॥ ॐ श्री गुरुभ्यॊ नमः हरिः ॐ ॥
|| ōm̐ śrī gurubhyo namaḥ hariḥ ōm̐ ||
Mantra #20
Knowledge is of two kinds – direct and indirect. In the path of knowledge, indirect knowledge of Parabrahman is obtained by – study, contemplation and meditation. The one who has obtained his indirect knowledge of Parabrahman in this manner, prays to God to give him His direct knowledge. Even then he won’t be emancipated. Again, he prays to God for His Grace which finally liberates him from the cycle of bondage. In total, both the means and the end are due to the Grace of Parabrahman. Without that Grace, by themselves they are neither the means nor the end. This point is bought out by the next upanishat mantra, which happens to be the last mantra of this upanishat.
उपनिषत् upaniṣat
अग्ने नय सुपथा राये अस्मान् विश्वानि देव वयुनानि विद्वान् ।
युयोध्यस्मज्जुहुराणमेनो भूयिष्ठां ते नम उक्तिं विधेम ॥ २० ॥
agnē naya supathā rāyē asmān viśvāni dēva vayunāni vidvān |
yuyōdhyasmajjuhurāṇamēnō bhūyiṣṭhāṁ tē nama uktiṁ vidhēma || 20 ||
Let us first understand the terms such agni, rāya, dēva etc that are found in this mantra.
This body or this dependent world that God has put in motion and because of this etymological meaning, God is the primary meaning for the word “agni”. One should study “oum tattu samanvyayaat oum” of the brahma-sootras to get a better handle on the demand set by Sri vedavyaasa, about the importance of understanding Parabrahman from all Vedic words such as Agni.
How much sādhana is enough? When can we say it is complete? Only Parabrahman is capable of that knowledge, not us. Understanding it in this form, it removes the ahamkāra that I have done so much sādhana that I deserve mōksha, etc.
The word rāya generally means wealth, and in particular because we are talking of the highest kind of wealth, it can not be anything else but mōkṣa.
The word dēva stands for two ideas, both coming from the root word ‘dyu’ – prakāśaka and krīḍāmaya. The readers are encouraged to study upanishats, brama-sootras and bhagavad-geeta to a get better understanding of how these terms are used in vēdānta.
In the second line of the mantra there is the phrase ‘bhūyiṣṭhāṁ tē nama uktiṁ vidhēma’ which translates to:
All we can give you (ते tē) is our sādhanā, in the form of jñāna-bhakti (भूयिष्टां bhūyiṣṭāṁ) and with this jñāna-bhakti we will say (विधेम vidhēma) the utterance (उक्तिम् uktim) ‘namah’ (नम nama).
“Bhakti- jñāna” is interchangeably used, they are not really separate from one another.bhakti in shāstra is full of jñāna. jñāna without bhakti and bhakti without jñāna are neither shāstraic bhakti nor shāstraic jñāna. The two are not separate, one cannot exist without the other, in shāstra. We should not get this mixed up for bhakti in the loukika sense. In the loukika sense, a devotee need not be knowledgeable; a knowledgeable person need not be a devotee. For example, in the mundane world, academic scholars need not be devotees. Similarly, in the mundane world, one may have blind devotion without proper knowledge of what he is devoted to. That is why, the words such as ‘bhakti’ have to be understood in the shāstraic context and not in the mundane context.
The Parabrahman who is sarva-pravartaka and is denoted by the word “agni” has to give us the mōksha and take us out of the cycles of samsāra. When the mantra teaches an adhikārin that mōksha is the wealth, it means that mōksha-sādhana is Parabrahman.
The word ‘yuyōdhi’ comes from the root word ‘yuyu’ which has the meaning ‘to separate’. Plaase remember, these mantras are all part of a prayer.
The word ‘vayuna’ stands for knowledge. This usage of the word is there in Agama elsewhere too. Then there is the word ‘juhurāṇaṁ’ which means ‘that which makes us insignificant’. Our sins make us incomplete and insignificant. God has to remove them. What is “pāpa” sin? whatever is destructive to our śrēyas and upliftment is pāpa or sin. This can be removed only by Parabrahman, and there is no other way. Only He should purify us. This is the gist. Also, study taittareeya “tasmin sahasra shākhe nibhagāhaM tvayi mruje svāhā”.
In return, what can we offer? the upanishat has given the answer.
With this background, we will make an attempt to study the final mantra of this upanishat in the next posting.
śri kriṣṇārpaṇamastu,
Jayakrishna Nelamangala
Leave a Reply