Madhu Kanda. Adhyaya 2, Brahmana 5. The honey: the Self shining in all beings
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Each mantra is given four ways: the Sanskrit in its Devanagari script, the same sounds in Roman letters, an English translation set in our own voice, and then the line once more in plain words, for a first and unhurried reading.
Not every passage is opened to the same depth. A few central mantras carry the full cross-school commentary, where the schools are set side by side. The rest are kept here whole and faithful, set in their place but not expounded, so the book stays entire and nothing is dropped for being thought minor.
Where the schools read a line differently, the difference is kept open. None is crowned and none is corrected. Each is met on its own terms, and where they contradict, the contradiction is left standing for you to sit with.
A form answering every form
This indeed is that honey which Dadhyac Atharvana declared to the two Asvins. Seeing this, the seer said: He became the counterform of every form; that form of his is for the beholding. Through his powers Indra moves in many forms, for a thousand horses are yoked to him. He indeed is the horses; he indeed is ten, and thousands, many and without end. This is that Brahman, without before, without after, without inside, without outside. This Self, that experiences all, is Brahman. Such is the teaching.
This is that very honey-knowledge which Dadhyac, son of Atharvan, taught to the two Asvins. A seer, beholding it, sang the Rgveda verse: the Lord took on a counterform answering each form, and that taking of form is so that he may be perceived. Through his powers (maya) Indra is seen as manifold, for hundreds and tens of organs are yoked to him. He is those organs; he is ten, and thousands, many, and infinite. That Brahman is without before or after, without inner or outer. This Self, the experiencer of all (sarvanubhu), is Brahman. This is the teaching (iti anusasanam).
Where the schools meet, and where they part
The one supreme reality is somehow present in, or shown through, every form; the diverse shapes of the world are not a rival reality standing over against it.
This Brahman is the all-pervading Self on which the whole manifold of forms rests, named here both as the formless and as the one who takes the likeness of every form.
He became, in each form, the counterpart of that form, and Sankara takes this as the one Self appearing as the many. The appearing is for the sake of being known, since without name and form the formless pure intelligence could not be recognized at all. Indra by his mayas is perceived as manifold, where maya is the power by which the one is seen as many through the limiting adjuncts of name and form, not a real becoming. The countless steeds and thousands are not second reals beside Brahman; they are how the one shows, while it stays without before or after, inside or outside.
Madhva reads the verse through bimba and pratibimba: the resplendent Lord takes, in each form, a reflection, the jiva, which has its whole being from him and discloses him. The forms are not the one appearing as many by ignorance; they are the many real reflections of the one original, dependent on him and never identical with him. Maya is the Lord's own power of formation, not a veil to be lifted. He is the steeds and the thousands as their indwelling sustainer and controller, Brahman because full of infinite auspicious attributes, all-pervading, yet always other than the reflected selves he upholds.
On Ramanuja's settled doctrine the one who takes the counterpart of every form is the antaryamin embodied in all things: each form is a real mode and body (sarira) of the one Self, and his entering them is his pervading and ensouling them, not his appearing as an unreal many. The forms reveal him because the body always manifests and serves its indwelling soul, with whom it stands in inseparable dependence (aprthak-siddhi). He is the steeds and the thousands as the inner self of each, ruling and sustaining them, while they remain genuinely many, real, and dependent, never resolved into him.
When the one took the counterpart of every form, did the formless appear as a many that is finally not other than it, or did the one Lord stand within a many that is genuinely real and other than him? Advaita reads the forms as the one seen as many through maya; Dvaita reads them as real reflections of the original; Ramanuja's school reads them as the real body of the indweller. The verse names the forms and the formless together, and which is the deeper truth is left standing.
How does Sankara read maya in rupam rupam pratirupo babhuva, Indra appearing in many forms?
- The power by which the one is seen as many through name and form, not a real becoming
- A second reality standing beside Brahman
- An evil force that must be destroyed
- A real transformation of Brahman into the many
Show the answer
He took the shape of every shape
In every form He became the counterpart of that form. The line is small and it carries the whole quarrel of the schools. One reality, and the countless shapes of the world; the verse sets them side by side and says the one took the likeness of each. Why? So that He might be known, for a formless thing shows itself only by the forms it wears.
Sankara reads the shapes as the one seen as many. Indra, by his mayas, is perceived as manifold, and maya here is not a thing the Self does but the way the single awareness is taken for a crowd, through the names and forms laid over it. Draw the names off and there is no second reality left, only Brahman, without a before or an after, without an inside or an outside, the same whether it is called one steed or ten thousand.
Through bimba and pratibimba, original and image, Madhva finds reflections in those same shapes. The resplendent Lord takes, in each form, a reflection, the jiva, and a reflection is not its original and never becomes it. The forms are really many, really dependent, each a mirror that shows the one who casts it; maya is the Lord's own art of forming, not a fog to be cleared. He is the thousands as the one who dwells in them and upholds them, and stays himself, other than every reflected self. Ramanuja's school finds in the forms His body, real modes that He enters and ensouls, revealing Him as a body reveals the life within it, inseparable from Him yet never melted into Him.
Three readings of one short verse: the forms as the one appearing as many, the forms as real reflections of the one, the forms as the real body of the one. Each keeps the formless and the formed together; each refuses to make the world a rival god. But whether the shapes are finally the one wearing masks, or a real many it indwells, the verse will not say, and we keep all three at the single line it gives us.
He took the shape of every shape: but are the shapes the one seen as many, or a real many it indwells and rules? Appearance, reflection, or body, the verse holds them side by side, and we leave the deeper truth open.
When you meet the many forms of the world, do you see the one wearing them, or many real things the one lives within?
In the commentaries
On the verse rupam rupam pratirupo babhuva, He became, in each form, the counterpart of that form, Sankara gives his decisive gloss: the one Self appears as every shape, and that appearing is for the sake of making Himself known, since were name and form never manifested the transcendent nature of the Self as pure intelligence could not be recognized at all. Indra, by His mayas, is perceived as manifold; Sankara takes maya here as the power by which the one is seen as many through diverse limiting adjuncts of name and form, not as a real change in the Self. So He is said to be the steeds, the tens and thousands, the countless, while remaining Brahman without a before or an after, without an inside or an outside, the all-pervading Self. The many forms are how the formless shows; they are not a second reality beside it.