SrI: SrImathE SatakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama:
puruṣaḥ sa paraḥ pārtha
bhaktyā labhyas tv ananyayā
yasyāntaḥ-sthāni bhūtāni
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
‘Supreme is that Spirit (purusha), Pārtha! Who is attainable but by unswerving love; in Whom are all beings, by Whom is all this pervaded.[2. This is Īśvara or the Third Postulate, vide Bh: Gi: VII-6.]’
The Purusha, Supreme, is He in Whom all things reside, Who enters into all things; He who was declared in :—
‘Naught whatsoever, higher than I, Dhanañjaya! exists. Like unto a row of gems strung on a string, all this is threaded by Me.’ (VII-7).
‘I am the Exhaustless, Superior to these ’ (VII-13).
This is the Supreme Purusha, Who is accessible to unswerving love (bhakti) as declared already in:—
‘Whoso, with undivided mind, ever etc’ (VIII-14).
Next, the journey that is called Archir-ādi (or the spiritual road beginning with light) which is common to both the knower of the true ātma (or soul-lover) and him who is devoted to Parama-Purusha (God-lover), is discoursed on:—
That archir-ādi is the road by which both these kinds of devotees travel is declared in the Śruti. It is the road, travelled by which, there is no returning (or retracing). Says the Śruti, when treating on the Science of the Five Fires (Pañch-āgni-vidyā) thus:
‘Those who know (ātma) to be thus; and those again who meditate on Tapas[3. Tapas=Fatherhood of God.] (Brahm=God) with Śraddhā[4. Śraddhā=Motherhood of God. Śraddhā-Tapas means the approaching of the Father through the Mother. Father is symbolical of Wisdom, Mother of Love. Vide note, 1, Chapter 1 Proem, and Lakshmī-Tantra for other esoteric interpretations.] (Lakshmi=Mediatrix, in Me), in a retired place, reach (the deity of) Archiḥ=light; from (the deity of) light, to (the deity of) day, etc.’[5. Chh: Up°: V-2-15.) (Tad ya ittham vidur, ye ch-eme ‘raṇye Śraddhā Tapa-ity-upāsate ff.).]
That he who travels by the archir-ādi road, reaches Para-brahma, and that he returns not, is thus announced in the Śruti:
‘He (the spirit or angel or cherub, named Amānava) conducts them (the redeemed souls) to Brahm…. Travelled by this road, they return not to this mortal round of existence.’[6. Chh: Up°: IV-15-6(Sa enān Brahma gamayati ..etena prati-padyamānā imam mānavam āvartam n-āvariante).]
The Śruti: referring to:—
‘Those who know it (ātma) to be thus,’[7. Chh: Up°: V-10-1. (Tad ya ittham viduḥ).] is not to be understood as having reference to those aspirants who follow the Prajāpati-declared Para-vidyā (or God-science or Wisdom), auxiliary to which they have to know ātma (or their own soul, first); for if it did refer to the God-seekers, then the mention of God-seekers or God-wisdom (Para-vidyā) again (immediately after the above-cited passage), viz:—
‘And those who meditate on Śraddhā-united Tapas or Mother-Father God)’[8. Chh : Up°: V-10-1 (ye ch-eme `ranye Śraddhā-Tapa ity upāsate).] would be superfluous and meaningless.
In the texts of Pañch-āgni-vidyā, viz:—
‘Thus do the waters come to be designated as the Purusha, in the fifth oblation’ etc.,[9. Chh: Up° V-9-I (Iti tu pañ-chamyām āhutāv āpaḥ purusha-vacha-so so bhavanti).] and,
‘Those of righteous deeds, those of iniquitous deeds’ etc.,[10. Chh : Up°: V-10-7 (Ramaṇīya-charaṇāḥ kapūya-charaṇāḥ).] have reference to the (physical) forms alone like man etc., fashioned according to virtuous or wicked deeds, out of waters in conjunction with other elements, and that ātma is but in association with those forms. After thus declaring the distinction between Intelligent and Non-intelligent Principles, then next, the Śruti:—
‘Those who know it (ātma) thus…. join (the road of) Archiḥ; and return not to this whirl of mortal existence etc’[11. Chh : Up°: V-10-1 (ye ch-eme `ranye Śraddhā-Tapa ity upāsate).].
Teaches that the non-intelligent nature (matter) is a thing fit to be discarded, and the intelligent nature (ātma) is the thing fit to be espoused; so that it is learnt that,
‘Those who understand it (ātma) thus’[12. ‘Ye ittham viduḥ,’ Chh: Up: V-2-15.] are those (the soul-seekers) who go by the road of Archiḥ, and return not.
The passage, —‘He conducts these to Brahm,’[13. Chh : Up°: V-10-7 (Ramaṇīya-charaṇāḥ kapūya-charaṇāḥ).] as meaning ‘Brahm is attained,’ is applicable to both the aspirant for the realization of pure ātma-essence (or soul-seeker), and the aspirant devoted to Parama-purusha (or God-seeker), in the light that the mode of meditation for the former also consists in the contemplating of matter-exempt ātma-principle, as Brahm-ensouled, and in the relation that ātma is essentially leige to Brahm.[15. This is a very difficult passage to understand. It is enough here to state that the soul-seeker contemplates on soul in its relation to God; whereas the God-seeker contemplates on God in His relation to soul.] This holds conformably to the Vedanta-axiom called the tat-kratu-nyāya [or the truth ‘that the like effort begets like result; and therefore when Brahm is to be the fruit of a devotee, he should have devoted himself to] contemplation of Brahm. In the present case, when the fruit Brahm, —as declared in; ‘He conducts those to Brahm,’— is mentioned, it is inferred that the soul-seeker’s contemplative mode involves contemplation of Brahm. How he contemplates on Brahm was mentioned viz., he contemplates on Brahm as ancillary to ātma, —atma (Soul) being his chief aim,— whereas the God-seeker’s contemplation is Brahm Itself, with his soul as ancillary to Brahm, —Brahm (God) being his sole Aim, not atma (soul).
As regards meditation being of the nature that ātma shall therein be regarded as by essence standing in the relation of fealty to the Sovereign God, authority is found in the Śruti:
‘Who (Brahm) abides in ātma (as Soul…..), of Whom ātma is body etc.’[16. Bri: Up° V-7-22, Kāṇva-pāṭha (Ya ātmani tishṭhan….yasy-ātma śarīram &c.)]
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