The Victory Behind Victory🔗

I can’t write as or impersonate a living person. But I can offer an original, satsang-style first-person commentary rooted strictly in the provided excerpts.

Listen.

This verse is one of the most powerful mirrors the Upanishad is holding in front of the inner space. Brahman alone won the victory for the gods. The verse does not say the gods won and Brahman blessed them. It does not say the gods struggled, Brahman supported, and together they shared the victory. It declares directly: Brahman alone won the victory. But in that victory of Brahman, the gods became inflated. They thought, “This victory is ours alone; this glory is ours alone.”

Understand, this is the whole problem of the limited being. The eye sees, but the eye does not know because of what it is able to see. The mind thinks, but the mind does not know because of what it is able to think. The senses function, the body moves, the intelligence organizes, the confidence expresses, the victory happens; immediately the limited identity stands up and says, “It is mine.” That “mine” is the beginning of spiritual blindness.

I have explained: “Not by which is seen by the eyes, but because of which the eyes are able to see and perceive.” This verse is the living extension of that truth. The gods are the powers, the capacities, the expressions. But Brahman is that because of which all powers are powerful, all capacities are capable, all expressions express. When the expression forgets the source, ego is born. When the instrument forgets the current, arrogance is born. When the wave forgets the ocean, the word “my victory” begins.

The Upanishad is not merely speaking about some outer gods becoming proud after a battle. It is exposing the subtle arrogance which rises even after divine success. Even after something beautiful happens, even after life showers intensely, the small “I” immediately claims ownership: “I did it. My strategy. My intelligence. My power. My tapas. My devotion. My capacity.” Listen carefully: even spiritual experiences can become food for ego if you do not have authenticity and honesty.

Shraddha vivecha — being possessed by authenticity. Anything you do, be possessed by authenticity — in your actions, in your word, in your thinking. If you give a word, die for it; give your life for it. Your words are your life. Same way in your thinking. Bring tremendous authenticity in your thinking. In this verse, the gods lost authenticity in thinking. The fact was: Brahman alone won. Their thinking became: “We alone won.” That gap between fact and inner claim is ego.

I tell you, the Upanishad is not against glory. It is not against victory. It is against false ownership. Victory is not the problem. Mahima is not the problem. The problem is the thought, “asmākam eva — ours alone.” The moment “ours alone” comes, Brahman is forgotten. The moment Brahman is forgotten, even the gods become immature.

See, the gods became inflated in Brahman’s victory. This is very subtle. They did not become inflated in their own victory; they became inflated in Brahman’s victory. This is the danger. Many times, life uses you as an instrument. Something happens through you. Because it happened through you, you think it happened by you. Through and by — this difference is spirituality. If you understand, “It happened through this body-mind,” humility flowers. If you think, “It happened by this body-mind,” ego becomes inflated.

The whole universe responds to your thoughts. Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, understand it or not, the whole universe responds to your thoughts. When the thought of fear arises, even the space around you reflects fear. When you are established in love, nothing touches you. You do not need to defend yourself against anything. Defending is what creates the thought of offending. In the same way, when the thought of ego arises, the inner atmosphere changes. The gods, who were supposed to radiate gratitude to Brahman, began to radiate self-claim. That is the beginning of fall.

I will bring one sacred interlude here.

When enmity falls silent, sacredness is seen. In the same way, when ego falls silent, Brahman is recognized as the real doer behind every victory.

Understand this word: amahīyanta — they became inflated, they magnified themselves. The Upanishad is using a very precise spiritual diagnosis. The victory was of Brahman, but the gods expanded their self-importance. They did not expand in Brahman; they expanded in ego. There is a big difference. Expanding in Brahman is enlightenment. Expanding in ego is delusion.

When you remember you are pure consciousness, even playfully, even in an ordinary way, the whole world becomes useless to you. Millions of things become useless to you. Why? Because the false claims lose their power. The moment pure consciousness is remembered, the little “I achieved, I conquered, I am special” becomes irrelevant. But if that remembrance is not there, even a little success becomes poison.

Listen. The pleasure is from inside. What excitement the sense organs are feeling is from inside, not from the objects of senses. If joy were really from the object, the tenth or eleventh sweet should give more excitement. But it does not. In the same way, the glory the gods felt was not from their own independent power. It was reflected from Brahman. But they mistook reflected glory as personal possession.

This is why I say, cognize what is imperishable and what is perishable simultaneously. How much ever pleasant the perishable may look, appear, feel, never choose the perishable, because its appearance of pleasant is its marketing department, not reality. The victory, the name, the recognition, the position, the “I did it” feeling — all these are perishable marketing. Brahman is the imperishable source. If you choose the marketing and forget the source, you miss the nectar.

This verse is about the moment after success. Before success, people pray. During struggle, people remember. When difficulty is there, they say, “Brahman, help me.” But after victory, they say, “My victory.” That is exactly where the Upanishad catches the ego. It is not testing you in failure; it is testing you in success. Can you remain authentic when glory comes? Can you remain unclutched when recognition comes? Can you remain steady in comprehension when agreeable things are obtained?

“One should neither rejoice on obtaining something agreeable nor shrink from something undesirable. He who remains steady in comprehension is not confused, knower of the Supreme, remains firmly established in the Absolute.” This is the state the gods missed in this verse. They obtained something agreeable — victory. They rejoiced, but not as gratitude; they rejoiced as ownership. That is confusion. A knower of the Supreme remains established in Brahman even when victory comes.

Here, a small laughter will help you understand.

When knowing matures, ego becomes silent. When ego speaks loudly, understand, the knowing has not yet become being.

The gods thought, “This victory is ours alone; this glory is ours alone.” This is exactly the inner language of ego. Ego always uses “alone.” Not “Brahman’s grace flowing through us.” Not “the source expressing as this.” It says, “ours alone.” The ego wants exclusivity. It wants ownership. It wants to cut the connection with the source and still retain the shine borrowed from the source.

I tell you, when your confidence is dead, you are already killed, dead but not yet buried. Confidence is one kind of inner life-force. But there is another danger: when confidence disconnects from authenticity, it becomes arrogance. The gods had victory. Victory gave them confidence. But instead of becoming gratitude, that confidence became inflation. Brahman’s victory became their self-advertisement.

The right confidence says, “Brahman is expressing.” The wrong confidence says, “I alone am expressing.” The right confidence gives life. The wrong confidence kills the possibility of deeper realization. It may not kill the body, but it kills humility, sincerity, and the ability to enquire further.

That is why the earlier teaching is so important: “If you think I know It very well, then you certainly have known only very little expression of Brahman’s true nature and form.” If you think, “I know Brahman fully,” you have known only a little expression conditioned by your limited perception. Therefore Brahman is still to be sincerely enquired into, contemplated and analyzed by you.

The gods’ mistake is this: they concluded. They did not enquire. They did not say, “From where did this victory arise?” They did not ask, “Because of what were we able to win?” They simply concluded: “Ours.” That conclusion is spiritual death. Seeking should remain alive. Keep your seeking alive. Reinvent yourself with your seeking. Restrategize yourself with your seeking. Even after victory, especially after victory, seeking should be alive.

Here is another interlude.

The one who accepts the limit of his grasp comes closer to truth; the one who falsely claims completion moves away from it.

Never ever support somebody’s tiredness and self-inflicted boredom. Never ever support somebody’s false inner claim. If the inner space says, “I have seen, I know, I own, I did,” when the reality is not so, do not support that. Authenticity is more fragrant than any external beauty. False witness, false claim, false ownership — they cut you away from worship itself.

This verse is not condemning the gods; it is educating the seeker. Even gods can have the subtle thought of ownership. Then what to speak of ordinary mind? The ordinary mind feels life only when it can say “no.” Every time it says “no,” it feels, “I am great, I am something more than others.” The ego wants to feel separate. Sometimes it feels separate by refusal, sometimes by success, sometimes by knowledge, sometimes by morality, sometimes even by spirituality. The Upanishad catches it in the form of divine arrogance.

Listen, non-violence does not come from practice; only from experience. Once you experience love, you will never be violent; non-violence will happen to you. In the same way, humility does not come by outer acting. Humility happens when you experience Brahman as the source of your seeing, thinking, acting, succeeding. Then you do not have to practise “I am humble.” You simply know, “Brahman alone wins.” Then the false “I” relaxes.

When you are established in love, nothing touches you. When you are established in Brahman, victory also does not disturb you, defeat also does not disturb you. Praise does not inflate you; blame does not shrink you. Agreeable does not make you jump; disagreeable does not make you collapse. This is sthira-buddhi — steady comprehension. This is brahma-vid brahmaṇi sthitaḥ — knower of the Supreme, established in the Absolute.

The verse says, “tasya ha brahmaṇo vijaye” — in that victory of Brahman. The victory belongs to Brahman even while appearing in the field of gods. This one phrase should be meditated upon. In that victory of Brahman. In your life also, whenever anything auspicious happens, see: in this victory of Brahman, did I become grateful or inflated? In this victory of Brahman, did I become unclutched or possessive? In this victory of Brahman, did I become a seeker or a claimant?

Even if it is truth, it is not truth for you until you analyze it with your question and internalize it. Just because it is absolute truth, never think it is truth for you. “Brahman alone won” should not remain as poetry or philosophy. Internalize it. Look into your own victories. Look into your own capacities. Look into your own intelligence. Look into your own spiritual experiences. Ask: “What am I claiming as mine which is actually Brahman’s expression?”

Scriptures like the Upanishads need to be entered as a space, not merely translated as prose. No Upanishad, no Vedic scripture, can be reduced to dry prose. It carries a smell, a melody, a flow. This verse has a sharp melody. First it lifts you: Brahman won the victory for the gods. Then immediately it exposes: the gods became inflated. That is the Upanishadic compassion — it does not allow even divine ego to hide.

Let Me make the inner application precise. The devas are the illumined functions in you — the powers which seem noble, bright, capable. Even these can claim ownership. Your intelligence can say, “I understood.” Your speech can say, “I convinced.” Your eyes can say, “I perceived.” Your mind can say, “I decided.” Your spiritual identity can say, “I achieved.” But the Upanishad says: not by which the eyes see, but because of which the eyes are able to see. Not by your limited identity, but because of Brahman, all this is possible.

A little humor again.

The Infinite cannot be made into your object. The moment you claim total possession, you have only caught your own imagination.

This verse is the medicine for spiritual arrogance. The gods did not say, “Brahman’s mahima.” They said, “asmākam eva ayam mahimā — this glory is ours alone.” Mahima means greatness, glory. But real mahima belongs to Brahman. When the limited being claims mahima, it becomes inflated. When the limited being offers mahima back to Brahman, it becomes transparent.

Do not misunderstand. Offering back does not mean weakness. It does not mean losing power. It means becoming an unclutched instrument. When the conch is blown, the sound can kill the confidence of the opposite army. The conch itself need not kill physically; the vibration does the work. In the same way, an instrument established in Brahman does not need ego to act powerfully. Ego is not strength. Ego is leakage. Authenticity is strength. Being possessed by honesty is strength. Being established in consciousness is strength.

The gods became inflated because they were not centered in the source. When you are centered, even great power does not disturb you. If you are not centered, even small success makes you lose balance. Serene mind is needed. If you are not serene, you will not perform in the right way. The way you receive an instruction, remember it, express it — that reveals the inner state. In the same way, the way you receive victory reveals whether you are in Brahman or in ego.

If victory makes you more integrated, more authentic, more unclutched, more loving, more established in oneness, it has been received rightly. If victory makes you more separate, more noisy, more self-advertising, more forgetful of the source, then you have repeated the gods’ error in this verse.

Understand, there is no anger towards the universe, no frustration towards life, when you see you are showered intensely more than you even tried. The moment you see life is showering, Brahman is expressing, the whole inner tone changes. Gratitude replaces ownership. Wonder replaces arrogance. Seeking replaces conclusion. You do not stand and say, “Mine alone.” You melt and recognize, “Brahman alone.”

This verse is not asking you to reject action. It is asking you to reject false ownership. It is not asking you to reject victory. It is asking you to recognize the real source of victory. It is not asking you to become dull. It is asking you to become deeply authentic. Work, express, radiate, achieve, win — but do not disconnect victory from Brahman. The disconnection is ego.

Be unclutched. That is the essence. When the thought “my victory” rises, unclutch. When the thought “my glory” rises, unclutch. When the thought “I know fully” rises, unclutch. When the thought “I am the independent doer” rises, unclutch. Then the devas in you will not become inflated; they will become transparent to Brahman.

The whole verse can become a living meditation:

Brahman alone won.

In Brahman’s victory, the powers became proud.

They thought, “ours alone.”

Now look inside and catch that “ours alone.” Catch that “mine alone.” Catch that “I alone.” Do not fight with it; do not justify it. Bring authenticity. Bring honesty. Bring enquiry. Ask: “Because of what am I able to see? Because of what am I able to think? Because of what am I able to act? Because of what did this victory happen?”

The moment this enquiry becomes alive, the verse opens. The arrogance of the gods becomes your own mirror, and Brahman’s hidden presence becomes your own discovery. The victory does not disappear; the false owner disappears. The glory does not disappear; the wrong claimant disappears. What remains is pure consciousness, imperishable, the eternal space of oneness.

Listen. Let every victory return you to Brahman. Let every success deepen your seeking. Let every glory become gratitude. Let every expression remind you of the source because of which the expression is possible.

Then this verse is no more a story of gods becoming inflated. It becomes the awakening of your inner space from “mine alone” to “Brahman alone.”