The Essence of Indian Pilosophy
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THE UPANISHADS
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The Upanishads represent the loftiest heights of ancient thought and culture that humanity has ever known.
They form the wisdom portion or Gnana-Kanda of the Vedas, as contrasted with the Karma-Kanda or the sacrificial portion.
In each Veda, following the Karma Kanda, is the Gyana kanda or Upanishad,which deals wholly with the essentials of philosophic discriminationand ultimate spiritual vision.
For this reason the Upanishads are known as the Vedanta, that is, the end or final goal of wisdom.
Whatever may have been the technical reason for selecting this name, it was chosen undoubtedly to give a picture of aspiring seekers approaching some wise seer in seclusion, in order to learn of him the profoundest truths regarding the cosmic universe and God.
The form which the teaching naturally assumed was thatof dialogue, a form later adopted by Plato and other Greekphilosophers.
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As nothing was written and all instructionwas transmitted orally, the Upanishads are called Srutis,"what is heard."
It is a significant fact that nowhere in theUpanishads is mention made of any author or recorder.
As Professor Max Muller states in his lectures on the VedantaPhilosophy:
"One feels certain that behind all these lightning-flashes of religious and philosophic thought there isa distant past, a dark background of which we shall neverknow the beginning."
Some scholars place the Vedic period as far back as 4000 or 5000 B.C.; others from 2000 to1400 B.C. o date for the origin of the Upanishads can be fixed.
The value of the Upanishads, however, does not restupon their antiquity, but upon the vital message theycontain for all times and all peoples. .
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Their teachings are summed up in two Maha-Vakyamor "great sayings":—Tat twam asi (That thou art) and Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman).
This oneness of Soul and God lies at the very root of all Vedic thought.
It is this dominant ideal of the unity of all life and theoneness of Truth which makes the study of the Upanishads especially beneficial at the present moment.
One of the most eminent of European Orientalists writes:
"If we fix our attention upon it (this fundamental dogmaof the Vedanta system) in its philosophical simplicity asthe identity of God and the Soul, the Brahman and theAtman, it will be found to possess a significance reachingfar beyond the Upanishads, their time and country;nay, we claim for it an inestimable value for the wholerace of mankind….".
Whatever new and unwonted paths the philosophy of the future may strike out, this principle will remain permanently unshaken and from it no deviation can possibly take place.
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The first introduction of the Upanishads to the Western world was through a translation into Persian made in the seventeenth century.
More than a century later, the distinguished French scholar, Anquetil Duperron, brought a copy of the manuscript from Persia to France and translated it into French and Latin publishing only the Latin text.
Despite the distortions which must have resulted from transmission through two alien languages, the light of the thought still shone with such brightness that it drew from Schopenhauer the fervent words:
"How entirely does the Upanishad breathe, throughout,the holy spirit of the Vedas! "
Again he says:
"The access to the Vedas by means of theUpanishads is in my eyes the greatest privilege whichthis still young century (1818) may claim before all previouscenturies."
This testimony is borne out by thethoughtful American scholar, Thoreau, who writes:
"What extracts from the Vedas I have read fall on me like thelight of a higher and purer luminary which describes aloftier course through a purer stratum free from particulars,simple, universal."
Professor Max Muller, after a lifetime of arduous labor in thisfield, frankly confesses:
"Modern words are round, ancientwords are square, and we may as well hope to solve thequadrature of the circle, as to express adequately the ancientthought of the Vedas in modern English."
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The upanishads, being transmitted orally from teacher to disciple, the style was necessarily extremely condensed and in the form of aphorisms.
The language also was often metaphorical and obscure.
Yet if one has the perseverance to penetrate beneath these mere surface difficulties, one is repaid a hundredfold.
For, these ancient Sacred Books contain the most precious gems of spiritual thought.
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