ISHAVASYA UPANISHAD----CONTD. The Upanishad says the atman is near and far off also. It says so because no matter how far the leaves may spread, they are always near the roots. They are linked with the roots, or else they cannot exist. The juice comes from the roots. If we see rightly, leaves are nothing but the extended hands of the roots. It is extension – the roots extended and turned into leaves. There is no discontinuity anywhere in between. There is no place in between where you can say that here the roots are discontinued and from here the leaves begin to appear. The whole tree is united together. The leaves are on that extremity and the roots are on this extremity. Nor are the toes of your feet and the hair on your head discontinuous with each other. They are joined, they are one. They are the two ends of the same thing. See how very close the roots are to the leaves! They give them all their juice, all their life force. How can they be far away? And yet they are far away, very far away, and if the leaves want to know the roots, they will have to take a long journey. Why do I say the roots are far away? They are far away in the sense that the leaves do not know even that the roots exist. The sun also appears to be near the leaves, although it is very far away,tens of millions of miles. But the leaves might feel the sun to be very near. They begin to dance in the morning when the sun rises. They are aware of the sun’s presence every day, but they are always ignorant of the roots which are hidden under them and are a part and parcel of them. In this sense, the sun is very near, while the roots are very far away. The highest spiritual element – the atman – is very near to us because we cannot exist without it,and it is very far away also because we are utterly unaware of it despite our search for it through innumerable lives. It is said that it is absolutely still, and yet all the movement of life is dependent on it. The axle does not move; the wheel moves, yet the axle also makes the same journey that the wheel makes. Suppose you start on a journey in a carriage. Its axle will not move an inch; only the wheel will move. But when you stop after driving ten miles, the axle has also made the ten miles’ journey, without moving an inch. Koestler will call this statement a foolish one. But the event – the journey – has happened. How can one dispute the fact? If Aristotle is proved wrong, let him be wrong; the fact cannot be wrong. The axle has not moved at all and yet a ten-mile journey was made. The atman never walked, even for a moment, and never moved; and yet it has made a journey through innumerable births, stopping at innumerable camps and resting places, and traveling so far.That is why the sage of the Upanishad says it does not move and yet is moving also. He says it is within and at the same time is without. In fact, within and without are temporary distinctions. When you inhale you say breath is going in, but before you complete your sentence it is going out.Have you ever thought of this? You say, ”Breath is going in – it is within.” Before you can complete your statement, before you can get time to say so, it is already out; and when you say it is out, you immediately see that it has started to go in again. What is the difference between within and without in this case? It is merely that of direction, there is no other difference.Is there an iota of difference between the sky which is outside your house and the one which is within your house? There is none at all. You constructed walls and thus encircled a portion of the sky. It is a part of that sky which is spread outside the house. The inner one is the same as the outer one, and yet there is some difference. When the sun is hot, we know the outer sky is different from the inner one. There is comfort inside while there is discomfort outside. The outer and the inner sky are one and the same, and yet they are different, separate. When we sleep under the inner sky at night we feel more at ease, more comfortable than if we sleep out. Therefore, the Upanishads say, the same one is within as is without. And yet you will have to begin from within if you wish to know it. Only after knowing it within can you say that it is the same without.Before knowing this, it cannot be said that it is without also, because if you do not know your within, you will have no idea of what is without. How can those who have not known even the small sky of their own homes, know that huge, limitless sky without? Get acquainted first with this small one and then you will be acquainted with that limitless one without. Those who wish to know it will have to start from within. And those who reach the final stage of knowing, complete their journey without. The first step, self-knowing, takes place within and the final step, knowing the ultimate, takes place without. The journey begins with the atman and ends with the supreme spirit – with Paramatman. This apparently very absurd, absolutely illogical and irrelevant statement is very profound – a great truth and full of reality. But those who stop at logical reasoning can never arrive at the fact. Only those who are brave enough to give up even reasoning are able to arrive at the fact, because the truth – the fact – does not respect your reasoning. All reasoning is man-made, and the facts never worry about that. Your reasoning may argue in any way it likes, but the facts, unperturbed, will continue to proceed in their own fashion. Facts go on speaking for themselves, without the least anxiety about your reasoning. That is why reasoning has to be smashed to pieces when there is a dispute between facts and reasoning. That is why, when the wise men of the East arrived at life’s truths, they gave up logical reasoning. They declared, ”Reasoning cannot be of any use.” That is why those who have become very proficient in reasoning find it difficult to know the truth. They stick to their reasoning. They go on saying, ”How can water be hot and cold at the same time? Cold is one quality, heat is another and opposite quality!” But they are one and the same. They go on saying, ”How can birth and death be one?” But they are! The seeker of truth has to be daring enough to give up reasoning, even though it is the greatest daring. This sutra is beyond logic and hence it is great.It is one of the greatest sutras uttered in the history of mankind.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 07:53:52 +0000
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