The Mystic Poet Of Esha Upanishad

In our Bhagavad Geeta and Upanishad study group we have been reading Esha Upanishad. As I read and reread Shlok 8 I couldn’t decide if the shlock was pointing to the attributes of Supreme consciousness or to the realized individual soul or to both. Our scriptures consider both essentially the one in essence, yet working on different levels. 

While Shloka 4 and 5 clearly point to the supreme Brahman, shloka 6 and 7 points to the individual soul that has realized the unity with the Cosmic Brahman.

With this reference in mind first I wanted to understand it as written for an individual realized soul. But the words like -  ‘the self- existent has ordered objects perfectly according to their nature from years sempiternal’, were pointing to the cosmic Supreme being…

The words ‘It is He that has gone abroad… too were taking different meaning in my mind.

If used for Brahaman it would simply point to the Supreme being extending itself in the manifested world.

Used for an individual it would mean the soul that has the power to extend itself in the oneness of the world beyond the limitations of its mind and body.

At least this is my understanding and both these understandings seemed justified to me, but still I was not satisfied. Why the poet has grouped them together in one shloka while keeping them apart at previous shloka. What were we to understand or to take from his linguistic notion?

We talked more of the shloka in the light of Sri Aurobindo’s commentary, but the question still persisted in my mind. 

During our discussion one of the members mentioned something written in Bhagavad Geeta and all of a sudden I remembered, Lord Krishna too in Bhagavad Geeta while addressing himself seems to interchange the epithet for the Supreme soul and Individual soul from shloka to shloka and it often sounded so mystical. As we studied more of Bhagavad Geeta we realized Krishna was a supreme Yogi and dwelling in Supreme or worldly consciousness simultaneously and talking from that level was within the yogic power of his realized soul.

Sri Aurobindo too was a Yogi and it was not hard for him to write about the shloka in context with the supreme being and the soul without having any conflict.

The answer to my puzzled mind suddenly became clear. The shlokas of Esha Upanishad also are the utterance of an ancient supreme yogi, a poet-seer, the one who could come in and out of Supreme consciousness and describe that experience with somewhat mystical wordings, placing it all together in just a few words of a Shloka. We can never understand them intellectually unless we have faith in the process of consciousness higher than the mind or willing to believe in it or have experienced it. It is talked about again and again by mystic saints from years sempiternal. It is us who just don’t get it!

Savita Tyagi
5.23.2020

Our Search For The Unknown (Excerpts from Sri Aurobindo's Savitri)

In our Friday Upanishad study class, a participant asked a question. It was something like, ‘ Why do we search for Brahman when it is unknown and beyond our reach’? This question has been asked and answered in many different ways. Not only religion but science, philosophy, literature, and other life sciences do their search and give their own answers. My answer to the participant's question based on my understanding of our religion was that the curiosity for it is something built in us from time eternal. However, how far we go in finding answers is different for all. Sometimes our search provides some answers that we are looking for, and some time we are completely dissatisfied. Our Vedic religion tells us that though God is unknown, still it can be reached and felt in our innermost being. Since our Atman is essentially That.

Yesterday I picked up Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri. As I read the Canto four of book ll ‘The Kingdom of the little life’, I was pleasantly surprised to read Sri Aurobindo’s thoughts and poetic elaboration of this very ancient and ever new question in that canto. What I gathered from it is, that it is a question not only for the world but also an important one in the evolution of life. I copied a few sentences related to this topic. I enjoyed reading them anyway and decided to share it with you all. You are welcome to express your thoughts on it if you wish.

I have added the lines from book ll canto lll 

The Glory and fall of Life. 

These opening lines of Canto lll on page 116 seem to create a background for this search...

Our Search For the Unknown

 ( The topic added by me just for the post)

Savita Tyagi

Excerpts From Sri Aurobindo's Book Savitri 

An uneven broad ascent now lured his feet.

Answering a greater Nature’s troubled call

He crossed the limits of embodied Mind

And entered wide obscure disputed fields

Where all was doubt and change and nothing sure,

A world of search and toil without repose.

As one who meets the face of the Unknown,

A questioner with none to give reply,

Attracted to a problem never solved,

Always uncertain of the ground he trod,

Always drawn on to an inconstant goal

He travelled through a land peopled by doubts

In shifting confines on a quaking base.

In front he saw a boundary ever unreached 

And thought himself at each step nearer now,-

A far retreating horizon of mirage.

   

Book ll Canto lll page 116 

The Glory and fall of Life.

********************

There was a writhing of half-conscious force

Hardly awakened from the Inconscient’s sleep,

Tied to an instinct-driven Ignorance,

To find itself and find its hold on things.

………

Between earth-pain and the bliss from which life fell

A world that ever seeks for something missed,

Hunts for the joy that earth has failed to keep.

………..

An Influence entered mortal night and day,

A shadow overcast the time-born race;

…………..

Dividing matter’s sleep from conscious mind,

There strayed a call that knew not why it came.

A power beyond earth’s scope has touched the earth;

The repose that might have been can be no more;

A formless yearning passions in man’s heart,

A cry is in his blood for happier things:

……………

Man’s natural joy of life is overcast

And sorrow is his nurse of destiny.

…………….

He has risen to greatness and to discontent,

He is awake to the Invisible.

Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn:

He has exhausted now life’s surface acts,

His being’s hidden realms remain to explore.

He becomes a mind, he becomes a spirit and self; 

In his fragile tenement he grows Nature’s lord.

*******************

In the heart she kindled a fire of passion and need,

**************************

A groping consciousness in a voiceless world,

A guide-less sense was given her for her road;

Thought was withheld and nothing now she knew,

But all the unknown was hers to feel and clasp.

Book ll canto four page 132-33

The Kingdom’s of the Little life

The Great Peace

The Great Peace

I am not sick-

Just feel like a siphon-

The sap of life drains out 

From every pore of my skin.

The soul is said to be the size of a thumb.

What is the size of this Life force?

Without it, the blood is blackened

Yet the bodyweight is stupendous!

Desires still burn at my heart

Like a small flame burns

At the bottom of a smoldering log.

Oh! How I wish to muster enough strength

To walk and walk and walk and walk.....

And drop dead somewhere under the stars.

But fear stops me...... 

In this crazy world

Some vigilante will call the police 

And instead of reaching heavens 

I will end up in a hospital - a place just 

Next to hell!

I love outdoors for what it offers

To my bruised mind and tired soul.

The azure sky and the floating clouds,

The chirping of birds and the kid’s laughter

Bring life back to my weak limbs.

A stray dog keeps my senses alert,

At the first look of those vicious eyes 

I change the route with eagle’s speed!

I am not a dog or cat lover! 

But love people with all my heart!

I live in plains but to visit occasionally 

Snow-covered mountains and tranquil lakes,

Take short hikes and watch the valley beneath,

It is indeed as marvelous as viewing heavens on earth.

So if I fall dead somewhere on a snowy road

That would be just as beautiful as the final abode!

Before I die, maybe, just maybe .....

I will visit again the Pacific shore.

Take a walk by the beach or drive on highway 101

Who knows; the vast turquoise sea

Of limitless depth and restless waves

May invite me to rest in its cold

And comforting lap.

Transcend me to that auburn horizon 

Where the sun sets peacefully on life-

On Pacific - the Namesake of Great Peace!

1. 6. 2020. 3. 30 AM

A Universal Selfie

At times I just want to live for myself.

But what is It that I am living for?

The question puzzles me!

My own self seems to be divided 

Never completely my own to possess.

Living for myself is like living for a mirrored self.

It shows my frontal appearance

But never what is hidden in the back,

Living for my mirrored self is like  

Enjoying only a half cup of tea

And leaving the kettle untouched!

I search and search for my complete self

To know and to live united in my own being.

But I fail to grasp it. 

It’s never wholly mine.

Away from my mirrored self

I search for myself in others.

I can’t claim wholly to live for others,

I can’t lose myself in the infinite number of selves.

But living for others is like watching and acting  

In the infinite mirrors of Universal Life.

Each one shows a part of myself.

The shared hues of life’s little pains and pleasures

Become more acceptable, more enjoyable.

My little self is center of my universe

But the worldwide scattered selves

Mirror my whole self.

A Universal Selfie - as good as it gets! 

Savita Tyagi

4. 1. 2020

Good Friday

Good Friday,

A divine spirit sacrifices,

It’s life forsaken for the good of humanity.

It’s a heart filled with love and compassion

It’s courage and forbearance inspires

And uplifts others. 

That is what humans do

When their life is transformed 

By the touch of divinity.

Their spirits glow fearlessly,

To send a message of love and hope to all

Again and again, such spirits descend.

On the alter of life their sacrifice

Brings meaning to life,

For the love and for the good of all.

Spirit of Good Friday is well and alive,

See it in the faces of all, working tirelessly 

To protect us all.

See it in the face of a doctor,

See it in the face of a nurse, a health care worker

See it in the face, standing behind a grocery counter.

See it in the faces of all

Who at the time of crisis

Rise to challenge and carry the cross.