Lesson 10 The Prashna & Chandogya Upanishads
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Prashna Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" Upanishads. It is a
Mukhya Upanishad, associated with the Atharvaveda. It figures as number
4 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.
In Sanskrit, Prashna mean question. This book consists of six questions
and their answers, hence the name. It is in the form of
question-answers. As narrated in the beginning of this Upanishad, Six
pupils interested in knowing divinity or Brahman come to sage Pippalada
and ask questions of great spiritual importance. Pippalada asks them to
take up penance of one year. Upon completion of penance, they again
come to sage and ask questions, then the sage answers their questions.
The pupils who ask questions are:
The son of Bharadwaja the Sukesha
The son of Shibi the Satyakama
The descendant of Garga the Sauryayanee
The son of Ashwalayana the Kausalya
Bhargava of the country of Vidarbha
The son of Katya the Kabandhi
Each of them asks one question to Pippalada and answer(s) to it forms a
chapter in the Upanishad.
The questions
The first question is asked by Kabandhi concerned with the root cause
of the of the universe.
The second question asked by Bhargava is concerned with the supremacy
of vital Force of Life or Prana over other sense organs of human being.
The third question asked by Kausalya is concerned with the origin and
functioning of Vital Force of Life.
The fifth question is concerned with fruits one gets by meditating on
holy syllable OM.
The sixth and last question is concerned with the being by whom all
this known-unknown universe got created and who is equipped with
sixteen vital things (kala) or who is called as Shodasha Kala Purusha.
Excerpts:
Question One:
Kabandhi Katyayana came to him and asked,
"Sir, from where are all these creatures born?"
The seer answered him, "The creator desired creatures.
Gathering energy, with this energy
it produced a pair, matter and life,
thinking, 'These two will produce various creatures.'
The sun is life, and the moon is matter.
Matter really is everything here,
both what is formed and what is formless;
thus form is matter.
"When the rising sun enters the east
it absorbs the eastern life-breaths into its rays.
When it illumines the south and west and north,
below and above and all space, it illumines everything;
then it takes all the life-breaths in its rays.
That fire rises as universal life in all its forms.
This has been declared in the Rig Veda:
'This has all forms, the golden one, all-knowing,
the final goal, the one light, heat-giving,
with a thousand rays, a hundred existences;
this sun arises as the life of all creatures.'
"The year is the creator.
This has two paths: the southern and the northern.
Those who worship thinking,
'Sacrifice and merit have perfected us,'
attain only the lunar world;
these return to be born again.
Thus the seers desiring children take the southern course,
which is the path to the ancestors.
This is matter that leads to the ancestors.
Those seeking the soul by discipline,
holiness, faith, and knowledge
by the northern course attain the world of the sun.
There is the resting place of the life-breaths.
There immortality is without fear.
That is the final goal.
Question 2:
Bhargava Vaidarbhi asked him,
"How many angels support a creature?
How many illumine it? And which of them is supreme?"
The seer answered him, "Space is such an angel,
also air, fire, water, earth, speech, mind, sight, hearing.
These, having illumined the creature,
said, 'We support and preserve this being.'
To them the supreme life-breath said, 'Do not be deluded.
I dividing soul fivefold support and preserve this union.'
They did not believe it.
Offended it rose up out.
When it rises up, then all the others rise up;
and when he settles down, they settle down.
As all the bees rise up after the king bee rises,
and all settle down when it settles down,
thus did speech, mind, sight, and hearing.
Question 3:
Kaushalya Ashvalayana asked him, "Sir,
from where is this life-breath born?
How does it come into this body?
How does it dividing the soul become established?
By what does it depart?
How does it relate to the external and to the soul inside?"
The seer answered him, "You are asking much,
but because you are very holy, I will tell you.
The life-breath is born from the soul.
As a shadow is cast by a person,
so is this life-breath extended by the soul,
and for the perfection of the mind it comes into this body.
As a ruler commands the officials,
saying, 'Govern these villages,'
so this life-breath rules the other breaths.
The out-breath is in the organs of excretion and generation;
the life-breath itself is in the eyes, ears, mouth and nose;
while the equalizing breath is in the middle,
for it equally distributes the offering of food.
>From this arise the seven flames.
"The soul lives in the heart.
Here there are one hundred and one channels.
Each of these has one hundred smaller channels.
Each of these has seventy-two thousand branching channels.
Within these moves the diffused breath.
Rising upward through one of these,
the up-breath leads by virtue to the heaven of virtue,
by sin to the hell of sin,
and by both back to the human world.
Question 4:
Sauryayani Gargya asked him, "Sir,
what are those that sleep in a person here?
What are those that remain awake?
What is the angel who sees dreams and who enjoys them?
In whom are all these things resolved?"
The seer answered him, "Gargya,
as the rays of the setting sun
all become one in a circle of brilliance,
and again when it rises,
so all the human becomes one in the mind, the highest god.
In that condition people do not see, hear, smell, taste,
touch, speak, take, give, nor move.
It is said, 'They sleep.'
"The fires of the life-breath remain awake in this city.
The out-breath is the householder's fire.
The diffused breath is the southern fire.
The life-breath is the sacrifice fire,
and as the eastern fire takes its fuel from the western,
so in sleep the life-breath takes from the lower.
The equalizing breath is called this,
because it equalizes the two offerings:
the in-breath and the out-breath.
The mind is the sacrificer;
the upper breath is the fruit of the sacrifice,
for it leads the sacrificer day by day to God.
Question 5:
Shaibya Satyakama asked him, "Sir,
if someone here should meditate on the word AUM
until the end of one's life, then which world is won?"
The seer answered him, "Satyakama,
the word AUM is the higher God and also the lower.
Thus with this support the wise attain one or the other.
"Whoever meditates on one letter,
quickly returns to earth.
The Rig Veda leads one to the human world.
There endowed with discipline, holiness, and faith
one experiences greatness.
"Whoever is united in mind with two letters
is led by the Yajur Veda to the regions of the moon,
then returns here again.
"Whoever meditates on the supreme Spirit
with the three letters of AUM
is united in brilliance with the sun.
As a snake is freed from its skin, so is one freed from sin,
and is led by the Sama Veda to the world of God,
where one can see the Spirit
that lives in the city of the human body
and is above the highest life.
Question 6:
Sukesha Bharadvaja asked him, "Sir,
Hiranyanabha, a prince of Koshala, came to me
and asked this question, 'Bharadvaja,
do you know the Spirit with the sixteen parts?'
I answered the youth, 'I do not.
If I knew it, how could I say I did not know it?
Whoever lies dries up to the roots. Thus I will not lie.'
In silence he mounted his chariot and departed.
Now I ask you. Where is that Spirit?"
The seer answered him, "Even here in the body, friend,
is that Spirit in whom they say arise the sixteen parts.
It thought to itself, 'In whose departure shall I depart,
and in whose staying shall I stay?'
It created the life-breath, from the life-breath faith,
space, air, light, water, earth, senses, mind, food;
from food, virility, discipline, affirmations, actions,
the world; and in the worlds, naming.
"As these flowing rivers move toward the ocean,
and on reaching the ocean are lost,
their name and form destroyed,
and all are called merely ocean,
so all the sixteen parts of the witness move towards Spirit,
and reaching the Spirit are lost,
their name and form destroyed,
and all are called merely the Spirit.
That one continues without parts, immortal.
The Chandogya Upanishad
The Chandogya Upanishad belongs to the Sama Veda. Chandogya is the
singer of the Saman . The Upanishads that belongs to the followers of
the Sama Veda is the Chandogya Upanishad. It is part of the Chandogya
Brahmana which has ten chapters. The first two chapters of the Brahmana
deal with sacrifices and other forms of worships. The other eight
constitutes the Chandogya Upanishad.
The first and the second chapters discuss the problems of liturgy and
doctrine such as the genesis and significance of Aum and the meaning
and names of Saman.
Excerpts
1. Let a man meditate on the syllable Om, called the udgitha; for the
udgitha (a portion of the Sama-veda) is sung, beginning with Om.
The full account, however, of Om is this:-
2. The essence of all beings is the earth, the essence of the earth is
water, the essence of water the plants, the essence of plants man, the
essence of man speech, the essence of speech the Rig-veda, the essence
of the Rig-veda the Sama-veda, the essence of the Sama-veda the udgitha
(which is Om).
3. That udgitha (Om) is the best of all essences, the highest,
deserving the highest place, the eighth.
4. What then is the Rik ? What is the Saman? What is the udgitha ? This
is the question.
5. The Rik indeed is speech, Saman is breath, the udgitha is the
syllable Om. Now speech and breath, or.Rik and Saman, form one couple.
6. And that couple is joined together in the syllable Om. When two
people come together, they fulfil each other's desire.
7. Thus he who knowing this, meditates on the syllable (Om), the
udgitha, becomes indeed a fulfiller of desires.
8. That syllable is a syllable of permission, for whenever we permit
anything, we say Om, yes. Now permission is gratification. He who
knowing this meditates on the syllable (Om), the udgitha, becomes
indeed a gratifier of desires.