Casting off the nets of volition is called nonattachment, or the contemplation (bhâvanâ) of the one Lordship (îshvarana) of the whole net of [Nature’s] promptings. (31)
[The mind] shining forth without duality is [what is meant by] offering up to the Lord. By the force of the unillumined (abodha) [mind], the Consciousness-Self is named [i.e., conceived] differently. (32)
It is said that the meaning of the words “awakened self’ is undoubtedly the one world. The “I” is space; the “I” is the world; the “I” is oneself, and also the “I” is activity (karman). (33)
The “I” is time; the “I” is dual and non-dual; the “I” is the world. Be devoted to Me, love Me, worship Me, salute Me. Having thus restrained the self by being dedicated to Me, you will seek Me out. (34)
Comments: Here Vâlmîki switches to a transcendental perspective. The “Me” is not the Finite ego but the “I Am” of the Divine.
Arjuna said:
O Lord! You have two forms, a higher and a lower one. When and to which form shall I resort [in order to attain ultimate] perfection? (35)
The Blessed Lord said:
O sinless one! Know that there are indeed two forms of Me, a common and a higher one. The common [form is that which] is endowed with hands, etc., holding the conch, discus, and club. (36)
My higher form is infinite. It is single, free from ill. This is designated by the words “Absolute,” “Self,” “supreme Self,” etc. (37)
As long as you are unenlightened and occupied with knowledge about the nonself [i.e., the world], you should be fond of worshiping God in his four-armed shape. (38)
In this way you become fully enlightened. Then you will know that higher [form of Mine]. [Through the realization] of My infinite form, one is not born again. (39)
O crusher of the enemy! That condition where the Unknowable is known, that is My Self. Quickly resort to the Self and for the Self! (40)
When I say “I am this [world] and this [world] is me,” then I teach you this [from the viewpoint] of the Self’s reality in order to instruct you. (41)
I deem you wide awake. You are reposing in the Condition [of Truth]. You are free from [all] volitions. Realize that you are of the nature of the one true Self! (42)
Behold the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self. You are the Self [which is ever] yoked in Yoga, seeing the same everywhere. (43)
He who worships the Self abiding in all beings as the singularity (ekatva) of the Self, even though variously active, he is not born again. (44)
The [true] meaning of the word “all” is “singularity”; the [true] meaning of the word “one” is [the “oneness”) of the Self. For him who has swiftly vanished in [the Self], that Self neither exists nor does not exist. (45)
He who shines as the [luminous] space (loka) between the “minds” of the three worlds, he surely ascends to the experience “I am the Self.” (46)
Comments: Here the transcendental Self is likened to the radiant interstices between the worlds of earthbound existence, the psychic “ether,” and the heavenly realms. The metaphor of space is common among the Hindu mystics. The word loka, standing for “world” or “space,” is probably derived from the stem ruc, meaning “to shine, be resplendent.”
He who, in the three worlds, is the “taste experience” of the milk of cows and sea creatures, he is this Self, O Bhârata! (47)
Comments: Milk is considered a highly desirable food by yogins. The transcendental Self is here compared to the delicious taste of milk, since it nourishes and sustains all.
He who is the subtle experience in all bodies, by which one is to be released, he is this omnipresent Self. (48)
Just as there is butter in every [kind of] milk, similarly the Supreme abides in the bodies of all things. (49)
Just as the luster of all [kinds of] gems and treasures of the sea [shines! within and without, so I am in [all] bodies, abiding [in them, and yet] seemingly not abiding [in them]. (50)
Just as space is inside and outside thousands of pots, so I abide as the Self in the bodies of the three worlds. (51)
Just as a thread strung with a mass of hundreds of pearls [is concealed but nevertheless present], so does this invisible Self abide in the visible bodies [of all beings]. (52)
That which is the universal Being (sattâ) in the multitude of things—from [the Creator-God] Brahma down to a blade of grass—know that to be the unborn Self. (53)
[The Creator-God) Brahma is a slightly vibrating form of the Absolute (brahman), [which emerges] because of delusion (bhrama) by a process [that establishes] the egoity (ahamtâ), etc., as well as the world (jagattâ), etc. (54)
Since the Self is of the form of this [entire] world, what can destroy it, and [what can] it destroy here? How can one, O Arjuna, be defiled by the misery of the world, by good or evil? (55)
Abiding as a witness, [the Self is] like a mirror toward its reflections. He who sees that it is indestructible among destructible [things], he [truly] sees. (56)
I explain that I am this [world] and yet also not this [world]: Thus I am the Self. Know Me to be the Self of everything, O Pândava. (57)
All these processes of creation and dissolution occur in the Self. The egoity (ahamtâ) abiding in the [finite] consciousness (citta) is like the water moving in the ocean. (58)
Like the solidity of stones, or the hardness of Earth’s trees, or the liquidity of waves, so is the Selfhood (âtmatâ) of things. (59)
He who sees the Self abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self, and [who sees that] the Self is not an [egoic] agent, he [truly] sees. (60)
Just as the water of waves of different shapes [is always the same], so, O Arjuna, is the Self in a [desert] caravan, etc., or in the beings of the golden [Himalayas], (61)
Just as multitudes of different waves roll in the [same] ocean, similarly the beings in the golden [Himalayas] or in the caravans, etc., [have their subsistence] in the supreme Self. (62)
The totality (jâta) of things and beings, including the great [Creator-God] Brahma, O Bhârata, know everything as one. There is not even the least separateness. (63)
How can the modifications of states in the three worlds be recognized as that? Where are they? What is the world [apart from the Self]? Why are you [still] uselessly bewildered? (64)5
“I am ever of the form of the unborn [ultimate Reality], I am dispassionate and untainted. I am pure. I am awakened. I am eternal. I am mighty.”
—Tejo-Bindu-Upanishad1 (3.42)
I. OVERVIEW
”That art thou” (tat tvam asi). “I am the Absolute” (aham brahma-asmi, written aham brahmâsmi). “All this is the Absolute” (sarvam brahma asti, written sarvam brahmasti). These are the three great metaphysical maxims of the ancient Upanishadic sages. What they seek to communicate is that Reality is singular and, therefore, that we are in truth only that all-encompassing single Being, which is unsurpassably blissful and superconscious. The Upanishads call it by many names, but the most common designations are the “Absolute” (brahman) and the “Self’ (âtman). These didactic maxims are far more than pious affirmations. Throughout the over two hundred extant Upanishads, we find scattered testimonies to the fact that for their composers and transmitters the nondual Being-Consciousness-Bliss was a living reality, not merely an abstract hypothesis or a belief.
Patanjali’s philosophical system was (at least apparently) among the few schools within the Yoga tradition to break with the Vedântic metaphysics of nondualism, and to boldly assert a plurality of transcendental Selves (purusha). This led to a great deal of controversy and debate, from which the proponents of nondualist Vedânta emerged as final victors, for the basic tenor of Hindu Yoga is distinctly nondualist. Even in Bhakti-Yoga, which favors an I-Thou relationship between the devotee and the Divine, the unity of the Godhead is affirmed. As a result, Patanjali’s compilation of Yoga aphorisms, though widely respected, came to be exploited more for its practical contents than its philosophy. We find th
at many later Yoga authorities refer to his definitions of the eight limbs of the yogic path but virtually ignore his metaphysics, unless they criticize it.
This also is the situation in the so-called Yoga-Upanishads, which all promulgate a Vedântic type of Yoga. These are works modeled on the earlier Upanishads but belonging, for the most part, to the post-Patanjali era. They have not yet been critically edited or studied, and therefore their interrelationships and dates are still uncertain. However, they contain very important expositions of the yogic path, and practitioners of Yoga can certainly benefit from a close reading of these works, which are all available in reasonably reliable translations.
The following sections provide brief summaries of the contents of twenty Yoga-Upanishads.2 I will start with the five so-called Hindu (“Point”)-Upanishads: the Amrita-Bindu-, Amrita-Nâda-Bindu-, Tejo-Bindu-, Nâda-Bindu-, and Dhyâna- Bindu-Upanishad, which make use of mantras as a means of focusing and ultimately transcending the mind. Sound also plays an important role in the teachings of the Hamsa-, Brahma-Vidyâ-, Mahâ-Vâkya-, and Pâshupata-Brahma-Upanishad. These works are followed by the Advaya-Târaka- and Mandala-Brâhmana-Upanishad, which expound a Yoga of light phenomena. Then there is the short but highly instructive Kshurikâ-Upanishad, which epitomizes the essence of all forms of Yoga. The concluding category comprises those Upanishads that tend to be more comprehensive and textbook-like treatments of Kundalînî-Yoga, namely the Yoga-Kundalî-, Darshana-, Yoga-Shikhâ-, Yoga-Tattva-, Yoga-Cûda-Mani-, Varâha-, Tri-Shikhi-Brâhmana-, and Shândilya-Upanishad.
II. SOUNDING OUT THE ABSOLUTE
The world is sound. It sounds in pulsars and planetary orbits, in the spin of electrons, in the quanta of atoms and the structure of molecules, in the microcosm and in the macrocosm. It also sounds in the sphere between these extremes, in the world in which we live.3
This is how Joachim-Ernst Berendt, a well-known German producer of radio programs and musicologist, begins one chapter in his fine book Nada Brahma. His excursion into the mystery of what he calls primal sound, the transcendental sound that gives rise to all manifestation, shows that religio-spiritual traditions around the world have explored sound as part of their quest for the transmutation of consciousness.
In India, undoubtedly the oldest and most sacred sound or word (mantra) is the syllable om, symbolizing the Absolute. It is pronounced with a strongly nasalized or hummed m, which is indicated in Sanskrit by a dot (called bindu or “seed-point”) under the letter m. Whereas the syllable om by itself is said to represent the creative or manifest dimension of the Divine, the echo, or bindu, of the sound m is thought to represent the Divine in its unmanifest dimension. Shyam Sundar Goswami, a modern practitioner of Laya-Yoga, explained the esoteric significance of the bindu as follows:
Bindu is a state in which power is at maximum concentration. When mental consciousness is in the bindu state, diversified mental powers are collected and highly concentrated as mental dynamism … Bindu—the power point—is a natural and indispensable condition associated with power in its operation. Bindu occurs both in the mental and material fields. The atom is the bindu of matter; the nucleus the bindu of a protoplasmic cell; and samâdhi consciousness the bindu of the mind.4
Thus, the bindu is latent concentrated power— whether it be of consciousness or of sound, or of Nature itself. The five Bindu-Upanishads,5 which espouse a form of Mantra-Yoga, build upon the age-old Vedic speculations about this sacred sound. The German Yoga researcher Jakob Wilhelm Hauer even thought that these scriptures were composed not too long after the emergence of Buddhism, but this seems unlikely. They are definitely minor Upanishads, which were not commented on or cited by the great Vedântic teacher Shankara, and therefore were probably composed after him. Shankara is generally thought to have lived between 788 and 820 C.E., but Hajime Nakamura has made a good case for the earlier date of 700-750 C.E.6 Since all the Bindu- Upanishads are named in the list of 108 Upanishads furnished by the Muktikâ-Upanishad,7 they were obviously composed prior to this text. However, the date of the Muktikâ-Upanishad is also uncertain, though we know that it is quoted in the Jîvan-Mukti-Viveka written by the famous Vedânta scholar Vidyâranya who was born around 1314 C.E. In fact, in the same work he either cites or refers repeatedly to the Amrita-Bindu- and the Amrita-Nâda-Bindu-Upanishad.
The esoteric notion of bindu appears to belong to the vocabulary of Tantra, and therefore it is reasonable to assign these texts to the heyday of the Tantric tradition, perhaps between 900 and 1200 C.E. As a matter of fact, even in its more conventional sense of “drop [of water],” the word bindu does not occur in any of the early Upanishads, and is first found in the relatively late Maitrâyanîya-Upanishad (3.2).
Amrita-Bindu-Upanishad
The Amrita-Bindu (“Immortal Point”)-Upanishad, also known as the Brahma-Bindu-Upanishad, is a short work of only twenty-two stanzas. It makes a distinction between the practice of the tonal (svara) syllable om and the higher practice of the non- tonal or unsounded (asvara) syllable, as perceivable only by yogic means. They are also respectively referred to as the lettered/perishable (kshara) and the nonlettered/imperishable (akshara) aspects of this great mantra. By meditating upon the latter aspect, the spiritual practitioner is assured of finding peace of mind. To this end, he or she also is advised to dispense with all book knowledge, just as one winnows the husk from the grain. The ultimate realization of this Mantra-Yoga is identification with the Absolute in the form of Vâsudeva (“All-God”). A complete rendering of this scripture is given as Source Reading 3.
Amrita-Nâda-Bindu-Upanishad
With a total of thirty-eight stanzas, the Amrita- Nâda-Bindu (“Immortal Sound-Point”) Upanishad is only slightly longer than the previous work. But it makes several important points about Mantra-Yoga. First of all, it treats mantra meditation as part of a sixfold (shad-anga) Yoga, consisting of sense-withdrawal, meditation, breath control, concentration, reflection (tarka),8 and ecstasy—in that order.
Breath control (prânâyâma) is defined as the triple recitation of the gâyatrî-mantra with a single breath. This famous Vedic mantra was introduced in Chapter 5 when discussing the Chândogya-Upanishad. This mantra includes the sacred syllable om. The regulation of the breath in the above manner causes a switch in consciousness whereby attention becomes more and more focused. This enables the yogin to contemplate the transcendental Self in the practice of concentration (dhâranâ), which consists in merging the desire-filled mind with the Self. One full cycle of prânâyâma as described is known as a “measure” (mâtrâ). Concentration is said to be seven or eight such measures long, whereas the condition of union (yoga), that is, ecstatic realization (samâdhi), is reckoned to be twelve such measures long.
Of interest is the doctrine of the “seven gates” (sapta-dvâra) that can lead the yogin to liberation. These are respectively called “heart gate” (hrid- dvâra), “wind gate” (vâyu-dvâra), “head gate” (murdha-dvâra), “liberation gate” (moksha-dvâra), “cavity” (bila), “hollow” (sushira), and “circle” (mandala). They refer to diverse anatomical structures, though the author does not divulge anything about them. The last four are probably all esoteric loci in the head. These technical terms hint at the fact that the composer of this Upanishad was steeped in esoteric lore that was far more sophisticated than the text of his own composition. The yogin who diligently follows this Yoga, sketched with such tantalizing brevity, is promised liberation (kaivalya) in six months.
SOURCE READING 17
Amrita-Nâda-Bindu-Upanishad
Although the meaning of this text is not always entirely clear because its Sanskrit is in part defective, it nonetheless makes many interesting statements that deserve to be considered by students of Yoga. Tradition counts this scripture as the twenty-first in the catalogue of 108 Upanishads.
Having studied the scriptures (shâstra) and repeatedly practiced [their teachings] again and again, the sage who understands the supreme Absolute should then discard them as
[he would cast aside] a torch [after the rising of the sun]. (1)
Mounting the chariot of the sound om and making Vishnu the charioteer, he who desires a place in Brahma’s world and who is eager to worship Rudra [ who is a form of Shiva] (2)
should steer the chariot [to the Absolute], providing he is on the chariot’s track. Stopping at the end of the chariot’s track and abandoning the chariot, he goes [to the Absolute]. (3)
Comments: The metaphor of the chariot is a Hindu favorite. It is used already in the Bhagavad-Gîtâ to represent the body. Here it refers to the sound om, which is introduced as the vehicle to the Divine. Today we might use an elevator to illustrate the same point: We use it to get to the top floor, but once we are there, we leave it behind.
Having abandoned the state of the [three] symbols of the measures, and disengaging from vocal expression, he goes [forward into] the subtle State by means of the unsounded sound m. (4)
Comments: The three manifest parts (or morae) of the sacred syllable om are the vocalized sounds a, u. and m. After the waning of the audible nasalized sound m, the inaudible sound m, i.e., its mental “echo,” is used as a vehicle for concentration. This fourth “sound” is the bindu (“seed-point”).
He should regard the five [types of] sense objects, such as sound, and the exceedingly restless mind as his reins: That is called sense-withdrawal. (5)
Sense-withdrawal. meditation, breath control, concentration, reflection (tarka), and ecstasy (samâdhi) are called the Yoga with six limbs. (6)
Just as the impurities of mountain ore are smelted, similarly the defects (dosha) caused by the sense organs are burned by “breath concentration” (prâna-dhâranâ). (7)
Comments: The defects spoken of here are inner states like anger, sorrow, jealousy, etc.. which are engendered by our outgoing consciousness.
One should burn the defects by means of breath control and guilt (kilbisha) [i.e., the karmic deposits of negative emotions] by means of concentration. Having done away with guilt, one should consider [practicing] the retention [of the breath]. (8)
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