The Upanishads

Krishnayajurveda
a group of Upanishads – pure Vedanta

1. OM! What is bondage (bandha)? What is liberation (moksha)? What is ignorance (avidya)? What is Knowledge (vidya) and the states of waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep and the fourth state (jagrat, swapna, sushupti, turya)? What is annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya, vijnanamaya, anandamaya? What is the doer, the soul (jiva), kshetrajna (the knower of all elements), sakshin (the aware), kutastha, the inner teacher (antaryamin)? What is the inner atman, the Supreme Atman (Paramatman), Atman, maya? What is Atmeshvara?

The body and other sheaths are not Atman, but what is mistaken for Atman is not Atman. Attachment to the ego is bondage (bandha), Liberation is not attachment. Egoism is due to ignorance (avidya), Knowledge removes ignorance. When the Atman, through the sense organs (hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell), the organs of action (hands, feet, tongue, reproductive organs and excretory organs) and the four subtle consciousnesses (mind (manas), intellect (buddhi), consciousness (chitta) and false ego (ahamkara)) perceives gross objects like sound and others – then it is in the waking state. When it perceives everything through the subtle consciousnesses, even in the absence of sound – then the Atman is in the state of dream sleep. When all the sense organs cease to function and discrimination disappears, then the Atman is in the state of dreamless sleep.

2. When consciousness (chaitanya) observes all three states (jagrat, svapna, sushupti), everything that exists and does not exist, then this state is called the Fourth (turya).

The union of the six sheaths (skin, bones, meat, blood, bone marrow, nerves), built by gross food, is the annamaya kosha, the food body.

The 14 winds-pranas (apana, samana, prana, udana, vyana, naga, kurma, krikara, devadatta, dhananjaya, vairambhana, sthanamukhya, pradyota, prakrita) move in the annamaya kosha – this is the pranamaya kosha.

When the four subtle consciousnesses (mind, intellect, consciousness and false ego) cognizing sound and other subtle objects are united with these two bodies – this is called the manomaya kosha, the mind body.

When the observing consciousness beyond discrimination appears above these three bodies, it is called the vijnanamaya kosha, the body of knowledge.

When these four bodies are immersed in Brahman, like a tree in a seed, it is called the anandamaya kosha, the body of bliss.

He who lives in the body, in the place where the thought of joy and pain is located, is the doer. When thoughts are directed to objects that bring pleasure, it causes joy, when to opposite objects, it causes suffering. The source of joy and pain is sound, touch, sight, taste and smell. When, according to past good and bad karma, consciousness gets connected with past bodies, it is called jiva (soul).

The body that is close to Atman, but still being its subtle limitation is called linga-sharira. Consciousness that manifests itself in this body is called kshetrajna (knower of all elements).

3. He who knows the knower, knowledge and the known, manifestation and dissolution, who is self-sufficient is called sakshin (aware).

When the consciousness of a being penetrates the minds of all living beings from Brahma to an ant, then it is called kutastha.

When the true nature of the sakshina and others is attained, the Atman manifests itself as permeating all bodies, like a string of pearls, then it is called the inner teacher (antaryamin).

The Atman that is freed from all limitations, unbound, pure shining light, whose nature is Pure Knowledge (Jnana) is called the Supreme Atman. Satya (Truth), Eternity, Immortality, Absolute Joy – this is Brahman. Nama-rupa (name and form), time – disintegrate with time, but Brahman is eternal and is called the Unshakable. Pure Consciousness beyond birth and destruction is called Knowledge (Jnana).

4. That which endures forever, like the clay of which the jugs are made, like the gold in all gold coins, like the cloth in the garments, which constitutes all Consciousness, permeating all objects from the Formless World to the Worlds of samsara, is called ananta, Infinity. The absolute Joy of the Supreme Atman, the boundless happiness is called ananda, Bliss. That whose attributes are Truth, Jnana, Infinity and Bliss and that goes beyond the four-dimensional space is called Atman, Paramatman, Brahman and Parabrahman.

Next, that which is different from any concepts, including the concept of the Supreme Self, which also has limitations – a special subtlest consciousness, subtle and all-pervading is called the Absence of Self or the State of Emptiness or the Self-luminous Atman.

Finally, the original cause, the root of all creation, the state where everything exists and does not exist and at the same time neither does not exist nor exists together, as emptiness, when the cause of the creation of worlds is clearly visible as illusory – this is the Supreme.

Thus ends the Sarvasara Upanishad of the Krishnayajurveda.