The Sun as the Eye of the Universal Self by Swami Krishnananda

Swami Krishnananda’s discourse on The Chhandogya Upanishad shares the teaching that surya, the Sun, is a popular symbol of the Absolute. The characteristics of the Supreme Self, the Atman, are similiar to the qualities of the Sun.

The Chhandogya Upanishad

Swami Krishnananda

The Sun as the Eye of the Universal Self

Now, the king puts another question to the other sage: “Satyayajna Paulushi, what is the Atman that you are meditating upon?”

“I meditate on the Sun, Your Highness, the most brilliant object conceivable. It is the Supreme Being for me. I regard the Sun, surya, as the symbol of the Absolute. That is the Atman on which I am meditating.”

The king said: “Satyayajna, you meditate on the Sun as the Supreme Atman. Well, this is a part of the Vaishvanara’ s Body. Because it is a part of this Great Being, and you meditate upon it as if it is the all, you have in your own life certain characteristics of the Sun. There is brilliance in your outlook; there is plenty in your family; and there is a sort of completeness in your life, as the Sun himself is a complete being in himself. There is material glory in your house, and your mind is satisfied. You have a very happy mind; and you have many other things in your family,—gold, silver, servants, rich food, and such other things.

All this is the result of your meditation on the repository of the immensity of wealth which is the Sun himself. And, whoever meditates as you are meditating, also will enjoy the same fruits of immensity and magnificence in his life. He will have plenty of food to eat, and plenty of everything. He will be resplendent with the knowledge accruing from this meditation which is brahmavarchas; yes, whoever meditates thus. But the mistake that you are making in your meditation is that the Sun is the eye, as it were, of the cosmic body of Vaishvanara. It is not the whole of Reality. If you had not come to me, you would have become blind due to this error in your meditation, mistaking the eye of the Virat for the whole of Virat.”

Source: http://www.scribd.com/doc/11598663/The-Chhandogya-Upanishad-by-Swami-Krishnananda

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Tags: atman, meditation, mind, surya, Swami Krishnananda, symbol, Upanishad, yoga