Of Oneness and Infinity

Yama, Lord of Death, while talking to Nachiketa about truth in the Katha Upanishad, explains, “Truth, Atman or Self is too subtle to be attained through mere intellectual debates. The Self in subtler than subtle, greater than the greatest, and it dwells in the heart of each human being. It is only the Self which is active and also inactive. The Self is the basis of all forms of existence. This means that whatever exists in the universe springs from it. Who is better able to know God than the Self, as He resides in Self ?” Yama describes the Atman as the Lord of a chariot and the body as the chariot. One’s wisdom represents the driver and mind, the reins. He said the man whose wisdom fails to distinguish between good and pleasant and is carried away by his senses, loses control and moves on the road to perdition. The Atman of this eternal body represents the Paramatman, or the Almighty. The head, which is the governing organ of a body, the root of all thoughts and actions, represents Brahma the Creator. The two arms, which execute all actions of this body, represent Vishnu the Preserver and Shiva the Destroyer. Fingers represent various devtas, and they are responsible for various tasks of nature. Like a body with its own immune system, this universal structure has immunity of its own, making it self-rectifiable. Although all the organs of a body are different from each other, responsible for different tasks, they are useless in individuality. The interdependence of infinite elements of the universe makes this structure and the Lord, infinite.

Source: Economic Times, 3/04/2019