KENA
UPANISHAD
We begin the Upanishad with an invocation to God.
INVOCATION
1
O Supreme
Lord, May my limbs, my speech, my breath, my eyes, my ears, my strength and all
my senses always be vigorous.
2
The All-Powerful Supreme is the Brahm of the
Upanishads. May I never discard Brahm. May Brahm never discard me. May there be
no discarding. May there be no discarding of me.
3
May the truths that are stated in the Upanishad
always live in me dedicated to the self, dedicated to the Atma.
4
AUM PEACE PEACE PEACE
INTRODUCTION
The Kena Upanishad derives its name from the first word of
the Upanishad “kena,” meaning, “by whom”. The Upanishad belongs to the
Talvakara Brahmana of the Sama Veda and is also known as the “Talvakara”.
It is one of the
eleven principal Upanishads of the Hindu religion.
The Upanishad has four sections, the first two in verse, in
metre, and the remaining two in prose. The portion in verse, deals with the
Supreme Brahm, the Absolute Principle underlying the physical world of
phenomena, while the prose part deals with the Supreme as Isvara, as God.
The knowledge of the Absolute, the knowledge of Brahm, is
the higher knowledge by which immediate liberation, immediate salvation is
obtained. This knowledge is possible only for those who are able to withdraw
their thoughts from the worldly objects and concentrate on the Absolute.
The knowledge of Isvara or God, on the other hand, which is
the lower knowledge, puts one on the path that will eventually lead to
liberation, to salvation. The worshipping soul here gradually acquires the higher
wisdom which results in him becoming conscious of the identity of Brahm and of
him identifying with Brahm leading to his salvation.
The Upanishad is in the form of a dialogue between the
seeker student and the teacher guru.
THE UPANISHAD
SECTION 1
The student asks the Guru:
Respected Sir, by whose will and directed by whom does the mind light on
its objects?
By whose command does life, at first move?
At whose will do people utter their speech?
And what God is it that prompts
the eye and the ear to do their respective functions?
The Guru replies:
The
One who does all this is the Supreme Brahm, who is the ear of the ear, the mind
of the mind, the speech, of the speech, the breath of the breath, and the eye
of the eye. The wise realize and understand this. They realize that there is a
Supreme Eternal Reality, called Brahm which is behind the mind, the life, and
the senses, which is behind all these, and which enables all of them to perform
their respective functions.
Then realizing this, they give up all their wrong
notions and ideas of their being the doers of all this, of their being self
sufficient in this regard and, departing from the world, on their death, they
become immortal.
The eye does not go there, Brahm cannot be seen by the eyes, the speech
does not go there, speech cannot describe Brahm, nor can the mind go there, the
mind cannot comprehend Brahm.
Since it is beyond the reach of
the mind and the senses, we do not know and we do not understand how one can
teach or explain Brahm to anyone.
Brahm is other than the known, and it is also other than the not known
and the unknown. Indeed, it is above both the known and the unknown.
So have we heard from the ancients
who have explained Brahm to us.
Know Brahm to be that which is not expressed through speech but that by
which speech is expressed and not what people here think and worship.
That
which is not thought by the mind but by which the mind thinks, know that really
to be Brahm and not what people here think and worship.
That which is not seen by the eye but by
which the eyes see, know that in reality to be Brahm and not
what the people here think and worship.
That
which is not heard by the ear but by which the ears hear, know that truly to be
Brahm and not what people here think and worship.
That which is not breathed by life but
by which life breathes, know that truly to be Brahm and not what people here
think and worship.
SECTION 2
If you think that you have
understood Brahm very well, then you know it but slightly, you know it but
little, you know only a small part of it, whether you be a mortal being or even
a god.
So even though you think it is known, and also
because it is known only partially, only partly, it is required to be
investigated by you as a student.
I do not think that I know it
well enough, nor do I think that I do not know it at all.
He, who among us knows it, knows it, and at
the same time he does not know that he does not know. Indeed he is ignorant of
his own ignorance.
To whomsoever it is not known, to him it is known: to whomsoever it is
known, he does not, in reality, know it. Those who know do not speak; those who
do not know speak.
It is not understood by those who
think they understand, it is understood by those who think they do not
understand it.
When Brahm is known through every state of cognition and consciousness,
when it is known in the states of waking, dreaming sleep, and dreamless sleep,
then it is rightly known for by such knowledge one attains life eternal, one
attains immortality. Through one’s own Self, one gains power, and through
wisdom, one gains immortality.
If here on earth, while in this physical body, a person knows Brahm then
he realizes the truth and there is great gain, because then he attains moksha,
he attains salvation. But if here on earth, while in this physical body, he
does not know Brahm, then there is great loss, because then he remains stuck in
the cycle of birth and death and does not attain salvation.
Therefore, always seeking and seeing
the Real, always seeing Brahm in all beings, such a wise man becomes immortal
on departing from this world.
SECTION 3
It
is said that Brahm once conquered for the gods who gloried in that conquest
thinking it was a victory won by them alone. They became conceited, and in
their conceit they thought: we alone have won this victory which is ours alone
as is the greatness on account of this victory.
Brahm saw this conceit of the
gods. To rid them of their conceit, Brahm appeared before the gods as a spirit
in the sky.
Seeing him the gods did not know who he was or
what his powers were.
They said to Agni, the Fire God:
O Jata-Veda go and find out what that spirit is. Agni said: yes and rushed
towards the spirit to find out what it was. When he reached near it, the spirit
asked him: Who are you and what are your powers?
Agni replied: I am Agni, I am
the well known Jata- Veda, the God of Fire. I can burn everything on earth.
Brahm placed a blade of grass
before Agni and said: Burn this.
Agni, the Fire God, went with all speed towards it and with all his might,
tried to burn the blade of grass but could not.
He returned, chastened, to the gods and said
“I could not find out what that spirit is.”
Then the gods said to Vayu, the
God of the Wind(Air): You go and find out what that spirit is. Vayu said ‘yes’
and ran towards the spirit to find out what it was. When he reached near it,
the spirit, who was Brahm, asked him: Who are you and what are your powers?
Vayu replied: I am Vayu, I am the famous Matarisvan, I am the God of the
Wind and I can blow off everything on earth.
To test him Brahm again placed a blade of grass before him and said: Blow
this off.
The Wind God went with all speed towards it, and with all his might, he
tried to blow off the blade of grass but he was not able to blow it off.
Chastened, he, too, returned to
the gods and said: I have not been able to find out what that spirit is.
Then the gods went to their chief Indra and said: O Maghavan, now you go
and find out who that spirit is.
Indra said: ‘yes’, and ran towards
it but the spirit disappeared from the sky, and in its place, in the same
region of the sky, Indra came across the most beautiful Uma, daughter of
Himalaya. He asked her: Lady, Who is that spirit?
SECTION 4
Uma replied: The spirit you saw in the sky is Brahm, and it was Brahm who
conquered for you, which victory you thought you had won by yourself and in
which all of you have been taking so much pride.
Then only did Indra realise that the spirit
was Brahm.
Therefore these three gods Indra, Agni and Vayu surpass all the other
gods for it was they that touched Brahm closely, for it was they, indeed, who
were the first to know that it was Brahm.
And, Indra surpasses all the other gods since he was the first among the
gods to know, on Uma’s telling that it was Brahm. He was, in fact, the first
god to know Brahm.
Of this Brahm there
is this teaching: Brahm is like a flash of lightning or like the blink of an
eye. This is the teaching concerning the gods, this is how the Gods see Brahm,
He appears before them like a flash of lightning.
Now the teaching concerning the Self: It is this Brahm towards which the
mind is always attracted and towards which it appears to move inexorably, and
it is by the same mind that one remembers Brahm constantly, and one also
exercises his free will.
Brahm, indeed, is the object of all desires, and truly, it is the dearest
of all.
It is to be meditated upon as
such.
Whosoever knows Brahm as such, is
sought by all beings, all beings seek such a realized one. He is loved by all.
The Student says to the teacher: Sir, tell me the secret of Brahm, teach
me the Upanishad.
The teacher replies: The secret of Brahm has been told to you.
We have taught you the Upanishad.
Austerities, self control and work, all these are the support of Brahm.
The Vedas are its limbs and truth
is the abode of Brahm.
Whosoever knows this, he, indeed, in the end overcomes sin and is firmly
established in the Supreme. Yes he is firmly established in the Supreme.
END OF KENA UPANISHAD
AUM PEACE PEACE PEACE
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