InAction and AVidhya

Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4, instructs the qualities of a self realized man, saying "One who can see action in inaction and inaction in action is the truly liberated soul".

Ishopanishad, in one of its mantra (Refer previous post) goes on to explore that "Those who worship avidhya enter darkness and those who verily worship vidhya enters deeper darkness."

Above statements should be pointing out to the same philosophy, for some reason the deeper physcological meaning is not coming out very clearly. May be its an experience which has to be experience by individuals and cannot be thought with the limited vocabulary available.

I remember that I had read somewhere that all these scriptures have been left obscure for individuals to explore themselves as they cannot be taught !!!!! (I think its Sri Aurobindo in his book "Synthesis of Yoga")

Ishopanishad-Mantra 9

"Andham tamah pravishanti ye vidyam upasate,

tato bhuya iva te tamo ya u vidyayagm ratah"

They who worship avidya alone enter into blindering darkness and they, who are engaged in vidya verily fall as though,into an even greater darkness.

(Isavasya Upanishad, Swami Chinmayananda, Pg-114)

What does avidya and vidya signifies here ? Swami chinmayananda explains avidya as rituals and vidya as meditation. Interpreting the meaning of the same Swami goes on to say, that those who are involved only in rituals, will never be able to identify their true self, they will be constantly driven by maya or illusion. The argument which he puts forth there, is that rituals are performed only for material benefits. Seeking only material benefits in his living man is definitely not going to achieve self realization. At the same time, people involved in vidhya that is mediation, may also not get the right benefits, because in haste they may tend to over do it. Swami emphasises the point "as though into an even greater darkness", the mediator may feel that he is not having any benefits of his long and continuous mediation session, but has to wait patiently to allow it to work on him.Over a period of time man's meditation efforts will earn its fruit. The real fruit of mediation is self realization.

Swamiji explores further into this sloka, the negative prefix A in samskrata can mean two things. It can be the antonym of a word when applied on the same or else it can also mean that the word of attention is not truly the same but something similar to it.Avidya, may not be opposite of vidhya, but may be something close to it, but not exactly the same. Given that, can we take the meaning of vidhya as higher meditation and avidhya as selfless service, rather than rituals. The avidhya here may mean karma. Ishopanishad in its second sloka has pondered on the karma saying that "A man should wish to live a hindered years, purely doing his karma. This alone is the right path and action never clings to a man in the path". This interpretation gives a completely new meaning to this sloka now.

The sloka turns out to say that, both Vidhya and Avidhya are equally important to a man. A man who ignores his karma and mearly does meditation and the one who merely does meditation ignoring his karma, both are destined not to reach the state of self realization.

Ishavasayam Idham Sarvam

As a follow up of the message posted previously "Serve man still you see god in all men", its very diffcult to digest the message, that god is everywhere. As the upanishad says, "All things which are moving and not moving within this ever moving universe is veiled by god".

Sri Aurobindo uses a nice metaphor of sea and waves to explain this concept. Each wave is different from the other, but all of them are from the same sea. A wave is just a temparory state, though its looks to us as if different from the sea, its the same sea, which manisfest itself as wave. Hence a wave is no different from the sea.

Similary each of us is a wave, as each wave is different from the other in terms of height, strength etc, we are different. However we are all the manifestation of the same almighty. This explains the concept of "Ishavasyam Idham Sarvam".

Isha vasyam Idham Sarvam - Exclusive message from Sathya Sai Baba

I was surprised to see the photograph of Sathya Sai Baba today, with an exclusive message for me. Its not the first time it has happened, every time when I visit my Manager's cabin for a morning chat, Something in his office catches my attention, and the see Bhagavan there, with an exclusive message for me.

It was hard hitting today. For the past few weeks, I have been trying to ponder over Ishopanishad. I don't remember how I got interested into it, but have been trying to read it for some time now. The first glimpse of it was from the website www.hinduwebsite.com

During my weekly visit to Dinabhandhu temple in cmh road, bangalore, I found this book Ishavasyoupanishad by Swami Chinmayananda. Later as I was waiting for someone, I had entered Mother's Ashram, and saw the book Isha Upanishad by Sri Aurobindo, just waiting there for me to be picked up. There was only one copy of it. Surprisingly I was searching the web many times to check on if there are any commentaries by Sri Aurobindo on Isha Upanishad. I found some, but they looked to me like mere translation. This book is a treasure, it has all his manuscripts (some of them were his scratch pad of ideas, which were never published), which was his thoughts and pondering on the true meaning of these upanishads.

I can't stop myself from believing that there was a divine will behind all these. The last two weeks were very busy at work, but still could manage good time to read and ponder over it. The day before yesterday evening, I was asking myself this question continuously " How do I see god in everything ? Yes my intellect is able to understand the concept but how do i put it to practise ? How can enjoy the great lord in the plurality of the various form ?"

Sri Aurobindo states that Isha upanishad is about Karma Yoga. To start on the path of Karma yoga, the first step is to experience Isha, The God, in all the things around us. Everthing around us, including us, is the manifestation of Lord in various forms / levels of consciousness.

I think Sathya Sai Baba gave me the answer. The photo was printed with the message "Serve man until you see god in all men."

There are 108 upanishads known ot mankind. Upanishads are a condensed form of our sacred vedas. They breifly bring about the philosphocial messages embedded in the vedas.

The list are (Thanks to http://www.astrojyoti.com/upanishadspage.htm)

From the Rigveda

1 Aitareya Upanishad 2 Aksha-Malika Upanishad - about rosary beads3 Atma-Bodha Upanishad 4 Bahvricha Upanishad 5 Kaushitaki-Brahmana Upanishad 6 Mudgala Upanishad 7 Nada-Bindu Upanishad 8 Nirvana Upanishad 9 Saubhagya-Lakshmi Upanishad 10 Tripura Upanishad From the Shuklapaksha Yajurveda 11 Adhyatma Upanishad 12 Advaya-Taraka Upanishad 13 Bhikshuka Upanishad 14 Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 15 Hamsa Upanishad 16 Isavasya Upanishad 17 Jabala Upanishad 18 Mandala-Brahmana Upanishad 19 Mantrika Upanishad 20 Muktika Upanishad 21 Niralamba Upanishad 22 Paingala Upanishad 23 Paramahamsa Upanishad 24 Satyayaniya Upanishad 25 Subala Upanishad 26 Tara-Sara Upanishad 27 Trisikhi-Brahmana Upanishad 28 Turiyatita-Avadhuta Upanishad 29 Yajnavalkya Upanishad

From the Krishnapaksha Yajurveda 30 Akshi Upanishad 31 Amrita-Bindhu Upanishad 32 Amrita-Nada Upanishad 33 Avadhuta Upanishad 34 Brahma-Vidya Upanishad 35 Brahma Upanishad 36 Dakshinamurti Upanishad 37 Dhyana-Bindu Upanishad 38 Ekakshara Upanishad 39 Garbha Upanishad 40 Kaivalya Upanishad 41 Kalagni-Rudra Upanishad 42 Kali-Santarana Upanishad 43 Katha Upanishad 44 Katharudra Upanishad 45 Kshurika Upanishad 46 Maha-Narayana (or) Yajniki Upanishad 47 Pancha-Brahma Upanishad 48 Pranagnihotra Upanishad 49 Rudra-Hridaya Upanishad 50 Sarasvati-Rahasya Upanishad 51 Sariraka Upanishad 52 Sarva-Sara Upanishad 53 Skanda Upanishad 54 Suka-Rahasya Upanishad 55 Svetasvatara Upanishad 56 Taittiriya Upanishad 57 Tejo-Bindu Upanishad 58 Varaha Upanishad 59 Yoga-Kundalini Upanishad 60 Yoga-Sikha Upanishad 61 Yoga-Tattva Upanishad

From the Samaveda 62 Aruni (Aruneyi) Upanishad 63 Avyakta Upanishad 64 Chandogya Upanishad 65 Darsana Upanishad 66 Jabali Upanishad 67 Kena Upanishad 68 Kundika Upanishad 69 Maha Upanishad 70 Maitrayani Upanishad 71 Maitreya Upanishad 72 Rudraksha-Jabala Upanishad 73 Sannyasa Upanishad 74 Savitri Upanishad 75 Vajrasuchika Upanishad 76 Vasudeva Upanishad 77 Yoga-Chudamani Upanishad

From the Atharvaveda 78 Annapurna Upanishad 79 Atharvasikha Upanishad 80 Atharvasiras Upanishad 81 Atma Upanishad 82 Bhasma-Jabala Upanishad 83 Bhavana Upanishad 84 Brihad-Jabala Upanishad 85 Dattatreya Upanishad 86 Devi Upanishad 87 Ganapati Upanishad 88 Garuda Upanishad 89 Gopala-Tapaniya Upanishad 90 Hayagriva Upanishad 91 Krishna Upanishad 92 Maha-Vakya Upanishad 93 Mandukya Upanishad 94 Mundaka Upanishad 95 Narada-Parivrajaka Upanishad 96 Nrisimha-Tapaniya Upanishad 97 Para-Brahma Upanishad 98 Paramahamsa-Parivrajaka Upanishad 99 Pasupata Brahmana Upanishad 100 Prasna Upanishad 101 Rama Rahasya Upanishad 102 Rama-Tapaniya Upanishad 103 Sandilya Upanishad 104 Sarabha Upanishad 105 Sita Upanishad 106 Surya Upanishad 107 Tripadvibhuti-Mahanarayana Upanishad 108 Tripura-Tapini Upanishad