19) This, verily, is the honey (madhu—doctrine) which Dadhyach, versed in the Atharva—Veda, taught the Asvins. The Mantra (the rishi) perceived this and said: "He (the Lord) transformed Himself in accordance with each form and each form of His was for the sake of making Him known. The Lord (Indra), through His mayas, appears manifold; for to Him are yoked ten horses, nay, hundreds. "This Atman is the organs; It is ten and thousands—many and infinite. This Brahman is without antecedent or consequent, without interior or exterior. This self, the all—perceiving, is Brahman. This is the teaching of the Upanishads."

This is the knowledge which Dadhyan Atharvana taught to the Asvins. He said like this: Rupam rupam pratirupo babhuva, tad asya rupam praticaksanaya: "In every form He assumed the likeness of each form. The Lord in the process of manifesting name and form transformed Himself in accordance with name and form”. This is a very important passage in the Upanishad. He casts Himself into the mould of every creature and becomes formulated into the structure of that particular creature. He can be conveniently made to assume any shape under any condition. When he casts Himself into the mould of a bird's body, it looks as if He is a bird. When He casts Himself into the mould of a human body, it looks as if He is a human being. When He shines as a celestial, it looks as if He is an angel. He is, then, that which we visualize with our eyes.

These forms, these bodies, these visible individualities of things, are really intended for the recognition of His presence in all things. He has not created this world merely for nothing, as if for fun. It is intended to give an indication of His presence; an indication of the variety which He can comprise within Himself; an indication of the contradictions that can be reconciled in His Being; an indication of the Majesty which is in His own stature, and an indication of the inscrutability of His nature. Were name and form not manifested, the transcendental nature of the Self would not be known just as to know the light there should be darkness or to perceive beauty we must know what is ugliness.

All these forms are visualized by us directly with our own eyes, a contradictory world where nothing is clear; everything is enigmatic, if considered in isolation. However, everything is reconcilable if it is connected in its proper context in the manner which we have just described in the Madhu-Vidya. So, there is no contradiction in the world; everything is harmonious. We unfortunately find it impossible to see the harmony as we are not in a position to harmonize ourselves with the harmony that is His. But His intention is something different. His intention is to make it possible for us to visualize the harmony and the interconnectedness through every finite form.

Due to the magnificence of His nature and the variety of His manifestation we are unable to see the truth of things. We visualize only one particular form and are not able to connect this form with other forms. We see the universe only in parts and not as a whole. So we are not able to see things as they ought to be seen. We are not supposed to see one thing only, or a few things only, or a hundred things only. We are supposed to see anything in its connection with other things, in its relation with others. If this connection is lost, it is as if we see nothing and know nothing, and one day we will be full of sorrow.

"So, let it be understood," says the great Rishi, "that the Master magician who can be called great Mayavi, the Supreme Being who is designated here as Indra - th Lord of all beings , appears in such manifold forms that it is impossible for the physical eyes to connect the forms with the circumstances in which they are really placed."

All the sense-organs are He only. They are not outside Him. It is He that appears as the senses; He appears as the forms and He appears as the perception of the objects, and in His Masterly variety, He has cast Himself into the mould of even the senses. He is Hari. Hari means the Lord Supreme, or it may mean the senses which drag you away to the objects. Harayah Hari: He may take away the ignorance of a person, and then He will be called Hari; or He may take away our consciousness towards the objects outside; that is also another function of His, and so He is called Hari. He is tens and hundreds and thousands, not one, two or three merely. Any number is He, and all these numbers are capable of reconciliation in the One that He really is.

Ayam vai harayah, ayam vai dasa ca sahasrani, bahuni canantani ca, tad etad brahmaparvam, anaparam, anantaram, abahyam ayam atma brahma sarvdnubhuh, ity anusasanam: This Supreme is tens and hundreds and thousands and manifold and variety and what not. Everything is that glorious resplendence which appears as these colors and forms that move in various directions, in many ways. It is manifold and it is infinite in Its variety; It is the Supreme Brahman, the Absolute - tad-etad brahma.

He has neither a beginning nor an end. We do not know what is before It; we do not know what is after It; we do not know what is inside It. It is all things - anantaram. abahyam ayam atma Brahma: This is, verily, our own Self. This manifold Majesty, which is regarded as inscrutable, is seated in our own heart, not outside us. It is the experiencer of everything. Sorrows and joys, varieties, differences, apparent irreconcilabilities, confusions - everything is Its experience. It is experiencing everything in Its own totality, and if we could experience through Its eyes and through Its forms, through Its Being, then we would not see the variety in the world. We would not see any contradiction or any irreconcilability. It is a One single inter-connectedness that is Cosmic Being.

This is the subject of the great Madhu-Vidya instructed by Dadhyan Atharvana to the gods, Asvins, through the mouth of the horse.

END OF SECTION V OF CHAPTER II

SECTION VI - VAMSA-BRAHMANA

Line of Teachers and Disciples of this Knowledge contained in the First Two Chapters

In ancient times important texts were passed on from one generation to the next through a succession of teachers and the taught through the media of human memory. This section of the Upanishad gives a long list of the names of such teachers. Everyone received knowledge from someone else. God is the only one who does not receive knowledge from someone else. Until we reach that state of Self, complete knowledge, we are in a state of movement; in a process of aspiration.

END OF SECTION VI OF CHAPTER II

END OF CHAPTER II

END OF PART 1: MADHU-KANDA OF THE BRIHADARANYAKA UPANISHAD

HARIH OM TAT SAT

[To be continued]