Where people cannot and do not think,
they follow others. A Gnani will see the world and get to know it is only
appearance. He is not blind; he sees three states or objects as it is, but he
knows it is only falsehood. Just as you see a mirage, the Gnani sees the mirage
of this universe too; but he is not deceived by it. So long as one is ignorant,
he will have the idea that God has created this world because the causal notion
will be there. Nobody wants suffering, and while the notion that suffering can
be got rid of by appealing to God these wishes will sway the mind to believe in
God. For them religion will arise, but for the man who wants truth, religion offers
no consolation.
Anybody can write a
commentary on the Upanishads other scriptures and other scriptures, all they
need to do to pour out with or mental word words. It is quite easy to do this
even by those who have never understood the Upanishads and but think they have.
Thus the dualists and their disciple have written commentaries on scriptures:
But all these have written to satisfy themselves, not to get the ultimate truth
or Brahman.
Religion
is regarded as sacred and real by the common people, by the wise as false and
by the rulers as useful.
Mandukya Karika:- Sage Sri, Gaudapada wrote or compiled the Mandukya Karika, also known as
the Sage Sri, Gaudapada Karika and as the Agama Śāstra. The Mandukya Karika is
a commentary in verse form on the Mandukya Upanishad, one of the shortest
but most profound Upanishads, or mystical Vedas, consisting of just
13 prose sentences. In Sage, Sri, Sankara’s time it was considered to be a Sruti,
but not particularly important. In later
periods it acquired a higher status, and eventually it was regarded as
expressing the essence of the Upanishad philosophy.
The Mandukya Karika is the earliest extent systematic treatise on
Advaita Vedanta, though it is not the oldest work to present Advaita views, nor
the only pre-Sankara work with the same type of teachings.
Sage Sri, Gaudapada took over the Buddhist doctrines that and "that
the nature of the world is the four-cornered negation”. Sage Sri, Gaudapada
"wove [both doctrines] into a philosophy of the Mandukya Upanishad, which was further developed by Sage Sri,
Sankara".
Bible says, that “God is a Spirit, and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)”,
Yazur Veda also says, “Nathasya prathima asityasya nammahastha (32.3)”, God has no image and His name is
Holy.
Mythreyi Upanishad 2:26 says, “Pashanalogamani moonmayavigrahashi pooja
punarjanana bohahari mumusho tasmatati: swahdayarja nameva kuyarta hayacharam
parihareta punarbhavaya”, all those who desire to have
salvation without taking several births, should worship God in spirit and
truth.
Swami Vivekananda has
explained it in “Rebuild India” that, Mind represents Brahman, Arms the Kshatriya,
Abdomen the Vaishya and legs the Shudra. He further explains that in reality
all the four varnas exist in every human being. When he learns/teaches or uses
his brains, he is Brahman. When he defends himself against any danger/atrocities,
he is Kshatriya. When he earns for himself or family and engages in
business/profession, he is Vaishya and he is shudra when he uses his legs for
movement. Thus every one of us is composed of all the four Varnas. In some, one
is dominant and in others the other Varna.
Swami Vivekananda also said
that it is unfortunate that most of Indians don’t understand the depth of our
culture and exhibit non-culture/non-religion in day today life in the name of
culture/religion.
Swami Vivekananda aptly
described Sankara’s Advaita as the fairest flower of philosophy that any
country in any age has produced.
Swami Vivekananda:-"Teach yourself, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the
sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness
will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when
this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
Self-knowledge or Brahma Gnana or Atma Gnana is nothing to do with any
religion or cult.
The rituals mentioned in the
karmakanda of the Vedas are sought to be negated in the jnanakanda which is
also part of the same scripture. While the karmakanda enjoins upon you the
worship of various deities and lays down rules for the same, the jnanakanda
constituted by the Upanishads ridicules the worshipper of deities as a
dim-witted person no better than a beast.
This seems strange, the latter part
of the Vedas contradicting the former part. The first part deals throughout
with karma, while the second or concluding part is all about jnana. Owing to this
difference, people have gone so far as to divide our scripture into two
sections: the Vedas (that is the first part) to mean the karmakanda and the
Upanishads (Vedanta) to mean the jnanakanda.
One could go on and on but the point is that the Upanishads
approach the Supreme immutable truth in multiple ways and try to articulate the
manifest and un-manifest aspects of the Brahman.
For those that are deluded, the multiple points of view may
amount to contradictory perceptions but Upanishads are the epitome of an
attempted understanding of the immortal, immutable Brahman by mortals caught in
the dynamism of this Universe.
