The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad - 6.4. Swami Krishnananda.

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Tuesday,March 16, 2021. 11:17. AM.
Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 4.
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Yoga, as an ascent of the spirit, is an organic development like the growth of a child from the womb to a mature adult and a genius, which process takes place without even one’s knowing that it is taking place at all. It is an educational career. In the process of education there are no jumps, even as when we grow from day to day we are not jumping from one day to another day. We are imperceptibly, organically, uniformly, harmoniously, entirely growing into the next stage, which is a larger wholeness inclusive of the lesser or lower wholeness.

The rungs of the ladder cannot be compared to wholenesses of this kind. We cannot say that the higher rung in the ladder is a larger wholeness than the lower rung. But in the rungs of yoga, the higher rung is larger, more inclusive, and therefore, more real than the lower rung, even as we advance in age we become more perspectival, perspicacious, more intelligent, more complete than we were when we were inside the womb of the mother.

The yoga practice is succinctly described in the Kathopanishad. The practice of yoga is an endeavour on the part of the whole of man, not merely our mind or the intellect, to commune itself with the whole of reality in one of its levels. These are very crucial points that we have to concentrate upon. We cannot afford to wool gather or sleep here when these methods of practice are considered as essentials in our life. This is not a study of some supernatural mystery but a study of the very science of existence, the very art of living itself.

We are complete persons and not fractions of individuals, as every one of us knows. There is a peculiarity in every living being, by which it regards itself as a completeness. An ant is a complete whole; it is not a fraction of a living being. A baby is a complete being, a boy or a girl is a complete living being, every person is complete in himself or herself, and every organism is complete in itself. Whatever be the size physically in its quantum, from the point of view of the organic structure and the awareness of this structure, it is a wholeness. No living being will regard itself as a fraction or a part. This is a mystery. We can call it only a mystery; there is no better word to explain this difficulty before us. How is it that every living being considers himself, herself or itself as a whole while, at the same time, we have a feeling that we are finite, inadequate shreds of reality? We are sorrow-stricken in every way because we feel that we are finite in our body, in our possessions. Even in our life there is nothing complete. We do not possess the complete wealth of the world. We cannot live a complete duration of our life. We cannot be complete friends of everybody, nor can anyone become complete friends of ourselves. Everything seems to be fragmentary, and nothing is whole as far as we can imagine in the atmosphere of our life. Yet, nevertheless, we feel that we are wholes. I am a whole being; I am not a fragment of being. This is a point which requires deep study and analysis. Notwithstanding the fact that no person in the world can regard himself or herself as a whole, there is a subtle feeling that each one is a whole. I stand by myself.

To be continued ...

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