These two chapters or adhyayas are among the most poetic in this Upanishad. These chapters make the point that the Impersonal and the Personal Brahman, and Ishwara respectively, are not two different entities but the same in two aspects.
It is the self-same One who exists alone at the time of creation and dissolution of the universe, that assumes manifold powers, and appears as the divine Lord by virtue of his inscrutable power of Maya. He protects all the worlds and controls all the various forces working therein. Those who realize this Being become immortal.
The opening slokas speak of the oneness of the Ultimate Principle in spite of its apparent diversity in functions. It also shows how the divine Lord or God is nothing but the Ultimate principle, the Absolute, appearing as active in creation, maintenance and destruction of the universe, by virtue of the power of Maya. This Maya, again, is shown to belong to him, all the forces that we see active in the universe are nothing but the manifestations of his Maya.
Atman as personal God (Isha or Ruda) – Third Adhyaya
Verses 3.1 through 3.6 of the Shwetashvatara Upanishad describe the “Atman, Self” as the personal God, as the one and only Lord, that resides within, the origin of all gods, calling it the Isha or Rudra. This innermost Self, is stated as under the sway of Maya or empirical Prakrti.This theme of Eka Deva (one God) – eternal, all pervading and forging the world with his heat – in Svetasvatara Upanishad, is common in more ancient Sanskrit texts such as Rig Veda’s hymns Taittiriya Samhita, Taittiriya Aranyaka, Atharva Veda and others.
Similarly, the verses 3.5 and 3.6 are also found in the more ancient texts symbolically asking Rudra to be graceful and “not hurt any man or any beast.”
The verses 3.7 through 3.21 of the Upanishad describe Brahman as the highest, the subtlest and the greatest, concealed in all beings, one that encompasses all of the universe, formless, without sorrow, changeless, all pervading, kind (Shiva), one who applies the power of knowledge, the Purusha, one with the whole world as it is, one with the whole world as it has been, one with the whole world as it will be.It is the Atman, the Self of all.
The adhyayas are songs of praise to the Saguna Brahman (the God with form) that is visualized within, who breathes forth this universe including ourselves. This chapter is a journey in which we aim to advance towards the destination which is Self Realization. It is pointed out that the yogi, who realizes the truth of Atman-Brahman unity realizes his highest Self. Such a realized person points out that the same God who manifests himself in the elements of nature is everywhere. Here the Upanishad salutes such a God again and again, indicating that there is nothing other than God anywhere. These prayers and exhortations are a blend of devotion (bhakti) and knowledge (jnana). Everything that is perceived in human
Consciousness is seen as the manifestation of the creative power of God (mayin). The yogi who realizes this truth is free from grief because of the standpoint or perspective that has been taken. The heart melts in adoration to this self-luminous lord who pervades the whole manifested world by creating, sustaining and dissolving it.
Some further aspects of Chapter 3 include the following:
The Supreme Self is represented as Isha or Rudra who through its creative powers of maya, appears as many. Maya means a net and creation of the universe is visualized as the continuing “casting of the net.” Through Maya, the creative power of Brahman, the universe is projected, sustained and dissolved.
Read slokas 1-4 where the One God is identified with Rudra. Here the epithet Rudra means the destroyer of all that is false or evil, ignorance and its effects, sorrow and suffering, and who confers wisdom and bliss. In the Rig Veda, Rudra is the personification of Brahman in its destructive aspect. In the latter portion of the veda, Rudra is described as Shiva, the auspicious, as Mahadeva (the great God). Here is the emphasis on the destruction of ignorance.
Slokas 5 and 6 are prayers from the scriptures to Rudra to invoke his grace and kindness.
Sloka 10 explains – When we understand Brahman as without any attributes, then it is Nirguna Brahman. Those who come to know the Brahman in essence realize that they are nothing but Brahman themselves, like wave is to water, like pot and clay etc.
Sloka 10 That which is beyond this world Is without form and without ill. They who know That, become immortal; But others go only to sorrow.
~ Robert Earnest Hume translation
The knowledge that this Brahman alone, through maya, appears as the creator and the world, bestows immortality upon the seeker. But it is also noted that knowledge by itself is not of the greatest value unless it is followed by personal experience of that truth.
The next set of slokas describe God in the cosmic form – the immanent and transcendent power of the Lord.
(Please refer to the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 11).
Read – Slokas 11 – 19
The sage Shevetashvatara shares his own state of realization:
The last two slokas 20 and 21 are the culmination of his spiritual experience – the beholding of the Lord, majestic and desireless, free from all limitations, without birth and death. The sage chants that the Supreme Lord is Brahman itself which exists everywhere being all pervading and eternal (nityam).
Brahman as the individual and the highest Self – Fourth Adhyāya
Prayers to the One God of the manifold world, started in the previous chapter, are continued here. The entire Shevetashvatara Upanishad is a hymn of adoration in praise of the Supreme, the Mahesvara. It is because of this it is known as the Upanishad most surcharged with the feeling of devotion. It is a garland of songs worshiping the infinite Purusha, the great Being which resides as our inmost nature. This great Being sees, hears, walks about and tastes without senses because it enlivens or is the Consciousness which activates the instruments of action and perception. This Being is One and undifferentiated. Here, in Chapter four, the inspired teaching is that in the beginning and the end, the One consciousness manifests, resides and then withdraws into itself the universe. The world is only a passing phase or limit within the Brahman. The spiritual seeker can see the one Supreme reality in all objects, sentient and insentient. (Read slokas 2, 3, 4).
Sloka 5 harks back to our study of the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7 where Krishna tells Arjuna that he is of two kinds of nature. The higher and lower nature form the womb of all beings.
See slokas 6 and 7 where we encounter the metaphor of the two birds, an illustration which we found previously in the Mundaka Upanishad. Again, as Krishna states to Arjuna, in the Bhagavad Gita, there is nothing higher than Me. All this is strung on Me as a row of gems on a thread. As embodied beings we are drawn to prakriti with its three gunas (rajas, sattva, and tamas) referred to red, white and black, but the Upanishad points out that a spiritually discriminative person knows the ephemeral nature of the sense world and its diversities as appearances, like a mirage in a desert. This knowledge of what is appearance and what is reality destroys ignorance.
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad, in verses 4.1 through 4.8 states that everything is Brahman, in everything is God (Deva), it is the individual Self and the highest Self. As in other chapters of the Upanishad, several of these verses are also found in more ancient texts. For example, verse 4.3 of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad is identical to hymn 10.8.27 of Atharva Veda.
The Upanishad states that Brahman is in all Vedic deities, in all women, in all men, in all boys, in all girls, in every old man tottering on a stick, in every bee and bird, in all seasons and all seas. Out of the highest Self, comes the hymns, the Vedic teachings, the past and the future, asserts the Shvetashvatara Upanishad.
The fourth chapter of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad contains the famous metaphorical verse 4.5, that was oft-cited and debated by the scholars of dualistic Samkhya monist Vedanta and theistic Vedanta Schools of Hinduism in ancient and medieval era, for example in Vedanta Sutra’s section 1.4.8
The metaphor-filled verse is as follows:
There is one unborn being (feminine), red, white and black, but producing many creatures like herself, There is one unborn being (masculine) who loves her and stays with her, there is another unborn being (masculine) who leaves her after loving her.
The metaphor of three colors has been interpreted as the three gunas, with white symbolizing harmonious purity (Sattva), red as confused passion (Rajas), and black as destructive darkness (Tamas). An alternative interpretation of the three colors is based on an equivalent phrase in chapter 6.2 of Chandogya Upanishad, where the three colors are interpreted to be “fire, water and food”. The unborn being with feminine gender is symbolically the Prakrti (nature, matter), while the two masculine beings are Cosmic Self and the Individual Self, the former experiencing delight and staying with Prakrti always, the latter leaves after experiencing the delight of Prakrti. All three are stated in the verse to be “unborn,” implying that all three are eternal or continue to reoccur. The Samkhya school of Hinduism cites this verse for Vedic support of their dualistic doctrine. The Vedanta school, in contrast, cites the same verse but points to the context of the chapter which has already declared that everything, including the feminine (Prakrti) and masculine (Purusha), the individual Self and the cosmic Self, is nothing but Oneness and of a single Brahman.
The verses 4.9 and 4.10 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad state the Māyā doctrine found in many schools of Hinduism. The text asserts that the Prakrti (empirical nature) is Māyā, that the individual Self is caught up by this Māyā (magic, art, creative power), and that the cosmic Self is the Māyin (magician). These verses are notable because these verses are one of the oldest known explicit statements of the Māyā doctrine. The verse 4.10 is also significant because it uses the term Maheswaram, literally the highest Lord (later epithet for Shiva), for the one who is “Māyā-maker”.
The word Māyā also means to make, to limit or divide; in which case it means that the Brahman limits itself and becomes the world of duality and distinctions. On another level, Maya, can mean that which is not. This does not mean that the relative world has no existence, but that it is an appearance or manifestation of the Absolute Brahman, a wave in its infinite ocean of Being. This is not a dismissal of everyday empirical reality, but rather an expanded level of consciousness into the background of the infinite.
The Upanishad includes a motley addition of verses 4.11 through 4.22, wherein it repeats – with slight modifications – a flood of ancient Vedic Samhita and older Upanishadic hymns. In these verses, the Brahman, discussed so far in earlier chapters of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, is celebrated as Isha, Ishana (personal god) and Rudra. The verses of the fourth chapter use an adjective repeatedly, namely Shiva (literally, kind, benign, blessed) as a designation for Rudra (a fierce, destructive, slaying Vedic deity). This adjective developed into a noun, and the Shvetashvatara Upanishad witnesses the assimilation of the non-Aryan deity Shiva, a central God in later scriptures of Hinduism, into the Vedic fold. Shiva is beautifully described in the following slokas:
Sloka 4.14 Subtler than subtle, in the midst of chaos The creator of the world, endowed with many forms, Who alone encompasses all that is—-Knowing him, The benign (Shiva), one gains transcendent peace.
Sloka 4.16 By knowing the benign one, concealed in all beings Like the cream in clarified butter, Who alone encompasses all that is- By knowing God, one is released from all fetters.
Sloka 4.20 His form is not to be perceived. No one sees him with the eyes. They become immortal who with heart and mind Know him as dwelling in the heart.
~ Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes
In the upcoming Chapter 5 the principal discussion is of the great utterance “That Thou Art” which we will explore in our next blog along with Chapter 6.
Please note: excerpts, commentary and references from the following teachers of Vedanta. Vedanta Society lectures and literature Swami Sarvapriyananda, Swami Nikhilananda, Swami Gambhirananda, Swami Tyagisananda
Excerpts from the following commentaries and translations of the Upanishads: Alistair Shearer and Peter Russell T.N. Sethumadhavan Vernon Katz and Thomas Egenes and selections from Robert Ernest Hume Wikipedia: Shevetashvatara Upanishad
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