In the continued conversation between Sage Uddalaka and his son Svetaketu on the statement “TAT TVAM ASI,” in Chandogya Upanishad, Svetaketu comes up with another question, “If Absolute is the pervading the whole of this vast universe, then why is it not revealing itself or why is it not perceived by us?” Sage Uddalaka asked Svetaketu to get a hand full of salt and a pot of water. He then asked him to put the salt in the water. Svetaketu did as was told. Then Sage Uddalaka asked him to come to him tomorrow.
Next morning Svetaketu comes and greets the father and the father says, “Yesterday you had put salt into the water; go and get that salt.” He goes there and sees that the salt is not there in the pot. What has happened to the salt? It has become one with the water. So he is unable to retrieve the salt he had put yesterday. Svetaketu says, “There is no salt in the water.” Uddalaka says, “Now I shall prove that there is salt. You sip a little of the water from the top and tell me what the taste is.” “It tastes salty," says Svetaketu. “Now sip a little from the middle and tell me its taste.” “It is salty.” “Now sip a little from any part of the water and see how it tastes.” “The entire water is salty.” “So, now tell me, does the salt exist there or not?” Said Uddalaka “Yes, it does exist.” Said Svetaketu. Now, this is an evidence to show that even if we are unable to see a thing, it can exist.
If the organ of visibility is unable to comprehend the presence of salt the other sense organ namely tongue is providing the information on the salt in the water. So if one organ is not able to perceive that does not mean that the subject is not present. In some cases we need all the sense organs to do the job as a team, like suppose we are to know if the mangoes are ripe it is not just the eye that can give us the better judgment sometimes we have to smell it and feel if the pulp of it is soft by touching.
Likewise some things cannot be comprehended by our senses and also mind. Just as in case of Absolute that has manifested in the substance of all this creation but invisible in the particulars of this world through our organs including the internal organ, as it is dissolved in the subject. Our senses are used to contact that which is external from the individual and whatever is not an external entity cannot become an object of perception. Whatever is outside is and can easily be comprehended by our senses, but the Absolute that we are talking about is not outside us in fact it is present inside us therefore we are finding difficulty to identify it. Nor can the mind conceive the Absolute, because the function of the mind is to analyse the perceptions of the senses, and do the needful according to our desires. Our mind and intellect can never be used as organ of cognition.
What the mind and intellect does is merely validate and confirm of what senses have told us. Hence our mind and intellect are of no use to us if our senses are useless. But by employing another means such as inference or extra sensory means, one can find out that Absolute is present everywhere in the universe, just as salt is everywhere in the saline water. Wherever we touch, we touch That only, just as wherever we taste the water which is saline, we are tasting salt only in that water. "TAT TVAM ASI" You are That, says Sage Uddalaka to Svetaketu.
Now Svetaketu is interested in knowing the other extra sensory means of having the insight of Absolute present in all. What is the analogy given by Sage Uddalaka for the extra sensory means to know the Absolute ……………. In the next blog!!!!
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