The forgotten student - Chandogya IV 10 - 15

I won't give a full text for this story, which is another lengthy one, but just want to pick out one or two sections.  I haven't altered much of the translation as it seems good.  This is the sequel to the previous section.  Satyakaama is now a teacher in his own right.

Once upon a time, the son of Kamala, well-known as Upakosala, stayed as a celibate student with Satyakaama Jaabaala.  He served his master's sacrificial fires for twelve years.  But Jaabaala, though he allowed all of the other student to graduate, did not graduate Upakosala.

Jaabaala's wife said to him, "The student, full of austerity, has served the sacrificial fires well.  Let the fires not admonish you. Impart your teaching to him."  But without instructing him, Jaabaala left home.

Sorrowfully, Upakosala resolved to fast.  The teacher's wife begged him, "Student, take food.  Why don't you eat?"  He said, "In this individual there are many desires for all kinds of things.  I am filled with them. I shall not eat."

As with Yajyawalkya and Maitreyi, and the daughter of the king in the story of Raikwa, the role of the feminine is to bring out what has not been spoken or noticed by others.  The teacher's wife notices the neglected student and demands that he have his reward.  But perhaps the teacher knows more than she recognises ...

Then the fires said together, "The student full of austerity has served us well.  If it pleases you, we shall instruct him."  They said to him, 

Praana Brahma (Breath is Brahman)

Ka Brahma  (Joy is Brahman)

Kha Brahma (Space is Brahman)

He said, "I know that Praana is Brahman.  But I do not know Ka and Kha." They replied, "That which we spoke of as Ka is truly Kha; and that which we spoke of as Kha is truly Ka."

This very enigmatic statement suggests that new understanding is being imparted in this Upanishad.  The words Ka and Kha sound similar, which is enough to suggest a connection.  The idea that omnipresent space is Brahman has been said in the Brihad, but the idea of joy or bliss as Brahman seems to be new.  That they are interchangeable suggests that joy is omnipresent, and even empty space is full of bliss.  It seems that the fires offer consolation to the boy.

There is a long conversation in which the three household fires teach the boy, ending with:

They said, "O good looking one, Upakosala, to you has been given the knowledge about us and the knowledge of the Aatman.  But the teacher will tell you of the path."

His teacher returned and said to him, "Upakosala".  "Venerable Sir."

"O good looking one, your face shines like that of a knower of Brahman.  Who indeed has instructed you?"

"Sir, who can instruct me?"  In this way, he prevaricated.  

"These fires, who we see here now, certainly had a different appearance before."  In this way, he spoke of the fires.

"O good looking one, what did they tell you?"

He gestured, saying "This."

"O good looking one, they surely spoke of the worlds only.  But I shall speak to you of That, to the knower of which a sinful act does not stick, as water does not stick to a lotus leaf."

"Venerable sir, please tell me."

Just as happened in the previous story, the teacher finds the student's face bright with knowledge (bhaati, "shining").  (There could perhaps be a connection here to Raikwa, "Through this face you have made me speak"?)  He recognises that he has been taught in his absence by mysterious means.  

The idea seems to be that the teacher will only teach someone who is ready to learn, which in some sense means someone who already has the knowledge.  Upakosala may have been too hard on himself, or perhaps like Satyakaama in the previous story he needed to prove himself in the fire of suffering and self-doubt.  

Once again, the student learns a great deal from the world around him, but this needs to be completed by the teacher.  What he learns from the teacher is about the Aatman, "deathless, fearless", and about the fate of the soul after death when the Aatman has been known.  This passage on reincarnation is a partial repetition of the teaching on this subject by Pravahana Jaivala in the Brihad., a story which is repeated in full shortly after this in the Chandogya itself.

One gets the sense that the author of these two sections of the Upanishad must have had some experiences of being 'taught' in the wilderness by inanimate objects.  The similarity of the two stories, the details such as the embarrassment of the student in each case at being suddenly possessed of secret knowledge, the hint that "these things had a different appearance", all point to an experience that is fresh and not known in the previous literature.

The role of the teacher in completing the knowledge could be seen as psychologically accurate, or perhaps as an attempt to control the dangerous idea of learning that happens without the teacher.

Wonderful stuff ...