TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0042 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 1.04 | TRUTH & ITS QUEST ||

The Upanishads do not declare that Truth is a state of dynamic change and action , all which marks limitation and imperfection , but one of perennial calm , limitless joy and permanent satisfaction .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0043 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Change is othering , altering , movement , which is activity , an effort exercised to achieve an unachieved end , which is the characteristic of an unsatisfied imperfect being .

This cannot be the Nature of Truth , for Truth is ever-enduring and has no necessity to change itself .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0044 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Change is the quality of untruth and the Upanishads assert that Reality is Self-satisfied , Self-existent , Non-dual , Tranquil and utterly Perfect .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0045 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

An appeal to the inwardness of consciousness expanded into limitlessness is the burden of the song of the Upanishads .

In this respect the Upanishads are extremely mystic , if mysticism does not carry with it an idea of irrationalism or a madness of spirit .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0046 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The transcendental mysticism of the Upanishads is not the effect of an emotional outburst , but a calm transcendence of intellect and reason through a development into the integral consciousness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0047 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Truth , " knowing which everything becomes known " is the subject of enquiry and the object of quest in the Upanishads .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0048 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Seers dived into the very depth of Existence and tasted the nature of the Limitless Life . They entered into the Root of the universe and the branches could easily realise their inner being through an investigation into the essential workings of the Great Root of Life .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0049 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

When the root is watered , the branches are automatically watered ; when gold is known , all the ornaments also are known ; when Truth is realised , everything is realised ; for , Truth is One .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0050 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Whatever system of philosophy may be derived from the Upanishads , the obvious truth goes without saying that they propound a theory that holds Reality to be indivisible , objectless and transcendent .

They assert that belief in diversity is an ignorance of consciousness , and Truth is essentially a boundless Unity .

They lead us from the faulty faith in the objective reality of the universe to an internal search of the veritable Self existing as the finest essence of our being .

And what is even more striking is their untiring insistence on attaining Self-Perfection .

To their immortal honour , they grasped the eternal fact that the knowledge of the Self is the supreme end of life , its only meaning and purpose ever , and that beings exist but for that grand Attainment of Light , Freedom and Immortality !

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0051 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Blessed is one , and one has truly lived a purposeful life , who attains to this height of undying joy in this very life ; and one is a great loser and has lived one's life in vain , who has failed to realise the Truth here ( vide Kena Up. II. 5 ) .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0052 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Upanishads affirm in several ways that there is no meaning in taking the phenomenal diversity as a permanent reality , and that Truth is Infinity .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0053 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The common impulse to express , unfold and realise one’s Self is present in all beings in different degrees or intensity .

The whole process of conscious exertion to realise Truth lies in the manifesting of this deepest impulse in the human and a flowing with it to expand oneself into the Infinite .

TROTA | CHAPTER 1 | SEL0054 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

As the background of every struggle in life there is this urge to get oneself established in the changeless Consciousness .

Even when one struggles blindly in one’s attachment to personal life for acquiring external gains , one is indeed moved , though unconsciously and wrongly , by this urge to expand oneself to Completeness .