The vedic concept of aatma 1 by a s ramanathan works of vedic sciences

The Vedic concept of Aatma 1- By A.S Ramanathan Works Of Vedic Sciences

To The Memory of Vidyavacaspati Madhusudan Ojha and his principal disciple Vedavacaspati Motilal Shastri

Foreword Seventytwo years old Dr. A.S. Ramanathan is a scientist by career. He retired as deputy Director General of Meteorology, Government of India. He worked as a Research Fellow of Indian National Science Academy for a few years.

Dr. Ramanathan has made a thorough study of Indian scriptures like Vedas, Gita, Philosophical works of all great Acharyas and great Sanskrit epics.

About fifteen years ago he came across the works of Pandit Madhu Sudan Ojha and Pandit Moti Lal Shastri on Vedas. He came to Jaipur and devoted lot of time to study them. He came to the conclusion that both the scholars had done novel work on Vedas, which no Acharya had done in the past. Dr. Ramanathan goes to the extent of saying that Pandit Madhu Sudan Ojha was the greatest scholar of Vedas after Veda Vyasa. Pt. Ojha wrote about 280 small and big books covering the entire spectrum of Indian thought. There were ten hypotheses in vogue before Vedas were compiled by Vyasa. Pt. Ojha wrote a book on each and every hypothesis discussing them in detail.

Then he wrote one separate book an all the ten taken together.

There are six Angas of Vedas. He wrote on all the Angas and brought out several books. These Angas are Shiksha, Chhandas, Nirukta Kalpa, Jyotisha and Vyakarana. He did not bring out a translation or a commentary on Vedas but revealed the hidden meanings of Vedic terms and wrote many books on various aspects of Vedas. The meanings of Vedic terms were lost and therefore the correct knowledge of Vedas was also lost. Pt. Ojha presented the scientific aspects of Vedas in the form of Brahman and wrote more than a dozen books on Brahmavijnana alone.

Besides Vedas he wrote on Puranas (Mythology), Gita, Brahma Sutras, History and few other subjects. Pt. Ojha established that Puranas were older than Vedas and hold the vital key to understand Vedas.

Looking at the magnitude of Ojha's works, Dr.

Ramanathan was. thoroughly convinced that Ojha was the

Indian thought ana he strongly

feels

greatest scholar of Indian thought ana he strongly feels that all his works must be brought to light.

As regards the study of Vedas, there are different schools of thought and practice. There is difference between north & south India.

Dr. Ramanathan thinks that Pt. Ojha cut across all boundaries a nd dealt on purely the scientific aspects as conceived by the seers of Vedas. The author of the book says that science is based on reason and logic and Pt. Ojha showed that reason and logic were the basis of Vedas.

In the interpretation of Vedic terminology Dr. Ramanathan closely follows Pt. Ojha's method of approach. All his statements are authenticated by quotations from Vedic literature. He names Ojha as Vyasavatar. Pandit Moti Lai was chief disciple of Ojha. Dr. Ramanathan devoted many years to study the works of both the scholars and is still active. He is completely dedicated to Vedic works.

For the past few years he has been writing in English on Ojha's work., He thinks that the works of Ojha must come to the notice of world scientists and scholars because Ojha has highlighted the scientific aspects of Vedas which deals with the creative process of the universe and evolution. Never before this kind of work has been done. Dr. Ramanathan firmly believes that Ojha's works can contribute a lot to the scientific understanding of the Vedas and can lead to more organised studies and research today.

This is the fourth publication of the author. Earlier he has published three books "Weather Science in Ancient India", "What is Veda" and "Vedic Concept of Soma". These days he is working on "Atma Gati".

Dr. Ramanathan is also interested in guiding researchers who want to go deep into Vedic Science. He thinks, it is high time, we unearth this knowledge and propagate it all over the world.

"YAVANIKA" E-29 Lajpat Marg, C-Scheme.

Karpur Chandra Kulish

Jaipur-302 001 (INDIA)

Founder Editor, Rajasthan Patrika

Preface The understanding of the concept of Atman as formulated by our sages is fairly difficult. But it has been rendered more difficult by the commentators who have created difficulties for us in two ways. Many of them are of the opinion that the subject of Atman is dealt with only in the Upanisads, and therefore the Vedas and Brahmanas do not have much relevance for the purpose of understanding this subject. In fact they have given birth to a new generation of scholars who have no scholarship in Vedas and Brahmanas and yet in the opinion of many of us give excellent exposition of the concept of Atman as conceived by our sages. Because they are unfamiliar with the Vedas and Brahmanas, they have created meanings for the technical terms occuring in the original literature in their own way, causing utter confusion in the minds of the readers who find that each scholar interprets the technical terms in his own way. To add to the confusion of the readers, there are other scholars who find no use at all for all the ancient literature to understand the working of our mind or understand the self or God. Probably many of us are not also aware that most of what these scholars say are already contained in the expressions of our sages available in various places in our ancient literature. It is in this context the writings of Madhusudan Ojha are extremely relevant to the modern reader. With his encyclopaedic knowledge of the entire cross section of ancient literature, Madhusudan Ojha presents the wisdom of our sages in every field, in the most thorough and logical way. The author is very much indebted to him in his presentation of the material contained in this book.

The author is also deeply indebted to Shri Karpur Chand Kulish, Founder Editor of Rajasthan Patrika who has not only ar ranged for the printing and publication of this book but also has kindly made available the original manuscripts of the writings of Ojha included as appendices in this book.

Srirangam

A.S. Ramanathan

Contents I. Introduction 1 II. A Digression 14 III. Some Basic Concepts and Definitions 27 IV. The Concept of Jiva and Isvara 51 V. Concept of Prajapati -1 67 VI. Concept of Prajapati - 2 88 (Purusa Prajapati) VII. Concept of Prajapati - 3 109 (Sodali Prajapati) VIII. Concept of Prajapati-4 134 (Satya Prajapati) IX. Concept of Prajapati - 5' 153 (Yajna Prajapati) X. Concept of Prajapati - 6 173 (Isvara Prajapati) XI. The Nature and Functions of Jivatma -1 192 (Adhyatma Smastha) XII. The Nature and Functions of Jivatma - 2 208 (Adhyatma Smastha) Conclusion 244 Appendix

I. Introduction Having seen what Veda is and what Vedic concept of Soma is, we enter into one of the most diff icult subjects, in Vedic literature viz ‘The concept of Atman and its final goal’. This is a subject which has attracted many scholars all over the world because it constitutes the core of Brahmavidya which forms the main theme of the Upanisads and which a lso, according to many constitutes the real essence of Vedic teach ings. The adhyatma part of Brahmavidya is a fairly difficult branch since it deals with the nature and functions of the indi vidual soul and its relation to Isvara (God) and the Jagat (cos mos). There is a practical side also of this Adhyatma Vidya and quite a few great men (I mean great men like Vidyaranya, Tirumular, Sankara, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Sadaslva Brahmendra, Aurobindo, Ramana Maharsi and the like) had expertise in this field. Their writings also are available to us. The literature is therefore quite vast but most difficult for anybody to digest because it is in this field that there is maximum divergence of opinion in the interpretation of original texts. A sincere student is throughly baffled by the hair splitting logic used by some to prove their points. Further there is a general opinion among the interpreters that with Upanisads alone, the concept of Atman can be understood. This has naturally led to the complete neglect o f the Vedas and the Brahmanas by the commentators and their supporters. For example the concept

2 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

of Prajapati which was developed during the latter half of the Rgvedic period and nurtured during the period of Yajurveda and the Brahmanas, was hardly given any importance by these interpreters though it constitutes the key to correctly under stand the concept of Atman and the concept of Brahman which formed the central theme of the Upanisads. It was Madhusudan Ojha, the most outstanding Vedic scholar of our times who not only made notable contributions to the interpretation of Vedic passages but also was the only scholar who dealt with the concept of Prajapati in great detail so that the equal relevance of the Vedas and Brahmanas to the understanding of the concept of Atman was brought out in full measure in his writings. But unfortunately, very few scholars today are aware of his contri butions.

The history of Vedic tradition is a very sad story. Because the post Vedic priests could not explain satisfactorily the secrets of Karmakanda, Jainism and Buddhism came into existence, though it should be admitted that they had their own merits. However they sowed the seeds of division of society which was once very cohesive.

Sankara tried his best to fill up the gaps by his intellectual approach to the problem and established with great difficulty the Advaita concept of the Vedic seers. But his characterisation of Jagat as mithya (untrue) did not carry conviction with the people. There was also no support in the entire Vedic literature to conclude that the Jagat was mithya. In a way therefore, he gave scope for further division of the society.

However his greatest contribution was that he emphasised the superiority of Jnanakanda over Karmakanda and pointed out that unless we understand the secrets of Karmakanda by an intellectual approach, all our rituals will cease to produce any results.

The weak points of ‘Sankara’s exposition of Vedic religion, were taken advantage of by Ramanuja who in his overenthusiasm to disprove Sankara’s expositions, completely lost sight of many statements in the Vedas and Brahmanas,

INTRODUCTION 3

with the result, he could only succeed in dividing the soci ety and not in correctly interpreting the Vedic thought. Moreover he brought in post-Vedic literature to prove many of his state ments which was objected to by many who did not agree with his expositions. Then came Madhvacarya in the field who had his own views which only caused further confusion. Prior to the coming into existence of the three great Acaryas, there have been three major schools of interpretation of Vedic thought in the form of Darsanas. These, are Vaisesika, Sankhya and Vedanta and these also had already contributed their share of confusion, so that today, we are completely lost in the ocean of literature and are Unable to have any understanding of what the Vedas, Brahmanas and the Upanisads teach us regarding the true nature of Atman and it s goal.

It is also unfortunate that scholars who came into the scene after the three great Acaryas instead of independently examining the original texts, (i.e Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads) have been largely grouping themselves behind one or the other of these three great Acaryas and have produced voluminous literature which ei ther support (mandana) or oppose (khandana) the views of the above Acaryas. They did not realise at all that some of the assumptions made by these Acaryas have no support at all in the Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads and even in the allied literature like Brahmasutras and Bhagavadgita. They (includ ing the great Acaryas) hardly realised that there are many contradictory statements in the Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads and unless they are studied together with cross ref erences, a correct picture of Vedic thought will not emerge. Especially the Brahmanas which contain valuable information on the subject were never given the importance they deserve. As a result of all these factors Vedi c tradition underwent many unwanted changes during the past two thousand years or so.

The Hindus are often criticised by people of other religious faiths for their belief in many gods. Actually this critir cism is not justified. The Vedic seers believed in only one God

4 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

viz Prajapati whom they prefected during the latter half of the Rgvedic period and during the period of Yajurveda. Th ough his amrta (immortal) part represents the combined presence and coordinated functioning of manas prana and vak (known as Atman in the Upanisads) he has a martya (mortal) part and in it he has everything that we can think of in this universe . Thus he represents the good and the evil mortal and immortal, jnanasakti. krivasakti and arthasakti, Brahma, Ksatra and Vid Viryas, Vidya. Avidva. the living beings, the non living beings, Devas. Asuras. Manusyas, Gandharvas, Agni, Vayu, Slirya, soma. Earth. Sun. Moon, rain, lightning and the forces behind_ all natural phenomena, He is Brahma, Visnu, Indra.

Siva v Purusa, Stri, Rta, Satya Yajna and what not. All the gods worshipped by the various sections of th e Hindu society are only the indiv idual organs or vigrahas of this Prajapati who can rightly be described as ‘Bhaktanugrahavigrahah’. If we understand Him in all His aspects, we have nothing else to know in this Jagat. There is nothing which we cannot achieve by adoring Him. This Prajapati has two forms, viz unmanifest (anirukta) and manifest (nirukta) the former representing darkness (tamas) with immense potentialities of creatig the universe and the latter representing light (jyotis) which fills his manifested form viz the universe. These are the sukla (white) and krsna (black) forms of Prajapati. We have actually a god by name Krsna who combines in himself many secrets. We shall deal with all these in our next hoo k on Bhagvad Gita whose author is said to be no other than Krsna himself. In fact one wonders why the post Vedic scholars went after so_many indi- vidual gods, when this wonderful concept of Prajapati was * readily available to them. He can be medidated upon as Brahman. Atman. Jnana. Vijnana. Ananda Avyaya. Aksara,Saty Yajnna.

Veda. Virat Vaisvanara, Taijasa, Prajna, Omkara, Vasatkara, or he can be adored as Agni, Vayu, Surya, Caodra (Soma), lightning, rain thunder etc.

\

INTRODUCTION 5

after what was sticking on the spoon, when the nectar was right in their palm (Karastham madhu santyajya kurpanam ledhi mudhadhih. The history of Vedic tradition would have bee n entirely different if onlv our post - Vedic scholars had under stood the Prajapati concept and had projected him as the only God of Vedic religion. But alas, destiny shaped things in an altogether different way.

We have therefore planned a fairly exhaustive study of the subject. Though our main task will be to build the Atman concept by examining the relevant passages in the Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads, we shall also take this opportunity to study and explai n why the authors of Darsanas (viz Vaisesika, Sankhya and Vedanta) and the other later interpreters (espe cially the three great Acaryas) have differed from each other in the interpretation of the source texts. Since the Bhagavadgita is the most popular po st-Vedic text dealing with the subject of Atman, we shall deal with it in great detail and establish its link with the Vedic, Brahmanic and Upanisadic thought. We propose therefore to bring out the following books on the subject and the present book is th e first one in this series.

1. Vedic concept of Atman

2. The concept of Atman in Bhagavad Gita 3. The exposition of Atman in the Dars'ana s 4. The exposition of Atman by the three Acarya s.

5. The goal of Atman (Atmagati) Fortunately for ns the contributions of Madhusudan Ojha enable us to go deep into the subject and understand why there are differences in the interpretations of the original texts. There is absolutely nothing wrong in holding different views on the interpretation of statements in Vedas. Brahmanas arid, Upanisads.

In fact the Vedas. Brahmanas and Upanisads are themselves a collection of different views on many subjects of

6 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

interest to the Vedic-seers. But it is certainly not correct Tor anybody to force his interpretation on others and make them believe that his interpretation is the only correct one and organise a group which can go on preaching the, same to oth - ers and enlarge the group. This leads to division of a society which was once very cohesive and capable of understanding and appreciating each other’s views.

We are now living in a society which is well exposed to scientific knowledge that has been sweeping the entire world and therefore all our arguments have to conform to some sci entific standards. It is not easy to convince the enlightened man by simply making adhoc assumptions or using arguments in a clever round about way. One has to resort to simple direct reasoning, explain every technical word occuring in his argu ments and logically explain the basic concepts which our an cients had on various phenomena of Nature, by banking heavily on the original texts which comprise the Vedas, Brahmanas and Upanisads. Our sages were earnest seekers of truth and triedall possibilities to get at the truth. They allowed free think ing so that one gets to know how to look at the same thing from various angles. The Vedic seers had such liberal views that they accommodated everybody. Even athiests and cynics had the liberty of expressing their views.

Fortunately this tradition of right to speak and express our views on various things including religion has remained with us and it is one of the greatest assets which we have inherited from Vedic tradition. Unfortunately some post -Vedic scholars did not have correct appreciation of this accommodating spirit and became rather aggressive in their views and nowhere this aggressive spirit is more prominent than in the interpretation of Brahman -Jagat (Cosmos) relation or Jiva (individual soul) Is'vara (God) rela tions.

This has naturally resulted in many khandana mandana works written by various scholars who had taken sides. This certainly is not a happy state of affairs and living in an age in which scinece is rapidly advancing we have to reverse this trend and build up a cohesive society free of such prejudices

INTRODUCTION 7

and preconceived notions. With these few remarks we now straight away pass on to introduce the subject of this book.

The Vedic seers had been speculating quite a lot about the origin and nature of the universe and if a t all there was a creator they wanted to understand his true nature. When we go through the Vedas and Brahmanas we get into many con tradictions. Many of the earlier theories about the origin of the universe were materialistic in nature. Some people though t that rajas formed the basic material out of which this Visva (universe) came into existence. Others thought the primordeal sub - stance were waters. Yet some others thought that vak. (mat ter in the finest form) gave rise to this Visva.

Another view was that vyoma (space) gave rise to this Visva. Some people also held the view that Amrta and Mrtyu filled space and that gave rise to this Visva. Finally there was one view that it is all God’s (Deva’s) creation. He creates and destroys. This view of divine power was endorsed by one Brahma 2 (of-the earth) who rejected all the materialistic theories 3 and said that there was the single entity (Ekam) 4 which breathed without air and that later created everything out of itself.

It is this ‘Ekam’ 5 that corresponds to the Brahman of later period. Actually, though thg word brahma’ occurs freely in Rgveda, it is used in a-different sense (viz food, stotra etc).

The following question was raised by a seer in Rgveda: ‘What sort of forest was it? What wa s that tree cutting which, this earth-atmosphere pair came into exisience? Wise men I ask you what was it that supports the worlds and at the same

8 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

time presides over it’?

6

The reply coming from a sage of Yajurveda, is, ‘Brah man was the forest and Brahman was the tree cutting which, this earth-atmosphere pair came into existence and it is Brah man who presides over it’ 7 .

The Upanisad defines it thus.

‘Brahman is that from which all the material things have appeared, that which supports all these created things and that to which everything goes finally’. Try to understand that. That is Brahman’ 8 .

That Brahman is different from Visva, though Visva comes out of it is borne out from the following statements in Upanisads: •

1. Brahman is that which has no shape and which is Satya

9

2. Brahman is that which is without fear 3. Brahman is that which is Truth Knowledge Satya)) (Jnanam) and Infiniteness (Anantam) 4. Brahman is eternal (nitya), and Ananda (bliss) 5. This Atman is Brahman

12

13

Yet some other statements describe the Brahman as a

INTRODUCTION 9

single entity and is without a second. The Upanisad says, 1. Brahman was one in the beginning and it became everything. 1 4 2. Brahman is single without a second. Multiplicity does not exist in Brahman l5 .

3. This Brahman is amrta (immortal) and pervades all directions. 16 Thus it would appear that Brahman was one only and everything that we see around came out of it. One may then ask, by what process? Does the Brahman produce this Visva like a father produces a child? Or is it a process like curds forming out of milk? The answer to the above seems to he, tha t Visva evolves from Brahman as a result of hrhmana blossom - ing). If a questioner wants to know the agency that goads this blossoming, the first reaction seems to he. who knows, how or from where, this Visva was'brought into existence. 1 7 Nor does one know at what time the creation commenced . 1 8 H O W ever later, the Taittiriyas said it came into exis tence on its o W N .

All that comes out of the above discussion is that the single one (Ekam) which Rgveda refers to. is the Brahman of the Upanisads. He is both the efficient and material cause of this Visva. the following statements ind icate that the Visva is. established on Brahman .

1. Brahman is the seat of establishment of every thing. 1 9

2. The lokas, the Visva, this Jagat are all in this Brah man.

Brahman was there before all these material things came into existence. Nobody can challenge him. 2(1 3. He knows the highest place of Brahman, where the Visva is put and shines brightly. 21 In some other places on the other hand no distinction is made between Brahman and VisVa as is evid ent in the following statements.

1. Brahman is Vis'va and this (VisVa) is Brahman.

2. Everything is Brahman.

22

23

3. What all we see here is Brahman.

24

Yet in the Brahmana. it is said that Brahman supports the lokas and also presides over,them.

25

By now, the reader will be aware of the many contradictions that we come across in Vedic literature regarding the origin of Vis'va and the exact role of Brahman in it. When we. go through the Brahmanas, we find that the origin of the VisVa is described in different ways. In some places the creator is said to be Brahman. In some other places rajapati 26 is said to be the creator. Manas Prana, Vak arenaiso said to-be the starting points for the creation of VisVa. 27 In the Upnisads however Purusa is said to be creator in some places. 2S Ananda,

INTRODUCTION 11 Vijnana Anna are also said to be the starting points of creation.

29

Some other statements in Vedic literature cause fur ther confusion in our minds. Let us see the following statements. ‘This Brahman, name, form and anna (food) have all come out of that all knowing entity whose tapas (activation o f prana) is manifestation of knowledge (jnanamayam) 30 ‘Then was born the protector of this universe. He is Hiranmaya. He is named Brahman. 3I * ‘Brahman was first born from rta. Who can challenge him. 32 These statements attribute an origin to Brahman and, therefore we have real difficulty in declaring that Brahman is the root cause of this VisVa. Some other statements make it difficult for us even to define Brahman.

1. Brahman is Agni.

2. Brahman is Indra.

33 34

3. This Aditya (sun) is Brahman 3 -’ 4. The metres (chandamsi) are Brahman.

36

5. Kam is Brahman. Kham is Brahman. Ram is Brahman.

Sam is Brahman. 37

12 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

6. Prana is Brahman

311

7. Candra (Moon) is Brahman 39 etc. ^ Considering all the above statements together it wou ld appear that it is not easy for us to decide unambiguously whether.

1.

Visva is different or not different from Brahman.

2.

Vis'va is born out of Brahman.

3.

Visva resides in Brahman.

4.

Visva is presided over by Brahman.

That is why different scholars have interpreted the Brah man-Visva relations as well as Isvara-Jagat-Jiva relations in their own way and a sincere unbiased student who wants to know what our sages have told us, is thoroughly confused when he goes through the heterogeneous literature and is at a loss to decide what is correct and what is not.

The result has been that we have reached a stage where we are fully reconciled to these differences in the interpretations and hardly make any attempt to find out why these differences exist in the interpretations.

In the initial stages some post-Vedic scholars being fully aware of the difficulties involved in reconciling the numerous con tradictory statements in Vedic literature gave us some cateporicn l views in the_form of Darsanas. Assuming that Dars'anas by definition should deal with the origin of the universe and related things. only Vaisesika, Sankhya and Vedanta schools come under the category of the Astika division (ie that believe in the authority of the Vedas) of Dars'anas. Though the Darsanns have. some, merits in their own wav. as far as the elucidation of the Brahman -Atman concepts as understood by our Vedic seers is concerned, they have severe limitations as we shall show later. In fact one of the main objectives of the Brahma Sutras was to reconcile the va ri- ous contradictory statements in the Vedic literature, particularly in

INTRODUCTION 13

the Upanisads and present a firm vie w-on the Brahman-VisVa relations as well as Jiva-Isvara relations. But then for want of proper guidance material, especially with regard to supporting statements in the Vedic literature (i.e. pramanas) people have differed in interpreting the SUtras themselves and have brought into exist- ence different schools by their own aggressive views and by the ir ability to organise a following for their views. The result has been that the scholars who came subsequently into the scene never bothered to go deep into the Vedas and Brahmanas and failed to present in their writings an unambiguous picture of the basic con- cepts of our sages regarding the true nature of Brahman/Atman and its role in the creative process.

We have therefore a very difficult task to perform in the sense, 1) we have to clearly understand the true nature, and func- tions of Atman/Brahman as was conceived by our Vedic seers and for that purpose, 2) we have to critically examine the relevant passages in the Vedic literature and also the supporting literature like the Brahmasutras and Gita. The first one constitutes Atmamimamsa and the second.. one, constitutes Sastramimamsa.

â–Ą

II. A Digression In the year 1938, a scholar from Madhya Pradesh wrote to Madhusudan Ojha, seeking his interpretation of six passages from the Vedic and Post-Vedic literature. Of these three passages are very relevant to us in the present context. We shall therefore present them here together with Ojha’s interpretation of the same. The first passage (from Isopanisad) is ‘Purnamadah pumamidam purnat purnamudacyate.

Purnasya Purnamadaya purnamevavas'isyate.’ It is not easy to understand the above passage. Most of us understand it in the following way: Brahman pervades the entire space and therefore it is called purna (ie characterised by fullness in all respects). This Jagat is born out of Brahman and is per vaded by him and therefore this Jagat also can be called purna. Even after the Jagat which is puma is removed from Brahman, the latter remains purna.

That is, Brahman is not affected at all with regard to its fullness even after the Jagat which is born out of it comes into existence.

Most of us will not be satisfied with the above explanation. Now let us see how Madhusudan Ojha goes about to explain it.

The Svetasvataropanisad says,

1. Madhusudan Ojha passed away in the Year 1939.

,

A DIGRESSION 15

‘There is nothing superior to him. Nor is there anything smaller or bigger than him. He stands unperturbed like a tree in the heaven. This whole cosmos is filled with this Purusa’ 2 The Avyaya Atmia who carries in his womb the Aksara and Ksara Atmas is referred to here as Isvara or Purusa. The Gita says:

‘There are two Puriisasjvdz-Ksara sand Aksara in this loka. Ksara constitutes all the, material things and Aksara resides in them, 3 ‘There is another Purusa who is superior (to Aksara and Ksara) and who is called Paramatma. He pervades all the three lokas and supports them. He is actually Avyava Isvara. 4 The above triad of Purusas is called Amrtatma and pervades the entire space in-his limitless full form. He is always one and never exhibits more than one form and is Amrta (immortal). The Gopatha Brahmana says, ‘He is the same in all the three genders and in all the declensions (vibhaktis). He is the same in the singular, dual and plural. Because he does not undergo any change he is called Avyaya, 5 Also the Upanisad says elsewhere, ‘This gudhotma (hidden Atma) is present in every living being and does not show any outward sign of his presence. But he does not get destroyed when the beings are destroyed’ 6 There is no place in this universe where he is not present. It

6. VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA H

is this all pervading Purusa that is here referred to as the purna Brahman.

Now there is another entity which can also be called purna and that is Karma which goes under the name mrtyu because Karma is ephemeral and goes on changing.

Moreover since the Brahmana says, ‘Prajapati is half mrtyu and half amrta, 7 ' It follows mrtyu always resides with amrta and just like amrta pervades everything and is therefore purna, mrtyu also, always goes with amrta and therefore mrtyu is also purna. Elsewhere the Brahmana also says that mrtyu is in amrta and amrta is in mrtyu and because mrtyu has always the support of amrta, he never dies.8 In other words, the Aksaraprajapati who is supported by Avyaya has half of him occupied by mrtyu who is called Ksara Thus in the midst of amrta mrtvu resides and that is why mrtvu does not meet with mrtyu (death). Because amrta part does not occupy space and therefore does not block the entry of another thing into it (adhamacchada), substances which go under the ca tegory of mrtyu pervades the entire space already occupied _ by amrta and they both coexist.

This Visva which is affected by mrtyu and which Has com e out of the matya part of Prajapati is the result of Karma. T hat is Visva never exists without karma (nahikascit ksanamapi jatu tisthatyakarmakrt). In this way karma resides in Brahman, mrtyu am amrta. Visva resides in Atma Brahman resides in karma, resides m becomes purna because of the presence of the other. measure and one amrta That is why it is said in the mantra ‘Purnamadah, Atma resides in

A DIGRESSION 1 7

purnamidam’ . Here, the word ‘idam’ refers to VisVa-which-is affected in full measure by karma which is martya and which occupies the entire space occupied by the amrta part. The word ‘adah’ refers to the Atmabrahman which is amrta and which is the origin of the universe and which al so pervades the entire space.

We shall now pass on to the second part of thefirst half of the mantra viz ‘Purnat purnamudacyate’. This means that the Visva is of Sat.Cit Ananda form and is full ('purna') because it has come out of (Brahman) who is Sat Cit Ananda form and also who js characterised bv infinite power and is full (Puma) in every respect. Tftat is why Upanisad savs ‘Yadeveha tadamutra. vadamutra tadanviha’. That is, whatever pattern is here, the same is reflected in the regions above and whatever is in the regions above, the same is reflected here. In other words this part of the mantra deals with the creation process (srstikarma).

We now pass on to the second half of the mantra, viz ‘purnasya purnamadaya purnamevavas'isyate.’ By this the rsi wants to convey that in the return process (pratisancarakrama) ie when the Visva is removed out of the scene, this Vi^va which was filled with Brahman and karma, ends up in Atmabrahman. That is when Visva ceases to exist, Brahman alone remains. The^ Brhadaranyakopanisad says that we should see only one and the question of seeing Him as many does not arise. Those who see :Him as many perish Therefore when we get rid of seeing Him as many ie when we remove the martya part which is equally full in all respects (Purna) what remains is the imperishable Atmabrahman which pervades the entire space and is full in every respect (purna). This is the essence of the second half of the mantra.

The next passage for which Ojha’s interpretation was re quested is from Gita (2.16)

18 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

X

U

II II I I I I

2. Nasato vidyate bhavo nabnavo vidyate satah Ubhayorapi drstoantastvanayostatvadarsibih’ What is not, or rather what is not visible to our eyes is called ‘asat’. In other words what is dependent on another enti ty for its establishment, and therefore-appears to be there sometimes and is not there at some other time is the(pranatatv and is that which is named ‘asat’ here. The Satapatha Brahmana says, ‘There was ‘Asat’ in the beginning .What is that‘Asat . Rsis were the Asat. Who were the rsis? Praaas. were the rsis What is present here or what is able to_manifest itselfLwilh name, form and activity and-is-therefore-visible to us. has actually behind it an unchanging principle pervadin g the entire-space unaffected by time and providing the basic support pratistha to ev erything in the universe and it is called the Sadbrahma/principle• In other words/This'universe~is the, manifestation of Brahmanlwho (js Sat} The Sat principle Or Brahmayqs cognisable to us only]) through the cosmos) It is the presence of this universe with all its diversitie that„ enables us to conceive the source viz Brahman, The Upanisad says that Brahman was there originally and it was called ‘Sat’. All the differences disappear when we g o to the source viz Brahman which is the real Sat. The Jagat is to be termed Satya because it is through this Sadhrahman manifes ts itself.

The Upanisad also says elsewhere, ‘Sarvam khalvidam Brahma’ ‘Brahmaivedam sarvam’, ‘Satyam jnanam anantam brahma’; Ayamatma Brahma; Avinasi va ayamatma anucchitadharma’ etc. Tjie point is that the Vis'va is characterised bv two principles viz ‘Sat’ and ‘Asat’ as formula lated by our ancients.

One is eternal and...unchanging called (Sadbrahma It is also called (Atman.

The other one which changes

A DIGRESSION 19

all the time is called Asat which according to the Brahmana is the (Pranatatv It is also called Karma or Mrtyu. This pair is described in scriptures in various ways All of them are full of meaning and are suggestive of the profound thinking on the part of our Vedic seers. We should note ' here one point. There was one view in the early period that ‘Asat’ existed in the beginning and ‘Sat’ came into existence later. The implication here is that for creation to take place the pre-exist- - ^nce of its requirement is essential. When a pot comes into exist-' ^nce we do not doubt the pre-existence of the basic material viz* earth out of which the pot has come into existence. What was formless has now assumed a definite form. That is why the ‘Sruti said ‘ Asad va idamagra asit’. This would mean that from a formless entity (asat). this Visva characterised by nama, rupa and karma ie ‘sat’ has come into existence. This argument was refuted by the later seers who said ‘Sadaivedajn. saumya agra‘ as.it’

20 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

Kathamasatah sajjayeta’ .They argued, that for creation to take place, there should be a primordial cause and this primor deal principle was identified by them as Brahman. This Brahman was certainly present and cannot be called Asat (non existent). Therefore Brahman was Sat (certainly existed) and the question of saying Sat came out of Asat does not arise at all because Brahman is an unchanging ever present entity. Thus in the Brahman theory. Sat meanslhat which is always present and there is ‘no’ occasion when we can say it is non-existent and/Asat means that (which exists sometimes and which at other times is non-existent According to this, Brahman is Sat and the material part of Visva. is Asat Atman is Sat. Sarira body is Asat.

Rasa is Sat. Bala is Asat and so on.

Having seen what Sat is and what Asat is. we shall now see what the verse in question conveys. It says, ‘What is Asat (non-existent) does not Have Bhava In the same wav what is Sat (existing) cannot be said to h ave abhaya. That is. it will surely possess bhava. Now what is bhava? It is th at one which is recognised by its presence (yat sattaya bhavvate sah bhavah't It is that which is understood bv us as existing bhavariabhih dhrivate va sah bhavnh) or bhavas are those which spring up (ve udbhavanti te bhaah) ie padarthah. substances which make their presence known by their class, figure, quality and acSubstances are of three kinds viz those that are characteris ed by their exitence Sathasidda that are characterised by their appearance size. shape, length, breadth etc) (bhatisiddah)5 and those which exist and are also visible to us(tuhhayasiddhah That is why we say that it exists and is therefore visib le to us or it is visible to us and-therefore it exists On the other hand in the case of a cloth both cloth and thread exist and are, also vi sible to as (ubhayasiddha)

A DIGRESSION 21

Now-goming to the verse in question, the pranatatva is an everchanging one and it does not have a permanent existence. In the same way this body (sarira) does not have permanet. exist ence. The Atman on the other hand has a permanent existence. The former which is ‘asat’ cannot attain the status of ‘satva’ (existence) which Atman has. The Gita says ‘All the created being are unmanifest in the beginning. They are manifest in the interim period. At the time of annihilation, they again become unmanifest. So there is no need to lament over them., 13 The Atman which forms the support for everything '''pervades the entire space and the question of its destruction or non existence (abhava) never arises. In other words what is Sat and unchanging at all times can never pass on to the state of Asat. ThereforeArfonals. grief over the death of his relatives unjusti fied.

Let us now pass on to the third passage which is also taken from Gita.

‘Nainam chindanti sastrani nainam dahati pavakah Na cainam kledayantyapah na sosayati marutah’.

(Bh. Gita 2.23) The Jiva individual soul) is a part of Virat Prajapati and is conceived as aipravargya (oozed out portion) of Prajapati caused by Yogamava.15 He is affected with papmas. (sins) which are klesa (suffering), karma (action) and vipaka (consequences of actions), .which are the result of avidva (ignorance or lack of enlightenment). He is actually a miniature Prajapati Isvaraprajapati hgsjten organs j(avayavas) which, constitute his Virat (ie the re-

22 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

gion in which he conducts yajna). 16 Since Jiva is only a small part of Isvara. his Virat is called miniature Virat ksudra Virat and he has also ten avavavas (organs) which constitute his Atmans here are three principal part in Isvara and they are amrta brahrna’ and sukra . 17 In the Amrta part of Isvara Prajapati there are four Atmans viz Paratpara, Avyay a Aksara and Ksara In his ‘brahma’ part he have Atmans which are called Prakrtatms They are Svayambhu Paramesti Surya, Chandra, and Prthvi. In his sukra part he has, Agni Apah and Vak each of which has a marty and amrta components. Thus Isvara or Virat Prajapati has ten Atmans viz four Amratma s five Prakrtatmas and one Sukratma ln the case of Jiva also there are three parts consisting of amrta group deva ground Amrata group The Atman group amrta group consisting of Paratpara Avvava. Aksara and Ksara which are present in Isvara are present in Jiva as Gudhotma. Corresponding to the brahma part of Isvara the jiva has the deva group consisting of Santatma, Mahanatma.

Vijnanatma, Prajnanatma and Bhutatma which correspond to avyakta traigunya,bhudhi,manas, and sarira in the adhvatma system Then there is the tenth Atman In Jiva corresponding to the martya or Sukra part of Isvaraprajapati which is made up of the five element It is called Sariratma or Bahyatma We have already said that the Gudhotma in the Jiva consists of four Atmans viz Paratpara. Avvava Aksara and Ksara Effectively Gudhotma consists of Avvava, Aksara and Ksara only and we may take it that Paratpara merges with Avvava for all practi cal purposes.

Avvava is the basic support of everything. Aksara is the most potential and powerful Atman .that plays the role of creator. Ksara constitutes the material cause (upadana karana) Santatma consists of the group of five Visvasrias. five pancaianas and five puranjanas. The Traigunyatma is the Atman that has three qualities satva. raias and tamas. It can also be identified as

A DIGRESSION 23

the one having the three components Atma, Prana and Pasu.

Vijnanatma is made of Vidvabuddhi and Avidyabhuddhi .Pharma, jnana vairagya and aisvarya go under Vidyabuddhi ant asmata, raga, dvesa, abhinivesa go under the name Avidyabuddhi Prajnanatma is made up of five jnanendriyas five karmendriva and the five pranas (Prana. apana. vyana, udana and samana The Bhutatma is made up bhutamatras pranamatras and five prajnamatras This Bhutatma which belongs to the sukra component ofdsvaraprajapatohas actually three com ponents viz Sariratma Hamsatm and Divyatma Again the Divyatma is made up of three parts viz Visvanara Taijasa and Prajna corresponding to the three devas Agni vayu and Indra In these Prajna is again of three kinds viz karmatma Cidabhasa and svara This Isvara part has again three parts viz Urja Sri and Vibhutu. Thus the Bhutatma that corresponds to the sukra part of Prajapati has actually nine components In this way Jiva is actually a group of Atmans Atmagramaand has eighteen Atmans in him According to Vaisesika school the Bhutatma has its support on the Vijnanatma which is called setraj in the Sankhya sys tem. The Manusmrti describes them as follows. ‘That which makes this Atman to function is called Ksetrajna That which does work is called Bhutatma by the wise '19. ‘There is another Atman which is called Jiva and which is born with the body. We know sukha and duhkha in our variou s births with its help. 20 The support for the Vijnanatma is the Aksaratma. It is this

24 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN Aksaratma that is responsible for all creations. 21 Tn the U panisads as well as in Gita Avyayatma has been described as the basic support for everything 2 2 The Brhadaranyakopanisad says This eternal greatness of Brahman does-not increase or decrease by karma. It will be his when once he knows it and. is unaffected by the results of his actions’. 23 This would mean that actually in the first place it is Vijnanatma that is unattached asanga . Then the Aksaratma which supports it and is indestructibl 'avinasi is inside it and is Unaffected by birth and death.

Inside the Aksaratma resides the Avyayatma which is devoid of cause and effect and is the basic support for everything and therefore is the immortal Atma (Amrtatma) with which we are actually concerned here.

The Upanisad describes it in various ways. 24 Under these circumaffect only the sari rat ma which is made up of the five element s

A DIGRESSION 25

bhutas and forms the material part of the bhutatma which is made up of pranamtras. bhufamatra^ and prainamatras.lt cannot affect the inner Avyayatma which according to Tpanisark is pure inner light jnanajyoti supporting everything and its brightness is completel y independent of the brightness exhibited by the sun. moon and stars. 25 All these derive their brightness from this Atman and they cannot illuminate him. Keeping this indestructible and a ll pervading Avyayatma in mind, Lord Krishna tells Arjiinaihat, ‘It cannot be destroyed by weapons, the fire cannot burn it, the waters cannot harm it and the winds cannot dry it up. 26 ‘Enam Avvavatmanam sastrani na chindanti Chedana-means cutting of the various parts or organs of a material body bhautikapinda . The Avyayatma which is pure light pervading the entire, body of the individual in the same way as the sunlight does, cannot be cut by weapons. Nor can fire affect it. Pollution of waters^an occur bv Varuna forces. But these Yarn na forces which reside in waters cannot do anything to Avyavatma which is pure light and where Varuna has no entry. Nor can the rough winds affect it This in essence is conveyed bv the verse.

The main object of presenting the above expositions of Madhusudan Ojha is to impress on the reader that many passages in our ancient literature contain rich information and it is not easy for the ordinary person to get at their full implications. The reader is practically choked with too many technical words in the above expositions and therefore our understanding of the concept of our ancients would largely depend upon our ability to understand the correct meaning of the large number of technical words which occur in our Vedic literature. This naturally calls for deep scholar ship in the literature and an ability to connect the relevant pas sages occuring in different places and to understand the correct meanings of the various passages and the technical words that

26 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN occur in them. Unfortunately this simple fact was not appreciated by many of our commentators with the result, interpretation of Vedic literature has today many ramifications mostly due to incorrect understanding of the technical words as well as the difficult passages occuring almost everywhere in the literature.

We shall therefore proceed very systematically and try to present to the reader in clearest possible terms the concepts of our ancients pertaining to Atman and its final goal. In this task the writings of Madhusudan Ojha and his principal disciple Motilal Sharma will be of great help to us

III. Some Basic Concepts And Definitions Madhusudan Ojha was the first scholar who took great pains to understand the many contradictory statements in the Vedic literature and gave us real insight into the wisdom of our ancients. It is most unfortunate that his contemporar.ies never appreciated the correctness of his approach and never bothered to understand him. The result has been that many of his writings still remain unknown today. The author would earnestly appeal to the scholars all over the world to take some trouble to understand him and realise for themselves how great he was especially when our uderstanding of the Vedic literature is very very poor at present In our book ‘ What is Veda we gavea-bnef introduction to the concept of Brahman and the changes he undergoes in.the creation process. In our introductory chapter in this book, we have already highlighted the difficulties we come across in arriving at. a clear picture of the true nature of Brahman and Atman and their role in the creation process as conceived by our sages. We shall now go into details and see how far we are successfu in overcoming these difficulties and build up a logical picture of these two important concepts as reflected in Vedic literature.

We have already seen that the Vedic seers believed that the root cause of the coming into existence of this Visva is a single entity called Brahman which also supports and presides over this

28 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

visva just like a sma seed evolves into a tree with a its branches, leaves, flowers etc., just like a drop of fluid, which forms the procreative substance sukra , in man, evolves into a child with all its sense organs, flesh, bones etc, in the same way this Brahman which formed a single potential principle evolves into this Visva with all its diversities, thought we cannot fully comprehend the processes through which this cosmos with all its structural and functional details has been brought into existence.

The word brahman is derived from the root brmh to grow and spread in all directions. This word is here used for that activ ity when an original substance which while expanding does not gain anything which was not already there in some miniature form. Just like the winds cause waves in the sea and the whole, su rface seems to grow or expand, but in the process the sea does not gain anything new, in the same way, a part of Brahman, as a result of brmhana has evolved into this Visva on account of its inherent was called Svadha’ and the Brahman was referred to as ‘Hka.m' Taking clue from the Upanisads, MadhusiiHan Ojha terms Rrah- man as ‘Rasa’ and its inherent power as Bala 2 .in the primordea gtate bala is indistiguishabIs from rasa and therefore there is no question of challenging the Advaita theory 3 The power Maya is called bala when it is in the inherent state when -it makes its ap- pearance as a power it is called sakti When it results into action is called kriya or kamia 4

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 29

The word ‘brahman’ can also he derived from the root ‘bhr’ which means hafanatendiposana supporting and feeding). Brahman is also described as uktha brahm and^ama) Uktha means the source from which -things come.out prabhavasthana Brahma is that whichsupports and sghjut means-that which resides in everything in equal measure samana rupena sthito vvapto va . We can therefore say that Brahman is that entitywhich is at the same ti me uktha rahm and sama of this Visva.

We have thus arrived at two entitie viz rasa andbaja"throygh which we can recognise Brahman when it becomes creation oriented.

They always exist together and at the highest state bala merges with rasa. Rasa and bala together constitute the creation- oriented Brahman which brings into existence this Jagat which is recognised by narna name rupa from an and karma activity Rasa is amrta immortal and bala which constantly changes is termed as mrtyu mortal These are the two facets of Brahman 5.

Amrta rasa part is one but mrtyu bala parts are many and both always go together. That is why the Brahmana savs.

‘Mrtyu resides in amrta and amrta resides in mrtyu. Both are interwoven with each other . Mrtyu pervades Vivasvan Brahman and the Atman of mrtyu resides in Vivasvan Brahman That is why mrtyu does not meet with death’.

It should be noted here that the existence of mrtvn is not separate from the existence of amrta. In other words mrtyu bala derives its existence only from amrta rasa . and therefore it is only the amrta part (ie rasa) that has reaj existence satta and therefore the Adavaita principle viz Ekamevadvitiyam Brahma is well protected. Creation takes place as a result of balas taking portions of rasa and working out the diversities we observe in the universe. But in all these things the rasa part of Brahman is more

30 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN well known than the mrtyu part and therefore many times when we talk of Brahman we identify him with his rasa part. Therefore what we see around us is Brahma and karma, rasa and bala, inana and kriya.

Brahman isterme nn irm ie without action) and karmais mrtyu. balal Both together have brought this Visva into existence. The Gita says (He who sees inaction ie Brahman or amrta in actian/karma ie mrtyu and action mrtvu in inaction Brahman is a wise man who with unified mind and body, yukta does all work 7 .

Elsewhere the Gita says, ‘I am amrta as well as mrtyu. I am Sat as well as Asat O Arjuna The Rgveda also says, ‘The wise found the associ atc of Sat in Asat’ 9 .

Rasa and bala have diameterically opposite qualities Rasa is one balas are many. Rasa is pure, bala' is polluted (in the sense it has complex structure). Rasa is sat. Bala is asat. Rasa is all pervasive but bala has influence in a limited region and therefore is called tuccha. Rasa is everpresent (nitya), bala is ephemeral. Rasa is yidya balais avidya.

Rasa is amrta and bala is mrtvu. Rasa is actionless (niskriya) bala is full of activity. Rasaas-Brahman bala is karma. Rasa is pure inana and bala is kriva. Jnana and kriva have together brought this Visva into existence. Put in another way, this Visva is the manifestation karma of jnana Brahman The karma-that has its origin in Brahman is divine karma because it is associated with divine jnana Brahman . The Gita says karma goes on as the natural dharma activity of Brahman and does not bind him because he is by nature limitless and is free from all desires. However when once the limitless Brahman (jnana)

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 31

is subjected to boundaries by the action of mava bala and the- creation of Visva commences the karma gets tainted and ceases to be divine. We no longer call the pair Brahma and karma but. call it jnana and kriya and as a result of the powerful mava bala, . all the diversities that we actually see in this Visva in the jnana kriya phenomenon. come into existence. In the language of the Sankhya school of thought .the balance that existed in the beginning in the three gunas (satva, rajas and tamas has now been disturbed and we see imbalance of different kinds in the created Visva.

Before we go into further details of the Brahman theory it is necessary to give some historical details of the various concepts of the origin of the cosmos which preceded the establish ment of the Brahman theory by our sages. According to Madhusudan Ojha in the early Rgvedic period there was a class of intellectuals who were called Sadhy as purve devah about whom some reference is available in the Rgveda it self 10 These people had produced ten different schools of thought regarding the Origin of the cosmos A reference to these is available in the Nasadiyasukta of Rgveda, Madhusudan Ojha has dealt with them in his book Dasavadarahasya We have already mentioned about them in our book What is Veda‘ and also in our book Vedic concept of Soma The Sadhyas were essentially materialistic in their attitude towards the origin of cosmos and did not believe in any supernatural cause playing a role in the same. As time passed when different people produced different theories, people started

11. Vedic Concept of Soma- A.S. Ramanathan, Rajasthan Patrika Ltd. Jaipur, 1994

32 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

doubting the validity of these theories. We find many reference s to their utterances in the Rgveda 1 2.

It is at this stage the Maharsis established the Brahman theory which advocated that a single divine entity called Ekam in the beginning and Brahman later is the root cause for the coming into existence on this Visva Madhusudan Ojha names it as Siddhantavada The Sadhyas generally beIieved only what they saw One school of the Sadhyas maintained that all our knowledge as based on what we actually see. In other words existence of a. thing Asat isThe basis of our knowlge jnana about the thing. The question here arises, do we not infer the existence because, the mental picture of the thing that exists is formed first And then we say it exists Yes, rightly so, according to the Sadhays. It is jnanapurvikasatta That is, we get the thing in our inner world Aantarjagat first and then the existence is established by us.In fact the Sadhyas believed that the origin of the world around us as we see it is this jnana ,Since this jnana is a continuos stream and goes on constantly changing, we call vijnana vividha jnana and therefore this vadas named by Ojha as Vijnanetivrtta vada ie a vada which believes that Vijnana is the story itivrtta o f t h e visva Actually the maharsis who came Iater arid produced the Siddhantavada, believed in sattapur vika jnana as opposed to (jnanapurvikasatta in which Sadhyas believed.

They argued that satta refers to the existence of the Brahman and the Visva, he creates when he is creation oriented (in this stage he is called Isvara is contained in him and therefore it is his Antarjagat inner world His inner world antargat is the outer world bahirjagat.

Note-Madhusudan Ojha calls this detail in his book

and deals with in great

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 33

for us and this forms the basis for our inner world antarjagat which is our own creation it is very easy for anybody to see that the jnana that results from our antarjagat cannot contain all the details of Isvara’sinner jagat and also It will vary from individual to individual. Therefore our jnana is our own creation or is imper- fect in many ways jnana vijnana Antarjagat a ahirjagat are all technical term in the Brahman theory and we shall deal with them in great detail later in this chapter.

2 Another school of the Sadhvas propounded the Sadasadvada. The word ‘sat’ and ‘asat’ are of great significance in the Brahman theory and therefore we shall go into some detail into this vada of the Sadhyas.

Whatever knowledge we acquire of the outside world results from what we see or what is visible to us. We do not believe in the existence of anything that is nol observed by us These nonexisting things which we do not observe go under the name Asat’ For example the horns of a rabbit, son of a sterile woman etc are called Asat. These do not exist and therefore we have no knowledge of them. The Gita statement viz Nasato vidyate .hhavatilLrefers only to this simple fact. On the other hand the things about which we have knowledge certainly do exist and they are classed as Sat According to the Sadhyas, Sat means bhava ie existence' and Asat means A bhava ie notTexistence.

While investigating the origin of the Visva, the Sadhyas used these words Sat and Asat freely and it will be interesting to note that the Asat principle of the Sadhyas formed to a certain extent the basis of the Buddhist doctrme which, believed that this Visva 'which is constantly changing is extremely ephemeral in character ksanika and is nothing hut manifp.staliouof constantly changing kriya and therefore to be classed as Asat They used the words sunyal nothingness) and ksanika (ephemeral to characterise the The Sat-Asat principle of the Sadhyas was incorporated in 1 1 the Brahman theory of the later sages with many changes in their implications. Madhusudan Ojha deals with the subject of

34 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN Sadasadvada in great detail in one of his books. 13 Among the Maharsis there-were three distinct views regarding Sat and Asat, That which changes or gets annihilated is classed Asat. That which does not change or does not get de stroved is classed ‘Sat’. One view was that of these two, it is the ‘Asat’ class that is important In the beginning there „was only Asat and later only ‘Sat’ came into existence,Just like a pot or a cloth which did not exist in the beginning but later camejnto existence, in the same wav. this Visva also was not there in the begin ning but camejnto existence latch Here the question arises did anybody make it or create it? The reply was. No. When nothing was there in the beginning how can crealion by an agency arise ' It made it itself. That is. why this Visva was called svakrta which later became sukrta. This view was held bv the Taittiriyas The Taittiriya Upanisad says, ‘This Visva was Asat in the beginning. Then Sat came into existence. This Sat made it itself- That is why it the Visva is called Sukrta svakrta 1 4.

The second view was that from Asat. Sat can never come into existence. On the other hand what is sat now can become Asat later. That is, A pot exists now and therefore is Sat now. But when it gets destroyed it becomes Asat. Therefore everything has two states,Sat and Asat or existence and destructio sthiti and nasa . Sat can come out of Sat only.

This Visva was therejn the beginning. It is there now. It is going to be there, in the future also This is the advada of the sages This view was held bv the family of Arunti We find many passages in the Upanisads con taining this view 15 Madhusudan Ojha. Printed and published by Adyadatta Thikur. Lucknow 1926.

SOME BASIC CONCEPT AND DEFINITION 35 sages and this was held by ffigjnavalkya)and some others. The Satapatha Brahmana says.

This cosmos was not ‘Asat’ (ie it is not true that it did not exist) in the beginning. Nor was it Sat (did exist). It was there and it was also not there. Only manas (mind) was there. Therefore the Rsi says, ‘Nasadasit no sadasit tadanim’. Manas is neither Sat nor Asat. 16 In course of time the words Sat and Asat were taken to mean different things and as a result even schools came into existence and each of then had three inner divisions with the result there were twenty One views of(Sadasadvada The interested reader is referred to Oiha s Sadasadvada for details. Shorter descriptions of these are also available in Ojha‘s Brahrnavijnana the only book in Hindi by Ojha). Here we shall briefly deal with Cthese seven school which have important bearing on the subsequent development of Brahman theory as well as the concept,of ' The first one deals with the Sat Asat concept in relation to three entities namely pratyaya acquired knowledge) drasta (seer) and drsya (the thing seen). When we see a thing, there is a seer and also there is the thing that is seen (drsya). Of these, the seer is Sat and the seen is Asat. Whil e the seer (drasta) always remains one (that is ‘I’ 1 see it) and it is for this reason drasta is called ‘Sat’, the seen (drsya) is not the same always and therefore does not remain single. It is for this reason the drsya is called ‘Asat. When thesa two are involved, the knowledge jnana that is acquired is called pratyaya. Thus pratyaya results from two entities, viz drasta and drsya of these it is drasta that is more important. It is drasta’s Is inner world which is said to be his jyoti or the luminous mental screen (atmajyoti) that receives the picture of the outside world and knowledge of the same (pratyaya)

36 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN fore does not remain single. It is for this reason thedrsya is called ‘Asat’.

When these two are involved, the knowledge (jnana) that is acquired is called pratyaya. Thus pratyaya results from two entities, viz drasta and drsya. Of these it is drasta that is more important. It is drasta’s (I’s) inner world whichds said to he. his jyoti or the luminousTnental screen (atmajyoti that receives the picture of the outside world and knowledge of the samp, pratyaya is acquired by the drasta. It js for this reason, the sages thought that drasta and-drsva are the same. This was one.view belonging to Sadvada Some others of this school thought that it is drsya that is important. Drasta is an imaginary thing and cannot be seen. If He can be seen then he becomes drsya. This was the view belonging to sadvada Yet a third view was drasta is there and drsva is also there. |Both are equally important ip the process of acquiring knowledge. pratyaya This belongs to Sadasadvada The next one is named Prakrtvadvaita vada hy Ojha According to this school karmals Asat. Karma is that which was not there earlier but is there now for some time and later again it is .notihere. It is for this reason it is called Asat In the Jagat, we see only activity karma which is constantly changing and it looks as though nothing is permanent or everlasting. This leads us to conclude that this whole. Visva is nothing but karmaland therefore is ‘Asat This is the Asadvada of this school.

Another view was, that this whole Jagat is nothing but Brah- man which means pure jnana and therefore is Sat. Those who think that the Jagat is nothing but karma, and therefore is Asat think that asat means sometimes exists and sometimes not Actually asat means that, which never exits But when once we considertheJagat as manifestation of Jnana it was-there in the beginning, it is there now, and it is going to be there in future also because it is nothing but jnana and is entirely different from kriya Therefore it is always there and is to be classed as Sat This view belongs to Sadvada The third view was karma is Asat and Brahman being jnana is Sat In the Jagat we see both Things are constantly changing but behind these changes, there is also an

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 37

unchanging background. For example Devadatta is a child today, later he becomes a boy, then-youth, then, a man .and then an old man. But we also know that he is the same Devadatta. who has undergone all these hanges. Thus Jag at is made of Sat as wellas Asat . Ur in other words, all things in this Jagat go under the category Sadasat The next vada is named as Tadatmvavid

by Ojha, Tadatmya simply means always going together. Fore example Sabda and artha always go together and fire always go together. In the same way Sat and Asat always go together Asatmeans karm and ASat neans jnana. In these, it is karma that is important because jnana depends on this for its existence. In other words jnana is the darma or guna (quality) of karma which is called harmp Jnana i s vi sesana and karma is visesya. Jnana does not have independent . existence outside karma,but it depends on karma for its exist ence. This is Asadvada Another view is exactly the oppo site of the above one. Jnana is more important than karma. Karma requires the presence of Jnana for its existence and in a way karma ‘is not different from jnana but only a manifestatioiuafjBana. In other words karma is the exhibit of jnana This is(gadvada The ,t|iifd view in this is that bothjnana and karma do exist and always go together. Whatever exists in this Jagat is nothing but the com bined result of both Each always exists on the other. This is Sadasadvada T h e f o u r t h o n e i s n a m e d

THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA pears later, it.again s the condition of Asat. But actuay i t cartno be called Asat. The third view is Brahman is always Sat and is never Asat.

Karma is on the other hand sometimes Sat and sometimes Asat and therefore Sadasat.

The fifth one is called Atmagiinavida in the Vedic litera ture we come across the statements ‘Sadevedamagra asit in one place and in another place it is said Asadevedamagra asit . wav. In the creation process three entities are involved. They ar e mana prana and vak Here manas is Sadasat prana is Asat and vak is Sat one view is manas appeared first and prana then appeared and then only vak came into existence. this . Sadasadvad . Another view is prana appeared first and from that manas and vak ramp into existence This is Asadvada The third view is vak appeared first and from tbat both manas And prana came into existence. This isSadvada Yajnavakya said keeping in mind these sequences of events the Vedic statements have to be interpreteri. Actually this is not be taken as the correct interpretation. Because, these three are the components of Atman and therefore always go together The question of saving one fi rst and latprthp nthpf ptr have no meaning. There are three streams associated with tmamand they are jnanadha kriyadhara and dravvadhara or arthadhra The Vedas sav that in the creation of jnanadhara manas or Sadasat came into existence first, in kriyadhara creation, prana ie Asat came into existence first and in the creation of arthadhara artha (vak) ie Sat came in to existe nce ' first. al| these three statements are true and there is no contra srs. diction in them. This was the view of the sages belonging to this school The sixth vada is named Imanjasya vada) by Ojha. In this vada, the sages tried to reconcile the contradictory statements by suitably interpreting them. The things that we see at present were not present in the beginning of the creation process. Since they were not there, at that time. the stiitement Asadevedamagra asit is justified.

Sipce today they are there, they ould not have come from nothing and therefore something should have been there to give rise to the, things we see now That is why the Sruti

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 39

says Sadevedamagraasti That means the same thing is capable of assuming two forms viz sat and Asat and therefore there is no contradiction in the Vedic statements.

The seventh school is named by Ojha as Aksaravid The Sankhya school scholars believed in two distinct entities. viz Vak rti and Purusa. purusa is Sat and prakrti is Asat these Purusa is pure jnana and is devoid of any changes. But Prakrti undergoes many changes and it is this that is responsible for creation. It is also called Avyakta PradhaM and also Aksara Whereas the Sankhyas believed that Prakrti is the source of creation and it is Asa t they Vedantins believed that creation is possible only from Sag and thereford Purus i is responsible for creation and he is called Avyakta or Aksar The above discussions reveal the complexities involved in understanding the Vedic thought and reconiciling the various contradictory statements. But the remarkable fact is that in spite of all these difficulties, some logic emerges out of the whole thing and it is to the credit of Madhusudan Ojha, who with his encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature, is able to. show us the right way of handling this heterogeneous literature Incidentally, it should be noted that the ide^as presented above paved the way for the elaboration of(Srahman/Xtmariyconcept; in the later period.

We have already seen that the very first thing that appears in Brahman which was originally pure rasa or jnana, is bala whic h results in karma. The Vedic seers into odiicediinother pair of terms in the Brahman theory viz Abhu and Abhva) The author of Nasadiya sUkta who upheld the Brahman theory"after r ejecting all the earlier theories said that ‘tuccha’_which is Asat or karma envelops(Abhu which means Sa t or rasaj . In his opinion both Sat and Asat are acceptable priniples)Tl at is both rasa and balas exist in the creation oriented Brahmar, and they constitute the primeval principl Ekain which later give rise to the Visva. Abhva is what we see around us and which ire characterised by

40 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

nama name , rupa figure and karma activity This Abhva is something which has no real existence satta For example what is visible to us (bhatisiddha) as, long, short, fat, lean, white, blue, near, far etc are all part of the Abhva principle It is called Abhva becausgilappears without having a real existenceTfabhutva bhati orTna bhavan bhai The Satapatha Brahmana says that nama and rupa are Brahman’s Yaksas or phantoms The Visva which characterised by nama and rupa is tucchya Abhava or or Yaksa representing the mahima (greatnessj of purusa who, however is mightier than all this seeming greatness. 19 The Abhu-Abhva concept is beautifully explained, by MadhusHdan Ojha in his(Samsyataducchedavad In the cosnips we see two diametrically .opposite eitities. One is always there and does not undergo any change. There is another which continuously goes on changing. These are the two which have brought this Visva into existence. They are these Abhu and Abhva. Abhu gets its name because it pervades on all sides (Asamtat bhavati) and is identified with the rasa part of Brahman. It is everlasting and therefore satva and amrta and also jnana. On the other hand Abhava refers to the changing things and therefore identified wkh mrtyu hala and karma. We have already spoken of two things in this Visva, one is gyasuy and the other is drsya Drsta is jnanib and drsya js this visva which is nothing but Rarrnaor kriya Jnana is some sort of light prakas or jyoti which i s of the same form and is everlasting and limitless and therefore is Abhu and karma which is nothing but nama and rupa is subject to limitations in space and location. 21

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 41

Going into further details, Ojha identifies Abhu| with Ananda Cetana and Satta Te the saccidananda concept of Brahman). Abhva is identified with fnam pajan karm and is the result of Maya on Brahman who originally represents pure rasa or jnana. Some people bv wrongly interpreting the word Mava as mithya (untruth maintain thatcjtls Abhip alone that is Brahmaa arid Abhva cannot be called as Brahmai). It is because of this only according to them we can support the Advaita theory. But actually nama, rupa and karma are also part of Brahman. We have clear support for this from the jalttmyas who said v ,Sadrvam , khalvidam. Brahma Brahmaivedam sarv m Tatsrstva tadevanupravis'at etc. It therefore follows that Ananda Cetana Satta nama and Karma alI together constitute Brahman. e have already said thatforastS is Abhu the drasta is nothing bu t Atma in us and it is this Atman that is Ananda Cetana and Satta. Whnt is Ananda nanda ie on all sides growing While it grows it does not leave its original seat. This property of reachin g very great distance without leaving its own seat is the unique quality of Atman. It is in the form of manas and resides in the heart and spreads to every part of the body 21 . Many contents of our body like, blood, flesh, marrow etc go on continuously getting wasted and reformed. These however do not in any way affect the Atman which remains the same all the time. This is why Atman is called Ananda. It is also the dearest to man and his love for his wife, children, wealth etc is not as much as his love for his Atman. 22 This Ananda is of two types. One is called bhuma and the other is santi Bhuma refers to growth vrddhi when there is a source o f joy like acquiring wealth or a woman or land then Atman grows

and experiences Ananda. But this is not real Ananda but it is on ly an awareness of Ananda and not Ananda itself. Real Ananda means peace (Santi). In this condition the Atman does n pe- rience any disturbed condition. It is quiet and it is its natural qual- lty fdharma The real fact is that Atman is nothing butpure jnana and as and when its iriana content increases, it acquires strength and as it gets stronger and stranger it becomes quieter ancLquieler aiidjeveals to us its true nature viz Anaada. '

_

Scientists can easily explain what real Ananda is. Ma ny scientists of repute should have experienced that condition them selves. A scientist tries to understand the world around him and in this process, he increases his jnana. This Atmajyoti becomes more and more expansive and the Atman also become stronger and stronger. In the next stage he does not get excited at all when he understands new things or makes new discoveries. He becomes quieter and quieter as his knowledge content increases and under ideal conditions in the final stage he identifies himself wi th his Atman which is nothing but Ananda. In other words only a sarvajna (one who knows everything can experience Atmananda which is 'the same thing as Brahmananda in the real sense of the t erm.

The next form of Atman is Cetana. We have already seen that Atman which is Ananda (jnana) spread s in all directions As it increases, the luminous region around the centre increases and this increase is called citi. Because Ananda having a centre builds up its region on all sides, this is called citi of Ananda. Thi s is what is called Cetana. Taking the example of the sun, the central disc represents Ananda. Its brightness spreads on all sides. It is this spread that is called Cetana. This Cetana is part ot Ananda and therefore both Ananda and Cetana"are the same thi ng.

When a thing lies outside, it is Cetana that may be con ceived as rays making contact with the thing outside and gets a picture of it on itself. This picture of the thing which it carries with it, results in our knowledge (jnana) of the thing. It should be clearly understood that this is different from the actual thing lying outside. For example the weight of the body and other inner de-

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 43

tails of the body are not carried by Cetana. A new thing is pro duced

by Cetana in our mental picture and this process of our understanding throygh the mental picture produced by Cetana is called Vijnana Cetana means the spreading of Atmajyoti (ie the light associated with Atman) and means the formation of the picture of an outside thing on Cetana. This means knowing the thing a form of which is produced in our mental picture. Cetana and Vijnana are part and parcel of Atman which is Ananda and therefore the second form of Ananda is Cetana and Vijnana. (There is nothing wrong in combining Cetana and Vijnana j.nd calling the process by either of these two terms). Vijnana which is 'anotherformof^nandVIshv nature, indescribable. It is some sort of rasa which has always the same form. But when it gets out through the sense organs and comes into contact with anythingjn "the outside world, it immediately identifies itself with the form of that thing. In other words it produces the picture of that thing immediately in our mental screen. Though we may say it is the work of our Atman, actually it is Vijnana which does this job and its greatest merit is it does not get spent in any way in such activity and remains the same all the time. Here actually two things are involved one is Vijnana and the other Vijneya or drasta (seer) and drsya (the objects seen). The drasta is Atman. The thing that we see is Vijneya and we see it as a different thing through our Vijnana (we see what is in our mental picture and not the actual thing). This is called Satta. What is visible to us is called Satta. Vijnana has therefore two facets one isformless and limitless and the other is limited in space and location and has a definite form.

The former one is called Vijnana and the latter is called Satta. In this way Abhu has got three facets namely Ananda Vijriatta andgattaj Thoughjhey look different they are Only One OnlyAll these are witnessed by us both in the collective level ie in the outside world as whole as well as in thejndividual level While injhe individual level (ie in Jivatmas)(thev are seen as dissectefpait , at th e col lective level ie in the outer world as a whole they are seen lt infinite varieties pervading everything. In the all pervasive condi- tion it is very difficult to distinguish one from the other and Satta

44 VED1C CONCEPT OF ATMAN

ahojsjbrmless (nirakara) in that all pervasive state.

Now we pass on to the facets of Abhva. We have already seen, that from Ananda Vijnana results and Vijnana gives rise to Satta. Now this Satta~gives rise to nama (name), rupa (form) and k,arma (activity). Though Satta is all pervasive and formless in an extensive limitless region, when.we ideiitify a particular thing in the outer world, three things associated with it come to our mind viz nama (name) rilpa (form) and karma. These three, which constantly change from one thing to another are called Abhva.

We can state our results as follows.

1 Ananda. Cetana and Satta are the three facets of Abhu.

2

Nama, rupa and karma are the facets of Abhva.

3 Vijnana is of two parts viz drnstlLand drsW Drsya is called Satta.

4 Drsya can be conceived to be of two camponerits One is limitless and changeless and is therefore of amrta form. The other is limited by space and location arulchanges constantly and there- fore belongs to the martya category. The amrta part of drsya is called Satta and the martya part is Galled Abhva.

In this Jagat, we see many things. While the things go on changing what is unchanging is their presence. In all these cases (asti’ ie it is’ is common. This ‘asti is a form of Brahman. It is a form of rasa that pervades everything we see. This is what is Satta which is unchanging. But the things which have their sup port on this Satta viz, pot picture, horse, mountain etc are all changing. These changing things which have the common support viz ‘asti’ or Satta are called Abhva and are characterised by nama, rupa and karma. Since Satta Cetana and Ananda are nothing but the facets of Atman, or drasta or Abhu we may say that Abhva or nama, rupa and karma which belong to the martya category have their support on Abhu or Atman which belongs to amrta category. Put in another way, manas, prana and vak, the components of Atman and nama rupa, and karma, all these six constitute

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 45

Brahman. Manas prana & vak is the amrta part and is called Abhu and riama rupa and karma is the martya part and is called Abhva.

Though we have detailed six entities. above where we concentrate on the single Brahman all these merge into one. We mav first take the three things viz Ananda Cetan and Satts which are the facets of Abhu. They refe.r to one thing which isfdrast^an d s'imilarly Nama, Rupa and Karma refer to Ahhvlt and it is drsya drasta is Sat and Drsya is Asat and both these are_the.two parts of Brahnian.

But if we go further into details ven the drsta drsya difference goes. We get a knowledge of a thing which is pre sent. Because it is present, we seeJt and we get a knowledge of it D other words, our knowledge of a thing4epend.s on thipresencey 1 (asti) of the thing. That is why the Upanisad says, Upalabdh or 7nana of a thing depends on its presence 23 In other word Jnana and Jneya always.go together. In the same,way (Satta and Jnana also always go together. Since jnata knower) and jnaha go to-l gether, jnataand jneya also go,together Now coming to Ananda, it applies to both Atman and Jagat. The Upanisad says, 窶連nanda is the cause for the coming into existence of all things in this Jagat. They live on Ananda. They seek Ananda in their life .. the beginning there was only one. sr.hool of thought re garding Abhu-Abhva relations. It advocated inseparability of Ahhui and Abhvaand said they constitute only one principl e. Later three \ schools came into existence.

The first school (to which Sankaracarya belongs believed that Abhu and Abhva refer to different things. Abhu is Brahman

46 THEVEDIC CONCEPTOFATMA and refers to the ‘Ahamtatva’ in us (Aham Brahmasmi) and is immortal and unchanging. Abhva is Asat, martya and ever changing. Abhu is Satya and Abhva is mithya (untruth).

The^secontLschool-hdieved that Abhu and Ahhva both have existence (Satta). Abhu is rasa or jnana and Abhva is bala and they 1 always go together. One cannot exist ..without The third one believed only in Abhva and therefore believed that there is nothing in this Jagat which is eternal or unchanging. ^ Satta, Viinana. Ananda. Atma have all only temporary existence and go on changing. Buddhists. Jains and Carvakas (athiests) belonged to this school. Madhusudan Ojha beautifully summarises this situation in his book Sams'ayataducchedajuada. 25 Abhu and Abhva are Vedic words and they hardly appear in the post-Vedic Darsanas. In the Rgveda Abhu appeared onlyJn the tenth mandala and that tQQ_on.ce only, though the word Abhvam appears twice or thrice but in a different context. Solely on the basis of its ocnujreace in the Nasadiya sukta (tucchyenabhvapihitam vadasitUVIadhusudan Oiha^has interpreted as representing rasa. On.the other hand .the word Abhva occurs in several places in the Rgveda and Madhnsudan Ojha’s interpretation of this word is hased on the interpretation given in Satapatha Brahmana. Nama. rupa and karma together constitute Abhva.

Creation takes place when bala works on rasa. Rasa is amrta and bala is mrtyu. To produce rupa or form balas have to pile up and this piled-up balas working on rasa results in Abhava ie nama.

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 47

rupa and karma. This Visva is created in this wav only. Therefore Brahman is Abhuor rasa and Visva is Abhva. Brahmanor Abhu is Sat and bala or abhva is Asat. deals with the Satchidananda concept as expounded in rsnayajurved nd gives many more details about thia concept. These details help us to a great extent in understanding the Satchidananda concept in relation to the Brahman as well as in relation to this Jagat.

Ananda Vijnana And Satta are considered Satya (truth) by the sages of Krsnayajurveda. That is why Madhusudan Ojha ha s chosen to name this triad asf‘Krsnatrisatya’). When we say to somebody that we know it ana when he asks us what we know, we realise that apart from thg presence of the thing, and about which welcome. there is adhird thin\ which we experience and that is what is called rasa or Ananda.

The Upanisad savs Ananda’ 26 A desire to know a place or visit a place arises in us. We go there, see the place and acquire the knowledge and there is peace (santi) in our mind. This is Ananda. It is this Ananda, that enables a man to spend his life happily. Just imagiae that we do not have this free space to move about. Then we lose much of the happiness. A thinly populated place with all the natural scenery around, brings us immense happiness. That is why perhaps, the Upanisad says that if akasa which is nothing but Ananda, were not there, how can we live and how can we breathe This leads us directly to the conclusion that this Jagat viewed in the proper perspective is nothing but Ananda. Satta, Cetana, and Ananda which applies to Brahman or Atman applies equally to this Jagat. It is there (asti). It is visible to us (bhati). There is

Ananda (rasa) in it. In other words, apart from asti, bhati and rasa there is nothing else in this Jagat. Whether we say asti, bhati and rasa or Satta Cetana and Ananda, both mean the same thing.

When once we concede that this Jagat is as much of Satchidananda form as the Brahman or Atman the question of declaring that Jagat as mithya does not arise at all. Moreover the statements Sarvam khalvidam Brahma’ (Everything we see here (in this Jagat) is Brahman; Atmaivedam sarvam (All these around us are Atman); Tatsrstva tadevanupravisat’ (Having created. He entered into it); all these go to prove that Jagat is not untruth. In fact we can understand Brahman only through his manifestation as Visva.

As long as Vis'va is characterised by the pravista Brahman, (the Brahman who has entered into it) both Jagat and Brahman are Satchiananda form . We shall talk more about Ananda and Satta concepts when we deal with Satya Prajapati and Yajna Prajapati.

In a simple wav we can show that Jagat cannot he mithya I (untnuth).

The Upanisad says ‘Vijnanamanandam Brahma’. We. I have already explained the word Vijnana. It is the processJw I which we understand the thing that lies around us. Cetana is the.

I spreading of the light of the Atma which is pure Jnana Vijnatja I is the process bv which a picture of the thing in the outside world I is producedon our mental screen (ie on Cetana). As we see moxe and more of the outside world, Vijnana increases and therefore our Atman becojms-Stno.nger-and .stranger. When we say ‘Vijnanam Brahma it refers to the Brahman aspect of the Jagat and therefore it cannot he mithya.

Before we close this chapter, we shall understand the difference between Jnana and Vijnana. Both are freely used in Vedic

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS 49

literature and therefore it is necessary to know the difference between these two words in usage.

In the Bhagavadgita Lord Krsna says, (Arjuna, I will tell you what constitutes Jnana together with Vijnana. When once you know this you have nothing else remain ing to be known by you. 30 One wav of understanding these two things. is.-to say that I jnana simply means knowledge or awareness to things around us, where as Vijnana means critically analysing what we see around I us andstoring the same in our memory. But actually there is much more in these words. Madhusudan Ojha explained these words in a very simple way as follows: ‘Ekaramabho anekavasanapratipattih Anekarambhastu ekavasanapratipattih Jnanam. 3 1

Vijnanam.

This means that when we start with a single source and are 1 led to the analysis of many of its -manifestations, it constitutes yiinana. On the other hand when we analvse many things and finally trace their origin to a single source it constitutes Jnana. Ojha arrives at this definition on the basis of the support he gets in l iterature. The Amarakos'a defines jnana as thought directed to- wards moksa (liberation) whereas when thought is directed to- wards the science of art. sculpturtietc it is yajnana. 32 The Kurmapurana savs when we analyse God and finally identify him as Lord Mahadeva then it constitutes Jnana. On the other hand when we learn the fourteen branches of knowledge

50 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

caturdas avidvah that Bhagavatapurana bringing out the difference between Jnana and Vipana says, ‘When we understand all the created things, when they are conceived as eleven, nine, five or three having their origin in one source (obviously Brahman or Atman) then it constitutes Jnana. But when we start with one entity (viz Brah man) and attribute to it, the origin, sustenance, and destruction of all the things endowed with the three gunas then it constitutes Vijnana’. In the Bhagavadgita we get confirmation of the above explanation in many places. The interested reader may refer to the preface by Giridhar Sharma Chaturvedi to Ojha’s In the light of these explanations we can easily understand the two Upanisadic statements viz Vijnanamanandam Brahm a Satvam Jnanamanantam Brahma In the for latter case, the emphasis is on the pure rasa (jnana) aspect of Brahman. Therefore it is quite clear that Jagat is not mithyaXun- truth). We may only say that it is mayika. (the result of Maya).

35.

Edited with commentary by

Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute Jaipur -1956

IV. The Concept Of Jiva And IsVara We have already seen that the creation oriented Brahman consists of two parts viz rasa and bala. Whereas rasa is very subtle and is invisible, bala manifests itself as activity and it is through bala we recognise the presence of rasa because rasa and bala always go together. When the Brahman consists of only rasa principle ie when bala merges with rasa in the highest state, we witness a state in which rasa pervades everything and this state is described by Manu as one of utter darkness everywhere in which nothing is discernible The author of Nasadiya sukta also describes it in the same way . As opposed to this when the balas manifest themselves in a region of the ocean of rasa, the Vis'va comes into existence and there is li ght everywhere produced by the sun, moon, fire etc. The former state exhibits krsna tatva (darkness) and the latter exhibits sukla tatva (whiteness). It is maya bala that limits the rasa principle and each limited region of rasa is called IsVara and as the mayabalas are infinite in number in the ocean of rasa characterised by balas in the potential invisible state, a number of limited regions of rasa are produced and everyone of them is an IsVara. In other words, Paratpara (sarvabalavis'ista rasa) has in it, a number of Isvaras (Brahmandas) and Paratpara

52 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

himself is sometimes described as Paramesvara because he is Isvara of Isvras. He is also called Akhilabrahmandanayaka (the head of all brahmandas). This ParamesVara who was limitless in the beginning and was pure rasa in which all the balas are dormant exhibits three forms viz Satta Cetaiia and Ananda when he is creation oriente d. In this state he is called. Atma. As a result of creation many Visvas and Is'varas.come into existence. From a sin gle Atma tie Paramesvara') an infinite number of secondary Atmas come into existence- It is like the reflection of a single sun on many reflecting surfaces situated on the ground giving rise to many images of the sun. These images owe their existence to the sun and when the reflecting surfaces are removed all these images merge with the sun above. The following statement in Gita gives how Jivas come into existence. ‘O Arjuna, my womb is mahat brahman and in that I become pregnant and as a result of that all bhutas come into exist ence. The forms that are produced in the various wombs, all come un der mahat brahma and I impregnate them by depositing my seed.

This mahat is nothing but Soma (in the form of vak or primordeal waters) which receives the see d from the original source and life of all sorts fomes info existence Madhusudan.

Ojha says infinite living cells first come into existence and they are called Jivas. A collection of many Jivas constitutes the body of each one of us or each living being. A collection of all the living beings constitutes the body of Isvara who is the Atma of this Visva. Every constituent of the Visva whether living or non living has an Atma.

Carakn in his Samhitn snvs that theliving cetena one has sense organs (indriyas) and non living one does not have sense organs indrivas

THE CONCEPT OF JIVA AND IS VARA 53

Since we constitute, a collection of Jivas. the Atrria in us which is nothing but the coordinated functioning of manas. prana and vak, is called Jivatma. We. shall Inter give a rigorous definition of Jivatma in this chapter. Isvara also has an At nut and a sarira. and we may take it that Jivatma is an amsa (portion of this Isvaratma. While Isvara of a Brahmanda is one only, he. contains i,n himself infinite number of flvatmas. The Jivatma functions in many wavs. Some of these functions are dependent on Isvara and some of them are independent. The Dharmasastra has na meaning if all functions of Jivatma are dependent on Isvara.

We have already seen that because of the many contradictory statements in the Vedic literature regarding the origin of the cosmos, many people started raising doubts about the theories propounded by the various scholars. They contended that it is useless to investigate the origin of the universe. They said, You do not know who created the universe. You are just talking something. This knowledge is covered just like snow covers objects. Those who have investigated this and have given some ideas are themselves not clear about these things’ 5 . Some others pointed to the fact that it is not possible to know about the real nature of a thing iadependent of the observer. The organs (inHriyasl carmot be trusted to give the real nature of an object. There are four steps tp our. getting to know the real nature of an object. They are ayagra a where the indrivas are involvedlTha (where the mind is involved), avagama (where the Atman is involved) and dharana where buddhiisinvolved). We shall deal with these in detail when we see more of the. Jivas. If even one of these processes, does not take place inthe right way. the final understanding is.faulty. They doubted the concept of Aima and its immortality. They could not see anything beyond the body and when the body dies, nothing remains. About the existence of God. theyhad their-awn doubts. They believed that this Jagat was there iust like this before and

will continue to be like this for ever. In other words they believed in a steady state universe and in such n case. the, need for a creator does not arise. In short they said that everything is man’s imagination and cannot he accepted as t rue. These subjects are beyond our capacity to solve and it is better we keep quiet and eniov life and not bother about anything. Madhusudan Ojha in hjs hook on Samsayatadncchedavadaitfeals with these things in great detail and clearly exposes in that hook the intricacies and ramifications of the Vedic thought. The interested reader may refer to his book. The advocates of Brahman theory had thus to_face several onslaughts on their views and it became necessary for them to refute these arguments to .establish their theory. In this process we get clear definitions of Jivatma, Jnana, Isvara, Ji va- Isvara relations etc. We shall therefore take up these before we proceed further to deal with the various aspects of Atman.

First we shall take up the concept of Jnana. It was the con tention of many that knowledge (jnana) of any particular thing in this Visva is subject to many limitations and therefore cannot al ways be taken as perfect (authoritative). When we a cquire knowledge several factors like, the sense organs of the individual (indriyas), the mind of the individual, his Atman, his capacity to take the right view of the thing etc are involved and if something goes wrong in any one of these processes, knowledge acquired can become faulty. The reply of the Vedic scholars to these points was that as long as we are_sure that there is nothing wrong in the sense organs, we can take it that knowledge acquired through sense organs (eyes, ears etc) should he correct and authoritative. The authoritativeness (pramanyata) of knowledge acquired is of three kinds. They are 1) Pratvaksa ie when the object is visible to the eve and we acquire a knowledge of it. 2) Anumiti ie inference, we do not see the object but we have sufficient grounds to infer its presence. (For example where there is smoke thereJs fire) 3) Sabda that is Veda. When we cannot see the object, nor can we infer its presence, then we resort to the Vedas and see

THE CONCEPT OFJIVA AND ISVARA 55

whether we get any clue from them fi . Of these, that Jnana ar qutredJhrough the sense organs (indrivas ie seeinglhe thing directly with the eyes) is the most authoritative. The Vedas refer to that through which, the existence of the thing (astitva) is estab lished (vena vetti, vena vidvate sah Vedah). The Rgveda gives information about the size and form of the object The Samaveda deals with the halo round the object and so on. When a distant t hing is seen by the eves as small in size, they explained it by saying that it is due to series of rks of decreasing size formed in the line of sight rcam samudrah. In other words, it is a natural law that any object will be seen smaller and smaller as we go further and fnrthenaway, from it.

In addition to the above, the Vedic scholars had to explain several optical illsions that occur in Nature. When the understanding is wrong, like for example seeing a snake in a rope, they main tained, it has nothing to do with the vision but it is the mind that is responsible for the wrong understanding. In other words when we see a thing several processes are involved like avagra ha (using the sense organs (indriyas), iha [using the mind) avagatrta (using the Atman)When- we are sure nothing is wrong in each of these processes, the Jnana acquired is Saiya and authoritative. When the object cannot be seen directly, we resort to the Vedas, to know about its existence or non existence. Satta (presence) and jnana always go together.

Our corrcct understanding of the concept of Jnana directly leads us tofa dear definilion of Jivatma) When on the basis of some authority (pramana) or logi c (vnkti.) 1 analyse a subject and arrive at some conclusion or have some doubts about it. this I concept relersto something. whichis Satva and which is at the root of my acquiring the-knowledge about anything and that is the/Jivatma in me The ‘I’ principle in me is closely connected with the light in S ce t he aut ho r 's bo o k o n What is Veda’

THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATM

me associated with jnana. Without this ‘I’ principle in me, I would not be able to acquire knowledge of this Jagat. Mv Atman which is the ‘I’ principle in me cannot remain wilhouLacqniring knowledge from outside. Wecan as well sav that Myself and jnana are not different things,. In this way,. through Jnana we .establish a principle in us which is Satya and that is my Jivatma . I am at the cenire of a lurninQus region which is nothing but Jnana. It is the ‘I’ p rinciple in me that forms the centre of jnana, through which I understand this Visva.

Jivatma and the T principle in me are the same principle and Jnana always go together. This Jnana as- sumes three forms in us.

1. When we meet another person, before confronting him, we compare our strength with his strength and then proceed further. This jnanabala (mental strength) has a centre and this centre is my Jivatma.

2. When we have to do some work, we first judge our capacity to execute that work. The centre of this judgment is my Jivatma.

3. Before doing some work, we analyse the outcome of that work and judge whether it will end up in something good for us or not.

The centre of this judgment functioning in me is my Jivatma.

We have three kinds of Atma in us. The heat of the body which keeps us alive is due to Agni. It is called Vaisvanara. The breathing that kgeps uiLiiliye is called TaijasatmiLand is due to Vayu. The third one is called Indra which activates our eye lids. His light is of many colours and it is because of his. light we are abte to see things. H e resides in the sun and activates our mind and it is because of him, we have cetana in us. According to the Upanisads the all pervasive Indra is active inthelightning as wel 1 as activates flnr manas, prajnatma jand is active both inside and outside us. Since Agni belongs to the earth. Vavu to antariksa (middle region) and the sun to the.heaveni. we.geU.hree Atmas from the three lokas and these three rasas which enter our body nix freely and function in a coordinated way. Indra resides in the

VARA 57

THE CONCEPT OF JIVA AND IS

face and the head and is active all over the body. Agni resides in the stomach and is active all over the body. Vayu lives in the chest and is active all over the body. Though these three have different functions in the body, they are all very intimately connected and if one is affected others also are affected. In other words all the three are connected by a

sutra so that they are inter-connected in a

wav. Actually when the sutra is disconnected one or the other Atmas gets affected and thereby the others also are affected.

Actually this onstitutes anAtng (Sutratma) with which all ‘Ihejhreg Atmas)are bound and all these together constitute the (jivatma Similarly another Atma which has its origin in the moon also comes and joins theseCfours'll these five form

a group of

Atmas having their origin in Agni Vayu Surya and Candra

five All

these together constitute the T principle in us.

When once the Jivatma has been named by us as the centre of the luminous region in us associated with Jnana, he builds his own inner world ('antarjagat') by acquiring knowledge of the ob jects in the outside world (bahirjagat). We have already described this process of acquiring knowledge in the previous chapter. In ' this process three things are involved viz knower (vetta) the act of knowing (vitti) and the thing to be known (vedya). The combined action of these three result in knowledge which we call f pratyaya which ls

Satya.:When the knower is termed Satya, the things to

be known (vedva) and the act of knowing (vitti) also come under the category of Satya and therefore antariagat is termed Satva.

Bgcause the qualities (satva. rajas, and Jamas) associated with the Jivatmas differ widely the Jivatmas are many and each is the controller of his own jnanarnandala and therefore antarjagats also are as many as there are Jivatmas, As far as the outer world is concerned it has an independent existence and the

Jivatma has

no control over it. As we hav already said in the previous chapter it forms the inner world of Isvara. While it forms the basis for the Jivatma’s inner Jagat: the latter is always only a part of this outer Jagat since every individual has hisownliinita cannot understand the

hirja gat in all its us

tion and therefore

pects

58 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

We many conceive the process of acquiring knowledge as the result of interaction of bahirjagat and innerjagat. The outer world functions with infinite power available to it and if a small part of each of these types o f energy are collected and assembled together, then it constitutes my Atma or the T.principle in me. Whatever energy protrudes outside it constitutes my sense organs ('indrivas') and.the.se are not different from my Atma but form part and parcel of mv Atma. That is why we say I see, I smell, I taste etc.

The jnana acquired by every individual is subject to limita tions and many things of the bahirjagat remain outside the domain of the individual’s antarjagat. In other words the jnanamandala of every Jivatma is surrounded by ajnana (ignorance) of various parts of bahirjagat. The extent of ignorance varies from individual to individual. Therefore the Jivatma can never be called sarvajna (all knowing). It is because of this the Jivatma is affected by fear (bhaya) and misery (duhkha) in varying degrees. This is whv Gita says that jnana is always surroundedJiv ainana ignorance) and is a result all beings suffer in greater orjesser measure. 8 However our sages believed that it is possible to decrease the extent of this ignorance by tapas and yoga. They believed that after a number of rebirths, an indi viduajcan get rid of ignorance in steps and become a inani v . In other words, if a person instead of receiving knowledge from outside.would turns his mind.inwards and trains his mind lo learn everything n f the inner world he becomes an Atmainani in the sense with this Atmajnana. he. gets the knowledge of the Jagat outside. Because our Aima isji concentrate of all thepowersjthaLcieate and sustain this Jagat T Atmajnana would result in compIete knowIcd ge of the outside world. That is, he goes nearer to the Isvara state.

For a nonspeci ilis.Unyoga4U4 ve.ry difficult to understand' how a yogi acquirer complete knowledge of the outside world.

THE CONCEPT OF JIVA AND ISVARA 59

However the following statement of Ramana Maharsitaken from a biography of Maharsi by Swami SuddKananda Bharati throws some light on this .aspect. ‘One day, I was lying in the virupaksa cave. I was not in samadhi. Suddenly I felt that my body is being lifted and carried outside. I did not see anything except light surrounding me. My body got down at a place and I saw the things around me. I had a feeling that I was in Tiruvottiyur. I was walking on a broad road. I saw a Ganapati temple. I went inside and spoke something. I am not clear now as to what I spoke. I woke up suddenly and found myself lying in the cave’ 10 . It is interesting to note that Ramana maharsi had not visited Tiruvottiyur at all but was able to describe the place as it existed at that time. It would appear that the knowledge of the bahirjagat acquired by the yogis is intimately related to their dream states. Unless we have a scientific understanding of the dream states of yogis and how they differ from the dream states of ordinary persons, we.cannot understand the achievement of siddhis (powers) of yogis.

The Kathopanisad says that normally every one sees only the outside world and acquires knowledge of the same through his indiryas which have a natural tendency to project themselves outwards. On the other hand the yogi, who turns his attention inside is able to realise the Antaratrnan and attain immortality". We have, already said that our outer world is the inner world of I s vara. As long as we annot attain the state of Isvara. our antariagat will he different from that of Is vara Only for an Atmajnani who by his yogic exercises, understands the bahirjagat in all its aspects, the difference between his antarjagat and baHirjagat decreases considerably and they tend to be identical when the yogic powers are fully developed.

Having defined Jivatma, we now pass on to defineI Isvara

10.

Ramana

Vijayam

Tiravannamalai

(in

Tamil)

(Tamil

by

Suddtanamda Nadu)

Bharati 1979

Ramanas pp

Raman.

168.

60 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

When once we have identified the outer world with the inner world of Isvara, we have no, difficulty in declaring that thfs Visvamandala is also a jnanamandala (region of jnana). I t is in this mandala, this whole Jagat is established. It.derives all its powers from this jna an a m pana m a rid alibis Isvara) Just like, the 'I'principle in us constitutes a spread out of jnSnamand ala inside us and there is complete identity between thisjnanamandala and the ;T principle in us (that is Jivatma)- so also there is com plete identity between this Vi s vr n r i n n d n l a a n d as exten.sivp Jjnanamandala, the centre of which constitutes the Isvara prin ciple. The functioning of all the laws of feature derives there quired power from this centre. In other words this Visva is established on the jnanamandala, constituting the ls'vara principle. In side this extensive jnanamandala several individua l Jivas exist-with their own miniature Atmias which again are nothing but miniature I jnanamandalas inside each of them. There is a much bigger jnanamandala enveloping many Isvaras with all their Jivas.

The centre of this enveloping jnanamandala constitutes theParamesvara principle. While the jnanamandala of Isvaras and Jivas are limited in someway, the jnanamandala of Parame vara is limitless and is beyond definition. It is pure rasa (raso vai sah) The above method of defining IsVaraiias many interesting implication Firstly the jnanamandala of Jiva is a p ortion (arpsa) of the Jnanamandala of Isvara. The inanamandala of Is vara which constitutes the outer world, (bahirjagat) is present in the jnanamandala of each one of us in small proportion. The laws o f Nature are controlled by this kvaui. Actually we should say they represent the manifestation of Isvara. That a portion of this Isvara is present in the jnanamandala of each one of u s is borne out by the fact that certain activities take place inside our body on which the Jiva has no control. The heartbeat, flow of blood, pul_se. rate, digestion, separation of mala (faeces) from the digested port ion etc. are not under the control of Jiva nor is Jiva aware of all th eir details. These are under the control of the Is'vara part in us. Th at is why Gita savs that Isvara sitting in the heart region controls ou r

THE CONCEPT OF JIVA AND ISVARA 61

activities as though he is operating a machine 12 . The fact that everyone of us sees an object say, an elephant in the same wav. points to the existence of Isvara’s activity in us.

Our Atman which we described as Jnanamandala when it comes into contact with the outer world (bahirjagat) becomes a triad viz manas, prana and vak. The bahirjagat itself constitutes the manas, prana and vak of!svara. When the manas, prana and vak of Jiva ineracts with the manas prana and vak of Isvara i t results in the acquirement of knowledge of bahirjagat by the Jivatman which builds its own antarjagat. This itself constitutes the worship of Isvanl becauseZbahTrjagafeonstitutes manifestion of Is'vara^and in the process of understanding the nature of the various things of bahirjagat. there is an interaction of Isvara’s jnanamandala with our own.

To summarise, this Visva is nothing but a manifestation of \ the infinite powers of Nature and we find their presence in var ious forms here and there. In course of time they disappear also and merge in the all pervasive ocean_of energy only to reappear somewhere else in some _other _form at some other time. This ocean of energy arises from an all pervadingjnanamandala the centre of which constitutes the Isvara principle.

When once we define Isvara as identical with Jnana anc ‘ also Vijnana and declare that the entire Nature around us wi th all its potentialities and functioning is nothing but the manifestati on of IsVara, we have no difficulty in convincing the athiests) who find no necessity for an Isvara to create and sustain this cosmo s. The difficulty comes only when we identify Isvara with a particu lar nama rupa (figure) and karma activity This comes undar upasana (worship) technique which we shall deal with later.

When once we have definedns an amsa of Isvara we have to clearly understand the(similarities and difference in the

13. We have already defined Jnana and Vijnana in the previous chapter.

62 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

functioning of Jiva and Isvara.

1. Atman is of two kinds viz individual (vyasti) and collective (samasti). When we see differences in each item of a collec tion then we are oriented towards individualisation (vyastitva). When we see things collectively and see only the collective char acteristics, we are oriented towards the collection as a whole (samastitva). When we concentrate on the Atmas of the individuals in a collection we are then concerned with Jivas. On the other hand when we concentrate on the Atman which constitutes that of the entire collection of Jivas, then we are concerned with Isvara.

2. It is usually stated in literature that Jiva is a reflection of Isvara. We may also say Jiva is an amsa or a constituent of Isvara.

3. The jnanamandala of Jiva is subject to limitations and is identified with the ‘I’ (aham) principle. The jnanamandala of Isvara is extensive and is identified with ‘Om’ principle.

4. The centre of all powers (s'aktikendra) in this extensive Visva is identified with IsVara. He is also called Visvatma. The powers of Jiva are restricted and are concentrated only in spe cific regions unlike Isvara who is described in the Gita as, ‘He has hands and feet everywhere. He has eyes, heads and faces everywhere. He has ears everywhere and he pervades everything

5. Isvara can be conceived as a reservoir of knowledge.

Compared to Is'vara, the Jiva is much inferior in his knowledge content. The ‘I’ principle in Jiva is inside an enclosure of a group of sense organs, a physical (material) frame, mind (manas) and intellect (buddhi). The Jivatma ie ‘I’ principle is nothing but jnana.

The jnanamandala is built up with the help of indriyas and the Atma is at the centre of this jnanamandala-. The Jiva is conceived as having a number of kosas (sheaths). The indriya kos'a is the outermost sheath. Then there is artha (matter) kos'a. In this the

THE CONCEPT OF JIVA ANDISVARA

63

bhutamatras which recognise sound, touch form, taste and smell exist. All these remain in the Atman in a very subtle form. Then inside we have manas kosa. Inside that we have buddhi kos'a.

Buddhi is nearest to the Atman. It actually forms part of Atrria which is nothing but Jnana. It is because of Atman, all these kosas flourish. When the Atman leaves the body it goes with all these four kosas. The Upanisad says, ‘Artha is superior to indriyas. Manas is superior to arthas.

Buddhi is superior to manas. Atman is superior to buddhi*. Here Atman is identified as pure jnana (Avyayatma as we shall see later).

All animals have the kos'as in a much smaller measure.

Isvara has nothing to achieve. He has no desire to be ful filled because he is purnakama. But still he engages himself in activities.

That is, all the functions of Nature are his l5 .

Why do we say Isvara is purnakama? Simply because he represents everything in this Jagat. Every source of enjoyment is already within his body. He is all knowing and has not to acquire any knowledge. Therefore he is pOrnakama and has nothing to achieve.

6. Jiva is subject to destruction. Isvara is not, Jiva is con stantly changing in many ways. Isvara is unchanging. Jivas are infinite Fsvara is one. Jiva’s form can be conceived as having three parts (trivrt) viz uktha (source region) (2) arka the rays that emanate from the source region to acquire food. 3) asiti (food that is available in the region of influence of the Atman). The nourishment of the Atman is from the food acquired through the rays. This food is in the form of knowledge from bahirjagat which in turn builds up the antarjagat. It is from the antarjagat Atma receives its foo d.

The Jivatma builds up its antarjagat for nourishing itself and

64 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

in this process it Is affected by a desire which arises In its mine part and prana and vak achieve wha't is planned or desired by the mind (manas). This desire is a never ending process in the mind and we may therefore say that Jivatma can be conceived as noth ing but desire (kama). That is, it is always full of d esire. On the other hand Isvara is completely free from desire. He has all his desires already fulfilled and so he is called purnakama or aptakama. The Jivatma can hope to move towards Isvara’s status only when he gets rid of his desires. It is easy for anybody to understand, that the more enlightened, we are, the less desirous we are. An awakening takes place in the Atman which results in the chastening (samskara) of the self. The individual starts working without expecting any rewards. To work without a motive (niskama karma) is possible only for trained intellectuals who have gained considerable knowledge of outer world and have very few desires. When all desires completely subside, the Jivatma is said to attain Isvarahood and that is called mukti or mo ksa. At this stage the Jivatma automatically sheds his three components (trivrdrupa) and becomes pure jnana. He has no rebirths because it is only Jivatmas full of desires (kamamaya Atma) who are subjected to rebirths.

7. We have already said that every Jivatma builds up his own antarjagat and'this antarjagat differs from individual to indi vidual.

Whereas the Jivatma has no means of communicating with the antarjagat of another Jivatma, Isvara has contacts with every one of the Jivatmas. That is why he is called witness (saksi).

8. When the antarjagat of the Jivatma is built up based on the objects in the outer world (bahirjagat), it so happens that some times there are differences between what exists in the outer world and what is built up in the antarjagat. These differences are the consequences of doubts (sams'aya) and lack of understanding ca- pacity (bhrama).

9. The outerworld is completely outside the control of Jiva. It is the inner world of Isvara. Actually Isvara and the outer world are inseparable and therefore represent one thing only, viz Isvara. Jagat represents manifestation of Isvara’s jnana.

THE CONCEPT OF HVA AND IS VARA 65

10. Sometimes constructive thinking on the part of Jivatma results in the prosperity of the Jivas as a whole. Comfortable buildings to live in, various modes of transports, and many other facilities which bring comfort to the society are the creations of thinking Jivas who have built their antarjagats differently from others. As a result, the outer world ie Isvara’s antarjagat becomes richer in its contents. In other words every Jivatma has the poten tiality of enriching Isvara’s antarjagat by putting the IsVarams'a in him to prudent use.

11. All the objects in this Jagat owe their existence to the existence of jnanamandala of Isvara. But the existence of jnanamandala of Isvara is completely independen t of the Jagat’s existence. Otherwise the derivation of power from Isvara who is identified with Jnana, for the manifestation of Jagat does not arise. In the same way our Atma - is completely independent of our antarjagat.

It is Atman that builds the antarjagat and therefore it cannot be identified with it. Actually he is detatched from it and suffers in no way by contributing to the building of the antarjagat.

12. Jnana is nothing but light. This entire Jagat is a manifes tation of jnana. Satta refers to existence. Because the bahirjagat exists it is possible for the Jivatma to build up the antarjagat. In other words the existence of antarjagat is dependent upon the existence of bahirjagat. Therefore it would appear that Satta pre cedes jnana. However this statement is questionable because, we understand Satta" (existence) only through jnana. In fact jnana and Satta always go together and the question, which precedes which, does not have any meaning. Both occur together.

The above consideration leads us to the c principle in us and then we establish the antarjagat. This antarjagat is dependent on the existence of Isvara principle and jtherebv we establish the Isvara principle. This triad viz Isvara, Jiva and Jag at go under the name Visistatrisatyand all the.se Her e we ar e co ncer ned w it h cr eat io n o r ient ed Br ahma n o nly

66 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN three things are the manifestations of one Paramesvara who is described by the authour Nasadiya Suktn as ‘ Anidavatam svadhaya tadekam tasamaddhanyannaparam kincanasa'. Before we see more of this Trisatya, it is necessary to understand the concept of Prajapati as formulated by the Vedic seers, and there fore we straight away pass on to examine the Prajapati concept.

V. Concept Of Prajapati -1 The concept of Atman in Vedic literature is very intimately wound up with the concept of Prajapati in the sense, that if we understand Prajapati in all his aspects, the concept of Atman is already contained in such an understanding. It is therefore neces sary for us to go into the concept of Prajapati as conceived by our sages, in great detail.

We have already seen that in the creation oriented Brah man amrta (rasa) and mrtyus (balas) coexist. We may conceive Brahman in three forms viz Srsta (created) Brahm an, Pravista Brahman (Brahman that enters the created things and pervades them) and Pravivikta Brahman (Brahman that keeps aloof).(It is interesting to note here that the Tamil word ‘Kadavul’ for God consists of two parts viz ‘Kada’ and ‘Ul’. Here ‘Kada’ r efers to Pravivikta Brahman and ‘UP refers to Pravista Brahman.) The Pravivikta Brahman is conceived as consisting of two parts viz Nirvisesa Brahman which is pure rasa and Paratpara Brahman which is characterised by rasa in the presence of dormant balas. It is the latter that forms the origin of creation oriented Brahman ie.

Srsta Brahman and Pravista Brahman. The Nirvisesa Brah man is limitless and may be conceived as an unperturbed ocean of rasa without any signs of activity and is described as ‘Ekamevadvitiyam Brahma’ in Vedic literature. It has many names like Akhanda, Advaya, Santa, Niranjana, Nirvikara, Nirakara.

THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA Nirvisfesa, Visvatita, Nirlipta etc. Since it, has no karma because of complete merging of balas in rasa we have no means of under standing it and since it has no form (mpa) we have no means of describing it by words. Even the so called gods do not understand him and so what to talk about men. 1 Actually Nirvisesa Brahman is only a concept, because it is unrealistic in the sense that amrta never exists without mrtyus. When we conceive it we think of only amrta part and call it Brah man. In other words, Nirvisesa is pure amrta state and ma y be conceived as the highest conceptual state of Brahman. From this Nirvisesa rasa state, we get the Savistsa rasa state where unperturbed (s'anta) rasa coexists with unperturbed (s'anta) or perturbed (as'anta) balas. The Brahmana says ‘Amrta is placed in between mrtyus. Amrta is deposited in mrtyu, Mrtyu pervades Vivasvan (Brahman). The Atmaof mrtyu resides in Vivasvan (Brahman). 2 The Rgveda says, ‘Who has seen him when he first came into being, as the bony one (body) supported by the boneless (ie prana) \ Taking clue from Brahmana that prana is amrta 4 and since we know that body is mrtyu, we may also take the above state ment to mean that amrta and -mrtyu coexist in this Jagat.

The Paratpara stage of Brahman is the same as the Savisesa r asa state where unperturbed (s^nta) rasa coexists with unper turbed (£anta) balas.

In the unperturbed state these balas are as

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI -1 69 I

O uod

as amrta and therefore Paratpara represents again a limit less unperturbed (s'anta) state in which infinite number of balas exist everywhere in the ocean of rasa. This ocean can as well be conceived as a Ksetra in which infinite number of balas which constitute the seeds (bija) are sown. In other words Paratpara is a limitless Brahman with all the creative potentialities in a dor mant condition. Only when the maya bala produces a disturbance in it, creative processes come into existence. He is called Paratpara, because as we shall see later, he precedes Avyaya Purusa who is called Para. For all practical purposes Paratpara is creation oriented Brahman and therefore he can be described sarvadharma and sarvakarrria. He is called Para mesvara because he is above Isvara who, as we shall see later, is the same as Pravista Brahman. He is all knowing (sarvajna) and all powerful (sarvasaktiman). He is the Atma of Atmas and therefore the ba sic Atma of this Jagat. In other words he represents the precreation stage of the Brahman who can be conceived and understood by us.

Paratpara can lead to three forms viz. bhuma (very big) anima (very small) and Visva, which is in between the first two. Both the first and the second forms are limitless. That is, there is no limit to his bigness because he is bigger than the biggest and there is no limit also to his smallness because he is smaller than the smallest. That is why the Upanisad says, ‘He is smaller than the smallest, and also bigger than the biggest.

He, as the supreme Atman, resides inside everyone of us’. 5 We see him everywhere in the limitless space. We see him also in the tiniest cell of the living being. Madhusudan Ojha makes an interesting analysis of the bhuma anima concept of our Vedic seers.

We have already analysed in detail, what Veda is, in our book ‘What is Veda?’.

There we have established that the Vedas

70 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

are intimately connected with the creation processes. The rk, yajus and saman have special meaning in the creation process. More than anything else the Veda gives the state of existence (astitva) to the created things. Visva extends up to that region where the Vedas apply and we can understand the created things through the Vedas.

Bhuma and anima are just outside the Vedas because they do not have real existence. The Veda is identified with upalabdhi (bringing into existence) and upalabdhi gives the status of satta to the object. Both bhuma and anima cannot attain the states of Satta.

They have only appearance. When rasa and balas coexist, rasa has limitless bhuma appearance in the midst of balas which have a satta"dependent on amrta. Veda or upalabdhi is not possible withoyt rasa and balas interacting with each other. On the other hand bhuma and anima can appear without balas. In other words, they pertain to pure rasa and therefore they are beyond the VisVa (Vis'vatitau).

They appear in the ocean of rasa without needing the presence of balas/’ Therefore in Paratpara, both bhuma and anima" exist and constitute the amrta part. They exist in the midst of dormant mrtyus (balas). This Paratpara is one only but he carries in his womb many Purusas (we shall define Purusa later) who come into ex istence on account of the impact of maya bala on rasa and initiate the creation process. Since they have their origin in Paratpara, Paratpara is rightly called as the single root cause of this Jagat (Jagadadhara). He is Paramesvara who is limitless and bhuma. He is rta (ahrdaya asarira) and contains in him, IsVara, who is Satya (sahrdaya and sasarira). (We have already explained the concept of Rta and Satya in our book on ‘Vedic concept of ‘Soma’.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 1 71

We shall again explain it in this book later.)

Now we pass on to the next stage when the balas in the ocean of rasa pass on to a disturbed state and they tend to be active (kurvadrupa). The coming into existence of these active balas gives them a temporary status of existence (satta) but this satta is dependent on the satta"of rasa and therefore in no way affects the Advaita principle declared by the statement ‘Ekamevadvitiyam Brahma’. In other words, they go on appear ing and disappearing and have their support on rasa which has real or nitya satta 7 .

Madhusudan Ojha divides the balas that appear in the ocean of rasa into three kinds. They are ksanabala kosabala and nityabala.

The first one is that which goes on appearing in infinite number in succession. The other two kinds are only the collective appe arance of the first ones and result in some kriya (activity). Nityabala is of five kinds and goes under the name sakti. These are Ananda, Jnana, Iccha (desire), Kriya (action), and Avarana. When action ceases, a state of peace results and that is called Ananda which constitutes a form of sakti. Jnanas'akti is called Cetana and it is piled on the Atrria. Inborn behaviour (bhavana) and quarlitie§ (vasana) are the result of Cetana. Iccha or Kamana (desire) is characteristic of the mind (manas) and exhibits itself in three parts viz uktha the central source region from which it emerges, arka the rays which extend outwards to fulfil the desire, and asiti, the food or visaya which when acquired and taken in, quenches the hunger or desire.

Kriyasakti enables the balas to pile up and produce knots or piled up and knoted balas to get released. In other words kriyasakti binds the Atman to sam ;ara (bandha) or releases it from samsara (mukti).

Avaranasakti is produced by mayabala which has three forms viz Mahanaya, Yogamaya and Visnumaya which in turn produce avarana n rasa. Thus the extensive (akhanda) single (advitiya) and undisturbed (santa) rasa is subjected to many divisions and many facets by the action of

72 VEDIC

CONCEPT OF ATMAN

balas.* The role of the balas in the ocean of rasa is an extremely complicated process. The diversity in creation is the result of the ramifications undergone by rasa bala interactions. Creations take place when balas take portions of rasa and work out the diversi ties we see in the VisVa. In all these created things the rasa part is important and because of that the rasa part of Brahman has become more well known than the bala (mrtyu) part. We have already seen that rasa and bala have opposite properties.Whereas rasa is single unchanging substance balas are unlimited in number and they also constantly change. Rasa is called Abhu because of its all pervasive nature (asamantat bhati iti Abhu) and balas go under the name Abhva. Abhu is Brahman and Abhva is karma. Abhu is jnana Abhva is kriya and they are interwoven into one another (tucchenabhvapihitam yadasit). Both are responsible for the existence of Visva. According to Madhuslidan Ojha the greatest wonder we witness in this VisVa is the coexistence of amrta and mrtyu (which have opposite properties) or rasa and bala or Abhu and Abhva or Sat and Asat (Sadasatoh anyonyabandhanam as'caryam) That is why Gita says, ‘Some people see this Visva as wonder. Some describe it as

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 1 73

wonder. And yet other are struck with wonder when they hear about it.

But still no one correctly understands its true nature’. 9 By now the reader will have no difficulty in understanding the following statements.

‘Sarvam khalvidam Brahma’ - Everything is Brahman ‘Brahmaivedam sarvam’ ‘what all we see is Brahman ‘Ekamevadvitiyam Brahma’ - Brahman is one only without a second Ekam va idam vibabhuva sarvam’ — one entity became all these etc.’

The Kausitaki Brahmana however says, . ‘Catustayam va idam sarvam’ ie Everything that we see is four fold. This would mean that Brahman can be conceived of four parts.

This directly leads us to the concept of Prajapati as conceived by our sages. There are many ways of conceiving the above four parts. One of them is to consider Brahman as consisting of 1) Pura 2) Purusa 3) Paratpara and 4) Nirvisesa. We have already dealt with Paratpara and Nirvisesa. We have now to deal with first two which constitute the Srsta Brahman and the Pravista • • • • • Brahman. Before we see them, we should know something more of the creation process which have direct bearing on the above.

According to Madhusudan Ojha there are many balas in volved in the creation process and which interact with rasa. In fact Ojha deals with Brahma (rasa) karma (bala) relations in a very detailed manner in his books. He had taken great pains to collect this information from the Vedic literature and present the same to us in the most logical way.

By now the reader may feel that the author exhibits undue leaning towards the writings of Ojha while there have been so many earlier contributions on this subject by mighty minds. In the opinion of the author who is a scientist by profession, Madhusudan Ojha exhibits a mightier mind than all of them in his writings. One

74 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

is simply stunned by his analytical approach and the strong logic built up in a cogent way in his writings. One of the criticisms about his writings by people much less knowledgeable than he. has been that he is trying to read too much into the Vedic state ments. This is true to some extent. There are statements by Ojha in his writings which are not convincing. But his positive contribu tions far outweigh his defects. In the beginning of his book en titled Brahma Siddhanta, he says. ‘We have lost the capacity of understanding the Vedic statements due to our own defects like laziness, lack of understanding capacity, prejudices etc. If we go deep into the ocean of the Vedic literature, we get very valuable information on the understanding of Nature and its working by our ancients. Some of their guidance texts have been lost to us and therefore, I shall try to fill the gaps of knowledge to the best of my ability and shall present to you the Vedic science developed by them’. 1 0 Even to read these beautiful introductory verses gives us great pleasure. It will take quite a few years of hard work to fully understand and digest all his available writings.

In the opinion

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI -1 75

of the author after VedaVytfsa, no other scholar had the intellec tual stature which MadhusUdan Ojha exhibited in the interpreta tion of the Vedic thought.

Coming back to the subject, karma works on Brahma (ie balas work on rasa) in thirteen ways. Ojha lists these relations (Brahmani karma sambandhah) as 1) alaksana 2) vibhuti 3) yoga 4) bandha 5) amitavrtti 6) udaravrtti 7) samavaya 8) asangavrtti 9) adhyudh a 10) sandhi 11) daharottarabhava 12) Otaprotabhava and 13) grahodgrahabhava. All these relations have been explained by Ojha in his book Samas'ayataducchedavada. We should bear one thing in mind that is, in all these relations, it is karma (bala) that is produced in Brahman (rasa) and gets attached to it. Karma takes its form only frorfi Brahman, envelops it and undergoes vari ous changes. But Brahman (rasa) remains always unattached and never shows any increase or decrease and remains in the same form. Wa ves appear on the surface of the ocean. They undergo various changes and finally they collapse and disappear in the ocean. The ocean itself always remains unaffected either in its inherent strength or in its form. This naturally takes us to the question, how does Jagat (which is nothing but karma) come out of Brahman?

In his book Samsayataducchedavada, Ojha presents the various views of the scholars on this subject.

In the earliest stage we had only Nirvisesa Brahman. It gave rise to Savis'esa Brahman viz P aratpara and from that Jagat came into existence. Nirvisesa Brahman is pure rasa in the Upanisadic language. In the Vedic language it goes under the name Abhu. The action of balas (which constantly changes) on Abhu, results in what the Vedic seers called Abhva which is nothing blit Visva which is characterised by nama rupa and karma. The Vedantins say the Visva results when maya (bala) affects Brahman". In other words from Nirvisesa, this Jagat which is nothing but a col lection of vises'as came into existence. One view was that out of 4

the all pervading Brahman, a small portion became this VisVa and the rest remains pure rasa. Just like on the ocean surface foam is

76 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA

formed, on the surface of hot milk scum is formed and on an iron surface rust is formed, this Visva is formed out of a small portion of Brahman. This view is obviously beset with difficulties, be cause, unless a reverse process is postulated, the depletion of Brahman in the form of Jagat will go on continuously and at the end no part of Nirvisesa Brahman will remain which means creation will come to an end at some stage. In other words from purna Brahman purna Jagat will result and there will be no more Brahman left for continuing the creation process. Interpreting an Upanisadic statement 12 in this way we can say ‘Before creation commenced Brahman was purna and the Brahman which has been converted into Jagat is also purna. That is, purna Brahman has now become purna Jagat. What remains then is only the puma Jagat 1 3 Now we pass on to the second view which tries to remove t he difficulties 'met with in the first one. According to this view, the conversion of purna Brahman into Jagat (sancarakrama) is immediately followed by the reverse process (pratisancarakrama) viz the reconversion of Jagat to Brahman, It is a breathing in (pranat) and breathing out (apanat) process or a Pravrtti (getting involved in wordly affairs) and Nivrtti (getting released from worldly affairs) process taking place continuously. The Atharvaveda says, ‘From purna Brahman purna Jagat is produced. This purana Jagat is sprinkled by purna Brahman. I am able to understand that Brahman (who pervades the Jagat which is created) by whom this Jagat is sprinkled. 14 Actually the earlier Upanisadic statement viz (P urnamadah

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 1 77

etc) can also be interpreted to agree with the above statement of Atharvaveda.

Now we shall pass on to the third view. This is a modification of the second view. That is both pranana and apanana take place simultaneously. This would mean that uistead of creation and destruction taking place one after the other as separate pro cesses, both go on simultaneously. There is creation and at the same time there is destruction also , This view' is based on the fact that Brahman is limitless in space and time and all powerful and therefore there is no question of declaring an end to sancara karma (pranana ) and then the commencement of pratisancara karma (apanana). That is Brahman can never reach a state when we can say that it is not there and everything has become Jagat.

I6

Further according to this view, we are seeing this Jagat in this way from time immemorial. We cannot name a place where there is no Jagat. Therefore we cannot put a limit to this Jagat also. Also everything is constantly changing in this Jagat and we cannot put a limit to these changes also. The Jagat has come into existence from Brahman and he is Atma of this Jagat because he is the origin (uktha) and support (brahma) and he pervades the entire Jagat (sama). 17 In this Jagat activity (kriya) is going on in every object naturally o r through an agency. Therefore there is every reason to believe that Jagat also is limitless and is con stantly changing and we cannot separate the limitless Brahman from the limitless Jagat at any time.

The Upanisadic statement 'Purnamadah 1 means Brahman is limitless.

That is, the word purna should be taken to mean bhuma ie without, limit. Then the Upanisadic statement as well as the statement in Atharvaveda which we have already quoted means that Brahman is limitless

78 THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA (puma) and every moment it is changing into Jagat. The Jagat also is limitless (purna) and it is also constantly changing into Brah man. That is, Brahman is ever present (nitya), Jagat also is ever present (nitya) and the changes which result in Brahman becom ing Jagat and Jagat becoming Brahman are also ever present.

The fourth view rejects all the three views presented above and says that there are two distinct entities in the Brahman -Jagat relation. One is that which undergoes change and is called Jagat and another which always remains the same. There is no place where we can say that neither of these is present. In other words according to this view the constantly changing Jagat coex ists with that part which does not undergo any change and re mains purna.

The Jagat which is produced is also pifrna and both coexist. When we take out the fullness of purana Jagat, purna Brahman remains .

This is what the Vedic and Upanisadic state ments mean. In this case, karya, the Jagat and karana the Brah man remain always together and they are full ie they do not ex hibit emptiness anywhere (purna means not empty asUnya). Re plying to the question how two entities coexist without showing emptiness anywhere they said, they exist like earth and pot. Just like earth exists wherever pot (which is made of earth) exists, purna Jagat coexists with purna Brahman. Since the existence of pot does not arise without earth, it would mean that Brahman and karma (Jagat) are always together. Brahman is not Jagat and Jagat is not Brahman according to this view.

That the above view is not really correct is seen in the fact that Brahman does not change whereas Jagat goes on changing.

Brahman is amrta and karma (Jagat) is mrtyu. Whereas the former is always pu"rna, the latter has both slinya and pifrna states. Thus

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - I 79 j

mrtyu (Jagat) has its place in amrta which is puma Brahman. Since amrta is purna and limitless, mrtyu also is purana with amrta. When karma ceases to exist, the place is not empty, it is filled with purna Brahman. As the Satapatha Brahmana says, 2 0 Mrty.u is surrounded both inside and outside by amrta and mrtyu takes sup port from amrta and does not meet with death, because its Atma is in amrta.

One is interwoven into the other. 2 1 This is called sahavasthana (existing side by side) and the previous view is called avikrta paririama vada or tadatmyavada.

The last view totally denies any change in the purna Br ahman.

Whatever we see around us as Jagat is an illusion. Nama, karma and rupa are all mithyasvarupa (illusion). Brahman and karma are all pervasive and whatever we see around us is only Brahman and Brahman contains all these in him and Brahman alone rema ins as Satya and pTTrna. Karma looks purna because it is seen in the background of pTTrna Brahman. When once we remove our wrong understanding of Jagat, plifna Brahman alone remains. This is the meaning of the Vedic statement. 'Purnat purnamudacati' etc an d the Upanisadic statement ‘Purnamadah purnamidam' etc. 22 Ojha gives in his book many examples in Nature which are quoted to support the view that Brahman does not undergo any change. The interested reader may refer to his book (Samsayataducchedavada).

The above views have been presented here just to impress on the reader, the ramifications which Vedic thought undergoes at

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the hands of scholars. Even by skipping this portion, the reader will not lose the continuity of the subject.

What we have to understand from the above discussion is that karma which is always changing and which produces all the disturbances dances as it were on Brahman and is only a part of Brahman showing itself as Jagat. Brahman which provides sup port to it is always calm. Karma is Asat. Brahman is Sat and both of them together bring this Visva into existenc e. Though they are called amrta and mrtyu, Sat, Asat, Krsna, Sukla etc, actually they constitute one only, as Ojha concludes. 2 ' 1 Sat (rasa) percolates this Visva and provides its unchanging background. In this con nection, the explanation of the Upanisadic statement ‘Purnamadah purnamidam'

by Madhusudan Ojha may be seen in chapter II. We shall now go back to the rasa bala interactions and see something more of the thirteen sambandhas which we have al ready mentioned. As we have already seen when bala intera cts with rasa, it is the former that chases rasa undergoes may changes gets destroyed and reappears again in some other form. Rasa on the other hand does not under go any change, nor does it go after bala. Just like antariksa (space between earth and sun) does not attach itself to vayu, but vayu pervades it and tries to become part of it, in the same way rasa behaves towards bala. 24 Ojha divides these thirteen relations (sambandhas) into three parts. Alaksana, vibhuti, yoga and bandha are called svarupa sambandhas. Amitavrtti, udaravrtti, samavaya and asangavrtti are called paryaptavrttitva sambandhas and the rest five viz adhyudha, sandhi, daharottarabhava, otaprotabhava and grahodgrahabhava are called anvabhaktavrttitva sambandhas, Savarupasambandha.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 1 81

takes place when the balas completely lose their identity in rasa.

When they retain their identity in the sambandha it is called vrttitvasambandha. 25 Again all these sambandhas can be divided into two kinds viz samsarga and asamsarga. When two things inte react and produce a new thing it is called samsarga. It is also called samanvaya.

Of the thirteen sambandhas six are samsarga sambandhas and the rest seven fall under asamsarga sambandhas. The former six are bandha, yoga, vibhuti, asanga, udSra and samava ya. The first three of these come under svampa samsargas and the last three fall under paryaptavrttitva samsargas. The remaining seven viz alaksana, amitavrttita,adhyudha, sandhi, daharottarabhava, grahatigrahabhava and otaprotabhava do not produce any new thing (ie srsti does not take place) and therefore come under asamsargasambandhas. We shall here concern ourselves with samsarga sambandhas only.

When limited balas interact with unlimited rasa there can be two states. In one, the balas remain inactive an d sleep as it were, in close contact with rasa. In this case no srsti is possible. On the other hand when balas become active, they try to take different portions of rasa on them envelop them and go on piling on them. In such cases, depending on the amount of rasa taken by the balas and depending on the strength of piling of balas different creations take place. In general when rasa is predominant Atmasrsti takes place and when balas take the major role Jagat srsti takes place. Rasa is enveloped by balas in both the cases and some sort of bhukti (one thriving at the cost of the other) takes place. When rasa (amrta) thrives it results in Atma srsti and when balas (mrtyus) thrive it results in the srsti of Jagat.

Of the svarupa samsargas, bandha, yoga and vibh uti are important, because they are responsible for the srsti of Atma. All the srstis concerning Jagat proceed from Atma by the piling of

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different measures of balas on it. When samsarga sambandhas are destroyed moksa results. Defining the above three samsargas, Ojha says in vibhuti samsarga Brahman (rasa) is predominant. In bandhasamsarga karma (bala) is predominant. In yoga samsarga both Brahman (rasa) and karma (bala) are equally balanced. The creation of the Jagat proceeds only from these samsargas Ojha gives many examples of these samsargas as well as the other three samsargas viz asanga, udara and samavaya, which also play their roles in creation. The interested reader may refer to Ojha's Brahmasiddhanta as well as Samsayataducchedavada.

In his book 'Brahmasamanvaya' Ojha gives further classification of bandha and yoga samsargas. Bandha is of two kinds and they are samsarabandha and granthibandha. The former re fers to weak linking whereas in the later the linking is strong and produces knots (granthi). In the later case piling of bala s with enveloped rasa takes place by which srsti becomes possible. Sams'arabandha leads to six kinds of yamasambandhas. In yamasambandha, one takes in another under various forms or conditions. These are antaryama, bahiryama, upayama udyama, aptoryama and yatayama. These have been defined with examples by Ojha in his book and the interested reader may refer to it.

According to Ojha there are many types of balas involved in the creation process. In his works he mentions sixteen bala kosas (sources of bala) of which maya bala is the most important. From the balakosas, many balas are produced and they in turn interact with rasa in various ways. Actually the word maya conveys the impression that it is some magical power. In the Vedas this word is used in this way only. 2 7 It is justified because it is a peculiar

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power whose origin remains-a mystery to us. 2 S It is so powerful that it appears as a bala in the unlimited ocean of rasa and dis sects it into measurable sections. Because it is a changing bala it is mrtyu and can be classed as Asat. But when it comes int o union with portions of rasa it reaches the state of Satya. As we are going to see, it is responsible for the creation of Purusa who is all powerful and all knowing. Therefore it can neither be classed Sati, nor Asati, nor both. That is why it is an extraordinary power which is common in Nature but which defies correct definition. 2 9 There was originally one Satya viz the Brahman or rasa. Because of the action of maya, it is spilt into sections and has been made to give rise a large number of Satyas.

Maya is of three types. They are samanya maya, mahamaya and yogamaya. When maya bala interacts with rasa, the first thing it does, is to limit a small region in the ocean of rasa. The process of envelopment of a small portion of rasa by bala is described i n terms of matra (measure). The original Brahman is a very big measure (mahamatrah) and from him various small regions are produced which are characterised by small measure (alpamatrah khandah).

These measured rriatras are called 'pUh' which is same as pur a, a habitat. The confined state of rasa is called samstha. Because it lies in a pura it is called Purusa (puri sfete, puri vasati v짜 purusah). We can derive the word Purusa in a different way. Kenacit chandasa chandanat parimitah pradesah 'puh'; lekha hi puh; puri vasati athava puri sete iti 'purusah'. That is when some chandas (limiting entity) limits the region in the ocean of rasa, we call that region 'puh'. It is lekha ie some sort of marking (of say a boundary). Because this rasa now lies in this 'pUh' he is called Purusa. Here we see a close correspondence between sabdaprapanca and arthaprapanca. Whereas in the sabadaprapanca chandas (metre) limits the number of letters in

84 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

Vedic passages, in the arthaprapanca limitation takes place on rasa by bala. Thus the limitless Paratpara Brahman when af fected by maya bala gives rise to a confined state (s amstha) of rasa which is called Purusa.

Samlnya maya simply refers to bala acting on rasa and en veloping a certain portion of it. Further piling of balas produces Abhva ie the things characterised by nama fupa and karma and this is caused by mahamaya. When mayabala completely screens rasa by producing a thick cover (avarana) it is called yogamaya.

30

We have already referred to the three samsargas viz vibhuti, yoga and bandha and said that they are responsible for the cre ation of Atma which we already know has three components viz manas, prana and vak. 31 In vibhuti samsarga rasa's role is predominant and therefore it results in the formation of manas. In yoga samsarga rasa and bala have equal importance and it results in the formation of prana. In bandha samsarga bala's role is predominant and therefore it results in the formation of vak (matter). It should be noted here that manas is the subtlest component of Atma and it is rasa predominant and the grossest part of Atma is vak (matter) and it is bala predominant. Rasa by itself represents pure consciousness.

Thus the Purusa who is nothing but a con fined state of rasa has now become a triad and therefore identified with Atma". Because manas is one of his facets he is jffanamaya. Because prana is one of his facets he is karmamaya and because vak is one of his facets he is arthamaya (matter). He becomes everything. 3 2 He is Prajapati who has been described in the Vedas. Brahmanas and Upanisads in various ways. He is Atma and is the subject of our discussion. He is the Purusa de-

CONCEPT OF PRAJ APATI - 1 85

scribed in the Purusa sukta or Rgveda. 33 He is the Purusa who is higher than the highest and smaller .than the smallest standing unpreturbed like a tree and pervading everything. 34 The observed Visva is only his mahima. He is much bigger than it. 35 If we understand this Purusa in all his aspects, we would have known everything that a man should know and this is what Krsna promised Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita. 36 We have already seen that there are two aspects of Brahman viz rasa and bala. If however, we identify rasa with Brahman and bala with karma then we have the two entities Brahman and karma. The former is pure rasa (consciousness) which is amrta and the latter is mrtyu. Bot h always go together. 37 Creation is possible only for certain types of Brahma-Karma sambandhas. One of the most important of them is the piling of balas on enveloped portions of rasa. This process is called Citi and it is because of this Citi, Purusa gets three facets viz manas, prana and vak and he gets the name Atma. The word manas is derived from the root 'man' to think. Manas is thinking understanding etc. Manas is of different types. The manas that is attached to each of the indriyas (sense organs, eyes, ears etc) is called indriya manas. That manas which is single and which rules over all the indriyas put together is called Prajnanamanas. The manas that controls both Prajnanamanas and Indriyamanas is called Svovasiya manas or Avyaya manas. The manas that appears first on Purusa, we are concerned with here, is the Svovasiya manas/Because it goes on growing it is called svovasiya. 3K When Atman is identified with this manas he gets two names.

86 VEP1CC0NCEPT 0F ATMAN One is Prajnanatma and another Cidatma. There is a third name associated with this Atma and that is VijnaMtma which is the base for buddhi. If we define manas as the faculty which func tions as a luminous receptacle capable of acquiring knowledge of various things 39 , then we can define Prajnana as the manas which is the first step for acquiring jnana and vijnana. It is Cidatma be cause, it is here that manas acquires or collects pratibha, sphurti, vimarsa, manisa, medha, preksa etc which are nothing but various facets of jnana. 40 It is on this manas a series of activities involving acquisition and giving up of knowledge pertaining to various things takes place.

The faculty with the help of which it carries out these activities is called its virya. This virya has its origin in prana which is another component of Atma. Though jnana and karma arise from manas and prana respectively, they appear to arise from the same source.

Manas which represents the aid to jnana or englightment (jnanajyoti) and which is actionless (niskriya) by itself appe ars to become active. The base on which the activity of manas and prana (jyoti and virya) takes place is vak (matter) which is the third component of Atma. Our sages sometimes represented the Atma by Omkara, which has three letters. .and. rep resents manas, represents prana. Both these (akara and ukara) ie manas and prana want to acquire. The wealth they want to acquire is vak (artha). This only means that all activities which involve thinking and action take place in Atma. 4 1 Note- We shall elaborate on all these qualities of buddhi in our next book on Bhagavad Gita.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - I 87

The very first thing that appears in manas is desire (kama) 42 .

Tapas (exertion of pranas) is the characteristic of prana. Srama (physical labour) is characteristic of vak. They are the natural qualities (dharma) of manas, prana and vak respectively. We have already seen that the very first thing that appears on Purusa is svosiyamanas and because he acquires this by the process of citi (piling of balas) he is called Cidbrahma. He later acquires prana and vak by the same citi process and he becomes Cidatma. This Purusa who is initially one, gives rise to two other Purusas so that we now have a triad of Purusas instead of one. These three Purusas are called Avyaya, Aksara and Ksara and these together with Paratpara in whom they have their origin, constitute Sodasi Prajapati who is really the subject of our book. He is everything for us and it is he whom we have to understand and adore.

In the next chapter we shall see how these Purusas evolve from a single Purusa and also discuss their various facets.

â–Ą

We have seen already that the evolution of Purusa with three components manas, prana and vak is Atma or Prajapati and he is everything. In other words whatever we see in this universe whether big or small may be conceived as evolved form of Prajapati and therefore this Jagat consists of infinite number of Prajapatis and each of these Prajapatis can be named 'OM'. In this "OM 1 that part which reaches the ears when pronounced and through which one letter is distinguished from another letter constitutes the vak (matter) component. The svara part of it ie the raising and lowering of the voice while uttering the word 'OM' constitutes the prana component. After hearing uttered word 'OM the part which conceives its meaning or significance and gets involved in it is manas component. In oth er words, uttering and meditating on OM amounts to meditating on Prajapati who is everything in this Jagat. This is called upasana about which we shall give more details later.

Prajapati is otherwise, known as Brahman. He has two forms anirukta and nirukta unmanifest and manifest. In the first form, though he has the three components manas, prana and vak, these are totally inactive and remain in a state where they are one with the rasa. In other words anirukta Prajapati is the same as Paratparabrahman in whom the balas are totally inactive. From

CONCEPT OF PRAJXPATI - 2 89

that Aniruktaprajapati, the Niruktaprajapati has come into exist ence. He has now, the three components manas prana and vak as three separate entities but functioning together as Atma.

The Niruktaprajapati again develops three components in him by the samsarga or citi process of balas. They are nabhi (centre) mufti (body) and mahima. In these, the nabhi part is manas predominant and the rriurti part is vak predominant. The mahima part is prana predominant. Because of this development, the single Prajapati has evolved now into three Prajapatis viz Nabhyaprajapati, Vyakrtaprajapati and Sarvaprajapati. In Vyakrtaprajapati we have both nabhya and rriurti and in SarvaPrajapati we have all the three viz nabhya, rriurti and mahima. Of these three, Vyakrtaprajapati is important for us because it involves murti (body) which pertains to vak (matter) and there fore is tangible (can be touched and seen) in every object. The whole power of this Prajapati lies in his nabhi (centre) and from there it spreads out and exhibits as activity in the surroundings. Describing the Nabhyaprajapati, the Yajurveda says, 'Prajapati lies in the womb but is never bom. But he mani fests himself in many ways. Only wise men know his source. He supports the entire Jagat (ie murti and mahima) '.

A rk in the Rgveda describing the Vyakrta Prajapati who has nabhi as well as murti (body) says that rays emanate from the murti of Prajapati and extend to great distances. In addition the sun's rays also mix with these and spread in all directions. It is because of this spreading the Veda is able to build its murti (sarira). However this rk according to Sayana means that, Prajapati gives us cows which have in them both devatas aid Pitrs and are aus- picious and we become rich by their offsprings. But MadhusTTdan Ojha sees much more in this rk and says that in every Object

Prajapati resides as Atma and his rays mixed up with the sun's (devata) and the moon's (pitrs) rays reach us. These rays (gau) influence every object on the earth and we are rich by their ef fects.

This is the real form of Vyakrtaprajapati.

Veda, yajna and rasa (pure conciousness) surround the Vyakrtaprajapati in the form of rays and constitute his mahima (greatness). With this he is capable of all activities and he is now called Sarvaprajapati because there is nothing outside him. The Rgveda describing this Sarvaprajapati says, 'O Prajapati, there is nothing, which is not’yourself in this Visva, in which many things have sprung up and seen around. With desires to become wealthy, we offer you oblations.

In the above rk, the implication is that whatever surrounds Prajapati is Prajapati himself and therefore his mahima part is able to bring all wealth in this Jagat.

Thus the concept of Prajapati is the most important concept of the Vedic seers. That he is Atma and also Brahman was stressed later by them. From the visible they passed on to the invisible. The Veda, yajna and rasa are his important components. He was pure rasa (ananda) in the beginning. Then manas came into existence. By the process of samsargas prana and vak also came into existence and he became an Atma. Through further interactions with balas Abhva came into existence which is nothing but what we see around us, characterised by nlma, rupa and karma. Rasa is called Abhu and mayabala affects it and produces all things by the process of samsarga where citi of balas takes place on rasa.

At this stage it is necessary to make some clarifications regarding the evolution of the word Atman and its relation to Brah man. In our book 'What is Veda?' we defined Atman as the com bined existence and coordinated functioning of manas, prana and vak.

Though it looks simple enough for us to comprehend the

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-2 91

concept in this way, several complexities arise in the functioning of Atman both in the adhidaivika level and adhyatmika level mainly because here three entities are involved viz manas, prana and vak (matter).

Further the adhidaivika influences on the Atman at adhyatmika level are fairly complicated simply because there are Agni, Vayu, Surya, Candra and finally the earth on which we exist and all these influence the "adhyatmika Atma, in their own way and their combined effect on the three components of adhyatmika Atma is fairly complicated. One can conceive for example three streams of activity of Atman, one characterised by the predominance of manas (jnanadhara), another characterised by the predominance of prana (kriyadhara) and a third characterised by the predominance of vak (matter) arthadhara. If we can identify the activities or functions in each of these streams we are led to the possibility of conceiving multiplicity of Atmans (Atmagrama) though the basic definition of Atman viz that it is the combined existence and coordinated functioning of manas, prana and vak (matter) will continue to be valid because we cannot conceive of Atman's functions without any of these components. Moreover only the assumption of a group of Atmans functioning under a supreme Atman can enable us to probe into the secrets of Jnanakanda and Karmakanda, where we come across terms like Paramatma Vijnanatma, Prajrianatma, karmatrria, BhutatmS etc.

The Vedic seers were extremely clever thinkers and took great advantage of whatever they saw around them in an intelligent way to frame their concepts of the working of Nature. Their observations of the sun's orderly movement in the firmament without any change in his lustre and shape and their recognition of the fact that he is the prime life giver on the earth enabled them to attribute some sort of immortality (amrtatva) to him as compared to the mortal things on the earth. It is because of him only, life and all other things exist on the earth. While they are constantly subject to changes, the sun remains unchanged in its shape as well as in its brightness. They therefore described him as the Atman of

the Jagat and its beings How did tiiey define atman lere! viously they defined it thus: 'yasya sattaya yo any ah sattavan bhavati, tasya anyasya sah sattapradah Atma ityucyate'. That is, when A's presence or existence is responsible for the coming into existence of B, then A is called the Atma of B. The Satapatha Brahmana defines Atma in a similar way. It says, yo yasya uktham syat, brahma syat, sama syat, sah tasya Atma. In our book, 'What is Veda?'. We have already explained the words uktha, brahma and sama. Uktha means the origin (prabhavasthana) brahma means that which supports or nourishes and sama means that which pervades everything in equal measure (sarrianarupena sthito vyapto va). In the Brahman theory, Brahma n constitutes the origin, nourisher and pervader of this Visva. We have therefore no hesitation to say that Brahman is the Atma'of this VisVa just like the sun constitute the Atma" of the solar system.

Now, we can draw two conclusions from what we have kn own about Atman. They are 1) when we say Atma, the question immediately arises whose Atma? That is, the question of Atma does not arise unless we have a thing like Jagat or individual body of which it is Atma. In other words Atma requires apeksikasambandh a.

This is not the case with Brahman. 2) Creation-oriented Brahman constitutes both amrta and mrtyu whereas Atman constitutes only the amrta part. In this way strictly speaking Atman can be described as constituting a part of Brahman. But since the rasa (amrta) part of creation-oriented Brahman is more popular with the Vedantins, sometimes Brahman (obviously in the highest or pure rasa state) can be identified with Atman. It is because of this view, we come across the statements ' Atmaivedam sarvam’, Atma va idameka eva agra asit; ie Everything is Atma; Atma alone was there in the beginning etc.

Madhusudan Ojha deals with the evolution of the concept of Atman in his writings. When various transformations take place in a substance the one that remains unchanged is its Atman which constitutes its enjoyer. (vikaresvapyavikrtah bhokta ca Atma

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-2 93

ucyate).

Going into the etymology of the word, Ojha says that the word Atma'implies two entities. One is anga the organs and the other is angT, the one that presides over the angas. The word Atman is made up of three small words viz ... ..and. ..In other words, Atma is to be explained as 'asamantat svesu angesu satatyena abhivyapnoti iti Atma’ ie that which spreads and fully covers all its organs is called Atma. In another place Ojha ex plains it as 'paricchinnatam vihaya vibhutitvameva icchan vyapnoti iti sah Atma ucyate'. That is, Atma is that which gives up the state of being an adjunct, and with a longing for the presiding status p ervades the entire susbtance. In any case the idea is clear. That is, the word ‘Atma' is never used without mentioning whose Atma it is. Actually we get a greater insight into the meaning of Atma, if we go back to our definition of Atma as the combined exi stence and coordinated functioning of manas prana and vUk. This definition is based on the Upanisadic statement 'sa va esa Atma" vangmayah, pranamayah, manomayah. Here there are two distinct statements viz combined existence of manas, prana and vak and then their coordinated functioning. Actually coordination is done by manas only. Therefore we will aibt be wrong if we say manas which is the coordinator represents Atma ie angi and prana and vak which help the manas in the coordination process (vak forms the base for the activity of manas-'and prana carries out the orders of manas) may be called angas. That is why the triad Atma, prana and pasu is called Prajapati.

Here manas is Atma, the angi;, pranas are put on the angi and therefore called angas and pasus which is nothing but vak (matter) part of Vis’va are called upSiigas (secondary angas). We shall come back to this concept of Prajapati again later.

When Atma is conceived as pure rasa (pure consciousness or Jnana) which is unlimited and not definable; he is called Akhandatma.

When rasa is limited by bala and a thing is created, the Atma - of the created thing is called Karmatrria and it consti tutes the triad manas prana and vak (matter). It is because of

these three attributes Atman exhibits three distinct characteris tics viz jnana, karma and artha (matter). Manas gi ves rise to jnana and therefore Atman goes on acquiring knowledge. Pranas are the origin of karma and Atman is always engaged in some activity and vak gives rise to acquisition of artha or matter which blo cks space. It is possible to conceive this Atman confined to a body or substance to be of three kinds. One remains pure rasa or jnana. He is not involved in any action (akriyah) and is unattached (asangah) and shines as pure consciousness (kevalo niratisaprakashanah). Another though involved in karma is not affected by its results, and a third which is the enjoyer or sufferer of the effects of karma. These three Atmas are named in different ways in the Vedic literature. We list below some of them.

1. Cidatma, Pranatma, Karmatma.

2. Jivatma, Ksetrajnatma', Bhutatma 3. Paramatma, Antaratma, Sariratma 4. Uttamapurusah (Avyayapurusah), ^urusah 5. Tatasthah, Kutasthah, Bhokta

Aksarapun

# ah,

Ksara

6. SaksT, Karayita, Karta etc.

Each one of these again contain subdivisions. For example if we consider the group Tatastha, Kutastha, Bhokta, it will be seen that Tatastha is of three kinds viz Satta, Vijnana, and Ananda. Kutastha is also of three kinds viz Vai/vanara,Taijasa and Prajna .Bhokta is of three kinds viz Sarira Satva and Mttaavidya. Thus we have nine Atmas for the Jivatma (That is why the dvija wears yajnopavita which has nine threads). There are nine Atmas for the Isvaratma also. Above all these eighteen Atmas, is the ParatparatmaorParamesvara who is all powerful (Sarvasaktiman) and limitless (asima) and represents the highest state we can reach in AtmamimamsaT There is a well known verse defining Atman, which is found

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI * 2 95

in Vedantic texts. It is, ' Yaccapnoti yadadatte yaccUtti visayaniha; Yaccasya santato bhaVah tasmadatmeti kirtyate That is, Alma pervades everywhere. It receives the essence of every substance through vasanas (ie understands the nature of substance as a result of its inherent capacity). It enjoys every thing around. That is why it is called Atma MadhusTTdan Ojha quotes another verse from literature regarding the various terms used for Atma. It says, ' Rupam pradhanarn pratyangca sariri brahma cetyami; Atmas'abdsya pancarthah matah sfoutopacaratah’ We shall say a few words about each of these.

1. Rupa-we come across words like Vijnanatma, Prajnanatma, Avyayatma, Aksaratma etc in literature. This only means that in all these cases Xtma takes those repsective forms.Vijfianatma only means VijTianarupa (of Vijnana form). Avyayatma means Avyayarupa (of Avyaya form) and so on.

2. Pradhana-In every created thing the important part constitutes the Atman which is termed angi. His angas (organs) say, the devatas which control the organs have only a subordinate position. For example when we describe Prajapati, we say he has seven pranas. Four of them, the central ones pertaining to the central,supporting frame constitute his Atma. Two go to the wings and the seventh one forms his tail. 5 That is why Atma is termed Pradhana.

3. Pratyang - That the Jivatma is called Pratyagatma is well known to Vedantins.

4.

Sariri - Because Atman presides over Sarira (Sariradhisthata) he is called Sariri. There are many passages in Vedic literature describing this/’ 4. Brahma - We have already dealt with the relation between Brahman and Atman.

With the above clarifications on the use of the word Atman and its meaning, we now go back to the subject of Prajapati.

The story of Prajapati is a never ending one. Whether you call him Paratpara, Paramesvara, Isvara, Avyaya, Aksara, Ksara, Brahman, Atrria; Veda, Yajna, Satya, Loka, Praja, Manas, PrtTna, Vak (matter), Jyoti or anything else, everything comes under him. The Brahmana statement, 'Prajapati is half amrta and half mrtyu’ 7 enables everything to be included in him. Some represent Prajapati himsel f and others are his wealth and constitute his martya part. This wonderful concept of Prajapati was developed in the Rgvedic period itself and he w^s the most popular God in the Yajurvedic period. Refinements were effected both during the Yajurvedic and Upanisadic periods. While his karma aspect was stressed and he was adored as Prajapati, Purusa Hiranyagarbha, Veda, Yajna"etc during the Vedic and Brahmanic periods, his jnana aspects were stressed during the Xranyaka and Upanisadic periods and he was adored and meditated upon as Brahman, Atman 'OM' Satya Jnana, Vijnana, Ananda, Avyaya, Aksara, Sodasi etc.

The Rgveda (and also Yajurveda) 8 sai d that there is nothing here or around us, which is not covered by Prajapati. How does Prajapati cover these things? We have already seen that

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Purusa represents the confined state of rasa and such a state of rasa when confined by mayabala is called sarnstha. The NiruktaPrajapati comes under Purusa category and therefore vve can cover all his aspects by naming his samsthas. MadhusUdan Ojha named them as 1. Atmasamstha Prajapati - Avyaya Aksara and Ksara (the Purusa triad) come under this. Avyaya has five facets (kalas) viz Ananda, Vijnana, Manas, Praija and VSk (matter), Aksara has also five facets viz Brahma, Vi§nu, Indra, Agni and Soma. The five facets of Ksara are Praha, Apah (waters), Vak (matter), Anna (Soma) and Anriada (Agni.)

2. Gunasamstha Prajapati - Pratistha, Jyoti and Yajrfa are named Atmagunas. Pratistha is what gives satta to the object. Jyoti is what enables one to recognise the name and form of an object.

3. Sanrasamstha Prajapati - Bija, Devata and Bhiuta come under sariras. Bija covers, sukra, kama (desire) and karma. Agni, Vayu etc. come under Daivata. The bhutas are the five elements, water, earth, air, fire and akasa.

4. Dravinasamstha Prajapati - the three viryas, Brahma Ksatra and Vit which characterise, the three classes of men viz Brahmanas, Ksatriyas and Vaisyas come under this class of Prajapati.

5. Upagrahasamstha Prajapati - Veda, Loka and Vak come under this category.

6. Kartsnyasamstha Prajapati - Jaya (wife) Praja (subject) and Vitta (wealth) come under this class.

The above six samsthas belong to each of four types of Prajapatis.

They are Isvara Prajapati, Pratima Prajapati, Jiva Prajapati and Upaskara Prajapati. The (Nirukta) Prajapati which comes into existence first is the Isvara Prajapati. This IsVara Prajapati contains in himself four Paratima Prajapatis. They are Paramesth!^ Sun, Moon and Earth (Prthvi). Each of these has the • • •

THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA six samsthas mentioned above. These Pratima Prajapatis contain in themselves infinite number of Jivas and who are called Jiva Prajapatis.

Whatever inanimate things we see around us like moun tains, hills, houses, wood, bricks etc constitute Upsakara Prajapatis. Above Isvara Prajapati, we have only the Anirukta Prajapati who may be called Paramesvara or Paratpara.

The reader would have been by now convinced that Prajapati covers everything and this book is only his story. We shall therefore try our best to present to the readers all aspects of Prajapati and thereby cover all aspects of the Vedic concept of Atman.

We know that the Paratpara state of Brahman represents an unlimited ocean of rasa in which the balas are in a sleeping state as it were. Another important thing we should remember is that Paratpara represents a rta state. In our book on "Vedic concept of Soma' we explained the two terms 'Rta' and 'Satya' in Vedic parlance. The word 'rta' is one of the most ill understood terms in the Vedic literature. Rta represents a state of matter in which there is no centre from which all activities proceed. Madhusudan Ojha defined it as 'ahrdayam asariram rtam'. He defined 'satya' as 'sahrdayam sasariram satyam' . From rta state we pass on to satya state. Air, water, snow, pervading heat (like antariksagni) are all said to be in rta state. It is from this condi tion, we pass on to a state where a centre (kendra) appears and an object builds up around the centre. The object that finally results is termed satya 9 and it feeds on the rta that surrounds it. In all creation processes satya is at the centre and rta surrounds it. Thus rta and satya are different terms though they always go together in the creation process .Satya results from yajna which is nothing but creation process. In the Vedas Varuna is said to be the controller of rta (rtasya goplf) which here refers to the

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 2 99

primordeal waters. Because he is against yajna", he is called an Asura.

Indra is his enemy because Indra promotes yajnSprocess. It is the activity of Indraprana in the clouds that produces thunderstorm which is a yajfia process.

Coming back to rasa, we can say rasa constitutes rta and Paratpara also being limitless constitutes rta. When the maya bala appears on it, and produces a centre of disturbance, it marks the appearance of satya. In other words the enveloped rasa state which results in the appearance of Purusa is satya. The balas which have now a status of satya has resulted in a superior satya which is the Purusa. On the other hand when mayabala appears but if it has not the support of rasa ie if it has not enveloped a portion of rasa and is clinging to it, it is called anrta. 11 When mayabala has limited the rasa and has enveloped it, further impact of balas produce citi (piling) or granthi bandhana (knotting) and creation takes place. For the creation to take place, the formation of hrdaya (centre or satya) in the rta field is necessary. Then only a new thing comes into existence. First the Purusa comes into existence^ Further impact of balas by selective processes result in many Purusas and then the formation of many Atmans and then the Visva comes into existence by selective operations of balas on the Atmans.

The Purusa who comes into existence in the first instance (Adipurusa) splits into three Purusas. Madhusudan Ojha names these three creations (srstis) mayiki, karmiki and vaikariki. The first one is a creation where rasa's role is predominant. Since rasa is pure consciousness (jnana), this Purusa is manas predominant. Karmiki srsti results in a Purusa when jnana and karma (action) are both built on the manas by the balas which means this Purusa is prana predominant.

Vaikariki srsti results in more new creations. Since vak (matter) is needed for new creations, vaikariki srsti results in a vak predominant Purusa. The first Purusa is called Avyaya, the second one is called Aksara and third is called Ksara.

THE VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA Since every Purusa is an Atman, we can call these creations as Avyayatma AksaratmU and Ksaratma. Since manas, prana and vak always go together, these three Purusas always coexist in this Vis'va.

Putting the above views in a different way, we introduce a word called Prakrti which according to the sage Kapila is the basic principle on which this Vis'va is established. 12 It is the material cause for this Vis'va. This became a school in philosophy called Sankhya Philosophy.

Prakrti in this school was called Pradhana. According to this schoo l Purusa has nothing to do with Vis'va though he is there all the time. It is Prakrti which was originally in an unmanifest form now manifests itself as Visva. But this is not the view of the seers of Upanisads.

Endorsing this Upanisadic view, Krsna says in Gita.

"People who are ignorant of my true nature viz. I am Avyaya Purusa, think that I was avyakta (unmanifest) in the beginning and now I have become vyakta (manifest) 13 That is, according to the Vedic thought, it is Purusa who transforms into Prakrti. This Prakrti in turn transforms itself into vikrti (material used in the creation of Visva) and thereafter the creation of Vis'va takes place. It is Purusa that is everything. This is the meaning of the statement in Purusa sUkta viz 'Purusa evedam sarva m'. The statement in the Brahmana viz 'Catustayam va idam sarvam' also means that the four things viz Purusa, Prakrti, Vikrti and Vis'va constitute everything and therefore constitute Prajapati.

In the Kathopanisad, the Purusa samstha goes under the name Amrta, the Prakrti samstha goes under the name Brahma and the Vikritisamstha goes under the name Sukra. Amrta, Brahma and Sukra constitute everything. 14

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-2 101

We have already said that the envelopment of a portion, of rasa by the mayabala results in Purusa samstha. This marks the appearance of a centre called hrdaya and balas build up on this hrdaya. Whereas the enveloped rasa is called Purusa the hrdayabala that is built up on him is called Prakrti. We have now two states the first one is rasa predominant and the second one is the coexistence of rasa and bala both being equally important. From this second state we get the third state when further bala build on the hrdaya, and it becomes a bala predominant state.

The first two states are amrta (rasa) predominant and the third state is mrtyu (bala) predominant. We can also say that the first state is Purusa the second state is Prakrti which is amrta predominant and the third state is also Prakrti which is mrtyu predominant. Thus we have three Purusas who are called Avyaya Purusa, Aksara Purusa and Ksara Purusa. Aksara Purusa evolves from Avyaya Purusa. All these three Purusas always go together Avyaya Purusa is manas predominant, Aksara Purusa is prana predominant and Ksara Purusa is vak predominant.

We can also put the whole thing in yet another way. We first describe the evolution of Avyaya Purusa. Then we describe how he acquires his five kalas (phases) and then describe the evolution of Aksara Purusa and Ksara Purusa from the kalas of Avyaya Purusa.

Avyaya Purusa represents rasa state. Since rasa is pure consciousness (jnana) and since manas is seat of jnaha, Avyaya Purusa represents manas confined or enveloped by balas. This manas is called s'vovasiya manas. On this manas piling of balas takes place. This piling is of two types. One is internal piling (antasciti) and the other is external piling (bahisciti). By the internal piling of balas on manas, it gets two forms viz Vijnana and Ananda. By the external piling of balas on manas, it gets two forms viz Prana and V5k. In this way Avyaya’ Purusa has five organs or kalas which are Ananda, Vijnana, Manas PrarTa and Vak. Ananda and Vijfiana are his vidya"part. Prana and Vak are his karma part. The chief characteristic of manas is desire (kama) and therefore it constitutes his kama part. Thus single Avyayatma

Avyaya Purusa attains his kalas by the citi process he is called Cidatma.

The Taitiriya Upanisad describes these kalas as kos'as 15 in the adhyatmika system.

The Aksara Purusa resides in the prana part of Avyaya Purusa.

Therefore he is always engaged in karma. This karma is of three types in the creation process. They are Brahma, Visnu and Indra. Brahma is that prana which gives stability to the shape and form of a created object. In every object something is acquired from outside and something is lost from inside. For these processes to take place, a seat of establishment is required for the object and Brahma provides that. Take for example a lamp. Something is always going out from the flame and something is coming in also through the wick. The stability of the flame is thereby maintained. This stability is called Pratistha and that is what Barhma provides. The prana which throws out something outside is called Indra and this process of throwing out is called viksepana. But the prana which constantly feeds the object by bringing food from outside and making up the loss thus maintaining the shape and form of the object is called yajnas'akti and this is called Visnu. Thus in every object three pranas viz Viksepana (throwing out), As'anakarsana (attracting food) and Pratistha are seen to be present.

Indra being a powerful force drags along with him both Brahma and Visnu while he throws out. But Brahma stops at the outer surface of the body, and in this process he designs the shape x)f the body. Visnu goes further and makes three steps. That is why he is called Trivikrama in the Puranas. The idea is that Indra in his activity of throwing out creates a region of vak (matter) around the substance and that enables Visnu to spread his yajflJT activity in three steps.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 2 103

The Vedic seers postulated the principle of identifying various regions of vak field created by Indra by stomas. It is simply a measu re by which we can locate various distances fronj the body by concentric circles, we have thus trivrtstoma (9 units), pancadasastoma (15 units), ekavimsastoma (21 units), trinavastoma (27 units) and trayastrimsatstoma (33 units) indicating various distances from the surface of the body which itself extends to three stomas from its centre to its outer surface. Trivrtstoma covering the Prthvi region, pancadas'astoma covering the Antariksa region and ekavimsastoma covering the region above (dyau) (the sun is imagined to be located at the 21st stoma) constitute the three steps of Visnu. The Veda says that it is Indra who goads Visnu to make these three steps. 16 Beyond, in the upper heavens lies the soma region. By these three steps Visnu reaches the region of soma. He brings the soma with him and runs the yajna cycle in the three regions which he covers by three steps. (Bhuloka, Bhuvarloka and Svarloka). Agni, the eater of food (annada) resides in all these three regions which are also the regions of activity of Indra. Agni and Brahma reside in the body. The agni of body is martya but the yajMgni is amrtagni. The former is called Cityagni while the latter is called Citenidheyagni.

The soma rasa which Visnu brings gets into the body and builds the hardness in the body. Soma rasa also mixes with the amrtagni and supports the Devas who are responsible for the functioning of the indriyas in us. Thus Aksara Purusa also has five components viz Brahma, Visnu, Indra, Agni and Soma.

The Ksara Purusa resides in the vak part of Avyaya Purusa. It is because of this, he is vak predominant. His form is matter ie the material part used in creation and therefore forms the operational base for jnana and kriya processes. I n other words jnana enters him and kriya is supported by him. However, the Ksara Purusa remains in amrta form in the vak part of Avyaya Purusa and he is never separated from him. But h s martya part which

develops on Avyaya Purusa as a result of transformation of his vak part, is given up by Avyayatma after sometime just like foam forming on water or cream forming on milk or rust forming on iron leave their original source. The amrtaksara then becomes pure. This process of formation of martyaksara on amrtaksara which develops on the vak part of Avyaya Purusa goes on for ever as a part of the nature of Avyaya Purusa. This constitutes an aspect of the creation process.

The amrtaksara also has five kalas or five components. Th ey are the result of citi process. These are 1) bija citi 2) deva citi 3) bhuta citi 4) praja"and vitta. We shall explain all these in the next chapter when we deal with the nature and functions of all these three Purusas in detail.

There is another way of describing the evolution of Ksara Purusa. We have already seen that Avyaya Purusa is manas pre dominant and his hrdayabala (balas built on hrdaya) constitutes Prakrti. This Prakrti has an amrta part and a martya part. The Amrta part develops five components and is called Aksara Purusa and the martya part is Ksara Purusa. The latter is called Ksara Purusa because he has his support on the immortal vlk of Avyaya and never leaves him. Though he undergoes transformation and provides the material part (upadana karana) in the creation process, he never undergoes change and remains in the same form 17 That is why he is sometimes called, Atmaksara and also Brahman. 18 In this way Brahman/Atman has four facets which matter for creation, sustenance and destruction of this Vis'va. We can deal with only these four forms. These States are interdependent in the sense one supports the other.

For example Ksara Purusa is

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-2 105

supported by Aksara which in turn is supported by Avyaya. Avyaya's support is Paratpara which therefore isHlambana (sup port) for all the three Purusas as the Upanisad says. 19 The difference between Paratpara and Avyaya is marginal and many times it is better to keep them together and understand one in terms of the other. Some statements in the Vedas and Upanisads will apply to both these states. In fact, for creation purposes, it is most ly Ksara and Aksara Purusas that matter, but we should remember that inside them also are Paratpara and Avyaya. In other words all the created things in this Visva exhibit in one way or other all the four Purusas together with their various forms. That is, they will exhibit 3 x 5 + 1 = sixteen kalas. Since these are nothing but Prajapati's forms, Prajapati is called Sodasi. Since he is everything, the Brahmana says 'Sodasakalam va idam sarvam 1 . 'Sodasakalo vai Purusah 1 , 'Purusa evedam • * * sarvam' etc.

Prajapati, Purusa, Atma, Brahman, ParamesVara Sodasipurusa, all refer to the same thing.

Before we close this chapter we shall see some details of the 'Pravargya' concept of our sages which has an important bear ing on Prajapati's nature and functions.

We have already seen Sodasi Purusa has in him the three Purusas who have five kalas (components or forms) each. We can also say that Sodasi Purusa consists of Avyaya Purusa with all his kalas and then his Prakrti part also. His Prakrti part again consists of two parts. One is internal which is called Svabfrfva and another external which is called Parabhava. Svabhava part consists of Aksara and Ksara Purusas and the Parabhava part consists of Vikaraksara and yajfia. Here we have to explain the terms Vikaraksara and yajna. We have said above that one part of Prakrti consists of Aksara and Ksara.

The kalas of Aksara we know are Brahma, Visnu, Indra Agni and Soma.

Since both Aksara

THE VEDIC CONCEPT ATMA Purusa and Ksara Purusa belong to the same Prakrti, initially Ksara Purusa also develops the same facets as Aksara Purusa viz Brahma, Vignu, Indra, Agni and Soma. Since Ksara Purusa has to provide the material for the creation process, a transformation (vikara) takes places in his components and they now become Prana, apah (waters), vak, anriada (agni) and anna (soma). These are called Vikaraksara. This Vikaraksara with its five kalas is • • called Visvasrt Brahman. Yajna represents the offering of one substance into another so that a new thing is created. All creations take place only through yajna. Whether it is the birth of the solar system or the occurrence of rainfall, or the birth of a child or the birth of a plant, the process at work is yajna in which a substance of the Soma (anna) category is offered to a substance of the Agni category. Here each of the five kalas of Visvasrtbrahman is offered to each one of his five kalas and this yajfia is called Sarvahuta yajna resulting in the Pancikarana of each of the components of Visvasrtbrahman. In this state they are called Pancajanas and these are the components of Yajnabrahman. It is this Yajnabrahman that is responsible for the coming into existence of five anubhutas viz sabda, sparsa, rujpa rasa and gandha. From these the mahabhutas viz akasa, vayu, agni, apah, and prthivT are formed. They in turn produce all the diversities which we see in this Vis'va. This Visva constitutes the food (odana) for the Yajna Purusa who is of the Agni type. There is noth ing in this Visva which does not become anna (food) to him. That is why he is called Sarvahuta. The Anna (food) that is offered to him is of two types viz Brahmaudana and Pravargya. Brahmaudana protects his own form while Pravargya is responsible for the creation of the subjects (praja).

This Pravargya part is called ucchista and this is the material cause for the creation of Visva. Thai is why the saying goes 'ucchistat sakalam jagat'. Brahmaudana and Pravargya constitute the two heads or Yajna Purusa or Yajna Prajapati. The Rgveda says 'The bull which has four horns, three feet, two heads and seyen hands, bound with a triple bond reafs kmd'ty. The great

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 2 107

Deva has entered into the mortals.

20

Here, Yajffa Prajapati is the sun who is the life giver on the earth and who is responsible for all the yajffas taking place on the earth. Above the sun are Paramesthi and Svyambhu Prajapati, Below him are the earth and the moon. He is in the middle ('Brhat tasthau bhuvanesvantah 1). The soma of the Paramesthi region is constantly falling on him. The two heads referred to in the rk refer to Brahmaudana and Pravargya. His triple bond only refers to his light (saura tejas) during morning, noon and evening.

The morning sun's light is called gllyatra, that of noon is called savitra and that of evening is called sairasvata. In the language of Vedic rituals, these are called pratassavana madhyandina savana and sayam savana.

These three savanas are his three feet. The seven paths of the sun three on either side of the equator and one on it in the heavens during the course of the year constitute his seven hands. The four Vedas constitute his horns. He is compared to a bull who roars. There are four rtviks in the yajna viz Hota, who invokes the gods, Adhvaryu who does all the yajna karma, Ud^gatrr who recites the samans and praises the yajna karma and Brahma, who supervises all the proceedings of the yajfia. In the yajna conducted by Sauraprajapati, Agni is the Hota, Vayu is Adhvaryu, Aditya is Udgata and candra is Brahma. Because of these four rtviks the Brahmauudana gets split into four parts and is shared by these four (catuhprasVa). By this Brahmaudana, the Yajna Prajapati maintains his yajna form, (yajnasvarupa).

Now we have to see what happens to the Pravargya. This Pravargya (oozed out portion) reaches the earth in the form of sun's rays and sun's light and heat and enters the vegetation, atmosphere, water etc and feeds them. It feeds all the components on earth which take part in the creation process. In the language of the rituals Pravargya feeds the Virat Agni or Virat Prajapati. The components of Virat Prajapati are ten. That is why it is said 'Dasaksara Virat'. They are 1. stoma 2. prstha 3. rtu 4. chandas

5. dik 6. savana 7. prana 8. pasu 9. sukra 10. virya. Each of these have again subdivisions so that Virat Prajapati or Virat Atma has forty components (Catvarimis'ini Parama Virat) and uses them in the creation of Vis'va. These components constitute both his amrta and martya parts. They can be divided as his Praja, Pasu and Vitta. We can list them as below.

Agnih

Vayuh

Adityah

Chandrarriah

Vasavah

Rudrah

Adityah

Visvedevah

Prthivi

Antariksam

Dyauh

Apah

Rgvedah

Yajurvedah

Samavedah

Brahmavedah

Prajah

(Atharva Vedah) Vasantah

Grismah

Varsa

Sarat

Gayatri

Tristup

Jagati

Anustup

Praci

Pratici

Udici

Daksina"

Trivrt

Pancadas'a

Saptadas'a

Ekavimsa ______

\5k

Caksuh Srotram "_ Hota Adhvaryu Udagata Brahma We shall see more about Yajna Prajapati later.

Pas'uh

Prana

_

Vittam

â–Ą

VII. Concept Of Prajapati - 3 SODASI PRAJAPATI

~

We have been using the terms Brahman, Atman, Prajapati and Purusa very freely. Though here and there we have pointed out their shades of difference, we shall again remind the reader that the terms Brahman and Prajapati should strictly apply to states where the martya and amrta components coexist whereas the terms Atman and Purusa should strictly apply to states, where there are amrta components alone. Amrta means that which is immortal, nitya, and which exists always and there is no time when we can say that it does not exist. Martya means that which sometimes exists and sometimes does not exist. The subject we are dealing with is very terse mostly because there are many apparently contradictory statements in the Vedic literature and to understand them and decipher them correctly is not at all easy. For example many ti:mes Prajapati and Brahman are used in the sense of Atman and Purusa and vice versa. But as long as we are clear in our mind as to what we are dealing with there is no likelihood of getting into confusion with regard to the use of the terms.

In order to cover the subject of this book properly, we should be clear as to what the various topics, we have to cover, are. We have already said Prajapati is everything and h e is essentially of four kinds viz Isvara Prajapati, Pratima Prajapati, Jiva Prajapati and Upaskara Prajapati. Each of these has six samsthas as we

I

T H E V E D I C C O N C E P T O F A T M A

have already mentioned. We have to cover all these: Another way is to treat the subject as Atman and we treat him in terms of his various aspects called anubandhas. These anubandhas are of five kinds viz samstha, pada, tantra, sambandha and gati.

That is, to cover the subject of Atman, we cover his amrta states and also the states in which he takes over martya compo nents on him.

We can list them as follows.

Under Samsthah we have I. Paratparasamastha 2. Purusa Samstha 3. Soda^i Samstha 4. Satya Prajapati samstha. 5. Yajffa Prajapati-samstha. 6 Virat Prajapati samstha and 7 Visva Prajapati samstha. Atman has three padas viz. I. Amrta 2. Brahma and 3. Sukra.

The tantras of Atman are Jnanatantra, Karmatantra and Arthatantra Atmagatis are 1. Nityagati 2. Kalagati 3. Brahmapatha gati, 4.

Devapathagati 5. Pitrpathagati 6. Yamapathagati 7. Agatigati and 8.

Samavalayagati.

Atma Sambandhas are citi sambandha, Samsara sambandha and other sambandhas which we have already described.

The seven states ofAtman can also be described in the following way.

1Nirvisesah Gudhotma"

Visvatitah Pravivikta

Brahman

ÂŤ

2.

-Paratparah

Pravivikta

Brahman

3.

puusah

Gudhotma

Visvatitah

Gudhotma

Visvasyatma

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 3 111

ocean of rasa is the result of mahSmayabala enveloping a portion of rasa and creating a centre (hrdaya). Because of the appearance of hrdaya, this Purusa represents pure manas which is called Svovasiyas. The very first thing that appears on this manas is desire (kama) 1. This desire is of two types. One is rasa predominant and in another bala is predominant. The former leads to moksa (release) and the latter leads to bandhana (bondage). As a result of this, the single Purusa who was nothing but manas, evolves into three kalas viz Vidyatma (characteristic of predominant rasa) Kamatma (characteristic of desire) and Karmatma (characteristic of predominant bala). The piling of rasa on manas to make him rasa predominant is called internal citi (antasciti) and piling of balas on manas to make him bala predominant is called external citi (bahisciti).

By the former citi he develops two kalas Vijnana and Ananda and by the latter he develops again two kalas viz Prana and Vak. This Purusa is now all powerful because he is Ananda, he is also Vijnana, he is also Manas, he is also Prana and he is also Vak. He pervades everything and can create anything he likes. At the same time he can also become pure Ananda (ie Santananda) and completely keep away from creative process. We can say that his manas can take him to Ananda (santananda) which represents moksa and can also take him to bondage by developing Prana and Vak. That is why the saying goes that manas is responsible for both moksa and bandha (bondage). 2 Let us now take the manomaya Purusa, ie the Purusa before he develops the moksa kalas and the srsti kaias. He is called Svovasiyabrahman. He is also called BhariTpa, and he pervades the entire akas'a. He is devoid of gender. He pervades every substance in this Vis’va and is called Avyaya Pttmsa. The OotpatJha Brahmana describing him says,

112 VT~ ^OjSCEPT OF ATMAN

'He is the same in all cases, and also in the three numbers (singular, dual and plural)'.He is therefore called Avyaya. 3 He is purely light (jyotis). Through his rays he influences karma. The word Avyaya consists of four parts,.

He 4 does not change. iHe is not invo've' 1 in karma He is simply light (Jyoti). The Upanisad says,' He has nothing to do. He has no assigned work. There is nobody equal to him or superior to him. He wields great power. Jnana, bala and kriya (action) are his natural assets. 5 Everything in this Vis'va draws its su pport on this Avyaya Purusa who stands on his own. The Kathopanisad says.

It is the greatest and highest support for everything. If one understands it, he gets whatever he wants'/’ Both Aksara Purusa and Ksara Purusa have their origin in * • • ° Avyaya Purusa. The former is amrta and the latter though is also Amrta because he never leaves Avyaya, produces the martya component used in the creation of Visva. It is this Aksaratma who, supported by Avyaya creates the Visva through, Kama (de sire) tapas (straining of pranas) and 'Srama (physical labour) us ing the Ksara as material cause (upadana karana). Though Avyaya Purusa does not have body (vak), or prana or manas (ie indriya manas), he is the origin of body, prana and manas of all the things in th is Visva. 7

lished incomplete]

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-3 1;13

The Bhagavad Gita extols the Avyaya Purusa in many ways and points out the basic support he provides to this Jagat and all the material things (bhutas) in it.* Though the Avyaya Purusa is the root cause of all creations, he does not take part in the creative activity. It is through Prakrti (ie Aksara Purusa) the creative processes take place. 9 But unless the Avyaya Purusa is associated, creative processes are not possible. For example we know that when we see a thing, it is the eye that is involved in the seeing process.But unless the object is illuminated by sunlight or a lamp, we cannot see the object. In the same way Avyaya Purusa plays a passive role in the creative activity which is essentially carried out on Ksara by Aksara Purusa. Both these have their origin in Avyaya Purusa. That is why Krsna tells Arjuna.' Though I do everything, know me as Avyaya Purusa who does not do anything. 1"

114 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

Madhusudan Ojha in his Brahmasamanvaya gives the various names by which Avyaya Purusa is recognised and which he has collected from literature. They are Adipurusa, Anlfdipurusa, Pprusottama, Purana Purusah, Yajnapurusah, Bhutabhavanah. Bhutesah, Satcidanandah, Adhiyajnah, Ajah, Acyutah, Amrtah, Sas'vatah, Saksi, Paramatma, Parah, Avyayah. Satyah, Satyasya Satyah (ie Aksara is Satya and he is the Satva in him), Cidatma etc. As Vidyatma he is mukti saksi. As Karmatma he is srstisaksi and as KamUtrriS he is saksi for both. Ananda and Vijnana are his vidya part. Manas is his kama part and Prana and Vak are his karma part. ' When the Avyaya Purusa comes into existence, he represents pure manas which as we have already said is called sVyosiya manas. Our ancients conceived him as Akas'a since he can reach great distances and pervade the vast space. Therefore he is called Akaj&tma or Kham brahman. Since manas is the seat of all desires he is called Kamatma or Kam Brahman. Kam represents • food and whatever food (in the form of visayas) manas desires, it goes after it. Because by the citi (piling) process, he becomes whatever he wants to be, he is called Cidatma or Ram Brahman. Ram means 'ramate 1 ie he enjoys by taking different forms.

We may also conceive Avyaya manas as the triad of uktha (origin of desires) arka (rays going out after food) and aiiti (consuming food in the form of visayas, vasanas etc.)

Avyaya Purusa as Jnanatma acquires Vijnana and Ananda and as Karmatma acquires prana and vak so that now Avyaya Purusa who was pure manas in the beginning has become a Purusa with five kalas viz ananda, vijnana, manas, prana and vak.

Madhusudan Ojha describes seven types of manas. Three belong to Avyaya who has three states viz Jnanatma, Kamatma, and Karmatma and all these three go under the common name sVovasiya. Sarvendriya manas is of two types one belongs to Prajnanatma and another belongs to Satva which is essentially a guna (satvaguna). The former is also called bhautika manas and

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 3 115

the latter called guna manas. These two are called Sarvendriya manas because these are the centres where the operations of all the indriyas (organs) are brought together. Indra is the devata presiding over these two types of manas. The remaining two types of manas belong to Mahanatma and the indriyas (organs) and are presided over by Candra devata. The former is also called Aksara manas or Prakrti manas and the latter indriya manas or Vedaniya manas. We shall deal with these in greater detail later.

We have already said that Avyaya Purusa is all powerful because of his five forms or kalas viz vak, prana, manas, vijnana and ananda.

Madhusudan Ojha makes a very interesting analysis of these words. The word manas consists of three parts viz The word prana two parts viz and the word vak (vac) consists again of three parts vi Taking the word, vak first 3 represents prana, 31 represents manas. Vak prays or begs prana and manas. Prana derives its meaning from its two parts it and means going out and 3R means What goes out from the hrdaya is prana. It constitutes the rays from the Atman 3^means gati (movement) or dipti (lustre) or adana (taking in) ( i That which, both prana and v5k take in for living with, is called manas. As a result of their coordinated action, satta ie the existence of a basic thing results in a new thing which has nama, rupa and karma, just like from threads a garment comes into existence or just like starting from clay (which has satta) a new thing like a pot comes into existence and the manas recognises it. It is interesting to note that when manas thinks of a new nUma, rupa and karma, then by the cooperation of prana and vak, a word is uttered which manas know already."

116 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

The words ananda and vijnana have already been explained by us in a previous chapter. In his Brahmansamanvaya, Ojha stresses one point viz that in the Ananda form of Avyayapurusa we normally take it that all the balas disappear. In other words'we think it is a pure rasa state. But this is not a correct view. According to Ojha, even in the Ananda state balas do not completely disappear. All that we can say is that the balas have only a weak link with rasa. Ananda state is reached

by Avyaya Purusa by the process of antasciti (ie the piling of rasa on manas) and in this process some operation of balas is inevitable. Only thing is granthi bandhana does not take place. That is whatever balas are present they have only a weak link with rasa (samshra bandha). In other words karma is not completely destroyed even in the Ananda state.

As we have already said Bhagavad Gita extols Avyaya Purusa in various ways. Madhusudan Ojha quotes from Gita extensively to illustrate the various kalas of Avyaya. Because Avyaya Purusa is Anandamaya, he sustains everything in this Visva and therefore he is called 'Bharta' and also Nivasa (abode). Because he is Vijnanamaya he shows the way to mukti for people who suffer in this samsara. He is therefore called "Suhrt' (friend) and S'aranam (refuge). Because he is pranamaya he gives Pratistha to all bhutas and therefore he is called 'Prabhu' (lord) of everything. Because he is manomaya he takes the jivas to mukti as muktislksi and leads them to bondage as srstisaksi.

He is therefore called 'Saksi'. Since he decides the goal he is also called Gati' and so on. 12

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 3 117

We shall see many more passages of Bhagavad Gita in our next book on the same subject In the Upanisads Avyaya Purusa is conceived as jyoti(light) .He is also called jyotisam jyotih, because, the sun, moon, stars agni etc depend on this jyoti for their illumination. 13 In the Upanisads we get the statement 'Satyam, jnanamanantam brahma'. These three altributes apply to Avyaya Purusa. Because he resides in every thing as Antaryami and provides the basic support to Aksara Purusa's activity, he is called Satya. Because he gives rise to many Isvaras and many Jivas, through them, he is Ananta. Bec ause he is pure consciousness (jnana) and pervades the entire Visva as jyotisam jyoti, he is Jfiana.

Note- See also Ojha's different way.

Where Ojha explains in a slighlty

||8 VEDICCONCEPTOFATMAN

The concept of Satya as formulated by our sages is an ex tremely interesting one. We shall deal with this concept in a sepa rate chapter. The next Purusa we shall deal with is Aksara Purusa.

In the previous chapter we have already seen how he evolves from Avyaya Purusa. Aksara never leaves Avyaya Purusa anti presides over all the Ksara Purusas. The Brhadarnyakopanisad says, 'He in whom the five pancajanas apah, annada (Agni) and anna (Soma) pancikarana) and 'akasa' are placed, is who is immortal and all knowing Purusa

(ie five ksaras, prana, vak, after they have undergone the very Brahman 1 think, in the Atman."

Because Aksarapurusa is not the result of the piled and knot ted balas on rasa (granthibandhana) but has only yogasambandha, he does not lose his form as a result of his activity (na ksarati iti Aksarah) and therefore he is called Aksara Purusa. He is prana predominant and therefore is the Karmiki Purusa who has evolved from Avyaya Purusa. He exhibits five distinct balas, in the form or pranas viz. Brahma, Visnu,.Indra, Agni and Soma. As a karmiki Purusa he is involved in the creative activity and as a Purusa who is always with Avyaya he can also liberate himself from the cre ative process and identify himself with the moksa kalas of Avyaya. The Mundakopanisad says.

'There are two branches of knowledge (Vidya) to be learnt.

They are called by the knowers of Brahman Para and Apara, Apara Vidya constitutes Rgveda, Yajurveda, Samaveda, Atharvaveda, S*ksa, Kalpa, Vyakarana, Nirukuta, Chandas & Jyotisa.Para Vidya is that by which one realises the Aksara Purusa. 15

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 3 119

Dealing with the various aspects of Aksara Purusa the Upanisad says, 'That Purusa who cannot be grasped by the eyes, who can not be grasped by the mind either, who cannot be described in words, who is devoid of both jnanendriyas and karmendri yas who is immortal and pervades everything, who is subtle and never un dergoes any loss and who is the source of all bhutas (living and non-living) in this jagat is adored by the wise.' 1 6 The Upanisad goes further and says, Just like a spider creates its own web and withdraws it also, just like plants and creepers are produced on the earth, just like man develops hair on his head and body, in the same way from Aksara Purusa this Vis'va is produced. 1 7 Here it should be noted that in all the above case s the source does not show any visible loss.

Aksara Purusa is of two kinds. One is called Para Akasara and another is called samanya Aksara. Para Aksara gives rise to many samanya Aksarasjbut he himself remains in the same form, without any change. Aksara Purusa is called Sarvajna (all know ing) and Sarvasaktiman (all powerful). The Upanisad says that just like many sparks arise from burning piece of wood, from Aksara Purusa, who is all pervading arise many individual entities both living and non living. They ultimately merge with him only. lx The names Divya, Amrta, Purus'a, Ajanma, Amanaska,

/ _____________________ •

Subhra, Aprana etc apply to both Avyaya and Aksara Purusas. They do not have bhautika manas bhautika prana and bhautika

vak. 19 Satyam, Vijnanam, Anantam, which apply to Avyaya Purusa also apply to Aksara Purusa. In the creation process, the rasa pa rt is taken from Aksara and the vak part is provided by Ksara Purusa.

Though Aksara loses rasa in the creation process, it never loses its svarupa. He is also called Acyuta, Kutastha, Avyakta, Dhruva, Paravara, Setu, Alaksya, Isvara etc. Just like akasa su pports the v3yu and in it, the moving wind finds a stable back ground, in the same way, Aksara Purusa provides the stable sup port to the constantly changing Jagat. That is why he is called Bhutabhrt. He is the efficient cause or nimittakarana for the ere - ation of many things. At the time of total destruction, the entire beings come back and merge with Aksara Purusa who is rightly called immortal (amrta) Prakrti. At the proper time, they again come into existence only from him. This is supported by Gita also. 2 0 Aksara Purusa is also called Kutastha. 2 1 MadhusUdan Ojha gives three meanings to the word. 'Kuta. (1). Because Aksara Purusa is trapped by Mayabala, which may be called a kuta ie a trap, he is called Kutastha. 'Kuta’ also means a heap. Because he presides over the heap of bhutas (ie pancabhutas) he is called Kutastha. (3) 'Kuta' also means the top of a hill. One who sits at the top of a hill (of panca bluTtas) is called Kutastha. It is very interesting to note that in South India, people have a favourite God called Subrahmanya (Kumara or Muruga (in Tamil) whom they always instal at the top of a hill. In fact the saying goes, where there is a hill, at the top of it, lord Subrahmanya resides' Similarly Visnu is installed at the top of a hill in Tirupati in South India and is praised as 'Kutanilaya'.

No doubt they have Aksara Purusa in mind who stands at the top of a heap of bhutas. The entire Jagat owes its existence and functioning to Aksara Purusa.

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This Visva is a collection of bhutas and is called Ksara. It is the transformed form of Ksara Purusa. This Purusa being in the lowest rung is called Avara. On the other extreme we have Avyaya Purusa who is not directly involved in the creative process. He is called Uttama Purusa or Para Purusa. 22 In between we have Aksara Purusa who is called Paravara. He is also called • • Setu because he forms the bridge between Para and Avara. The Jlvas who are Ksara take the help of Aksara to realise the Avyaya Purusa and that is why he is called Setu. 23 There is nothing in this Vis'va which does not owe to Aksara Purusa for its existence. It is he who gives rasa to them and therefore pervades all of them as their administrator. That is why he is called IsVara. 24 The word Aksara is extremely significant in the sense that it applies to both sabdabrahma and Parabrahma. (The same thing applies to Avyaya also). In the case of Sabdabrahman vak, constitutes both decipherable and not decipherable sound and in the case of Arthabrahman or Parabrahman it constitutes matter. We have already seen that the five amrta components of Aksara Purusa are Brahma, Visnu, Indra, Agni and Soma. In the Sabdabrahman they are divided into two groups. Brahma, Visnu and Indra are represented by the word which consists of three Aksaras and this is one group. The other one is^consisting two Aksaras. In our book on the Vedic concept of Soma we have already explained that the word represents the three Aksaras Brahma Visnu and Indra, which are nothing but forms of Aksara Purusa. When an object comes into existence it is said to have a seat of establishment. The substance out of which the object is formed surrounds it as rta. In this sense sat>a and rta go together and give rise to three distinct types of activity.

They are.

122 VEDIC CONCEPT OF AtM AN

1. At the centre there is an acquisition of rta on satya. (harati acquires) 2. There is a rejection or throwing away of part of the object away from the centre (dyati - cuts away) 3. It tries to join with and holds in an orderly way what comes from outside (yacchati-joins and holds) The first refers to Visnu Aksara I the second one to Indra Aksara ^ and the third one to Brahma Aksara All these three constitute the which is Satya. Agni and Soma are the remaining two Aksaras which constitute the Visva. which also contains Ksara. Aksara is never devoid of Ksara. Aksara takes • • • many forms and produce Ksara which always remains with it. The triad of Aksaras which constitute theww is called Antaryami and is Satya. The other two Aksaras surround this Satya and together are called Sutratma which is some sort of Vayumandala surrounding the Antaryami which making use of the Sutratma produces the Visva as we see it. Both Antaryami and Sutratma are inseparable and always go together. 25 We can understand the activities of Brahma, Visnu and Indra with the help of Samaveda. In our book, "What is Veda'? We have already pointed out the one to one correspondence between Sabdaprapanca and Arthaprapanca. Here also in the case of Aksara we showed how the word applies to both the prapancas. Samaveda represents the mahima part of a created object, which is nothing but the vak field created by Indra around the physical body. The stoma upto which the physical body extends corresponds to Srayantlya Sama. Surrounding this we have the V aravantlya Sama which is the region of amrtagni which is the region of yajrfa activity.

The farthest region of amrta Soma which has its upper imit in the vak region of Avyaya Purusa is

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-3 123

called Brahma SAma. At the adhyatmika level all the forms of Aksara Purusa play important roles. Inside our body the three Aksaras Brahma, Visnu and Indra confront each other and produce the various stages of growth and decay in us, like childhood, youth and old age. In the childhood stage Visnu's activity dominates and therefore the child grows. In the youth stage Visnu and Indra are balanced that is, the loss is more or less compensated by gain and there is some sort of stability. In the old age Indra takes the upper hand and therefore loss is more than gain and the body deteriorates slowly. When the Pratistha prana leaves the body, the man dies.

The six urmis viz thrist, hunger, suffering, ignorance, old a ge and death which affect any being are also caused by the imbalance caused in the activities of the above three Aksaras. Agni and Soma also play their part in all these.

All the Aksaras take part in the creation cycle. Of all these Brahma - plays important role and it is he who takes the form of Agni and Soma when Indra throws out and Visnu opposes him and brings food and compensates. The Rgveda says Indra and Visnu confront each other and in their confrontation neither of them gains nor is defeated. They create thousands in three ways. 26 The Satapatha Brahmana while explaining.this rk says, that the thousands referred to here, are the Vedas, lokas and vak. It is Brahma who helps in this creation.

The Avyaya Purusa, who is sometimes called Parorajah (ie beyond the lokas) is conceived as standing like a big tree with its roots above and all its branches below. 27 The tree gets the name Asvattha because it stands with three legs like horse (as'vavat tribhih padaih tisthati iti sah asvatthah).

Alternatively asVa repre-

124 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

sents the sun. lhat which resides in asva is ca ed asvaaha. Ine tree is split into two parts with the sun in the middle. Amrta part is above and the martya part is below (yasya valsa (trunk) hiranyagarbharnadityam madhyatah krtva tenaiva amrtamrtyubhyam vibhaktasvarupam dhatte so- ayamasvatthavrksah). We can conceive of a Brahmasvattha which represents the Avyaya Pra japati (Asvattha Prajapati) supporting many Aksara Prajapatis (I^varas with all their lokas, praja, vitta etc) residing in its several branches. The Yajurveda describes Brahmasvattha as having amrtasoma loka and goloka above the sun. 28 The five Aksaras are engaged in the creative processes making use of the Ksaras. Brahma is of Veda form (Vedamaya).

Visnu is Yajnamaya and Indra is Prajamaya. Manas prana and vak are the srstikalas of Avyaya Purusa of Prajapati. The Veda is connected with his manas, Yajna is connected with his prana and Praja is connected with his vak. We have already dealt with many aspects of the Veda in our book. 'What is Veda?' Every object is a lump of agni and creates a field of vak around it. This field provides the back ground for the operation of prana both inside and outside the body.

The manas is at its centre. It is prana that is responsible for working out the details in the body. The physical body is called murti and is the contribution of Rgveda. The Samaveda surrounds the body a s its mahima and through the vak field around it brings food in the form of Soma (anna) and feeds the body which is of Agni (annada) form. The Yajus consists of two parts one is Yat and another Juh. 'Yat' represents vayu and 'juh' represents akasa. The combination of akasa and vayu is the pranagni which is called Yajus. 29 It is this Yajurveda that is responsible for all yajnas, all prajas, all lokas and all dharmas.

Every

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object is an exhibit of murti (physical form), gati (movement) and tejas (halo or mahima) or an exhibit of pinda (lump of matter) kriya (activity) and vikasa (spreading of greatness) or an exhibit of Rgveda, Yajurveda and Samaveda. 3 " The earth-atmosphere- sun system with all its structural and functional details is an ideal example of rk, yajus, and saman principles. It constitutes the Samavatsara Prajapati in whom Agni manifests itself in three forms, viz Agni of the earth which exhibits the pinda or murti character, Agni of the middle region in which wind blows exhibiting movement and the Agni of the sun whose predominant characteristic is vitana (spreading of tejas or mahima).

Brahma gives stability or state of existence to every object only because he is Vedamaya. The Satapatha Brahmana says that all bhutas are established only on the three Vedas. (Trayividya) 31 It is through the Vedas yajna achieves its form. It is through this yajna process creation and sustenance of created objects take place. In the manas part of Prajapati a desire to take food arises because he feels hungry. The hunger is termed as as'anaya which we see in every created object. For example it is because of this as'anaya, the sun is consuming parts of the earth but is also returning something to the earth so that the sun earth system remains conserved. We can identify three things in Prajapati viz uktha, arka and aSiti. Uktha is the inner part of Prajapati where the manas resides. When as'anaya arises in the uktha of Prajapati, he gives rise to some rays (ie activity of prana) which are spread out on all sides to get food. These are called arka. The food that is drawn in through the arkas is asiti. This food fills up the vak part of Prajapati who now becomes quiet and the arkas die down and merge with the uktha. Since there are infinite number of Prajapatis, a confrontation between one another takes places and each tries to survive at the cost of the other.

The anna (food) is converted into

126 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

a finer essence called Drk which is finally converted into prana. This prana in turn becomes arka and goes out for food. In this way anna, urk and prana are constantly converted into each other and this pro cess is called yajna (annorkprananam anyonyaparigraho yajnah). No Prajapati can exist without yajna even for a while. In this process some Prajapatis may disappear and some new Prajapatis may come into existence. It is by this process, the sun, moon, earth and all its being have come into existence and also maintain their size and shape also by this process. Since we cannot conceive of Prajapati without yajna, the Vedic seers identified him with yajna. 32 Here it is VisnuAksara who is yajnamaya. We shall deal with Yajna Prajapati in greater detail in a separate chapter.

We already know that creation can take place only through the srsti kalas of Avyaya Purusa viz manas prana and vak. Desire appears in the manas, then prana which is a form of bala comes into action. It works on vak and produces various changes on it by the citi process.

Thus various things come into existence. These are called Praja. This is the simplest way of describing the creative process. But creation cannot take place unless the Vedas are available. In other words Brahma who is Vedamaya is the Prajapati who through his manas, prana and vak creates the Praja through yajna. Put in a different way Aksara is the amrta part of Prakrti and he. uses Vikaraksaras as material cause (upadana karana) in the creative process. The Vikaraksaras are martya kalas and as we already know are Prana vak apah, anriada and anna. These are called Visvasrt brahman. The various components of Ksarabrahman undergo pancikarana in Sarvahuta yajna and give rise to Pancajana. In other words the Ksarabrahman with five kalas develops anna manas and prana and becomes Yajnatma (annat pranah tato manah). Then the lokas are pro duced and the Jivas with amrta placed in them are produced.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI - 3 127

That is what the Mundakopanisad tells us. It says, 'Tapasa clyate brahma tato annamabhijayate' Aniiat prano manas satyam lokah karmasu camrtam' That is, Tapomurtin'a Aksarena AtmSksaradvara brahma (Ksarabrahma) ciyate.

Brahmanantaram tadabhilaksya annavrttirupapadyate. Annat prano abhijayate. Tato manah sanjSyate.

Tatah satyam, brahmasatyam, brahmasatyarupa- yajffatma va utpadyate.

Tato lokah, saptalokah va utpadyante. Tatah karmasu, martyesu karmasu martyesu Jivesu va, amrtam pratisthitam bhavati*. The same thing is more or less said in the Purusa Sukta. 33 In this way from Pancajanabrahman, the five puranjanas, viz Veda, Loka, Devata, Bhnta and Pasii were created. It is from these Puranjanas, the five Puras viz Svayambhu, Paramesthi, SUrya, Candra and Prthivi were created.

Actually only SvayambhH is produced from Vedapuranjana. It is only he who produces from himself, the other four Puras viz Paramesthi Surya, Prthivi and Candra. These four Pratima Prajapatis have their origin only in Svayambhu who is the Brahmasatya and his loka is called Satyaloka. From him the other six lokas manifest themselves. They are Tapas, Janah, Mahah, Svah, Bhuvah and Bhuh. Defining the word 'loka', Ojha says it is the place of collection of a group of beings exhibiting characteristic name, form and activity. 34 Bhuh is'Prthvi loka.

The loka between sun and moon is Bhuvah. Surya loka is Svah. The loka between Surya and

128 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

aramesl

11

is ’aramesl u ca is . ana l anc i le o ca ?e-

tween Svyambhu and Paramesthi is Tapah. Svayambhu loka is Satya.

Svyambhu is pranamaya Paramesthi isapomaya. Snrya is vangmaya.

Prthivi is annadamaya and Candra is annamaya. The amrtaksaras Brahma, Visnu, Indra, Agni and Soma respectively are associated with these Puras.

The Sarvahuta or pancikarana process in which each of the five bhUtas are mixed with each one of them so that all of them individually exhibit the characteristics of all the five, is popular in the Darsanas. But in the Upanisads trivrtkarana is more well known.

The Chandogyopanisad says, ‘In the beginning there was 'Sat' and it was there alone with out a second. It thought, let me multiply myself. It created tejas (agni). It in turn created apah (waters). They in turn created anna (food). This triad was put into each of them so that each one of them contained all the three of them’ 35 It is because we start with triad, everything in this Visva, exhibits this triad feature. 36 It is because of this it is said that manas is annamaya. Prana isapomaya and vak is tejomaya. 37 and these are the srsti kalas of Avyaya Purusa.

The Satapatha Brahmana describes the coming into exist ence of Svayambhu Prajapati purely from pranas and then he took his seat on Trayividya through which he created everything. It says, ‘This prana in the middle is Indra. Because he kindled the pranas in the middle by means of his indriyas he is 'Indha' whom they called Indra mystically. They having been kindled created seven separate purusas. Being unable to generate they decided to make them into one Purusa and then made the seven into one.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-3 129

Two of them were compressed above the navel and two below the navel.

Two, they placed in the two wings and one formed the base (Pratistha).

The excellence (Srih) or essence (rasa) of these seven Purusas formed the head. Because Sri was put, it is called 'Siras'. Also since the prSnas took their seat it is called Siras'. Because pranas are spread over this (body) it is called sarira. This Purusa became Prajapati’. 38'He thought 'May I reproduce'. He toiled and heated himself up (atapyata). As a result of the toil and heat, he produced first Brahman the triad of knowledge (Veda). It became his seat of establishment. This Veda is the foundation of everything. 39 This Prajapati is nothing but the traid of Purusas, we have been discussing. The yajnatma or yajna Prajapati evolves from these only and he makes use of the Vedas which form his own self and creates this Visva.

Veda is Satyavak. When it is propagated it builds up a field, which extends upto great distance in the form of stomas. It is nothing but yajnagni extending the yajna process to great distance. This field is made up of Satyavak which is therefore called Vasatkaramandala. Vaiik is Vak and Vauk satkara has become Vasatkara. Satkara only refers to six identifiable stomas. We shall have occasion to refer to this Vasatkara when we deal with Yajna

Prajapati in detail in the next chapter.

Everything in this Vis'va has two aspects. One is, it has a field of influence. Upto a certain distance all around the object, some influence is felt either in the form of smell, radiation, visibility of its form, sound or presence of prana. This field is more or less stable and it is called its jfiana aspect. Since it is the manas which recognises this influence we may say that we are witnessing the Avyaya Purusa aspect of the object.

The second one is that some activity takes place either in the object or in its field of influence which goes on constantly changing. This is called kriya aspect. In this case we witness the Aksara Purusa aspect.

That is why all the changes or the coming into existence of new things are due to Aksara Purusa. • •

We have already seen that Svayambhu Prajapati whom we can call as the rriula Prajapati (or Isvara Prajapati) gives rise to four Pratima Prajapatis who are Paramesthi, Surya, Prthvi and Candra. The Aksara associated with Paramesthi is Visnu. The Vedas which are the kalas of Brahma spread in all the Pratima Prajapatis because without the Vedas srsti is not possible. While Brahma's region is Vedamandala, the region of Paramesthi is called Samudra or apomandala because the primordeal waters exist here. Visnu lies in this Samudra and is called Samudrasayi Narayana in the Puranas. The contents of this Samudra are apah, vayu and soma and these reach the other Pratima Prajapatis which are produced here. The Suryamandala is called Rodasi. The Aksara associated with the sun is Indra. The sun gives rise to three types of rays viz jyoti, gau andlyus and these nourish the Jagat in different ways.

The Prthvimandala gives rise to vak, gau and dyau. Dyau is of Agni form, gau is in the form of water and air. These nourish the beings on the earth. In this way all the Aksaras help the creation and sustenance processes in the Vis'va.

To summarise our understanding of the three Purusas we have seen Avyaya Purusa evolves from Paratpara and is manas predominant.

He develops five forms or five kalas Vijnana and Ananda are mukti kalas Prana and Vak are srsti kalas. Manas is

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-3 !31

in the middle and it is capable of creating conditions of srsti as well as mukti in the Atman or Purusa. The Aksara Purusa devel• •

ops in the prana kala of Avyaya Purusa. But for his existence as Prakrti, Avyaya Purusa cannot have five kalas. He will remain only as svosiyamanas otherwise. To put it in another way, to develop Prakrti or Aksara Purusa, Avyaya developed five kalas. Both Avyaya Purusa and Aksara Purusa exist together. Prakrti which evolves from Purusa as a results of mayabala has both Aksara and Ksara Purusas. (dva imau Purusau loke Ksarascaksara evu ca). Both Aksara Purusa and Ksara Purusa are in the cat- egory of Atmas and therefore though Ksara Purusa is the upadana karana he never loses himself in the process. In other words though Vikaraksara is produced from him, he never loses his Atma status and remains with Aksarapurusa. This is avikrtaparinamavada of the Upanisads. 40 Though Paratpara has only the sat component in the beginning, the appearance of mayabala in rasa which finally result in the emergence of Purusa and Prakrti, brings along with its asat components and the result is Prakrti has both a mrta and martya kalas (Brahma, Visnu etc. are amrata kalas and the same are also martya kalas). But Purusa has only amrtkalas. But when we consider Prajapati he has both amrta and martya kalas. 41 To put it in another way Prakrti has two parts. One is amrta part (Aksara) and another martya part (ksara). Both always exist together. Therefore both have the advantage of the amrta kalas viz Brahma Visnu etc. The amrta part of Prakrti (viz Aksara) making use of his amrtakalas creates the Visva while the martya part of Prakrti (Ksara) with his martya kalas becomes Vikaraksara and finally end up in the Visva. That is why the former is called Aksara (does not suffer any loss) and the latter is called Ksara (suffers loss). Therefore Prajapati has five kalas of,Avyaya Pilrusa, five kalas of Aksara and five kalas Atmaksara (which are martya kalas) and with Paratpara as the sixteenth kala becomes SodaÂŁF or SodasTPrajapati.

VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMA

Actually the term Sodas'i is a very comprehensive one. The three Purusas whom we have already seen always remain to gether and there is a mutual dependence in the sense that Ksara Purusa is dependent on Aksara Purusa who in turn is supported by Avyaya Purusa. Avyaya Purusa also has his support on Paratpara who actually supports all the three Purusas. In fact when the Upanisad says, 'Etadambalam sresthametadalambanam paranV it only re fers to Paratpara as the basic support.

We have all along been saying many things about each Purusa but actually we can start with Ksara Purusa and say that inside him is the Aksara Purusa. Inside.Aksara Purusa is Avyaya Purusa and inside all these three Purusas resides the subtle Paratp ara who may be conceived as the mukhya (chief) Atma and because of him all the three Purusas attain the status of AtrriS. When we say Atmaivedam sarvam' or Atma va idam agra asit. Atman refers only to Paratpara. It is because of the above four Atmas, manys, things with different forms come into existence in the Vis'va, and each one of them has sixteen kalas. That is why Kausitaki Brahmana says, 'Sodas'akalam va idam sarvam’. The Satapatha Brahmana says, 'Sodas'akolo vai Purusah’, which applies both to Is'varatma and Jivatma.

We said that every thing in this Vis'va shows sixteen kalas and can rightly be called Sodasi. They are vitta praja, sthula s'arira or bhutaciti, suksma s'arira or devaciti, karana sarira or bijaciti, these five constituting the ksara part of the object, Soma, Agni, Indra, Visnu and Brahma, constituting the Aksara part residing inside, Vak, Prana, Manas, Vijnana and Ananda, constituting the Avyaya part residing further inside and the innermost Paratpara part. Just like the moon exhibits sixteen kalas (if we include the dark back ground in which he is stationed as the sixteenth kala) and these kalas of the moon go on coming and going but their seit of activity is the stable dark back ground, in the same way everything in this Jagat has fifteen changing kalas and all these kalas have their pratistha or support on the sixteenth Parafpara kala

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-3 133

which remains outside the Jagat as a limitless background.

The fifteen kalas together are called Vigrahas or organs which though exist together exhibit their individual characteristics to a searching mind. That is why they are called Vigrahas. jThis only means that the limitless Paratpara, or Parames'vara takes on different kalas and manifests himself in the form of Jagat just to bless his devotees (Bhaktanugrahavigrahah). Vigraha only means the medium through which asarrisari Paratpara Atma becomes samsan Prajapati (Is'vara Prajapati). Madhusudan Ojha rarely speaks Hindi to his students. But sometimes he comes out in simple Hindi to make his points clear. He said once,

â–Ą

VIE. Concept Of Prajapati-4 SATYA PRAJAPATI

We have seen in the last chapter, the nature and functions of the three Purusas and also how they are all interwoven into the SodasTPrajapati. We have also pointed out that it is Aksara Purusa who is responsible for the creation of the Vis'va making use of vikaraksaras as material cause (upadana karana). It is because of this important role he plays in the creative process, he is extolled and adored in many ways in the Upanisads. The entire Mundakopanisad deals with Aksara Purusa only. This Upanisad says that Para Vidya which is the higher type of knowledge is meant for understanding the Aksara Purusa '. It also says that by realising Aksara Purusa, one gets rid of all doubts and moves towards mukti 2 . As far as we are concerned he is the Isvara who is the initiator of all creative processes in the Vis'va through Veda and Yajna which are part of him. Our Maharsis achieved the equation between Sabdabrahman and Arthabrahman through Aksarabrahman and Avyayabrahman.

As we have pointed out

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 135

earlier, the words Aksara and Avyaya have been chosen for Isvara and the Purusa who provides his support respectively in order to achieve Sabdarthatadatmya. Let us now recall some results of previous chapter which are relevant here.

The same Upanisad says, 'Tapasa ciyate brahma tato annamabhijayate.

Annat prano manas satyam lokah karmasu camrtam'.

This mantra gives some details about the creative process. We have already seen that the three Purusas are characterised by three tantras (functional entities) viz manomaya jnanatantra, pranamaya karmatantra and vangmaya arthatantra. (We already know that these three are the components of Atman). These three tantras again have three attributes (anubandhas) viz Amrta, Brahma and Sukra. Amrta is that which does not involve itself in any activity. This is the characteristic of Avyaya Purusa. Brahma represents prana which gets involved in every activity. This is the characteristic of Aksara Purusa. Sukra is the material that is used • • in creation (martyasamsarjanadravyam). This is the product pro duced from Ksara Purusa. All of them have come from the same Brahman.

That is why the Upanisad says 'Tadeva sukram, tadbrahma, tadevamrtamucyate! 3 Vikaraksaras which are prana, apah, vak, anna and anriada are produced from Ksara Purusa through Aksara Purus a and are called Visvasrt brahmans. That is why the Upanisad says tapasiabrahma ciyate that is, tapomurtina Aksarena Atmaksaradvara brahma (Visvasrt brahma Ksarabrahma va) ciyate. Later, these Visvasrt brahmans undergo pancikarana which is a yajna process, which is anna-annada bhava. Of the five brahmans, prana becomes anriada the rest become anna. This first yajna in which panchikaram. takes place is called Sarvahutayajna. The Upanisad says anna is produced, then prana. Then yajna takes place and as a resu lt of union of anna and prana, manas is produced. Manas Prana and Vak together coexist and become an Atma. Since this Atma' is established on yajna it' is called Yajnatma. In this way, the Ksarabrahman which has five

136 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

kalas has developed anna prana manas triad and has become Yajnatma through pancikarana which takes place in Sarvahutayajna. This Ksarabrahman which has the yajna form is called Pancajana. From this Pancajana five Puranjanas viz Veda, Loka, Devata, BhiTta and Pasu are produced again through the Sarvahutayajna. 4 From Puranjanas Puras viz Svayambhu, Paramesthi, Surya Candra and Prthvi are produced. These are called Satya. Be cause they are brahman and also are Yajnatmas, they are called Brahmasatya. That is why the Upanisad says 'annat pran manassatyam'.

Actually as we have already said it is Svyambhu brahman that is Satya and it is he who produces the other Purusas ie Paramesthi etc. That is why the Upanisad says Satyam and not satyani. Svayambhu is in Satyaloka and he creates from him the other six lokas. These lokas are nothing but karma and in them the Amrta Aksara resides as Antaryami. That is why the Upanisad says Karmasu camrtam'.

The manifestation of Svayambhu Prajapati marks the manifestiation of the first Brahmasatya. We have already seen in the previous chapter how this Prajapati comes into existence from pranas. It is this Prajapati who creates the Vedas which become the base for all creations. This Vedatatva which is nothing but Svayambhu himself is first established in the Paramesthi region which is nothing but apah (primordeal waters). The Vedas consti tute the first Satya. They are nothing but constructive creativ e processes and therefore when they enter the waters they are characterised by what is called Niyati which means some sort of orderliness. This Nij ati also is Satya. We may say that the Aksara Purusa who resides as Antaryami in every created thing is re sponsible for the crderliness found in them, (antah tisthan

CONCEPT OF PRAJXPATT-4 137

niyamayati iti Antaryami). The Upanisad says that he instils some sort of fear (bhayam) in them. 5 The Brhadaranyakopanisad describes how Yajnavalkya defined Antaryami to Uddalaka Aruni. He says he is inside earth, earth is his body but earth does not know him but he however controls it. Similarly he is in waters, Agni, Akasa, Vayu, Aditya, Candra and Stars. He is in the directions, lightning, thunder, in all the lokas in all the Vedas, in all the bhutas in all the pranas etc. He is the Atma called Antaryami. He is amrta. He controls all of them but none of them is aware of his presence. 6 He is established in the hrdaya of each and every object.

For maintaining the form, every object takes seven types of food to feed the Atma part, prana part and vak (matter) part. They are prthivi (trees and plants), water,tejas (heat), vayu, sabda, bala or karma and yajna ? Every object shows adana sakti, (ability to take in) visarga sakti (ability to reject) and pratistha sakti (ability to achieve stability). All these three are centered in the heart (hrdaya) of the object. The word hrdayam has three Aksaras which pertain to Aksara Purusa. (f^Pj) they establish the Niyati in the object. The manifestation of hrdaya which consists of three

Aksaras Brahma, Visnu and Indra is first achieved in Svayambhu who is a part of SodaSi Prajapati. It is Svyambhu who is described here as Antaryami. Because he has a hrdaya he is Satya Prajapati and represents Niyati as well as the Veda. The Brahadaranyaka Upanisad describes him as Prajapati, as Brahman, as the three Aksaras,

.He is Satya. K Elsewhere the same Upanisad de

scribes Aksara as responsible for the orderliness in Nature (Niyati). 9 To recall what we have said Svyambhu Prajapati (who is also called Avyaktatma) made of the three Aksaras Brahma, Visnu and Indra resides in the heart of every object and is responsible for the orderliness found in this Visva. Therefore he is called Antaryami. He represents Brahmasatya and is the first manifestation of Satya Prajapati. He is first established in the waters of Paramesthi

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Paramesthi region this dharma (Veda Niyati combination) is es tablished in the sun and the moon and then from the sun and the moon it gets established on the earth. Thus the whole VisVa is created through thePratima Prajapatis who are Paramesthi, Surya, Candra and Prthivi.

We have already said that the three Aksaras Brahma, Visnu and Indra constitute the hrdaya in which the Aksara Purusa resides as Antaryami. The remaining two Aksaras viz Agni and Soma constitute the Vis'va or Sutra and thus Aksara Purusa has two forms viz Antaryami and Sutratma. This Sutratma may be conceived as vayumandala and both Antaryami who is Satyatm a and Sutratma"always exists together. We may say that Antaryami Satyatma making use of Sutratma (which are Agni and Soma)

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CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 139 creates

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We have already seen in an earlier chapter that Svayambhu Prajapati comes into existence from seven pranas and later he acquires manas and vak. For the sake of creation he produced the Vedas first and they became the seat of his establishment.

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140. VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN mean Soma. These are the two fundamental substances involved in the yajna process and therefore in the process of creation. The Satapatha Brahmana says that Prajapati heated himself up while taking his seat on Trayi Vidya. He produced waters from his vak part. He then entered the waters with Trayividya and the egg was formed. This egg described as Hiranmaya marks the birth of the sun. 11 The Vedic seers were very much aware that the most im portant aspect of creation of life is by copulation and it required the interaction of two distinct substances. That is why it is said that when Prajapati wanted to create the subjects (prajah), he produced waters out of his own body and in them he released his seed. This is what is stated by Manu. 12 This would mean that waters are the receiving womb and SvayambhTT Prajapati's seed which is Vedagni (which is satyagni) was deposited in these wa ters and thus the sun was born. This region of waters is nothing but the Paremesthi region. The Gopatha Brffhmana as we have already stated in our earlier books, deals with primordeal waters 'Subrahma' created by Prajapati. These waters were said to contain two components viz bhrgu which represents sneha (sticki ness) principle and angiras which represents tejas (fire) principle.

These waters were called 'Suveda' because they appeared as the sweat of Prajapati. The combined presence of bhrgu and angiras in the primordeal waters constitutes the Atharva principle. It is the bhrgu principle that carries with it the Soma concept, while the angiras principle is associated with Agni.

We are now dealing with Satya Prajapati and the first Satya Prajapati is the Svayambhu Prajapati. He is the first Brahmasatya

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 141

(Ksara brahmasatya) and from him the other Brahmasatyas (viz the PratimTTPrajiJpatis) and Devasatyas came into existence. This Prajapati has an amrta part, viz the Aksaratma who resides inside him as Antaryami and the SvayambhUpura is his martya part. But then what does this Satya mean? Yes, it is a very valid question. Satya has rarely been analysed by any post-Vedic scholar. It is Madhusudan Ojha who after a thorough study of the literature gave us a deep insight into the 'Satya' concept of our sages, for the first time. Satya and Rta are t\YO words in the Vedic literature which have great significance. We gave some details of this concept in our book 'Vedic concept of Soma'. Here we shall present those aspects of the Satya concept which are relevant for our understanding of Brahman and his role in the creation of the Visva.

The Upanisad says 'Satyam jnanam anantam Brahma'; Brahmaivedam Sarvam etc. This would mean Brahman is pure jnana and he became Vis'va after undergoing a series of transfor mations.

When the reverse process (destruction) takes place the same Visva gets back to the limitless Brahman state. Put in another way, it is 'Satya' which became Visva and because the root cause of this Vis'va is Satya it follows the Vis'va also should be characterised as Satya.

That is, when the karana (cause) is Satya, the karya (the outcome) is also Satya.

The word Satya consists of two parts viz. 'sat' and 'yam'. The Upanisad introduces another word ti' in between and made it into three parts viz 'Sat, 'ti', and 'yam'. We may also take it as . is indicative of the word . ...which means this Visva. Visva is bala predominant and therefore is everchanging and is therefore by itself is of rta form.

To distinguish it from its rta base the sages called it Anrta. Actually the word Anrta is applied to Sabdavak only. There Satya means truth and Anrta means untruth. What is not satya is Anrta. Since they believed in Sabdarthatadatmya they sometimes named arthavak which is not Satya as Anrta - . When Visvatma enters this Visva, it becomes Satya. Because Atrria has its origin in Rasa which is Sat, it is Satya.

Because Visva resides in this Atma, it assumes

annabhava and Atma becomes annada (eater of food). The Visva now does not have an independent satta (state of existence) but blessed by Satyatma, it has become part of him and now this Atma together with the Vis'va has become Prajapati who is Satya (Satyamu vai Prajapatih) and who has an amrta part (which is Atma) and a martya part which is Visva. I3 .

Satya and rta always go together in the creative material (sukra). Anna is rta. This anna (food) feeds a centre in which the Atma is located and that Atma is Satya. We have already seen that Ojha defined rta as 'ahrdayam asariram and Satya as 'sahrdayam sasariram'. Agni is by itself ta but Prthivi which gives pratistha to it, is Satya. However when martya and amrta are put together and if they collectively take a sarira but does not have a centre (hrdaya) then it is rta only. For example the cloud consists of apah (water), vayu and soma put together and exhibits some sort of body (sarira) but the re is no centre (hrdaya) and therefore it is rta only. But when murta (body) and amurta (bodiless) are put together and develop a hrdaya and an outer shape, then the whole thing constitutes Satya. Examples are the sun, the earth, a piece of brick. These co nsist of individual particles put together and they have a hrdaya (centre). The individual particles themselves which go to fill up the space round the centre and finally enable the body to have a shape supported by them, are classed as rta only.

Anna is of two kinds viz Brahmaudana and Pravargya. We have already explained these words in the last chapter. In Nature, Agni, Vayu, Aditya and Candra are responsible for producing Satya forms and therefore they are the rtviks in the yajna conducted by Nature.

The food that is consumed by these four Rtviks (who are

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 143

actually devas) is called Brahmaudana. What is left out by them, comes down and goes as food for some other satyas and is deposited in their stomach. This is called pravargya (oozed out portion).

Though they may be satya initially, when they are taken in by another satya they become rta. For example in a fruit, there are so many

seeds.

Though each one of

these

seeds independently

constitutes satya, when they go to fill up the fruit which is satya, they constitute rta. In other words what is rta at one place becomes satya when once it comes out as pravargya. A single thing can be satya as well as rta depending upon its location.

Thus it is clear that all created things fall under two categories only viz rta and satya. There is no place for a third category. The Satapatha Brahmana puts it in a different way. It says, The above Brahmana is really very tough to understand. Let us see how MadhusTTdan Ojha interprets it. He says referring to the mantra

HI VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN That is, 'Sat' consists of three things viz that vhich has body (murta), that which is mortal (martya) and that which remains at rest (Sthitam). Tyam consists of three things viz that which has no body (amurta), that which is immortal (amrta) and that which is'yat' (moving). Here we can form a pair by taking one from each of these triads and each pair will result in a form (rupa). For example murta and amurta can combine together and constitute all matter. Earth which consists of water and agni, has a body (murta) and therefore is classed as 'Sat' (angamastiti sat). That is, it has a state of existence.

On this 'Sat', 'tyam' which are amurta (bodiless) like vayu and akasa are put and they constitute superposed satya (upasamhita Satya).

Similarly Atma which is amurta when it is associated with Sukra (creative material i.e vak or body) which is murta is classed as Satya.

Then martya and amrta together make one pair. All matter is martya and it is 'sat' because it exists. The Atma which is amrta is tyam and it is put inside the body (martya) and therefore the body can now be called Atmanvi and the Atma can be called sarlrland therefore both existing togother come under the class of Satya.

In other words martya attains the stat us of Satya when it exists together with amrta. Amurta (bodiless) attains the status of Satya when it exists together with murta.

Since Atma has three functions viz jnana, kriya and artha, it attains the status of trisatya. Because it constitutes murta and amurta existing together, it has external Satya. Because martya and amrta have come together (body is martya and prana is amrta) it has internal Satya. Because 'sthitam' (sat) and yat (yam) are put together, it has a hidden Satya. This trisatya is present in every being.

This Atma which we have characterised as Satya takes three forms Uktha, Brahma and Sama. The source region giving rise to

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 145

vak which envelops prana and manas and which supports the Atman is called Uktha. Just like vak is the uktha of names, eye is the uktha of rupa and s'arira is the uktha of karma. In the same way, hrdaya which is of rk form is the uktha of prana which is yajus. This yajus does three things viz it acquires vak (matter) (harati), it rejectes matter (dyati) and it also joins and holds (niyamayati). The hrdaya represents Atma which has the func tion of Visnu and therefore gives rise to pranas in all directions.Therefore hrdaya is Satya.

Whatever has a hrdaya, goes under the category of Satya. That which supports nama, rupa and karma is called 'Brahma'. It gives Pratistha to all things. Pratistha is Brahma. Prana is yajus. This prana becomes 'yat' and juh ie vayu and akasa and thus achieves two functions viz gati (movement) and sthiti (stability). Atma is characterised by pratistha. Atma supports the body. Therefore pratistha is Satya. Whatever has the quality of giving pratistha, that also is classed as 'Satya'.

That which is same for nama, rupa and karma is called Sama.

In every creation what remains the same is Atma. Therefore AtrmTs characteristic is s짜ma. Therefore Sama is Satya. What ever remains same even while undergoing many changes is called Satya.

All these three (viz uktha, brahma a nd sama) constitute a single entity called Atma. It is amrta. It is covered by Satya. Prana is amrta. Nama and rupa are Satya. Prana is covered by nama and rupa. 14 We have just seen that Atma is Satya. The Atma is uktha, brahma and sama, Satya is of three kinds viz. hrdaya, pratistha and sutra.

Hrdaya constitutes uktha, brahma constitutes,

146 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

pratistha and sutra constitutes sama. Again hrdayasatya is of three kinds viz pranasatya, vaksatya and agnisatya. Pratisthasatya is also of three kinds viz balabhrtsatyam, amrtasatyam and murtamurtamrtasatyam. Balabhrt represents upadana karma. The pot comes into existence because, the balas are able to bring the clay particles together and give the shape of the pot. In any brick, it is bala that holds the clay particles together. The individual par ticles as such have no shape (or sarira)and therefore they consti tute rta and therefore the brick is the supporter of rta and therefore we can call it rtabhrt. The brick gives pratistha to the clay particles. If the brick is powdered, the pratistha also is destroyed.

From the above discussion it is clear that rriurta (that which has body or shape) and amTTrta (that which does not have body or shape) together produce Satya.

The Brhadaranyakopanisad says, describing the Atma, 'Not this, Not this, there is nothing above it. Its name is 'Satyasya Satya.

Pranas are Satya. It is the Satya of prana. 15 In another long article entitled 'Satya Nivitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, MadhusHdan Ojha goes much deeper into the concept of Satya. This article is unpublished. The author will have to bring out another book if full justice has to be given to this article. Since the subject is extremely relevant to this book we shall present the original article of Madhusudan Ojha at the end of this book as an appendix. How ever, we shall here present some salient points explained in that article.

According to the Advaita theory, this VisVa is nothing but Brahman. (Sarvam khalvidam Brahma, Ekam va idam vibabhuva sarvam). The Nasadiya sukta says that there was neither 'sat' nor 'asat' prior to the coming into existence of this Vis'va. There was nothing but darkness everywhere. The Brahman which is PHrna and Satya existed in an indescribable state at that time. This Atmabrahman is the purva rupa (previous form).The uttara

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 147

rupa (later or present form) is the Visva which also is pHrna and Satya. The Vedic seers described this situation in a very interest ing way. They said that the PCTmabrahman constitutes infinite num ber of satyas. (Satyam jnanam anantam Brhama). From that, satyas ooze out and come down and establish themselves as the various contents of this Visva. Prior to the occupation of this space by these satyas, the place was full of tamas (darkness) and there fore can be called sunya sthana. Sunya does not mean empt iness. There was certainly something but that did not occupy space and therefore it can allow anything which fills space to occupy it. When there are countable things then we count them and say that so many numbers of them are there. The number nine has an extremely interesting significance in the creative process. The Vedic seers described creation as the establishment of satyas in the sunya places (sunyastliane satyasya avatarah) and these satyas are the pravargyas (oozed out portions) from the pTTrnasatya Brahman. The sunya was represented by the figure 0 (zero) and is called bindu. Let us take the number nine which in Sanskrit is called 'nava' which means new. We can represent this number nine as 09. The zero represents s'unyasthana and nine represents pUrna sthana. From nine we can take one and fill the s'unyasthana. It becomes- 18. By transfering one number to sunyasthana, we have got a new thing which is 18, which constitutes Satya. Let us now continue the process in steps of one. Then we get the following numbers: 09, 18, 27, 36,45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90.

The first number has sunya in the beginning and nine at the end. Therefore it is called Sunyapurvakarn navakam Satyam. At the end of this series of numbers sunya has gone to the other side and therefore it is called s'unyodayam navakam Satyam.These two states represent Vis'vatita (beyond the Visva) states. The in termediate numbers represent trisatyas. For example take an in termediate number 45. Four is one Satya, five is another Satya and both togethe r represent 45 and that is third Satya. These rep resent creative process and therefore pertain to the Vis'va. An other interesting thing is that in every step the previous number

148 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

adds on nine to it. 09 become 18, then 27, then 36 etc. That is why the mantra says 'navo navo bhavati jayamanah'. When from the all powerful ParStpara Brahman, balas ooze out and reach the sOnyasthana, it results in the coming into existence of many Satya Prajapatis lfi. The sunyasthana gives rise to many Jivas because Isvaratma has entered this region as Pravargya and his Atma, his bhuta part, his prana part, his prajnSmatras have all descended down to this region and have created these Jivas (tatsrstva tadevanupravisat) and all these constitute Satya Prajapatis. But the Jivatmas cannot have all the characteristics of Is'varatma and therefore while the Jivatmas are called apurnas, the Isvaratma is purna. We shall see more of these differences in a later chapter. But when the Vis'va comes to an end, all these Jivas merge with Isvara and therefore both at the commencement and at the end, Isvara alone remains. This is what the Upanisad says. 17 The sunya form of Brahman is called Kham brahman. The purna rupa of Brahman is called Kam brahman. This Kam brahman is Satyabrahman and is also called Mahadaksaram. 114 It carries in its womb many rtabrahmans (That is, one Satyabrahman carries many rta brahmans). These rtas become man y Satyas and become Kam. Because the Kam Satya takes on balas, it assumes many forms and becomes purna. Then it descends down to the sunyanasthana which is Kham and fills it. Kam and Kham are two forms of Brahman. The Upanisad says, 'What is Kam is also Kham what is Kham is also Kam. They are prana and akasa. 19 Both of them combine and get new names which are called Ram brahman and Sam brahman. These two have different meanings.

Because it enjoys the Vis'va taking

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-4 149

different forms it is called Ram brahman (Vyastirupavacchedena ramate tadidam visvacaram rupam Ram brahma'). Because it does not bother about the various things in the Visva but it goes after complete peace and therefore takes an all pervading form which is beyond the Visva, it is called Sam brahman (Vyastiparicchedam napeksate praviviktam tu visvatitam pUrna santam sarvatra apeksate, tadidam Sam brahma).

Actually how the formless Brahman takes, many forms is not really understood by us at all. If at all we understand him we can understand him only through his manifestations. That is why th e sages say that he is beyond comprehension. We can only describe him as a wonder. 20 Let us now summarise our results:Brahman is one only though it manifests itself in many forms.

It has two principal forms viz Amrta and martya. Rasa Jyotis, Sat etc constitute Amrta. Bala, Tamas, Asat constitute mrtyu. The Upanisad says, 'From Asat lead me to Sat. From darkness lead me to light.

From mrtyu lead me to amrta. 21 That which exists is Sat. That which does no exist is Asat, Satta (existence) means, that it is firmly established. It supports something else, which otherwise does not exist. When a thing is supported, it acquires satta. The potter makes the pot with clay. The clay is held and made into a pot by the potter. Clay has satta and through the work of the potter's hand, this satta passes on to the pot. The existence of the pot is acquired from the existence of clay. If clay were not there, there is no question of existence of the pot. It has only an acquired satta and not real satta. Only clay

has real satta. Dvaita does not arise simply because clay is there and pot is there. In the same way, this Vis'va exists because of one Satta"and that is Brahman. Dvaita is only apparent because there is one which gives satta and there is another which re ceives. 2 2 It is very strange that Asat and Sat coexist and Asat re ceives satta from the one which has real satta. 23 When one receives satta from another and behaves as one having satta, then the one which receives satta establishes the 'Satya 1 character of the donor. In this way Satya percolates to long distances and produces Satya in many things as though it is moving like a stream (Satyadhar!) and establishes its Satya char acter in things which it interacts with. In short it produces other S atyas.

Starting with clay which has real satta we produce many things having different names and forms (nama and rupa) starting with gold which has satta, we produce many ornaments having different names and forms. These names and forms are pure creations of the mind and still they are capable of acquiring satta (nama rupe satyam). That is why they were called Brahman's 'yaksas (phantoms) or 'Abhva' (abhutva bhati). 24 The Satapatha Brahmana says, 'This amrta is covered by Satya. Prana is amirta. Nama and rupa (name and form) are Satya. The Prana is covered by them , 25 Inside the nama and rupa there are pranas. These pranas are Satya.

The Atma of these pranas are also Satya.

Just like small sparks come out from fire in the same way, from the Atma, all pranas, all lokas, all devas and all bhutas come out. Its Upanisad is Satya of Satyas (Satyasya Satyam). Pranas are Satya and this is the Satya of that. 26

CONCEPT OF PRAJAP^TI-4 151

There is another satyadhara (stream). Take the case of a turban. The satya of turban is given by the cloth. The satya of cloth is given by the threads. The satya of threads is given by the cotton of which it is made. Cotton's sat ya comes from the earth. The earth's satya comes from apah. (waters). The satya of apah comes from fire. The satya of fire is given by vayu. Vayu's satya comes from akasa which is vak field. Vak gets its satya from prana and prana's satya comes from AtmH. The Taittiriyas say that Atma gave rise to akasa. Akasa gave rise to Vayu. Vayu gave rise to Agni.

From Agni apah (waters) were produced. From waters the earth was produced and Prthvi gave rise to plants and trees. From plants and trees anna (food) was pro duced. 2 7 The Atharva Vedins go further and say, From anna prana was produced from prana manas was pro duced. From manas vak was produced. From vak Vedas were produced and from Vedas, yajna was produced. 2 8 What we want to say is that Atma constitutes Avyaya Purusa who is Sat Cit Ananda and who pervades the entire Visva. He produces piles of balas at various places, takes on the form of manas, prana and vak functioning in a coordinated way and es tablishes Satta at various places and creates the various things in this Visva. Wherever he establishes Satta, there Satya comes into existence. He, who is Atma and Satcidananda Avyaya is called \Satyasya Satya' (Satya of Satya). All the five Aksaras always exist together in him. He exercises, kama, tapas and srama and creates and produces Satya in all the things he creates. He is rightly called 'Satyasya Satya'.

Aitereya says.

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iJ jjj: 'Aksara takes five forms. They function together in a coor dinated way and produce various things (which are Satya). But in the return proces, they all merge and become one with Avyaya which is Satyasya Satya’. 2C) For further information on the Satya concept of our sages, the reader is referred to the original article of Ojha given at the end of this book.

❖

IX. Concept of Prajapati -5 YAjfiA PRAJAPATI

We have already seen that Sodas'i Prajapati is everything in this Visva. He evolves from Paratpara and functions as three Purusas with all their kalas.This Vi^va is nothing but Aksara Purusa

1

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and Ksara Purusa in their various forms. This VisVa is the Pura or habitat for these two Purusas. The Avyaya Purusa and Paratpara are always with them and provide support to all their activities. Sodas'i Prajapati represents collective presence and coordin ated functioning of all of them. In this Visva we have infinite number of these Sodas'is both very big and very small, both living and non living. In every one of them, we have much smaller Sodasis coming together, reacting with each other and finally ending up in one form of Soda^T. Sometimes the union results in simple piling of one over the other and at other times their union constitutes copulation and a new Prajapati is created.

Some times one becomes food to the other and in this way some thrive at the cost of others. All these processes come under the name yajna and the Prajapatis taking part in it are called Yajna Purusa or Yajnatma. The Vedic seers postulated two fundamental substances taking part in this yajna process one is Agni and another is Soma.

Agni is the eater of food (annada) and Soma is food (anna). Therefore yajna is a process in which annl-annada bhliva comes into existence.

All things in this Visva can be classified under two catego -

154 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

ries viz Soma (anna) category and Agni (annada) category. This Yajna Purusa is essentially Ksara Purusa who has the support of the other two Purusas. According to the Vedic seers, whether it is the birth of the solar system, or the birth of a child or pla nt or the occurrence of rainfall, the process at work is yajna in which a substance of the Soma category is absorbed or consumed by or intercourse with a substance of the Agni category and thus yajna is the most important activity of Prajapati. The entire universe is the outcome of this yajna process. The Gita says, 'Having created the subjects (prajah) together with yajna, PrajSpati told them 'Procreate using this process (yajna) and let it bestow on you whatever you want! 1 Again one yajna combines with another and produces a third yajna. The yajna that is produced either by the combination of two yajnas or many yajnas is called Virat. This yajna is pervaded by ten pranas (Dasaksara Virat). We shall elaborte this later. When new yajnas go on appearing as a result of many or few yajnas combining together a stage is reached when no more yajna is possible. This final yajna constitutes Isvara, who envelops in him self all the other yajnas. In other words, this whole universe is ya jnamaya and therefore Is'varamaya. This Is'vara is enveloped by Paramesvara who is no other than Paratpara. All the living and non living in this universe are contained in Isvara who is no other than Yajna Prajapati. 2 In the last chapter we described Satya Prajapati who is Vedamaya. The yajna attains his true form only through the Vedas.

The three Vedas (Trayi Vidya) constitutes Satya and Satya which is essentially of vak form is propagated through yajna which is of prana form.

We have already seen that Amrta, Brahma and Sukra are

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI -5 155

the attributes of the three Purusas Avyaya, Aksara and Ksara respectively. Sometimes Amrta, Brahma and Sukra are described as the three parts (padas) of Soda^TPrajapati and the fourth part is this Visva.

In other words the creation oriented Brahman who has four padas uses the first three padas as adhisthata (presiding entity) and becomes this Visva with his fourth pada. This is what the Purusa sukta says. 3 We have already said that Sukra constitutes creation material (sarjanadravya) and it constitutes the Vikaraksara components of Ksarabrahman. They were originally Visvasrt brahman. But after undergoing pancikarana in Savrahuta yajna, they become Pancajanas viz prana, apah, vak anna and annada. Pancajanas again undergo pancikarana and give rise to Puranjanas. viz Veda, Loka, Deva Pasu and Bhuta respectively. From these Puranjanas the puras come into existence. The first pura comes from Veda puranjana and is called Svayambhupura. This is the first stage of the appearance of Vis'va. The other puras viz ParamesthT, Surya, PrthvTand Candra are produced from this Svayambhu only. Svayambhu is called P^rama Prajapati and the rest four are called Pratima Prajapatis.

We have already described in a previous chapter, that Prajapati is made up of seven pranas as described in Satapatha Brahmana. Initially,the seven pranas gave rise to seven Purusas. Later they were all combined into a single Purusa. Actually the Aksara pranas are Brahma, Visnu, Indra, Agni and Soma. Of these the Indra Prana is the one which excites all the other pranas (Ekaikovai janatayam Indrah- Tait. Br 1.46). The excited pranas gave birth to seven Purusas. All these seven Purusas are in the body of a single Purusa who pervades all these seven yajna Purusas.

Two of these Purusas were above the naval and two below. These four together constituted the Atma. Two were put in the wings and one formed the Pratistha prana in the tail.

This single Purusa who is Cityagni (piled up agni) is called Parajapti. This Prajapati cannot commence the creation process unless Tray!

Vidya

manifests

itself

on

him.

Therefore

this

Prana

156 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

Prajapati first creates Trayi Vidya and it forms his seat of estab lishment (Brahmasya sarvasya prathamajam; Brahmasya sarvasya pratistha (Sat. Br. 6.1.1.8.16). Then he becomes the various yajnas.

(Prajapatirva esa vitayate yadyajnah) It is this Prajapati who is to be identified with our Svayambhu Prajapati.

Madhusudan Ojha in his book Brahma Siddhanta gives details of some yajnas leading to creations of various things in this Visva based mostly on statements in Satapatha Brahmana. We shall present some of these details here.

In this Vis'va, yajTfa is taking place everywh ere and in everything. Yajna creates this VisVa and supports the created Visva. If yajna were not there, the Vis'va will cease to exist. One of the most important yajnas is the offering of Soma (anna) in Agni (annada). The sun gets Soma ahuti (offering) from Paramesthi region. This results in the brightness of the sun which feeds the entire solar system and is responsible for the origin and sustenance of all forms of life on earth.

The earth itself is the result of a yajna in which starting from waters, foam, sand, stone, iron, gold etc. were formed. We have already said prana anna and"urk take part in a yajna in which they are constantly converted into each other (Annorkprarianam anyonyaparigraho yajnah') and this finally results in the Jagat and its maintenance. Again when two things combine, three possibilities exist viz. 1. confrontation (yuddha dharma) 2. copulation (maithunadharma resulting in the creation of new thing) and 3) yajna (when one is offered into the other, it results in a new thing or one of them completely merges with the other and takes its form). All these give rise to many ramifica tions of the yajna process and the whole Visva becomes yajnamaya. But the spreading of the yajnas take place through the Vedas and therefore yajna and the Vedas always go together. The Mimamsakas say that the Vedas were created only for yajnas.

(Vedah hi yajnarthamabhipravrttah).

Though there are many kinds of yajnas, in the s'arira (body) of yajna Purusa ten yajnas are important. They are, two cayanayajnas, two havana yajnas, two Virat yajnas, two

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-5 157

vasatkarayajnas and two yajnas involving intake of food. That activity which results in the acquisition of the constituents of the body is one citiyajna (cayanayajna). That activity by which the Devas Agni, Vayu etc enter the body as vak, prana etc is another citiyajna. Surya rasa is prana Prthvirasa is apana. Prana is constantly being offered into apana and apHna is being constantly offered into prana. This is one kind of homa (yajna). As a result of this a new Agni called Vais'vanaragni comes into existence. When the devaprana is offered to vyana breathing in and breathing out takes place. 4 This is the second homa (havana yajna).

In an earlier chapter we have already described Virat as the Pravargya of Yajnapurusa and it has ten Aksaras. We shall again deal with Virat yajna later in greater detail.

Veda constitutes Satya Vak. The spreading of this Vak is called Vasatkara. It is through yajna the Devas spread Satya. 5 There is another Vasatkara yajna in which there is constant ex change of prana between the sun and Jiva. 6 Annahuti yajna is the one in which Purusa feels hungry and takes food. He takes seven kinds of food. Every minute he learns something, he does something, he hears some sound, he mixes with wind, he mixes with light or Agni, he drinks water, he takes food. This constitutes Ahuti yajna. This Purusa himself is yajna *. He has the support of seven Purusas (in the form of pranas). The essence (rasa) of these seven Purusas are put on the head and therefore his Srih constitute seven Purusas. This purana Purusa is the fifteenth and yajna Purusa is the sixteenth. In this way Prajapati has sixteen kalas. That is why the Kausitaki Brahmana says,

158 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

'Sodas'akalam va idam sarvam’ The yajna itself constitutes Atma. The Brahmana says, 'sarvesam va esa bhutanam sarvesam devanam atma yad yajnah’. The Gita also says.' Adhiyajnohamevatra.’Therefore yajna itself constitutes Prajapat i who establishes himself on the Vedas and pervades everything.

This Prajapati gives rise to four Prajapatis viz Agni, Indra, Soma and Paramesthi, who reside in every lump of matter (bhutapinda).

Paramesthi became waters. This Paramesthi which were waters did yajna with their father viz Svayambhu Prajapati. Svayambhu became pranas and pervaded everythig. Then Prana Prajapati did yajna with Indra. Indra became vak and pervaded everything. Then Indra did yajna with Agni and Soma. Soma became Anna and Agni became Anriada and both pervaded everything. All these five devatas did Darsapurnamasa yajna. As a result of this yajna all the four Prajapatis (Paramesthi, Indra, Agni and Soma) together with Svayambhu Prajapati became prana, vak, apah, anna and annada and reside in every prani’s body. 7 It will be seen that all the above yajiTas together correspond to the Sarvahuta yajna which we have already seen as the one in which pancikarana takes place. In the first instance waters inter act with the Atman of Prajapati (S vayambhu). As a result a bhrgu prana called matarisva is produced and it pervades all the three

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI -5 159 I

lokas. Water is the yoni (origin) of matarisVa. Because it grows in the Paramesthi region which is the mother of waters it is called matarisva.

It takes on it the prana of Prajapati and injects various proportions of waters in him depending on his size. Th e Rgveda says, 'The suparna (Prajapati) having entered the samudra sur veys the whole universe. The mother ie the waters (waters are the mother of all creations) takes on the Atman affectionately (so that creations can go on). I saw it without being aware of the intentions (pakena manasa). 8 , Here Prajapatis Atma forms the yoni (womb) and waters constitute retas. This union results in creation. This marks the beginning of maithuni srsti (creation by copulation). There was no maithuni srsti before waters came into existence. All the later creations involve primordeal waters as well as matarisva vayu which injects the waters into the yoni (ie Atma).Nabhanedistha, Valakhilya, Vrsakapi and Evayamarut are the accompanying pranas in the case of retas, prana, Atma and pratistha respectively. All creations connect waters (apah) to Atman (Prajapati) who establishes himself on Trayi Vidya. Because of this connection with waters Prajapati becom es apya prana. The apya (watery) part in our pranas are dominant and they are nourished by waters. When once the various parts of our body become manifest, then they are again nourished by waters. Because of these pranas, the Atma is maintained like the fl ame of a lamp. The Chandogyopanisad says,' Annamayam hi soumya manah, apomUyah pranah, tejomayi vakâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. When the sarira does not get waiers apyaprana becomes weak and at one stage gets out of the body, becomes antariksya prana and pervades everything as vyan a prana. Actually it is the Atma of Prajapati, that gets out and reenters all bodies and per vades the entire body. He constitutes the chief prana (mukhya prana) in our body and has a measure of ten angulas

160 VEDIC CONCEPT OF ATMAN

(atyatisthaddasangulam) and functions under different names in the body. We shall see these things in great detail when we deal with Adhy'atmasamstha.

Yajna is often divided into five kinds (Pankto vai yajnah) They can be described as follows.

1. This is the Svayambhu yajna which we have already seen.

Here the Trayi Vidya (ie Rks, Yajus and Samams) is produced first.This is one yajna. Then the Vedas are used in the Paramesthi region and new things are created. Here the Veda, yajna and Prajapati are involved. The whole Jagat has come into existence only in this way.

2. Whatever we see is prana. This prana functions in the light (jnana) provided by manas. Prana gives support to vak which is in the form of Agni. (Agnirvak bhutva mukham pravisat). All these three together form a Prajapati. Manas mixes with prana and becomes vak.

Vak again converts itself into manas and this process goes on in Nature. This is yajna. 9 Actually it is prana that does everything and manas and vak only follow prana.

3. Soma is one of the Aksaras. It enters as rasa in every thing in this Jagat and provides the material substance in the cre ation of all things in this Vis'va. Soma by itself does not have any form or taste or smell but when it gets into the created things, the things exhibit form, taste, smell and sense of touch. When Soma and Soma come together, because of friction between the two, a kind of balacalled 'Saha' is produced which in turn produces Agni. This is one kind of yajna. This only means that when matter and matter collide friction is produced and thereby Agni results and this is yajna.

4. When Soma is offered to Agni, the Soma first becomes Agni, it turns into flame and moves up. It is later reconverted into Soma.

This interconversion of Agni and Soma goes on in Nature. This is one yajna.

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI -5 161

5. The process by which every substance that comes into existence has a form, and maintains that form is yajna. This main tenance takes place through interconversion of anna uirk and prana which is yajna (annorkprananam anyonya parigraho yajnah).

Another way of dividing the yajnas is to bring them under the following five heads. 1. Adana yajna 2. Arpana yajna, 3. Utsarga yajna4. Bhaisajya yajna and 5. Vikasa yajna. The interested reader may refer to Ojha's commentary on Bhagavad Gita.We shall also deal with them in our book on Bhagavad Gita.

We have already said that SvayambhTF Prajapati is Vedamaya and his loka is called Satyaloka or Brahmagni loka. Here the Vedas consist of Rks, Yajus and Samans (Trayividya). It is Yajus that is called Brahmagni and is essentially prana. Many pranas classed as rsipranas reside here. There are two kinds of pranas viz unmanifest and manifest (ie unmugdha vayavah udbuddhavayavasca). The former are called Asat pranah. These come down to tapoloka (in between Svayambhuloka and Paramesthiloka) and get excited and then come down to Janaloka which is the loka of Paramesthi, Here they become manifest and become pitrpranas. Because of tapas they are capable of taking many forms. The Rsi pranas also become many and are en dowed with different dharmas. Of them twelve are prominent. They are Bhrgu, Angiras, Atri, Marici, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Daksa, Vasistha, Agastya, Visvamitra and Visvakarma. The Pitrpranas engage themselves in creative processes and produce many things.

Prajapatiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atma consists of manas prana and vak function ing in a coordinated way and this triad is responsible for all cre ations.

Because of manas he acquires knowledge, because of prana, he is engaged in activity and because of vak, he acquires material th ings (artha). When divinity (divyabhava) gets into the Atman, then all the impediments to the predominance of jnana characteristics in the Atman are removed and the Atman acquires Brahmavirya. Then in this Atman, Brahmavarcas (glow characteristic of wisdo m), personality, tapas, vidya, buddhi etc

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are acquired. When valour (virabhava) gets into the Atman, all the impediments to the predominance of kriya (action) character istics in the Atman are removed and the Atman acquires Ksatravirya. Then in this Atman ojas (glow of strength) vajah (physical and mental strength) tejas (glow) akara (personality), ais'varya (all forms of wealth) parakrama (valour), utsaha (inter est) and pratapa (glory) etc are acquired. When politeness gets into the Atman then all the impediments to the predominance of artha (wealth) characteristics are removed and the Atman ac quires Vidvirya. Then in this Atman dyumna (splendour due to wealthiness), tejas (glow), akara (personality), business interest (vanijyam), dhana (wealth) etc are acquired. Candra s Atma ha s Brahmavirya. Suryaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atma has Ksatravirya and Prthviâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Atma has Vidvirya.

We said the Puranjanas are Veda, Loka, Deva Bluita and Pasu. We did not define Pasu. All the inanimate things on earth like stones, mountains etc, all plants and trees, all Jivas from the smallest worms to human beings constitute Pasus. The yajna that gives rise to these is called Sipivista. Some others say Sipi means ray (ras'mi). Whateve r is established under the rays in the form of Pas'us is called Sipivista like the earth, heaven or the bodies of pranis etc." 1 In addition to all living beings (sasamjnas), trees, plants etc which have consciousness but do not exhibit it and inanimate things which do not have consciousness go under the class of Pasus. The former are called antassamjna and the latter asamjna.

All these should be conceived as having the triad manas, prana and vak but in the case of asamjnas, it is vak that is predominant and the other two are as good as non -existing. Vak constitutes, the martya part in everything.

According to the Vedic seers the Atrfias of Pasus acquire virya (brahma, ksatra, vit) whether they are animate or inanimate

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-5 163

objects. Thus in addition to human beings, animals, trees, stones etc also exhibit one of the three viryas. There are also Pastis which do not exhbit any of the three viryas and they belong to a fourth class.

While explaining the Brahmaudana and Pravargya concept of the Vedic seers, we have already said Virat Prajapati is the Pravargya part of Yajna Prajapati. We also saw there that it has ten components which when elaborated become forty. We have also listed there all these forty components of Virat Prajap ati. Since Yajna Prajapati is essentially Agni (amrtagni) Virat PrajcTpati also is essentially Agni and acquires his Pratistha from Yajna Prajapati.

The solar system comes into existence as a result of a yajna called Samvatsara Yajna and the Prajapati conc erned in this is called Samvatsara Prajapati who essentially constitutes Agni. This Samvatsaragni is made up of many components like ayana, rtu, masa paksa, ahoratra, muhUrta etc. All these influence the earth in various ways and in the process Samvatsaragni gets spent and is rejuvenated by the Parthiva Viradagni. This Viradagni which reaches the earth spreads into the atmosphere as well as in the upper region (dyau) and has ten components viz one Garhapatyagni (pertaining to earth), eight Antariksyagnis or Dhisnyagnis (pertaining to the middle region) and one Ahvaniyagni (pertaining to the upper region). That is why the Brahmana says 'DasUksara Virat'.

Actually the concept of Virat is much more complicated than what we have seen. MadhtTsudan Ojha in his bo ok on Maharsikulavaibhavam takes us through all its ramifications.

Amrtagni, Martyagni and Pasuskagni(Agni in the created things on earth) together constitute Virat and it has three components pertaining to earth, middle region and the upper region. This d efinition is more or less the same as what we have seen in the pre vious paragraph. Virat is food (anna) according to the Brahmana. Pasus constitute Virat according to another statement in the Brahmana.

The Tandya Brahmana says Virat is gauh ie the rays f rom the sun.

Here the pravargya aspect is implied. Pranas, devas,

Ill 1K0II0PI1 rsis, grahas, stomas, prsthas, rtus, diks, chandas' and samans are the ten components of Virat. 1 1 Madhusudan Ojha explains in his book each of these components in beautiful verses.

1. Pranas are often kinds. They are vak (mukha), two pranas of nose, two of eyes, two of ears, anus, urinary passage, and the navel. 12 2. Devas are first divided into two kinds viz Agni and Soma.

Agni is of three kinds viz Aditya, Vayu and Agni (of the earth).

Soma is of two kinds Viz Candrasoma and Diksoma. Thus there are five devas. In the Vedas they number thirty three. Of these twenty one are of Agni kind and twelve are of Soma kind. In another way, this number thirty three is made up. That is Agni has got eight Vasus, Vayu has eleven Rudras, Adityas are twelve and there are two intermediate devas. The total is thirty three. Since Visnu is the twelveth Aditya and Agni is - the first deva, in the Brahmana it is said that Visnu is parama ie. highest and Agni is avama (lowest).

(Agnirvai devanamavamah, Visnuh paramah). This has nothing to do with the relative importance of these two devas as has been often misinterpreted by so me people. 1 1 Visnu himself is called Virat and yajna. According to Aitareya, the two intermediate devas are Prajapati and Vasatkara.

3. Rsis. Bhrgu and Angiras are the two basic rsi pranas.

Angiras gives rise to three devas of Agni type viz Yama, Agni and Aditya. Bhrgu gives rise to three devas of Soma type 1 4 viz Soma, Vayu and Apah.

4. Stomas: Stoma is the characteristic of Samans and the

CONCEPT OF PRAJAPATI-5 165

Samamandala consists of thirty three parts. Three parts pertain to the physical body of the substance and the rest form stomas with intervals of six parts. There are thus six stomas above the sur face of the body viz Trivrt (nine) Pancadas'a (fifteen) Ekavims'a (twentyone). Trinava (twenty seven) and Trayastrimsat (thirty three) and Saptadas'a (seventeen) stomas (seventeen is also counted). All these six stomas together constitute Vasatkara. Upto the twentyfirst stoma (a span of four stomas) the word Prajapati is used because Agni extends only upto twentyfirst stoma and further beyond is the region of Soma.

5. Graha: It is a kind of Soma. The Vedic seers conceived Grahasoma as a type of vayu with forty components. Therefore Grahasoma does not become Agni when it is offered to Agni. It remains what it was. It is this, that is imagined to be received in grahas (wooden vats) and offered to Agni or taken by the Rtviks.

The Rtviks crush soma and receive the juice in forty cups and use it for morning, noon and evening oblations. At the adhyatmic level graha represents a particular component of the human system.

The idea is that in the yaga, the yajamaha gets a divine Atman and body in which all these forty components are established. 15 6. Prstha - These are three in number. One is located at the centre of the body. Another on the surface of the physical body and the third in the saman. Actually Prstha is some sort of location indicator. These Prsthas are three in number both for Prthivi and Surya. lfi 7. Rtu. These are seasons which represent confrontation between Agni and Soma. Sometimes Agni overpowers Soma and at other times Soma overpowers Agni. In this way the various Note:â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Here the stomas are said to be of eighteen kinds. Here they are conceived as six for Prithivi, six for Antariksa and six for the upper region.

166 VHDIC CONCEPT Ol- ATMAN

seasons arc produced. 1 7 8. Diks:- The Vedic seers believed that the directions have influence on Nature. The eastern direction is capable of produc ing Urjit (finer form of food or strength in the body). It represents dyuloka. The southern direction gives pratistha and represents antariksa. The west represents Prthivi and brings wealth (Srih).

North represents waters and bestows dharma. ls 9. Chandas:- Chandas limits the size of created substance.

Actually this limitation is fixed even before yajfia takes place. For example when a child is created, its size is first determined and according to that the amount of creation material is fixed and t hat takes part in yajna and the child is created. Chandas limits vak. (both s'abdavak and arthavak). Vak is of two kinds, martya and amrta. In the same way, Chandas also is of two kinds martya and amrta. Martya Chandas is of eight kinds. According to Nidar ia sastra, every one of these is associated with certain effects. Manas, prana and vak always coexist. It is vak that undergoes limitation and as a result prana and manas get limited. Manas by itself can never be subjected to limitation (chandana). We may therefore say it is vak which becomes pranamaya and manomaya and its amrta and martya parts undergo limitation (Chandana). 1 9 Vijnana which manas creates when subjected to chandas is of three types. When the indriyas are involved in the manifesta tion of Vijnana then it is called Brahman. When s'abda is involved it is called Veda. When samskara (effect of past acts) is involved

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it is called Vidya. 20 The above statement of Ojha is a little difficult to grasp. We shall therefore explain the above statement.

The creation oriented Brahman (Prajapati) exhibits three types of saktis viz jnanas'akti, characteristic of manas, kriyas'akti characteristic of prana and arthashkti characteristic of vak. Here we are concerned with jnanas'akti. This jnanas'akti exhibits itself as Vijnana in three situations. a) When a phenomenon is presented to us, we see it, we understand something of it and we acquire some knowledge of it through our indriyas. Here we can say that the phenomenon exhibits Vijnana and we acquire it. b) When we have acquired some knowledge of the phenomenon, it produces a certain effect in our mind. For example, it may chasten our mind. This is what is called samskara. We are able to benefit by this samskatra even when the phenomenon is not presented to us again and again. In other words Vijnana manifests itself in us through samskara. c) When we do not witness anything but hear some sound, we are able to acquire knowledge and thus, through the sound, Vijnana manifests itself in us.

Because of the difference in the situations, the same Vijnana which is nothing but creation oriented Brahman limited by mayabalas or subjected to chandas is called Brahman in the first case, Vidya in the second case and Veda in the third case.

Gayatri chandas is indicative of Brahmavarcas (the glow, associated with Brahmavirya). Usnik chandas is indicative of Tty us (life span) Anustup chandas is indicative o' Svarga and BrhatT chandas is indicative of Sri (wealth) and ya: as (fame). 21

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Pankti chandas is indicative of yajna. Tristup chandas is in dicative of indriyavirya. Jagati chandas is indicative of Pasu. V irat chandas is indicative of Sri and Anna (food). 2 2 All these are martya chandas: Now we pass on to amrta chandas. Amrta chandas is Veda.

Veda is the triad rk, yajus and saman. When we go into the functions of three Vedas, we may call Rgveda as Pratistha Veda, Yajurveda as Rasaveda and Samaveda as Vitana Veda. These terms we have already explained in our book 'What is Veda'? Here Madhusudan Ojha names Rgveda as Pratistha Veda, Sama Veda as Yajna Veda and Yajurveda as Rasaveda.

The Satapatha Brahmana while describing the sun as 'Esa trayi Vidya tapati' describes the rks as Mahoktha, samans as Mahavrata and yajus' as the Agni inside the disc. We have ex plained all these terms in our book 'What is Veda ? Here it is essentially vak in the form of Agni which is always accompanied by prana and manas. From the centre of the body Agni alongwith prana and manas goes out in the form of waves. This outgoing Agni is called Mahaduktha Vak along with prana and manas moves towards the centre bringing food (soma) to the Ag ni inside. This is Mahavrata. In both these cases it is Agni that is essentially vak accompanied by manas and prana that is subjected to this inward and outward movement. 2 3 Every substance constantly throws out (visarga) something and takes in (adana) something to compensate for the loss. This is apanana pranana process. What comes in as food (soma) is con verted into agni, whsn it reaches the nabhi (centre). On the other hand the agni that gttfi out of the nabhi (centre) is converted into soma after reaching some distance. The interconversion of Agni and Soma goes on i s a routine in Nature. We have already ex plained the significance of this in our book on Vedic concept of

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tutes bhutas.

4. Pasu Prajapati - All the living things from worms to human beings and plants and trees.

5. Yajna Prajapati - This Prajapati includes Trayi Vidya Prajapati or Svayambhu Prajapati.

6. Atharva Veda Prajapati - This Prajapati constitutes Bhrgu Angiras principle.

7. Chandah Prajapati 8. Virat Prajapati 9. Sipivista Prajapati 10. Sarva Prajapati But all these ten kinds of Prajapatis can be brought under three divisions. They are 1. Anirukta or Indra Prajapati who is Pratistha Prajapati /

2. Virat or Sipivista Prajapati - who is uktha.

3. Samvatsara Prajapati who includes, Lokas and Vedas. This Prajapati is Sama Prajapati.

In Vedic literature Yajna Prajapati is said to have seventeen avayavas (components), whereas the Soda^i Prajapati, who, we said, is everything has only sixteen components. The seventeenth component is considered to be yajna or the yajamana, who is sariri Atma. We can also combine all the above Prajapatis by bringing them under one class viz Parama Virat Prajapati. Parama includes, Virat, Yajna, Purusa Pura, ParStpara and Nirvis'esa. In other words Parama Virat is Brahman with all his manifest and unmanifest forms.

We have practically come to the end of Prajapati's story. We have seen how Prajapatis can be classified and have dealt with them in some detail. But there are two types of Prajapatis who are close to each other and who are very important for us.