What is True Love?
The ultimate Truth about Love is found in bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat mantras.
This article is a transcript of Swami Paramarthanandaji's talks.
You can listen to the Swami Paramarthanandaji’s talks on bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat Mantra 1.4.8 as per the link below.
The mantra is given below.
तदेतत्प्रेयः पुत्रात् प्रेयो वित्तात् प्रेयोऽन्यस्मात् सर्वस्माद्
अन्तरतरम् यदयमात्मा।
स योऽन्यमात्मनः प्रियं ब्रुवाणं ब्रूयात्
प्रियं रोत्स्यतीतीश्वरो ह तथैव स्याद्
आत्मानमेव प्रियमुपासीत।
स य आत्मानमेव प्रियमुपास्ते
न हास्य प्रियं प्रमायुकं भवति॥ 1.4.8॥
tadetatpreyaḥ putrāt preyo vittāt preyo'nyasmāt sarvasmād
antarataram yadayamātmā |
sa yo'nyamātmanaḥ priyaṁ bruvāṇaṁ brūyāt
priyam rotsyatītīśvaro ha tathaiva syād
ātmānameva priyamupāsīta |
sa ya ātmānameva priyamupāste
na hāsya priyaṁ pramāyukaṁ bhavati || 1.4.8 ||
Atma is the dearest to all
This is another important verse, which is very often quoted by Sankaracharya. Essence of this mantra is that the Atma (jivatma which is identical with paramatma – parmatma abinna jivatma is priyatamah) is ‘dearest’ to all.
To put it in a comparative degree, the upanisad says that Atma is dearer than everything else in the creation, whether it is Putrah (son), whether it is Vittham (wealth), whether it is Griham (house, property), whether it patni (wife) or for that matter anything. After giving one or two examples, upanisad says anyasmad sarvasmad. Upanisad generalizes that atma is dearer than everything else.
Law 1: You love only two things - sukham and sukha sadhanam
Now before going to the actual meaning of this mantra we will make a small analysis of this ‘concept’ as to how Atma is the dearest. In vedanta we say that there are only two things, which are loved by all people. These are the universal and unshakable laws that the series we are going to see now. There are only two things which are loved in the world by all people. First one is sukham, anandah, or happiness.
And the second thing is sukha sadhanam – a means through which one gets sukham is sukham sadhanam. First one is sukham, which is the sadhyam. One is sukham the sadhyam and the other is sukha sadhanam. This is a universal law. You can try to find an exception to this law. But you cannot find any. Everyone runs after anything because he finds sukham – happiness in that. Other than happiness, if he runs after anything else, because it is the cause of happiness whether it is T.V., money, food, friends or even the class etc. If you do not enjoy attending Swamiji’s class, that will be the first casuality. This is the first law.
Law 2(a): Love for sukham is unconditional
Now we will see the law number two. The love for sukham or the sadhyam for sukham is primary and it is most important because it is unconditional.
I love sukham because it is sukham. There are no conditions to love sukham. Whereas the love for sukha sadhanam is secondary because it is conditional. Swamiji does not want to use the word “means to happiness”, even though it is the correct meaning. The love for sukha sadhanam is not because it is anything else, but I love sukha sadhanam because it gives me sukham. The moment it ceases to be a sukha sadhanam and stops giving me pleasure or sukham I will not love it.
Secondly once I have attained the sadhyam through the sadhanam thereafter wards the sadhanam is no more loved. That sadhanam is rejected. Therefore love for sukha sadhanam is only for getting sadhyam and once the sadhyam is attained, sadhanam becomes irrelevant.
Law 2(b): Love for sukha sadhanam is a fake love
So the second law is that the love for sukham is primary because it is unconditional. The love for sukha sadhanam is secondary because it is conditional. In fact love for sukha sadhanam is not real love at all. It is a fake one. Sukha sadhanam is the love for sukha, which is falsely appearing in sukha sadhanam. As an example if somebody says that when a person is rich, I love; when he is not rich I don’t love. That means that I approached him not because of person or someone for his sake but it is his ‘richness’ in him and therefore love for richness is ‘seemingly appearing’ upon the rich person that attracts me.
Therefore it is a transferred love; and it is a seeming love; and it is a fake love. This nyaya is saadhya iccha saadhane sankraamati. The love or desire for the sadhyam alone is falsely appearing on the sadhanam, that means once the sadhyam is gained, the love for sadhanam we will put back on sadhyam. We have only one real love and the other is fake love. Sukha iccha is real and sukha sadhana iccha is unreal. This is the second maxim of love.
First maxim: There are only two things loved. Sukham and sukha sadhanam.
Second maxim: Love for sukham alone is primary and in fact real, because it is unconditional. Love for sukha sadhanam is secondary and in fact unreal, because it is conditional.
Law 3: Atma alone is sukham
Now the third point is that from the scriptures we come to know that Atma alone is sukham. And anatma is asukham (dukham) and it is not sukham. From this maxim we will see what all corollaries we get? Now we have to connect the second and the third maxim. Sukham alone is truly loved and sukha sadhanam is untruly loved. Apply the third maxim. Atma is sukham and therefore we say atma alone is primarily loved by all.
If there is love for anatma whether it is son or any living being or any object, house, money are all anatma; everything else is anatma. If at all they are loved, they are loved only as sukha sadhanam. We therefore find that towards everything or every person there is either there is no love or they are loved as sukha sadhanams. And if anatma is loved as sukha sadhanam what type of love it can be? It will be secondary love or conditional love or to put it bluntly, it is a fake love and it is not at all the real love.
Nothing else in the creation is truly loved. I love anything because it gives me anandah. I love it for my own sake. Either it is for ananda sake or for my own sake. This is technically called Atma Seshatwam. For my own sake, as related to me alone I love. I love anything conditionally because it happens to be a sukha sadhanam. The moment it happens it stops to be sukha sadhanam I will drop it like a hot potato. All the tragic stories if at all are there in different families are because the family members stop to be sukha sadhanam.
All problems in any family strife or strain in the relationship is because one is loved as a sukha sadhanam and once that person stops to be sukha sadhanam, I struggle to reject that person or the thing; either I reject openly which is called separation or I reject mentally which is called the inner rejection of things and being which is hatred. All this is because the so-called sukha sadhanam has ceased to be sukha sadhanam or still worse it has become dukha sadhanam. A car, which runs without any problem, is sukha sadhanam and when it stops running due to any problem it becomes dukha sadhanam and on such occasions you even love to leave that car.
Cause for rejection
Similarly all over the world we see only the rejections take place. Vedanta says it is not the mistake of their change in character. If you are rejected it is not because of other person’s mistake but it is your own mistake that you expected unconditional love from other people. Vedanta says nobody can give that.
From this, we get a corollary discussion. We have said everybody loves oneself alone. Nobody can really love another thing or person. We extend this to everything including religion and even god. Even love for the god cannot be as true and as primary and or as unconditional as the love for oneself.
Sometimes devotees become irreligious when some tragedy strikes against all their prayers.
I love as long as family members keep the prestige. Otherwise I do not want to even claim the relationship.
Popular Commandments Debunked
We see that everybody is selfish and the command "service before the self" cannot be practised. Love for self is more than god; love for self is more than for other people; you love your self more than anything else.
There is no question of service before self. Commands can work only where there is a choice. Self love is therefore is a fact and we cannot love anything else including god. The command "Love all more than yourself" should never be preached. Commandments such as "Love thy neighbour more than your self" etc, will not work.
Vedanta challenges and it aims to shake out every belief. Now we get into a fundamental question. In the vedanta itself it is said that a jnani loves everyone unconditionally, as if himself. He has universal, unconditional, and primary love. Refer to Bhagavad Gita 6-32.
आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन।
सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः॥ BG 6-32
ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo'rjuna |
sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ || BG 6-32
Jnani's love is also Selfish
As per the above Gita verse, jnani loves everyone as much as himself.
The law that one can only love oneself unconditionally, one cannot love other people unconditionally seems to be violated in the case of jnani. How can jnani love all?
Now we have to reconcile these two contradictory statements. Law in upanisad says that we can love ourself only truly. We cannot love others unconditionally. The second statement in Gita is that jnani loves everyone truly, unconditionally, fully and primarily.
Does it mean that this upanisad law is not applicable to jnani? Vedanta says that this is true even for a jnani. That jnani is also selfish alone. Because everybody can love only oneself and jnani is not an exception.
Bhagavan also only loves atma or himself truly
In fact, vedanta takes one more step and says even baghavan has to obey this law. Bhagavan also loves atma, himself truly. Now does that mean baghavan does not love his devotees? Does not a Jnani love his fellow beings?
Vedanta says that you can reconcile the upanisad law and Gita statement only in one way. Jnani is also selfish. He is no exception to the rule. He also loves himself only as is the case with other ajnani jiva.
Now apply this law. I love myself only. Still I am able to love you because you are not different from me. For the universe is non-different from me. I love myself only and if I love god; primarily it is because god is non-different from me.
Nobody can love Bhagavan more than themselves
Whereas all other people who say baghavan is different from themselves, they can never love baghavan primarily. No dvaitin can love baghavan primarily, because of the universal law that everybody loves oneself. Therefore the love for bahgavan of a dvaitin will have to be a secondary or fake love.
Any Dvaitin whoever sees Lord as different, for him Lord becomes anatma and anatma can only be loved as sukha sadhanam. Thus Lord will become sukha sadhanam and therefore love for baghavan will have to be secondary and we say it is a fake love and it is conditional love. Extending the same law baghavan also really loves himself only. Does it mean that Bhagavan does not love the world? Bhagavan loves the world.How can both be correct? It is as in the case of jnani.
Bhagavan also only loves himself truly
You apply the same rule to baghavan also. Baghavan is jnani and baghavan also is Selfish and if he says that I love myself, that myself includes the world and all creations including the devotees and the world and Laxmi Devi. For this, there is a pramanam also. The pramanam we get in the seventh chapter of Gita. Bhagavan defines four types of devotees.
priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham
ahaṁ sa ca mama priyaḥ BG 7-17.
Then he says jnani is dearest to me; why he is dearest to me? He himself gives reasons in the next sloka.
Not that I love jnani very much and all and to tell you the secret that I love myself. I love jnani dearest because jñānī tv ātmaiva me matam – jnani happens to be myself and I love myself and therefore I love the jnani.
Baghavan loves ajnani as well, because ajnani is himself only. Then why there is problem for ajnani and for jnani there is no problem. Ajnani is selfish with small ‘s’ and therefore his love is limited to small Atma and therefore raga dvesa fake love and pretension etc. is there. Ajnani is selfish and jnani is also selfish. Ajnani has problem because his self is small and jnani has no problem because his Self is all encompassing.
Let us look at the mantra.
Atma is dearer than son, wealth and everything else
tadetatpreyaḥ putrāt – tadeatat atma tatvam. Atma tatvam from manta 1.4.7. This atma tatvam is preyah. Preyah is comparative degree. Preyah means dearer to putrat.
Everybody thinks that his son is dearest one to him. Upanisad attacks the primary misconception and says that Atma is dearer than even to the putra. This is extended to all the other things. preyo vittāt – Atma is dearer than wealth.
preyo'nyasmāt sarvasmād – dearer than everything else, meaning that atma tatvam is the dearest.
One loves the family or the country and ready to sacrifice only because of association with oneself
Then how do you account for people who sacrifice their lives? How do you account for people who sacrifice for their children, who sacrifice their life for their country and so on?
Vedanta gives the answer without getting perturbed. When you look at the statement, people sacrifice life for their children and for their country. Which means that I love my children and my country. This love is conditional love only. I sacrifice only when the children or the country etc., are associated with me. This tendency, we call it as Atma sambandha eva etat sambavati in vedanta. My love is only for my country because it is associated with me.
Before partition, when we say I love my country that country included Pakistan and Bangladesh. Now it is not so. Now when the cyclone goes, we say, it has to go somewhere. We are philosophical. All are story. I am ready for sacrifice because atma sheshatvad eva country snehah – I love my country; I love my people etc only for my sake. The law holds good and there are no exceptions.
What is nearer is dearer
Why is the Atma dearest? Because antarataram – innermost. Atma is the closest and the innermost to anyone. Here also another law is envisaged. Whatever is closer to me is dearer to me. Whatever is farther to me is less and less dear to me. The loss of good neighbour you love is more touching to you more than the loss of a relation who is far away.
Farther a thing, less loved it is and closer a thing it is loved more. Atma is closest and therefore it is loved most. antarataram – closest to me. Later I understand that even the world is not away from me and then the love for world also comes. Therefore, Atma is innermost essence and so it is loved most.
Footnote: mayi eva sakalam jatam mayi sarvam pratisthitam | kaivalya upanisad 19
Note: This write up is a slightly edited version of the transcript which has been kindly uploaded by Arsha Avinash at the following link.
Brihadaranyaka Upanisad -Swami Paramarthananda
Further Reading:
bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat 2.4.5 and 4.5.6
asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ nāma cetyaṃśapañcakam ।
ādyatrayaṃ brahmarūpaṃ jagadrūpaṃ tato dvayam ॥ 20॥ Drg Drsya Viveka
The ultimate Truth about Love is found in bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat mantras.
This article is a transcript of Swami Paramarthanandaji's talks.
You can listen to the Swami Paramarthanandaji’s talks on bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat Mantra 1.4.8 as per the link below.
The mantra is given below.
तदेतत्प्रेयः पुत्रात् प्रेयो वित्तात् प्रेयोऽन्यस्मात् सर्वस्माद्
अन्तरतरम् यदयमात्मा।
स योऽन्यमात्मनः प्रियं ब्रुवाणं ब्रूयात्
प्रियं रोत्स्यतीतीश्वरो ह तथैव स्याद्
आत्मानमेव प्रियमुपासीत।
स य आत्मानमेव प्रियमुपास्ते
न हास्य प्रियं प्रमायुकं भवति॥ 1.4.8॥
tadetatpreyaḥ putrāt preyo vittāt preyo'nyasmāt sarvasmād
antarataram yadayamātmā |
sa yo'nyamātmanaḥ priyaṁ bruvāṇaṁ brūyāt
priyam rotsyatītīśvaro ha tathaiva syād
ātmānameva priyamupāsīta |
sa ya ātmānameva priyamupāste
na hāsya priyaṁ pramāyukaṁ bhavati || 1.4.8 ||
Atma is the dearest to all
This is another important verse, which is very often quoted by Sankaracharya. Essence of this mantra is that the Atma (jivatma which is identical with paramatma – parmatma abinna jivatma is priyatamah) is ‘dearest’ to all.
To put it in a comparative degree, the upanisad says that Atma is dearer than everything else in the creation, whether it is Putrah (son), whether it is Vittham (wealth), whether it is Griham (house, property), whether it patni (wife) or for that matter anything. After giving one or two examples, upanisad says anyasmad sarvasmad. Upanisad generalizes that atma is dearer than everything else.
Law 1: You love only two things - sukham and sukha sadhanam
Now before going to the actual meaning of this mantra we will make a small analysis of this ‘concept’ as to how Atma is the dearest. In vedanta we say that there are only two things, which are loved by all people. These are the universal and unshakable laws that the series we are going to see now. There are only two things which are loved in the world by all people. First one is sukham, anandah, or happiness.
And the second thing is sukha sadhanam – a means through which one gets sukham is sukham sadhanam. First one is sukham, which is the sadhyam. One is sukham the sadhyam and the other is sukha sadhanam. This is a universal law. You can try to find an exception to this law. But you cannot find any. Everyone runs after anything because he finds sukham – happiness in that. Other than happiness, if he runs after anything else, because it is the cause of happiness whether it is T.V., money, food, friends or even the class etc. If you do not enjoy attending Swamiji’s class, that will be the first casuality. This is the first law.
Law 2(a): Love for sukham is unconditional
Now we will see the law number two. The love for sukham or the sadhyam for sukham is primary and it is most important because it is unconditional.
I love sukham because it is sukham. There are no conditions to love sukham. Whereas the love for sukha sadhanam is secondary because it is conditional. Swamiji does not want to use the word “means to happiness”, even though it is the correct meaning. The love for sukha sadhanam is not because it is anything else, but I love sukha sadhanam because it gives me sukham. The moment it ceases to be a sukha sadhanam and stops giving me pleasure or sukham I will not love it.
Secondly once I have attained the sadhyam through the sadhanam thereafter wards the sadhanam is no more loved. That sadhanam is rejected. Therefore love for sukha sadhanam is only for getting sadhyam and once the sadhyam is attained, sadhanam becomes irrelevant.
Law 2(b): Love for sukha sadhanam is a fake love
So the second law is that the love for sukham is primary because it is unconditional. The love for sukha sadhanam is secondary because it is conditional. In fact love for sukha sadhanam is not real love at all. It is a fake one. Sukha sadhanam is the love for sukha, which is falsely appearing in sukha sadhanam. As an example if somebody says that when a person is rich, I love; when he is not rich I don’t love. That means that I approached him not because of person or someone for his sake but it is his ‘richness’ in him and therefore love for richness is ‘seemingly appearing’ upon the rich person that attracts me.
Therefore it is a transferred love; and it is a seeming love; and it is a fake love. This nyaya is saadhya iccha saadhane sankraamati. The love or desire for the sadhyam alone is falsely appearing on the sadhanam, that means once the sadhyam is gained, the love for sadhanam we will put back on sadhyam. We have only one real love and the other is fake love. Sukha iccha is real and sukha sadhana iccha is unreal. This is the second maxim of love.
First maxim: There are only two things loved. Sukham and sukha sadhanam.
Second maxim: Love for sukham alone is primary and in fact real, because it is unconditional. Love for sukha sadhanam is secondary and in fact unreal, because it is conditional.
Law 3: Atma alone is sukham
Now the third point is that from the scriptures we come to know that Atma alone is sukham. And anatma is asukham (dukham) and it is not sukham. From this maxim we will see what all corollaries we get? Now we have to connect the second and the third maxim. Sukham alone is truly loved and sukha sadhanam is untruly loved. Apply the third maxim. Atma is sukham and therefore we say atma alone is primarily loved by all.
| Atma alone is primarily loved by all. Atma alone is really loved by all. Atma alone is unconditionally loved by all. |
If there is love for anatma whether it is son or any living being or any object, house, money are all anatma; everything else is anatma. If at all they are loved, they are loved only as sukha sadhanam. We therefore find that towards everything or every person there is either there is no love or they are loved as sukha sadhanams. And if anatma is loved as sukha sadhanam what type of love it can be? It will be secondary love or conditional love or to put it bluntly, it is a fake love and it is not at all the real love.
Nothing else in the creation is truly loved. I love anything because it gives me anandah. I love it for my own sake. Either it is for ananda sake or for my own sake. This is technically called Atma Seshatwam. For my own sake, as related to me alone I love. I love anything conditionally because it happens to be a sukha sadhanam. The moment it happens it stops to be sukha sadhanam I will drop it like a hot potato. All the tragic stories if at all are there in different families are because the family members stop to be sukha sadhanam.
All problems in any family strife or strain in the relationship is because one is loved as a sukha sadhanam and once that person stops to be sukha sadhanam, I struggle to reject that person or the thing; either I reject openly which is called separation or I reject mentally which is called the inner rejection of things and being which is hatred. All this is because the so-called sukha sadhanam has ceased to be sukha sadhanam or still worse it has become dukha sadhanam. A car, which runs without any problem, is sukha sadhanam and when it stops running due to any problem it becomes dukha sadhanam and on such occasions you even love to leave that car.
Cause for rejection
Similarly all over the world we see only the rejections take place. Vedanta says it is not the mistake of their change in character. If you are rejected it is not because of other person’s mistake but it is your own mistake that you expected unconditional love from other people. Vedanta says nobody can give that.
From this, we get a corollary discussion. We have said everybody loves oneself alone. Nobody can really love another thing or person. We extend this to everything including religion and even god. Even love for the god cannot be as true and as primary and or as unconditional as the love for oneself.
Sometimes devotees become irreligious when some tragedy strikes against all their prayers.
I love as long as family members keep the prestige. Otherwise I do not want to even claim the relationship.
Popular Commandments Debunked
We see that everybody is selfish and the command "service before the self" cannot be practised. Love for self is more than god; love for self is more than for other people; you love your self more than anything else.
There is no question of service before self. Commands can work only where there is a choice. Self love is therefore is a fact and we cannot love anything else including god. The command "Love all more than yourself" should never be preached. Commandments such as "Love thy neighbour more than your self" etc, will not work.
Vedanta challenges and it aims to shake out every belief. Now we get into a fundamental question. In the vedanta itself it is said that a jnani loves everyone unconditionally, as if himself. He has universal, unconditional, and primary love. Refer to Bhagavad Gita 6-32.
आत्मौपम्येन सर्वत्र समं पश्यति योऽर्जुन।
सुखं वा यदि वा दुःखं स योगी परमो मतः॥ BG 6-32
ātmaupamyena sarvatra samaṁ paśyati yo'rjuna |
sukhaṁ vā yadi vā duḥkhaṁ sa yogī paramo mataḥ || BG 6-32
Jnani's love is also Selfish
As per the above Gita verse, jnani loves everyone as much as himself.
The law that one can only love oneself unconditionally, one cannot love other people unconditionally seems to be violated in the case of jnani. How can jnani love all?
Now we have to reconcile these two contradictory statements. Law in upanisad says that we can love ourself only truly. We cannot love others unconditionally. The second statement in Gita is that jnani loves everyone truly, unconditionally, fully and primarily.
Does it mean that this upanisad law is not applicable to jnani? Vedanta says that this is true even for a jnani. That jnani is also selfish alone. Because everybody can love only oneself and jnani is not an exception.
Bhagavan also only loves atma or himself truly
In fact, vedanta takes one more step and says even baghavan has to obey this law. Bhagavan also loves atma, himself truly. Now does that mean baghavan does not love his devotees? Does not a Jnani love his fellow beings?
Vedanta says that you can reconcile the upanisad law and Gita statement only in one way. Jnani is also selfish. He is no exception to the rule. He also loves himself only as is the case with other ajnani jiva.
| Still the love of a jnani is universal because of one thing that he has discovered himself to be all. He has discovered everything to be non-different from himself. |
Now apply this law. I love myself only. Still I am able to love you because you are not different from me. For the universe is non-different from me. I love myself only and if I love god; primarily it is because god is non-different from me.
| Jnani is Selfish and we should put the letter ‘s’ in the capital. In that ‘S’ jivatma, paramatma, jagat, ants etc., are all included. Since I am all, I love myself, and therefore I love all. |
Nobody can love Bhagavan more than themselves
Whereas all other people who say baghavan is different from themselves, they can never love baghavan primarily. No dvaitin can love baghavan primarily, because of the universal law that everybody loves oneself. Therefore the love for bahgavan of a dvaitin will have to be a secondary or fake love.
Any Dvaitin whoever sees Lord as different, for him Lord becomes anatma and anatma can only be loved as sukha sadhanam. Thus Lord will become sukha sadhanam and therefore love for baghavan will have to be secondary and we say it is a fake love and it is conditional love. Extending the same law baghavan also really loves himself only. Does it mean that Bhagavan does not love the world? Bhagavan loves the world.How can both be correct? It is as in the case of jnani.
Bhagavan also only loves himself truly
You apply the same rule to baghavan also. Baghavan is jnani and baghavan also is Selfish and if he says that I love myself, that myself includes the world and all creations including the devotees and the world and Laxmi Devi. For this, there is a pramanam also. The pramanam we get in the seventh chapter of Gita. Bhagavan defines four types of devotees.
priyo hi jñānino 'tyartham
ahaṁ sa ca mama priyaḥ BG 7-17.
Then he says jnani is dearest to me; why he is dearest to me? He himself gives reasons in the next sloka.
Not that I love jnani very much and all and to tell you the secret that I love myself. I love jnani dearest because jñānī tv ātmaiva me matam – jnani happens to be myself and I love myself and therefore I love the jnani.
Baghavan loves ajnani as well, because ajnani is himself only. Then why there is problem for ajnani and for jnani there is no problem. Ajnani is selfish with small ‘s’ and therefore his love is limited to small Atma and therefore raga dvesa fake love and pretension etc. is there. Ajnani is selfish and jnani is also selfish. Ajnani has problem because his self is small and jnani has no problem because his Self is all encompassing.
Let us look at the mantra.
Atma is dearer than son, wealth and everything else
tadetatpreyaḥ putrāt – tadeatat atma tatvam. Atma tatvam from manta 1.4.7. This atma tatvam is preyah. Preyah is comparative degree. Preyah means dearer to putrat.
Everybody thinks that his son is dearest one to him. Upanisad attacks the primary misconception and says that Atma is dearer than even to the putra. This is extended to all the other things. preyo vittāt – Atma is dearer than wealth.
preyo'nyasmāt sarvasmād – dearer than everything else, meaning that atma tatvam is the dearest.
One loves the family or the country and ready to sacrifice only because of association with oneself
Then how do you account for people who sacrifice their lives? How do you account for people who sacrifice for their children, who sacrifice their life for their country and so on?
Vedanta gives the answer without getting perturbed. When you look at the statement, people sacrifice life for their children and for their country. Which means that I love my children and my country. This love is conditional love only. I sacrifice only when the children or the country etc., are associated with me. This tendency, we call it as Atma sambandha eva etat sambavati in vedanta. My love is only for my country because it is associated with me.
Before partition, when we say I love my country that country included Pakistan and Bangladesh. Now it is not so. Now when the cyclone goes, we say, it has to go somewhere. We are philosophical. All are story. I am ready for sacrifice because atma sheshatvad eva country snehah – I love my country; I love my people etc only for my sake. The law holds good and there are no exceptions.
What is nearer is dearer
Why is the Atma dearest? Because antarataram – innermost. Atma is the closest and the innermost to anyone. Here also another law is envisaged. Whatever is closer to me is dearer to me. Whatever is farther to me is less and less dear to me. The loss of good neighbour you love is more touching to you more than the loss of a relation who is far away.
Farther a thing, less loved it is and closer a thing it is loved more. Atma is closest and therefore it is loved most. antarataram – closest to me. Later I understand that even the world is not away from me and then the love for world also comes. Therefore, Atma is innermost essence and so it is loved most.
Footnote: mayi eva sakalam jatam mayi sarvam pratisthitam | kaivalya upanisad 19
Note: This write up is a slightly edited version of the transcript which has been kindly uploaded by Arsha Avinash at the following link.
Brihadaranyaka Upanisad -Swami Paramarthananda
Further Reading:
bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣat 2.4.5 and 4.5.6
asti bhāti priyaṃ rūpaṃ nāma cetyaṃśapañcakam ।
ādyatrayaṃ brahmarūpaṃ jagadrūpaṃ tato dvayam ॥ 20॥ Drg Drsya Viveka