Wise people do not get carried away by the ephemeral and fall prey to immediate pleasures. They are able to differentiate between Nitya and anitya. Such people escape the suicidal urge of the deluded mind. As a result, they do not covet anything of others, living a life of immense satisfaction.
By whom the end of dream and waking is perceived — having known the all-pervading, Great Atman, the wise grieve not.
End of dream means, beginning of waking state, end of waking state indicates that one has woken up to the 4th state, turiya – Self-knowledge. Once you reach that state, you know that you are the all-pervading Atman.
Shastras consider only two states of consciousness – deep sleep and dream state. The waking state is also another dream state, as per the Vedic masters. Therefore, they say there are only two states. Dream and deep sleep. End of dream means you have woken to the 4th state, which you perceive as all-pervading Atman. Such a person na̱ śoca̍ti – he grieves not. Grief means sorrow and suffering; it is not caused by the world. Grief is caused by your wrong relationship with the world. It suggests that you are operating on unrealistic desires and expectations. When they are not met, there is grief. At the absolute level, there is no desire, and so there is no grief. Ignorance of the Self creates desire. When there is knowledge, there is no ignorance. You come to a state of paripoorna fulfilment, where there is no more desire.
This Upanishadic knowledge is the antidote for ignorance and has solutions to all the problems of life. The mantra says ‘the wise grieves not’, which means when one realizes the all-knowing Atman and experiences the fullness, there is no grief. Desires and expectations give rise to sorrow, agitation, suffering, and grief.
Everyone will have desires to varying degrees until you attain the state of perfection. You have sattvic, rajasic or tamasic desires and realisation is a state of desirelessness. When you bring this concept to a relative level, it becomes abhyasa, practice, and at an absolute level, it is anubhavam experience. Each one of us can experience the state of perfection from a relative point of view. When you keep a check on your desires, the grief reduces. Less desires less grief, no desires no grief, more desires and expectations, you will be pounded by sorrow, agitation, and grief.
Desire arises when you experience a sense of imperfection, a lacuna, an emptiness within. The cause of the void is your ignorance of your paripoorna or fullness. Due to a lack of awareness of your fullness, you experience emptiness, and that creates a thought. The thought creates a desire and leads to desire-ridden action. We then act with expectations and experience grief. It is the assumption of emptiness that one runs into the world to fill the void.
Eg: It is like the prince, not aware of his fortune, and is begging on the streets.
It is like running towards a mirage for water in a desert.
Happiness is within you, and one does not need anything external to feel that happiness. Mantra says, the moment you have the knowledge of all-pervading Atman, automatically you will not grieve. The more you invoke the Atman in you, the more content you are. When you are spiritually evolved, the lack or absence of anything does not make a difference to you.
The mantra further adds that the seeker has the supreme awareness that objects of waking and deep sleep cannot add to his state of perfection.
In Chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna compares a man of perfection to an ocean. Even when all the rivers flow into the ocean, it does not swell and if water is pumped out, the ocean level does not drop. Similarly, all the joys of the world do not make him happier, and when you deprive him of the joy, it does not make him any less.
He who knows this Atman — enjoyer of honey, the sustainer of life and the Lord of past and future, as very near… he fears no more thereafter. This is verily that.
The person who has taken the inward journey reaches the domain of fearlessness. It is expressed as one no longer seeks protection or security in either material things or living beings. Bhaya or fear expresses as insecurity and is directly proportionate to the desires. When you have selfish desires, you get attached, possessive, and have a fear of losing.
Mantra says ‘Atman is enjoyer of honey’ symbolises noble deeds. Atman is not the enjoyer but it is the individual who enjoys. Atman is neither akarta non-doer, abhokta non-enjoyer. Atman has nothing to do with your good or bad actions.
Lord then says Atman is the sustainer of life. It means it enlivens and sustains everything.
It is the Lord of the past and the present. The past is dead, and the future is unborn. Past and future are non-existent realms. They are only in the imaginative mind. The Lord of past and present means you are every time in the present moment. You are all the time acting, living, operating in the present moment, revelling in peace and bliss.
