Upanishads

Paingala Upanishad

Shuklayajurveda, a group of Upanishads - pure Vedanta

Om! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite.
The infinite comes from the infinite.
(Then) accepting the infinity of the infinite (universe),
She remains as the infinite (Brahman) one.
Om! Let there be Peace in me!
May there be Peace in my surroundings!
May there be Peace in the forces that act upon me!

I-1. Then indeed Paingala approached Yajnavalkya as a disciple, and having served him for twelve years, said: Instruct me in regard to the supreme secret of Solitude.

I-2. The eminent Yajnavalkya replied: Dear, in the beginning this did exist. It was the ever-free, changeless, ever-one, secondless Brahman, full of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss.

I-3. In it there existed the primordial and indefinable Prakriti, composed of the gunas in a state of equilibrium, red, white and dark, resembling (the existence of) water, silver, man and the outlines (respectively) in the mirage of an oyster shell, a tree stump and a mirror; what was reflected in it was the Witness Consciousness.

I-4. Having changed, with the predominance of Sattva, and called Avyakta (Unmanifest), it (Prakriti) became the power of concealment. That which was reflected in it became the Consciousness of God. He holds Maya under His control, is omniscient, is the original cause of the creation, maintenance and dissolution (of the world) and has the form of the germinating world. He manifests the whole world dissolved in Him. Due to the power of the Karmas of living beings, (the world) is spread out like this cloth, and due to their exhaustion again (the world) is concealed. In Him alone the whole world exists like a folded cloth.

I-5. From the power of concealment controlled by God, the Power of Projection called Mahat has arisen. That which is reflected in it is the consciousness of Hiranyagarbha. He has the conceit of ownership over Mahat and has a body, partly manifest and partly unmanifest.

I-6. From the projection power controlled by Hiranyagarbha, arose the gross power called ego, with Tamas predominating. What was reflected in it was the consciousness of the Virat. That Virat which has conceit in the Ego, the manifested body, is the Chief Personality, Vishnu, who is the protector of all gross things. From that Self (the Virat) arose ether; from ether, air; from air, fire; from fire, water; from water, earth. These five basic elements are composed of the three gunas.

I-7. Desiring to create, that world Cause (God), controlling the quality of tamas, strove to make the subtle basic elements gross. He bifurcated each of the extremely limited elements and again made (the halves) quadruple and added each of the five halves to one-eighth of the other four. With these fivefold elements he created endless crores of macrocosms and for each of these fourteen corresponding worlds and globular gross bodies suitable for each plane of them all.

I-8. Dividing the rajas of the five elements into four parts, he created prana with its fivefold activity from its three parts. From the fourth part (rajas) he formed the organ of action.

I-9. Dividing their Sattvas into four parts, from the combination of three of them he created the internal organ with its fivefold activity. From the fourth he created the organs of Cognition.

I-10. From the combination of Sattva he created the guardians of the sense organs. He threw them, having created them in the macrocosm. By his command, caused by the ego, Virat protected the gross elements (of the cosmos). By his command Hiranyagarbha protected the subtle ones.

I-11. In the cosmos they could not, without God, pulsate or act. He wished to animate them. Having split the macrocosm, the channels of Brahman and the crowns of individuals, he entered into them. Although they were inert, as sentient (beings), they each performed their own functions.

I-12. The omniscient Lord, united with the Maya band, having entered into individual bodies and being deluded by it, became Jiva; due to self-identification with the three bodies (he) became both the agent and the reaper (of the fruits of action). Having the attributes of waking, dreaming, deep sleep, swooning and death, like a chain of buckets (attached to a water wheel), he becomes disturbed and, as it were, is born and dies, revolving like a potter's wheel.

II-1. Now Paingala asked Yajnavalkya: How did the almighty Lord of all the worlds, the author of their manifestation, maintenance and dissolution, become Jiva?

II-2. Yajnavalkya replied: I shall speak distinguishing the forms of Jiva and God, following the generation of the gross, subtle and causal bodies. Listen with exclusive attention. Using the parts of the fivefold gross elements, the Lord created the individual and collective gross bodies respectively. The earthly ones are the skull, skin, entrails, bones, flesh and nails. The watery ones are blood, urine, saliva, sweat, etc. The fiery ones are hunger, thirst, heat, fatigue, sexual union, etc. The airy ones are movements, locomotion, breathing, etc. The ethereal ones are lust, anger, etc. The gross body with skin, etc. is a combination of all these, formed by deeds; (it is) the basis of such states as childhood, etc., vanity and numerous faults.

II-3. Then he (God) manifested Prana (Life-principle) from the non-fivefold aggregate of the three Rajasic portions of the gross elements. The modifications of the life-principle are Prana, Apana, Vyana, Udana and Samana. The subordinate functions of Prana are Naga, Kurma, Krikara, Devadatta and Dhananjaya. Their bases are the heart, the anus, the navel, the throat and all the limbs. By the fourth portion of Rajasic Akasha he manifested the organ of action. Its functions (are performed) by the tongue, the hands, the feet, the anus and the genital organ. Their objects are speech, grasping, movement, excretion and (sexual) enjoyment. Similarly, from the aggregate of the three portions of Sattva elements he manifested the internal organ. Its functions are mind, intellect, thought and ego. Their objects are imagination, determination, memory, conceit and inquiry. Their bases are the throat, mouth, navel, heart and the junction of the eyebrows. With the fourth part of the Sattva elements he manifested the sense of Knowledge. Its functions are the ears, skin, eyes, tongue and nose. Their objects are sound, touch, form, taste and smell. The lords of the organs (perception and action) are the directions, wind, sun, Prachetas, Ashvins, Fire, Indra, Upendra, Death, moon, Vishnu, Brahma and Shambhu.

II-4. Now, there are five sheaths, the sheath of food, vital breath, mind, knowledge and bliss. The sheath of food arises from the essence of food, is developed by it and is dissolved in the earth, which is predominantly of the nature of food. This alone is the gross body. The five breaths, Prana, etc.; together with the five organs of action constitute the sheath of vital breath. The sheath of mind is the mind together with the organs of knowledge. The sheath of knowledge is the intellect together with the organs of knowledge. These three sheaths constitute the subtle body. The sheath of bliss is the knowledge of one's essence. This is the causal body.

II-5. The eightfold city (the complete subtle body) consists of the five organs of knowledge, the five organs of action, the five breaths, the five elements such as ether, etc., the fivefold internal organ, desire, action and tamas.

II-6. Vishva (is) the self of knowledge, the reflection of sat, the empirical (being) having conceit in the gross body of the waking state. The field of actions (or born of actions) is also a name of Vishva.

II-7. By the command of God, Sutratman (Hiranyagarbha) entered the subtle body of the individual and, controlling the mind, became Taijasa. Taijasa is a phenomenon. The formed dream is the name of Taijasa.

II-8. By the command of God (I) with the addition of Maya along with the Unmanifested, the entry into the individual causal body became Prajna. Prajna is undifferentiated, real, "Having conceit in deep sleep" is the name of Prajna.

II-9. Texts like Tattvamasi proclaim the identity with Brahman of the real Jiva, hidden by ignorance and part of the unmanifest; not of the other two, the empirical and illusory Jiva (in the waking and dreaming states).

II-10. The consciousness reflected in the internal organ participated in three states. Fused in the states of waking, dream and deep sleep, like a chain of buckets attached to a water wheel, and suffering, it (Jiva) is as if born and dies.

II-11. Now there are five states - Waking, dream, deep sleep, swoon and death. The waking state consists in cognizing objects such as sound, etc.; by means of the organs of knowledge such as the ears, etc.; by means of the respective (guardian) deities. The jiva, situated at the junction of the eyebrows and pervading the whole (body) from the feet to the head, becomes the agent of all activities such as tillage and cultivation. Also the reaper of their respective fruits. Transmigrating to other world(s), he reaps the fruits of (his) activities alone. Tired of activities, like an emperor, he sets out on the path leading to the inner chamber (new body).

II-12. When the instruments (knowledge and action) cease to work, there comes the state of sleep, in which there is knowledge of objects and their cognition due to the half-awakened impressions of the waking state. There Visva himself, due to the cessation of empirical activity, moving in the system of nerves and becoming Taijasa, freely enjoys the rarity of the world, consisting of latent impressions, which he illuminates with his light.

II-13. The instrument of deep sleep is the mind alone. Just as a bird, exhausted by occasional flights, folds its wings and flies to its nest, so the Jiva, frolicking in the spheres of waking and sleeping and exhausted, plunges into ignorance and enjoys its own bliss.

II-14. (The state of) fainting is like the state of death, when the sense organs are moved due to fear and unconsciousness when they are accidentally hit with a club, stick, etc.

II-15. Different from the states of waking, dream, deep sleep and fainting, causing fear in all the Jivas from Brahma to a bunch (of grass, etc.) and causing the body to fall down, the state of death is the state.

II-16. Having withdrawn the organs of action and knowledge and the vital breath corresponding to the various objects, and accompanied by desires and actions, and enveloped in ignorance and the (subtle) elements, the Jiva goes to another world. Due to the ripening of the fruits of past actions, like a worm caught in a whirlpool (the Jiva), he now attains peace.

II-17. As a result of past good deeds, at the end of many lives, people seek liberation. Then, having recourse to a teacher of Self-realization and (faithfully) serving him for a long time, one examines bondage and liberation.

II-18. Bondage arises from lack of enquiry; liberation arises from enquiry. Therefore enquire at all times. Man's own nature can be determined by superposition and its negation. Therefore always enquire (into the nature of) the individual Self and the supreme Self. When the state of the Jiva and the state of the world are removed, Brahman alone remains, non-different from the inner Self.

III-1-2. Then Paingala said to Yajnavalkya: Give an explanation of the main text(s) [Maha-vakyas]. Yajnavalkya replied: You are That; You are That; You are Brahman; I am Brahman—thus should one meditate.

III-3. The expressed sense of the word 'tat' is the world-cause marked by 'otherness' (mediation), having Being, Consciousness and Bliss as its characteristics, Maya as its complement and omniscience etc. as its features. The same with awareness mixed with the inner sense, the object of the concept 'I', is the expressed sense of 'tvam'. Rejecting the complements of the supreme (God) and Jiva, namely Maya and Avidya, the said sense of 'tat' and 'tvam' is Brahman, non-different from the inner Self.

III-4. 'Listening' is the investigation of the meaning of sentences such as 'That Thou art' and 'I am Brahman'. Reflection is the exclusive dwelling on the content of what is heard. Meditation is the one-pointed fixation of the mind on reality, made certain by investigation and reflection. Concentration, like a flame in a windless place, is thought (citta), the content of which is exclusively the object of meditation, excluding the agent and the act of meditation.

III-5. Then the modifications (of the mind) pertaining to the Self, though arising, remain unconscious; they are only withdrawn from memory. By this (samadhi) alone the crores of deeds accumulated during the beginningless transmigratory existence are dissolved. By skillful practice thence, in a thousand ways, streams of nectar flow. Therefore the best knowers of yoga call (this) concentration dharmamegha, the cloud of virtues. When the nets of latent impressions are completely destroyed by the power of this and the accumulation of deeds, good and evil, are uprooted, the sentence (the content of which) previously mediatedly gives rise to unimpeded and immediate realisation (resembling, in its certainty,) gooseberries on the palm (of the hand). Then one becomes liberated in life.

III-6. God has willed the non-quinary of the five elements. By reducing the produced macrocosm and the worlds included in it to their causal state, by uniting the subtle organs of action, the vital breath, the organs of knowledge and the fourfold inner sense, by reducing all the elementary (effects) to the fivefold cause, (he) dissolves in (due) order the earth in water, the water in fire, the fire in air, the air in ether, the ether in the ego, the ego in Mahat, Mahat in the unmanifested and the unmanifested in the Spirit (Purusha). By dissolving the appendages, Virat, Hiranyagarbha and God dissolve in the Supreme Self.

III-7. Having become non-fivefold through the weakening of (accumulated) deeds and the ripening of good deeds, and one with the subtle (body), returning to the cause and its cause, the gross body generated by deeds performed through the fivefold gross elements becomes non-fivefold and dissolves in the unchanging inner Self. Vishva, Taijasa and Prajna dissolve in the same due to the dissolution of their appendages.

III-8. The microcosm, absorbed in the fire of knowledge along with (its) causes, dissolves in the supreme Self. Therefore the Brahman should dwell intently on the identity (of the content) of the terms tat and tvam. Hence, when the clouds disperse, when the sun (shines), the Self manifests.

III-9-10. Meditating on the Self, the size of a thumb, in the center (of the heart?) like a smokeless flame, meditate on the illuminating Self in the center, changeless and deathless. The silent sage, liberated in life, sits meditating until sleep, until death; he is blessed who has fulfilled his duty.

III-11. By abandoning the status of Liberation during life, when the body is absorbed by time, he attains the status of incorporeal liberation, like the wind becoming silent.

III-12. That immortal and definite (one), devoid of sound, touch, form, taste or smell, without beginning or end, beyond Mahat, alone remains without impurity and suffering.

IV-1. Then Paingala asked Yajnavalkya: How does the knower (Jnanin) act? How does he remain at peace?

IV-2. Yajnavalkya replied: He who seeks liberation, having attained freedom from egoism, etc., passes 21 generations (of his ancestors and descendants) through (the sea of samsara). The knower of Brahman himself passes 101 generations.

IV-3. Know that I am the rider of the chariot; the body is indeed the chariot; the intellect is the charioteer, and the mind is the reins.

IV-4. The senses, say the sages, are horses; objects are what they run over; hearts are moving multi-story mansions.

IV-5. The great sages declare that the Self in combination with the senses and the mind is the experiencer. Therefore Narayana immediately became firmly established in the heart.

IV-6. Before (the exhaustion of) operational activities, the homeless liberated Self behaves like a snake skin, like the moon (in the sky).

IV-7. By throwing the body in a holy place or (perhaps) in the house of a dog-eater, (the liberated one) attains Isolation.

IV-8. After this, make offerings of his body to the cardinal directions or bury (his body). Begging is prescribed for a man, but never for another.

IV-9. No observance of (period of) pollution, no burning (of corpse), no offering of rice-balls or water, no fortnightly rites (are prescribed) for a mendicant who has become a Brahmana.

IV-10. There is no burning of what is (already) consumed, nor is there any cooking of what is (already) cooked. For him whose body is burned in the fire of knowledge, there is no ceremonial offering of rice, nor (other) rite (of burial).

IV-11. As long as the appendages (body, etc.) remain, let him serve the teacher. Let him treat the teacher's wife and children in the same way as he treats the teacher himself.

IV-12. When with the knowledge "I am That!" "I am That" - the Self whose mind is pure essence, pure Spirit, long-suffering - wisdom is acquired, when the object of knowledge, the higher Self, is established in the heart; when the body dissolves in the state of the achieved Peace, then man becomes deprived of bright mind and intellect.

IV-13. What is the use of water for one who has sated himself with ambrosia? Similarly, (for one) who has known his Self, what is the use of the Vedas? No duties remain for the yogi who has sated himself with the ambrosia of knowledge. If there is a duty, he does not know the Truth. Though he is at a distance, he is not far; though he is embodied, he is incorporeal; he is the omnipresent inner Self.

IV-14. Purifying the heart, contemplating the well-being (of all), a person should experience the highest joy in the thought: “I am the highest, All.”

IV-15. Just as there is no difference when water is poured into water, milk into milk, and ghee into ghee, so it is in the case of the individual Self and the higher Self.

IV-16. When the body is burnt by knowledge and knowledge becomes infinite in form, then the knower consumes the bondage of Karma in the fire of the Knowledge of Brahman.

IV-17. From here (follows the state of) the holy non-dual (Reality), called the Supreme Lord, like the immaculate sky. The nature of the Self, existing without appendages, is like (the nature of) water mixed with water.

IV-18. Like the ether, the Self in the subtle body. The inner Self, like air, is not perceived. This restless inner Self perceives the outer (manifold) with the torch of (objective) knowledge.

IV-19. The Knower, the dead, no matter by what (form) of death he is caused, dissolves (into Brahman, which is), like the all-pervading sky.

IV-20. This dissolution he knows truly as the dissolution of the pot (in infinite space). He attains (the state of) the self-sustaining light of all-pervading knowledge.

IV-21. Standing on one leg, let a man perform austerities for 1000 years; but (this austerity) is less than one-sixteenth of this Yoga of meditation.

IV-22. This is knowledge; this is to be known; man desires to know all this. If he lived (even) 1000 years, he would not reach the end of the Shastras.

IV-23. That which is to be known is only the Eternal; (but) life is fleeting. Avoiding the labyrinths of the Shastras, meditate on the Truth (alone).

IV-24. Actions are endless - purification, muttering (of holy names), sacrifices, pilgrimages to holy places. They (are valid) only so long as the Truth is not won.

IV-25. As for the great-souled, the sure cause of liberation is (the knowledge) 'I am Brahman'. The two words that define bondage and liberation are 'mine' and 'not mine'.

IV-26. The meaning "mine" binds the living being; it is liberated by the meaning "not mine." When the mind is dementalized, duality is no longer cognized.

IV-27. When dementalization is achieved, That becomes the highest status. Wherever the mind goes, there verily is the highest status.

IV-28. Thus there, everywhere, Brahman is firmly established. For him who holds 'I am not Brahman', liberation is impossible; (it is as futile) as beating the sky with clenched fists or chewing chaff for a hungry man.

IV-29. He who studies the Upanishads as a rule (every day) is purified by fire (as it were); by air; by the sun; by Vishnu; by Rudra. He has bathed in all the sacred waters. He is learned in all the Vedas; has performed all the sacred rites taught in all the Vedas. He has ritually muttered the Laksh Itihasas and the Puranas and one Laksh Rudra (tantras). He has muttered a million times the sacred syllable OM. He expiates ten generations of his line, past and future. He purifies the ranks of the diner, of whom he is one. He becomes great. He is purified from the sins of Brahmanism - murder, drunkenness, theft, adultery with (even) the teacher's wife and association with those guilty of these.

IV-30. This supreme Status of Vishnu, spread out like an eye in the sky, is always seen by the enlightened.

IV-31. The wise, ever-vigilant and assiduous in praise, generously glorify That supreme Status of Vishnu.

IV-32. OM-Truth - This is the secret teaching.

Om! That (Brahman) is infinite, and this (universe) is infinite.
The infinite comes from the infinite.
(Then) accepting the infinity of the infinite (universe),
She remains as the infinite (Brahman) one.
Om! Let there be Peace in me!
May there be Peace in my surroundings!
May there be Peace in the forces that act upon me!

Thus ends the Paingalopanishad belonging to the Shuklayajurveda.