord Narayana
being the supreme being. It contains 16 chapters advised by Sage Garga-Angiras to Sage Raikva.
It describes the evolution and dissolution of the Time- Space- Matter triad and gives a
description of deluges, how the vital air escapes through one of the 72,000 plus Nadis, how
Narayana stands pervading everything and how the practioner should conduct himself.

43 TRISHITAKI BRAHMO Up. deals with yoga in general.

44 VAJRASUCHIKA Up. Belonging to SVS, this deals with the question of what makes a
Brahmin a brahmin, comments on the supreme reality and deprecates caste distinctions based on
birth.

45.YAGNAVALKYA Up. This is a metrical rendering of Jabala Up. explaining the role of a
Sannyasi, how to renounce worldly attachments and seek salvation.

46. YOGA KUNDALI Up. explains how the vital air flows through the body.

47.YOGA TATTVA Up. contains 142 verses listing the various obstacles to spiritual attainment

PART C Names of Some Other Upanishads.

48. ADVAYA TARAKA Up.
49. ANNAPURNA Up.
50.AVYAKTA Up.
51. BASMA JABALA Up.
52. BRAHMA BINDHU Up.
53.DEVI Up.
54. GARGA Up.
55. GARUDA Up.
56 GOPALA PURVA TAPANEEYA Up.
57. GOPALA UTTARA TAPANEEYA Up.
58. HAYAGREEVA Up.
59. KALI SANTARANA Up.
60. KRISHNA Up.
61. MUDGALA Up.
62. PURUSHA BODHINI Up.
63. RAMA PURVA TAPANEEYA Up.
64. RAMA UTTARA TAPANEEYA Up.
65.TARASARA Up
66.TRIPURA TAPANEEYA Up.
67.YOGA SIKHA Up.

4. FROM Chapter 6 of " Hinduism Rediscovered"- What is

God?
SECTION 7. SATH (BEING)
Now, let us take your relationship with friends and relatives- someone whom you love. As your
relationship proceeds, there comes a moment when that person does or says something that is
totally unexpected - may be delightful or depressing. To sustain the relationship you have to
review and revise your impressions of that

person by moving to a deeper level of understanding. Occasions will and do arise maybe much
too often necessitating an ongoing process of continual review and revision, though you may
hate to do so, you realize at some stage that other people are not what they seemed to be.

This is true even of yourself. Your image about yourself is not stable. It also undergoes constant
revisions. You imagine what you are but new experiences, new exposures, new expectations,
new feelings, new fancies and new fantasies, regarding yourself constantly intervene. You know
that you ARE not what you thought you WERE. You will be left to constantly wonder what you
are and what you are not. The more you probe the less would be the chances of your finding an
answer to this riddle.

Love which is triggered by desire is like Oxygen. In our equations with others, you will find that
the intensity of love of a person towards the other is either too much or too less, never on the
equal wavelength nor the equation last for any length of time. The relationship has always a
roller coaster career. The person who loves more feels jilted when the reciprocation is not on
equal footing and longs for love as if gasping for breath of fresh oxygen; the other partner feels
bored and suffocated with too much of the oxygen of love.Can we find a relationship where
irrespective of whether you love more or less, the other person extends incomparable love that
does not suffocate but is really soothing and satisfying? What name can we give to this kind of
ideal love that seems to elude us all the time?

Why is this so? This stark fact of life is so disturbing that we wish usually to brush it aside. We
are afraid of going deeper. This only proves that it is not only a transcendent mystery but also
that beneath the surface of impressions lies an infinite, inexaustible and frightening dimension.

"Depressing situations such as the collapse of relationships, death of a near and dear ones,
betrayal by friends and relations, helplessness in the face of unavoidable embarrassments- in
short, our very vulnerability and fragility sometimes conjure up to a reality of a different
dimension and infuse new strengths that could never even be imagined before" - 3

What name can we give to this dimension in which our desire to review and the need to review
however distasteful is also irresistible and wholly unavoidable and that which provides us a
solution in an almost incredible manner? It is this dimension that takes hold of you in its firm
grip than your being able to grasp it. This dimension is what the word 'God' means. This
transcendent, tremendous and inevitable dimension is what we call by the name of 'God'. In short
'ALL EXISTENCE IS GOD AND GOD EXISTS IN ALL AND CONDITIONS ALL IN
ALL CONDITIONS'.

SECTION 8. CHIT (KNOWLEDGE)

Let us consider "Knowledge". Can you define knowledge? What constitutes knowledge - the true
knowledge? Is formal education knowledge or is life experience knowledge? The questions are
beset with varied, often contrary and even contradictory responses. Whatever knowledge one has
acquired cannot be considered comprehensive. It is said that knowledge is what remains after
forgetting what you have learnt. And, we are experts in forgetting more than in remembering. To
appreciate our tremendous capacity to forget - one has only to experience perusing the morning
newspaper. How quickly we forget what we read in the first paragraph as we move on to the next
paragraph and in some cases from one line to the next !

Perhaps, the motivation in prescribing 'Reading comprehension tests' stems from the reliance of
examiners on the bewildering rapidity with which candidates tend to forget whatever they read !

This being the case, acquisition of knowledge can only be a slow and painful exercise. In this
background, nobody can be expert in all the branches with equal proficiency. Vast areas remain
beyond the pale of knowledge of an individual. The mystery of knowledge is that howsoever you
may endeavor what you HAVE NOT acquired remains infinitely vaster than WHAT YOU
HAVE. This very vastness invests the dimension of tremendousness to 'knowledge-yet-to- be'.
You will never be able to comprehend how much of knowledge is good enough to put your mind
at rest with a smug satisfaction to declare 'thus far and no further'. Yet, true seekers of knowledge
are not put off in their constant endeavors to acquire more and more till their last breath. This
insatiable quest just pushes the horizon from which 'knowledge yet to be' beckons. This chasm
makes you feel entrapped rather than your entrapping it. The power to bridge the chasm must be
so potent that you cannot call it by any name other than 'God'. It will be well to remember that
even the Goddess of Learning, Saraswathi is said to be 'studying' still. In short, `KNOWLEDGE
IS GOD'.

SECTION 9 SATYAM (TRUTH)

What is truth? Can we define truth in absolute terms? Truth is relative to circumstances in any
given situation. The truth of the matter is that there is no such thing as what they swear in the
courts as "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".

Though the saying goes 'Truth is beauty, beauty truth' - our experience shows that truth is not
always beautiful. Oftentimes, truth about others and even about ourselves is not palatable at all;
it reveals some ugly features we were either not aware of or would like to underplay and sweep
under the carpet if we could! It is truth that we seek to camouflage, window dress, make things
presentable in a constant attempt to indulge in 'suppressio veri' and 'suggestio falsi'. Only we are
intolerant when others do it. When we ourselves indulge in it, we consider it quite natural. What
is worse, we believe in its being so.

You will never be able to arrive at an answer to the question how much of truth is true enough
and whether truth can be a matter of degree or kind in any given situation.

And that is the mystery of truth. We shudder to get at the truth lest it should hurt but all the time
we crave to know the truth about ourselves and about others. This repulsion and attraction
paradoxical as they are constitute a mystery that is beyond comprehension. You never dare to
delve deep into men and matters to arrive at the truth because we know that truth can damage but
we also believe that truth alone can provide a firm foundation to our lives.

This mystery, this challenge and this lure of truth is transcendent, frightening yet fascinating. It is
this truth lying beyond our comprehension which seems to grip us more than our grasping it.
And, this phenomenon is what we call by the name 'God'. In short 'TRUTH IS GOD'.

SECTION 10. SOUNDARYA (BEAUTY)

It is much easier to understand the concept of beauty. Anything that is beautiful is 'all-
consuming' - has a unique exclusivity to all the rest. And that is the fulcrum of pulchritude. We
are 'carried away' in our experience of beauty of nature, of art, of music and we forget ourselves.
Any beautiful thing or experience must answer to this litmus test (e.g.) music. You lose yourself
in the melody when music fills your every sense and jealously forbids any other experience to
intervene. In short, enjoyment of beauty is the nearest encounter with the ultimate.

That beauty seduces and attracts in a mysterious way cannot be gainsaid. But, how far? Even as
you enjoy, you also experience an unfulfilled longing for some deeper thing of beauty. Beauty is
relative; it is superficial; it is skin deep in the case of persons. Although it attracts, it also arouses
the curiosity that there could be some other thing more beautiful than what we have right now.

This chasm between the beauty embodied in any aesthetic object and the unlimited beauty we
long for in the depths of our desire - this chasm is abysmal and tremendous since the human
mind can never remain satisfied and always craves for more - for a wider, deeper, fuller
dimension of beauty. You will never be able to build a bridge between absolute beauty you crave
for and the utmost beauty you can possibly encounter. The result is that we waver between what
we have and what would like to have. In the ultimate analysis we fail to appreciate the beauty of
things we have while the ultimate beauty remains a distant dream never to be realized. This
attraction for the distant and repulsion of the near ultimately cancel each other out and we get
grounded. The conflict between what appears beautiful and what we imagine has the potential of
being more beautiful is an enigma that has not been resolved since the appearance of mankind on
earth.

"The doors of our perception are possibly too narrow to let in the fullness of the beautiful, while
the inner chamber of our consciousness continues to ache in emptiness for a beauty that would
fill it and to which our perceptivity is inadequate"4.
The only way to solve this is to allow our own desire to grasp the beautiful to become
transformed into a desire to be grasped by beauty itself.

This beauty that lies beyond our comprehension with tremendous potential to grasp and hold us
in its vice grip with almost a 'fatal attraction' and ultimately consume us - is what 'God' means.
That and only that thing of beauty can be 'a joy forever' and that is what we call 'God'. In short
'BEAUTY IS GOD'.

SECTION 11. SUKHAM or ANANDA (HAPPINESS OR BLISS)

What is happiness? Though the socialists proclaimed 'the greatest happiness to the greatest
number' as the ideal of socialist state, has that been realized anywhere in the world? This is
because 'happiness' is as elusive a concept as any other we have considered so far. What you
consider a thing of joy may not appeal to me so, or even if it does - not to the same extent as you
experience. Again, what you feel as 'pleasure' now may on a later occasion appear to you as not
so pleasurable maybe even positively painful.

Thus, the very realization of joy for different persons and even in the case of the same person at
different times may vary both in kind and degree. The needle constantly vacillates between two
extremes of pleasure and pain. You will remain indeterminate at any point of time with any
object of pleasure and to any measure of enjoyment thereof. And, no particular achievement
bestows an ultimate satisfaction. The 'pleasure', if any, is only up to a point of achievement;
Once this is attained , one gets into a 'fatigue of fulfillment' and yearns for something beyond.

If transcending all these, you could find unalloyed bliss or happiness without any tinge of
unpleasantness would you not crave for it?

The gaping chasm between what you have and what you would like to have to satisfy you as 'real
happiness' is so tremendous that while yearning for it, you are afraid that it will remain at the
distant horizon as a mirage constantly luring you. and mocking at you.

This mystery of transcendental, immeasurable and forbidding dimensions of joy and the
enchantment that draws you is what we call 'God'. This object of ultimate enjoyment grips your
imagination more than your imagination could grasp it - and this object is what we mean by the
word 'God'. In short, 'GOD IS BLISS'. ( To continue)