SmartSurat  #  Hinduism

The Upanisads

Just as the Vedic period is characterized by the scriptures of the period - the Vedas - so the Vedanta is characterized by the Upanisads, collections of writings from original oral transmissions which have been aptly described as `the supreme work of the Indian mind', and `the cornerstone of Indian philosophy'.The usual translation of this word is `sitting close to', presumably a guru, in order to hear the wisdom of one who had cognized the fundamental truths of the universe. Such gurur were forest dwellers who departed to the seclusion of. an asram in the forest in order to contemplate the great metaphysical questions about life. They followed the trend set by the rsis or `seers' in the Vedic period and were thus part of a continuous, evolving tradition. Their pupils or chelas sat around them in the shade of a tree, listening to their teachings and engaging in dialogue with them. The Upanisadic literature contains a considerable amount of such dialogue between disciple and guru and the translation `sitting close to' is therefore a very apt one. However, the word upanisad is a compound one and the roots which compose it can have a variety of meanings. Dandekar, for example, suggests a meaning `placing side by side' or `equivalence, correlation', and this would reflect the Upanisadic theme of equating all things in life as of one basic essence. Attractive, too, is the interpretation put forward by Alain Danielou. He suggests that the word can be translated as `near approach' suggesting a `near approach' to the Absolute, Brahman. This, indeed, would reflect the main trend of Upanisadic thought. Then, again, the Upanisads are essentially esoteric teachings, secretive teachings which are only for the initiated, and some disciples had to wait patiently for many years before they were deemed worthy by their teachers to receive them. Deussen, therefore, saw the word upanisad as expressing the idea of `secret'.      The Upanisads were written from about 800-400 BCE, though scholars vary in their dating of the material. They were thus composed over a long period of time and do not represent a coherent body of information or one particular system 'of belief There are contradictions and inconsistencies in their teachings but there is much commonality of thought too. Rohit Mehta is one author who suggests that there is a wholeness to the material of the Upanisads. They deal, he says, with summits of thought, leaving the details to be pieced in by pupils on their own journeys to the real, to the light and to immortality. The authors of the Upanisads were not, as would be expected, solely from the priestly class; indeed it was mainly Ksratriyas who set up asrams in the forest. The asrams were often associated with a different Veda - Rg, Sama, Yajur or Atharva - and were thus connected with different schools of Vedic thought. The authors of the Upanisads were not interested in the kind of religious ritualism which obtained in Vedic society - indeed, they could hardly be expected to maintain this in the forest setting. They were poets prone to what has been described as `sheer flashes of spiritual radiance' and their aim was to guide their disciples to the point of liberation which they themselves had reached:      The poet knows well that if poetry takes us away from a lower reality of daily life it is only to lead us to the vision of a higher Reality even in this daily life, where limitations give way for the poet to the joy of liberation.      Thus we should not expect in the Upanisads the kind of language and thought of everyday life; the material is designed to push human thought to its very limits, its summits, and beyond.      There are about 250 Upanisads but a much smaller number form the main material and thirteen are singled out as presenting the core teaching; but even these have their inconsistencies of thought. It is in the Upanisads that we find all the teachings recognized as fundamental to Hinduism the concepts of karma, samsara and moksa, the concept of Brahman as Absolute, and the synthesis of Brahman with the atman - the essence of each entity and being in the phenomenal world. The Bhagavad Gita is also. considered to be an Upanisad because it, too, deals with the nature of the Absolute, Brahman, as well as fundamental aspects such as dharma and the paths to Brahman. The Gita, however, is normally consigned to the period of classical, devotional Hinduism for discussion.