osmic Powers in the Human Body : ====== Aitareya Upanishad On creation ====== Chapter : 1, Section : 2 Mantra 1 : ta eta devatah srishta asminmahatyarnave prapatan.h .tamashanapipasabhyamanvavarjat.h . ta enamabruvannayatana.n nah prajanihi yasminpratishthita annamadameti .. "These deities, thus created, fell into this great ocean. He, the Creator, subjected the Person (Virat in the form of a lump) to hunger and thirst. They (the deities) said to Him (the Creator): "Find out for us an abode wherein being established we may eat food." " From now on the word ‘Creator” is being used in place of ‘Atman’. The first-born Purusha, from whom the instruments of perception and deities were separated out was subjected to hunger and thirst. We have to understand that as the Purusha was afflicted with hunger and thirst, His offspring, the deities, were also subjected to them. The deities then asked for an abode where they could live and grow. This allegory emphasizes the basic fact of life that desires, want and their fulfillment are applicable to the whole of creation and none is immune to them. Shankaracharya’s commentary here is highly illuminating and hence it is quoted in full as follows : “The created Beings fell into the Great Ocean i.e., samsara or the phenomenal world where the great water-currents consist of miseries created by ignorance, desire, and action and which is filled with vicious crocodiles in the shape of painful diseases, senility and death. Without beginning or end, shoreless and without bottom, it affords relief in the form of the fleeting joy produced from the contact of the senses with their objects. Alas, this ocean is full of high waves of hundreds of evils lashed by the wind of the intense longing of the senses for their objects and it roars with the deafening noise of the anguish and cries arising from its numerous hells. But there lies in the ocean, a raft of knowledge, in which are stored the provisions of many goodly virtues, such as truthfulness, integrity, charity, compassion, non-violence,control of the body, restraint of the mind, and determination and also a track in the form of holy company and renunciation, which leads to the shore of Liberation”. The Devatas also belong to the phenomenal world. Therefore, the attainment of oneness with them, as a result of practice of meditation and rituals cannot destroy the miseries of samsara. This being so, the aspirant seeking liberation from the phenomenal suffering, should realize the Supreme Brahman as his own self and the self of all beings. There is no other way to emancipation. Mantra 2-3 : tabhyo gamanayatta abruvanna vai no.ayamalamiti . tabhyo.ashvamanayatta abruvanna vai no.ayamalamiti .. tabhyah purushamanayatta abruvan.h sukritam bateti purusho vava sukritam.h .ta abravidyathayatanam pravishateti .. "He brought them a cow. They said: "But this is not enough for us." He brought them a horse. They said: "This, too, is not enough for us." He brought them a person. The deities said: "Ah, this is well done, indeed." Therefore a person is verily something well done. He said to the deities: "Now enter your respective abodes"." The allegory continues. The Creator offered the cosmic powers a cow, a horse and finally a man as an abode for them to live in. The deities rejected the cow and the horse but chose the man as a masterpiece. Being satisfied as their residence, they entered into the man through his various sense organs. The choice of man as residence signifies the superiority of human birth whose body can be made use of as a vehicle for performing good and noble actions including realization of God. No other body can give such variety of options. Mantra 4 agnirvagbhutva mukham pravishadvayuh prano bhutva nasike pravishadadityashchakshurbhutva.akshini pravishaddishah shrotram bhutva karnau pravishannoshadhivanaspatayo lomani bhutva tvachampravisha.nshchandrama mano bhutva hridayam pravishanmrityurapano bhutva nabhim pravishadapo reto bhutva shishnam pravishan.h .. "The deity fire became the organ of speech and entered the mouth. Air became breath and entered the nostrils. The sun became sight and entered the eyes; the quarters of space became hearing and entered the ears. Plants and trees, the deity of air, became hairs and entered the skin. The moon became the mind and entered the heart. Death became the apana and entered the navel. The waters became semen and entered the virile member." Now the Upanishad illustrates the details of cosmic powers which reside in human body and empower his various organs of perception and action. These are tabulated as under ORGAN : FUNCTION : PRECIDING DEITY format : Mouth ------ Speech ------Fire Nostrils ------ Smell ---------Air Eyes -------Sight ----------Sun Ears -------Hearing --------Space Skin -------Hair (Touch) -----Plants Heart -------Mind ---------------Moon Navel -------Out-breath ---------Death Generative----- Seed (Procreation)---------Water Mantra 5 tamashanayapipase abrutamavabhyamabhiprajanihiti te abravidetasveva va.n devatasvabhajamyetasu bhaginnyau karomiti .tasmadyasyai kasyai cha devatayai havigri.rhyate bhaginyavevasyamashanayapipase bhavatah .. "Hunger and thirst said to the Creator: "For the two of us find an abode also." He said to them: "I assign the two of you to these deities; I make you co-sharers with them." Therefore to whatsoever deity an oblation is made, hunger and thirst became sharers in it." Seeing other deities occupy their allotted places in man, hunger and thirst also demanded their own abode for themselves. Instead of assigning them an independent abode, the Creator asked them to share the abode with all the other deities. This signifies that desires afflict all the senses and that hunger and thirst are mere sensations which cannot subsist independently without their supporting sense organs; for example mere hunger cannot eat food unless it takes the help of the mouth to eat.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Sep 2013 14:01:41 +0000
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