TWO ASPECTS OF CREATION: VARIABLE AND CONSTANT (MANTRAS 14-15)

PREAMBLE
The creator Prajapati is both changeless and ever-changing. This is illustrated by the analogy of a lunar fortnight. The moon appears to be of different size everyday even though it is always the same. Likewise the creator appears to have fifteen variable parts which constitute the world of multiplicity and a constant part, Brahman. Accordingly the creator is also called a Cosmic Person, purusha of sixteen parts. Like Him, man also has a constant spiritual Self and a variable physical self.

The analogy of waxing and waning moon is extended to wealth – it increases and decreases so often. In a second analogy, wealth is compared to the rim of a wheel, while life is like its hub. 

THE SELF IDENTIFIED WITH THE SIXTEENFOLD PRAJAPATI

The meditation is further extended in the following mantras. Wecan contemplate the creative principle in its relevance to the principle of time, or the passage of time. As we have observed earlier, the Upanishad gives us various symbologies for contemplation. In fact, one can utilize any phenomenon for the purpose of meditation. Anything and everything in this world of space, time and objects can become an instrument or aid in meditation on the Absolute. You can meditate on space; you can meditate on time; you can meditate on any object. Anyone of these can become a passage to the infinite. So, here the suggestion is that certain aspects of the manifestation of time can be regarded as instruments for the purpose of meditation.

The creator is sixteen-fold in power, as it were. Sodasa-kalah praja-patih: Prajapati is the Creator. He has sixteen forces, sixteen aspects of energy or sixteen digits of expression. Now, these sixteen digits are compared here, for the purpose of meditation, with the sixteen digits of the moon that is connected with sixteen processes by way of days and nights which constitute a half of the lunar month.

There are fifteen days in the bright half of the lunar month, as there are fifteen days in the dark half. One half of the lunar month is of the waxing moon; the other half is of the waning moon. Both are of fifteen days and fifteen nights in duration. Each particular day including the night is supposed to have connection with one digit of the moon, and each particular digit is connected with the mental functions in an individual.

It is said that the moon is the presiding deity over the mind. The waxing and the waning of the moon have some connection with the mental horizon. People who are insane or not properly balanced in their mood are supposed to be affected by the movements of the moon. But the moon affects even normal persons, not merely the abnormal ones. Only, the normal persons do not feel the effect so much as the others who have no control over their minds. Because of the intense force that we exert on our own minds by our egos, we are unable to feel the force of the moon on our minds, but if we are to relax the mind completely and not impress the ego upon the mind too much, then we may be able to discover the distinction we feel one day after another as the moon waxes or wanes.

Here, the meditation process mentioned suggests that the digits, or the powers, which are symbolically connected with the fifteen days and nights of the lunar half month, are veritably forces of the Creator Himself.
Now, another symbology is presented for purpose of meditation. Sixteen are supposed to be the digits of power in a human being. Fifteen are temporal; one is transcendental. Whatever you have, and whatever you are - these two aspects are the objects of meditation here. We are aware of the distinction between these two - whatever you have, and whatever you are.

Whatever you have, is called wealth, and whatever you are, iscalled the soul. Whatever you have is temporal; whatever you are is eternal. People generally lay too much emphasis on what they have, rather than on what they are. There is a tendency in people to accumulate more and more of wealth and extend the domain of their possessions. They wish to have the largest infinitude of having, rather than being. It is naturally expected of people to enhance their being to infinitude, but instead of that, they try to enhance their having to endlessness. There is greed to possess more and more of things. Even if the whole earth were to be possessed, you will not be satisfied. If the earth and the heavens are to become your possessions, you are not going to be happy, because satisfaction does not come from temporal relationship. Satisfaction is a character of eternity manifest, and if our relationship is only with the temporal, that which we really are will always remain grief-stricken and neglected completely. We ignore our being in our interest in what we want to have in this world. This is not to be. A co-ordination has to be established between what we have and what we are, or what we would like to have and what we ought to be.

Aperson appears to wax and wane according to the extent of the wealth that one has. The richer you are in your possessions, the larger you consider yourself to be in the estimation of yourself and of others. The lesser is your wealth and riches, the poorer you consider yourself to be. So, there is a waxing and waning of the individual also as is there are waxing and the waning of the moon outside. But the waxing and the waning of the individual in respect of wealth outside is not to be stressed too much, because, even if all the wealth is lost, there is something remaining in you, which is more valuable than everything that you might have lost.

Theself that you are is like the axle of a wheel, which is the cause of the movement of the wheel, notwithstanding the fact that the spokes also are necessary. While the spokes move up and down, the axle does not move. It is the permanent element which is fixed in the movement of the wheel. So is the entire world of possessions and wealth, riches which rotate and revolve round the axle of the self without which there would be no motion and progress at all, just as without the axle there cannot be a movement of the wheel.

Thesoul is the centre; the wealth that we have is only a periphery, a circumference, moving and passing.

Peoplegenerally are in a position to console themselves and reveal their composure even after losing everything they possess, provided that their soul-power is intact. People do not grieve so much for the loss of wealth as for the loss of themselves. You know very well that you are more valuable than your wealth. You have a greater love for your own self, ultimately, than for anything that you possess. So, if everything that you have is lost completely, and you alone are left finally, single, unbefriended, unconnected with others, yet you have a satisfaction of your own - after all, I am. If you also are not to be, that would be much worse than to lose everything that you have or might have had.

So, the contemplation is that the Atman issuperior to everything that is external and possessional. And, as is the connection between the circumference and the centre of the wheel or the spokes of the wheel with the axle, so is the connection between the entire world of possession outside and the self within. They have to be co-ordinated in a proportionate and harmonious manner for the purpose of establishing union between the external and the internal, finally laying the proper emphasis on the Universal Internal, which is the Atman, which, when realized, puts an end to all greed for wealth, and, then, even a need for possession becomes absent because of the fact that the Atman is all the wealth of the world. The Atman is not merely the centre in you, but the centre which is everywhere.

SON’S ROLE IN SPIRITUAL LIFE (MANTRAS 16-20)

PREAMBLE

There are three worlds, each requiring performance of a specific task for its attainment by man. The material world requires continuity of family name, the world of ancestors requires performance of sacrifices and certain other rituals and the world of cosmic powers called gods is attained by spiritual knowledge.

THE THREE WORLDS AND THE MEANS OF WINNING THEM

There are three worlds as we have already studied - this world, the atmospheric world and the celestial world: Manusya-loka, Pitr-loka and Devaloka, as the scriptures tell us. We have to gain entry into all these worlds and have mastery over them. Renown in this physical world is attempted to be perpetuated by people. Even after death, they want to be known to men. How can you perpetuate your greatness even after death? The progeny of yours is the perpetuation of your glory. The son says, his father is such-and-such a person. The great man's name continues through the son. The progeny is the continuation of the glory and the value of the person.

So, one gains renown in the physical realm by the progeny that he has. The family continues its tradition; otherwise, he would be cut off root and branch by the death of the physical body. The physical world remembers the individuality of a person through the legacy that he leaves in the form of the family tradition and the children. Hence, one gains this world, as it were, through the progeny - manusya-lokah putrenaiva jayyah. Nanyena karmana: You cannot achieve renown in this physical world after your death by any other means than by this that is suggested.

Karmana pitr-lokah: But, if you want to gain entry into the world of the forefathers, the ancestors, there is no other way than to perform certain rites which are of a sacrificial nature. Certain libations, certain Yajnas are performed whose effect called Apurva produces a force which carries the soul after death to Pitr-loka, wherein the soul enjoys the results of its deeds, until their momentum is exhausted, and then it comes back to this world to repeat the same actions, and so on, endlessly, in the cycle of time.

Vidyaya deva-lokah: The higher, celestial realms are to be attained only through knowledge, not by progeny, not by any kind of ritual, but by understanding, by spiritual contemplation. Here, Deva-loka is to be understood in the sense of every realm that is superior to the Pitr-loka.  It is that knowledge is regarded as the highest of achievements, and the divine regions, the celestial realms transcending even the paradise of angels, are attainable not by ordinary action, but by deep contemplation, Upasana, worship, which is the knowledge spoken of in this mantra.

FATHER'S BENEDICTION AND TRANSMISSION OF CHARGE

Mantra 17 describes a ritual for handing over one’s responsibilities to a son. Thereafter according mantras 18-20 the divine speech, mind and life of the departing person enters his son, while he becomes one with the Cosmic Speech, Cosmic Mind, and Cosmic Life, thereby the son acquires tremendous powers.