Praśna Upanishad is from the Atharva Veda. The
Sanskrit word Praśna means “question”. The name itself says that this
Upanishads is based on questions, six questions to be exact. Six students
approach sage Pippalāda and request him to be their guru. He asks them to live
with him for one year with discipline (tapas), self-control (brahmacharya) and
faith (śraddha) before he starts his lessons. They do, of course.
The most important
lesson for me in this Upanishad is from a passage where sage Pippalada says “yadi vijn͂yāsyaamah vakṣyaamah”, which
means “I will share with you what I know”. What humility!
The
first question is about the origin of everything we see in this universe
including life. (“From what, are all these things born?”) Pippalāda says that
the Prajāpati (the Lord of creatures) desired progeny and so he “created” a
couple! They were prāna (life energy,
breathing) and rayi (food).
It is interesting
that prāna also stands for the Sun
(therefore the day), Fire, Energy and the eater (therefore Self and Ātman). In
gross form it is called Prajāpati and in the subtle form it is Vaiśvānara. Rayi stands for food (the eaten), the moon
(therefore, night) and matter. Then it goes on to say that since the sun and
the moon are responsible for the cycles of day, they are also called samvatsara
(year) and kāla (time). The metaphor of
a chariot as representing Time is seen here also (other places are Gita and
Kathopanishad). There are seven horses, as in seven days of the week. The
wheels (six for the six seasons as per Indian system) are for the movement of
time. The spokes of the wheel are for the twelve months.
The
second question is “How many deities are there? Who is the first among them?”
The answer is “the deities who energize the five elements and the five organs”
are the deities. Prāna is the first among them. “It is prāna which burns as the
sun, rains as the cloud (Indra) and the source of what all we eat. He is the
eater and the eaten. Everything is fixed on Prāna, just like the spokes of a
wheel”.
The
third question is: “How is this prāna born (which implies the many, and
therefore how does the one become many), how does the prāna leave and how does
it sustain everything?” The words Brahman, Ātman, Prāna and Puruṣa are used
interchangeably – rather the same word Prāna is used to stand for all these
concepts.
Śloka
3:5 lists prāna (out breath ), apāna (in breath ) and samāna (assimilation) as the basis of
our lives. This implies “breath” because it says that prāna makes it possible
for us to see, hear and smell. The “heart” is imagined to be the location of
the breath, from which the absorbed energy spreads throughout the body, through
special channels (threads) called nādi.
(Please note that Ramana Maharishi says that this metaphorical “heart” is not
the same as what we know to be the “heart”) Prāna is distributed throughout the
body by 72,000 nādi’s. This spreading is called vyāna. One of these nādi’s travel upwards and it is called udāna. I am sure you recognize these five
words when you listen to priests chanting during offering of food in puja.
When applied to
the external universe, prāna is the sun and apāna is the earth. Udāna is
energy, luminosity (tejas) and vyāna is space and the air we breath.
The fourth question is: “Which one of these
aspects of prāna experiences sleep, dream and the state of wakefulness? Which
one of these experiences emotions, such as happiness? Which one is the basis
and support of all these (mental) states?”
Pippalāda says that prāna is responsible for these functions of the mind. In one place
prāna is said to be something that “strings” together the sense organs and
mental functions. When the sense organs merge into the mind (as in sleep or
dream) but the mind itself is not absorbed in its source (namely the Brahman),
the Self (Ātman) falsely identifies itself with the various states of the mind. Once
the ignorance is removed, the self-effulgent Brahman is naturally manifest.
The
fifth question is “What is the benefit one gets by meditation on the symbol OM?
Which one of the worlds does the meditator reach?” The answer is that OM is the
symbol of the Supreme Brahman, superior to the knowledge of the immutable
Puruṣa or the inferior Prāna, the first born. (Implication is that there is
something beyond both, which can only be indicated by OM)
The
sixth and the final question is: “Where does Puruṣa exist?” The answer is:
“The entire world (universe) gets unified with that immutable (akṣara) Truth called Puruṣa, the
all-pervading entity. It is Brahman”.
And what is more, that Puruṣa is right here and now in this body. He is
the antarātmin. You have to know Him
as an absolute entity (Brahman) by eliminating the parts which “condition” Brahman in
our minds. Attention to those parts and conditions lead us to perception of
duality.
In addition to
these six questions, there are several comments by Śankara which are
interesting. He says that “experience is the nature of the soul or self”
whereas “action belongs to the intellect”. He seems to differentiate the
awareness of perception and feelings generated by the perception to one
division of the mind (manas) and the
emotions generated, discriminating function and the will to act to another
portion (buddhi or intellect).
Together they belong to ahankāra or
individuation.
He also points out
that all different philosophies are possible only when duality is the premise.
In Unity (advaitam, or no-two) there
is no need for discussion. “Since the dualistic theories lead only to conflict,
non-dualism alone is true”. To my thinking this is a questionable statement,
even though I realize that I am contradicting the great Adi Śankara. I learnt recently (do not remember the exact source) that loyalty to our ancestors do not demand loyalty to all of their notions.
