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= Upanishads =
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Introduction
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The Upanishads (; , , ) 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 Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal
with meditation, philosophy, consciousness, and ontological knowledge.
Earlier parts of the Vedas dealt with mantras, benedictions, rituals,
ceremonies, and sacrifices.
While among the most important literature in the history of Indian
religions and culture, the Upanishads 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 Upanishads are widely known, and their diverse ideas,
interpreted in various ways, informed later traditions of Hinduism.
The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations
between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human
body/person, postulating Ātman 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.
108 Upanishads 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') Upanishads. The 'mukhya' Upanishads are found mostly in the
concluding part of the 'Brahmanas' and 'Aranyakas' and were, for
centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down orally. The
'mukhya' Upanishads 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 Upanishads are part of the
Muktikā canon, composed from about the last centuries of
1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE. New Upanishads,
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 Vedas. The 'mukhya' Upanishads, 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.
Translations of the Upanishads in the early 19th century started to
attract attention from a Western audience. German philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer was deeply impressed by the Upanishads and called them
"the most profitable and elevating reading which ... is possible in
the world." Modern era Indologists have discussed the similarities
between the fundamental concepts in the Upanishads and the works of
major Western philosophers.
Etymology
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The Sanskrit term ' originally meant “connection” or “equivalence",
but came to be understood as "sitting near a teacher," from 'upa' "by"
and 'ni-ṣad' "sit down", "sitting down near", referring to the student
sitting down near the teacher while receiving spiritual knowledge
(Gurumukh). Other dictionary meanings include "esoteric doctrine" and
"secret doctrine". Monier-Williams' 'Sanskrit Dictionary' notes -
"According to native authorities, Upanishad means setting to rest
ignorance by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit."
Adi Shankaracharya explains in his commentary on the Katha Upanishad
and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the word means 'Ātmavidyā', that is,
"knowledge of the self", or 'Brahmavidyā' "knowledge of Brahman". The
word appears in the verses of many Upanishads, such as the fourth
verse of the 13th volume in the first chapter of the Chandogya
Upanishad. Max Müller as well as Paul Deussen translate the word
'Upanishad' in these verses as "secret doctrine", Robert Hume
translates it as "mystic meaning", while Patrick Olivelle translates
it as "hidden connections".
Authorship
============
The authorship of most Upanishads is unknown. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan
states, "almost all the early literature of India was anonymous, we do
not know the names of the authors of the Upanishads". The ancient
Upanishads are embedded in the Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism's
religious scriptures, which some traditionally consider to be
'apauruṣeya', which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal,
authorless". The Vedic texts assert that they were skillfully created
by 'Rishis' (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter
builds a chariot.
The various philosophical theories in the early Upanishads have been
attributed to famous sages such as Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka Aruni,
Shvetaketu, Shandilya, Aitareya, Balaki, Pippalada, and Sanatkumara.
Women, such as Maitreyi and Gargi, participate in the dialogues and
are also credited in the early Upanishads. There are some exceptions
to the anonymous tradition of the Upanishads. The Shvetashvatara
Upanishad, for example, includes closing credits to sage
'Shvetashvatara', and he is considered the author of the Upanishad.
Many scholars believe that early Upanishads were interpolated and
expanded over time. There are differences within manuscripts of the
same Upanishad discovered in different parts of South Asia,
differences in non-Sanskrit version of the texts that have survived,
and differences within each text in terms of meter, style, grammar and
structure.Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanishads, Oxford
University Press, , pages 583-640F Rusza (2010), The authorlessness of
the philosophical sūtras, Acta Orientalia, Volume 63, Number 4, pages
427-442 The existing texts are believed to be the work of many
authors.
Chronology
============
Scholars are uncertain about when the Upanishads were composed. The
chronology of the early Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states
philosopher and Sanskritist Stephen Phillips, because all opinions
rest on scanty evidence and analysis of archaism, style and
repetitions across texts, and are driven by assumptions about likely
evolution of ideas, and presumptions about which philosophy might have
influenced which other Indian philosophies. Indologist Patrick
Olivelle says that "in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any
dating of these documents [early Upanishads] that attempts a precision
closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards".
Some scholars have tried to analyse similarities between Hindu
Upanishads and Buddhist literature to establish chronology for the
Upanishads. Precise dates are impossible, and most scholars give only
broad ranges encompassing various centuries. Gavin Flood states that
"the Upanisads are not a homogeneous group of texts. Even the older
texts were composed over a wide expanse of time from about 600 to 300
BCE." Stephen Phillips places the early or "principal" Upanishads in
the 800 to 300 BCE range.
Patrick Olivelle, a Sanskrit Philologist and Indologist, gives the
following chronology for the early Upanishads, also called the
Principal Upanishads:
* The 'Brhadaranyaka' and the 'Chandogya' are the two earliest
Upanishads. They are edited texts, some of whose sources are much
older than others. The two texts are pre-Buddhist; they may be placed
in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, give or take a century or so.
* The three other early prose Upanishads--'Taittiriya, Aitareya', and
'Kausitaki' come next; all are probably pre-Buddhist and can be
assigned to the 6th to 5th centuries BCE.
* The Kena is the oldest of the verse Upanishads followed by probably
the Katha, Isa, Svetasvatara, and Mundaka. All these Upanishads were
composed probably in the last few centuries BCE. According to
Olivelle, "All exhibit strong theistic tendencies and are probably the
earliest literary products of the theistic tradition, whose later
literature includes the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas."
* The two late prose Upanishads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, cannot
be much older than the beginning of the common era.
Meanwhile, the Indologist Johannes Bronkhorst argues for a later date
for the Upanishads than has generally been accepted. Bronkhorst places
even the oldest of the Upanishads, such as the 'Brhadaranyaka' as
possibly still being composed at "a date close to Katyayana and
Patañjali [the grammarian]" (i.e., 2nd century BCE).
The later Upanishads, numbering about 95, also called minor
Upanishads, are dated from the late 1st-millennium BCE to mid
2nd-millennium CE. Gavin Flood dates many of the twenty Yoga
Upanishads to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period. Patrick
Olivelle and other scholars date seven of the twenty Sannyasa
Upanishads to likely have been complete sometime between the last
centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE to 300 CE. About half of the
Sannyasa Upanishads were likely composed in 14th- to 15th-century CE.
Geography
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The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads is
considered as northern India. The region is bounded on the west by the
upper Indus valley, on the east by lower Ganges region, on the north
by the Himalayan foothills, and on the south by the Vindhya mountain
range. Scholars are reasonably sure that the early Upanishads were
produced at the geographical center of ancient Brahmanism,
Kuru-Panchala, and Kosala-Videha, a "frontier region" of Brahmanism,
together with the areas immediately to the south and west of these.
This region covers modern Bihar, Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,
Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, eastern Rajasthan, and northern Madhya
Pradesh.
While significant attempts have been made recently to identify the
exact locations of the individual Upanishads, the results are
tentative. Witzel identifies the center of activity in the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as the area of Videha, whose king, Janaka,
features prominently in the Upanishad. The Chandogya Upanishad was
probably composed in a more western than eastern location in the
Indian subcontinent, possibly somewhere in the western region of the
Kuru-Panchala country.
Compared to the Principal Upanishads, the new Upanishads recorded in
the belong to an entirely different region, probably southern India,
and are considerably relatively recent. In the fourth chapter of the
Kaushitaki Upanishad, a location named Kashi (modern Varanasi) is
mentioned.
Muktika canon: major and minor Upanishads
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There are more than 200 known 'Upanishads', one of which, the '
Upanishad, predates 1656 CE and contains a list of 108 canonical
Upanishads, including itself as the last. These are further divided
into Upanishads associated with Shaktism (goddess Shakti), Sannyasa
(renunciation, monastic life), Shaivism (god Shiva), Vaishnavism (god
Vishnu), Yoga, and 'Sāmānya' (general, sometimes referred to as
Samanya-Vedanta).
Some of the Upanishads are categorized as "sectarian" since they
present their ideas through a particular god or goddess of a specific
Hindu tradition such as Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, or a combination of
these such as the Skanda Upanishad. These traditions sought to link
their texts as Vedic, by asserting their texts to be an Upanishad,
thereby a 'Śruti'. Most of these sectarian Upanishads, for example the
Rudrahridaya Upanishad and the Mahanarayana Upanishad, assert that all
the Hindu gods and goddesses are the same, all an aspect and
manifestation of Brahman, the Vedic concept for metaphysical ultimate
reality before and after the creation of the Universe.
Principal Upanishads
======================
The Principal Upanishads, also known as the 'Mukhya Upanishads', can
be grouped into periods. Of the early periods are the 'Brihadaranyaka'
and the 'Chandogya', the oldest.
The Aitareya, Kauṣītaki and Taittirīya Upanishads may date to as early
as the mid-1st millennium BCE, while the remnant date from between
roughly the 4th to 1st centuries BCE, roughly contemporary with the
earliest portions of the Sanskrit epics. One chronology assumes that
the 'Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka, Prasna', and 'Katha
Upanishads' has Buddha's influence, and is consequently placed after
the 5th century BCE, while another proposal questions this assumption
and dates it independent of Buddha's date of birth. The 'Kena',
'Mandukya,' and 'Isa Upanishads' are typically placed after these
Principal Upanishads, but other scholars date these differently. Not
much is known about the authors except for those, like Yajnavalkayva
and Uddalaka, mentioned in the texts. A few women discussants, such as
Gargi and Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkayva, also feature
occasionally.
Each of the principal 'Upanishads' can be associated with one of the
schools of exegesis of the four Vedas ('shakhas'). Many Shakhas are
said to have existed, of which only a few remain. The new 'Upanishads'
often have little relation to the Vedic corpus and have not been cited
or commented upon by any great Vedanta philosopher: their language
differs from that of the classic 'Upanishads', being less subtle and
more formalized. As a result, they are not difficult to comprehend for
the modern reader.
Veda-Shakha-Upanishad association
Veda!!Recension!!Shakha!! Principal Upanishad
Rig Veda Only one recension Shakala Aitareya Upanishad
rowspan=3|Sama Veda rowspan="3" |Only one recension Kauthuma
Chandogya
Jaiminiya 'Kena'
|Ranayaniya
|rowspan=7|Yajur Veda rowspan="5" |Krishna Yajur Veda Katha Katha
Upanishad
|Taittiriya Taittiriya Upanishad
|Maitrayani
|Hiranyakeshi (Kapishthala)
|Kathaka
|rowspan=2|Shukla Yajur Veda Vajasaneyi Madhyandina Isha Upanishad
and
|Kanva Shakha
|rowspan=2|Atharva Veda rowspan="2" |Two recensions Shaunaka
Mandukya Upanishad and Mundaka Upanishad
Paippalada 'Prashna Upanishad'
New Upanishads
================
There is no fixed list of the 'Upanishads' as newer ones, beyond the
Muktika anthology of 108 Upanishads, have continued to be discovered
and composed. In 1908, for example, four previously unknown Upanishads
were discovered in newly found manuscripts, and these were named
'Bashkala', 'Chhagaleya', 'Arsheya', and 'Saunaka', by Friedrich
Schrader, who attributed them to the first prose period of the
Upanishads. The text of three of them, namely the 'Chhagaleya',
'Arsheya', and 'Saunaka', were incomplete and inconsistent, likely
poorly maintained or corrupted.
Ancient Upanishads have long enjoyed a revered position in Hindu
traditions, and authors of numerous sectarian texts have tried to
benefit from this reputation by naming their texts as Upanishads.
These "new Upanishads" number in the hundreds, cover diverse range of
topics from physiology to renunciation to sectarian theories. They
were composed between the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE
through the early modern era (~1600 CE). While over two dozen of the
minor Upanishads are dated to pre-3rd century CE, many of these new
texts under the title of "Upanishads" originated in the first half of
the 2nd millennium CE, they are not Vedic texts, and some do not deal
with themes found in the Vedic Upanishads.
The main Shakta Upanishads, for example, mostly discuss doctrinal and
interpretative differences between the two principal sects of a major
Tantric form of Shaktism called Shri Vidya upasana. The many extant
lists of authentic 'Shakta Upaniṣads' vary, reflecting the sect of
their compilers, so that they yield no evidence of their "location" in
Tantric tradition, impeding correct interpretation. The Tantra content
of these texts also weaken its identity as an Upaniṣad for
non-Tantrikas. Sectarian texts such as these do not enjoy status as
shruti and thus the authority of the new Upanishads as scripture is
not accepted in Hinduism.
Association with Vedas
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All Upanishads are associated with one of the four Vedas--Rigveda,
Samaveda, Yajurveda (there are two primary versions or 'Samhitas' of
the Yajurveda: Shukla Yajurveda, Krishna Yajurveda), and Atharvaveda.
During the modern era, the ancient Upanishads that were embedded texts
in the Vedas, were detached from the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of
Vedic text, compiled into separate texts and these were then gathered
into anthologies of the Upanishads. These lists associated each
Upanishad with one of the four Vedas. Many such lists exist but they
are inconsistent across India in terms of which Upanishads are
included and how the newer Upanishads are assigned to the ancient
Vedas. In south India, the collected list based on Muktika Upanishad,
and published in Telugu language, became the most common by the
19th-century and this is a list of 108 Upanishads. In north India, a
list of 52 Upanishads has been most common.
The Upanishad's list of 108 Upanishads groups the first 13 as
'mukhya', 21 as Sāmānya Vedānta, 18 as Sannyāsa, 14 as Vaishnava, 14
as Shaiva, 8 as Shakta, and 20 as Yoga. The 108 Upanishads as recorded
in the are shown in the table below. The mukhya Upanishads are the
most important and highlighted.
Veda-Upanishad association
Veda !!Number{{sfn|Parmeshwaranand|2000|Mukhya!!Sāmānya !!Sannyāsa
!!Śākta !!Vaiṣṇava !!Śaiva !!Yoga
|Ṛigveda 10 Aitareya, Kauśītāki Ātmabodha, Mudgala Nirvāṇa Tripura,
Saubhāgya-lakshmi, Bahvṛca - Akṣamālika Nādabindu
|Sāmaveda 16 Chāndogya, Kena Vajrasūchi, Maha, Sāvitrī Āruṇi,
Maitreya, Brhat-Sannyāsa, Kuṇḍika (Laghu-Sannyāsa) - Vāsudeva, Avyakta
Rudrākṣa, Jābāli Yogachūḍāmaṇi, Darśana
|Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda 32 Taittiriya, Katha, Śvetāśvatara, Maitrāyaṇi
Sarvasāra, Śukarahasya, Skanda, Garbha, Śārīraka, Ekākṣara, Akṣi
Brahma, (Laghu, Brhad) Avadhūta, Kaṭhasruti Sarasvatī-rahasya
Nārāyaṇa, Kali-Saṇṭāraṇa, Mahānārāyaṇa (Tripād vibhuti), Kaivalya,
Kālāgnirudra, Dakṣiṇāmūrti, Rudrahṛdaya, Pañcabrahma Amṛtabindu,
Tejobindu, Amṛtanāda, Kṣurika, Dhyānabindu, Brahmavidyā, Yogatattva,
Yogaśikhā, Yogakuṇḍalini, Varāha
|Śukla Yajurveda 19 Bṛhadāraṇyaka, Īśa Subala, Mantrika, Niralamba,
Paingala, Adhyatma, Muktikā Jābāla, Bhikṣuka, Turīyātītavadhuta,
Yājñavalkya, Śāṭyāyaniya - Tārasāra - Advayatāraka, Haṃsa, Triśikhi,
Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa
|Atharvaveda 31 Muṇḍaka, Māṇḍūkya, Praśna Ātmā, Sūrya,
Prāṇāgnihotra Āśrama, Nārada-parivrājaka, Paramahamsa, Paramahaṃsa
parivrājaka, Parabrahma Sītā, Devī, Tripurātapini, Bhāvana
Nṛsiṃhatāpanī, Rāmarahasya, Rāmatāpaṇi, Gopālatāpani, Kṛṣṇa,
Hayagrīva, Dattātreya, Gāruḍa Atharvasiras, Atharvaśikha, Bṛhajjābāla,
Śarabha, Bhasma, Gaṇapati Śāṇḍilya, Pāśupata, Mahāvākya
|Total Upaniṣads 108 13 21 18 8 14 14 20
Philosophy
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The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations
between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human
body/person, postulating Ātman 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.
The Upanishads reflect a pluralism of worldviews. While some
Upanishads have been deemed 'monistic', others, including the Katha
Upanishad, are dualistic. The Maitri is one of the Upanishads that
inclines more toward dualism, thus grounding classical Samkhya and
Yoga schools of Hinduism, in contrast to the non-dualistic Upanishads
at the foundation of its Vedanta school. They contain a plurality of
ideas.
The Upanishads include sections on philosophical theories that have
been at the foundation of Indian traditions. For example, the
Chandogya Upanishad includes one of the earliest known declarations of
Ahimsa (non-violence) as an ethical precept.Robert Hume,
[
https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n233/mode/2up
Chandogya Upanishad] 3.17, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Oxford
University Press, pages 212-213 Discussion of other ethical premises
such as Damah (temperance, self-restraint), Satya (truthfulness), Dāna
(charity), Ārjava (non-hypocrisy), Daya (compassion), and others are
found in the oldest Upanishads and many later Upanishads. Similarly,
the Karma doctrine is presented in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which
is the oldest Upanishad.
Development of thought
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While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals and the Brahmanas serve
as a liturgical manual for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the
Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual. The older Upanishads
launch attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who
worships a divinity other than the self is called a domestic animal of
the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Upanishad parodies
those who indulge in the acts of sacrifice by comparing them with a
procession of dogs chanting 'Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink'.
The Kaushitaki Upanishad asserts that "external rituals such as
Agnihotram offered in the morning and in the evening, must be replaced
with inner Agnihotram, the ritual of introspection", and that "not
rituals, but knowledge should be one's pursuit". The Mundaka Upanishad
declares how man has been called upon, promised benefits for, scared
unto and misled into performing sacrifices, oblations and pious works.
Mundaka thereafter asserts this is foolish and frail, by those who
encourage it and those who follow it, because it makes no difference
to man's current life and after-life, it is like blind men leading the
blind, it is a mark of conceit and vain knowledge, ignorant inertia
like that of children, a futile useless practice. The Maitri Upanishad
states,
The opposition to the ritual is not explicit in the oldest Upanishads.
On occasions, the Upanishads extend the task of the Aranyakas by
making the ritual allegorical and giving it a philosophical meaning.
For example, the Brihadaranyaka interprets the practice of
horse-sacrifice or 'ashvamedha' allegorically. It states that the
over-lordship of the earth may be acquired by sacrificing a horse. It
then goes on to say that spiritual autonomy can only be achieved by
renouncing the universe which is conceived in the image of a horse.
In similar fashion, Vedic gods such as the 'Agni', 'Aditya', 'Indra',
'Rudra', 'Visnu', 'Brahma', and others become equated in the
Upanishads to the supreme, immortal, and incorporeal Brahman-Atman of
the Upanishads, god becomes synonymous with self, and is declared to
be everywhere, inmost being of each human being and within every
living creature. The one reality or 'ekam sat' of the Vedas becomes
the 'ekam eva advitiyam' or "the one and only and sans a second" in
the Upanishads. Brahman-Atman and self-realization develops, in the
Upanishad, as the means to moksha (liberation; freedom in this life or
after-life).
According to Jayatilleke, the thinkers of Upanishadic texts can be
grouped into two categories. One group, which includes early
Upanishads along with some middle and late Upanishads, were composed
by metaphysicians who used rational arguments and empirical experience
to formulate their speculations and philosophical premises. The second
group includes many middle and later Upanishads, where their authors
professed theories based on yoga and personal experiences. Yoga
philosophy and practice, adds Jayatilleke, is "not entirely absent in
the Early Upanishads".
The development of thought in these Upanishadic theories contrasted
with Buddhism, since the Upanishadic inquiry fails to find an
empirical correlate of the assumed Atman, but nevertheless assumes its
existence, "[reifying] consciousness as an eternal self." The Buddhist
inquiry "is satisfied with the empirical investigation which shows
that no such Atman exists because there is no evidence," states
Jayatilleke.
Atman and Brahman
===================
The Upanishads postulate Ātman and Brahman as the "summit of the
hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe." Both have
multiple meanings, and various ideas about the relation between Atman
and Brahman can be found.
Atman has "a wide range of lexical meanings, including ‘breath’,
‘spirit’, and ‘body’." In the Upanishads it refers to the body, but
also to the essence of the concrete physical human body, "an essence,
a life-force, consciousness, or ultimate reality." The Chāndogya
Upaniṣhad (6.1-16) "offers an organic understanding of ātman,
characterizing the self in terms of the life force that animates all
living beings," while the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad "characterizes ātman
more in terms of consciousness than as a life-giving essence."
Brahman may refer to a "formulation of truth," but also to "the
ultimate and basic essence of the cosmos," standing at the "summit of
the hierarchical scheme, or at the bottom as the ultimate foundation
of all things." Brahman is "beyond the reach of human perception and
thought." Atman likewise has multiple meanings, one of them being
'self', the inner essence of a human body/person.
Various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be
found. Two distinct, somewhat divergent themes stand out. Older
upanishads state that 'Atman' is part of Brahman but not identical,
while younger Upanishads state that Brahman (Highest Reality,
Universal Principle, Being-Consciousness-Bliss) is identical with
'Atman'. The Brahmasutra by Badarayana ( 100 BCE) synthesized and
unified these somewhat conflicting theories. According to Nakamura,
the Brahmasutras see Atman and Brahman as both different and
not-different, a point of view which came to be called 'bhedabheda' in
later times. According to Koller, the Brahmasutras state that Atman
and Brahman are different in some respects particularly during the
state of ignorance, but at the deepest level and in the state of
self-realization, Atman and Brahman are identical, non-different. This
ancient debate flowered into various dual, non-dual theories in
Hinduism.
Reality and Maya
==================
Two different types of the non-dual Brahman-Atman are presented in the
Upanishads, according to Mahadevan. The one in which the non-dual
Brahman-Atman is the all-inclusive ground of the universe and another
in which empirical, changing reality is an appearance (Maya).
The Upanishads describe the universe, and the human experience, as an
interplay of Purusha (the eternal, unchanging principles,
consciousness) and Prakṛti (the temporary, changing material world,
nature). The former manifests itself as Ātman (soul, self), and the
latter as Māyā. The Upanishads refer to the knowledge of 'Atman' as
"true knowledge" ('Vidya'), and the knowledge of 'Maya' as "not true
knowledge" ('Avidya', Nescience, lack of awareness, lack of true
knowledge).
Hendrick Vroom explains, "the term 'Maya' [in the Upanishads] has been
translated as 'illusion,' but then it does not concern normal
illusion. Here 'illusion' does not mean that the world is not real and
simply a figment of the human imagination. 'Maya' means that the world
is not as it seems; the world that one experiences is misleading as
far as its true nature is concerned." According to Wendy Doniger, "to
say that the universe is an illusion (māyā) is not to say that it is
unreal; it is to say, instead, that it is not what it seems to be,
that it is something constantly being made. Māyā not only deceives
people about the things they think they know; more basically, it
limits their knowledge."
In the Upanishads, Māyā is the perceived changing reality and it
co-exists with Brahman which is the hidden true reality. 'Maya', or
"illusion", is an important idea in the Upanishads, because the texts
assert that in the human pursuit of blissful and liberating
self-knowledge, it is 'Maya' which obscures, confuses and distracts an
individual.
Schools of Vedanta
======================================================================
The Upanishads form one of the three main sources for all schools of
Vedanta, together with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutras. Due to
the wide variety of philosophical teachings contained in the
Upanishads, various interpretations could be grounded on the
Upanishads. The schools of Vedānta seek to answer questions about the
relation between atman and Brahman, and the relation between Brahman
and the world. The schools of Vedanta are named after the relation
they see between atman and Brahman:
* According to Advaita Vedanta, there is no difference.
* According to Vishishtadvaita the jīvātman is a part of Brahman, and
hence is similar, but not identical.
* According to Dvaita, all individual souls (jīvātmans) and matter as
eternal and mutually separate entities.
Other schools of Vedanta include Nimbarkacharya's 'Svabhavika
Bhedabheda', Vallabha's 'Suddhadvaita', and Chaitanya's 'Acintya
Bhedabheda'. The philosopher Adi Shankara has provided commentaries on
11 mukhya Upanishads.
Advaita Vedanta
=================
Advaita literally means non-duality, and it is a monistic system of
thought. It deals with the non-dual nature of Brahman and Atman.
Advaita is considered the most influential sub-school of the 'Vedanta'
school of Hindu philosophy. Gaudapada was the first person to expound
the basic principles of the Advaita philosophy in a commentary on the
conflicting statements of the Upanishads. Gaudapada's Advaita ideas
were further developed by Shankara (8th century CE). King states that
Gaudapada's main work, Māṇḍukya Kārikā, is infused with philosophical
terminology of Buddhism, and uses Buddhist arguments and analogies.
King also suggests that there are clear differences between Shankara's
writings and the 'Brahmasutra', and many ideas of Shankara are at odds
with those in the Upanishads. Radhakrishnan, on the other hand,
suggests that Shankara's views of Advaita were straightforward
developments of the Upanishads and the 'Brahmasutra', and many ideas
of Shankara derive from the Upanishads.
Shankara in his discussions of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy referred
to the early Upanishads to explain the key difference between Hinduism
and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts that Atman (soul, self)
exists, whereas Buddhism asserts that there is no soul, no self.Steven
Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank
Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, , page 64;
Quote: "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self
(Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is
central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the
[Buddhist] doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no
unchanging essence."; Edward Roer (Translator), , pages 2-4 Katie
Javanaud (2013),
[
https://philosophynow.org/issues/97/Is_The_Buddhist_No-Self_Doctrine_Compatible_With_Pursuing_Nirvana
Is The Buddhist 'No-Self' Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana?]
, Philosophy Now; John C. Plott et al. (2000), Global History of
Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, , page 63,
Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have
already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction
between Hinduism and Buddhism".
Shankara used four sentences from the Upanishads, called the
Mahāvākyas (Great Sayings), to establish the identity of Atman and
Brahman as scriptural truth:
* "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)
Bhedabheda
============
Vijñānabhikṣu countered Advaita emphasis on non-difference of the self
and Brahman by pointing to statements from the Upanishads that support
difference.
Vishishtadvaita
=================
Ramanuja (1017-1137 CE), the main proponent of the Vishishtadvaita
philosophy, disagreed with Adi Shankara and the Advaita school.
Visistadvaita is a synthetic philosophy bridging the monistic Advaita
and theistic Dvaita systems of Vedanta. Ramanuja frequently cited the
Upanishads, and stated that Vishishtadvaita is grounded in the
Upanishads.
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita interpretation of the Upanishads is that of
qualified monism. Ramanuja interprets the Upanishadic literature to be
teaching a body-soul theory, states Jeaneane Fowler - a professor of
Philosophy and Religious Studies, where the Brahman is the dweller in
all things, yet also distinct and beyond all things, as the soul, the
inner controller, the immortal. The Upanishads, according to the
Vishishtadvaita school, teach individual souls to be of the same
quality as the Brahman, but quantitatively distinct.
In the Vishishtadvaita school, the Upanishads are interpreted to be
teaching about Ishvara (Vishnu), who is the seat of all auspicious
qualities, with all of the empirically perceived world as the body of
God who dwells in everything. The school recommends a devotion to
godliness and constant remembrance of the beauty and love of a
personal god. This ultimately leads one to the oneness with abstract
Brahman. The Brahman in the Upanishads is a living reality, states
Fowler, and "the Atman of all things and all beings" in Ramanuja's
interpretation.
Dvaita
========
The Dvaita school was founded by Madhvacharya (1199-1278 CE). It is
regarded as a strongly theistic philosophic exposition of the
Upanishads. Madhvacharya, much like Adi Shankara claims for Advaita,
and Ramanuja claims for Vishishtadvaita, states that his theistic
Dvaita Vedanta is grounded in the Upanishads.
According to the Dvaita school, states Fowler, the "Upanishads that
speak of the soul as Brahman, speak of resemblance and not identity".
Madhvacharya interprets the Upanishadic teachings of the self becoming
one with Brahman, as "entering into Brahman", just like a drop enters
an ocean. This to the Dvaita school implies duality and dependence,
where Brahman and Atman are different realities. Brahman is a
separate, independent and supreme reality in the Upanishads, Atman
only resembles the Brahman in limited, inferior, dependent manner
according to Madhvacharya.
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita school and Shankara's Advaita school are
both nondualism Vedanta schools, both are premised on the assumption
that all souls can hope for and achieve the state of blissful
liberation; in contrast, Madhvacharya believed that some souls are
eternally doomed and damned.
Similarities with Platonic thought
======================================================================
Several scholars have recognised parallels between the philosophy of
Pythagoras and Plato and that of the Upanishads, including their ideas
on sources of knowledge, concept of justice and path to salvation, and
Plato's allegory of the cave. Platonic psychology with its divisions
of reason, spirit and appetite, also bears resemblance to the three
'Guṇas' in the Indian philosophy of Samkhya.
Various mechanisms for such a transmission of knowledge have been
conjectured including Pythagoras traveling as far as India; Indian
philosophers visiting Athens and meeting Socrates; Plato encountering
the ideas when in exile in Syracuse; or, intermediated through Persia.
However, other scholars, such as Arthur Berriedale Keith, J. Burnet
and A. R. Wadia, believe that the two systems developed independently.
They note that there is no historical evidence of the philosophers of
the two schools meeting, and point out significant differences in the
stage of development, orientation and goals of the two philosophical
systems. Wadia writes that Plato's metaphysics were rooted in 'this'
life and his primary aim was to develop an ideal state. In contrast,
Upanishadic focus was the individual, the self (atman, soul),
self-knowledge, and the means of an individual's moksha (freedom,
liberation in this life or after-life).
Translations
======================================================================
The Upanishads have been translated into various languages including
Persian, Italian, Urdu, French, Latin, German, English, Dutch, Polish,
Japanese, Spanish and Russian. The Mughal Emperor Akbar's reign
(1556-1586) saw the first translations of the Upanishads into Persian.
His great-grandson, Dara Shukoh, produced a collection called
'Sirr-i-Akbar' in 1656, wherein 50 Upanishads were translated from
Sanskrit into Persian.
Anquetil-Duperron, a French Orientalist, received a manuscript of the
'Oupanekhat' and translated the Persian version into French and Latin,
publishing the Latin translation in two volumes in 1801-1802 as
'Oupneck'hat'. The French translation was never published. More
recently, several translations in French of some Upanishads or the
whole of 108 have been published : by indianists Louis Renou,
'Kausitaki, Svetasvatra, Prasna, Taittiriya Upanisads', 1948; Jean
Varenne, 'Mahâ-Nârâyana Upanisad', 1960, and 'Sept Upanishads', 1981;
Alyette Degrâces-Fadh, 'Samnyâsa-Upanisad (Upanisad du renoncement)',
1989; Martine Buttex, 'Les 108 Upanishads' (full translation), 2012.
The Latin version was the initial introduction of the Upanishadic
thought to Western scholars. However, according to Deussen, the
Persian translators took great liberties in translating the text and
at times changed the meaning.
The first Sanskrit-to-English translation of the Aitareya Upanishad
was made by Colebrooke in 1805, and the first English translation of
the Kena Upanishad was made by Rammohun Roy in 1816.
The first German translation appeared in 1832 and Roer's English
version appeared in 1853. However, Max Mueller's 1879 and 1884
editions were the first systematic English treatment to include the 12
Principal Upanishads. Other major translations of the Upanishads have
been by Robert Ernest Hume (13 Principal Upanishads), Paul Deussen (60
Upanishads), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (18 Upanishads), Patrick
Olivelle (32 Upanishads in two books) and Bhānu Swami (13 Upanishads
with commentaries of Vaiṣṇava ācāryas). Olivelle's translation won the
1998 A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation.
Throughout the 1930s, Irish poet W. B. Yeats worked with the
Indian-born mendicant-teacher Shri Purohit Swami on their own
translation of the Upanishads, eventually titled 'The Ten Principal
Upanishads' and published in 1938. This translation was the final
piece of work published by Yeats before his death less than a year
later.
Reception in the West
======================================================================
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer read the Latin translation
and praised the Upanishads in his main work, 'The World as Will and
Representation' (1819), as well as in his 'Parerga and Paralipomena'
(1851). He found his own philosophy in accord with the Upanishads,
which taught that the individual is a manifestation of the one basis
of reality. For Schopenhauer, that fundamentally real underlying unity
is what we know in ourselves as "will". Schopenhauer used to keep a
copy of the Latin 'Oupnekhet' by his side and commented,
Schopenhauer's philosophy influenced many famous people and introduced
them to the Upanishads. One of them was the Austrian Physicist Erwin
Schrödinger, who once wrote:
Another German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling,
praised the ideas in the Upanishads, as did others. In the United
States, the group known as the Transcendentalists were influenced by
the German idealists. Americans, such as Emerson and Thoreau embraced
Schelling's interpretation of Kant's Transcendental idealism, as well
as his celebration of the romantic, exotic, mystical aspect of the
Upanishads. As a result of the influence of these writers, the
Upanishads gained renown in Western countries.
The poet T. S. Eliot, inspired by his reading of the Upanishads, based
the final portion of his famous poem 'The Waste Land' (1922) upon one
of its verses. According to Eknath Easwaran, the Upanishads are
snapshots of towering peaks of consciousness.
Juan Mascaró, a professor at the University of Barcelona and a
translator of the Upanishads, states that the Upanishads represents
for the Hindu approximately what the New Testament represents for the
Christian, and that the message of the Upanishads can be summarized in
the words, "the kingdom of God is within you".
Paul Deussen in his review of the Upanishads, states that the texts
emphasize Brahman-Atman as something that can be experienced, but not
defined. This view of the soul and self are similar, states Deussen,
to those found in the dialogues of Plato and elsewhere. The Upanishads
insisted on oneness of soul, excluded all plurality, and therefore,
all proximity in space, all succession in time, all interdependence as
cause and effect, and all opposition as subject and object. Max
Müller, in his review of the Upanishads, summarizes the lack of
systematic philosophy and the central theme in the Upanishads as
follows,
See also
======================================================================
* 'The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written'
* Bhagavad Gita
* Hinduism
* Prasthanatrayi
* Principal Upanishads
Notes
======================================================================
{{reflist|group=note|35em|refs=
<-- scholarsatman3 -->
}}
Further reading
======================================================================
*
*
*
*
*
* Müller, Max, translator,
[
https://archive.org/stream/upanishads01ml#page/n7/mode/2up ', Part
I], New York: Dover Publications (1879; Reprinted in 1962),
* Müller, Max, translator,
[
https://archive.org/stream/upanishads02ml#page/n7/mode/2up ', Part
II], New York: Dover Publications (1884; Reprinted in 1962),
*
* Adi Shankara (2020).
[
https://bookscape.com/product-details/atma-bodha-tattva-bodha-esoteric-classics-eastern-studies-9781631184017?srsltid=AfmBOop-BdUt6zH_ZhgXFZgEMysgw8WfVmMGu5i-dctM9pY6a7xWi2UM
Atma Bodha and Tattva Bodha]. Lulu Press.
* Gurumaa, Anandmurti (2020)
[
https://www.amazon.in/Sri-Adi-Shankaracharya-Krit-Atmabodha/dp/9381464650
Sri Adi Shankaracharya Krit Atmabodha]
External links
======================================================================
;Translations
*[
http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Upanishads.html The Upanishads]
translated into English by Swami Paramananda
*[
https://web.archive.org/web/20160322115246/http://www.gayathrimanthra.com/contents/documents/Translation/108UpanishadsWithUpanishadBrahmamCommentary.pdf
Complete set of 108 Upanishads, Manuscripts with the commentary of
Brahma-Yogin], Adyar Library
;Other
*[
http://www.iep.utm.edu/upanisad/ The Upaniṣads] article in the
'Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'
*[
https://www.jstor.org/stable/25208067 The Theory of 'Soul' in the
Upanishads], T. W. Rhys Davids (1899)
*[
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3746162 Spinozistic Substance and
Upanishadic Self: A Comparative Study], M. S. Modak (1931)
*[
https://www.jstor.org/stable/511150 W. B. Yeats and the Upanishads],
A. Davenport (1952)
*[
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2105571 The Concept of Self in the
Upanishads: An Alternative Interpretation], D. C. Mathur (1972)
License
=========
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Original Article:
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