Churning the Milk For the Butter (Aaatmbindu Upanishad)

 

     Here we touch upon another aspect of knowledge, using yet another simile to assist us. There is no dearth of knowledge, nor of similes to illustrate different aspects of it. If we are interested there are any number of books that can help us. In the modern world the internet has a multitude of subjects that can satisfy the curiosity of any seeker. One person searching on the subject of Yoga, surfed the net and discovered that there are over 10,000 different Yoga ‘companies’ selling Yoga to the world! Example 4: As Butter in Milk We have an excellent simile to describe the inter-relationship of Self-awareness and the mind. The relationship is compared with butter and milk. Butter is the rare commodity that compares with Self-awareness. Interestingly, there are always more dairies supplying milk than there are factories supplying butter. Even fewer are the suppliers of ghee. The more precious a commodity, the scarcer it becomes. This seems to be the theme of this verse. 1-2 The Self is hidden from our mental perception. It is there in the mind, but cannot be ‘seen’ because of impurities in the mind. It is like butter in milk; it cannot be seen but we know it is there. In the case of the Self, we have to have faith in the scriptures to believe that it is there. Then only will we consider churning the mind. 3-4 Enlightenment is hard work. It is something that is already there. Yet much churning of the mind is needed in order to ‘see’ it. The churning refers to the intense Mananam or Japa of the Lord’s Name that needs to be done in order to bring out the butter of enlightenment. We have to go on working on the mind over a protracted period until the result comes. When it comes, it is rather sudden, as sudden as the appearance of butter.