Mahavakya Upanishad - basically, the Upanishad name comes from the Mahavakyas of the Sanatana Dharma Vedanta literature, the Arsha Vamayam. The Vedas, the Upanishads, and the entire Indian philosophy have been put into four great sentences, Mahavakyas: Ahaṁ Brahmāsmi, Prajñānaṁ Brahma, Tat Tvam Asi, and Ayam Ātmā Brahma each one taken from one particular Vedic literature. So, Mahavakya Upanishad is the essence of all these Mahavakyas, attainment, establishment, and experience of the teachings of the four Mahavakyas. The Upanishad forms part of the Atharva Veda and has twelve mantras.
The Mahavakya Upanishad opens with who is eligible, who is fit for the practice or for the effective practice to gain the required result. What are the needed qualities? The eligibility has two dimensions. One is an eligibility criterion, which means one has to attain those qualities, or what are the requirements for the highest, subtle, deep, and important practices. So Mahavakya Upanishad presents it:
guhyādguhyatara meṣā na prākṛtāyopadeṣṭavyā । sāttvikāyāntarmukhāya pariśuśrūṣave॥
It means the Upanishad mentions that the requirement is a person has to be having a sattvic nature. The practitioner should be an antarmukhi and gain the instruction from a Guru. A Guru-sishya parampara, a guidance is needed, and then antarmukhi, a natural liking to be a positive introvert. Then all the activities and the mental makeup has to be in a sattvic nature. That's how the Upanishad lays down the requirement. "sāttvikāyāntarmukhāya pariśuśrūṣave॥" So with these qualities the practice of Mahavakya Upanishad teaching becomes very easier.
And the next few mantras talk about the vidya and avidya svarupam. What is avidya and what is vidya? The Upanishad explains beautifully:
tamo hi śārīraprapañcamābrahmasthāvarāntamanantākhilājāṇḍabhūtam।
"śārīraprapañcam" - All our attachments, all our desires, all our wants and needs, all what we see in this prapancha, all the requirements of the body, all the needs and wants of the body, the entire relationships and communications and transactions in this 'pra-pancha' made of the five, and this is all connected to the world. And the cause for this, 'why it is?', is called tamohi, tamas. Tamas is the cause, tamoguna is the cause for avidya, for ignorance.
Why we are not able to understand the truth, the real nature of the things? Why? For that question the Upanishad answers it, that tamoguna is responsible for it. And all the shades and expressions, manifestations of the tamoguna are the responsible for the entire worldly nature and the worldly transactions. Predominantly becoming sattvic, sattvaguna, makes us to be free from all these prapanchah; makes us free from all the entire worldly affairs. Videhamuktihi - and that Videhamuktihi possible by the vidya, the real knowledge, which is sattva predominant. Tamo predominant is the avidya, adharmaha. And sattva predominant is the vidya, and the dharma. How beautifully the Mahavakya Upanishad is giving practical suggestions. A person has to be a dharmic and a sattvic person to overcome entire worldly engagements. To overcome the entire worldly attachments. Whatever meaning we give to the word, that stands as it is. But the freedom is possible only with dharmic and sattvic life.
"Vidya avidyayah svarupam karyachah."
That is how the Upanishad explicitly presents it. Then to raise from this adharmic and the tamoguna to the dharmic and sattvaguna.
What is the practice suggested? The practice suggested is The Mahavakya Upanishad again repeats this beautiful technique called practicing the Hamsavidya. Always remember, whenever it is said Hamsavidya in the yoga, it is concerned with the pranayama. Ham is inhalation, Saha is exhalation. Ham is the puraka, Saha is the rechaka. Ham is pranaha, Saha is apanaha. So practicing of inhalation and exhalation. And Hamsavidya, that knowledge, the technique that Mahavakya Upanishad puts is Hamsa Gayatri, the chanting of the Gayatri Mantra:
oṃ bhūr bhuvaḥ svaḥ tat saviturvareṇyaṃ
bhargo devasya dhīmahi dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt॥
The 24 matras, the 24 aksharas of the Gayatri Mantra. And each akshara is a Viya Mantra. A lot is spoken about the Gayatri Mantra. But Chanting the Gayatri Mantra, while inhalation and exhalation, and aligning the chanting with the inhalation and exhalation, and aligning the inhalation and exhalation with the chanting i.e. the chanting and inhalation and exhalation are parallel together, combined as a single unit, where the speed, the time, the length are equated as a single unit. And Hamsa Gayatri is this particular practice: the length of the Gayatri Mantra, the speed of chanting of the Gayatri Mantra, and aligning it with the inhalation and exhalation process, and slowly.
The Mahavakya Upanishad presents and prescribes a deeper practice of Hamsa Gayatri as Ajapa Gayatri. Ajapa Gayatri means not only just practicing Hamsa Gayatri silently, but also feeling an experience, Anubhava. No chanting at the Vaikari level, no chanting even at the Upamshu level, not even chanting at the Pashyanti level, just an experience and a feeling at the Para level of the Gayatri. And that Para level of the Gayatri is also felt with the Para level of the inhalations and exhalations. Hamsa: it is. And that is the Ajapa Gayatri practice, a beautiful technique wonderfully presented by the Mahavakya Upanishad.
And Mahavakya Upanishad uses a wonderful imagery: that Tamas, the Andhakaraha, is not just darkness. Darkness is not Andhakaraha. In Andhakaraha, in darkness, what activities do we prefer to do? They are all Tamasic in nature. Those activities and thoughts which we prefer to do in darkness, those activities and thoughts which we ponder over in darkness, means which cannot be expressed outside. All such things are Tamasic in nature. That is why generally Tamas is equated with the Andhakaraha. It is not Andhakaraha is Tamas or Tamas is Andhakaraha.
When it comes back into the actual practice and behavior and activities, what activities do we prefer, like to do, and we are habituated to do in the Andhakaraha, in the darkness? All those activities are out of the nature of Tamas, Tamasic in nature. If Tamas is predominant in one's qualities, Tamoguna is predominant in a person, he or she will be preferring those activities which are done in dark, in dark to others, which are not known to others. This suffices the explanation for the relationship between darkness and Tamas. But once Hamsa Gayatri is done, Ajapa Gayatri is done, when this avidya is gone, vidya radiates.
That is where the Mahavakya Upanishad gives another imagery. It is called as the Chidaditya, Chidarka, Chid-arka, Chidaditya. It is like a blazing sun. What is that? The blazing sun dispels darkness. The Vidya dispels darkness. The activities and the behavior and the thoughts and the ideas we ponder over and chat in darkness. If we analyze what is the purpose, why do we do that? What is the necessity of it? Why do we enjoy that? Why do we keep on pondering those things? If these thoughts will come, then the real realization comes. This is the reason. When that reason is identified, the real Vidya, the real knowledge, comes to us. The cause for that. And by knowing the cause, the darkness is dispelled, Tamas is dispelled, and the radiance comes. That is the Chidarka, Chidakashaha, and Chidadityaha. Chidadityaha, Chidarkaha, in Chidakashaha it is. That is how the Mahavakya Upanishad puts it. Pranava Hamsa Jyotir Dhyanam it is called, that Hamsa Gayatri, Hamsa Jyotihi, and Ajapa Gayatri. And coming back into the beautiful dimension into it. That is where the Upanishad enters into higher dimensions. If it is not dark, what is that state of the brightened radiance?
ādityavarṇaṃ tamasastu pāre। sarvāṇi rūpāṇi vicitya dhīraḥ । nāmāni kṛtvā'bhivadanyadāste ॥
dhātā purastādyamudājahāra। śakraḥ pravidvānpradiśaścatastraḥ tamevaṃ vidvānamṛta iha bhavati । nānyaḥ panthā ayanāya vidyate ॥
yajñena yajñamayajanta devāḥ । tāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan। te ha nākaṃ mahimānaḥ sacante। yatra pūrve sādhyāḥ santi devāḥ॥
A very popularly well-known Vedic lines, Vedic chanting has been presented and then the Upanishad goes still Further into the dimension of the Pranava Hamsa Jyotir Dhyanam that "Tatwagyaana vritti svaroopam" which has been that radiance and the brightness is expressed in the 'ādityavarṇaṃ tamasastu pāre।', from that bright, brilliance level, the Hamsa Vidyaabhyasena, paramātmā-virbha:॥, from that Paramatma, that brilliancy, quietness, balance state that is expressed. And for that, the Upanishad suggested,
prāṇāpānābhyāṃ pratilomānulomābhyāṃ samupalabhyaivaṃ sā ciraṃ labdhvā
So for dispelling the darkness and the tamasic nature of our Self, the practice of the Anuloma Viloma Pranayama, Hamsa Gayatri, Hamsa Pranavaha is the technique suggested in the Mahavakya Upanishad. And finally, the Upanishad concludes beautifully by the final Hamsa Jyotir Vidya Phalam: what is the result out of it, what will be the outcome out of it, what will be the effect on us. 'ya etadatharvaśiro'dhīte ।' that is the conclusion. The conclusion and the result is the, Atharva Shiraha Adhithihi, it calls it,
prātaradhīyāno rātrikṛtaṃ pāpaṃ nāśayati । sāyamadhīyāno divasakṛtaṃ pāpaṃ nāśayati । tatsāyaṃ prātaḥ prayuñjānaḥ pāpo'pāpo bhavati।
This practice, if it is done in the evening, removes all the papas done in the daytime. What does it mean? All the tamasic activities, tamasic samskaras, tamasic imprints, and tamasic behaviors which were done throughout the day are set at rest, in modern language, or deleted by the practice of Hamsa Gayatri, Ajapa Gayatri. If the practice is done in the morning, all the things which happened in the night will be removed, deleted. And if it is done in both the morning and the evening, whatever tamasic activities, tamasic nature were done and happened throughout the cycle of the day are purified. In one sense, the regular practice of the Mahavakya Upanishad teachings establishes us, puts us, and exposes us to a state of the result of the Mahavakyas. And that is an important teaching of the Mahavakya Upanishad, containing ten mantras belonging to the Atharva Veda. Let us see further other Upanishadic meanings. Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti:
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
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