The Kena Upanishad is found in the 9th chapter of the Talavakara Brahmana of the Sama-Veda. The aim of the Kena Upanishad is to teach the knowledge of Brahman which supports and illuminates the individual being (Atman) and all creation. This is a short Upanishad with thirty five verses divided into four parts.
Each Upanishad is the inspired revelation of an illumined sage who approaches spiritual truths in his or her own way. Some Upanishads name the teacher and the student; the Kena does not.
The Kena is in the form of a dialogue between a spiritually illumined teacher and an earnest spiritual student.
The title of this Upanishad is significant. Kena in Sanskrit means “by whom”- that is impelled by whom do all the motions of life stir?
The first sloka begins the critical inquiry:
The student asks: Who makes my mind think? Who fills my body with vitality? Who causes my tongue to speak? Who is that Invisible one who sees through my eyes And hears through my ears?
The first four verses of the Kena Upanishad tell us the difficulty of understanding the nature of Atman (Brahman within). The search for this truth takes a person beyond the world of relativity, the world revealed by speech and thought, to the source of pure Being and pure Awareness, the world of his true nature, the eternal non-dual Self.
Sankaracharya, the 8th century philosopher sage, commented on this Upanishad and gives an insight into the student’s frame of mind when he approaches the enlightened teacher. He (the student) had subscribed to the current belief in an omniscient and omnipotent God. But the student is not content with that; he has a questioning mind. He is not satisfied with the traditional concept of God. He wants to experience the Immortal, realize the infinite. As philosophers have discovered through the ages, the disciplines of science, philosophy and religion are satisfying in themselves, but being compartmental, are non-negotiable with the others.
The sages of the Upanishads asked these questions. How can one gain an insight into both the “within” and “without” of things?
As Krishna says in Chapter VII. 4-7 in the Bhagavad Gita:
Earth, water, fire, air, Ether, mind, intellect, And egoism this, My material nature, is divided into eight parts.
Such is My inferior nature, But know it as different from My highest nature, the Self, O Arjuna, By which this universe is sustained.
All creatures have their birth in this, My highest nature, Understand this! I am the origin and also the dissolution Of the entire universe.
Nothing higher than Me exists, O Arjuna. On Me all this universe is strung Like pearls on a thread.
– The Bhagavad Gita – Winthrop Sargeant translation
Emphasizing the spiritual character of the Absolute as the Self of our self, the Teacher replies in the Kena Upanishad, in verses 3-8:
Sight does not reach there; neither does thinking or speech. We don’t know, we can’t perceive, How one would point it out.
It is different from what’s known. So have we heard from men of old, Who have explained it all to us.
Which one cannot express by speech, By which speech itself is expressed__ Learn that that alone is Brahman, And not what they here venerate.
Which one cannot grasp with one’s mind, By which, they say, the mind itself is grasped__ Learn that that alone is Brahman, And not what they here venerate.
Which one cannot see with one’s sight, By which one sees the sight itself__ Learn that that alone is Brahman, And not what they here venerate. Which one cannot hear with one’s hearing, By which hearing itself is heard__ Learn that that alone is Brahman, And not what they here venerate.
Which one cannot breathe through breathing, By which breathing itself is drawn forth__ Learn that that alone is Brahman, And not what they here venerate.
– Patrick Olivelle translation, verses 3-8
The Self is beyond the world of the senses; and yet It makes itself known through sense experiences. The poet, Wordsworth, calls them “Intimations of immortality”. We get an intimation but the next moment it may vanish. It is our limited experience of the transcendent. Our search for the truth is just like this. But how is this experience to become known and permanent?
In the paradoxical language of the Upanishads it is expressed in the following way by the Teacher:
To whom it is not known, to him it is known. To whom it is known, he knows it not. It is not understood by those who understand, It is understood by those who do not understand.
When known through an awakening, It is rightly known; thus one gains immortality. Through the Self one gains strength, Through knowledge, immortality.
– Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes translation
: Blog note :
It cannot be objectified. It cannot be captured by either words or scholarship. But because It is one’s own ever present reality, It can be experienced as one’s Being. For example, It can be contemplated or experienced as That into which sound merges as it does at the end of chanting Om.
The final verse of the Teacher’s teaching in this chapter sums up the goal of life. If a human being does not know the true Self here in this life, great is the loss.
‘The forms of Brahman conditioned by the bodies and minds of human beings are only ‘local’ manifestations of the ‘non-local’ Brahman (the inner true Self – which is the Atman within) in terms of time and space. The gist of Chapter II is that Brahman is free from all limitations. It is infinite, non-dual, sublime and eternal and therefore cannot be described as well known by anyone. Brahman cannot be known as an external object as a pot or jar. On the other hand, Brahman exists in all beings as their innermost Self, the Atman. No one can deny the Self. Even a doubter of the Self thinks only in the light of the Self. So it is not altogether unknown.’ – excerpts from Swami Nikhilananda
The Kena Upanishad exhorts the glory of this realization in Part II. verse 4, last two lines.
Atmana vindate viryam vidyaya vindate amrtam- Through oneself (Atman) one finds power: Through wisdom one finds immortality
– Valerie Roebuck translation
Since the Brahman cannot be perceived by the senses or the mind, the student must first hear from an illumined teacher. The teacher helps the disciple or student to visualize this extremely subtle truth of the Self (Atman – Brahman).
As Sankara explains in his illuminating elucidation, Sankara says –
‘He is the Atman to whom all mental modifications are objects of awareness, who knows all mental states, who himself is of the nature of the essence of pure Awareness, whose reflection is perceived by mental states as indistinguishable from them, there being no other means of knowing Him’.
The Atman is the light of pure Awareness which lights up every act of knowledge and awareness of the mind. Hence the Atman is Pratibodhaviditam – known through every pulsation of knowledge and awareness.
Sankara further expounds on this in his “Vivekachudamani” verse 217. (Vivekachudamani literally means the “Crest-jewel of discrimination” – treatise on Advaita Vedanta).
“That which clearly manifests Itself in the waking, dream, and dreamless sleep states; which is inwardly perceived in the mind, in various forms, as an unbroken series of “I” impressions’ which is the witness of the ego, buddhi (intellect), etc. which are of diverse forms and modifications; and which shines as the eternal existence-knowledge-bliss Absolute, know thou this Atman, thy own Self, within thy heart.”
The Kena Upanishad dialogue is not the account of a final and closed revelation which we are asked to accept in faith. Instead it is a revelation open to recreation in our own lives. The Atman is the infinite reservoir of strength and energy. Change and death belong to the body, senses and the mind, to all things in our personality that are composite. We become immortal when we know ourselves as beyond the body, senses or mind.
Truth is to be realized Here and Now. The Upanishad summons us to this realization so that we can experience our inner true Being, (the Atman), before our earthly life passes.
The third chapter of the Kena teaches through a story. In ancient times, according to the story, there was a battle between the demi-gods and the demons. It was Brahman who won the fruits of victory for the gods for the preservation of the world. The gods, because of their ignorance and vanity, did not know that all the power and glory belonged to Brahman. Agni (demi-god of fire, personified), Vayu (demi-god of wind) are tested by a luminous spirit (yaksha) and fail in the apparently easy test put to them. Then Indra (leader of the demi-gods and the personification of rain) is sent to inquire about the identity of this spirit. But when he reaches the spirit, he finds a beautiful woman personified as Uma Haimavati (daughter of the Himalayas). She represents the creative power and energy (sakti) of Brahman. As the story illustrates, it is this immortal power of Brahman (the Lord, without personification) which imbues us with strength and power.
In Part 4, Uma (the creative power of Brahman, personified) compares the intimations of the eternal power of Brahman as the indescribable radiance of lightning illuminating the universe all at once; the eternal power taking no more time than the wink of an eye for Brahman to create, maintain and destroy the universe.
Verse 4 Now concerning the self: Brahman is that toward which the mind moves, as it were, that by which it is ever aware and that which forms its purpose.
– Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes translation
Verses 5 and 6 It is the power of Brahman that makes The mind to think, desire, and will. Therefore Use this power to meditate on the Brahman.
– Eknath Easwaran translation
The Teacher concludes the teaching in verses 8 and 9:
Meditation, self-command and Vedic performance* are its foundation; the Vedas are all its limbs; truth is its dwelling.
He who truly knows this as such, casting off sin**, is established in the world of heaven***, boundless and invincible. Indeed, he is established.
– Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes translation
The last verse of the Kena Upanishad, is Self-realization and an inner awakening by the student to understand he/she is Sat-Chit and Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss).
Notes: * Vedic performance: mantras and rituals to purify the mind and body
** Sin: injurious thoughts, feelings and actions born out of misidentification of our real nature.
*** Heaven: According to Sankara’s explanation: heaven in this context denotes Brahman, or the Absolute, and not any celestial abode.
Excerpts and references:
Advaita Society lectures and literature (Swami Nikhilananda, Swami Gambhirananda and Swami Sarvapriyananda)
Excerpts from the following Translations of the Upanishads and the Gita :
Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes Eknath Easwaran Patrick Olivelle Valerie Roebuck The Bhagavad Gita by Winthrop Sargeant
Comments