This is in continuation of the dialogue between Sage Uddalaka and Svetaketu on "TAT TVAM ASI" "You are that" or "That you are," ........ this conversation appears in Chandogya Upanishad.
Svetaketu is enthusiastic to know about the transformation of wave, a ripple, froth, bubbles when they become one with water and lose their individuality, but in the case of individual when they enter Absolute, in deep sleep or death, they do not become extinct. How is this explained?” Also how Absolute is manifested in plant and animal kingdom as well as inanimate substance.
Sage Uddalaka explains with another analogy of a huge tree that is outside their hermitage. So he says, “Look at this big tree in front of our ashram. Suppose someone hits the branch of this tree with an axe, it will instantly reveal that it has got life. Sap or any juicy substance starts to flow from that cut part. Because there is life, it will give off the sap from its body. This will happen if it is cut in any other part also. Suppose one cuts the trunk or a little branch on the top we can see that there is life in it, as sap will exude from that particular part.
The energetic growth of the tree is due to the life in the tree. We find trees sprout from the cut part in spring seasons of the year and the whole vegetable kingdom is highly enchanted. What is this enchantment? What is this happiness that they experience in the blooming? It is the manifestation of the life principle in it. It is the working of jivattva, that spirit which we call life. So, the existence of the tree, the working of the tree, the living of the tree is due to this vitality which is the Absolute. If life departs from the tree, the tree dries up. When a particular branch of the tree is dry it means that life has departed from that particular part. That particular branch which is deprived of the life becomes dry. It is lifeless. So what is it that is in the tree which makes it lively? That is the Spirit.
It is only what is discarded in the tree that dies but not the jivattva that resides in the tree. Similarly we do not become extinct just upon contacting Absolute during deep sleep. The karma brings us back from Absolute to experience of play of Samsara. Only when the karmas are exhausted for this particular birth do we leave the body and death occurs to the body but the jivattva does not die. Absolute, the predominant one in the world has entered the body as the jivattva, and the truth is that it never dies.
A sage Uddalaka mention that the manifestation of Absolute is equal in both animate and inanimate substance but the presence of it is felt is very subtle in inanimate. A piece of rock lying for years without showing any sign of life is a bond of millions of molecules that are held together due to the internal forces which is governed by certain laws. The procedure and the manifestation of the law is itself the Absolute. The principle presiding over the inanimate things is able to apply the laws of bonding. Hence Absolute is Omnipresent.
Sage Uddalaka tells Svetaketu that we are like trees, our bodies are endowed with the living principle, and we die only when the life principle in us in withdrawn. This spirit that is Atma is only one even though there are many bodies and forms. So, everything reverts into the Absolute from where it has come and towards which it goes back. "That you are, TAT TVAM ASI, Svetaketu,"
So far, through the examples of Honey, River and Tree, Sage Uddalaka clarified Svetaketu’s doubts concerning to the Absolute that is living inside the individual (Jiva Swarupa). Upon hearing ‘TAT TVAM ASI’, Svetaketu wants to know how is it that this extremely gross universe consisting of this huge earth, etc. and endowed with names and forms, emerge from the Absolute which is subtle and free of names and forms? In other words he is now interested in knowing the Absolute that is in the universe (Jagat Swarupa)
Sage Uddalaka explain his son on the Jagat Swarupa of Absolute with an analogy ………………….. In the next blog
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