kathopanishad-1-3-1-ṛtaṃ pibantau

Commentary by Swami Krishnananda of the great Divine Life Society

The Third Section commences now. Ṛtam pibantau sukṛtasya loke guhām praviṣṭau parame parārdhe, chāyā-tapau brahma-vido vadanti, pañcāgnayo ye ca tri-ṇāciketāḥ (1.3.1): In this world, in this body, there are two beings who are connected with the deeds performed while living in this world, or while living in this body. They are occupying the deepest recesses of the hearts of people. Their relationship is something like the relationship between light and darkness or light and shade. This is what the knowers of Brahman, and those people who know the Panchagni Vidya, tell us.

The Panchagni Vidya is wonderfully described in the Fifth Chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad. The Vaishvanara Vidya and the Panchagni Vidya are interconnected. Knowers of this Panchagni Vidya, as well as those who have performed the Nachiketas sacrifice three times, tell us that there are two beings living in this world, in this body, enjoying the fruits of actions in the deepest recess of the heart, having a relationship between them as light and shade. The two beings are God and man—Ishvara and jiva, we may say. Ishvara and jiva operate in a twofold fashion: externally in the universe, and internally in this body. The world and God are the two beings envisaged cosmically, and the Atman and the jiva are the two beings envisioned internally within our own selves. This jiva, this individual soul, eats the fruits of its own actions. It enjoys the fruits of its actions.

Two beings are said to be enjoying the fruits of actions, which was mentioned when reference was made to the two birds perching on a single tree. One bird is enjoying the delicious fruits of the tree. The other bird does not enjoy; it just looks on. It is unconcerned with what is happening to its comrade seated nearby, plunging himself in the joy of eating delicious fruit. Here, in this mantra, it is said that there are two beings enjoying the fruits of action. Earlier, one was not enjoying the fruits of action, and now here both are enjoying the fruits of action. This is a highly philosophical connotation which we have to understand with some concentration of mind.

Ishvara and the jiva are not identical with each other in the sense that Ishvara is cosmic, and therefore He has no karma. As a sutra of Patanjali tells us very picturesquely, the concept of Ishvara is also the concept of freedom from karma of every kind. Kleśa karma vipāka āśayaiḥ aparāmṛṣṭaḥ puruṣaviśeṣaḥ Īśvaraḥ (Y.S. 1.24) is the sutra of Patanjali: Nothing that affects the jiva can contaminate Ishvara. In this way we may say Ishvara, as the bird, does not have to get involved in the tangles in which the jiva is involved. We have to go to the other verse where it is said that one of the birds is not entangled. Now Ishvara is said to be connected with the jiva in another way. Ishvara knows what is happening to the jiva. He is not unconcerned. There is a direct give-and-take policy, as it were, between ourselves and God as Ishvara. Also, the existence of Ishvara as the controlling power of the universe is determined in a very important sense by the requirements of the jivas, or the individuals, inhabiting the universe, just as the head of a government is having those characteristics which are the conditioning factors in relation to the citizens in the country. The requirements of the nation determine the character of the ruling head. So the ruling head, though he is not directly connected with the sorrows of any particular citizen in the country, is in a way directly connected in the sense that he is responsible for the fate of the people in the country. As we know very well, though in one sense the direct connection between the ruling head and the public is not there, there is a very intimate connection between the two because the head is totally determined by the requirements of the country. Otherwise, he cannot manage the country.

There is an interrelationship between the universe and Ishvara, who rules the universe. The fate of the universe is the duty of Ishvara, just as the fate of the country is the duty of the ruling head. Whatever be the condition in which the nation finds itself will be the condition that affects the ruler, because he exists there only to see that the prevailing conditions are harmonious. So Ishvara controls the world by bringing about a state of harmony and, in that sense, He is related internally; thus, we may say Ishvara is connected with the jivas, and only in that sense can we say that the two beings enjoy the fruits of action. The ruler, the king, or the final administrating principle of a country enjoys the fruits of the actions of the subjects of the nation. He is directly affected by it, so they are correlated existences. Ishvara and the jivas are correlated, and the existence of Ishvara is demanded by the necessity of the jivas to have a ruling power. If Ishvara does not exist as something related to the jivas, there will be no dispensing of justice in terms of the actions of the jivas. The merits and the demerits of the jivas are to be rewarded or punished accordingly. The jivas who perform actions cannot reward themselves, nor can they punish themselves, so there must be a principal above the jivas. The necessity for the existence of Ishvara arises on account of there being a necessity for a dispensing power, and that dispensing of justice will have validity only as long as jivas exist. This is the reason why the mantra seems to say that two beings enjoy the fruits of action.

It also draws a marked distinction between the two beings, though it was already said that they are interconnected. The marked difference is that one is like light, and the other is like shade. Such is the difference between man and God that man looks like a shadow, and God is eternal light. So both these aspects of the God and jiva relationship are mentioned here in this single verse: enjoying the fruits of action simultaneously in a cooperative manner on the one hand, and Ishvara remaining totally independent on the other hand.

Ṛtam pibantau sukṛtasya loke guhām praviṣṭau parame parārdhe, chāyā-tapau brahma-vido vadanti, pañcāgnayo ye ca tri-ṇāciketāḥ. Knowers of Brahman, knowers of the great Vaishvanara Vidya and the Panchagni Vidya, knowers of the performance of the Nachiketas sacrifice tell us that this is the position of the relation between God and man, Ishvara and the jiva.