Episode 01 - PrasnOpanishad.
PRASNOPANISHAD
(Upanishad of Questions/Queries)
Prasnopanishad is one of the ten mukhya Upanishads.It is affiliated to the Atharva Veda.
It is a work typically representing the Upanishad format – disciples, well-disciplined and thoroughly ordained into learning matters spiritual, asking incisive, searching and sometimes audacious questions of the master. It is made of six questions and numerous answers to each question. (Excepting the first and last questions, the other questions include some sub-questions.) Those who ask these six questions are: SukeSa, son of Bharadhwaja; SatyakAma, son of Sibi, SauryAyanee, descendant of Garga, Kausalya, son of Ashwala, BhArgava of the country of Vidharba, belonging to Bhrigu Gothra, KabandhI, son of Kaathya.
Let us consider just one question and the answers that were obtained:
Preface
OmsukeshA cha bhaaradvAjah shaibyashcha satyakAmah sauryAyanii cha gaargyah kausalyashcha ashvalAyano bhaargavO vaidarbhih kabandhii kaatyAyanaste haite brahmaparA brahmanishhthAh param brahmaanveshhamaanA eshha ha vai tatsarvam vakshyatIti te ha samitpaanayO bhagavantam pippalAdamupasannAh || 1||
Om. Sukesha, the son of Bharadvaja, Satyakaama, the son of Shibi, Sauryaayani, belonging to the family of Garga, Kausalya, the son of Asvala, Bhargava, the son of Bhrigu of Vidarbha, and Kabandhee, the son of Kaatya - all these, devoted to Brahman and firm in Brahman and seeking the supreme Brahman, approached, with fuel (samith) in hand, the venerable Pippalaada with the thought that he would tell them everything about Brahman.
According to the then existing tradition the students carried samith (twigs offered in homams/havans) in their hands and went to the teacher, offering the samith to the teacher – here Pippalaada, who is described as Bhagavan because of his very high good qualities. An offering of samith to a teacher is a symbol of respect, humility and keenness to learn on the part of a student.
Rishi Pippalada asked the students to stay with him for a whole year, practicing austerities, continence and faith and then ask of him the questions that were on their minds. He would tell them all that he knew (about those questions.) After a year went by and as the students had kept their part of the deal, the questions are now asked:
Secret of Creation
atha kabandhii katyaayana upetya paprachchha | bhagavan.h kuto ha vaa imaah prajaah prajaayanta iti || 3||
Then, after a year of highly disciplined living as dictated by the master, Kabandhi, the son of Katya, came to Pippalada and asked the first question:
Sir, where do all these beings come from?
Answer:
tasmai sa hovaacha prajaakaamo vai Prajaapathih sa tapo.atapyata sa tapastaptvaa sa mithunamutpAdayatE | rayim cha pranam chetyetau me bahudhA prajAh karishhyata iti || 4||
To him the teacher said: Prajaapathi, (Father of all) the Creator, was desirous of progeny. With this in view, he performed austerities and having performed austerities, created the twin (mithunam), the Matter (rayi) and the Energy (praNa) thinking that together they would produce creatures in many ways.
Prajaapathi is also called Brahma (not to be confused with Brahman).
According to Vedanta, everything, including Prajaapathi comes from Brahman or projected from Brahman. Brahman does not create anything because he is nirguNa and nirAkAra, without qualities and without form. So Prajaapathi is one step down the line.
aadityo ha vai praanO rayireva chandramaa rayirvA etat.h sarvam yanmUrtam chAmUrtam cha tasmaanmuurtireva rayih || 5||
The sun is, indeed, Praana, life, Energy; the moon is Rayi, food, Matter. All that have form (gross) and all that is formless (subtle) is Matter and therefore anything having a form (mUrtam) is indeed Matter.
(The word sathya which is replete in religious, spiritual and theistic discourse, is also paraphrased as – sath, aspect of Brahmam that is perceived in a gross form and tyath – the formless (subtle) aspect.)
What Pippalada means is that ‘Prajaapathi (Brahmaa) meditated and produced Praana, the primal energy, and Rayi, the giver of form, desiring that they, male and female, should in manifold ways produce creatures for him’.
Prana and Rayi are the two poles of manifesting energy - positive and negative, male and female. This duality is at the heart of all that presently exists, and without it everything dissolves. Prana and Rayi are the “parents” of all things. Creation is their perpetual interaction. All “creatures” - all that exist in relativity - have sprung from Praana and Rayi.
We have to note here that matter does not mean only solid things which have form but includes even those which do not have forms like all our thoughts and ideas, sound waves, air, water etc. These are subtler planes of existence up to Intellectual and Atomic planes. The structure of even the subtlest planes of existence is matter according to the vast definition given to it in this Upanishad. Hence matter may exist from the grossest to the subtlest.
Spirit - ParamAthman and Athman - alone is independent of these two, and untouched by them.
This can be better expressed in an equation as follows:
Matter or the gross aspect of the Universe = the Moon;
Energy (formless (subtle) aspect of the Universe = the Sun;
A combination of both matter and energy = Brahmaa i.e. Prajaapathi.
Thus Prajaapathi becomes everything in us except the Athman. This is what this sloka would have us understand.
The other questions focus on complex metaphysical issues mainly concerning how the primal forces came into being, the (metaphysical) nature of these forces, how these relate with our lives and our soul. Discussions cover complex, somewhat baffling for the uninitiated, issues like sthoola sarIra (the gross anatomical body), sUkShma sarIra (subtle body made up of senses, mind, buddhi and vital airs), and kAraNa sarIra (causal body, consisting of ignorance of one’s nature). Also, the vedantic arrangement of a human’s system, like karmEndriyas and jnAnEndriyas and how each is commanded and operated by the different primal forces like the Sun, Agni, Vayu (the five pranas) and Prajaapathi Himself.