The Upanishads
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The Upanishads is the ancient Vedic text containing the basis for Hinduism in India and elsewhere. The Upanishads are a mystical interpretation of man, God, and the universe and the relationships among them. These writings antedate the birth of Buddha in the fifth century B.C. and are also known as the Vedanta because they make up the end of the Veda, or the whole body of philosophic development extending from 1500 to 600 B.C. These were secret teachings which embodied the concepts of the world as illusion and the spirit as the highest perfection. The history of the Upanishads will be examined, as will the nature of its teachings and the practices encouraged by those teachings, followed by a consideration of the sociology underlying the writings and the ethics entwined in the writings. The age of the Upanishads is in some dispute, and the writings have been placed as early as 1200 B.C., while other scholars believe they could not have been written before 700 B.C. Chakravarti (1935) emphasizes that it is less important to know precise dates than to have a sense as to which particular stage of development a given class of ideas belongs. He notes that there is no doubt whatsoever that the ideas of the Upanishads come at the end of the Vedic period and long before the period of the sutra literature. The relative position and importance of the Upanishads remains the same no matter what specific time period a scholar chooses, within the parameters s
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ada-aranyaka, and Svetasvatara (Nanda-nanadana, p. 26).
TEACHINGS
The fundamental conception of the Upanishads centers on two fundamental ideas: 1) the Brahamn, and 2) the Gtman. These terms are presented as synonymous, but they have to be considered diufferently. Brahman is the unknown that needs to be explained while Gtman is the known through which the other unknown finds its explanation. Brahman is the first principle so far as it is comprehended in the universe, and Gtman so far as it is known in the inner self of man. The Brahman is distinguished as the cosmic principle of the universe, while Gtman is distinguished as the psychical principle. The fundamental principles of the entire Upanishad philosphy can be expressed by the following equation:
Brahman = tman.
Deussen (1966) says that
the Brahman, the power which presents itself to us materialized in all existing things, which creates, sustains, preserves, and receives back into itself again all worlds, this eternal infinite divine power is identical with the Gtman, with that which, after stripping off everything external, we discover in ourselves as our real most essential being, our individual self, the soul. (p. 39)
At the end of the Vedic period, a
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Approximate Word count = 2018
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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