Satsang_Kaivalya_Upanishad

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Kaivalya Upanishad Discourse by Sri Swami Braharupananda at

Vivekananda Vedanta Monastery, Ganges, Michigan, USA. May 11 –

May 13, 2007

I am putting here my notes that I penned down during the retreat on the Kaivalya

Upanishad, as enlightened by Swami Brahmarupananda. I will try to include as

much material as possible.

Kaivlaya Upanisad was taught by Parameshti Brahma or Prajapati Brahma to Sage

Ashvalayana.

In this Upanishad, we find the very famous saying: “Na Karmanaa Na Prajayaa

Na Dhanena Tyaagenaike Amritatvamaanasuh”. This line is the part of second

verse, in which Brahma says to the Sage that “Immortality or the Highest-Truth is

achieved NOT by Work, NOT by Progeny, NOT by Wealth, but BY

Renunciation”.

Swamiji was expounding on the implications of this verse in our daily life.

What is meant by renunciation and how do we practise it in our day-to-day

living?

1. All actions are to be regarded as Worship to God. Swamiji quoted from

BhagavadGita (BG)

“ Yatkaroshi Yadasnaasi Yajjuhoshi dadaasi yat |

Yat tapasyasi kounteya tat kurushva madarpanam ||”

Whatever you do – work, eat, sleep, doing tapasa – dedicate it unto me.


2. Our lives have broken instances of worship. We do not have a continuous

unbroken stream of worship to God. It is because we think our actions are

done by us and that these are separate from the formal worship. But we

should develop gradually an unbroken stream of worship to God

3. There are three types of Karma or Action:

Nishiddha - Prohibited Actions

Kaamya - Selfish Actions, motivated by desire and/or fear

Niyata – Obligatory Actions towards family and society

Yajna or Tapas - Sacrifice and Charity

We should try to perform the last two categories of actions and then develop an

attitude of dedicating them to the God.

4. There are two types of Renunciation – Internal and External.

5. How to practise Internal Renunciation ? Swamiji quoted the famous “ My

Rama My Hari” Story of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. In this story, there

is a nanny or a maid to take care of her master’s kids, who are named Hari

and Rama. She dotes on them. And she tells them stories, and calls them

affectionately, “My Rama, My Hari”. But she knows and she is established in

the belief that they are not hers and that she has to leave them at some point

or the other. She doesn’t have any botheration with that. In the same way,

like that nanny, we should behave in this world. Without any attachment to

this world, we should do our duty.

6. Four important things to note when practising renunciation:

• All material posessions (including body) are HIS, not mine.


• All work as Worship, as offering to Lord. This we should do without

grumbling.

“Kaamyaanaam Karmnanaam nyaasam sannyaasam kavayo viduh ” –

Giving up desire in the performance of Work is called sannyasa by the

wise people

“ Na dveshti akushalam karma, kushalenaanushajjate”

We should not get attached with seemingly good work, nor hate the menial

chores.

• All relationships need to be maintained through Divine relationship. All

are HIS forms, I should not hate anybody. We should remind ourselves that

Suprement Lord is indweller of all beings.

(Refer BhagavadGita or BG: 13-2, 13-27)

Samam sarveshu bhuteshu tishtyantam paramevaram

And, “Kshetrajnam caapi maam viddhi sarva kshetreshu Bharata“

PURITY OF MIND OR “Dama”: Happiness comes from within. All are

reflections of this happiness. Swamiji also quoted from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

which talks about a great deal on Internal Renunciation. We have to be very careful

in developing our purity of mind and protecting it against external influences. .

“Amrutatvasya naashaasti vittena” – Yajnavalkya says to Maitreyi, “Immortality

or Self-realization is impaired if one develops attachment to wealth”.

(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)

How to practise Purity of Mind ? In Chandogya Upanishad

(Ch: 7-24(1)), the great sage Sananda instructs his brother Narada Muni thus:


“Ahaarasuddhe sattvasuddhih, satvasuddhe dhruvaasmritih, smritirlbadhve

sarvagranthiinam vipramokshah”

In the above verse, Ahaara – Physical food, also Sensory food – TV, news,

magazines, movies, internet, novels, all unwanted bad things. We need to exercise

caution on our sensory food and also our physical food.

“Bhadram karnebhisrunuyaama deva …” – Let us hear auspicious things, …

This leads to an accumulation of Sattva nature. Through this, we regain our memory

of presence of Lord within us and around us. When we constantly remember the

presence of Lord, we are liberated from bondage.

7. A person must be established in internal detachment, and not be attached to

any ashramas – which means the grihastha, vaanaprastha, sannyasa. A

sannyasi should not be attached with his ashrama and develop a pride of “O,

I am a sannyasi, I belong to the highest ashrama”. In the same way the

Grihastha also should not be proud that he is earning and taking care of

family etc

When the mind is pure, and the Seeker is established in Dhyana, he can see Iswara

shining in the cave of his heart. Swami Brahmarupananda gave some very nice

instructions and tips here.

8. If we do not give anything worthwhile to the mind, then the senses run

outward to have their fun and enjoyment. These senses are like bad horses

run amok, “Dushtaasvah” (Katha Upanishad 2-1-1). So, the KEY is to

constantly engage the mind in something worthwhile. “Tasmaath


paraanpasyati aavruta chakshuh”.. Hence, to prevent the senses running

outward, reverse the focus and gaze within.

There are four states of awareness: Jagruti (Wake), Nidra (Sleep), Sushupti

(Profound Sleep) and Turiya (Fully Conscious state)

In Sushupti or Nidra, time passes off either in dreaming or in deep sleep. But it is

just another level of ignorance. Because though a person forgets or is not aware of

the “I” feeling, there is no awareness of the “Bliss” associated with sublimation of

‘Ego”.

There is a temporary loss of awareness of something already existing. The

“Kaarana Sarira” which is the gross body with all the five elements causes a thin

veil of ignorance in the form of Samskaras . This causes other levels of ignorance.

This temporay loss is what we see in our period of life on this earth. We forget the

self luminous being sitting in our hearts. All our spiritual sadhana is aimed at

regaining the memory of our divinity by freeing ourselves from the clutches of

the Maya.

How to regain this memory ? Swamiji gave the following good points:

• By constantly practising the presence of God in and aroud us

• By never forgetting that our essential nature is divine and

• By life-long Sadhana

A Seeker who practises all these, will be able to maintain a continuous “unbroken

presence of God” through every moment. He becomes a “Samadarshi” or an

equanimous person.


We should practise seeing the Same self in everything. This also means, seeing God

in every being, which gradually translates into Experiencing God in every thing we

see and do.

“Prakriti” has two powers or does two things:

“Avarana” – Ignorance or Delusion, Forgetfulness of Divine Nature

“Vikshepa” – Tossing of the mind, Instability

In waking state or Jagrita Avastha , time passes with self deluded by Maya. This

Maya is our Gunas and their involvement in this materialistic world.

How to disengage oneself from Maya or Forgetfulness ?

“Na teshu Ramate Budhah” – Wise people do not seek happiness through sensory

objects . If mind clings onto acquiring and pleasures, give something worthwhile to

the mind to think about, instead of saying “Don’t do that”.

Swamiji quoted an example of how material objects fail to give happiness: “Like

how man tries to wrap the entire sky around his waist (how absurd this thought itself

is), in the same way, absurd is our effort to try to derive happiness from the material

existence.”

So, Forgetfullness or Temporary loss of our memory of Divine Nature is nothing but

“Tamasah” - absence of awareness of the presence of self within.

“Nanyah pantha vidyate yanaaya” – There is no other way to find peace except by

regaining this memory.


Vivekachudamanu also says the following about forgetfulness: “Pramado mritu

ityaah pramaadah” – Death is nothing but forgetfulness of God.

There are 4 Kosas: Annamaya Kosa, Pranamaya Kosa, Manomaya Kosa,

Vijnanamaya Kosa, Anandamaya Kosa. Our effort should be to gradually come to

the Anandamaya Kosa, which is the highest peace and bliss.

How is one motivated to make this journey ?

Motivating Factors:

1. Suffering in the world

2. Learning from the lives of saints and sages

3. Our true nature is divine. So we are by default motivated to learn about

our own self

Devi Mahatmya states that “Purusha” is the conscious principle, while “Prakriti”

is the dynamic form behind this seeming existence. The 24 cosmic principles evolve

from the combination of “Purusha” and “Prakriti”.

”Purusha” is defined as “puryaam syete iti purushah” which means “the one

which resides in the city”. The city is “Purameka Dasadvaaram” , our body with

its nine gates. The gender idea associated with the word purusha is wrong and it is

because of the gross perception at the body, mind, intellect.

There is no higher being than this “Purusha” – “Purushanna param naasti, saa

kashthaa saa paraa “ and this “Purusha” is “Asangehi Ayam Purusha” – totally

unaffected by the container. It is only the Jiva, which is the body-mind-intellect

complex that undergoes all the changes of birth and death. He is also “Akhanda

Bodham” – unbroken, continuous consciousness.


What is Prapancha ?

Pancha means 5 instruments, which are the Jnanendriyas or the senses of

intellect. By these instruments, we precive the world. Hence it is called Prapancha.

In Vedanta terminology, “Know” means “Experience”.

There are three abodes of Consiousness – that is Tridhama.

These are:

• Waking

• Sleep (Dream)

• Deep Sleep

Waking State :

We perceive three things in Waking state all the time: They are:

Bhogyam: Object of sensory experience

Bhokta: Experiencer (Subject)

Bhoga: Experience or result of the contact with the Sense Object

So, the Puratraye can be considered to be constituted of Waking, Dream and Deep

sleep states.

In the state of Aparokshanubhuti or the direct experience of the self, one realises

that All is One, that is Bhogyam, Bhokta and Bhoga is ONE .

The example that Swamiji gave is that of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

Once Sri Ramakrishna went to a Bhagavata Play on the request of his disciple. The

actors kept a book of Bhagavata and enacting a scene from it. Sri Ramakrishna

experienced a mystic vision, in which he saw Lord, Word and Devotee – all to be

ONE.


This Oneness is Atman, which is Paramam:

• Subtler

• More immense

• More inwards, and this pervades the grosser

This is the Ayatanam or the Support of the entire existence. Atman is also far

beyond the limited state of awareness of subject, object and experience. Sri Adi

Sankaracharya says:

“Aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhokta,

Chidananda rupah sivoham sivoham ! “

This Atman is the Imperishable Divine Element in the perishable container

“ Vinasyatsu avinasyantam “

Atman is also, Apanipadah - Without Legs, hands, and all other sensory organs

and Viviktarupah – Devoid of form and different from all.

Atman is Vedya – Object of Knowledge, Guhasayam – Hidden from view in the

cavity, and Sadasad-vihinam – Beyond existence and Non-Existence

Self-realization or revelation comes only when the Self chooses to reveal itself.

It is not our effort, but HIS Grace.

Thus Sage Asvalayana, now Agniuputah, Purified by the fire of knowledge, has

realised the Highest Truth.

Thus ends the Kaivalya Upanishad Discourse

Satsang_Kaivalya_Upanishad

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