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		<b><i>Upanishadic Symbolism</i></b></p>
		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="center">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A</i> certain rationalistic critic divides the Upanishadic symbols
into three categories—those that are rational and can be
easily understood by the mind; those that are not understood
by the mind and yet do not go against reason, having nothing
inherently irrational in them and may be simply called non-rational, those that seem to be quite irrational, for they go
frankly against all canons of logic and common sense. As an
example of the last, the irrational type, the critic cites a story
from the <i>Chhandogya,</i> which may be rendered thus:</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There was an aspirant, a student who was seeking after
knowledge. One day there appeared to him a white dog. Soon,
other dogs followed and addressed their predecessor: &quot;0 Lord,
sing to our Food, for we desire to eat.&quot; The white dog answered, &quot;Come to me at dawn here in this very place.&quot; The
aspirant waited. The dogs, like singer-priests, circled round in
a ring. Then they sat and cried aloud; they cried out, <i>&quot;Om
</i>we eat and <i>Om</i> we drink, may the gods bring here our food.&quot;</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, before any explanation is attempted it is important to
bear in mind that the Upanishads speak of things experienced —not merely 
thought, reasoned or argued and that these experiences belong to a world and consciousness other than that
of the mind and the senses. One should naturally expect here
a different language and mode of expression than that which
is appropriate to mental and physical things. For example,
the world of dreams was once supposed to be a sheer chaos,
a mass of meaningless confusion; but now it is held to be quite
otherwise. Psychological scientists have discovered a method—
even a very well-defined and strict method—in the madness of
that domain. It is an ordered, organised, significant world;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">but its terminology has to be understood, its code deciphered.</font>

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Page 345<hr>

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<font face="Times New Roman">It is not a jargon, but a foreign language that must be learnt
and mastered.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the same way, the world of spiritual experiences is also
something methodical, well-organized, significant. It may not
be and is not the rational world of the mind and the sense;,
but. it need not, for that reason, be devoid of meaning, mere
fancifulness or a child's imagination running riot. Here also
the right key has to be found, the grammar and vocabulary<b> 
</b>of<b> 
</b>that language mastered. And as the best way to have complete
mastery of a language is to live among the people who speak it,
so, in the matter of spiritual language, the best and the only
way to learn it is to go and live in its native country.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, as regards the interpretation of the story cited, should
not a suspicion arise naturally at the very outset that the dog
of the story is not a dog but represents something else ? First, a
significant epithet is given to it—<i>white;</i> secondly, although it
asks for food, it says that <i>Om</i> is its food and <i>Om</i> is its drink. I n
the Vedas we have some references to dogs. Yama has twin
dogs that &quot;guard the path and have powerful vision.&quot; They
are his messengers, &quot;they move widely and delight in power
and possess the vast strength.&quot; The Vedic Rishis pray to them
for Power and Bliss and for the vision of the Sun.1
There is also the Hound of Heaven, Sarama, who comes
down and discovers the luminous cows stolen and hidden
by the Panis in their dark caves; she is the path-finder for
Indra, the deliverer.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My suggestion is that the dog is a symbol of the keen sight
of Intuition, the unfailing perception of direct knowledge.
With this clue the Upanishadic story becomes quite sensible-
and clear and not mere abracadabra. To the aspirant for
Knowledge came first a purified power of direct understanding,
an Intuition of fundamental value, and this brought others of
the same species in its train. They were all linked together
organically—that is the significance of the circle, and formed
a rhythmic utterance and expression of the supreme truth <i>(Om).</i> It is also to be noted that they came and met at dawn
to chant the Truth. Dawn is the opening and awakening of the
consciousness to truths that come from above and beyond.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It may be asked why the dog has been chosen as the symbol</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<i><font size="2">Rig Veda, X. 14-11,12.</font></i><font size="2"> </font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">of Intuition. In the Vedas, the cow and the horse also play a
large part; even the donkey and the frog have their own assigned roles. These objects are taken from the environment of 
ordinary life, and are those that are most familiar to the external consciousness, through which the inner experiences have
to express themselves, if they are to be expressed at all. These material 
objects represent various kinds of forces and movements and subtle and occult and spiritual dynamisms. Strictly<br>
speaking, however, symbols are not <i>chosen</i> in a subtle or spiritual
experience, that is to say, they are not arbitrarily selected and
constructed by the conscious intelligence. They form part of a
dramatization (to use a term of the Freudian psychology of
dreams), a psychological alchemy, whose method and process
and rationale are very obscure, which can be penetrated only
by the vision of a third eye.</font>

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&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">I. THE SEVERAL LIGHTS</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The <i>Brihadaranjyaka</i> speaks of several lights that man possesses,
one in the absence of another, for his illumination and guidance.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; First of all, he has the Sun; it is the primary light by which
he lives and moves. When the Sun sets, the Moon rises to replace it. When both the Sun and the Moon set, he has recourse
to the Fire. And when the Fire, too, is extinguished, there
comes the Word. In the end, when the Fire is quieted and the
Word silenced, man is lighted by the Light of the Atman. This
Atman is All-Knowledge, it is secreted within the life, within
the heart: it is self-luminous—<i>vijnanamayah pranesu hrdyantar-jyotih.</i></font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The progression indicated by the order of succession points
to a gradual withdrawal from the outer to the inner light,
from the surface to the deep, from the obvious to the secret,
from the actual and derivative to the real and original. We
begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light
that man has and needs. He is the presiding deity of our waking
consciousness and has his seat in the eye—<i>caksusah adityah,
adityah caksuh bhutva aksini pravisat.</i> The eye is the representative</font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">of the senses; it is the sense <i>par excellence.</i> 
In truth, sense-perception is the initial light with which we have to guide us, it is
the light with which we start on the way. A developed stage
comes when the Sun sets for us, that is to say, when we retire
from the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the
Moon. It is the mental knowledge, the light of reason and
intelligence, of reflection and imagination that govern our
consciousness. We have to proceed farther and get beyond the<br>
mind, exceed the derivative light of the Moon. So when the
Moon sets, the Fire is kindled. It is the light of the ardent and
aspiring heart, the glow of an inner urge, the instincts and
inspirations of our secret life-will. Here we come into touch
with a source of knowledge and realization, a guidance
more direct than the mind and much deeper than the sense-
perception. Still this light partakes more of heat than of pure
luminosity; it is, one may say, incandescent feeling, but not
vision. We must probe deeper, mount higher—reach heights
and profundities that are serene and transparent. The Fire is
to be quieted and silenced, says the Upanishad. Then we come nearer, to the 
immediate vicinity of the Truth: an inner hearing opens, the direct voice of Truth—the Word—reaches us
to lead and guide. Even so, however, we have not come to the
end of our journey; the Word of revelation is not the ultimate
Light. The Word too is a clothing, though a luminous clothing
—<i>hiranmayam patram.</i> When this last veil dissolves and disappears, when utter silence, absolute calm and quietude reign
in the entire consciousness, when no other lights trouble or
distract our attention, there appears the Atman in its own body;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">we stand face to face with the source of all lights, the self of the
Light, the light of the Self. We are that Light and we become
that Light.</font>

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&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">II. THE FOUR OBLATIONS</font>

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<i>The Word has four breasts. The Gods feed on two,</i> SWAHAKAR <i>and
</i>VASHATKAR, <i>men upon the third,</i> HANTAKAR, <i>and the Ancestor<br>
upon the fourth,</i> SWADHA1.—<br>
Ritualistically these four terms<b> </b>are the formulae for oblation

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<i><font size="2">1 Srihadaranyaka Upanishad,</font></i><font size="2"> V. 8 .i.
</font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">to four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer wishes
to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing
and in order thereby to discharge his dharma or duty of life. <i>Svaha</i> is the offering especially dedicated to Agni, the foremost
of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger who carries men's
offering to the Gods and brings their blessing to men. <i>Vasatkar
</i>is the offering to the Gods generally. <i>Hantakar</i> is the offering to
mankind, to our kin, an especial form of it being the worship
of the guests, <i>sarvadevamayo'tithi. Svadha</i> is the offering to the
departed Fathers (Pitris).</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The duty of life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three
debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth
upon earth—the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors.
This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference to
the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives
and moves and to which he must adjust and react rightly if he
is to secure for his life an integral fulfilment. These are the
family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods
are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the
forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe,
the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality. To worship
the Gods, to do one's duty by them, means to come into contact
and to be united—in being, consciousness and activity—with
the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end
and purpose of human life. The second—a more circumscribed
field—is the society to which one belongs, the particular group
of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service to
society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of
Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs to the family, which is the
unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of 
ancestors, who are its presiding deity and represent the norm of a living dharma, the ethic of an ideal life.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; From the psychological standpoint, the four oblations are
movements or reactions of consciousness in its urge towards
the utterance and expression of Divine Truth. Like some other
elements in the cosmic play, these also form a quartet—<i>catur
vyuha—</i>and work together for a common purpose in view of a
perfect and all-round result.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Svaha</i> is the offering and invocation. One must dedicate
everything to the Divine, cast all one has or does into the Fire of</font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">Aspiration that blazes up towards the Most High, and through
the tongue of that one-pointed flame call on the Divinity.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In doing so, in invoking the Truth and consecrating oneself
to it, one begins to ascend to it step by step; and each step
means a tearing of another veil and a further opening of the
passage.. This graded mounting is <i>vasatkara.</i></font>

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<font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hantakara</i> is the appearance, the manifestation of the Divinity
—that which makes the worshipper cry in delight, &quot;Hail!&quot;<b> 
</b>It<b> 
</b>is the coming of the Dawn—<i>ahana—</i>when the night has been
traversed and the lid rent open, the appearance of the Divine
to a human vision for the human consciousness to seize, almost
in a human form.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is to be held fast,
firmly established, embodied and fixed in its inherent nature
here in life and the waking consciousness. This is <i>Svadha,</i></font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Gods feed upon <i>Svadha</i> and <i>Vasat,</i> as these represent the
ascending movement of human consciousness: it is man's self-giving and aspiration and the upward urge of his heart and
soul that reach to the Gods, and it is that which the immortals
take into themselves and are, as it were, nourished by, since it
is something that appertains to their own nature.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And in response they descend and approach and enter into
the aspiring human soul—this descent and revelation and near
and concrete presence of Divinity, this <i>Hanta</i> is man's food, for
by it his consciousness is nourished.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This interchange, or mutual giving, the High Covenant
between the Gods and Men, to which the Gita too refers</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; With this sacrifice nourish the Gods, that the Gods may
nourish you; thus mutually nourishing ye shall obtain the
highest felicity<sup>1</sup></font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">is the very secret of the cosmic play, the basis of the
spiritual evolution in the universal existence.</font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Gods are the formations or particularisations of the
Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One
spirit. The Pitris are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls
that once laboured and realised here below, and now have
passed beyond. They dwell in another world, not too far removed from the earth, and from there, with the force of their</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman"><i><font size="2">lThe Gita,</font></i><font size="2"><b> </b>III-ll.</font></font><font size="2">
</font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">realisation, lend a more concrete help and guidance to the destiny that is being worked out upon earth. They are forces and
formations of consciousness in an intermediate region between
Here and There <i>(antariksa),</i> and serve to bring men and gods
nearer to each other, inasmuch as they belong to both the
categories, being a divinised humanity or a humanised divinity.
Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould
is a thing of joy to the Pitris; it is the <i>Svadha or</i> food by which they 
live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own realisation. The achievements of the sons
are more easily and securely reared and grounded upon those
of the forefathers, whose formative powers we have to invoke,
so that we may pass on to the realisation, the firm embodiment
of higher and greater destinies.</font>

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&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">III.. THE PATH OF THE FATHERS AND THE PATH OF THE GODS</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">One is an ideal in and of the world, the 
other is an ideal transcending the world. The Path of the Fathers<i> (Pitryana)</i> enjoins
the right accomplishing of the <i>dharma</i> of Life—it is the path of
works, of Karma; it is the line of progressive evolution that
man follows through the experience of life after life on earth.
The Path of the Gods <i>{Devayana)</i> runs above life's evolutionary
course; it lifts man out of the terrestrial cycle and places him
in a superior consciousness—it is the path of knowledge, of
Vidya.<sup>1</sup> The Path of the Fathers is the soul's southern or inferior
orbit <i>(daksinayana, aparardha);</i> the Path of the Gods is the
northern or superior orbit <i>(uttarayana, parardha).</i> The former is
also called the Lunar Path and the latter the Solar Path.<sup>2</sup> For
the moon represents the mind,<sup>3</sup> and is therefore, an emblem
that befits man so long as he is a mental being and pursues a
dharma that is limited by the mind; the sun, on the other hand,
is the knowledge and consciousness that is beyond the mind—
it is the eye of the Gods.<sup>4</sup> </font>

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<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Man has two aspects or natures; he dwells in two worlds.
The first is the manifest world—the world of the body, the life</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">1 <i>Karmapa pitrloko vidyaya devalokah (jayyaft)—Brihadaranyaka,<b> </b>1.5.16.</i>
</font>

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<i><font size="2">2 Devalokddadityam. .pitrlokaccandram—Ibid., VI. 2.15.16.</font></i><font size="2">
</font>

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<font size="2">3 <i>Candram mono bhutva—Aitareya,<b> </b>1.2.4; Manasascandramah-Ibitl., 1.1.4.</i>
</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">4 <i>Diviva caksuratatam—Rig Veda.</i> </font>
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<font face="Times New Roman">and the mind. The body has flowered into the mind through
the life. The body gives the basis or the material, the life gives
power and energy and the mind the directing knowledge. This
triune world forms the humanity of man. But there is another
aspect hidden behind this apparent nature, there is another
world where man dwells in his submerged, larger and higher
consciousness. To that his soul—the Purusha in his heart only
has access. It is the world where man's nature is transmuted
into another triune reality—Sat, Chit and Ananda.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The one, however, is not completely divorced from the other.
The apparent, the inferior nature is only a preparation for the
real, the superior nature. The Path of the Fathers concerns
itself with man as a mental being and seeks so to ordain and
accomplish its duties and ideals as to lead him on to the Path
of the Gods; the mind, the life, and the body consciousness
should be so disciplined, educated, purified, they should
develop along such a line and gradually rise to such a stage as<br>
to make them fit to receive the light which belongs to the higher level, so 
allowing the human soul imbedded in them to extricate itself and pass on to the Immortal Life.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And they who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit are
freed from the bondage to the cycle of rebirth. They enjoy the
supreme Liberation that is of the Spirit; and even when they
descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out as free agents,
as vehicles of the Divine, a special purpose, to bring down
something of the substance and nature of the Solar reality into
the lower world, enlighten and elevate the lower, as far as it<b> 
</b>is<b> 
</b>allowed, into the higher.</font>

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&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">IV. THE TRIPLE AGNI</font>

		<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Agni is the divine spark in man, the naming consciousness in
the mortal which purifies and uplifts <i>(pavaka)</i> mortality into
immortality. It is the god &quot;seated in the secret heart, who is
the possession of infinity and the foundation of existence,&quot; as
Yama says to Nachiketas.<sup>1</sup></font><sup> </sup>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Indeed, it was to this godhead that Nachiketas turned and
he wanted to know of it and find it, when faith seized on his</font>

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&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2" face="Times New Roman">1 <i>Katha,<b> </b>1.1.14.</i></font><font size="2">
</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">pure heart and he aspired for the higher spiritual life. The very
opening hymn of the Rig Veda, too, is addressed to Agni, who
is invoked as the vicar seated in the front of the sacrifice, the
giver of the supreme gifts.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; King Yama initiated Nachiketas into the mystery of Fire
Worship and spoke of three fires that have to be kindled if one
aspires to enter the heaven of immortality.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The three fires are named elsewhere Garhapatya, Dakshina,and Ahavaniya.<sup>1</sup> They are the three tongues of the one central Agni, that dwells secreted in the hearth of the soul. They
manifest as aspirations that flame up from the three fundamental levels of our being, the body, the life and the mind.
For although the spiritual consciousness is the natural element
of the soul and is gained in and through the soul, yet, in Order
that man may take possession of it and dwell in it consciously,
in order that the soul's empire may be established, the external
being too must respond to the soul's impact and yearn for its
truth in the Spirit. The mind, the life and the body which are
usually obstructions in the path, must discover the secret
flame that. is in them too—each has his own portion of the
Soul's Fire—and mount<b> </b> on its ardent tongue towards the
heights of the Spirit.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire
of Earth, as it is sometimes called; Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind, and, Ahavaniya that of life.<sup>2</sup> The earthly fire
is also the fire of the sun; the sun is the source of all earth's
heat and symbolises at the same time the spiritual light manifested in the physical consciousness. The lunar fire is also the
fire of the stars, the stars, mythologically, being the consorts
or powers of the moon and they symbolise, in Yogic experience,
the intuitive thoughts. The fire of the life-force has its symbol
in lightning, electric energy being its vehicle.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Agni in the physical consciousness is called <i>grhapati,</i> for the
body is the house in which the soul is lodged and he is its
keeper, guardian and lord. The fire in the mental consciousness is called <i>daksina;</i> for it is that which gives discernment,
the power to discriminate between the truth and the false-hood, it is that which by the pressure of its heat and light</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">1 <i>Chhandyogya, IV, 11. 12, 13; V, 18.2.</i> </font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">2 <i>Chhandyogya, IV, 11. 12. 13; V, 18, 2.</i> </font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">cleaves the wrong away from the right. And the fire in the life-force is called <i>ahavaniya;</i> for <i>prana</i> is not only the plane of
hunger and desire, hut also of power and dynamism, it is that
which calls forth forces, brings them into play and it is that
which is to be invoked for the progression of the Sacrifice, for
an onward march on the spiritual path.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Of the three fires one is the upholder—he who gives the
firm foundation, the stable house where the Sacrifice is performed and Truth realised; the second is the Knower, often
called in the Veda <i>jataveda,</i> who guides and directs; and the
third the Doer, the effective Power, the driving Energy—<i>vaisvanara.</i></font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">V, THE FIVE GREAT ELEMENTS</font>

		<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The five elements of the ancients—earth, water, fire, air and
ether or space—are symbols taken from the physical world to
represent other worlds that are in it and behind it. Each one
is a principle that constitutes the fundamental nature of a
particular plane of existence.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Earth represents the material world itself, Matter or existence in its most concrete, its grossest form. It is the basis of
existence, the world that supports other worlds <i>(dhara, dharitri),
</i>the first or the lowest of the several ranges of creation. In man
it is his body. The principle here is that of stability, substantiality, firmness, consistency.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Water represents the next rung—the vital world, the world
of life-force <i>(prana).</i> Physiologically also we know that water is
the element forming three-fourths of the constituents of a
living body and that dead and dry are synonymous terms; it is
the medium in which the living cells dwell and through which
they draw their sustenance. Water is the veritable sap of life—
it is the emblem of life itself. The principle it represents is
that of movement, continuity, perpetuity.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Fire represents the Heart. It is that which gives the inner
motive to the forces of life, it is the secret inspiration and
aspiration that drive the movements of life. It is the heat of
consciousness, the ardour of our central being that lives in the
Truth and accepts nothing, nothing but the Truth. It is the</font>
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		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">pure and primal energy of our divine essence, driving ever
upward and onward life's course of evolution.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Air is Mind, the world of thought, of conscious formation;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">it is where life-movements are taken up and given a shape or
articulate formula for an organised expression. The forms here
have not, however, the concrete rigidity of Matter, but are
pliant and variable and fluid—in fact, they are more in the
nature of possibilities, rather than actualities. The Vedic
Maruts are thought-gods, and Indra (the Luminous Mind),
their king, is called the Fashioner of perfect forms.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Ether or Space is the infinitude of the Spirit, the limitless
Presence that dwells in and yet transcends the body, the life
the heart and the mind.</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">VI. THE SCIENCE<b> </b> OF THE FIVE<b> </b>FIRES</font>

		<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The Science of the Five Agnis (Fires), as propounded by
Pravahan, explains and illustrates the process of the birth of
the body, the passage of the soul into earth existence. It
describes the advent of the child, the building of the physical
form of the human being. The process is conceived of as a
sacrifice, the usual symbol with the Vedic Rishis for the expression of their vision and perception of universal processes of
Nature, physical and psychological. Here, the child is said to
be the final fruit of the sacrifice, the different stages in the
process being: (i) Soma, (ii) Rain, (iii) Food, (iv) Semen, (v)
Child. Soma means Rasa—physically the principle of water,
psychologically the principle of delight—and symbolises and
constitutes the very soul and substance of life. Now it is said
that these five principles—the fundamental and constituent
elements—are born out of the sacrifice, through the oblation
or offering to the five Agnis. The first Agni is Heaven or the
Sky-God, and by offering to it one's faith and one's ardent
desire, one calls into manifestation Soma or Rasa or Water,
the basic principle of life. This water is next offered to the
second Agni, the Rain-God, who sends down Rain. Rain,
again, is offered to the third Agni, the Earth, who brings
forth Food. Food is, in its turn, offered to the fourth Agni, the
Father or Male, who elaborates in himself the generating fluid.</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Finally, this fluid is offered to the fifth Agni, the Mother<b> 
</b>or<b> 
</b>the Female, who delivers the Child.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The biological process, described in what may seem to be
crude and mediaeval terms, really reflects or echoes a more subtle and 
psychological process. The images used form perhaps part of the current popular notion about the matter, but
the esoteric sense goes beyond the outer symbols. The sky
seems to be the far and tenuous region where the soul rests and
awaits its next birth—it is the region of Soma, the <i>own Home
</i>of Bliss and Immortality. Now when the time or call comes,
the soul stirs and journeys down—that is the Rain. Next, it
enters the earth atmosphere and clothes itself with the earth
consciousness. Then it waits and calls for the formation of the
material body, first by the contribution of the father and then
by that of the mother; when these two unite and the material
body is formed, the soul incarnates.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Apart from the question whether the biological phenomenon described is really a symbol and a cloak for another
order of reality, and even taking it at its face value, what is
to be noted here is the idea of a cosmic cycle, and a cosmic
cycle that proceeds through the principle of sacrific. If it is
asked what there is wonderful or particularly spiritual in this
rather <i>naif</i> description of a very commonplace happening that
gives it an honoured place in the Upanishads, the answer is<br>
that it <i>is</i> wonderful to see how the Upanishadic Rishi takes
from an event its local, temporal and personal colour and incorporates it in a global movement, a cosmic cycle, as a limb
of the Universal Brahman. The Upanishads contain passages which a puritanical 
mentality may perhaps describe as 'pornographic' ; these have in fact been put by some on the <i>
Index ex-purgatorius.</i> But the ancients saw these matters with other eyes
and through another consciousness.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We have, in modern times, a movement towards a more
Conscious and courageous knowledge of things that were
taboo to puritan ages. Not to shut one's eyes to the lower,
darker and hidden strands of our nature, but to bring them
out into the light of day and to face them is the best way of
dealing with such elements, which otherwise, if they are repressed, exert an unhealthy influence on the mind and nature.
The Upanishadic view runs on the same lines, but, with the</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">unveiling and the natural—and not merely naturalistic—delineation of these under-worlds (concerning sex and food), it
endows them with a perspective <i>sub specie aeternitatis.</i> The
sexual function, for example, is easily equated to the double
movement of ascent and descent that is secreted in nature, or
to the combined action of Purusha and Prakrit! in the cosmic
Play, or again to the hidden fount of Delight that holds and
moves the universe. In this view there is nothing merely
secular and profane, but all is woven into the cosmic spiritual
whole; and man is taught to consider and to mould all his
movements—of soul and mind and body—in the light and
rhythm of that integral Reality.<sup>1</sup></font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The central secret of the transfigured consciousness lies, as
we have already indicated, in the mystic rite or law of Sacrifice. It is the one basic, fundamental, universal Law that
upholds and explains the cosmic movement, conformity to
which brings to the thrice-bound human being release and freedom. Sacrifice consists essentially of two elements or processes:</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">(i) The offering or self-giving of the lower reality to the higher,
and, as a consequence, an answering movement of (ii) the
descent of the higher into the lower. The lower offered to the
higher means the lower sublimated and integrated into the
higher; and the descent of the higher into the lower means the
incarnation of the former and the fulfilment of the latter. The
Gita elaborates the same idea when it says that by Sacrifice
men increase the gods and the gods increase men and by so<br>
increasing each other they attain the supreme Good. Nothing
is, nothing is done, for its own sake, for an egocentric satisfaction ; all, even movements relating to food and to sex should
be dedicated to the Cosmic Being—Visva Purusha—and that
alone received which comes from Him.</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2" face="Times New Roman">1 The secularisation of man's vital functions in modern ages has not been a
success. It has made him more egocentric and blatantly hedonistic. From an
occult point of view he has in this way subjected himself to the influences of dark
and undesirable world-forces, has made an opening, to use an Indian symbolism,
for Kali (the Spirit of the Iron Age) to enter into him. The sex-force is an extremely potent agent, but it is extremely fluid and elusive and uncontrollable. It
was for this reason that the ancients always sought to give it a proper mould, a
right continent, a fixed and definite channel; the modems, on the other hand,
allow it to run free and play with it recklessly. The result has been, in the life of
those born under such circumstances, a growing lack of poise and balance and a
corresponding incidence of neurasthenia, hysteria and all abnormal pathological
conditions.</font><font size="2"> </font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="center">
<font face="Times New Roman">VII. THE COSMIC AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="center">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The Supreme Reality which is always called Brahman in the
Upanishads, has to be known and experienced in two ways;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">for it has two fundamental aspects or modes of being. The
Brahman is universal and it is transcendental. The Truth, <i>satyam,</i> the Upanishad says in its symbolic etymology, is 'This'
(or, He) and 'That' <i>(syat</i> + <i>tyat</i> i.e. <i>sat + tat).</i> 'This' means
the Universal Brahman: it is what is referred to when the
Upanishad says:</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Isavasyamidam sarvam:</i> All this is for habitation by the Lord;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">or<b>,</b> <i>Sarvam khalvidam brahma:</i> All this is indeed the<b> </b>Brahman;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">or, Sa <i>evedam sarvam:</i> He is indeed all this;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">or, <i>Ahamevedam sarvam:</i> I am indeed all this;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">or, <i>Atmaivedam sarvam:</i> The Self indeed is all this;</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">or again, <i>Sarvamasmi:</i> I am all.</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The <i>Chhandyogya<sup>1</sup></i> gives a whole typal scheme of this universal
reality and explains how to realise it and what are the results
of the experience. The Universal Brahman means the cosmic
movement, the cyclic march of things and events taken in its
global aspect. The typical movement that symbolises and
epitomises the phenomenon, embodies the truth, is that of the
sun. The movement consists of five stages which are called the
fivefold <i>sama. Sama</i> means the equal Brahman that is ever
present in all, the Upanishad itself says deriving the word
from <i>sama.</i> It is <i>Sama</i> also because it is a rhythmic movement,
a cadence—a music of the spheres. And a rhythmic movement,
in virtue of its being a wave, consists of these five stages: (i) the
start, (ii) the rise, (iii) the peak, (iv) the decline and (v) the
fall. Now the sun follows this curve and marks out the familiar
divisions of the day: dawn, forenoon, noon, afternoon and
sunset. Sometimes two other stages are added, one at each
end, one of preparation and another of final lapse—the twilights with regard to the sun—and then we have seven instead
of five <i>samas.</i> Like the Sun, the Fire—that is to say, the sacrificial Fire—can also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement: (i)
the lighting, (ii) the smoke, (iii) the flame, (iv) smouldering</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman"><b><font size="2">* </font> </b> <font size="2"> <i>Chhandyogya, II, III.</i></font></font><font size="2">
</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">and finally (v) extinction—the fuel as it is rubbed to produce&nbsp;
the fire and the ashes may be added as the two supernumerary
stages. Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the
five worlds or of the deities that control these worlds. The
living wealth of this earth is also symbolised in a quintet—goat and sheep and cattle and horse and finally man. Coming
to the microcosm, we have in man the cycle of his five senses,
basis of all knowledge and activity. For the macrocosm, to
bring out its vast extra-human complexity, the Upanishad
refers to a quintet, each term of which is again a trinity:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">(i) the threefold Veda, the Divine Word that is the origin of
creation, (ii) the three worlds or fields—earth, air-belt or
atmosphere and space, (iii) the three principles or deities ruling respectively 
these worlds—Fire, Air and Sun, (iv) their expressions, emanations or embodiments—stars and birds and
light-rays, and finally, (v) the original inhabitants of these
worlds—to earth belong the reptiles, to the mid-region the
Gandharvas and to heaven the ancient Fathers.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, this is the All, the Universal. One has to realise it and
possess in one's consciousness. And that can be done only in
one way: one has to identify oneself with it, be one with it,
become it. Thus by losing one's individuality one lives the life
universal; the small lean separate life is enlarged and moulded
in the rhythm of the Rich and the Vast. It is thus that man
shares in the consciousness and energy that inspire and move
and sustain the cosmos. The Upanishad most emphatically<br>
enjoins that one must not decry this cosmic godhead or deny
any of its elements, not even such as are a taboo to the puritan
mind. It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness
that one attains the All-Life and lives uninterruptedly and
perennially: <i>Sarvamanveti jyok jivati.</i></font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Still the Upanishad says this is not the final end. There is
yet a higher status of reality and consciousness to which one
has to rise. For beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent. The
Upanishad expresses this truth and experience in various
symbols. The cosmic reality, we have seen, is often conceived
as a septenary, a unity of seven elements, principles and worlds, further to 
give it its full complex value, it is considered not as a simple septet, but a threefold heptad—the
whole gamut, as it were, consisting of 21 notes or syllables. The</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Upanishad says, this number does not exhaust the entire range;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">for there is yet a 22nd place. This is the world beyond the
Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood. The Veda
also sometimes speaks of the integral reality as being represented by the number 100 which is 99 + 1; in other words, 99
represents the cosmic or universal, the unity being the reality
beyond, the Transcendent.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Elsewhere the Upanishad describes more graphically this
truth and the experience of it. It is said there that the sun has
five—we note the familiar five—movements of rising and
setting: (i) from East to West, (ii) from South to North, (iii)
from West to East, (iv) from North to South and (v) from
above—from the Zenith—downward. These are the five
normal and apparent movements. But there is a sixth one;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">rather it is not a movement, but a status, where the sun neither
rises nor sets, but is always visible fixed in the same position.
.</font><p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Some Western and Westernised scholars have tried to show
that the phenomenon described here is an exclusively natural
phenomenon, actually visible in the polar region where the
sun never sets for six months and moves in a circle whose
plane is parallel to the plane of the horizon on the summer
solstice and is gradually inclined as the sun regresses towards
the equinox (on which day just half the solar disc is visible
above the horizon). The sun may be said there to move in the
direction East-South-West-North and again East. Indeed the
Upanishad mentions the positions of the sun in that order and
gives a character to each successive station. The Ray from
the East is red, symbolising the <i>Rik,</i> the Southern Ray is
white, symbolising the <i>Yajur,</i> the Western Ray is black symbolising the <i>Atharva.</i> The natural phenomenon, however, might
have been or might not have been before the mind's eye of the
Rishi, but the symbolism, the esotericism of it is clear enough
in the way the Rishi speaks of it. Also, apart from the first
four movements (which it is already sufficiently difficult to
identify completely with what is visible), the fifth movement,
as a separate descending movement from above appears to
be a foreign element in the context. And although, with regard to the sixth 
movement or status, the sun is visible as such exactly from the point of the North Pole for a while, the ring of
the Rishi's utterance is unmistakably spiritual, it cannot but</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">refer to a fact of inner consciousness—that is at least what the
physical fact conveys to the Rishi and what he seeks to convey
and express primarily.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now this is what is sought to<b> </b> be conveyed and expressed.
The five movements of the sun here also are nothing but the
five <i>samas</i> and they refer to the cycle of the Cosmic or Universal
Brahman. The sixth status where all movements cease, where
there is no rising and setting, no ebb and flow, no waxing and
waning, where there is the immutable, the ever-same unity, is
very evidently the Transcendental Brahman. It is That to
which the Vedic Rishi refers when he prays for a constant and
fixed vision of the eternal Sun—<i>-jyok ca suryam drise.</i></font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It would be interesting to know what the five ranges<b> 
</b>or<b> 
</b>levels or movements of consciousness exactly are that make up
the Universal Brahman described in this passage. It is the
mystic knowledge, the Upanishad says, of the secret delight in
things—<i>madhuvidya.</i> The five ranges are the five fundamental
principles of delight—immortalities, the Veda would say—
that form the inner core of the pyramid of creation. They
form a rising tier and are ruled respectively by the gods—<br>
Agni, Indra, Varuna, Soma and Brahma—with their emanations and instrumental personalities—the Vasus, the Rudras,
the Adityas, the Maruts and the Sadhyas. We suggest that
these refer to the five well-known levels of being, the modes or
nodi of consciousness or something very much like them. The
Upanishad speaks elswhere of the five sheaths. The six Chakras
of Tantric system lie in the same line. The first and the basic
mode is the physical and the ascent from the physical: Agni
and the Vasus are always intimately connected with the earth
and the earth-principles (it can be compared with the Muladhara of the Tantras). Next, second in the line of ascent is
the Vital, the centre of power and dynamism of which the
Rudras are the deities and Indra the presiding God <i>(cf.
</i>Swadhishthana of the Tantras—the navel centre). Indra, in
the Vedas, has two aspects, one of knowledge and vision and
the other of dynamic force and drive. In the first aspect he is
more often considered as the Lord of the Mind, of the Luminous Mind. In the present passage, Indra is taken in his
second aspect and instead of the Maruts with whom he is
usually invoked has the Rudras as his agents and associates.</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;The third in the line of ascension is the region of Varuna and
the Adityas, that is to say, of the large Mind and its lights
—perhaps it can be connected with Tantric Ajnachakra. The
fourth is the domain of Soma and the Maruts—this seems to
be the inner heart, the fount of delight and keen and sweeping
aspirations—the Anahata of the Tantras. The fifth is the&nbsp; region of the crown of the head, the domain of Brahma and
the Sadhyas: it is the Overmind status from where comes the
descending </font>inflatus<font face="Times New Roman">, the creative Maya of Brahma. And when
you go beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun,
the reality absolute, the Transcendent which is indescribable,
unseizable, indeterminate, indeterminable, incommensurable;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">and once there, one never returns, never—<i>na ca punaravartate na
ca punaravartate.</i></font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">VIII. HOW MANY GODS?</font>

		<p align=justify style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&quot;How many Gods are there?&quot; Yajnavalkya was once asked.*
The Rishi answered, they say there are three thousand and
three of them, or three hundred and three, or again, thirty-
three; it may be said too there are six or three or two or one
and a half or one finally. Indeed as the Upanishad says elsewhere, it is the One Unique who wished to be many: and all
the gods are the various glories <i>(mahima)</i> or emanations of the
One Divine. The ancient of ancient Rishis 'had declared long
long ago, in the earliest Veda, that there is one indivisible
Reality, the seers name it in various ways.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In Yajnavalkya's enumeration, however, it is to be noted,
first of all, that he stresses on the number three. The principle
of triplicity is of very wide application: it permeates all fields
of consciousness and is evidently based upon a fundamental
fact of reality. It seems to embody a truth of synthesis and
comprehension, points to the order and harmony that reigns
in the cosmos, the spheric music. The metaphysical, that is to
say, the original principles that constitute existence are the
well-known triplets: (i) the superior: Sat, Chit, Ananda; and
(ii) the inferior: Body, Life and Mind—this being a reflection
or translation or concretisation of the former. We can see also</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">1 <i>Brihadaranyaka<b> </b>III.9.</i></font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">here how the dual principle comes in, the twin godhead or the
two gods to which Yajnavalkya refers. The same principle is
found in the conception of Ardhanarishwara, Male and
Female, Purusha-Prakriti. The Upanishad says<sup>1</sup> yet again that the One original Purusha was not pleased at being alone, so
for a companion he created out of himself the original Female.
The dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity
of the Reality. But what is this one and a half to which Yajnavalkya refers? It simply means that <i>the other</i> created out of the
one is not a wholly separate, independent entity: it is not an
integer by itself, as in the Manichean system, but that it is a
portion, a fraction of the One. And in the end, in the ultimate
analysis, or rather synthesis, there is but one single undivided
and indivisible unity. The thousands and hundreds, very often mentioned also in 
the Rig Veda, are not simply multiplications of the One, a graphic description of its many-sidedness; 
it indicates also the absolute fullness, the complete completeness <i>(purnasya purnam)</i> 
of the Reality. It includes and comprehends all and is a rounded totality, a full circle. The
hundred-gated and the thousand-pillared cities of which the-ancient Rishis chanted are formations and embodiments of
consciousness human and divine, are realities whole and
entire englobing all the layers and grades of consciousness.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Besides this metaphysics there is also an occult aspect in
numerology of which Pythagoras was a well-known adept and
in which the Vedic Rishis too seem to take special delight. The
multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the
principle of emanation. The One has divided and subdivided
itself, but not in a haphazard way: it is not like the chaotic
pulverisation of a piece of stone by hammer-blows. The process of division and subdivision follows a pattern almost as
neat and methodical as a genealogical tree. That is to say, the emanations form 
a hierarchy. At the top, the apex of the pyramid, stands the one supreme 
Godhead. That Godhead is biune in respect of manifestation—the Divine and his creative
Power. This two-in-one reality may be considered, according
to one view of creation, as dividing into three forms or aspects
—the well-known Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra of Hindu
mythology. These may be termed the first or primary emanations. </font>
		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font size="2">1<i>Brihadaranyaka<b> </b>1.4.</i></font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">Now, each one of them in its turn has its own emanations—the eleven Rudriyas are familiar. These are secondary
and there are tertiary and other graded emanations—the last
ones touch the earth and embody physico-vital forces. The
lowest formations or beings can trace their origin to one or
other of the primaries and their nature and function partake
of or are an echo of their first ancestor.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Man, however, is an epitome of creation. He embraces and
incarnates the entire gamut of consciousness and comprises in
him all beings from the highest Divinity to the lowest jinn or
elf. And yet each human being in his true personality is a lineal
descendant of one or other typal aspect or original Personality
of the one supreme Reality; and his individual character is all
the more pronounced and well-defined the more organised
and developed is the being. The psychic being in man is thus
a direct descent, an immediate emanation along a definite
line of devolution of the supreme consciousness. We may now
understand and explain easily why one chooses a particular
Ishta, an ideal god, what is the drive that pushes one to become a worshipper of Siva or Vishnu or any other deity. It is
not any rational understanding, a weighing of pros and cons
and then a resultant conclusion that leads one to choose a path
of religion or spirituality. It is the soul's natural call to the
God, the type of being and consciousness of which it is a
spark, from which it has descended, it is the secret affinity—the spiritual blood-relation as it were—that determines the
choice and adherence. And it is this that we name Faith. And
the exclusiveness and violence and bitterness which attend
such adherence and which go by the name of partisanship,
sectarianism, fanaticism etc., are a deformation in the ignorance on the physico-vital plane of the secret loyalty to one's
source and origin. Of course, the pattern or law is not so
simple and rigid, but it gives a token or typal pattern. For it
must not be forgotten that the supreme source or the original
is one and indivisible and in the highest integration consciousness is global and not exclusive. And the human being that
attains such a status is not bound or wholly limited to one
particular formation: its personality is based on the truth of
impersonality. And yet the two can go together: an individual</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">can be impersonal in consciousness and yet personal in becoming and true to type.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on
which we stand. On this material plane there are as many gods
as there are bodies or individual forms (adhar). And on the
supreme height there is only one God without a second. In
between there are gradations of types and sub-types whose
number and function vary according to the aspect of consciousness that reveals itself.</font>

		<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
&nbsp;<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<font face="Times New Roman">IX. NACHIKETAS THREE<b> </b>BOONS</font>

		<p align=center style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
&nbsp;<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">The three boons asked for by Nachiketas from Yama, Lord of
Death, and granted to him have been interpreted in different
ways. Here is one more attempt in the direction.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Nachiketas is the young aspiring human being still in the
Ignorance—<i>naciketa,</i> meaning one without consciousness or
knowledge. The three boons he asks for are in reference to the
three fundamental modes of being and consciousness that are
at the very basis, forming, as it were, the ground-plan of the
integral reality. They are (i) the individual, (ii) the universal
or cosmic and (iii) the transcendental.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The first boon regards the individual, that is to say, the individual identity and integrity. It asks for the maintenance of
that individuality so that it may be saved from the dissolution
that Death brings about. Death, of course, means the dissolution of the body, but it represents also dissolution pure and
simple. Indeed death is a process which does not stop with the
physical phenomenon, but continues even after; for with the
body gone, the other elements of the individual organism, the<br>
vital and the mental too gradually fall off, fade and dissolve.
Nachiketas wishes to secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality, the particular organisation
of mind and vital based upon a recognisable physical frame.
That is the first necessity for the aspiring mortal—for, it is said,
the body is the first instrument for the working out of one's life
ideal. But man's true personality, the real individuality lies
beyond, beyond the body, beyond the life, beyond the mind,
beyond the triple region that Death lords it over. That is the</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">divine world, the Heaven of the immortals, beyond death and
beyond sorrow and grief. It is the hearth secreted in the inner
heart where burns the Divine Fire, the God of Life Everlasting.
And this is the nodus that binds together the threefold status
of the manifested existence, the body, the life and the mind.
This. triplicity is the structure of name and form built out of
the bricks of experience, the kiln, as it were, within which
burns the Divine Agni, man's true soul. This soul can be
reached only when one exceeds the bounds and limitations
of the triple cord and experiences one's communion and
identity with all souls and all existence. Agni is the secret
divinity within, within the individual and within the world;</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">he is the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead that holds
together and marshals all the elements and components, all
the principles that make up the manifest universe. He it is
that has entered into the world and created facets of his own
reality in multiple forms: and it is he that lies secret in the
human being as the immortal soul through all its adventure of
life and death in the series of incarnations in terrestrial evolution. The adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity,
the worship of Agni taught by Yama in the second boon, consists in the triple sacrifice, the triple work, the triple union in 
the triple status of the physical, the vital and the mental consciousness, the mastery of which leads one to the other shore,
the abode of perennial existence where the human soul enjoys
its eternity and unending continuity in cosmic life. Therefore,
Agni, the master of the psychic being, is called <i>jatavedas,</i> he
who knows the births, all the transmigrations from life to life.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The third boon is the secret of secrets, for it is the knowledge
and realisation of Transcendence that is sought here. Beyond
the individual lies the universal; is there anything beyond the
universal ? The release of the individual into the cosmic existence gives him the griefless life eternal: can the cosmos be
rolled up and flung into something beyond? What would be
the nature of that thing ? What is there outside creation, out-side manifestation, outside Maya, to use a latter day term? Is
there existence or non-existence (utter dissolution or extinction
—Death in his supreme and absolute status) ? King Yama did
not choose to answer immediately and even endeavoured to
dissuade Nachiketas from pursuing the question over which</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">people were confounded, as he said. Evidently it was a much
discussed problem in those days. Buddha was asked the same
question and he evaded it, saying that the pragmatic man
should attend to practical and immediate realities and not
waste time and energy in discussing things ultimate and
beyond that have hardly any relation to the present and the
actual.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; But Yama did answer and unveil the mystery and impart 
the supreme secret knowledge—the knowledge of the Transcendent Brahman: it is out of the transcendent reality that the
immanent deity takes his birth. Hence the Divine Fire, the
Lord of creation and the Inner Master—<i>sarvabhutantaratma,
antaryami—</i>is called <i>brahmajam,</i> born of the Brahman. Yama
teaches the process of transcendence. Apart from the knowledge and experience first of the individual and then of the
cosmic Brahman, there is a definite line along which the
human consciousness (or unconsciousness, as it is at present)
is to ascend and evolve. The first step is to learn to distinguish
between the Good and the Pleasurable <i>(sreya</i> and <i>preya).</i> The
line of pleasure leads to the external, the superficial, the false:</font>

<font face="Times New Roman">while the other path leads towards the inner and the higher 
truth. So the second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness from the physical and the sensual and even the
mental preoccupation and focussing it upon what is certain
and permanent. In the midst of the death-ridden consciousness—in the heart of all that is unstable and fleeting—one
has to look for Agni, the eternal godhead, the Immortal in
mortality, the Timeless in time through whom lies the passage to Immortality beyond Time.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Man has two souls corresponding to his double status. In
the inferior, the soul looks downward and is involved in the
current of Impermanence and Ignorance, it tastes of grief
and sorrow and suffers death and dissolution: in the higher it
looks upward and communes and joins with the Eternal (the
cosmic) and then with the Absolute (the transcendent). The
lower is a reflection of the higher, the higher comes down in a
diminished and hence tarnished light. The message is that of
deliverance, the deliverance and reintegration of the lower soul out of its 
bondage of worldly ignorant life into the freedom and immortality first of its higher and then of its highest</font>
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<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">status. It is true, however, that the Upanishad does not make 
a, trenchant distinction between the cosmic and the transcendent and often it speaks of both in the same breath, as it
were. For in fact they are realities involved in each other and
interwoven. Indeed the triple status, including the Individual,
forms one single totality and the three do not exclude or cancel
each other; on the contrary, they combine and may be said to
enhance each other's reality. The Transcendence expresses or
deploys itself in the cosmos—he goes abroad, <i>sa paryagat:</i> and
the cosmic individualises, concretises itself in the particular
and the personal. The one single spiritual reality holds itself,
aspects itself in a threefold manner.</font>

<p style="line-height: 150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0" align="justify">
<font face="Times New Roman">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The teaching of Yama in brief may be said to be the gospel
of immortality and it consists of the knowledge of triple immortality. And who else can be the best teacher of immortality
than Death himself, as Nachiketas pointedly said? The first
immortality is that of the physical existence and consciousness,
the preservation of the personal identity, the individual name
. and form—this being in itself as expression and embodiment
and instrument of the Inner Reality. This inner reality en-shrines the second immortality—the eternity and continuity
of the soul's life through its incarnations in time, the divine
Agni lit for ever and ever growing in flaming consciousness. And the third and 
final immortality is in the being and consciousness beyond time, beyond all relativities, the absolute
and self-existent delight.</font>
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Page 368<hr>

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