Thirty Minor Upanishads: 2. Sarvasāra-Upanisha&#7693... | Internet Sacred Text Archive

Hinduism

SARVASĀRA-UPANISHAḌ 1

OF

KṚSHṆA-YAJURVEḌA

[In the text, all the questions are given first and then the answers follow. But the following arrangement is adopted to facilitate reference.]

1. What is Banḍha (bondage).

Āṭmā [the Self] falsely superimposing the body and others which are not-Self upon Himself, and identifying Himself with them—this identification forms the bondage of the Self.

2. What is Moksha [emancipation]?

The freedom from that [identification] is Moksha.

3. What is Aviḍyā (Nescience)?

That which causes this identification—that indeed is Aviḍyā.

4. What is Viḍyā (knowledge)?

That which removes this identification is Viḍyā.

5. What are (meant by) the states of Jāgraṭ [the waking], Swapna [the dreaming], Sushupṭi [the dreamless sleeping] and Ṭurīya [the fourth]?

Jāgraṭ is that [state] during which Āṭmā enjoys the gross objects of senses as sound, etc., through the 14 organs 2 as Manas, etc., having the sun and the rest as their presiding deities.

Swapna is that [state] during which Āṭmā experiences, through the 14 organs associated with the Vāsanās [affinities],

of the waking condition, sound and other objects which are of the form of the Vāsanās created for the time being, even in the absence of [the gross] sound and the others. Āṭmā experiences Sushupṭi when it does not experience sound and other objects of sense from the cessation of the functions of the 14 organs, there being no special enjoying consciousness on account of the absence of these organs.

Ṭurīya is that state during which Āṭmā is a witness to the existence of the above-mentioned three states, though it is in itself without (their) existence and non-existence and during which it is one uninterrupted Chaiṭanya (consciousness) alone. And that Chaiṭanya is that which is connected with the three states, which is without the three states, and which is pare.

6. What are the Annamaya, Prāṇamaya, Manomaya, Vijñānamaya and Ānanḍamaya Kośas (sheaths)?

Annamaya sheath is the aggregate of the materials formed by food. When the ten Vāyus (Vital airs), Prāṇas and others, flow through the Annamaya sheath, then it is called the Prāṇamaya sheath. When Āṭmā connected with the above two sheaths performs the functions of hearing, etc., through the 14 organs of Man as and others, then it is called Manomaya sheath.

When in the (Antaḥ-karaṇa) internal organs connected with the above three sheaths, there arise the modifications of contemplation, meditation, etc., about the peculiarities of the sheaths, then it is called Vijñānamaya sheath.