Parables from the Upanishads

Ushasti Chakrayana

(Chhandogya Upanishad)

This is the story of Ushasti Chakrayana, Ushasti the son of Chakra. But could it be that the name means one who drives a wheel, like Shakatayana,the driver of śakaṭa, the bullock cart? Or is it something similar to Kamalayana, one who tends or enjoys a kamala, the lotus, lotus-eater? The Chakra or wheel here might be the potter's wheel, or it might as well be the spinner's wheel or Charkha. Does the name then mean something like one who owns or plies a Charkha, just as we term Kamliwalla an ascetic with a Kambal or blanket ? However that may be, here is the story.

The Kuru country where Ushasti had his abode was hit by a natural calamity. Homeless, he wandered about with his young wife in search of food. On reaching the village of Ibhya, he found someone belonging to the village busy eating mouthfuls of beans. Goaded by acute hunger he begged a few grains of this man. The man said, "Some leavings still sticking to my pot are all that I have." Ushasti said in reply, "I will be happy to have even that little", and he took what the villager offered him. After he had finished eating, Ushasti was asked, "Would you have some water?" To this he replied, "But that would mean drinking your leavings." The villager said, "But you have already eaten the beans, they too were my leavings." Ushasti answered, "Those I took for the sake of my life, or else I would have starved to death. The water is another matter, one can do without it yet."

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Ushasti had not eaten up all the beans. He had kept some and with these he returned to his wife and handed them to her. The wife was more clever or perhaps more lucky. She too had in the meantime been out begging and obtained a few things. To these she added what the husband gave and kept them all away.

Next morning, on getting up from bed, Ushasti said to his wife, "I am feeling awfully hungry. If there was something to eat, I would get some strength, and then I could present myself before the king. He is celebrating a sacrifice and might perhaps get me a place among the chanters of the hymns." The wife was not a person to be confounded, she said with a smile, "Well, here is some food for you, eat it up." Thanks to his wife, Ushasti had a good bite and, feeling hale and hearty, set off for the place of sacrifice. There he sat among the chanting priests, listened to them for a little while in silence, then he called the Prastota, the priest who chanted the introductory hymns, and said, "O Prastota, if one chants these introductory hymns without knowing the divinity that presides over the hymns, the head falls off." The same words he repeated to the Udgata, who recited the udgītha or hymns of the middle : "O Udgata, if one recites the udgītha hymns without knowing the divinity who presides over those hymns, he too loses his head." Finally, he called the Pratiharta as well, the one who uttered the pratihāra or conluding hymns, and said, "O Pratiharta, one who utters the pratihāra hymns without knowing their presiding divinity loses his head in like manner." All the priests accepted with bowed heads in due reverence these words of Ushasti.

The performer of the sacrifice, on whose behalf the sacrifice had been arranged, was struck by the wisdom of Ushasti, and he said, "Lord, who are you? I want to know about you." Ushasti replied, "I am Ushasti Chakrayana." The sacrificer now exclaimed, "Then it is you I have been looking for! These men had to be engaged because I could not find

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your whereabouts. Now be pleased to take charge of the chanting." Ushasti said, "Very well, it will be as you say. Let them now chant the hymns according to my directions." In this way, Ushasti agreed to take charge of the chanting, but he added this proviso, "Now that I have taken charge of your work, you would not forget about my fees I hope. You may give me whatever amount you would have given to these priests, I do not want more." The sacrificer gladly accepted this proposition.

Then the first of the chanting priests, the Prastota, came up to Ushasti and asked him, "Lord, you said that one who recited the introductory hymns without knowing their deity would lose his head. What then is that deity?" Ushasti replied, "That deity is Prana — the Life-force. Life is the origin of all, in it they all dissolve. Life is the godhead of the introductory hymns; if one does not know what Life is, and utters these hymns, his head is bound to fall off." Next the Udgata came to him and put him his question: "Lord, you said that one who recites the udgītha hymns without knowing their presiding deity loses his head. Tell me, O Lord, who is that divinity?" "Aditya, the Sun is that deity. The whole creation raises a paean to Him as he ascends the skies. This Aditya is the godhead of the udgītha. If you sing the udgītha without knowing Aditya, . then, as I have warned you, your head will surely fall off." Finally, the Pratiharta priest came to him and said, "Lord, you said that if I performed the concluding rites without knowing the divinity who presides over them, then my head was certain to fall off. Lord, I want to know who is that deity?" Ushasti replied, "Anna - Matter - Food is that deity. All these creature$ find their sustenance by gathering food. Hence Food is the presiding deity of the concluding rites. If you recite the concluding hymns without knowing what Food is, your head will certainly fall off."

In this manner Ushasti gave the teaching about the Triple Principle, the Trinity represented by Life, Mind and

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Body; Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar, that is, Earth, Sky and Heaven. He gave an indication of these three levels of manifested being, the triple world of this universe, spoke of the divinity that presides over this Triplicity. First of all comes the God of Life. This is the deity that is invoked at the outset, has to be so invoked in every act, in all ceremonial function, even in the effort at an inner perfection. He is the Creator, all that is manifested has Him for its driving power, sarvam ejati niḥsṛtam. Creation begins with a vibration of this Life Force. The first thing necessary is to infuse Life into things. When we worship a divine image, we begin the rites with an invocation to this Life-force to enter the image; what was just an idol is awakened to life by the infusion of this Force. Life and Life-Force, this comes first. Next comes consciousness, knowledge, light, that is, the Sun-God, Aditya, and ordinarily, mind is His field. But by itself force is not enough, knowledge is not enough; this force and this light have to be embodied and given a form, they have to take physical shape with matter as the basis; they have to become an integral part of this earth of matter. Force and Light and Being are the three cosmic Principles, and they have three Deities presiding over them. In establishing them in their unity in his awakened being man finds his entire and all round fulfilment.

You may notice here one thing. Many of these Rishis in the Upanishads are found sometimes using a threat that if anything or anyone deviated from the truth or the accepted norm, "the head would fall off". It seems to mean this. If one commits an error or there is a fault in the course of one's spiritual effort and if one continues on the wrong path without acknowledging the, error or shortcoming, then it implies a movement, a gesture against the Truth and the Right, and this default carries in itself the possibility of a derangement of the head. The actual physical calamity befell an ancient seeker, Shakalya; we already know that story. In this age we do not perhaps come across an actual physical

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instance of such a mishap; but we are certainly familiar with something analogous, a derangement of the brain instead of the physical falling off of the head. As the Mother has said, the spiritual force is a kind of fire, to play with this fire without an inner devotion and sincerity invites dangers of this sort.

Let me here draw your attention to another — a rather interesting — aspect of this story; it is both amusing and instructive. Ushasti is the example of a man who, though a Rishi with a true knowledge of the Reality and a powerful realisation, is in other respects, in normal life, a perfectly incapable and helpless man; his capacity for an inner life seems to be matched by his incapacity in the outer. He had to bring himself down to the level of an abject beggar in his ordinary life; at every step he had to depend on his wife's assistance, without her co-operation he found it an unmanageable affair to procure even a grain of rice for the maintenance of life. It would not of course be logical or proper to conclude from this that the Rishis had need of their wives for this as the sole or primary purpose: the word "life-partner" used for the. spouse does imply a help-mate or means for the sustenance of life, but it carries no derogatory sense.

In those days there was in many cases an indifference towards the things of worldly life. This led to a certain weakness and poverty in this respect. Perhaps it was due to the necessity of an exclusive preoccupation with and concentration on the inner life. Only one or two Rishis like Yajnavalkya for instance had demanded an equal fullness and power in the outer as in the inner life. Yajnavalkya's great dictum that he had need for both, ubhayam eva, was indeed uttered in no uncertain terms and without hesitation in the presence of all. The first and foremost aim of the Rishis was to acquire an inner mastery, what they called the realisation of self-rule, svārājya-siddhi. But a certain fullness of the outer life as well was not entirely beyond their ken;

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this they called the realisation of outer empire, sāmrājya-siddhi. These two, the rule over self and the domination of the outer life, svārājya and sāmrājya, would constitute the integral realisation of the Integral man.

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