antas tad-dharmopadeśāt: The person within the Sun

Who is this person in the Sun and in the eye? Is he the Supreme Lord, or is a soul who attained such an exalted position due to his accumulated piety? Is he the demigod of the Sun, or the Supersoul?

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Sutra 1.1.20 - antas tad-dharmopadeśāt

antas tad-dharmopadeśāt

antah: within; tad: of Him; dharma: intrinsic nature; upadesat: because of the teachings.

The person within the Sun and the eye is the Lord, because the passage describes His qualities.

Commentary: This sutra discusses the following passage of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (1.6.6-8):

ya eṣo ’ntar-āditye hiraṇmayaḥ puruṣo dṛśyate

hiraṇya-śmaśruḥ hiraṇya-keśa ā-praṇakhāt sarva eva suvarṇaḥ

tasya yathā kapyāsaṁ puṇḍarīkam evam akṣiṇī tasyod

eti nāma sa eṣa sarvebhyaḥ pāpmabhyo adita udeti ha

vai sarvebhyaḥ pāpmabhyaḥ sa eṣa evaṁ veda

tasyārka ca sāma ca geṣṇau tasmād udgīthaḥ tasmāt tv eva udgātā

etasya hi gātā sa eṣa yaś cāmuṣmāt parāñco lokās teṣāṁ ceṣṭe deva-kāmānāṁ ceti adhidaivatam

"Within the sun-globe, there is a golden person who is seen by the yogīs. He has golden hair, a golden beard, and a body completely golden, starting from His fingernails. His eyes are reddish, like lotus petals blossomed by the Sun. Because He rises above all sin and material activity, He is called ud (the rising One). The Ṛg and Sāma Vedas sing His glories. From Him, the highest spiritual planets, where even the demigods desire to go, have become manifest. He is the controller of all demigods and human beings, the One who fulfills their desires and grants the results of their activities. This is the golden person present among the demigods. One who understands Him also becomes situated above all sin."

This passage is concluded in text 1.7.5:

atha ya eṣo ’ntar-akṣiṇi puruṣo dṛśyate

saivark tat sāma tad ukthaṁ tad yajus tad brahma

tasyaitasya tad eva rūpaṁ yad amuṣya rūpaṁ

yāv amuṣya geṣṇau tau geṣṇau yan nāma tan nāma

"Now I shall describe the powerful person seen by the yogī within the eye. The Ṛg, Sāma, and Yajur Vedas glorify Him. He is Brahman, identical with the golden person who resides in the Sun and is glorified by the same mantras."

When we look at the Sun or perceive its light, the image is reflected in the eye. Modern anatomy explains that light passes through the cornea and enters the eye through the pupil and is projected onto the retina, where it is transformed into electric signals that are transmitted to the brain. In this way, when we see the Sun, the image is projected inside the eye into the retina. Therefore, the person present in the Sun is also present inside the eye, just like a deity is simultaneously present in the altar and a photo in one's home. Since we perceive this image and it affects our consciousness, it also becomes present in the mind and in the heart. The heart is the seat of the soul, which is the center of consciousness.

The question is: Who is this person in the Sun and in the eye? Is he the Supreme Lord, or is he a soul who attained such an exalted position due to his accumulated piety? Is he the demigod of the Sun, or is he the all-pervading Supersoul?

One could argue that because he has a human form and human features, such as a beard, fingernails, and so on, he must be a spirit soul who accepted a material body, although very exalted, therefore the verse must be describing the demigod of the Sun, who is indeed a very exalted personality.

To this, Vyāsadeva answers: antas tad-dharmopadeśāt. The person within the Sun and the eye is the Lord, because the passage describes His qualities.

One mistake we frequently make when interpreting verses from the scriptures is to start from a preconceived idea, instead of taking the description given in the verse (as well as previous and following verses) as a whole and finding an understanding that harmonizes all these different ideas with the conclusions received through disciplic succession. We know that there is a demigod who lives in the Sun, and thus when we hear a description starting with "Within the sun-globe there is a golden person, with golden hair", we may immediately presume that it is a description of the demigod who resides in the Sun. However, when we take into consideration the characteristics described, we see it's not the case.

The person in the Sun is described as being completely free from sin, the controller of all, the one who grants the desires as well as the results of the activities of everyone, both human beings and demigods. He is also described as the creator of the spiritual planets, where even the greatest demigods desire to go, and so on. More than that, it's also said that one who understands him becomes situated above all sin or, in other words, attains liberation. These are not characteristics of the demigod of the Sun or any other conditioned soul, but a description of the characteristics of the Supreme Lord. The person in the Sun and the eye is thus the Supreme Lord.

Why is this important?

When we chant the Gayatri mantra, we meditate on the Sun. The light of the Sun permeates the three planetary systems, bhuḥ, bhuvaḥ, and svaḥ, and fills them with life. This meditation on the divine light of the Sun fills us with enthusiasm.

In his Ṣaṭ Sandarbhas, Srila Jīva Goswami explains that one's understanding of the Sun as he meditates on it will vary according to his level of understanding. Materialists can't see anything spiritual, and thus, they meditate on the Sun as the celestial body or as a manifestation of the material energy. The ones who are a little advanced meditate on Vivasvān, the demigod who presides over the Sun, while the ones who are more advanced understand that the light of the Sun is a reflection of the spiritual light of the Supreme Brahman. However, the ones who are still more advanced go beyond this impersonal conception and understand that the light of the Sun is a reflection of the effulgence of the Supreme Person, and thus they meditate on that Supreme Person who is the origin of the Sun.

This discussion about the person within the Sun is thus not just a talk about astronomy, but a very essential discussion that essentially determines one's conception of the divine, the object of his meditation, and ultimately the goal of his spiritual practice.

The sutra concludes that the person within the Sun is not just a mass of matter, a demigod, or even impersonal spiritual light, but is a person, with a form and qualities. This again expands our understanding of Brahman. Brahman is a person who has a spiritual form, spiritual desires, and spiritual qualities. The person within the Sun is thus the Supreme Lord as Paramātmā.

Sutra 1.1.21 - bheda-vyapadeśāc cānyaḥ

bheda-vyapadeśāc cānyaḥ

bheda: difference; vyapadesat: because of the statement; ca: and; anyah: different, another.

He is different from the demigod because statements in the Vedic scriptures describe the difference between the demigod in the Sun and the Lord in the Sun.

Commentary: To understand that the object of meditation is not the Sun as a mass of material elements, but a divine personality within the Sun is relatively easy, but one could cling to the idea that the object of meditation is the demigod who presides over the Sun, or that the demigod within the Sun is not different from the Supreme Brahman.

This verse explains that this is not the case, emphasizing that the Vedas clearly explain the difference between the Supreme Person and the individual souls, including the demigod presiding over the Sun.

In the highest sense, everything that exists in the material universe is conscious, because every material body is inhabited by a particular soul, and even planets and potencies have predominating deities. Seeing a person, a materialist may think that this person is just a body composed of material elements, but someone who has a higher vision can understand that the person is not the body, but the soul within the body. Similarly, all different planets and stars, and even material potencies such as anger and greed, have their predominating deities, such as demigods and other subtle beings who preside over these celestial bodies and energies. The demigod thus presides over some celestial body composed of matter, and inside the body of the demigod, there is an individual spirit soul.

However, apart from the spirit soul, situated within the heart, there is another soul, the Supersoul, or Paramātmā. Therefore, when we meditate on the Sun, we can understand that apart from the demigod, the Supreme Person is also there in the form of Paramātmā, and ultimately, the light of the Sun comes from this Supreme Person. The same applies to all living beings: there is the material body, the individual soul inside the heart, and Paramātmā, who is the ultimate controller of both.

One could then insist that the person within the Sun is described as having a body; therefore, he must be the demigod, since the Supreme Brahman has no body. Many passages of the scriptures describe the Supreme Brahman as avyakta, or unmanifest, without a material form.

To this, we can answer that passages describing the Supreme Lord as being formless simply state that He has no material form. Other passages of the scriptures describe that the Lord has a transcendental form. Take, for example, the Puruṣa-sūkta prayers, found in the Ṛg Veda 10.90. The first verse of the passage describes:

sahasraśīrṣā puruṣaḥ sahasrākṣaḥ sahasrapāt

sa bhūmiṃ viśvato vṛtvāty atiṣṭhad daśāṅgulam

"The Puruṣa, who has thousands of heads, thousands of eyes, thousands of feet, pervaded the creation in all directions by merely extending His fingers."

This passage is further explained in Srimad Bhagavatam 6.16.25:

oṁ namo bhagavate mahā-puruṣāya mahānubhāvāya mahā-vibhūti-pataye sakala-sātvata-parivṛḍha-nikara-kara-kamala-kuḍmalopalālita-caraṇāravinda-yugala parama-parameṣṭhin namas te.

"O transcendental Lord, who are situated in the topmost planet of the spiritual world, Your two lotus feet are always massaged by a multitude of the best devotees with their lotus-bud hands. You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, complete in six opulences. You are the supreme person mentioned in the Puruṣa-sūkta prayers. You are the most perfect, self-realized master of all mystic power. Let me offer my respectful obeisances unto You."

The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (3.8-9) also describes the transcendental form of the Lord:

vedāham etaṁ puruṣaṁ mahāntam, āditya-varṇaṁ tamasaḥ parastāt

tam eva viditvāti mṛtyum eti, nānyaḥ panthā vidyate ’yanāya

yasmāt paraṁ nāparam asti kiñcid, yasmān nāṇīyo no jyāyo ’sti kiñcit

vṛkṣa iva stabdho divi tiṣṭhaty ekas, tenedaṁ pūrṇaṁ puruṣeṇa sarvam

"I know that Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is transcendental to all material conceptions of darkness. Only he who knows Him can transcend the bonds of birth and death. There is no path for liberation other than this knowledge of that Supreme Person. There is no truth superior to Him, because He is the supermost. He is smaller than the smallest, and He is greater than the greatest. The Lord is situated in the spiritual sky, firmly like a great tree. He illumines the transcendental sky, and as a tree spreads its roots, He fills the entire Universe with His extensive energies."

Such passages make it clear that the Lord has an attractive, transcendental body. Other passages state the difference between the transcendental form of the Lord and the material forms of the ordinary jīvas, therefore, the Lord in the Sun described in the Chāndogya Upanisad is different from the demigod.

This is directly confirmed in the Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad (3.7.9):

ya āditye tiṣṭhann ādityād antaro yam ādityo

na veda yasyādityaḥ śarīraṁ ya ādityam antaro

yamayaty eṣa ta ātmāntaryāmy amṛtaḥ

"He who is situated within the Sun, whom the sun-god does not know, who manifests the sun planet as His own body, and who controls the sun-god from within, that person is the immortal Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is present in the heat of every living entity as the immortal Supersoul (antaryāmī).”

The Lord is the source of both the sun-planet and the demigod. He is the source of power for both and controls both from within. One who is sufficiently advanced can see the Lord in His transcendental form in the Sun. Others who are less advanced may see the demigod, while others who are still less advanced may see nothing more than the celestial body.

Exercise

Now it's your turn. Can you answer the following arguments using the ideas from this section?

Opponent: The Chāndogya Upanisad describes a shining person within the Sun, who has golden hair, a golden beard, and a body completely golden. This pure person described in the Upanisad is Surya, the devatā, who controls the Sun. Although he is a jīva, he receives such an exalted position due to his piety accumulated by the performance of fruitive activities.

You want to attribute this description to Brahman, arguing that Brahman is the person described in the passage, but this doesn't make any sense, since Brahman is formless and qualityless, and thus can't have attributes such as having a beard and being golden.

The Bhagavad-gītā mentions that: mayā tatam idaṁ sarvaṁ jagad avyakta-mūrtinā. The Supreme Brahman is avyakta, without a form. This point is reinforced by many other passages in the scriptures.

It's a fact that jīvas are parts of Brahman who, due to illusion, see themselves as conditioned by maya, and in this sense, we can consider the devatā of the Sun as being Brahman. There is nothing wrong with this understanding, as explained subsequently in the same Upaniṣad, in the verse starting with atha ya eṣo ’ntar-akṣiṇi puruṣo dṛśyate. The devatā residing in the Sun is identical to the Supreme Brahman, and being part of Brahman, he is glorified by the Vedas.

In this sense, Brahman comes to the material world as a jīva, performs fruitive activities, and becomes a devatā, receiving an important post in the Sun. Being identical with the supreme Brahman, this jīva is identical with Brahman and is glorified by the Vedas, but in illusion, thinks he is a demigod. When this illusion is removed by the cultivation of the knowledge of the Vedas, however, one realizes his transcendental nature and abandons this identity as a devatā as false, and merges back into the formless and qualityless Brahman, returning to an eternal position free from material designations.

How can you answer this challenge?

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