A compilation of articles on T. V. Kapali Sastry presented in a commermoration volume on his Birth centenary in 1986 - edited by M. P. Pandit.
Sri Kapali Sastry has presented for our benefit a very discerning scrutiny of four vidyās from the Chāndogya:
the Bhūma Vidyā, the Prāṇa Vidyā, the Shāndilya Vidyā, and the Vaisvānara Vidyā,
one from the Katha Upanishad, connected with Nachiketa; and one from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Madhu Vidya.58
Sri Sastry has reasons for selecting four of the vidyās from the Chāndogya: 1) Of the vidyās mentioned by Badarayana in the Brahma Sūtras, the majority are drawn from the Chāndogya. 2) Of the dialectical battle among the Vedāntas, whether the highest Real is personal or impersonal, the Brahma Sutras prefer to stand on the general position of the Chāndogya Upanishad and maintains the 'ubhayalingatva' of the Real. This position is the most natural and does not acquiesce to or compromise with any intellectual satisfaction that a system builder seeks. 3) And the Chandogya alone conforms to the universal experience of any Sādhaka at any age, for the Reality itself is many faceted and each type of realisation can be authentic in its own way that by the nature of its infinitude the highest Real meets the genuine aspirant at his point of excellence and height of his achievement. This universal appeal of the Chāndogya has its own merit, which other upanishads lack.
Before trying to know the secret of the Vidyās, their techniques and ideals, to know what Sri Sastry says of them is necessary. He is true when he asserts that the vidyās are many and the details of their methodologies vary, yet they point to the same ideal or goal, the Brahman, but reached from different paths or perspectives and levels of experience. One thing is certain of the methodologies too. That is, they aim at practical preparation for reaching the goal. Man's personality requires to be trained at different levels: the body, mind and spirit individually and collectively. To this end the various vidyās are directed, and it is interesting to study how the Upanishads conceal within themselves secrets of this training, relative to the specific aspects of the goal intended.
We shall approach the various vidyās discussed by Sri Sastry in this light and try to know succinctly what he has to say both of the methods and the goal.
The first of the vidyās considered is the famous Bhūma Vidyā of the Chāndogya revealed by Sanath Kumara, also called Skandha, to Narada.
This is the knowledge of the Infinite Vast or Brahman. Its existence is unbounded and unaffected by any kind or consideration of finiteness either material, vital or mental. Its spirituality consists in being all and being everything. It is a single entity of universal being-consciousness-bliss comprehending all directional dimensions and transcending too. Stated negatively, it has none of a second to compel or confound it. It is freedom itself. It is such a fullness and perfection that whoever experiences this Vast has the consummation of his being, which can otherwise be termed delight of existence, for the very freedom of its existence is the very secret of its being this, that and all that is, and all that would be from the point of manifestation in space and time.
One who perceives this, or literally experiences, sees no death, no suffering, no pain. He sees only the Infinite, the Eternal Perfect Spirit ever existing. Him who is eligible by austerity, purity and steadfastness, Bhagavān Sanatkumāra leads to the other side of darkness, death and sorrow, i.e. to immortality, the Bhūma.
Sri Kapali Sastry has two points to emphasise. The first one is the essential eligibility or preparation for this state, and the second one is the significance of the personality of Sanatkumāra as a principle in the consummation of the sāhdana.
With regard to the first, the Upanishad itself points out two qualifications: āhāra suddhi and sattva suddhi leading to what is termed dhruvā smṛti, which in turn enables the sādhaka to attain to the state of intuitive perception of the Infinite Vast, the Brahman.
Ahāra is anything that builds up one's body. For Sankara, the commentator of the upanishad, āhāra is the knowledge of the objects of senses, and suddhi is the purification of the mind that receives the knowledge of sense objects, i.e. the knowledge which is free from rāga and moha. This leads to the purification of the antahkaraṇa leading to steadfast concentration.
Following the intuitive mentorship of Sri Aurobindo, and picking up clues from the Upanishad itself, Sri Sastry points out that the essential elements constituting all food are fire (tejas), water (ap) and earth (anna), and when they go to make up the physical body, give out by fruition voice, life and mind (vāk, prāṇa and manas). These are the subtle substances or dhātus that make our being—and specially from sādhana point of view—vāk is the power of expression of the creative subtle states of being, and ap is the life force at the basis of expression. Thus vāk, prāṇa and manas are the components of Sattva i.e. one's being.
But this is only one aspect of the knowledge of being, and the second is the practical one of effecting the purity of being, sattva suddhi. Here also, Sri Sastry has a definite view to maintain. He draws again from another section of the Chāndogya and says, the technique of effecting the purity of being is to make offerings the components of one's being to the universal principle of life, the Prāna, the Prānāgni or Vaisvānara, the Universal Fire, which receives the offering and burns off its impurities or sins. That is any āhāra or food is to be offered to the Life Principle as a sacrificial offering, in which case alone, the required eligibility for further sādhana is effected.
Following this is the dhrvā smṛti, steadfast intuitive perception.
What the Upanishad is aiming to teach is an ideal which is the highest of the spiritual attainments, the Bhūma, the Infinite itself—which by definition and implication is anti-finite or division in being. While one's individuality is full of particularising acts of egoism, the real sādhana should enable one to rise to the highest horizon of consciousness when only the meaninglessness of egoistic knotting or exclusiveness is seen. The ultimate aim is the dissolution of the hṛdaya granthi the central knot of individuality or divided existence endearingly cultivated and fostered by the personal career-making emotions of desires and aversions. The ideal that is Bhūma and the individualising agent that is finite are never at home with each other. And so, the weapon the sadhaka should possess is the steadfast fixation on the truth of the śruti declaring Bhūma as the goal or fulfilment. In other words, the ordinary personalising memory, smṛti, should be transformed into the universalising śruti. The intuitive perception of this and unwavering fixation in it is dhrvā smṛti.
Though the Upanishad does not elaborate on this, or about these steps, but for just mentioning them, the secret of the Bhūma Vidyā lies in mastering them. It is only then, the sādhaka becomes eligible for the highest realisation.
However, Sri Sastry is driving at something more, as a part of the esoteric or secret vidyā. Here comes the emphasis on recognising the principle of a Guru in the scheme, who may come either in the form of a God or a worshipful person. Such a person is Sanatkumara, without whose help and mentor-ship the sādhana of Narada would not have been completed. He appears as the 'deliverer' leading the sādhaka to the otherside of ignorance. Sri Sastry points out Sanatkumara is none other than Hiranyagarbha, who has a special function to do in the infinite scheme of the Real or Brahman. All gods are manifestations of the Highest, and each has a part to play at appropriate situations. Narada awaits this situation and Bhagavan Sanatkumara appears to take him on to the otherside of darkness to knowledge or immortality. The saint (Narada) who was in search of peace, in spite of his unmatchable knowledge of things material, vital and mental, was lacking in the knowledge of the real spirit, the Atman (he says: mantravidevāsmi na ātmavit), finds his consummation which takes him to the state of the Bhūma, the divisionless Atman.
As Sanatkumara leads Narada helping him on the victorious battle of the planes of ignorance, Sri Sastry points out, the Upanishad calls Sanat-kumara by the appropriate name skandha.
The next of the vidyās, Sri Sastry discourses on is Prāṇa Vidyā of the Chāndogya. The immense potency or power of this vidyā is described in the upanishad by Satyakama to Goshruti, after the latter's initiation into (the vidyā, thus: 'if one utters this even to a dried up stump, sure, branches would shoot forth and leaves spring from it.' If that is the case what to say of its mysterious creative efficacy when it is given to a deserving human being?
Goshruti receives Prāṇa Vidyā with all its subtle applications and methods of sacrifice. The implications of the Vidyā, obviously, is the realisation of the Life Spirit itself which creates everything and keeps them blooming.
Contrary to the misunderstandings that may be regarding the Prāṇa Vidyā, that it is just an accessory to, or a part of the Brahma Vidyā which is a major one, Sri Sastry explains that this Vidyā is Brahma Vidyā itself. For, the prāṇa mentioned here is Mukhya Prāṇa i.e. Brahman itself, not those which have smaller areas or planes of operation like apāna, vyāna, samāna, and udāna. The end of Prana Vidyā is realisation of the truth expressed in statements like Sarvamkhalvidam brahma or aham brahmāsmi.
Likewise Sri Sastry points out that Prāna Vidyā is not to be equated with prānāyāma, for this has a lesser objective and limited in scope. It is concerned only with regulation or control of breath a biologico-physical act, whereas Prāṇa Vidyā being Brahma Vidyā itself refers to that state of the universal, Primordial Life Force 'breathing without breath' even as it is indicated in the Nāsadiya Sūkta: ānīdavātam svadhayā tedekam.
To rise to this pre-existential condition, the Upanishad formulates two stages. According to Sri Sastry we are to gather this being subtlely mentioned in the Upanishad. One is to identify himself with Akāśa, and other with Prāṇa. Sri Sastry warns that neither of these is to be mistaken for the grosser or elemental aspects of space or breath. Both are to be taken as the Infinite Brahman. For the elemental ākāśa is bounded; without reference to objects it cannot be apprehended. The Akāśa the Upanishad refers to, is the limitless cidākāśa, the Universal Consciousness, or the daharāksa, the Indwelling Consciousness i.e., Brahman itself. It is only the infinite self-existent consciousness (Brahman) which makes it possible (gives scope) for all the inner and the outer existents, including their revelation as existents.
Again, it is the same principle which makes possible all life to live, being the primordial pulse, a creative dynamis, behind the micro and the macro. This is Prāṇa, the upanishad refers to as identical with Brahman. One is reminded here of the Kena Upanishad:
yat prāṇena na prāṇiti yena prānah pranīyate.
Not by breath it lives, but by which breath makes everything live. Such Prāṇa cannot be other than Brahman. Sri Sastry points out that the individual soul, when it realises itself to be organic with this primordial life force, rises to the level and participates in the functioning of the supra-vital or the Supreme Life Principle, the All pervasive Infinite Brahman. What is gained or realised by Prāṇa Vidyā is this creativity natural to the state of being That, and in consonance with that ultimacy becomes creative even by a wish.
There is a significant aspect of such an identity of the individual soul with the Universal, Sri Sastry wants us to know. It is not 'laya' or a 'dissolution' into the Brahman, but a 'fulfilment' or a 'sampatti' It is neither going beyond nor simple gaining of transcendence, but is an enrichment of life by a preparation that adorns the sādhaka with an understanding and a capacity making him a joyful functionary of the universal life, with no dividing will of his own, but being identical with the one will and tapas of the Lord of the universe, the Iswara, giving a living touch to all that is perceived or contacted.
Shāndilya Vidyā as is taught in the Chāndogya has an eternal appeal, is true in the context of Vedantic structure expounded; and has bearings on the most modern philosophies seeking the real man as well as his freedom, with a choice too.
This is not an extra-ordinary circumstance with this Vidyā only, but with all. But particularly the way it discloses the real nature of 'man', the concern of the modern thinker, the Vidyā, has an appeal which is so relevant. This we see.
The Upanishad is both knowledge of the highest kind and a manual of discipline making it possible for a living experience, the knowledge it intends. Shāndilya summarises his teaching in two significant statements: 'sarvam khalvidam brahma' and 'tajjalāniti śāntha upāsīta'.
Sri Sastry takes up the issue of man and his freedom on the basis of this Shāndilya sutra and pins on the method suggested in the Upanishad; the one who is an aspirant to the experience of this great truth should make the resolve (sakṛtamkurvīta.)
What is the sort of a man who should make the resolve and to what purpose? It is always given to one to choose to be small, finite and mundane, and to have a will or no will to lead a life of the usual line of avarice, prejudice, and so, of the resulting pain and suffering or death. And it is also given to one to shed these attitudes and postures and to become somebody pursuing a greater goal with a greater aspiration. To such men inclined to higher reaches of life and value Shāndilya Vidyā opens out a vista of the Universal Person or Purusha, who is all existence and bliss. This is the real goal of man and towards achieving it is the kratu or will of a super kind directed.
Analysing the nature of man, the Vidyā points out that the real man is manomaya purusha, prāṇa maya śarira, bhā rupa and satya sankalpa. Sri Sastry, here, points out that the ordinary physical body of man shares with all physical bodies of living beings animality, instinctiveness, lust, greed, etc., which at every turn of life makes the person or personality finite and mortal. This is not the 'body' of the Purusha, which the upanishad means. But it is of a higher order free from all finitude, i.e. impulses and wills which cripple the growth or the spirit. The spirit embodied in the mind, or the mind that receives the spirit (Purusha) is a consciousness which is illuminative and expanding beyond the structures of the vehicles in which it resides, and from where it operates. It is discerning in its career of manifestation, and so, the mental operations are not simply stimulous-response-bound. It is verily called 'adhyavasāya', by which at each moment of its career should be/is a reflecting medium of a spiritual life and grace or lustre. The person referred to is not the small one, but the Purusha of infinite dimensions, universal in character, willing only the truth and nothing short of it. So the Purusha is satya sankalpaḥ. In consonance with this intuition, 'Kṛutm kurvīta' stands for making a will that is to be the will of the Infinite, the Lord. It is such a person who is really 'prāṇamaya' in the highest sense. That is, not to be simply limited to the biophysical life, but to be taken as the Infinite Consciousness Force at the basis of all existence, or as the principle of Dynamis, energising all existence, or as a principle of illumination dissolving all darkness and ignorance which either falsifies or negates the significance, of however big or small existents may be, or as the bliss of existence which overflows all life with a warmth of sweetness and love. This is the real Man, the Purusha, one aspires to be and wills to actualise. This is the state of the Infinite, of Freedom and of Life Divine.
Shāndilya Vidyā is thus a positive affirmation of being, life and value. It is a sanctifying knowledge that fills the heart of the sādhaka giving him a feeling of immediate pervasiveness and nearness, and filling the mind with an unceasing awareness of the luminosity or spirituality of all existence. It does not absorb or lower the tune of aspiration but weaves it into the symphony of the music of the spheres.
Occurring in the third chapter of the Chāndogya, the Vaisvānara Vidyā unfolds the mystery of the identity of the microcosm and the macrocosm of the oneness of the seeking self with the Infinite Purusha. The obsession of a division in being and of a reality as limited to our individual finite understandings, is proved suicidal and anti-truth. Any vision of Truth that we may comprehend in our limited capacities and directing our sādhana to achieve it as the final and whole truth, not only is unwisdom, but even the fruits of realisation being ego-centred are self-destructive because therein the roots are cut away from the main stream or cosmic life and truth, which truly bestows the sustenance and energy to all life.
When in the minds of five aspirants (Prāchīna shāla, Satya Yajna, Indradyumna, Jana and Budila), the question: 'who is the ātmā, what is brahma?' (konu ātmā, kim brahmeti) occurred, it was really an introspection or a re-examination of the positions which they had held (Svarga, Sūrya, Vāyu, Akāga and Ap respectively) as the answers, but which must have been unsatisfactory to them. And so, they sought light from a sixth (Uddālaka), who had also not arrived at a final solution regarding the problem. But true and earnest seekers all of them were, went to an authority in the matter, Asvapati Kaikeya, who really knew the truth as a whole and with all details. He bestowed on the seekers the right wisdom and impressed on them the dangers of wrong or partial perceptions of truth and attempts to realise them. Sādhana, it becomes clear here, is not simply knowing the truth correctly, but to be aware of the hazards that attend wrong pursuits. Asvapati enlightens them that the 'truths' they had held as final, were only aspects of a more comprehensive cosmic or universal life-force, being in all but transcending all. The key sentence that summarises the ideal of sādhana thus:
sa sarveshu lokeshu, sarveshu bhūteshu; sarveshu ātmāsu annam atthi.
In all worlds, in all beings, in all selves, it is He (Vaisvānara) who eats the food. That is the universal Self, who by his spiritual fervour or heat fructifies, digests and enjoys and maintains all. He is the real Being, the Atman or Brahman.
The sādhana adumbrated here envisages an intuitive perception of several important problems connected with the spiritual nature of one's self: should one pursue the ideal that his self is the sole ātmā or sole brahman? That is, is it either of them, or both of them simultaneously in an identity? Or is it anything else? Or is it a 'part' 'aspect' of an Universal Self which transcends the finite dimension of one's small being that one ordinarily thinks of? As a part/ aspect of an Universal Being, is one's self a 'participant' in the universal life of such a being? And what is the glory of such a Universal Self or Life Force, and lastly, what is the secret sādhana that helps realise the truth arid live it?
To such problems that beset the minds of sādhakas, as they did in the case of those sages who approached Asvapati Kaikeya, the latter's direct experience of the highest spiritual truth viz. Vaisvānara Atmā provides a comprehensive solution; and also in a satisfying way consolidates into a universal theme of realisation the individual intuitions and achievements of the aspirants who went to him.
Vaisvānara Atmā is the real Self of all beings, the thermal plant (fire) that burns within each being, and by whose cooking all offerings (food: material, vital and mental) are fructified and digested and converted into the sap of life. Being the Universal Fire kindling all life-centres in all beings Vaisvānara is the one enjoyer, the real one, in all the enjoyers. Being the infinite, he is the 'abhivimāna' as the upanishad calls him, which means He is the 'measuring principle' of existence, the material, vital and mental, the small and the big, yet unmeasured by any of them either individually or collectively. Being transcendent in this way, Vaisvānara is the Life Force on which all cosmic movements and functions take place in an order and system that escape measurement from finite visions, yet not entirely alien or beyond aspirations of realisation, for He is the thermal centre of each. To think of it, Vaisvānara is the nearest of the near (being the inner Self itself) and farther than the farthest, for He is unavailable to deficient or short-sighted approaches. On the canvas of the Vaisvānara, the Infinite, all manifestations are restored and find their meaning, their purpose and fulfilment also. Vaisvānara is the inner law governing the cosmic law to which all adhere, and by which all are sustained. He is simultaneously himself and any individual that may be. This is the law of the Infinite, hardly envisioned by a finite understanding. The calm, peace, harmony, illumination that form the centre of such an Infinite centre are so compulsive that like a single wave at the centre of an ocean creates all waves in the vast surface of an immeasurable sheet of water, and so transforming the vast existence of its being. Even so, the Vaisvānara transforms all existence, be it material, vital or mental and make them lose their opaqueness and rigidities, and their exclusiveness, and to shine with illumination of the spiritual reality.
Sri Sastry takes the cue from the explanation of Visvapati Kaikeya (that his kingdom was free from all individual and social evils, and righteousness was the order of the day) and points out how a spiritual attainment of his kind and stature happens to be a boon on the environment, and how it will have a transforming and elevating influence. The whole surrounding is lifted up to a higher consciousness, peace, illumination and joy.59 The sādhana that helps an achievement of this kind lies in the secret of 'sacrifice' of all that we think and do (mental or physical) at the atlar of the Vaisvānara (Universal Fire) within us, and of the secret that by the very same act the 'serving' is universalised. To say in different terms the benefits are shared by all. In one's real living, all others live; in one's real bliss, all others enjoy; and in one's real freedom, all others are redeemed. It is their life, bliss and freedom. One transcends death and has his immortality. Physical death is no death, and physical individuality is not separative. The Self is Infinite and the enlivening Fire is not confined to a cell.
Sri Kapali Sastry's enquiry of the secrets of the Vidyās pinpoints that the Universal Fire, the Vaisvānara, is the fulcrum on which every sādhana turns. Katha Upanishad makes no exception in this. He shows that the Nāchiketāgni is the divine dispenser which opens up the gates for man of Heaven, and expands the stature of man's being by providing a subtle passage through which the mortal being can move upward towards heaven getting divinised or move downwards again to the land of the mortals to work up a consolidation.
Analysing the three boons which Nachiketa gets from Yama Sri Sastry shows that they are not disconnected or casual in themselves. By linking the Upanishad with the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, it is shown that the Kathopanishad is nothing but an expansion of the theme of the Aranyaka and the three boons are integrally related, the second of the Knowledge of the Fire being the connecting link between the first and the third. Nachiketa himself is shown as the incarnation of the Vaisvānara Fire—he is actually addressed as such by Yama—who by going to the land of Yama already gets the answer for his own question of survival after death, and his getting the boon to return to his father is itself symbolic of the freedom he gets to move forwards and backwards between earth and heaven. It is about the third question Sri Sastry is much concerned, and the major portion of the discussion is devoted to it: What is that which survives? Is it the personal self or the self with individuality? Or the self with no particularity about it? It is the latter which is immortal, whether it is encased in a body or freed from it.
It is pointed out that there are three gains for the development and consolidation of sādhana as implied in the boons. The first boon for sādhana is the very encounter with the Lord of the Cosmic Law or Order, which in the normal circumstance a human being cannot have, and by getting the opportunity gains a vantage view of what life and death are. This is a form of liberation from earthly nature and its rigorous control over mind and soul. The boon gives, however, a mastery over nature. It is an occult power over matter of mind and life.
The second gain out of the second boon is the secret knowledge of the Order of the Worlds other than the finite and the individual, for it touches the method of waking up of the Vaisvānara Fire within the individual as well as the Cosmos, the universes of matter, life and mind.
The third gain is the consummation of all sādhana viz. the knowledge of the One, symbolised as OM, which is the source of all existence, of birth and death, of the individual and the cosmos mortality and immortality. By this knowledge all darkness about the mystery of life and being is dispelled and one shines by the Light of Lights, the Self Itself. This is attaining to the rock bottom of peace and harmony, the delight which constitutes the Truth, the knowledge of the Purusha. Sri Sastry emphasises that the Upanishadic message consists in that this knowledge is humanly possible, here and now; and that is, before one drops down dead. This knowledge, again, gives him power even to 're-embodiment' or 'manifestation' and even to create.
Katha has a message of sādhana: Built on Sādhana man can move from a lower state of consciousness to a higher one expanding the horizons of awareness of the inner dynamics of the material, vital and the mental and stabilising oneself in the higher spiritual. The stature to which man grows has no equal either in men or gods, for he would have got the supreme felicity of the end viz. tranquillity or peace, the very being of Purusha, the Highest.
The last of the vidyās discussed by Sri Kapali Sastry happens to be the Madhu Vidyā, an anga or a part of the Soma Sacrifice, and forms a complementary of the act of preparation or 'pravargya' Madhu Vidyā is the secret knowledge which practically gives the sacrificer the essential physical, vital and mental power to make oneself fit for receiving the higher grace of Indra or the Lord of the three worlds to whom actually the soma (madhu) is offered. The Deities who are addressed and prayed for giving the necessary strength are the Aswins. In response, Madhu Vidyā is imparted by them to the sacrificer to complete the Soma Sacrifice. From the point of view of sādhana the pravargya is a material preparation and the Madhu Vidyā is vital and psychic preparation which takes the sādhaka to a higher status, to a wider existence outgrowing the bounds of the normal mind and life. The capacity of the human being to realise the highest truth of the delight of existence being limited, can only be in need of a higher help, and this is rendered possible by the knowledge of the madhu=delight=the soma in all things of existence. If the assistance of the higher gods are not forthcoming, the human body and mind will burst like a baloon which cannot withstand the gush of wind that enters it. The frailty of the weak minded and the weak bodied is emphasised here, so that the luminous light of the highest truth or the experience of its unboundedness or ānanda requires a real receptive capacity in the sādhaka. The Aswins are symbolic of the twin forces of life and psyche especially the nervous energy. Sri Sastry points out that they give youth to the old and health to the sick, and wholeness to the maimed. They are also powers of truth, of intelligent action and right enjoyment. They stand for the Vedic dualism of the divine powers: power and light, knowledge and will, consciousness and energy. Aswins are invoked for bestowing all this, with the result the path of the sādhaka is freed from the basic hurdles in the spiritual adventure—the march from the gross to the subtle, from the lower level of consciousness to the higher one of consciousness and delight, from the individual to the cosmic and super cosmic Godhead.
In the light of Sri Aurobindo's revelation Sri Kapali Sastry moves on and explains how the biune principles of the Aswins represent balance and harmony amongst the varied things of existence. He points to the inner implications of existence as not one of a monotonous uniformity but as one of a unity in diversity, and vice versa, as one in many and vice versa. The varied manifestations of the Universal Principle has a characteristic inner balance and composure, harmony and peace that in the vast extent of existence each is madhu (sweet) to the other. Discordance is not structural to Reality. The Madhu Vidyā opens our awareness to this grand tranquillity that is the delight of existence, and the one who is lucky to obtain this awareness has his consummation of life.
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