|
You are on the page: Scriptures.ru ➤ Upanishads ➤ Jabala Upanishad
|
Jabala Upanishad
Shuklayajurveda
group of Upanishads – sannyasa
1
Om!
Brhaspati asked Yajnavalkya: "[Tell me what] can compare with Kurukshetra itself as a sacrificial place of the gods and as the abode of Brahman of all beings?" He replied: "Verily, avimuktam is the [true] Kurukshetra, the sacrificial place of the gods and the abode of Brahman of all beings.
Therefore, wherever he wanders, he [parivrajaka is a wandering monk who no longer limits himself to any holy places] should think: here, verily, is the [true] Kurukshetra, the sacrificial place of the gods, the abode of Brahman of all beings. For here, when the vital breaths leave a person, Rudra imparts the saving formula by means of which the being attains (lit. "divides") immortality, attains liberation. Therefore one should revere avimuktam, one should not leave avimuktam [which we do not leave]!" – "It is so, O Yajnavalkya."
2
Then Atri asked Yajnavalkya: "How can I know this infinite, unmanifest Atman?" – And Yajnavalkya replied: "In avimuktama it should be worshipped! This infinite, unmanifest Atman should be sought in avimuktama." – "But where is this avimuktama – the place to be found?" – "It should be sought between varana and nasi." – "But what is varana and what is nasi?" – “Varana is so called because it reflects (varayati) the faults committed by the organs of the body; while nasi is so called because it destroys the sins (naschaiti) committed by the organs of the body.” – “But where is the location of this avimuktam?” – “This is the place where the eyebrows and the nose meet. For it is the place of union of the world of heaven and the highest world [Brahman]. For this reason, those who know Brahman revere this connecting place as the time of union (twilight). For in avimuktama, so they know, He [Atman] should be worshipped. He who knows this declares his knowledge to be avimuktama (unforgettable).”
3
Then the Brahmin disciples asked him: “By the repetition of which [prayer] is immortality attained? Tell us!” – Yajnavalkya replied: “Shatarudriyam (Shatarudriya), for they are the names of Immortality, and by them one becomes immortal.” – “That is so, O Yajnavalkya!”
4
Then Janaka, the king of Videha, approached Yajnavalkya and said: “Explain to me, O venerable sir, what renunciation (sannyasa) is!” And Yajnavalkya said: "If someone has completed his stage of discipleship (brahmacharya), then he can become a householder (grihastha); after he has been a householder, he can become a forest hermit (vanaprastha); after he has been a forest hermit, he can become a wandering monk visiting places of pilgrimage [as parivrajaka, bhikshu, or sannyasin]. Or he can immediately become a wandering monk after the stage of discipleship, or after the stage of householder, or after the stage of forest hermit. And even whether he has observed the vow or not, whether he has taken the final bath or not, he has worked out his karma as a householder (lit. "exhausted the fires of householder") or he is [already] without fire, – from the day on which he renounced (freed from passions), he must travel as a pilgrim. Here some perform the sacrifice to Prajapati (Instead of the sacrifice to Prajapati {which apparently means atonement for oneself from the obligation to procreate} the sacrifice to prana is performed {the ascetic does not require offspring, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.22}. – Here, apparently, a statement is given which is contrary to the injunction given in Kanthashruti 4) this should not be done – one should offer the sacrifice to Agni alone, for Agni is prana; and, therefore, it is performed to prana. Then one should perform the traidhatavya sacrifice; thus the three dhatus (primordial elements) are worshipped, namely, sattva, rajas and tamas.
This is the place that is rightfully yours,
Where, as soon as you were born, you shone in all your splendor;
Knowing this, Agni, raise him up
And increase our treasures!
With this formula (Atharvaveda 3.20.1) he should breathe fire. Verily, prana is the abode (originating place, yoni) of fire, and for this reason he says, "Go to prana, svaha!"
Or [the priest] may also bring fire from the village and give that fire to him [the sannyasin] to inhale as has been described. If he cannot get fire, he should make an offering in the form of water, for water represents all divinity. And after performing the sacrifice, saying, "Om, I offer this to all the gods, svaha," he should drink it and eat that auspicious sacrificial food along with clarified butter (ghee). Thus he will know that the liberating formula [Om] is all the three Vedas; for it is Brahman that is to be worshipped. It is so, O venerable one."
Thus spoke Yajnavalkya.
5
Then Atri asked Yajnavalkya: "I ask you, Yajnavalkya, how can a Brahmin be without the sacred thread?" – And Yajnavalkya replied: "The Atman itself is his sacred thread; what he eats and what he drinks after eating is the sacrificial injunction of the Parivrajakas, whether he otherwise chooses the hero's death or fasts, or goes into water or into fire, or goes on a great journey [otherwise].
Thus the wandering monk – with colorless robes, with a shaved head, without property, pure, free from falsehood, living on alms – becomes worthy of attaining the state of Brahman.
If he is too ill [to lead such a life], then he can practice renunciation only in thought and words.
Such is the path revealed by Brahman; the renounced one goes thereon, having known Brahman (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.9).
This is his path, O venerable one." Thus spoke Yajnavalkya.
6
Similarly lived the people who were called paramahamsas – Samvartaka, Aruni, Shvetaketu, Durvasas, Ribhu, Nidagha, Jadabharata, Dattatreya, Raivataka and others who had no visible distinguishing marks, the motives of their behavior were unknown to others; they behaved like madmen, but they were not madmen.
Three sticks, a water vessel, a drinking cup, flasks, a water filter, a tuft of hair and a sacrificial thread – all this should be thrown into the water with the words "bhuh svaha" and seek Atman.
Naked as he was born, beyond the pairs of opposites (joy and sorrow, etc.), without property, completely surrendered to the path of truth, Brahman, with a pure heart, going out without any bondage aimlessly for alms at the prescribed hour merely to maintain his life, with the belly as his utensil, equally regardful whether he gets anything or not, being homeless whether he is in an abandoned house, in a temple, on a heap of grass, on an anthill, at the roots of a tree, in a potter's workshop, by the altar fire, on the bank of a river, in a mountain cave, in a ravine, in a hollow tree, by a waterfall, or on the bare ground, not struggling for anything, free from the sense of "mine", devoted to pure meditation, firmly rooted in the supreme Self, having destroyed all bad deeds, having become free from the body through renunciation, he is called a paramahamsa, he is called a paramahamsa.
[ The Jabala school is a branch of the Yajurveda in the Caranavyuha (Ind. Stud. III, 262). In his commentary on the Brahmasutra, Shankara quotes 13 passages from the Jabalanam or Jabalanam shrutih, of which nine are present in this Upanishad (System des Vedanta, p. 33), and even Badarayana (in Brahmasutra 1.2.32) seems to refer to one of them. Further, the beginning of the sixth chapter of this Upanishad text has been quoted by Sayana (in Taittiriya-aranyakama 2.11) as the text Jabala-sakha-adhyayinah. From all this it can be concluded that the shakha (branch) of the Jabala school did exist, and this text is only a part of their teaching (since it does not contain all the passages referred to in the above-mentioned quotations from Shankara), which, judging from its approach as a whole, certainly seems to be based on the same foundation as the other Upanishads of the Sannyasa group, and, not differing much from them in its dating anyway, this Upanishad can be correlated with similar passages in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
According to a similar story given in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3-4, here too are given the answers of Yajnavalkya, who in the first five chapters answers the questions that were put to him Brihaspati, Atri, the Brahmin disciples, Janaka and Atri again.
Description of the chapters of the Jabala Upanishad:
1. On avimuktam as the sacrificial place of the gods and the abode of Brahman of all beings. Avimuktam – "that which is never abandoned [by Shiva]" – is a district in Varanasi (also known as Benares and Kashi) and, by extension, Varanasi itself. By Shiva's grace, liberation is granted to one who dies there (see last note of Prana-Agnihotra Upanishad). But the parivrajaka (wandering monk) transfers this avimuktam to himself, pointing to it as the point between the eyebrows and the nose (just as he pointed to the sacrificial fires and the sacrificial thread in himself). This allegorical explanation of avimukteshvarama is, indeed, given later – only in the next section, but it is already presupposed here, because it is fully understood only by the initiate.
2. Near Varanasi two small rivers flow into the Ganges: on the upper side of the city – Asi, the bed of which is often dry, in the lower part of the city – Varana, similarly very shallow; the city of Varanasi is supposed to have received its name from the names of these two rivers. This place between Varana and Asi, which is ruled by the supreme Atman, is always transferred by parivrajaka to itself at the place where both eyebrows meet at the root of the nose, just as two streams of water meet near Varanasi. The name of the city is misleadingly interpreted as being composed of the words varana and nasi, to make a pun on varayati and naschayati.
3. Yajnavalkya recommends the Satarudriya (Vajasaneyi Samhita XVI) as a means of attaining immortality to Brahmin disciples who asked him a question, for the hundred Rudras found there represent the many epithets of the Immortal (i.e. Atman).
4. Janaka asks Yajnavalkya (apparently in connection with Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.22) about the starting point of sannyasa (the 4th stage in life) – that moment in life when the sannyasin takes his vow of sannyasa (renunciation), which is described here in much the same way as in other Upanishads of the sannyasa group. Like the sacrifice to Vaisvanara in Kanthashruti 1, here the sacrifice to Agni, since he represents prana, and the sacrifice to the three gunas of the Samkhya doctrine are prescribed for the entrant to the path of sannyasa. The inhalation of fire seems to mean that in this way fire symbolically enters the body of the sannyasin.
5. In the answer to Atri's question it is said that the nourishment and clothing of prana in the sense described in Chandogya Upanishad 5.19 and 5.2 is recommended to the parivrajaka as his only duty. At the end the words "esa panthah", etc., are repeated from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.9 and refer to the sannyasin.
6. The concluding section depicts – with reference to a number of the great examples enumerated – the starting point, mode of life and abode of the sannyasin; This entire section is reproduced in a similar manner at the end of the Bhikshuka Upanishad and partly also at the end of the Ashrama Upanishad.]
