Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 56

SAMAYASARA
things. The sage that knows the infinite, the all-pervading self no longer has any grief. The nature of the soul is therefore distinct from that of the body. Apprehension of this truth is the gate to wisdom. But this great self lies in the midst of different senses which lead him astray towards the worthless treasures of the world. This self is not to be obtained by mere learning or even by much sacred lore. It is obtainable only by the grace of the great self. It is by a process of minute spiritual development that spiritual freedom is to be acquired. The allegory of the chariot is introduced here. Yama continues his teaching and compares the soul to the chariot and the senses to the restive horses. Only by controlling the senses that the self gains freedom. We are reminded here of the same allegory in Plato. He compares the soul to a chariot dragged by horses. In the case of the gods the winged horses are good and controllable, and they never lead reason astray but in the case of man one of these horses is restive and is dragging the other one. Hence the ethical conflict in man's nature is due to the conflict between reason and the senses. The same analogy is obtained in Yama's teachings. The release from the chain of births and deaths is to be had only through spiritual purity. Here again we notice the subordination of the sacrificial cult to moral discipline. Then Yama comes to the point which started the discussion. "Oh Gautama, I will proclaim again this mystery: The everlasting self and his hereafter. Some souls pass to other births. Some to enter into other bodies according to their worth and knowledge." Hence we have the emphatic sanction of the doctrine of metempsychosis. Souls after death pass into another birth determined by their own Karina and Jñana. This is the basic principle on which the future Indian systems arose. The self that is still after pleasures is tied to the wheel of births and deaths; some going up and some going down; some endowed with happiness and others with misery, but all sharing the universal merry-go-round of Samsara. But only that self which realizes its true spiritual nature, only that which saves itself from the allurements of the world and imposes on itself the rigorous spiritual discipline can know the truth, can escape from the illusion and attain that never-failing bliss of true freedom.
8.8
Mundaka Upanisads-This Upanisad belongs to Atharvana Veda. It is divided into a number of Khandas. Its main purpose is to teach the knowledge of Brahman. Hence it may be taken as the farthest limit of the anti-Ritualistic culture of the age. This Upanisad starts with the distinction between the two kinds of knowledge. Lower knowledge consists of the study of the Vedas and the secular sciences such as grammar, astronomy, astrology etc. The higher is the knowledge of the indestructible It is this indestructible Brahman that is the source of all things.
Brahman. 6