"A Discussion between Father and Son"

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Section 10 :  The Indwelling Spirit (Contd.)


Illustration of Rivers and the Ocean
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Mantram-1.

 

1. Imah, saumya, nadyah purastat pracyah syandante, pascat praticyah tah
samudrat samudram evapiyanti, sa samudra eva bhavati, ta yatha yatra
na viduh, iyam aham asmi, iyam aham asmiti.

 

 

There are the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Sarasvati, Krishna, Cauvery, etc.
They all go to the same ocean and fall into the same body of water. When they
enter the ocean they become a mass of water and you no longer can make out
which is Ganga, which is Yamuna, or any other. If you take a tumbler of water
from the ocean you do not know which river-water you are taking. Why?
Because the distinguishability of character in the river has been abolished in the
body of the waters of the ocean. No river thinks “I am Ganga”, “I am Yamuna”,
etc., after it has entered the ocean. The bodily distinction of the river is
completely transcended, overcome, abolished from the roots. All is now the
ocean. This is an analogy to describe what pure Being is, in respect of the
various individuals here. These created individuals in bodies are, like rivers,
tending towards the ocean of the Absolute. Their reaching the pure Being,
which is the Absolute, is just like the rivers entering the ocean. The rivers
become the ocean and they do not know where they are, yet they are there. We
cannot say that the rivers are absent in the ocean. They are there. So, it is not a
negation of individuality, but a transcendence of individuality. It is not that the
rivers are destroyed there, but they are absorbed into a larger Being, into a
greater reality of themselves, which is their Self. We may say in a sense, the
ocean is the Self of the rivers towards which they go and get absorbed, which
they become in the end. So is the case with all of us, all individuals. All being sin creation tend towards the ocean of the ultimate Being. When they go there,
they cannot distinguish themselves, for they become one with the Being.

 

Chandogya Upanishad : Chapter-2, Section-10, Mantram-1.

 
 
 
 

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