by Roopa Pai
‘The first sound of the Omkara – A (say aa) – is Vaishvanara, for it is the first letter of the alphabet, just as Vaishvanara is the first state of consciousness. Chant A with devotion, giving thanks to the visible universe as you do, and you will master your senses, and thus master Vaishvanara. Then will you become the first among equals, and obtain your heart’s desire.
‘The second sound – U (say oo) – comes from ubhayatva, or ‘intermediate’, and stands for Taijasa, for it is the intermediate state of consciousness. Chant U with dedication, worshipping the invisible universe within you and without you, and you will master your dreams, and thus master Taijasa. Then will you be blessed, and your descendants will all tread the path of the spiritual life.
‘The third sound of the Omkara – M (say mm) – comes from ‘im’ – ‘to merge’ – and represents Prajna, in which state everything merges and becomes one. Chant M with faith, and you will still your mind. Your sense of “I”, your sense of separateness from everything else in the universe, will fall away from you and you will see the oneness of all things, and enjoy Prajna in the conscious state. So will the measure of your understanding grow, and you with it.
‘The fourth part of the Omkara – that infinitesimal, infinite pause between one Aum and the next – has no letter, no sound and no characteristics. It is beyond description and ungraspable, cannot be heard and cannot be spoken of – but it contains within it the three sounds of the Omkara, which contain the entire universe. This is the supreme state of turiya. This is Atman, your true self. This is Brahman.
‘Meditate on the pause, knowing Aum as turiya, knowing Aum as your true Self! He who knows this, and meditates on the Omkara, unceasingly, consistently, with faith and devotion, becomes the Omkara, and realizes his true self.’
Aum Shantih Shantih Shantih ||
THE AFTERSTORY
Afterstory 1: Need help with a school report? Never fear, the Upanishads are here!
Don’t you just love how logically, how scientifically, even, the sages of the Mandukya Upanishad approached an entirely new field of study? The field, of course, was ‘states of consciousness’, and as far as we know, these men were among the first in the world to focus on this subject. How did they do it?
Actually, how would you do it? If you had been given a project to research something that had never been researched before, on which no data exists, either on the Internet or otherwise, where would you start? Let’s say your project was to create a PPT presentation on the ‘littering pattern’ on the street outside your school. The report would have to include not only information on how and where littering happens, by whom, and when, but also suggestions on how it can be controlled. Got that? Great. Now put this book away for ten minutes, and think about the steps you would need to take to create your presentation.
All done? Now let’s do a quick rundown of the steps the Mandukya sages used to arrive at their own brilliant presentation – The States of Consciousness and How They Relate to Aum (aka the Mandukya Upanishad). Then we can compare their steps and yours. Here goes.
•Step 1: Don’t assume; observe.
Instead of saying, ‘Hey, there are two states of consciousness, the waking and the sleeping – everyone knows that!’ or ‘Hey, let’s declare that there are eight states of consciousness, spin a fabulous story around each and dazzle our audience with tonnes of colourful slides – that’s what really counts in these things!’, the sages sat down and observed their own minds, extensively, obsessively, trying different thought experiments (can the mind observe the mind?), reflecting deeply on tricky questions (is daydreaming a separate state of consciousness? Maybe not, because the body is still receiving stimuli from the external world, same as in jagrita), and brainstorming with fellow explorers.
•Step 2: Organize your data; then analyze and classify it.
Once they had made their observations and had their data together, the sages sliced and diced it many ways (jagrita-Vaishvanara / swapna-Taijasa / sushupti-Prajna) to come up with three separate states of consciousness. Then, after considering the question, ‘But how do we remember enjoying the bliss of deep sleep, given that the mind is not functional in that state?’ they deduced that there must be a fourth state, beyond the mind, just as astronomers today deduce the location of an invisible black hole by the behaviour of objects around it.
•Step 3: Communicate your findings in a lucid manner.
The sages of the Upanishads were never content to perform their experiments for their own sake. They believed it was their sacred duty to share their findings with as many people as possible, so that the knowledge was not lost to humanity. So they gave each of their four states names (the fourth state was indescribable, so they simply went with ‘The Fourth’), put them down in logical sequence, and described each briefly but clearly. Like the best communicators and teachers, they started with the known (the waking state) and then took their audience, step by step, to the unknown (turiya). To make the presentation less dry (God knows there are too many of those!), they used poetic, even trance-y language (for instance, here’s how they described turiya – ‘adrishtam avyavahaaryam agraahyam alakshanam achintyam avyapadeshyam’ – that which cannot be seen, discussed, or grasped; that which has no defining qualities, is beyond thought, and cannot be described in words) and rich visual imagery (‘seven limbs, nineteen mouths’).
•Step 4: Turn your audience into believers.
It is all very well to report our own findings, thought the Mandukya sages, but unless we also give people a methodology that they can use to corroborate them, we will not be able to create evangelists who understand the findings and believe in them and spread the word. So they came up with a practice – Meditating on the Aum – and suggested that their audience try it diligently. If they did so, promised the sages, they would reach the same state of bliss that one reached in deepest sleep, except this time they would be aware of it when it happened!
With that kind of hook, is it any wonder that so many millions of people, over the millennia, have wanted desperately to try the practice? And that the small percentage of them who actually stick with it and experience the promised bliss, recommend it so highly?
Now, let’s see how this four-step Mandukya process can be mapped to your ‘littering pattern’ project.
•Don’t assume it is the kids from the slum down the road or the rich ‘brats’ in their fancy cars who litter; instead, observe the street for several days, with no preconceived notions.
•Organize your data by, say, the kinds of people who litter (all kinds, you may conclude, there is no ‘littering type’), the kinds of litter (candy wrappers, paper teacups, cigarette butts), the time of day when littering is highest (right after mealtimes, maybe), the kinds of places that people seem to litter in more (they add to already-existing piles of garbage, perhaps, because of the lack of bins), and so on. Analyze and classify it by, say, time of day (‘morning and evening litterers are office-goers who drink chai at the bus stop kiosk; afternoon-litterers are kids from my school who bring candy bars in their lunch bags).
•Communicate your findings at a meeting in the local hall or club, which is attended by students from your school, local residents and top executives of the companies that have offices on the street.
•Instead of blaming or guilt-tripping your audience, explain how you can work together to create a beautiful and clean street for all of you to enjoy (you may recommend that offices donate bins, local residents take turns policing the street for litterers and each grade in the school spends five minutes of its lunch break one day of the week picking up whatever little litter is left). When tasks are shared, people are more likely to co-operate, and once they see how a clean street boosts their mental well-being, they will work towards it without being told. See what you did there? You turned your audience into believers!
And you thought the Upanishads had nothing practical to teach you! Ha!
Afterstory 2: Sat+chit+ananda: The Real Real
Hey-hey, hang on! This is the You who lives in the waking state speaking, right? Of course you would say this world is real and the other is not! If you asked the You who lives in the dream state the same question, he or she would insist the dream state was real, while what you call real was the dream state.
Now what if a third You came along and told you that both your so-called real world and your so-called dream world are mithya, not real? What if he or she said that the real real world was somewhere else, but you did not realize that because you were in a dream state? There is no real reason to disbelieve that, is there? How can you be hundred per cent sure that this world is not a dream world, and that, when you finally wake up in the real, real world, you will not turn to your friend, and say, like Alice, at the end of Alice in Wonderland, ‘Oh, I have had such a curious dream!’?
That is what Ashtavakra meant when he said both the real world and the dream world were mithya. For the ancient sages tell us that when we realize who we really are, when we understand that we are no different from any other creature in the world, we will ‘awake’ to a new world, one in which we are truly free from dreams and delusion. That knowledge of oneness, they say, is sat, the real real, the true knowledge. That state of consciousness in which sat is gained is chit, true consciousness. And that bliss, that is enjoyed when sat and chit come together, is the truest, purest bliss, ananda.
In that sense, the only real real world, the one into which we must all strive to wake up, is sat-chit-ananda, the world in which true consciousness gains true knowledge to create unending, unchanging, glorious bliss.
Afterstory 3: Spot the Mahavakya!
One last thing. Did you notice that there was a Mahavakya, one of the four grand pronouncements of the Vedas and Upanishads, lurking somewhere in this Upanishad? You did? Super. Can you say it out loud?
Ans: ‘Ayam atma Brahma’ – This Self is Brahma. This is the Mahavakya of the Atharva Veda.
१५
TAITTIRIYA
The Upanishad of the Partridges
In which we learn that each of us is really a Matryoshka doll
Aum!
May He in the Highest Heaven
Protect both of us, teacher and student; Nourish both of us together
So that we may work together with great energy,
So that we may learn from each other,
So that our learning is effective,
So that we steer clear of dispute and discord.
Aum Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
THE BACKSTORY
Remember that hilarious exchange from the movie Shrek, where Shrek is trying to explain to Donkey that there is more to ogres than meets the eye? To illustrate, he tells Donkey that ogres are like onions. Needless to say, Donkey misunderstands, asking if ogres stink, or make you cry, or get all brown when left out in the sun. Until an exasperated Shrek yells that both onions and ogres have layers!
Remember? Of course you do. (If you have not watched Shrek, right about now’s a good time to fill in that huge gap in your education.) But what’s it doing here, in the chapter on the Taittiriya (say taitti-reeya) Upanishad?
Well, according to the Taittiriya, we humans have layers just as ogres do! We are onions too, or, to use another, less smelly, metaphor, we are all really Matryoshkas, those classic Russian nested dolls. (Remember those? The doll inside the doll inside the doll, all identically shaped, only smaller and smaller as you go along?) Our true Self, says the Taittiriya, is enclosed in five concentric layers, or sheaths (of consciousness). Only when these sheaths are peeled away is our true Self revealed. And what are those five sheaths? Hold your horses – for now, let’s learn a little more about the Upanishad itself.
Thousands of years ago, in a scenic hermitage in the deep-dark of the Indian jungle, a student quarrelled horribly with his teacher and mentor. Incensed, the teacher, Vaishampayana, ordered the student, Yagnavalkya, to return to him the Veda he had been taught, for he had proved an unworthy student. Equally furious, but duty-bound to obey his teacher, Yagnavalkya vomited the entire Yajur Veda on the forest floor. Seeing their opportunity, the other students of Vaishampayana, who had been looking on at the great showdown in horror, turned themselves into partridges and sucked up as much as they could of the ‘regurgitate’ (for this version was rather special, and a limited edition to boot – it was the Yajur Veda as processed by the great Yagnavalkya!). Later, these students, individually and collectively, would pass on Yagnavalkya’s understanding of the sacred Veda to their own students, in the form of this very Upanishad. And that’s the (admittedly stomach-turning) story of how the Taittiriya Upanishad (‘tittri’ is Sanskrit for partridge) came to be named.
Matryoshka nesting dolls
The Taittiriya is part of the Krishna Yajur Veda. Instead of being a separate text, however, the three chapters of the Taittiriya are the sixth, seventh and eighth chapters of the Taittiriya Aranyaka, called Shikshavalli (with twelve ‘anuvakas’, or lessons), Brahmanandavalli (or simply, Anandavalli, with nine anuvakas), and Bhriguvalli (ten anuvakas) respectively. ‘Valli’ literally means a creeper, so you can imagine these three chapters as three sturdy offshoots of the tree of the Taittiriya Aranyaka.
Right. End of intro. On to the mind-expanding chapters now!
THE STORY
SHIKSHAVALLI – THE CREEPER OF INSTRUCTION
The Shikshavalli leaves esoteric metaphysical topics aside to focus entirely on the Vedic school curriculum – it talks, among other things, of phonetics, and the right sound, accent, stress and metre to be used while pronouncing a word or reciting a chant. Along the way, it takes a little detour to talk about Aum and three other holy vibrations. (Can you guess which ones they are? Hint: They are always uttered before chanting the Gayatri Mantra. Check if you got them right, in the next section).
Anuvaka 3 – Wheels within wheels
Is everything in nature interconnected? Is every creature equal to every other? Not all religions and philosophies believe that – some, in fact, insist that God created everything else in the world for his supreme creation, man, to rule over and enjoy, but the Upanishads strongly declare that everything and everyone in the universe is an equal, shining strand in the great web of life.
What connects the earth to the sky? Space –
Space traversed by air.
What connects the fire and the sun? Water –
Water blazed through by lightning.
What connects the teacher to the student? Knowledge –
Knowledge imparted through instruction.
What connects a mother to a father? The child –
The child born of love.
What connects the lower jaw and the upper jaw? Speech –
Speech formed of the tongue.
See how cleverly the teacher in the Shikshavalli connects the obvious (what connects the teacher and the student? Knowledge) to the somewhat obscure (what connects the fire and the sun? Water)? All kinds of small jumps and big leaps of imagination are needed to wrap one’s head around the idea of a God who resists definition, and the underlying sameness of things that seem very different from one another. What better way to help students develop those skills than to nudge them towards it by degrees, as the teacher does in this anuvaka?
Anuvaka 5 – A Mystical Sound Garden
Remember we talked about the three holy vibrations in the previous section? The three that have become an inseparable part of the Gayatri Mantra today, even though they are not part of the original mantra? Well, according to the Taittiriya, they are Bhur, Bhuvas and Suvah – did you guess them right? As always, the sages of the Upanishads compare the three sounds, which anyone can chant, to different
elements of the cosmos, thus connecting the personal to the universal. By repeating these powerful sounds while meditating on them, says the Taittiriya, you can master not only your own senses and thoughts, but the entire universe. For you are not only a microcosm of the universe, but the universe itself.
Bhur, Bhuvas, Suvah are the three holy sounds. To these, Mahachamasya added a fourth – Mahas, which is the Self, Brahman.*
*As you will see in the verses that follow, Mahas also refers to the cosmic vibration, Aum, which, as the Mandukya Upanishad tells us, is no different from Brahman.
Bhur is the earth, Suvah the sky,
and Bhuvas what’s in between –
But they would be nothing without Mahas the sun,
In his light, the three worlds preen.
Bhur is the fire, Suvah the sun,
Bhuvas the air that binds them –
But it is Mahas the moon that holds up the sky
And oh-so-joyously minds them.
Bhur is the Rig, Suvah the Yajur,
Bhuvas the song of the Sama –
But would they shine so bright were they not sheathed
In Aum the Mahas’ golden armour?
Bhur is the in-breath, Suvah the out-breath,
Bhuvas the blessed pause ’twixt the two;
But annam – food – is the Mahas that nourishes
Every breath that’s strong and true.
Four mystical sounds times four
Make sixteen holy vibrations;
Meditate on these – they are, to Brahman
The sacred invocations.
Anuvaka 9 – Learn and teach, teach and learn
In the Vedic Age, as you know, students returned to the real world to take up the real business of life after spending up to a dozen years in disciplined study, work and play in the safe space of the gurukul. They were strapping young men by then, ready to earn a living, shoulder the responsibilities of a householder’s life and become upstanding members of their communities. But before they left them for good, their fond gurus were wont to issue a last set of stern instructions. Like this one: