The Story of Prajapati and Its Meaning

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The Upanishads are called Vedanta. The purpose of the Upanishads is to teach man his real nature and the way to know it. A man is what his core is and the Upanishads say that man's core is divine and knowledge of this core—Self—is the purpose of human life. Not only is man's core divine, the whole creation is, in essence, divine. Says Swami Vivekananda, the modern Rishi, 'We believe that every being is divine, is God.'

Explaining this, Swamiji further said: 'The whole universe is one. There is only One Self in the universe, only One Existence, and that One Existence, when it passes through the forms of time, space, and causation, is called by different names. Everything in the universe is that One, appearing in various forms. Therefore the whole universe is all one in the Self, which is called Brahman. That Self when it appears behind the universe is called God. The same Self when it appears behind this little universe, the body, is the soul.'

The Use of Stories

In order to simplify this highest knowledge and make it available to a commoner, the Upanishads often clothed it in stories and similes. The stories of Nachiketa in Katha Upanishad, Uma Haimavati in Kena Upanishad, Bhrigu's quest for Brahman in the Taittiriya Upanishad, and Prajapati's instructions to Indra in Chandogya Upanishad are some the best known examples. Here is a charming and highly inspiring story from the Chandogya Upanishad.

Once Prajapati, a knower of Brahman, declared: 'The Atman which is free from evil, free from old age, free from death, free from sorrow, free from hunger and thirst, whose desire is of the truth, whose resolve is of the truth, he should be sought, him one should desire to understand. He who has found out and who understands that Atman attains all the worlds and all the desires.'

Both gods and demons heard this proclamation. Indra among the gods and Virochana among the Asuras, then approached Prajapati and said : 'We have heard that the Atman has to be known, the Atman that is not touched by sin, or old age or death or sorrow or thirst or hunger, the Atman whose desires are always true (satyakama), whose resolutions are always firm. Please instruct us about this Atman'.

Prajapati asked them to practise austerities and celibacy for thirty-two years, and then instructed them thus: 'The Purusha (the Self) visible in the eyes, reflected in the water or in the mirror is the Atman. Look at yourselves in water and let me know what you see.' When they did this Prajapati asked them, 'What did you see?' 'We saw the whole body', they said. Prajapati asked them to dress well and again look at the image and they said that the images also looked well-dressed. Prajapati said, 'This is the Atman that you seek', and they went away satisfied.

Virochana went back to the Asuras and proclaimed, 'The body is the Atman, serve it well and you will obtain all your desires here and hereafter'. To this day people generally say, 'He is a demon' when a person has no charitable nature, no faith in the supernatural realms, who never worships gods, who does not perform sacrifices, who is selfish, and body-centred. Those who are identified with the body and think that the body is very valuable, and cater to its whims, falsely thinking that it is the true self of man—in other words, those who identify themselves with the body and worship it are called Asuras, the children of Virochana.

Read more about the story of Pragapati on the Next Page