मांडूक्य उपनिषद-Mandukya Upanishad-By Swamini Sadvidyanandaji-part-70

Part-70
मांडूक्य उपनिषद-Mandukya Upanishad-By Swamini SadvidyanandajiThe theme of the Mandukya Upanishad is an
exposition of the Mystic Syllable, Om, with a view to
training the mind in meditation, for the purpose of
achieving freedom, gradually, so that the individual soul is
attuned to the Ultimate Reality.
The basis of this meditation is explained in the Vidya
(meditation), known as the Vaisvanara Vidya. This is the
secret of the knowledge of the Universal Being, designated
as Vaisvanara. Its simple form of understanding is a
transference of human attributes to the Divine Existence,
and vice versa. In this meditation, one contemplates the
Cosmos as one's Body. Just as, for example, when one
contemplates one's individual body, one simultaneously
becomes conscious of the right eye, the left eye, the right
hand, the left hand, the right leg, the left leg, the head, the
heart, the stomach, and all the limbs of the body at one
and the same time, and one does not regard the different
limbs of the body as distinguished from one another in any
manner, all limbs being only apparently different but really
connected to a single personality, so in this meditation,
the consciousness is to be transferred to the Universal
Being. Instead of one contemplating oneself as the
individual body, one contemplates oneself as the Universal
Body. Instead of the right eye, there is the sun. Instead of
the left eye, there is the moon. Instead of the feet, there is
the earth. Instead of the head, there is the heaven, and so
on. The limbs of the Cosmic Person are identified with
cosmic elements, and vice versa, so that there is nothing in
the cosmos which does not form an organic part of the
Body of the Virat, or Vaisvanara. When you see the vast
world before you, you behold a part of your own Body.
When you look at the sun, you behold your own eye.
When you look above into the heavens, you are seeing
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your own head. When you see all people moving about,
you behold the various parts of your own personality. The
vast wind is your breath. All your actions are cosmic
movements. Anything that moves, does so on account of
your movement. Your breath is the Cosmic Vital Force.
Your intelligence is the Cosmic Intelligence. Ycur existence
is Cosmic Existence. Your happiness is Cosmic Bliss.
Though the Mandukya Upanishad gives certain
symbolic instances of identification of limbs with the
Cosmic Body, the meditator, in fact, can choose any
symbol or symbols for such form of identification. The
creation does not consist merely of the few parts that are
mentioned in the Upanishad. There are many other things
which may come to our minds when we contemplate. So,
we can start our meditation with any set of forms that may
occur to our minds. We may be sitting in our rooms, and
the first things that attract our attention may be the
objects spread out in the rooms. When we identify these
objects with our Body, we will find that there are also
objects outside these, in the rooms. And, likewise, we can
slowly expand our consciousness to the whole whole earth
and, then, beyond the earth, to the solar and stellar
regions, so that, we reach as far as our minds can reach.
Whatever our mind can think, becomes an object for the
mind; and that object, again, should become a part of the
meditator's Body, cosmically. And, the moment the object
that is conceived by the mind is identified with the Cosmic
Body, the object ceases to agitate the mind any more;
because that object is not any more outside; it becomes a
part of the Body of the meditator. When an object
becomes a part of our own body, it no more annoys us
because it is not an object at all. It is a subject. The object
has become the Cosmic Subject, in the Vaisvanara
meditation.