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to be against the individual. And the individual is the only reality, the collective is only a word. You never come across the society, you always come across the individual. You never come across humanity, you always come across human beings. You never come across love, you always come across two lovers. You come across loving but never across love.
But we have been conditioned to live with abstractions: society, humanity, love, God. These are all abstractions, empty concepts with no concrete reality behind them.
The Upanishad is very realistic, very pragmatic. It is communion from heart to heart. That's the meaning of UPANISHAD, a very strange meaning -- sitting by the side of a Master, just sitting by the side of a Master... and then something transpires. Something like a flame jumps from the heart of the Master to the heart of the disciple.
The Master has come home, the Master has experienced the truth. The disciple is seeking, but the seeker has to be silent, utterly silent. It is not a question of asking questions, because the ultimate questions can neither be asked nor answered. They are only transmitted -- without asking, without answering. That transmission beyond words is the meaning of the word UPANISHAD. And before we enter into these sutras of the Mandukya Upanishad, this has to be understood.
My whole effort here is to revive the spirit of the Upanishads again. You all sitting in silence with me... this pause, this rest, this relaxed attitude... this silence in which all dualities disappear... I am not here, you are not there, but something pervades, permeates, overwhelms...that overwhelming experience is contained in these sutras.
This mangal sutra --
AUM
PURNAMADAH
PURNAMIDAM
PURNAT PURNAMUDACHYATE
PURNASYA PURNAMADAYA
PURNAMEVA VASHISYATE --
-- can be said to contain the whole approach, the vision. THAT means the beyond, the invisible. THIS means the within, the visible. THAT means the hidden, THIS means the manifest. THAT means the infinite, THIS means the finite. THAT IS the whole, of course, but the insistence of the Upanishads is: THIS too, is the whole.
One
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