Mandukya_Upanishad

all ‘chit’, ānanda of all ānandas: - Supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.Sa vijñeyah: This is to be known. This is the purpose oflife. We live here for this purpose, and we have no otheraim in life. All our activities, all our business, all ourfunctions, whatever they be, are conscious or unconsciousattempts on our parts to realise the Ātman, and until andunless we reach the Ātman, we cannot be happy, we cannotbe satisfied, and we cannot put an end to the cycle of birthand death. We are perpetually both and we perpetually dieto train ourselves for attunement of our being with theĀtman. Births and deaths are processes of training in thefield of experience. We experiment with the things of theworld, with a view to visualising the Ātman in them,coming in contact with the Ātman in the objects. We lovethings because we hope that the Ātman is there in them, butwe do not see it there because it is not in one place only.Why do we love things, love persons, love objects? Becausewe have a hope that the Ātman is there, and we go for it.We do not find it there, and so we go to another object –perhaps it is there – like the Gopis searching for Kriṣhna indifferent places. Kriṣhna! Are you here, are you there? Youknow, where; He is everywhere. The Gopis queried thetrees, the plants, the bees and even the inanimate things.Have you seen Kriṣhna? Has Kriṣhna passed by this path?Where is Kriṣhna? Can you give an indication of Kriṣhna’swhereabouts? Madly did the Gopis ask of everything increation, animate and inanimate. ‘Do you know Kriṣhna?Have you seen Him?’ In a similar manner, madly do we goafter the things of the world. Is the Ātman here? Have you108