About Me
Upanishad means the inner or mystic teaching. The term Upanishad is derived from upa (near), ni (down) and s(h)ad (to sit), i.e., sitting down near. Groups of pupils sit near the teacher to learn from him the secret doctrine. The Upanishads are a collection of Indian speculations on the nature of reality and the soul and the relations between these two.
The texts date from around 600 BC. They often give the impression of a building under construction - an ongoing exploration of themes not yet fully resolved. No strictly coherent scheme can be extracted from the upanishads - not even from each single upanishad. Like the Bhagavad Gita they are the work of several hands.
If one theme unites these writings, it is the search for an underlying unity linking everything we see and think. That unity is called Brahman. In most texts, Brahman is said to be identical with Atman, the world soul, which is also identical with the atman of each individual. In this sense every individual is united with the cosmos, and only needs to realize this fact to reach fulfillment.
The Upanishads are, thus, essentially pantheistic. However, their quest for unity went at times too far. Since the world we see is clearly highly diverse, some texts deduce that if the cosmos is unitary, then appearances must be delusory. They are maya - like a magical trick. The self, the presence of the cosmic Self within each person, is the ..Real' world - a world of pure thought, which cannot be apprehended by the senses. Meanwhile the real sensible world of life and love, birth and death, is dismissed as no more than a dream projected by the self. Once a person realizes this, the illusion falls away and they become one with the All.
This view - similar in essence to most schools of Buddhism - contrasts strongly with realistic pantheisms which accept the material world as real. Idealistic pantheism fails to explain why we all dream the same dream - why the detail of the sensible world is shared by everyone present. It cannot explain why we should start to ..dream' the world at all, nor why there should be a ..we' to dream.
The belief that reality is illusion is perhaps the greatest illusion of all. It leads to indifference, inaction, insensitivity, world-blindness, death in life. Indeed in the upanishads all these are praised as the highest wisdom.
No life can be led in an illusory world - even hermits and monks have to eat, excrete, and sleep. Thus they are forced to acknowledge in action the reality of the world they deny in theory, and their own lives disprove their beliefs. The only life that is consistent with full acceptance of idealist pantheism is a hunger strike until death. The sage who wishes to survive another day must forget his wisdom.
The Upanishads more clearly set forth the prime Vedic doctrines like Self-realization, yoga and meditation, karma and reincarnation, which were hidden or kept veiled under the symbols of the older mystery religion. The older Upanishads are usually affixed to a particularly Veda, through a Brahmana or Aranyaka. The more recent ones are not. The Upanishads became prevalent some centuries before the time of Krishna and Buddha.
The main figure in the Upanishads, though not present in many of them, is the sage Yajnavalkya. Most of the great teachings of later Hindu and Buddhist philosophy derive from him. He taught the great doctrine of "neti-neti", the view that truth can be found only through the negation of all thoughts about it. Other important Upanishadic sages are Uddalaka Aruni, Shwetaketu, Shandilya, Aitareya, Pippalada, Sanat Kumara. Many earlier Vedic teachers like Manu, Brihaspati, Ayasya and Narada are also found in the Upanishads.
