The Esoteric Significance of the Kathopanishad - 6.12. Swami Krishnananda.
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Thursday, June 17, 2021. 6:49. AM.
Chapter 6: The Meaning of Not Coming Back - 12.
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Now, you must understand very carefully in what sense they are internal. I am mentioning this because you have to understand what I mean by saying that you have to concentrate your mind by internalising it. You are not going inside a room when you internalise the mind because it is a spatial concept. The atoms are not spatially inside the stone.
They are inside in a different sense altogether. You cannot say that the atoms are inside the stone as we are sitting inside a hall. Not so, because the atoms are the very substance of the stone, while we are not of the substance of this hall. So when we say the electromagnetic movements are inside the hard object, we are using the word ‘inside’ only in a metaphorical way, not literally.
In the same way as molecules are inside the stone, atoms are inside the molecules, and electrons, protons, and nucleus, etc., are inside; in a different sense altogether from the insideness we can think of in our minds, so is our mind internal to us, so is the reason internal, so is the spirit internal. “The spirit, the Atman, is inside me,” people say. It is not inside in the way we are thinking.
It is difficult for an untrained mind to imagine this internality. We are using an unadapted language, using words such as ‘interior’, ‘exterior’, etc., to explain what is not meant to be explained. Remember this analogy of the internality of things. This also explains how realms of being can be one inside the other. All the worlds are crossing each other at one point. They are not kept one over the other, like chapatis heaped up. This is Bhurloka; over that is Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka – one roti, another roti, a third roti. It is not like that.
They are one over the other as over the electrons is the atom, over the atom is the molecule, over the molecule is the stone, or the reverse way, over the stone is the molecule, over the molecule is the atom, over the atom is the electron. All are at the same point. All the chapatis are not in the same place. They are different. But this internality, or the layer of being, is a different thing altogether. The mind cannot conceive it easily. So this Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka, Svarloka, Maharloka, Janaloka, Tapoloka, Satyaloka are degrees of reality, not solid existences kept one over the other like stacked coins.
Therefore, when we are internalising our consciousness in meditation, we are to understand what it is we are really expected to do because yoga is nothing but this. Higher than the physical world is the structure of the mind, due to which it is that the mind assumes the position of a subject and imagines that it is looking at the world. Though we sometimes wrongly imagine that the mind is inside the body and it is perhaps inside the brain, in the skull, and the mind inside the skull or the brain is contacting the world which is so large, it is really not so.
The mind is superior to the physical world : arthebhyas ca param manah (Katha 1.3.10).
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KATHOPANISHAD :
CHAPTER-1.
SECTION-3.
Mantram-10.
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"indriyebhyaḥ parā hyarthā 'arthebhyaś ca paraṃ manaḥ' |
manasastu parā buddhirbuddherātmā mahānparaḥ." || 10 ||
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Tatvam :
10. Beyond the senses, are the rudiments of its objects; beyond these rudiments is the mind; beyond the mind is atman known as Mahat (great).
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Swami Sri Adi Sankaracharya’s Commentary :
Now this subsequent portion is introduced for the purpose of showing that the goal to be reached should be understood to be the Pratyak (the internal) atman, the subtlest proceeding from the gross senses in the ascending degree of subtlety. The senses are gross and those rudiments (Vishaya) from which these spring for their own illumination are subtler than the senses, their own effects, greater than these and the atman of these, i.e., bound up with these; subtler than these rudiments and greater than these, being the atman of these, is the mind.
Here, by the word mind is denoted the rudiments of the Bhuta (Bhuta Sukshma) from which mind originates. Than the mind which is the origin of volition, deliberation and the rest, the intellect is subtler, greater, and more possessed of the functions of seeing, hearing, etc., does not shine, as the atman of any being concealed by ignorance and delusion. Oh, how deep, unfathomable and marvellous this Maya, that every living being, though really in its nature the Brahman, does not, though instructed, grasp the truth ‘I am the Paramatman’ and feels convinced, without any instruction that he is such a person's son mistaking for the atman the combination of the body, and the senses, etc., which is not the atman and is only perceived by him, like the pot, etc.; indeed, the world wanders repeatedly deluded by the Maya of the Brahman alone; so the smriti also says ‘Being concealed by Yogamaya, I do not shine to all, etc.’ Are not these statements inconsistent?
Knowing him, the intelligent do not grieve and ‘he does not shine.’ It is not so. It is said he does not shine, because he cannot be known by the unpurified intellect; but he is seen by the purified intellect. Agryaya, like a point, i.e., concentrated, subtle, i.e., capable of perceiving subtle objects. By whom? By the subtle seers, i.e., by persons, who, by seeing the different degrees of subtlety as pointed out by the rudiments, are subtler than the senses, etc., are characteristically able to see the subtlest, i.e., by learned persons.
To be continued ...
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