The Upanishads depict the Jiva and Paramatman as two birds, inseparable companions of each other sitting on the same tree, one on the higher and the other on the lower branches. The bird (individual soul) on the lower branch keeps eating the fruits of the tree (results of karma ) some sweet and some bitter and experiences joy and sorrow. As the lower bird grows disgusted of the taste of the bitter fruit of the tree, he looks up to the splendid vision above him of the upper bird and draws himself nearer to him. But he soon forgets the glorious vision in his love for the fruits of the tree and keeps returning to eating the sweet and bitter fruit. The latter just sits majestically ever calm and collected, never touching the sweet and bitter fruits. The lower bird continues to experience disgust again and again but slowly keeps advancing a little more towards the splendid vision before him. So on he advances, till at last, when he reaches the upper bird, the whole vision changes, and he finds himself to be none other than the upper bird (collective soul) who was sitting in all splendour and majesty all the time. (The above story comes from the Mundaka Upanishad).

 

As the bird in the story sitting on the lower branches, it is a fact of experience that the atman has been encased and bound and has lost much of his freedom. In this state it is called as jivatman or simply jiva. The answer to the question as to why and how he has come to be in such a position is given as karma, the inexorable consequence of his past actions. To the question as to when and how the very first karma started this chain of bondage, there is no answer, since the Upanishads present creation as an eternal process, without beginning or end. When the jivatman finally realises the greatness of the Paramatman, it becomes free from all the sorrow and suffering and experiences the pure consciousness. So the question, how the ever free atman became the jiva, does not appear to have been answered by the Upanishads, they have however given several modes of sadhana or spiritual exercises by which the jiva can recover the original state.

 

Our involvement in the cycle of birth and death, and consequent suffering, has been called “samsara”.  Moksha or liberation from this bondage of samsara has been presented before us by the wisdom teachings as the goal of life. The goal being the same in all religions. As different rivers, having their source in different mountains, roll down straight or crooked pathways and at last come into the ocean, the different religious pathways also start from different standpoints running through  straight or crooked courses and at last return to the Source. The philosophy of Vedanta and its application to the life of man teaches sooner or later that every man will discover his real nature and will know himself as the source of all knowledge, power and bliss. Like the bird on the lower branches in the story, life brings us to higher and higher truths and ultimately we attain the highest goal. We shall have our ups and downs, of course we will, our moments of uncertainty but we shall return to the splendid vision before us. No spiritual gain, however small, is ever lost or wasted. Follow your own muse with diligence, but do not try to bring everybody to the same opinion. It can never be, for is not unity in diversity the law of nature. Does it not make for a more interesting world?

 

Yoga of Sacred Sound is a spiritual practice and one of the many pathways to the Godhead. Practicing compassion, showing loving kindness, forgiveness are all spiritual practices that can take us to God. Our struggles or attempts for moksha have to take place in this world. We can rise in consciousness only in this world. The Buddha has said it is great blessing to be born into this world. Greater still is to have heard the Dharma and even greater and rarer is to be enlightened.

 

 

 

 

Meaning of the word “Upanishad”

 

 

The Upanishads are unique in the sacred literature of the world, showing the heights that man may evolve and how truly God can speak through man. The word Upanishad refers to that divine knowledge or wisdom which loosens the bonds of samsara  (tranmigratory existence) of a being, annihilates his ignorance of his real nature and leads him to Brahman or God. The book or the spiritual work that teaches this wisdom is called the “Upanishad”. Swami Vivekananda called them the Bible of India. The orthodox view is that the Upanishads are the Revealed Word by God himself at the commencement of each cycle of creation to the worthy few.

 

The philosophy of Vedanta

 

This high system of philosophy was evolved in India thousands of years ago, but no precise date can be determined as to its beginnings. One great peculiarity of this philosophy is that, it is not built around one person or prophet, and we can find its existence long before Christianity, Buddhism and before the age of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata the two great epics of India. We find the principles of Vedanta in all the different religions and philosophies that exist not only in India but the world. One of its many attractions are its nondogmatic, experimental approach to Truth. We are invited to find out for ourselves.

 

Creation according to Vedanta

 

According to Vedanta creation is as much eternal as the Creator Himself, only it sometimes remains in a manifested state and sometimes in a unmanifested state. What then is the purpose, the motive of this creation, this eternal flow of evolution and involution? Vedanta says it is a play of the Infinite. You cannot ascribe any motive to the Perfect, the Absolute without making him imperfect. The infinite must have no motive to compel it to create. The Absolute is the only existence. Man therefore according to Vedanta is Divine and everything that is strong and good and powerful in human nature is the expression of the Divinity within him.

 

Developing your individuality

 

Vedanta says by developing your individuality, you rise to a point where you become a perfect individual. You change your apparent present individuality for a better and real one. Evolution of consciousness has been described in many religions as seeing and realising and feeling God. “Reason” has proved that all our ideas of God are perfectly anthropomorphic, that we are creating our own God and worshipping and paying reverence to our own mental representation. Vedanta does not deny that all these different ides of God are anthropomorphic, but it asks in turn, are not all our ideas of the external the same. Can we ever know the world but as our mind represents it to us, and has not science proved already that the senses are deceptive and can never know things as they are? Therefore if it is reasonable to reject all our ideas of God because they are anthropomorphic, it is reasonable also to throw away every other idea from the mind, but how many of us are willing to do so, and have what it takes to do so?. Then again, though all that we know of anything are what our minds represent them to be, yet they help us in developing ourselves and bringing us higher and higher. Vedanta concludes on this point that man is not wrong or mistaken in his worshipping all these different ideas of God, only he has been travelling from lower to higher truths. His progress in this world is not from error to truth but from lower and lower truths to higher and higher ones. Socrates said man can only do the good that is known to him at the time, if he knew better he would do better. Christ said “Forgive them for they know not what they do”.

 

Sacred Sound Yoga is Vedanta philosophy in practice and spiritual exercises that aims to take one to higher and higher states of consciousness. That is its purpose. The knowledge and wisdom is of Indian origin hence the name “India Jiva”.

 

Consciousness

 

Wherever there is life in however insignificant a form, there is consciousness. Every living organism is conscious in one degree or another, but in man consciousness rises to levels that other life forms does not. Consciousness can be said to represent an infinite field of power and potential from which the manifest world keeps emerging as creation. It has the capacity to record everything that is put into it, so our every thought, word and deed are recorded forever. So let us carefully exercise what we put into it as the unfolding of consciousness any where is really the unfolding of God- consciousness. All is God – consciousness, for there is none other. And as consciousness unfolds from level to level, it is only God unfolding his powers.

 

Article written by Ron Ragel, Sacred Sound Yoga educator.