The Aitareya Upanishad-4. Swami Krishnananda

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20/02/2020.
Post-4.
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1.

#Creation starts with the five elements, to which reference was made in our previous sessions. And when creation starts in this manner, division takes place. Creation is not merely a manifestation of externality, it is also a manifestation of division or partition of the otherwise inclusiveness, or its extension. We do not merely see things outside but, at the same time, we see many things.

##So, creation involves two aspects of perception: externality and multiplicity. The externality aspect is caused by space-time manifestation. The very meaning of space-time is externality; extension and duration are the characteristics of space and time.

###As far as the multiplicity aspect of creation is concerned, it becomes very important for us, inasmuch as we ourselves seem to be involved in it, because we are all multiple beings – one person not having any connection with another person, as it were. Each one is for his own self. Every object, everything, every atom in the world may be said to be just for itself; one thing cannot become another thing.

####Here is the reason behind why we find ourselves in this condition in which we appear to be in this world.

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2.

#When externality in the form of space-time, which is the basic principle of creation, also becomes a factor of multiplicity and division of things, the variety of species, as we say, appear to manifest themselves gradually: from the crude, earthly material existence of the elements to the living bodies of plants, vegetation, and animals, leading up to human beings. 

##The Aitereya Upanishad takes us up to the level of the human being as evolved from the lower species, which are the mineral, vegetable and animal.

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3.

#The Upanishad says, "The moment the individual was created, it was cast in the sea of sorrow." 

##In Sanskrit, the sea of sorrow is called samsaram; the Sanskrit word 'samsaran' actually means an aberration – an isolation, an externalisation, an alienation, a becoming other than what one is. You can imagine what will happen to you if you have become something other than what you are.

*Can there be a greater tragedy conceivable than for one to become other than what one is? 

**Would you not like to be what you are? 

***Don't you value self-identity as being of pre-eminent importance? 

###"I am, and I am this." You assert yourself so vehemently and would not even like to be called by another name than what your assumed name is, let alone be clubbed with qualities which you do not appear to have. 

****Would you like to be associated with characteristics with which you cannot associate yourself, personally? 

####You regard it as an insult. "You call me by this name and think that I am like this, which I am not!"

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To be continued ...

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