स पर्यगाच्छुक्रमकायमव्रणमस्नाविरंशुद्धम् अपापविद्धम् ।
कविर्मनीषी परिभूः स्ययम्भूर्याथातथ्यतोऽर्थान्व्यदधाच्छाश्वतीभ्यः समाभ्यः ॥ ८ ॥
sa paryagācchukramakāyamavraṇamasnāviraṃśuddham apāpaviddham |
kavirmanīṣī paribhūḥ syayambhūryāthātathyato’rthānvyadadhācchāśvatībhyaḥ samābhyaḥ || 8 ||
It is He who pervades all-He who is bright and bodiless, without scar or sinews, pure and by evil unpierced; who is the Seer, omniscient, transcendent and uncreated. He has duly allotted to the eternal World-Creators their respective duties.
Commentary:
An incredible description of Atman is given in this mantra.
Atman, the real Self of man, pervades everything. That is why Atman answers to the description given in mantras #4 & #5. Atman is bright with the light of undiminishing awareness. I have a body, and my innermost core is pure awareness. Yet, when I perceive the Atman by stilling my prana, I have the clearest and undeniable experience of being bodiless, sings the Upanishad Rishi. The undifferentiated nature of Atman is hinted at by the words without scar or sinew, pure and untouched by evil. Atman is the eternal witness, the eternal seer. Atman is all-knowing, transcendent to body, senses, mind and Prana. Atman is uncreated. Up to this description, we can sort of make sense of what the Upanishad Rishi says. The next statement of the Rishi introduces a major chasm in our understanding. Atman has duly allotted to the eternal World-Creators, their respective duties. It is possible to imagine oneself as all of the preceding qualities, but how does one imagine to have allotted duties to all the World-Creators? Wouldn’t that be stretching our imagination a bit too far?
The idea conveyed by the mantra is – it is actually impossible to imagine the Atman in our present state of consciousness. We saw this limitation before in mantras #4 & #5. Upanishad Rishis declare that every person has the ability within oneself to raise one’s state of consciousness beyond the commonly acknowledged states, which are – waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The Rishis boldly claim that they have achieved an uncommon state of consciousness called ‘Samadhi’.
Perception depends on our state of consciousness.
If we are awake, as we all are, we perceive the myriad things of this world; we see everything is different from everything else; and yet, there is an interconnectedness between things here. In this state of consciousness, we are capable of using our senses and our mind. A most wonderful world is perceived through this complex mechanism.
If we are dreaming, as we all do, twice in a 24-hour cycle, we perceive a very vivid and colourful world, of our own creation. This perception is highly personalised. While the perceptions in the waking state are shared by everyone, perceptions in dream state are highly individualistic.
The perception in deep sleep is of blankness.
In our present state of existence, all perceptions are experiences (called Bhoga in Sanskrit). Experience or Bhoga requires the joint functioning of awareness, senses, the mind, and Prana. Perception need not necessarily be experience. Perception can also be pure witnessing. For perception to be pure witnessing, Prana has to be calmed down from its present state of high vibration form. Senses have to be controlled and made calm; then activities of mind have to be controlled and made calm. Then Prana becomes calm. Once Prana becomes calm, a tremendous transformation in personality occurs. An incredible expansion in one’s sense of identity occurs. While one felt that one was localised to a single body and mind, now, one starts feeling oneself identified with all that exists. This is not a thought or a feeling. This is a direct perception. This state of consciousness is distinct just like waking, dreaming and deep sleep are distinct states of consciousness that one experiences day-in and day-out. This state of consciousness is called Samadhi. It is in this state of consciousness that one clearly feels that (oneself) has duly allotted to the eternal World-Creators, their respective duties. Until one’s consciousness has transformed to this blessed state, this particular statement of the Upanishad does not make sense.
The greatest benefit or utility of the Upanishad lies right here. It repeatedly speaks of this unique state of consciousness, which is a possibility for every human being, irrespective of culture, race, religion or ethnicity. This gives eternal hope for man. No matter what a person’s present state of existence is, – whether he is pure or impure, whether he is a saint or a criminal, whether he is rich or poor, whether he is young or old, whether one is a man or a woman, – everyone has this possibility to achieve this incredible state of consciousness. Again, these are not thoughts or feelings, nor are they figures of speech. This is a matter of perception. Swamiji used to repeatedly point out: Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation; it is being and becoming, it is realisation. We hear so many talking about God and the soul, and all the mysteries of the universe, but if you take them one by one, and ask them, ‘Have you realised God? Have you seen your Soul?’ – how many can say they have?[Source] …Give up all argumentation and other distractions. Is there anything in dry intellectual jargon? It only throws the mind off its balance and disturbs it. Things of subtler planes have to be realised. Will talking do that? So, give up all vain talk…Who is a true witness? He is a true witness to whom the thing said is a direct perception. Therefore, the Vedas are true, because they consist of the evidence of competent persons. But is this power of perception peculiar to any? No! The Rishi, the Aryan, and the Mlechchha all alike have it.[Source]