Mantra #4

By : JayakrishNa Nelamangala

In this mantra, the paramAtma tattva that is established in this upanishat, is elaborated.

The upanishat is expounding the nature of Vedic Brahman. It uses terms such as ‘anejat’, ’ekam’ and so on. These words carry within themselves the reason how they become attributes of Parabrahman. For this reason, a word denoting an attribute of Parabrahman, is not applicable to anything else. One who is a serious student of vēda, must keep this discipline intact. Unless there is this discipline, knowledge of Vedic Brahman is not possible.

उपनिषत्‌: upanishat
अनेजदेकम्‌ मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवाप्नुवन्‌ पूर्वमर्षत् |
तत्‌ धावतो अन्यान्‌ अत्येति तिष्ठत् तस्मिन्‌ अपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥४॥
anējadēkam manasō javīyō | nainaddēvāpnuvan purvamarśat |
tat dhāvatō anyān atyēti tiṣṭhat | tasmin apō mātariśvā dadhāti || 4 ||

Before we make an attempt at translating the upanishat mantra, let us understand a few words that are in the mantra.

The root word ‘एजृ ējr’ has the meaning कंपने ‘kampanē – to shake (with fear). Paramaatma-svarūpa is ‘अनेजत् anejat’, that which does not shake, because it has absolutely no defects such as fear. As compared to the mind, it is even faster. This Parabrahma-svarūpa, even the divinities did not understand completely. On the other hand, Brahman is eternally present prior to all, by its own nature.

The word एकम् ēkam is loaded with many meanings. It is not talking about the numerical values one, two, three etc., at all, it is rather talking about the Oneness of the principle taught in the Veda. Without going into too many details, we will just mention here that Ekam stands for the one-ness of Vedic Brahman i.e., Vedic Brahman has no internal differences within Himself. There is no स्वगतभेद svagatabhēda within Brahman. Some philosophies wrongly understand this as ‘apart from Brahman, there is no second entity’, which by the way, Veda never taught. Brahman is Eka means Brahman is svarAt or svatantra. Brahman is Eka means He is the All-Doer. Brahman is Eka means His one attribute stands for all His other attributes. A vast study of brahma-mImAmsA-shAstra along with vedOpanishats is necessary to understand this concept of ‘ekatva’ of Brahman. For our purpose, we will simply use the term ‘eka’ to mean primary, ‘pradhAna’.

The root word ‘r̥ṣa’ has the meaning ‘knowledge’. Brahman knows it all. That Vedic Brahman by being stationary, overcomes others going with speed. Vedic Brahman, stays having crossed them over, because of His Unimaginable Powers and also because of His Omnipresence.

The word ‘apaha’ means the works of merit i.e, सत्कर्म satkarma. The word ‘apaha’ has the etymological meaning ‘that which protects all around’. Works of merit that are performed by living beings, protect them all around. The upanishat teaches that, mātarishva submits such works of merit in Parabrahman.

The Vedic concept of मातरिश्व mātarishva is mentioned in several upanishats such as षट्-प्रश्न ṣaṭpraśna , बृहदारण्यक br̥̄hadāraṇyaka and so on. In the rig-veda, there is a sookta called बळित्था-सूक्त baLitthA-sookta which mentions ‘mātarishva’ as vAyu, the vital breath i.e., prANa. mātarishva is मुख्य-वायु mukhya-vāyu.

Even the divinities who are of a higher order, are not able to completely comprehend Parabrahman of the Veda. This is why no one, no one including those divinities can claim to be themselves that Vedic Parabrahman. This mantra mentions this truth as ‘‘नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन् nainaddēvāpnuvan’.

In this mantra, as teaching परब्रह्मस्वरूप Parabrahma svarūpa, निर्भयत्व nirbhayatva, अचिन्त्यशक्तित्व acintya shaktitva and सर्वगतत्व sarvagatatva have been taught. One should not assign popular ordinary meanings to these words and be content with it. All of shāstra is there to expound this Greatness of Paramaatman. It needs a study of entire shāstra to understand the mutual relationships between the attributes of Parabrahmaṇ that have been taught in this mantra.

We may understand the expression ‘नैनद्देवा आप्नुवन्’ ‘nainaddevA Apnuvan’ in two ways :

a) divinities do not understand God completely 0r

b) because of His Completeness, divinities do not understand Him fully.

The second meaning is superior to the first one, since it upholds the Completeness of God. The first one simply elaborating on a certain ignorance which negates completeness in the portion of god that divinities understood. The greatness of a knowledgeable person depends on how well he has understood his own limitation in understanding that Completeness of Vedic Brahman. In the knowledge that ‘It is impossible to know that Completeness’ all the other pieces of knowledge necessary for it are hidden. For this reason, it is not lack of knowledge, but it is the result of comprehensive contemplation on what is studied. A student with fittedness for shāstra need to contemplate on the suitability of these two meanings.

The upanishat teaches that, living beings perform karma, as instigated by मुख्यवायु mukhya-vāyu and their meritorious deeds are submitted by मुख्यवायु mukhya-vāyu in Parabrahman. Here, the meritorious deed is the विद्याकर्म vidyākarma, the karma that is done for the sake of knowledge, as worship of God without any desire for results. Such an action is seen in a person with fittedness for shaastra, because of मुख्यवायु mukhya-vāyu. That individual is not the author of that action. मुख्यवायु mukhya-vāyu submits it in Vedic Brahman means मुख्यवायु mukhya-vāyu fully understands that the primary author behind that action was Parabrahman, for the action that was performed by his instigation.

This upanishat teaches, “पूर्वमर्षत्” which is explained as ‘अगमत्‌ पूर्वमेव स्वभावतः’. The world cannot know Vedic Brahman, because of His Completeness. On the other hand, there is no beginning to the natural knowledge of Vedic Brahman who has the knowledge of Himself. This must be properly understood. There are two aspects to the knowledge of Vedic Brahman.

(1). That the Vedic Brahman is Self-dependent and

(2) That the world is dependent on such a Self-dependent Vedic Brahman.

The gist of these two is one and the same. Moreover, when we talk about knowledge of Vedic Brahman as it is, both the knowledge of the world and the knowledge of Brahman, both are included as they are. This is the Omniscience of Vedic Brahman. By the property ‘पूर्वमेव pūrvamēva’ it is known that the knowledge of Vedic Brahman is distinct and different from our knowledge. The way our knowledge works, first a thing must be present and only then it may be known ( or not known). When it is known, the beginning (ādi) of our knowledge is in the vastu itself. Vedic Brahman has the knowledge of the type ‘anādi’. It does not depend on a thing being present before that knowledge. By the greatness of that knowledge, the existence (consisting of sattā-svarūpa-pramiti-pravrutti) of the thing gets created. Thus, paramaatma jnyaana creates everything. The property of His sarvagatatva (omnipresence) is established in this mantra which emphasizes the fact that He is present in everything which was established in earlier mantras. For this reason, no one can exceed Vedic Brahman. Vedic Brahman is in the front of all, is in the back of all, is with all. Study muṇḍaka which teaches,

“ब्रह्मैवेदममृतं पुरस्तात् ब्रह्म पश्चात् ब्रह्म दक्षिणतश्च उत्तरेण । अधश्चोर्ध्वं च प्रसृतं ब्रह्मैवेदं विश्वमिदं वरिष्ठं ॥ (मुण्डक ४.१४)

brahmaivēdamamr̥taṁ purastāt brahma paścāt brahma dakṣiṇataśca uttarēṇa | adhaścōrdhvaṁ ca prasr̥taṁ brahmaivēdaṁ viśvamidaṁ variṣṭhaṁ ||

One who has well understood this tattva is mukhya-vāyu. All else is the function of mukhya-vāyu. Study Shat-prashṇa which teaches “अरा इव रथनाभौ प्राणे सर्वं प्रतिष्ठितं । arā iva rathanābhau prāṇē sarvaṁ pratiṣṭhitaṁ” – ṣaṭ-prashṇa (ii.5). Mukhya-vāyu, the knower of Paramātma-tattva, all that he instigates in this world, understands them as the work of Parabrahman. This is what gets to be called समर्पण samarpaṇa. The adhikāri who studies and understands this, is eligible to submit all his functions in Paramaatma.

The upanishat teaches ‘आ समन्तात् पालयन्तीति व्युत्पत्त्या अपः कर्माणि’ ‘ā samantāt pālayantīti vyutpattyā apaḥ karmāṇi’ what is the karma that protects all around? Person indulging in karma, thinking he is the doer, is performing karma that is sinful. Hence, the nishkaama karma performed by the knowledgeable in the form of worship of God is the one that protects all around. The knowledgeable knows he has no independence in either that karma or in the saadhana. This knowledge is the true meaning of ‘bhagavad-arpaṇa’. For this reason, the karma performed by one who has direct knowledge of Brahman is said to be ‘karma’ ‘तत्कर्मेति प्राहुः यत्कृतं ब्रह्मदर्शिना tatkarmēti prāhuḥ yatkr̥taṁ brahmadarśinā. Obtaining this knowledge of paramaatma is obtaining paramaatma. Observe how the word ‘obtained’ aapnuvan has the meaning ‘knew’ vyajaanan. All these have to be properly studied and heavily contemplated upon.

With this background, let us try to understand the meaning of upanishat mantra #4.

उपनिषत्‌: upanishat
अनेजदेकम्‌ मनसो जवीयो नैनद्देवाप्नुवन्‌ पूर्वमर्षत् |
तत्‌ धावतो अन्यान्‌ अत्येति तिष्ठत् तस्मिन्‌ अपो मातरिश्वा दधाति ॥४॥
anējadēkam manasō javīyō | nainaddēvāpnuvan purvamarśat |
tat dhāvatō anyān atyēti tiṣṭhat | tasmin apō mātariśvā dadhāti || 4 ||

That Parabraman has nothing that can control Him ( अनेजत्‌ anējat), and is primary pradhāna (एकम् ēkam) , and is faster than mind ( मनसो जवीयो manasō javīyō). This Brahma-svarūpa because is Complete, devas did not and do not understand it fully (नैनद्देवाप्नुवन्‌ nainaddēvāpnuvan). That brahma-tattva from anādi-kāla i.e., beginningless-time has Complete Knowledge by Brahman’s very nature (पूर्वमर्षत् purvamarśat). That Brahma-tattva ( तत्‌ tat ) staying at one place( तिष्ठत् tiṣṭhat) outruns everyone else ( धावतो अन्यान्‌ अत्येति dhāvatō anyān atyēti) because It is Omnipotent achintya-shakti and because It is Omnipresent sarva-gata. In that Parabrahman, ( तस्मिन्‌ tasmin) mukhya-vāyu submits (मातरिश्वा दधाति mātariśvā dadhāti) all puṇya-karmas. (अपो apō) that were performed because of his instigation.

NOTES:

To help us understand the Upanishad in the traditional manner, in the commentary for this mantra, the brahmANDa-purANa is quoted as follows:

अनेजत्‌ निर्भयत्वात्‌ तदेकम्‌ प्राधान्यस्तथा । सम्यक्‌ ज्ञातुम्‌ अशक्यत्वात्‌ अगम्यम्‌ तत्‌ सुरैरपि । स्वयम्‌ तु सर्वान्‌ अगमत्‌ पूर्वमेव स्वभावतः । अचिन्त्यशक्तितश्चैव सर्वगत्वाच्च तत्परम्‌ । द्रवतो अत्येति संतिष्ठत्‌ तस्मिन्‌ कर्माण्यधान्मरुत्‌ । मारुत्येव यतश्चेष्टा सर्वा ताम्‌ हरये अर्पयेत्‌ | इति ब्रह्माण्डे ।

anējat nirbhayatvāt tadēkam prādhānyastathā. samyak jñātum aśakyatvāt agamyam tat surairapi. svayam tu sarvān agamat pūrvamēva svabhāvataḥ. acintya śaktitaścaiva sarvagatvācca tatparam. dravatō atyēti saṁtiṣṭhat tasmin karmāṇi adhān marut. mārutyēva yataścēṣṭā sarvā tām harayē arpayēt | iti brahmāṇḍē.

What we should notice here is the fact that the Brahmānḍa-purāṇa of śrī vēdavyāsa follows closely this upanishat. As following Shruti, although a smriti, that purāṇa becomes a pramāṇa. We should also notice that the meaning given here is what श्रीवेदव्यास śrī vēdavyāsa has given. We should not lose such traditional meaning when it is avaialable. This also tells us that any other way of interpreting this mantra would not be the traditional way.