Material things are not everything

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In the previous episode, we saw how father Uddalaka traces the origin of all material things to three basic components – Satva, Rajas and Tamas.

Various combinations of these three basic constituents result in various material forms that we see around us.

Our worldly science seems to say that material things are everything. But Upanishads disagree.

Uddalaka says

“If you chop a branch of a tree, the chopped branch regrows after sometime. The tree does not die. But if you axe the main trunk itself, the tree would die. Why?

That is because the existence of the tree was not merely because of the branches, roots and so on. It was also because of the soul that resides in the tree. When you completely chop off the tree, even the soul leaves the tree and the tree dies”

“So it is matter + soul is what makes an entity exist in a specific form”

We can see matter. But we don’t see the soul. So, how do we know that it exists?

Father Uddalaka asks his son to conduct another experiment to clarify this doubt. He asks his son

“Get a glass of water. Also get some salt. Put the salt into water and leave it for some time”

Swetaketu does exactly as asked.

“Now where is the salt?”

“I cant’ see it father!”

“Taste a portion of the solution. How does it taste?”

“Salty father”

“Taste another portion. How does it taste?”

“That is also equally salty father”

“That means that the salt is still existing though it is not visible. We can infer the existence of the salt by tasting the resulting solution.”

Reasoning followed by inference is another apparatus of modern science that Uddalaka uses here to show how we should go about inferring the existence of soul.

The tree died not when the branches were cut, but when the entire trunk is cut off. So there was something in the tree apart from the branches that made it exist. And that something must be the soul.

Uddalaka next goes on to show how the root cause of existence can also be traced by ‘forward reasoning’.

We will see that in the next episode.

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A story of Uddalaka and Swetaketu from Chandogya Upanishad, which is part of Sama Veda. Upanishads are concluding parts of ancient Indian Vedic scriptures believed to be at least 5000 years old. The interpretation is by Dr.King (Copyright © 2019 Dr. King).