Supernatural
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Gist of the Hamsa Upanishad
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| Ducks chatter: "Judicious is the goose mystery of yogis." [Cf. So 718] |
A method has been handed over for training oneself in meditation by intoning "Duck Sounds" as fits. The Hamsa Upanishad tells briefly about it. It is not as crazy as it sounds!
Essential Yoga Aphorisms
All aphorisms below are founded on the Hamsa Upanishad. Here you get its essential content in a nutshell. Below that again you get the whole ancient text in English translation.The individual soul is called a goose (Hamsa).
The goose sound is to be repeated in yoga training, many times daily.
You can awaken a goose in your heart; and when you do it shines like ten million suns. [The goose is an image of the states you may enter. The suns mean you may see blinding inner light. Such light is nowhere found to be dangerous to the eyes, but the ancient text advises to focus on thunder instead . . .
Thunder-listening is a proper way to awaken that heavenly goose that shines of its own accord. [A much used yoga method consists of plugging the ears with the fingers and listen intently for the shrill sounds and other sounds that appear, and tuning in to them, one by one, as they become the loudest. The usually soft, rumbling sound of thunder is the sound to attune to, the text says. It is not the heart-beat. And with some mastery you can keep that thunder discretely rumbling throughout the day, if you so desire. It is a little feat. Hong-So practice helps the sound to the fore too.]
The individual soul (hansa) is the highest soul (paramhansa).
He who listens well to such thunder, in his heart he becomes blissful and
calm - nay, turns into the Brahman-Atman (God-Self) (in the end).
Q. What should you focus on, the divine eye or the soft thunder?
You do best in listening to the thunder you hear in the calm. That is what
the Hamsa Upanishad and yogis says. The work describes inner sounds you may eventually
hear through "doing the duck" as should be. Skill in inner diving is what is called for,
essentially. [All based on So 717-21]
The Hamsa Upanishad
Introduction
Upanishads ('Sessions') are ancient texts of Hinduism, and represent the final stage in the tradition of the Vedas. The older Upanishads may be part of commentaries. The nature of morality and of eternal life is discussed, and other issues, like reincarnation. Upanishads influenced German thinkers some centuries ago, such as the ascetic Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).Rooted in ancient rituals and ceremonies, Upanishads hold that the Atman (soul, individualised Self) and Brahman (the Divine Essence, or All-God), and seek to explore and hand out essential knowledge of the Self and Self-realization.
What follows is a heavy translation of the Hamsa Upanishad. It is not among those translated by F. Max Müller [On-line and on-site]. Our on-site yoga dictionary may help you a lot here. As for Sanskrit words below, diacritical marks are omitted.
The Hamsa Upanisad is close to the circle of thoughts of the Nrisimhatapaniya and the Ramatapaniya Upanishads. It is found in the Oupanekhat also as Hensnad (i.e. Hamsa-nada). It says the word hamsa is the king of mantras (mantraraja). [But note is is pronounced differently from how it is written, and there are two markedly different ways of applying it too.] The Hamsa [the individual soul] becomes the Paramahansa (the supreme soul) through Om meditation, particularly by its reverberation inside.
The main contents involves an introduction. The individual soul is called Hamsa through the combination of inborn, subtle sounds of breath [ie, prana. Take some of the translated words and claims with a pinch of salt].
The Hamsa Upanisad teaches an ascent through six mystical circles [chakras, lotuses, vortexes] on to the Brahmarandhra at the top of the head. This ascent is had by meditation of the syllable Om as it becomes audible within. Hamsa repetition may help that "thunder", the medley sound called OM, to come to the fore. Then it is fit to keep it audible as long and often as you can.
This mantra-king (hamsa) has a symbolical interpretation - the individual Atman (soul) is conceived in the form of a bird, a Hamsa (goose, duck, swan).
It is told that the Hamsa and the Paramahamsa (Supreme Swan) are one - that is, the individual and the highest Atman (Spirit) are one and the same in essence.
Through "Hamsa-gliding" one wakens to oneness with Paramahamsa. Listening to "thunder" within is the recommended practice. In some quarters yoga methods are taught for that.
Extant Verses
1.Gautama spake:
The awakening of the Brahman-lore,
Which is familiar with all duties,
Which comprises the content of all texts,
Through what, sir, is it effected?
Sanatsujata spake:
Pondering over all the Vedas
And grasping firmly their content,
Siva expounded to Parvati
The truth;--learn it from me.
Indescribable and shrouded, equally,
Is the mystery of the Yogins;
Which spreads out the path before the Hamsa,
Bestows joy and the fruit of liberation.
Now we will impart precise information over the Hamsa and the Paramahamsa for the Brahman-student who is passionless, restrained and devoted to the teacher.
2. With the sound ham-sa ham-sa (outbreathing and inbreathing) it (the breath) stays continually in all bodies, filling them completely, as the fire in the fuel or the oil in the sesame seeds. He who knows it, does not fall into the hands of Death.
3. Closing the anal opening, one should send the wind [ie, prana, life force] upward from the abdomen-circle (adhara), going around the sexual-circle (svadhisthanam) thrice, keeping it on the right, ascend to the navel-circle (manipurakam), should go beyond the heart-circle (anahatam), should maintain the breath in the neck-circle (visuddhi), should think over the circle-between-the-brows (ajna), should meditate over the Brahman-opening, and all the while also the expression "I am that one [Om sound] which consists of the three moras", and further, from the abdomen-circle upto the Brahman-opening, should think over the reverberation, which is like a pure rock-crystal, for it is that which is called Brahman, the highest Atman.
4. In the case of this aphorism [namely hamso hamsa] the Hamsa is the poet, Pankti the metre, the Paramahamsa the deity, the word ham the germ (the initial syllable), sa the power (the final syllable), so'ham the stem (the middle). There are 21,606 of the [hamsa, i.e. outbreathings and inbreathings].
5. With the words: "To the sun (om suryaya hrdayaya namah), to the moon (om somaya sirase svaha), to the spotless one (om niranjanaya sikhayai vasat), to the lustreless one (om nirabhasaya kavacaya hum), tanu-suksma (om tanusuksma netratrayaya vausat) and pracodayat (om pracodayat astraya phat)" and with addition [everytime]: "to Agni and Soma vausat" the constituent aphorisms are laid [as diagram] on the heart etc. [heart, head, tuft of the hair, armour, three eyes and weapon] of the king of aphorisms and also laid on the hand.
6. When this is done, one should meditate on the essence of the Hamsa in the eight-petal [lotus-flower which is] in the heart. [One thinks of him in the form of a bird as Hamsa a goose:] Agni and Soma are his wings, the Om-sound his head, the anusvara-point his eye [or also] his mouth; Rudra and Rudrani his hands and feet, Kala and Agni his both sides (right and left), "sees" and "homeless" are his two remaining sides [above and below].
7. And this [Hamsa, i.e. the individual soul] is that Paramahamsa [the highest soul], which shines like ten million suns and pervades this entire world.
8. His behaviour, however, [so far as he abides in the eight-petal lotus-flower of the heart] is eightfold: On the eastern petal his mind is directed to holy acts, on the south-eastern sleep and laxity overcome him, on the southern his mind is cruel, on the south-western he strives after sin, on the western after play, on the north-western he desires going etc., on the northern love-enjoyment, on the north-western acquisition of property. Renunciation rules in the middle, the state of waking in the filament, sleep in the seed-pod, deep sleep on the stalk, the Turyam at the spot where the lotus flower ends upward.
9. But when the Hamsa is merged in the reverberation, then appears what is called above-the-Turiya, Unthinking, Conclusion-in-non-muttering. All this happens at the will of the Hamsa. Therefore the Manas is allowed to run; however, he [the meditator] enjoys the reverberation in ten million mutterings. All this happens at the will of the Hamsa.
10. The reverberation can be brought about tenfold: the first sounds as cini, the second as cincini, the third like the sound of a bell, the fourth like the blowing of a conch, the fifth like the string music, the sixth like clapping, the seventh like the note of a flute, the eighth like the beating of a drum, the ninth like that of a kettle-drum, the tenth like a thunder. One should avoid the ninth [and those preceding it] and practise the tenth alone.
In the case of the first his body
Imitates cincini, in second it crumples,
In the third he is very tired,
In the fourth his head shakes,
In the fifth his palate runs,
In the sixth he drinks Amritam [Ambrosia, Nectar],
In the seventh he has esoteric knowledge,
In the eighth skill in speech.
In the ninth power to disappear
And a clear-seeing eye divine
In the tenth he becomes the Brahma, -
Brahman and Atman become one.
11. In him the Manas content [mental content] of good and bad [is burnt]. He, ever blissful, with all penetrating power, omni-present, glows through his own light as pure, enlightened, eternal, spotless and calm.
Om! that is the Veda-explanation,—Veda-explanation. [From So 717-21]
NOTE: The gist of verse 11 may be taken to mean that if you fare badly, you burn good, deep mind content (vasanas, samskaras) that you might need ahead. Such levelling out through hamsa mediation could be bad, and may be a result of a very deep mistake, even. - Tormod Kinnes
Paramahansa Pep Talks
Discourses tend to have themes - they are about something. The yoga themes and topics of the later Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952), drifted - some may say slid - from self-development, self-knowledge, self-realization and self-effort, to God-talks and "pep talks" - exhortations like "Meditate! Meditate!" - for followers and listeners. To the degree meditation is pleasant, a delight, exhortations may be awkward and far from needed. In such cases they could hinder, not help.The guru also changed some of his methods for attaining self-realization. Few have observed that his modified kriya yoga methods were talked of as twelve time as efficient as the kriya yoga handed over to him: those methods he was purported to spread among scientists and able people in the West.
Yogananda's presentation of "selfward" methods was given less prominence for talk of "godward" methods. The methods were at first referred to as scientific and capable of taking the practitioner to self-realization in time - by some strange reckoning, it is admitted. Later there appeared a need for "right attitude" and devotion too, and saving grace. It was all unneeded in his early teachings.
Now there is as significant difference between offering help for realizing the "I" or selfhood on the one hand, to a "You-Thou"-focus (filled with id) on the other hand. The first way should give neat help. The other way smacks of punishment, for it may dwarf and thwart normal id development. He chose the second way of "O Thou God" rather often toward the end of his life, whereas his presentation of going for self-knowledge, atma-jnana, was far more pronounced in his first years. See what infringing gold-diggers might do to a guru's teachings - forsaking the best to accommodate to what is in vogue at a place - is that it?
Besides, many speeches were digressions at length in what is said to be response to unspoken thoughts among listeners he sort of drew on. In a long note in Man's Eternal Quest [Ak] an SRF editor tells Yogananda never or seldom prepared for lectures. He was like a child too [Say]. And if his main disciples had been kinder and more spiritual, they would hardly have driven away the Divine Mother from him, which they did in 1948 at the headquarters, it says in the same book. The monastics were too materialistic in mind for her, he said. Hence, many things, nuns, and monks are not always as they seem. Could there be a deep inner connection between the need for hard pep talks and having base ones to exhort? There could be a delicate nudge in this. [Ak; Say]
A Lecture
The following, slightly edited passages is a medley of Yogananda utterances in his "Occidental Christianity and Yogoda", which was published in his magazine East-West, Volume 1-6, September 1926 - October 1926.It lies in our power to make ourselves narrower or wider. Some choke the channel of their lives with the mud of accumulated ignorance. There are others who keep on widening and deepening the channels of their lives by [a sound measure of] self-discipline and culture.
‹› You may go for facts and make the life-channels of your body (prana nadis, or meridinan flows) work better, if needs be, as good health is favourable. There are wise reasons for fit yoga postures and other favourable exercises according to plan.
We must remember "each channel is finite and has its limitations". Great Souls serve to widen the channels of smaller lives and inundate their shores with their Wisdom.
‹› Hence, the shore that we call Yogananda had limitations -
"There is no use in following the life of Jesus . . ."
‹› Since you are not Jesus, let it not be a problem.
There is another side of these matters. There was a rabbi who on his death-bed repented one thing, he said. All his life he had sought to live according to Moses and not much as himself. There are own terms of a life, and stages of development.
"God cannot be accused of partiality and still be Divine."
‹› Accusations do not bring about that, according to "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words never will". Now, Yogananda discards the biblical outlook about chosen people, showing grace to liked ones, and so on. Watch out.
"We must choose the ever-widening interpretations until man-made interpretations no longer limit us."
‹› The most fit interpretations help on and up and are true to facts. But "ever-widening interpretations" fail, like a over-blown balloon. The guru deals with mental bogus constructions. For example, he makes much of what he call Infinity, which suggests "failure to comprehend", after all. The goal of yoga is not to "expand the mind into Infinity", as Yogananda often talks for, but to put out such a deep notion by transcending thoughts. Misleading concepts and consequences should be pointed out. That should be fair.
Yogananda coaxes eloquently, and if "the tongue goes where the tooth hurts [French]", it suggests it is wise to inspect his ideas just to check if there is some "unfinished business" in you that makes you fall for a well coated Yogananda submission. For example, is your relationship with your mother good? If so, you may not fall for his "Cry for the Divine Mother and she will come." Some followers may have become mental cases from such hazardous practice - which also runs counter to deep meditation and is not needed. A good point is that vicarious relationships and intimate, basic relationships you are told to cultivate, suggest transfer of needs through mental constructs using "the Divine", and contemplation may help you away from that sort of mess.
Do not let any "them" coax you and later exhort and put conformism-pressure on you to do as serves them, on behalf of your personal development.
This is the message that will again fill the empty churches.
‹› During the last fifty years it has failed to do so.
Churches have become form-bound, lacking in the spirit of meditation and real God-communion. Today, most of the congregation are somewhere else at the time of prayer.
‹› Congregations of first Christians did not gather in such buildings that Yogananda later went for, but in private homes. Churches appear to be erected when money comes, and loss of "original Christianity" as well.
"Westerners need not give up their banks and business, and go to the jungle." Occidentals cannot always follow literally the precepts given by Jesus, yet they can avoid luxury, and satisfy only their real needs. It is necessary to accept the Western spirit of progress and development.
A balance must be struck.
‹› The balance is that between rest and work. Both aspects can be refined, and in more than just one way. Colossal help is had by such as deep rest in transcendental meditation combined with effective work assisted by good steering (management) on top of good schooling and decent equipment - all in a workable life rhythm, which tends to be individual. Let us hope associates are fit and fine too.
The church-goer has never been taught the art of directing his mind and of withdrawing the mind.
The only worth-while change, the only permanent advance, is the inner evolution of the man toward spiritual perfection.
‹› "Soul growth" may be rare, then, but it may not be all that permanent. Some have fallen from attainments and accrued merits and good karma, others have been wronged, tortured and killed, for example. There is a very good reason to bulwark for inner attainments and enjoy the calm of one's home life.
Direct proof can satisfy the heart of man.
‹› It may be questioned. For example, there is gospel proof that a Christian is indeed a "sickly sheep", and that healthy people do not need Jesus. [Matthew 9:12; John 10:27, etc.] Even if these are hard gospel truths, do they satisfy the sick, some of whom may infest a whole flock?
Show the scientific methods by which the utility and truth of the church and creed may be proven and demonstrated.
‹› Yogananda's banal stress on science later gave way to exhortations stressing meditation and devotion. One should see he was not firm enough in these matters. His subsequent inconsequences talk with two tongue: In one passage he tells his yoga method is scientific and works like maths, in other passages he discards that view and says devotion too is needed - and so on. Many trust the guru that got vehement in gainsaying earlier statements of his without telling anyone about the serious changes. This pertains to outlooks on egohood too. He never says sound egohood is good and a boon in spiritual living, even though it is so. Most often he rallies against "the ego", wanting others to kill it, without discerning too much. One should mind these alarming issues in time.
Truth that can be tested and experienced individually, can satisfy the soul.
‹› It depends on what truth that is. Maybe what is deeply meant by the guru is this:
"To contemplation and its peace, and through peace: great Bliss."
Show each man that the most interesting thing in the world is the Bliss-God within, and give him the key to enter into this realm of unparalleled joys.
In finding God we have found deep Bliss - The Universe is but a part of Him.
‹› It sounds good. There is no denying of that.
If you take the fair editor's comments to heart, these Yogananda statements should not drive you mad.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/5185/1-6oriental.html
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Literature
Ak: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Man's Eternal Quest. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1975.
Ma: Pargiter, Frederick Eden, tr. Markandeya Purana. Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1904.
Say: Yogananda, Paramahansa. Sayings of Yogananda. Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1958.
So: Deussen, Paul, trans. Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Vols 1-2. Varanasi: Banarsidass, 1980.
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