SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

The path of intuirive knowledge

The Vedantic period should not be considered in total isolation from the previous Vedic period: indeed, the Upanisads are, strictly speaking, Vedic scriptures - part of the sruti tradition. As was seen in the previous chapter the move towards a more speculative and mystical approach to religion was evident in late Vedic literature. This is particularly the case with the Vedic Brahmanas, and the Aranyakas, the forest writings, and there are many aspects of these two which are very similar to Upanisadic scriptures. This should warn us about seeing the Vedanta solely as a reaction to the Brahmanism and ritualism of the Vedic age. While an element of this obtained, it would certainly be true to say that there was a definite trend towards a more philosophical perspective before the Upanisads. But the Upanisads epitomize this more speculative thought and ask questions about the nature of the self and of Ultimate Reality in a very focused way.Yet the Vedanta must also be seen partially as a reaction against the ritualism of the Vedas. Dandekar observes that the Upanisads rose out of `a kind of intellectual and social revolt against the closed mechanical sacerdotalism sponsored by the Brahmanas. The Upanisads reflect a certain reaction against the polytheism, indeed the theism of the Vedas and are much more inward, mystical and meditative. There is an emphasis, not on correct ritualistic practices in terms of sacrificial ritual, chants, incantations and the like, but on intuitive knowledge and introspection: knowledge became the central issue, not ritual. Such knowledge is called vidya, or gnana, and the way of knowledge - gnana marga - became all important in the Vedantic message and is still an established path to moksa in Hinduism today. The path of gnana is essentially an individualistic one: Mehta puts this well when he depicts this path as an:      Adventurous journey into the land of the Unknown where alone Wisdom can be discovered. This journey has to be unaided, for no teacher can lead a pupil into the realms of the Unknown: 'The journey to the Unknown is a flight of the alone to the Alone.      The role of the guru is to equip the pupil to stand on ' his own two feet and journey independently, ' transcending the mind with the help of the mind '.      So the knowledge of which the Upanisads speak is not knowledge about the world and about Ultimate Reality. It is knowledge of a deeper kind intuitive knowledge which can only be experienced at the deepest levels of the self and which, therefore, cannot be taught or learned. The gurus of the forest asrams, therefore, could only point their pupils in the right direction: without the inner, direct, intuitive experience, knowledge of Ultimate Reality was impossible. It is not difficult to see, then, why the teachings related to such knowledge were esoteric. A pupil had to be at the right point of his personal evolution to be able to experience such truths in the depths of his being. There is no subject or object in the experience of such knowledge, for the egoistic `I' which we associate with receiving knowledge is not evident. Knowledge of this kind exists in a ' characterless being ', not a personality and is a realization of truth in the sense of a `seeing of it with the soul and a total living in it with the power of the inner being'. In many ways there is a certain simplicity about such knowledge, and yet it is very profound. We spend our lives busying ourselves with all sorts of things' and have little time to reflect, to just be, to be still, and to accept the suchness and thusness of life. This suchness is exemplified well in a beautiful story from the Chandogya Upanisad in which Satyakama, a boy from a low-caste family, is accepted into the asram of a guru and given the test, not of meditating on the nature of life and reality, but of taking care of four hundred, badly conditioned cows! But in the simple life which he led as a cowherd in the forest, Satyakama remained focused on Brahman. Mehta describes admirably the simplicity of life which led to depth of knowledge for Satyakama:      This urge to know Brahman made everything alive so that the whole of nature became his teacher. Then the trees and the Howers, the sun, moon and the stars, the rivers and the streams, the light of day and the darkness of night - all these spoke to him of the nature of Brahman.       He felt that all was Brahman. He heard of Brahman in the songs of the birds, he felt the presence of Brahman in all things that surrounded him. He realized that the eye that sees and the ear that hears does so because of Brahman. He felt that the pulsating life around him as also the mind that raises innumerable questions all these are but aspects of Brahman. Satyakama tended the cows and the bulls - but in the midst of this seemingly mundane work, he communed with nature - and in this communion realized that which filled him with joy indescribable.      The story admirably suggests that Brahman is not divorced from life but is in the essence of every moment and can be experienced as such. Not all human beings can be cowherds! But there are moments in life when the individual transcends ordinary existence and exper