Upanishad

 

The Upanishad are among the best-known philosophical-religious works in the world and also among the oldest as the earliest texts are thought to have been composed between 800-500 BCE. These works are philosophical dialogues relating to the concepts expressed by the Veda, the central scriptures of Hinduism. Adherents of Hinduism know the faith as Sanatana Dharma meaning “Eternal Order” or “Eternal Path”, and this order is thought to be revealed through the Vedas whose concepts are believed to be direct knowledge communicated from Brahman.

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The Upanishad are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hinduism. They are the most recent addition to the Veda, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal with meditation, philosophy, consciousness, and ontological knowledge. Earlier parts of the Veda dealt with Mantra, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices.

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While among the most important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture, the Upanishad document a wide variety of "rites, incantations, and esoteric knowledge" departing from Vedic ritualism and interpreted in various ways in the later commentarial traditions. The Upanishad are widely known, and their diverse ideas, interpreted in various ways, informed later traditions of Hinduism. The central concern of all Upanishad is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person, postulating Atman and Brahman as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe," but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.

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Around 108 Upanishad are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main (Mukhya) Upanishad. The Mukhya Upanishad are found mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmana and Aranyaka and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down orally. The Mukhya Upanishad predate the Common Era, but there is no scholarly consensus on their date, or even on which ones are pre- or post-Buddhist. The Brhadaranyaka is seen as particularly ancient by modern scholars.

 

Of the remainder, 95 Upanishad are part of the Muktika canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE. New Upanishad, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to be composed through the early modern and modern era, though often dealing with subjects that are unconnected to the Veda. The Mukhya Upanishad, along with the Bhagavad-Gita and the Brahmasutra (known collectively as the Prasthanatrayi), are interpreted in divergent ways in the several later schools of Vedanta.

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The word Veda means “knowledge” and the four Veda are believed to contain the essential knowledge of the universe and how an individual is to live in it. The term Upanishad means to “sit down closely” as if drawing near to listen to some important instruction. The Veda provide the broad strokes of how the universe works and how one is to respond; the Upanishad then give instruction on the specifics of an individual's response.

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The Upanishad are referred to as Vedanta – “the conclusion of the Veda” – in that they complete the sacred revelation received by the sages at some point in the ancient past. The Veda are considered Shruti (“what is heard”) in that they were received by sages in a deeply meditative state directly from God. They were then preserved in oral tradition until written down between c. 1500 - c. 500 BCE. The Upanishad are also considered by orthodox Hindu as Shruti in that the wisdom and insight they contain appears too profound to have originated in the mind of a human being. There are between 180-200 Upanishad in total but the best known are the 13 which are embedded in the texts of the Veda.

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The Upanishad reveal the desire to obtain the mystical knowledge that ensures freedom from “re-death” (Punarmrityu), or birth and death in a new existence. Throughout the later Vedic period, the idea that the world of heaven is not the end of existence - and that even in heaven death is inevitable - became increasingly common. Vedic thinkers became concerned about the impermanence of religious merit and its loss in the hereafter, as well as about the transience of any form of existence after death - an existence that would culminate in re-death. The means of escaping and conquering death devised in the Brahmana were of a ritual nature, but one of the oldest Upanishad, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, emphasizes the knowledge of the cosmic connection underlying ritual. When the doctrine of the identity of atman (the self) and brahman (the Absolute) was established in the Upanishads, those sages who were inclined to meditative thought substituted the true knowledge of the self and the realization of this identity for the ritual method.

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Division of the Upanishad

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According to the Muktikopanishad, the 108 Upanishad are divided according to four Veda are as follows:

• 10 Upanishad from the Rigveda

• 19 Upanishad from the Shukla-Yajurveda

• 32 Upanishad from the Krishna-Yajurveda

• 16 Upanishad from the Samaveda and

• 31 Upanishad from the Atharvaveda.

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The Principal 13 Upanishad, related to the Veda are:

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Rig Veda :

1. (1) Aitareya Upanishad

2. (2) Kaushitaki Upanishad

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Shukla-Yajurveda:

1. (3) Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

2. (4) Isha Upanishad

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Krishna-Yajurveda:

1. (5) Taittiriya Upanishad

2. (6) Katha Upanishad

3. (7) Shvetashvatara Upanishad

4. (8) Maitrayaniya Upanishad

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Sama Veda:

1. (9) Chandogya Upanishad

2. (10) Kena Upanishad

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Atharva Veda:

1. (11) Mundaka Upanishad

2. (12) Mandukya Upanishad

3. (13) Prashna Upanishad

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Major Theme Of The Upanishad

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The Upanishad are religious and philosophical treatises. They constitute the last phase of the Vedic revelation. They represent the knowledge of Brahman (Brahma-Vidya). What is this world? Who am I? What becomes of me after death? – Such questions are asked and answered in these Upanishad. The essential theme of the Upanshad is the nature of the world and God. Already in the hymns of the Rig Veda, we notice here and there a shift of emphasis from the innumerable gods to the one Infinite as in the famous passage. ‘Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti ‘. This becomes more pronounced in the Upanishad and is very well illustrated here. The doctrine of true knowledge and salvation are major subjects of the Upanishadic philosophy. These treatises mark the culmination of the earlier line of investigation into the nature of ultimate reality.

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In the Upanishad, we get an intelligible body of verified and verifiable spiritual insights mixed with a mass of myths and legends and cosmological speculations relating to the nature and origin of universe. Besides, Brahman and His creation, are also discussed in these texts.. The principal contents of the Upanishads are philosophical speculations. The spirit of their contents is anti-ritualistic.

 

The Upanishad contain four sentences, the Mahāvākya (Great Sayings), which were used by Shankara to establish the identity of Atman and Brahman as scriptural truth:

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• "Prajñānam brahma" - "Consciousness is Brahman" (Aitareya Upanishad)

• "Aham brahmāsmi" - "I am Brahman" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)

• "Tat tvam asi" - "That Thou art" (Chandogya Upanishad)

• "Ayamātmā brahma" - "This Atman is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad)

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Importance Of The Upanishad

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The Upanishad are associated with the Veda and make the entire range of Vedic knowledge as complete. ‘The Upanishad generally mention the Veda and their study with respect. Certain verses from the Veda, such as the Gayatri, form the subject of meditation here.

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Brahmavidya or the knowledge of Brahman, the Supreme Reality is the great kingdom of the principal Upanishad. They give importance to ‘Knowledge’ alone. Any one having knowledge may be Guru or Acarya. Even kings approached to them for the attainment of knowledge. The story of Satyakama Jabala, who though unable to give his father’s name, was yet initiated into spiritual life, shows this fact. In the Chandogya Upanishad (4.1-3) Raikva a Brahmana not by caste but by his knowledge, instructed King Janashruti. In the same Upanishad (5.3), the King Pravahana instructed the Brahmana Gautama in the new doctrine of transmigration. This story together with the one in which King Ashvapati Kaikeya instructed five Brahmana in the doctrine of Atman (Chan. Up. 5.11) shows that for Upanishad knowledgeable

person is the most important and not the Brahmana, Kshatriya or anyone else.

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Each of the Veda has many Mahavakya (great sayings). But four Mahavakya found in the Upanishad related to four Veda are very important, thought-provoking and powerful. These spell out the non-duality of the Jiva and the Brahman-Prajnanam Brahma- –RigvedaAham Brahmasm – YajurvedaTattvamasi –- SamvedaAyamatma Brahma –Aharvaveda.

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Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda and the oldest Upanishad. The name means, roughly, “Great Forest Teaching” and it is usually credited to the sage Yajanvalkya (8th century BCE) though this is contested. It begins with the creation of the universe by the god Prajapati who is later identified as an avatar of Brahman. The Atman as the Higher Self, the immortality of the soul, the illusion of duality, and the essential unity of all reality is discussed and explained through the analogy of salt in water:

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As a lump of salt thrown in water dissolves and cannot be taken out again, though wherever we taste the water it is salty, even so, the separate self dissolves in the sea of pure consciousness, infinite and immortal. Separateness arises from identifying the Self with the body, which is made up elements; when this physical identification dissolves, there can be no more separate self. (4.12)

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The Brhadaranyaka Upanishad is among the most famous for establishing the concept of liberation from the cycle of rebirth and death and union of the Atman with Brahman.

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Chandogya Upanishad

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Embedded in the Sama Veda and considered as old as the Brhadaranyaka, though the date of composition is unknown. The text repeats some of the content of the Brhadaranyaka but in metrical form which gives this Upanishad its name from Chanda (poetry/meter). The narratives further develop the concept of Atman-Brahman, the importance of right action in accordance with one's duty, and how the Atman-Brahman connection works.

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This is most famously explained in the passage known as The Story of Shevetaketu. Shevetaketu returns home after twelve years of education, arrogant of his knowledge, and is greeted by his father Uddalaka. Uddalaka asks him whether he has learned “the spiritual wisdom which enables one to hear the unheard, think the unthought, and know the unknown” (6.1.3). Shevetaketu has no idea what he is talking about and so Uddalaka leads him through different lessons on unity pointing out how one comes to know the underlying form of all clay from a single piece of clay or all iron from a single piece of iron. The singular is informed by the collective. Each seemingly separate vessel made of clay participates in the totality of the substance of clay. Uddalaka continues through other examples to a discussion of the individual, the Atman, and Brahman, finally leading his son to the realization of Tat Tvam Asi and the unity of all existence.

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Taittiriya Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda and also considered one of the older Upanishad. The name may derive from the possible author, the sage Tittiri, but this is challenged. The work begins with benedictions praising Brahman, “source of all power”, and the vow to speak the truth and follow the law before asserting the commitment to learn the Veda and asking the Divine for the light of wisdom to illuminate one's life and lead one to unity with the Ultimate Reality. The work continues on the theme of unity and proper ritual until its conclusion in praise of the realization that duality is an illusion and everyone is a part of Brahman and of each other.

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Aitareya Upanishad

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Embedded in the Rig Veda, the Aitareya repeats a number of themes addressed in the first two Upanishad but in a slightly different way. The most notable example is the discussion of the Five Fires of the cycle of human existence: when someone dies, they are cremated (first fire) and then travel as smoke to the other world where they enter storm clouds (second fire) and fall to earth as rain (third fire) to become food eaten by a man (fourth fire) and become semen which enters a woman (fifth fire) to develop into a fetus. The Aitareya emphasizes that this fetus is the Atman of its parents, who guarantees their immortality after its birth and maturity in that they will be remembered but also in the experience of unconditional love. Children and family life, in other words, can provide one with the means of realizing one's connection to Brahman.

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Kausitaki Upanishad

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Embedded in the Rig Veda, this Upanishad also repeats themes addressed elsewhere but focuses on the unity of existence with an emphasis on the illusion of individuality which causes people to feel separated from one another and isolated from Brahman and the world around them. This concept is summed up in the line, “Who are you?” and the response, “I am you” (1.2). The work concludes with a chant on the importance of knowing the underlying form of existence and not relying on superficial appearances to define what one believes to be true in life.

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Kena Upanishad

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Embedded in the Sama Veda, the Kena develops themes from the Kausitaki and others with a focus on epistemology and self-knowledge. The Kena rejects the concept of intellectual pursuit of spiritual truth claiming one can only understand Brahman through self-knowledge, through personal, spiritual work, not through other people's experiences or words in books. The basic concept is summed up in the lines:

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There is only one way to know the Self, and that is to realize him yourself. The ignorant think the Self can be known by the intellect, but the illumined know he is beyond the duality of the knower and the known. (2.3)

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Intellectual pursuits lead to intellectual ends; spiritual truth cannot be apprehended through the work of others, only by one's own efforts.

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Katha Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda, the Katha Upanishad emphasizes the importance of living in the present without worrying about past or future, examination and explanation of the Atman and its relation to the soul/mind of an individual (in the parable of the chariot), the concept of Moksha, vitality of the Vedas and, especially, self-actualization as illustrated in the tale of Nachiketa and Yama, God of Death.

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In this story, young Nachiketa and his father argue and Nachiketa's father angrily tells him to go to death. Obedient to his father's will, he does so but there is no one home when he arrives in the underworld. Nachiketa waits outside of the door of death for three days until Yama returns, apologizes for keeping him waiting, and offers him three wishes to make up for his poor hospitality. The boy asks to be able to return safely to his father, to learn the fire sacrifice of immortality and, most importantly, to know what happens after death. Yama agrees to the first but refuses the last, offering Nachiketa anything else, but the boy refuses. Yama's initial refusal turns out to be a test and he is pleased that Nachiketa could not be tempted by worldly pleasures nor distracted from the search for truth. Yama then reveals to Nachiketa the secret of life: there is no death because the soul is immortal and there is no self because all is one. No one is ever alone, nothing is ever finally lost, and everyone – eventually – will return home to Brahman.

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Isha Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda, the Isha focuses emphatically on unity and the illusion of duality with an emphasis on the importance of performing one's Karma in accordance with one's dharma. The major thrust of the piece is on the importance of recognizing the unity of all existence and the folly of believing one's self to be alone in the world. This concept is best expressed in the passage from 1.6:

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Those who see all creatures in themselves

And themselves in all creatures know no fear.

Those who see all creatures in themselves

And themselves in all creatures know no grief.

How can the multiplicity of life

Delude the one who sees its unity?

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In recognizing the essential oneness of existence, one is liberated from fear, grief, loneliness, bitterness, and other negative emotions. Once freed, one may more easily concentrate on self-actualization.

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Svetasvatara Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda, the Svetasvatara Upanishad was obviously written by a number of different authors at different times and yet maintains a cohesive vision focusing on the First Cause. In some of its opening lines it asks:

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What is the cause of the cosmos? Is it Brahman? From where do we come? By what live? Where shall we find peace at last? What power governs the duality of pleasure and pain by which we are driven? (1.1)

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The work continues to discuss the relationship between the Atman and Brahman and the importance of self-discipline as the means to self-actualization.

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Mundaka Upanishad

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Embedded in the Atharva Veda, the Mundaka Upanishad focuses on personal spiritual knowledge as superior to intellectual/experiential knowledge. As with the other Upanishad, the emphasis is on what lies beneath the veneer of the apprehensible world. The text makes a distinction between higher and lower knowledge with “higher knowledge” defined as self-actualization and “lower knowledge” as any information which comes from an external source, even the Veda. This is clearly expressed in the lines:

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Knowledge is two-fold, higher and lower.

The study of the Vedas, linguistics,

Rituals, astronomy, and all the arts

Can be called lower knowledge. The higher

Is that which lead to Self-realization. (1.3)

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Lower knowledge has its place in one's life but should not be confused with one's existential purpose of self-actualization and union with the Divine. The Mundaka is another among the most popular Upanishad for its emphasis on individual effort to achieve the spiritual understanding that there is no such thing as the isolated individual once one realizes that everyone is related on the most fundamental level and all are on the exact same path.

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Prashna Upanishad

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Embedded in the Atharva Veda, the Prashna Upanishad concerns itself with the existential nature of the human condition beginning with a discussion of how life begins and continuing to thoughts on immortality while addressing subjects such as what constitutes “life” and the nature of meditation/wisdom. It focuses on devotion, finally, as the means to liberate one's self from the cycle of rebirth and death, as expressed in the passage:

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May we hear only what is good for all.

May we see only what is good for all.

May we serve you, Lord of Love, all our life.

May we be used to spread your peace on earth. (1.1.)

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Maitri Upanishad

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Embedded in the Yajur Veda, and also known as the Maitrayaniya Upanishad, this work focuses on the constitution of the soul, the various means by which human beings suffer, and the liberation from suffering through self-actualization. One of the most famous passages discusses the danger of settling for the worship of what one perceives to be (or has been told) are gods instead of seeking Brahman for one's self. Allowing one's self to settle for a “religious” experience instead of a “spiritual” experience cheats one of the chance at a true relationship with the Divine which can only be achieved by individual effort.

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Mandukya Upanishad

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Embedded in the Athar Veda, the Mandukya Upanishad deals with the spiritual significance of the sacred syllable OM as an expression of the self and essential unity of all things. The work begins with the lines, “OM stands for the supreme reality. It is a symbol for what was, what is, and what shall be. OM represents also what lies beyond past, present, and future” (1.1). The Mandukya also discusses the Four States of Consciousness – Waking, Dreaming, Deep Sleep, and Pure – noting that pure consciousness is the underlying form of the other three. This consciousness may be realized by directing one's focus inward to self-improvement and spiritual exercises which clear the mind of external distractions and illusion.

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