Mundaka Upanishad : Chapter 1: Section 1 : 10.

13/10/2018
Mundaka Upanishad : Chapter 1: Section 1 :  Discussion-10.

(Mundakopanishad : Chapter-1 : Section-1 :Mantram-7)

Tapasa ciyate brahma tato’nnam abhijayate, annat pra?o mana? satya? loka? karmasu cam?tam (1.1.8). In one verse, the whole of creation is described. Brahman, the Supreme Absolute, distends, swells—becomes large, as it were—by tapas. Tapas means concentration. Brahman’s concentration is the will to create. It becomes extended in the form of the contemplated shape of creation, as it were. When we think something, the mind takes the form of that thing which we think.

Now, the Supreme Absolute thinks, wills, concentrates itself on the shape which creation has to take, and that is the swelling, or the extending, or the becoming large of Brahman in tapas. The swelling, or the extension of being in tapas, also means the increase in the potentiality of the one that concentrates. In the case of Brahman, it would mean the contemplation of the form of the world which has to be created in the future. In the case of people like us, tapas would mean the intensity of heat generated inside by the concentration of the mind and the prana.

Tapasa ciyate brahma tato’nnam abhijayate. Very mystical are these words. The meanings of these terms in the Upanishads are not to be taken in a dictionary sense. They are highly connotative. Here it is mentioned that when Brahman concentrates itself in tapas, anna is created. From the point of view of ordinary linguistic exposition, anna means food, anything that is eaten.

But in the Upanishads, anna does not mean just what we eat. It is something more than that. The material content of consciousness is called anna. The content of the consciousness which takes the shape of the content in the act of concentration creates an anna for it. The object of thought is the food of thought. Anything that we think is the diet of the psychic process. And here, in the case of Brahman, the potential material, the matrix of all creation, is called Mula Prakriti in the language of Sankhya and Vedanta, etc.

There must be some stuff which has to manifest itself in the form of creation. The concretisation of the will itself is the stuff; or rather, anna may be taken in the sense of the substantiation of the will of God. It has to take effect. The implementation of the ideation of the Absolute is the food, the content, the shape or the form of this tapas. Anna is produced in this manner. Cosmic potentiality is created by the concentrating act of Brahman as tapas. That is the meaning of tapasa ciyate brahma tato’nnam abhijayate. When this potential in the form of a concrete substantiality of will wields itself, it immediately vibrates into the form of the future shape in a more distinct form: the creation of space.

In the Panchadasi we have a very clear-cut description of how this kind of manifestation takes place. Brahman is like a canvas on which somebody paints a picture. It is the background of everything. If we invoke some consciousness into a canvas, we may imagine that in order to paint on it, the canvas has to concentrate itself on the thickening process that has to take place by applying starch on it, because painting cannot be done on ordinary cloth. There should not be pores in the canvas. So in order to paint a picture, the cloth of the canvas is stiffened with starch. This stiffening is the process of the will, and it is the anna that is spoken of here.

To be continued ..