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HUMAN nature is not altogether unchanging but it does remain sufficiently constant to justify the study of ancient classics. The problems of human life and destiny have not been superseded by the striking achievements of science and technology. The solutions offered, though conditioned in their modes of expression by t... |
. The chief variant readings are mentioned in the notes. As my interest is philosophical rather than linguistic, I have not discussed them. In the translation, words which are omitted or understood in Sanskrit or are essential to complete the grammatical structure are inserted in brackets.
We cannot bring to the study ... |
THE Upanisads represent a great chapter in the history of the human spirit and have dominated Indian philosophy, religion and life for three thousand years. Every subsequent religious movement has had to show itself to be in accord with their philosophical statements. Even doubting and denying spirits found in them ant... |
The word 'upanisad' is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and sad (to sit), i.e. sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. In the quietude of forest hermitages the Upanisad thinkers pondered on the problems of the deepest concern and communicated their knowledge to ... |
The Upanisads form a literature which has been growing from early times Their number exceeds two hundred, though
guhyalamam Marti VI 29
abhayam var brahma bhavati ya evam veda, iti rahasyam Nrsimhottaratāpani U VIII
dharme rahasy upanisat syāt Amarakosa
upanisadam rahasyam yac cintyam Š on Kena IV 7 The injunction of s... |
.'² The divine energy is compared to the breath which quickens It is a seed which fertilises or a flame which kindles the human spirit to its finest issues It is interesting to know that the Brhad-āraṇyaka Upanisad tells us that not only the Vedas but history, sciences and other studies are also 'breathed forth by the ... |
The Vedānta meant originally the Upanişads, though the
word is now used for the system of philosophy based on the
Upanişads Literally, Vcdanta means the end of the Veda,
vedasya antah, the conclusion as well as the goal of the Vedas The
Upanisads are the concluding portions of the Vedas Chrono-
logically they come at t... |
Even the most inspired writers are the products of their environment. They give voice to the deepest thoughts of their own epoch. A complete abandonment of the existing modes of thought is psychologically impossible. The writers of the Rg Veda speak of the ancient makers of the path ³ When there is an awakening of the ... |
. Mantra is derived by Yāska from manana, thinking.² It is that by which the contemplation of God is attempted. Brāhmana deals with the elaboration of worship into ritual. Parts of Brāhmanas are called *Āranyakas*. Those who continue their studies without marrying are called *aranas* or *aranamānas*. They lived in herm... |
.¹ *A Year
amongst the Persians* (1927), p. 134.
Varuna becomes *Ahura Mazda* (Ormuzd), the supreme God and Creator of the world. In one of those conversations with Zoroaster which embody the revelation that was made to him, it is recorded, *Ahura* says, 'I maintain that sky there above, shining and seen afar and encom... |
.
They know nothing of the beginning of things. The first
principle, that one, tad ekam, is uncharacterisable. It is without
qualities or attributes, even negative ones To apply to it any
description is to limit and bind that which is limitless and
boundless. ² That one breathed breathless. There was nothing
else It is... |
.
³ See also I 16 4 32, where the writer says that he who made all this does not probably know its real nature
'He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it,
Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven,
He, venly, knows it, or perhaps he knows not.'
X 129 7 ET by Max Muller.
⁴ ... |
. Sometimes he is said to beget all beings. He pervades all things as air or ether (ākāśa) pervades the universe. He animates the world as the life-breath (prāṇa) animates the human body, a comparison which has been developed with remarkable ingenuity by Rāmānuja.
*Rg Veda* raises the question of the nature of the huma... |
Sacred knowledge is trayi vidyā It is three-fold, being the
knowledge of the Rg, the Yajur and the Sāma Vedas The
two latter use the hymns of the Rg and the Atharva Vedas
and arrange them for purposes of ritual The aim of the Yajur
Veda is the correct performance of the sacrifice to which is
attributed the whole contro... |
The elements of the ritualistic cult found in the Vedas are developed in the Brāhmanas into an elaborate system of ceremonies. While in the *Rg Veda* the sacrifices are a means for the propitiation of the gods, in the Brāhmanas they become ends in themselves. Even the gods are said to owe their position to sacrifices. ... |
The Āranyakas do not give us rules for the performance of
sacrifices and explanations of ceremonies, but provide us with
the mystic teaching of the sacrificial religion As a matter of
fact, some of the oldest Upanisads are included in the Āranyaka
texts,² which are meant for the study of those who are
engaged in the vo... |
The Āraṇyakas¹ shade off imperceptibly into the Upaniṣads even as the Brāhmaṇas shade off into the Āraṇyakas. While the student (brahmacārin) reads the hymns, the householder (grhastha) attends to the Brāhmaṇas which speak of the daily duties and sacrificial ceremonies, the hermit, the man of the forest (vānaprastha), ... |
.
⁵ Cū VII 123
by logical thinking, but by the energy of our whole inner being. Prayer starts with faith, with complete trust in the Being to whom appeal is made, with the feeling of a profound need, and a simple faith that God can grant us benefits and is well disposed towards us. When we attain the blinding experienc... |
To the pioneers of the Upaniṣads, the problem to be solved presented itself in the form, what is the world rooted in? What is that by reaching which we grasp the many objects perceived in the world around us? They assume, as many philosophers do, that the world of multiplicity is, in fact, reducible to one single, prim... |
. ⁶ The *Chāndogya Upaniṣad*, however, makes out that fire is the first to evolve from the Primaeval Being and from fire came water and from water the earth At the time of dissolution, the earth is dissolved in water, and water in fire and fire in the Primaeval Being ⁷ *Ākāśa*, ether, space, is sometimes viewed as the ... |
. The eternal is the origin of the actual and its nisus to improvement. To think of it as utterly transcendent or as a future possibility is to miss its incidence in the actual. We cannot miss the primordiality of the Supreme. 'Verily, in the beginning this world was Brahman'¹ There is the perpetual activity of the Sup... |
. The Supreme Lord, Ìsvara, who eternally produces, outlasts the drama of the universe Samkara begins his commentary on the Bhagavad-gîtã with the verse: 'Nàrãyana is beyond the unmanifest. The golden egg is produced from the unmanifest. The earth with its seven islands and all other worlds are in the egg.' The names a... |
. The supra-cosmic silence and the cosmic integration are both real. The two, mṛguna and saguna Brahman, Absolute and God, are not different. Jayatīrtha contends that Śamkara is wrong in holding that Brahman is of two kinds—brahmano dvairūpyasya aprāmāṇkatvāt.² It is the same Brahman who is described in different ways.... |
. The many alone. It is the world-body, the world of matter without form. It is the possibility of manifested form.
¹ See also *Paingala U*.
totality for an integral view of life and the world If we are
able to hold them together, the conflicting views which are
emphasised exclusively by certain schools of Indian Ved... |
. E T Salter's ET (1928) Ch XIII 'No monad or triad can express the all-transcending hiddenness of the all-transcending super-essentially super-existing super-deity ' 'God, because of his excellence, may rightly be called Nothing,' says Scotus Erigena
¹ BU IV 4 5 Iśa 4, 5 *Katha* I 2 20–21, I 3 15, II 6 17 M.U. I 1 6, ... |
. Brahman is the unity of all that is named ¹ Hiranya-garbha or Brahmā is the World-soul² and is subject to changes of the world. He is kārya Brahmā or effect Brahman as distinct from Ṫsvara who is kārana Brahman or causal Brahman. Hiranya-garbha arises at every world-beginning and is dissolved at every world-ending. Ṫ... |
The word ‘ātman’ is derived from an ‘to breathe.’ It is the breath of life.¹ Gradually its meaning is extended to cover life, soul, self or essential being of the individual. Samkara derives ātman from the root which means ‘to obtain’ ‘to eat or enjoy or pervade all.’² Ātman is the principle of man’s life, the soul tha... |
. The *Māndūkya Upanisad*, by an analysis of the four modes of consciousness, waking, dream, deep sleep and illumined consciousness, makes out that the last is the basis of the other three.
¹ Through all months, years, seasons and kalpas, through all (divisions of time) past and future the consciousness remains one and... |
In the early prose Upanisads, ātman is the principle of the individual consciousness and Brahman the superpersonal ground of the cosmos. Soon the distinction diminishes and the two are identified. God is not merely the transcendent numinous other, but is also the universal spirit which is the basis of human personality... |
The ecstasy of divine union, the bliss of realisation tempts
one to disregard the world with its imperfections and look
upon it as a troubled and unhappy dream The actual fabric
of the world, with its loves and hates, with its wars and battles,
with its jealousies and competitions as well as its unasked
helpfulness, su... |
.¹ The *Brhad-āranyaka Upanisad* argues that *satyam* consists of three syllables, *sa, ti, yam*, the first and the last being real and the second unreal, *madhyato anrtam*. The fleeting is enclosed on both sides by an eternity which is real.² The world comes from *Brahman* and returns to *Brahman*. Whatever exists owe... |
. 'Beyond whom there is none she is called Durgā. Because she saves from crisis therefore she is called Durgā '
yasyāh parataram nāstri, sa durgā prakīrtitā
durgāt samtrāyate yasmād devī durgeti kathyate.
¹ VI 47 18; see B U II. 5 19.
³ R.V X 5 7. M U. II. 2 1 Praśna II 5 6.
of māyā, he is not subject to it. If God w... |
.'
⁵ annam brahmeti vyajānāt T U. III
lute non-being is non-existent. It is impossible in a world which flows freely from the bounty of being *Prakrti* is called non-being. It is not strictly correct. This description indicates its distance from being. It is the ultimate possibility on the side of descent from the Di... |
. There are others which grant reality
to the world, though they maintain that it has no reality apart
from Brahman. Samkara tells us that the former is the true
teaching of the Upaniṣads, while the latter view is put forward
only tentatively as a first step in the teaching to be later
¹ Katha I 2. 4. 5
² I. I. 10.
³ M... |
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