आविः संनिहितं गुहाचरं नाम
महत्पदमत्रैतत् समर्पितम् ।
एजत्प्राणन्निमिषच्च यदेतज्जानथ
सदसद्वरेण्यं परं विज्ञानाद्यद्वरिष्ठं प्रजानाम् ॥ १॥
āviḥ saṃnihitaṃ guhācaraṃ nāma
mahatpadamatraitat samarpitam .
ejatprāṇannimiṣacca yadetajjānatha
sadasadvareṇyaṃ paraṃ vijñānādyadvariṣṭhaṃ prajānām .. 1..
The Luminous Brahman dwells in the cave of the heart and is known to move there. It is the great support of all; for in It is centred everything that moves, breathes and blinks. O disciples, know that to be your Self-that which is both gross and subtle, which is adorable, supreme and beyond the understanding of creatures.
Commentary:
Manifest outside is this very thing that is the deepest source of our aspirations. Verily, in front of our eyes is manifest that very thing which is otherwise inconceivable. The deepest within is also there as the perceivable form before the senses. It is deepest in the heart, no doubt, but it is also capable of appearing before our very eyes as the thing that we see. This Brahman is the great manifested support of all beings. It is the cause of all our experiences. It is very close to us, nearer than our neck, yet it is inside in the cavity of the heart. Everything that breathes, everything that is alive, all beings whether moving or not moving, anything that winks, all these are rooted in this one single Being as spokes are fixed in the hub of a wheel. It is the cause of both the gross and the subtle. It is the most adorable of all beings.
Tadd ha tad-vanaṁ nāma, tad-vanam ity upāsitavyam (Kena 4.6) says the Kenopanishad. How do you adore Brahman as the most lovable of all beings, the dearest of objects? Varenyam: Varenya is the adorable. It is adorable because it is great and grand, and adorable because it is lovable and dear. It has two aesthetic characteristics, sublimity and beauty, and both are to be seen in God. This is the great Brahman tattva, the Atma tattva.
Might and attraction, both qualities are in God. Very few things combine these characteristics. There is great strength in a bulldozer; it can crush us if we go near it, but it has no beauty. It does not attract us, and we do not want to go on looking at it. It has a great force, a crushing force, a great power, but no beauty. But certain beautiful things have no power, such as a flower in the garden. A rose, a jasmine, a lotus are very beautiful, but they are not strong and powerful like an elephant. God is power and beauty combined.
In the Kenopanishad, the student asks the Guru, “How do we adore Brahman?” We should adore Brahman as lovable. Actually, the mind will not concentrate on God unless He is beautiful, attractive and lovable. If He terrible and fearsome, the mind will not concentrate on Him. We cannot work by fear; we can work only by love. This applies not only to factories and offices, but also to the work called meditation in the spiritual field. God cannot threaten us so that we may worship Him. God can only attract us.
It is Aristotle who mentioned in his metaphysics that God pulls the world towards Himself as the beloved pulls the lover. These are examples and illustrations which defy logical considerations and mathematical calculations. Love is not logic and it is not mathematics, but it is something more than that. It is more precise than mathematics and more exact than any kind of calculation that we can think of, and greater than logic. Logic and mathematics are the greatest of sciences, so to say, but love is a greater science; and in the spiritual field especially, it is this that acts. The love of God, called mumukshutva, is the source of the success of the student in this field of yoga.