Kenopanishad Part 1

Kenopanishad Introduction:

The Kenopanishad Upanishad is called so because it begins with the word “Kena”. This Upanishad is one of the dasopanishad.

The translation of the following manthram from Rig Veda provides the summary of the Kenopanishad. The meaning of the following manthram will help us to understand this Upanishad properly.

Gaayanthi twa gayathrinau rchadyarkamarkina: I

Brahmaanastwa shathakrata udwamshamiva yaemirae II

The verbatim meaning of the first verse in the above manthram is, “Oh Indra! Those who know Sama vedam sing your praise; those who know Rig vedam worship you; those who know Yajur vedam and have performed 100 yagams praise you and all these people make you magnificent with their praise.”

There are two commentaries for the Vedas. These commentaries are rendered by Bhatta Bhaskarar and Sayanachar. The above hymn is directed towards Indran. Both scholars agree that “Indran” referred by the hymn is Lord Narayanan. Indra refers to a person who is wealthy and there is none who is wealthier than Sriyapathi Lord Sriman Narayanan. Thus, the above verse refers to the Supreme Brahmam, Lord Sriman Narayanan as Indran.

Bhatta Bhaskarar said that, the word ‘wamsham’ in general refers to lineage and also to bamboo shoot. He said that in the above verse, wamsham refers to bamboo shoot. The word “wamsham” is used in the above hymn to indicate that, the Lord’s glory grows like a bamboo shoot when we eulogize Him. Sayanachar explained the above manthram by stating that, the Lord’s glory is uplifted like the growth of a good lineage. The explanations provided by both scholars are not very convincing as, how can any one of us be capable of increasing the glory of the Supreme Lord? The actual meaning of the word ‘wamsham’ is given by Swami Vedanta Desikan in ‘Varadaraja Panchasat’. 

Swami Desikan says that, he doesn’t know how to praise the Supreme Lord. Swami compares his knowledge to that of the insignificant light emitted by a glow worm. Hence, he asks the Lord to bless him with the knowledge as well as words needed to sing the praise of the Lord. Swami states that, the Lord created every one of us to serve Him. Thus, if He doesn’t give us the ability needed to serve Him, the purpose of creating us is not met. Swami says that the Lord produced music by playing the flute. The flute by itself does not have the capacity to produce music like that, we don’t have the capacity to serve the Lord; the Lord has to play us like the flute to give us the capabilities required to serve Him.

With the help of the above explanation by Swami Vedanta Desikan, we can translate the above vedic verse as, “those who know Sama vedam sing your praise; those who know Rig vedam worship you; those who know Yajur vedam and have performed 100 yagams praise you and they do so because, you made them praise you by playing them like the flute.”

Swami Vedanta Desikan requests the Lord Ranganatha to play him like the conch. He asks Lord Srinivasa to play him like the veena and he prays to Lord Varadaraja to play him like the flute.

Let us keep in mind the explanation provided by Swami Vedanta Desikan while studying Kenopanishad.

Mannargudi Rajagopala Perumal Mohini Alankaram

Kenopanishad Question 1:

Kenopanishad is in the form of question and answer. The answer to the first question asked by the disciple to his guru is provided in the above paragraphs. The disciple asked four questions in the first manthram as shown below.

By whom is the mind urged to flow towards the object of its desire? At whose bidding does the chief prana proceed to do its function? Who incites people to utter words? By whom is the eye and ear directed to see and hear?

The acharyan answered the disciple’s query. He said that, “the ear, mind, prana, speech and eye are directed by the one who is ear of ear, mind of mind, speech of speech, prana of prana, and eye of eye. By knowing Him as the Supreme Being and being devoted to Him we can attain emancipation by traveling via the archiradhi marga.

There is someone who controls the sense organs by giving them power but, He cannot be perceived by the senses. He cannot be known by ears, eyes, speech or mind. He controls all but He cannot be controlled; if you understand this, and then stay devoted to Him, you will achieve emancipation.”

This Upanishad explains what is meant by “can’t be known”. 

We will continue with the acharyan’s reply in the next post.

Reference:

This series is based on the notes I took after listening to the discourse in Tamil on Kenopanishad by Sri U.Ve.Karunakarachariar Swamin. This series is for the benefit of people who do not understand Tamil. Those of you who understand Tamil please refer to the following link to listen to the original discourse. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wBXKT9cCQo

I have done my best to take notes with due diligence; any error(s) in the series is because of my mistake only. I apologize in advance for any errors that I have made while writing this series .

Continued On: http://thoughtsonsanathanadharma.blogspot.ca/2015/01/kenopanishad-part-2.html