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{{short description|Ancient Sanskrit religious and philosophical texts of Hinduism}} | |||
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* The encounter of a ] and a ], giving rise to the etymology of the term "Upanishad" | |||
* ] teaches ] in the ] | |||
* A manuscript of the minor ] | |||
* The Upanishadic phrase "Tat Tvam Asi" displayed at the ] in Kerala | |||
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{{Hindu scriptures}} | {{Hindu scriptures}} | ||
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The '''''Upanishads''''' (''{{IAST|upaniṣad}}''; ] {{Unicode|उपनिषद्}} ) are part of the ] '']'' ]s which primarily discuss ] and ] and are seen as religious instructions by most forms of ]. The very edifice of Indian religions (Hinduism,Jainism,and Budhism) is built on the strong foundation of the Upanishads. | |||
The '''Upanishads''' ({{IPAc-en|ʊ|ˈ|p|ʌ|n|ɪ|ʃ|ə|d|z}};<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920223325/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/upanishad |date=20 September 2014 }}. '']''.</ref> {{langx|sa|उपनिषद्}}, {{IAST3|Upaniṣad}}, {{IPA|sa|ˈʊpɐnɪʂɐd|pron}}) are ] and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions"{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=xxiii}} and the emergence of the central religious concepts of ].{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=xxiii}}{{refn|group=note|name="Central concepts"}} They are the most recent addition to the ], the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal with meditation, ], ], and ] knowledge. Earlier parts of the Vedas dealt with mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices.{{sfnp|Flood|1996|p=35–39}}<ref name="A Bhattacharya 2006 pp. 8–14">A Bhattacharya (2006), ''Hindu Dharma: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology'', {{ISBN|978-0595384556}}, pp. 8–14; George M. Williams (2003), Handbook of Hindu Mythology, ], {{ISBN|978-0195332612}}, p. 285</ref><ref name="Jan Gonda 1975">Jan Gonda (1975), ''Vedic Literature: (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas)'', Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, {{ISBN|978-3447016032}}</ref> | |||
The Upanishads are mystic or spiritual interpretations on the ]s, their putative end and essence, and thus known as '']'' ("the end of the Vedas"). The ] term ''{{IAST|upaniṣad}}'' derives from ''upa-'' (near), ''ni-'' (down) and ''sad'' (to sit), i.e. referring to the "sitting down near" a spiritual teacher (]) in order to receive instruction in the ] or parampara. The teachers and students appear in a variety of settings (husband answering questions about immortality, a teenage boy being taught by ], etc.). Sometimes the sages are women and at times the instructions (or rather inspiration) are sought by kings. The Upanishads have been dated to around ]. The oldest upanishads, i.e. the brihadaranyaka and chandogya upanishad, have been dated much older around the vedic period. | |||
While among the most important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture, the Upanishads document a wide variety of "rites, incantations, and esoteric knowledge"{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=51}} departing from Vedic ritualism and interpreted in various ways in the later commentarial traditions. The Upanishads are widely known, and their diverse ideas, interpreted in various ways, informed later traditions of Hinduism.{{refn|group=note|name="Central concepts"}} The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person,{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lii}} postulating ] and ] as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe",{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lv}}{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=59}}{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}} but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}} | |||
=== The major Upanishads === | |||
Different Upanishads are formally affiliated with the four Vedas (], ], ] and ]). The Upanishads were transmitted orally by the schools of Vedic recitation ]. The longest and oldest Upanishad are the ] and the ]. | |||
108 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main ('']'') Upanishads.<ref name=stephenphillips/><ref>E Easwaran (2007), The Upanishads, {{ISBN|978-1586380212}}, pages 298-299</ref> The ''mukhya'' Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the '']'' and '']''{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=56}} and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down ]. The ''mukhya'' Upanishads predate the ], but there is no scholarly consensus on their date, or even on which ones are pre- or post-Buddhist. The ] is seen as particularly ancient by modern scholars.<ref name=olivelleintro/>{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}}<ref name="Bronkhorst">Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007). ''Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India'', pp. 258-259. BRILL.</ref> Of the remainder, 95 Upanishads are part of the ] canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}}{{Sfn|Flood|1996|p=96}} New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to be composed through the early modern and modern era,{{sfn|Ranade|1926|p=12}} though often dealing with subjects that are unconnected to the Vedas.{{sfn|Varghese|2008|p=101}} The ''mukhya'' Upanishads, along with the '']'' and the ] (known collectively as the '']''),{{sfn|Ranade|1926|p=205}} are interpreted in divergent ways in the several later schools of ].{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the ]" and alternatively as "object, the highest purpose of the Veda".}}<ref>Max Müller, , Part 1, Oxford University Press, page LXXXVI footnote 1</ref> | |||
The language of the Upanishads is ], although the oldest ones still show some influence from ]. The oldest Upanishads, the |{{IAST|Bṛhadāraṇyaka}}]] and the ] are composed in prose. These texts may date back to the 8th-7th centuries BCE. Later followed a series of Upanishads composed in verse, such as the Īṣa, Māṇd.ukya, Katha, and Ṣvetāṣvatara Upanishads. | |||
Translations of the Upanishads in the early 19th century started to attract attention from a Western audience. German philosopher ] was deeply impressed by the Upanishads and called them "the most profitable and elevating reading which ... is possible in the world."<ref>{{cite book |last=Clarke |first=John James |year=1997 |title=Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YOGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |location=] |publisher=] |page=68 |isbn=978-0-415-13376-0 |access-date=31 March 2020 |archive-date=17 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517134927/https://books.google.com/books?id=8YOGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA68 |url-status=live }}</ref> Modern era ] have discussed the similarities between the fundamental concepts in the Upanishads and the works of major ].{{sfn|Deussen|2010|p=42, Quote: "Here we have to do with the Upanishads, and the world-wide historical significance of these documents cannot, in our judgement, be more clearly indicated than by showing how the deep fundamental conception of Plato and Kant was precisely that which already formed the basis of Upanishad teaching".}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Lawrence Hatab|editor=R. Baine Harris|title=Neoplatonism and Indian Thought|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3C1XktpnWIC&pg=PA31|year=1982|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-87395-546-1|pages=31–38|access-date=4 November 2016|archive-date=17 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517134922/https://books.google.com/books?id=D3C1XktpnWIC&pg=PA31|url-status=live}};<br>{{cite book|author=Paulos Gregorios|title=Neoplatonism and Indian Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7wCKJZC3XsC|year=2002|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5274-5|pages=71–79, 190–192, 210–214}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ben-Ami Scharfstein|title=A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZQy2lu70bwC|year=1998|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-3683-7|pages=62–74|access-date=4 November 2016|archive-date=18 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211218014934/https://books.google.com/books?id=iZQy2lu70bwC|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Reputedly, there were over two hundred ''Upanishads'', but the philosopher and commentator ] only composed commentaries to eleven of them. The Upanishads commented on by ] are generally regarded as the oldest ones. The ] lists 108 Upanishads. In ], at the order of ], the Upanishads were translated from Sanskrit into Persian. | |||
==Etymology== | |||
These philosophical and meditative tracts form the backbone of Hindu thought. Of the early Upanishads, the Aitareya and Kauṣītāki belong to the Rig Veda, Kena and Chāndogya to the Samaveda, Īṣa and Taittirīya and Bŗhadāraṇyaka to the Yajurveda, and Praṣna and Muṇd.aka to the Atharvaveda. (Associated Upanishad and Vedic book information taken from Radhakrishnan Indian Philosophy, Vol. 1.) In addition, the Māṇd.ukya, Katho, Ṣvetāṣvatara are very important. Others also include Mahānārāyaṇa and Maitreyi Upanishads as key. | |||
The ] term ''{{IAST|Upaniṣad}}'' originally meant “connection” or “equivalence",{{sfnp|Doniger|Gold|Smith|2023}} but came to be understood as "sitting near a teacher,"{{sfnp|Doniger|Gold|Smith|2023}} from ''upa'' "by" and ''ni-ṣad'' "sit down",<ref>. ].</ref> "sitting down near", referring to the student sitting down near the teacher while receiving spiritual knowledge (Gurumukh).<ref name="EoH 472">{{cite book|last=Jones|first=Constance|title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-0816073368|pages=472}}</ref> Other dictionary meanings include "esoteric doctrine" and "secret doctrine". ]' ''Sanskrit Dictionary'' notes – "According to native authorities, Upanishad means setting to rest ignorance by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit."{{sfn|Monier-Williams|1976|p=201}} | |||
]charya explains in his commentary on the ] and ] that the word means ''Ātmavidyā'', that is, "knowledge of the ]", or ''Brahmavidyā'' "knowledge of Brahman". The word appears in the verses of many Upanishads, such as the fourth verse of the 13th volume in the first chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad. ] as well as ] translate the word ''Upanishad'' in these verses as "secret doctrine",<ref>Max Müller, , ''The Upanishads'', Part I, Oxford University Press, page 22</ref><ref>Paul Deussen, ''Sixty Upanishads of the Veda'', Volume 1, ], {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, page 85</ref> Robert Hume translates it as "mystic meaning",<ref>Robert Hume, , Oxford University Press, page 190</ref> while ] translates it as "hidden connections".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Early Upanishads|url=https://archive.org/details/TheEarlyUpanisads/page/n207/mode/2up|page=185}}</ref> | |||
==Place in the Hindu canon== | |||
Scholarly breakdowns of the Vedic books see the four Vedas as poetic liturgy, collectively called '']'' or '']'', adoration and supplication to the deities of ], in parts already sort of melded with ] and ] notions, and an overarching Order (]) that transcended even the Gods. | |||
==Development== | |||
The '']'' were a collection of ritual instructions, books detailing the priestly functions (which first were available to all men, and so concretized into strictly Brahmin privilege). These came after the Mantra. | |||
===Authorship=== | |||
In ], we have the '']s'' and Upanishads. The Araṇyaka ("of the forest") detail meditative yogic practices, contemplations of the mystic one and the manifold manifested principles. The Upanishad basically realized all the monist and universal mystical ideas that started in earlier Vedic hymns, and have exerted an influence unprecedented on the rest of ] and ]. However, by adherents they are not considered philosophy alone, and form meditations and practical teachings for those advanced enough to benefit from their wisdom. | |||
The authorship of most Upanishads is unknown. ] states, "almost all the early literature of India was anonymous, we do not know the names of the authors of the Upanishads".<ref name=sradha22>S Radhakrishnan, George Allen & Co., 1951, pages 22, Reprinted as {{ISBN|978-8172231248}}</ref> The ancient Upanishads are embedded in the Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism's religious scriptures, which some traditionally consider to be '']'', which means "not of a man, superhuman"<ref>Vaman Shivaram Apte, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515160048/http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/~tjun/sktdic/ |date=15 May 2015 }}, see apauruSeya</ref> and "impersonal, authorless".<ref>D Sharma, Classical Indian Philosophy: A Reader, Columbia University Press, ISBN, pages 196-197</ref><ref>Jan Westerhoff (2009), Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Introduction, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195384963}}, page 290</ref><ref>Warren Lee Todd (2013), The Ethics of Śaṅkara and Śāntideva: A Selfless Response to an Illusory World, {{ISBN|978-1409466819}}, page 128</ref> The Vedic texts assert that they were skillfully created by '']s'' (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.<ref name=scharfe>Hartmut Scharfe (2002), Handbook of Oriental Studies, BRILL Academic, {{ISBN|978-9004125568}}, pages 13-14</ref> | |||
The various philosophical theories in the early Upanishads have been attributed to famous sages such as ], ], ], ], Aitareya, Balaki, ], and ].<ref name=sradha22/>{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|pp=59-60}} Women, such as Maitreyi and ], participate in the dialogues and are also credited in the early Upanishads.<ref>Ellison Findly (1999), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604033550/http://www.jstor.org/stable/25002352 |date=4 June 2016 }}, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 15, No. 1, pages 57-76</ref> There are some exceptions to the anonymous tradition of the Upanishads. The ], for example, includes closing credits to sage ''Shvetashvatara'', and he is considered the author of the Upanishad.<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 301-304</ref> | |||
==Contents== | |||
The '']'' says this in the Ninth Chapter: | |||
:''He who knows the Bliss of ], whence words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach It? He is not afraid of anything whatsoever. He does not distress himself with the thought: "Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is evil?". Whosoever knows this regards both these as Atman; indeed he cherishes both these as Atman. Such, indeed, is the Upanishad, the secret knowledge of Brahman.'' | |||
Many scholars believe that early Upanishads were interpolated<ref>For example, see: Robert Hume (Translator), Oxford University Press, page 306 footnote 2</ref> and expanded over time. There are differences within manuscripts of the same Upanishad discovered in different parts of South Asia, differences in non-Sanskrit version of the texts that have survived, and differences within each text in terms of meter,<ref>Max Müller, {{Google books|l1ApAAAAYAAJ|The Upanishads|page=PR72}}, Oxford University Press, page LXXII</ref> style, grammar and structure.<ref>Patrick Olivelle (1998), Unfaithful Transmitters, Journal of Indian Philosophy, April 1998, Volume 26, Issue 2, pages 173-187;<br />Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanishads, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pages 583-640</ref><ref>WD Whitney, The Upanishads and Their Latest Translation, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 7, No. 1, pages 1-26;<br />F Rusza (2010), The authorlessness of the philosophical sūtras, Acta Orientalia, Volume 63, Number 4, pages 427-442</ref> The existing texts are believed to be the work of many authors.<ref>Mark Juergensmeyer et al. (2011), Encyclopedia of Global Religion, SAGE Publications, {{ISBN|978-0761927297}}, page 1122</ref> | |||
The Upanishads hold information on basic Hindu beliefs, including belief in a world soul, a universal spirit, Brahman, and an individual soul, Atman (Smith 10). A variety of lesser gods are seen as aspects of this one divine ground, Brahman (different from ]). Brahman is the ultimate, both transcendent and immanent, the absolute infinite existence, the sum total of all that ever is, was, or ever shall be. For Advaita philosophers Brahman is not a God in the monotheistic sense, as they do not ascribe to it any limiting characteristics, not even those of being and non-being, and this is reflected in the fact that in Sanskrit, the word brahman has no gender(masculine or feminine or neuter). Dvaita philosophy holds that Brahman is ultimately a personal God, ], or ] (''brahmano hi pratisthaham'', ] 14.27). | |||
===Chronology=== | |||
"Who is the Knower?" "What makes my mind think?" "Does life have a purpose, or is it governed by chance?" "What is the cause of the Cosmos?" The sages of the Upanishad try to solve these mysteries and seek knowledge of a Reality beyond ordinary knowing. They also show a preoccupation with states of consciousness, and observed and analysed dreams as well as dreamless sleep. | |||
Scholars are uncertain about when the Upanishads were composed.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}} The chronology of the early Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states philosopher and ] Stephen Phillips,<ref name="stephenphillips">Stephen Phillips (2009), ''Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231144858}}, pp. 25-29 and Chapter 1.</ref> because all opinions rest on scanty evidence and analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, and are driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. Indologist ] says that "in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any dating of these documents that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards".<ref name="olivelleintro">Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pages 12-14.</ref> | |||
Some scholars have tried to analyse similarities between Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist literature to establish chronology for the Upanishads.{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}} Precise dates are impossible, and most scholars give only broad ranges encompassing various centuries. ] states that "the Upanisads are not a homogeneous group of texts. Even the older texts were composed over a wide expanse of time from about 600 to 300 BCE."<ref>Flood, Gavin D. (2018). ''An Introduction to Hinduism'', p. 40, Cambridge University Press.</ref> Stephen Phillips places the early or "principal" Upanishads in the 800 to 300 BCE range.<ref name="stephenphillips" /> | |||
===The philosophy of the Upanishad=== | |||
Due to their mystical nature and intense philosophical bent that does away with all ritual and completely embraces principals of One Brahman and the inner Atman, the Upanishads have a universal feel that has led to their explication in numerous manners, giving birth to the three schools of ]. | |||
], a Sanskrit ] and ], gives the following chronology for the early Upanishads, also called the ]:{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}}<ref name="olivelleintro" /> | |||
] philosopher ] summed up all the Upanishad in one phrase तत् त्वं असि "]" (Thou Art That) and said that in the end, the ultimate, formless, inconceivable Brahman is the same as our soul, Atman. We only have to realize it through discrimination and piercing through Maya. | |||
* The ] and the ] are the two earliest Upanishads. They are edited texts, some of whose sources are much older than others. The two texts are pre-Buddhist; they may be placed in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, give or take a century or so.{{sfn|Olivelle|p=xxxvi|1998}}{{sfn|King|1995|p=52}} | |||
* The three other early prose Upanishads—''Taittiriya, Aitareya'', and ''Kausitaki'' come next; all are probably pre-Buddhist and can be assigned to the 6th to 5th centuries BCE.<ref>Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, pp. 12-13.</ref> | |||
* The Kena is the oldest of the verse Upanishads followed by probably the Katha, Isa, ], and Mundaka. All these Upanishads were composed probably in the last few centuries BCE.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Upanishad|title=Upanishad | Hindu religious text | Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|date=23 May 2023 }}</ref> According to Olivelle, "All exhibit strong ] tendencies and are probably the earliest literary products of the theistic tradition, whose later literature includes the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas."<ref>Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanishads,'' Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195124354}}, p. 13.</ref> | |||
* The two late prose Upanishads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=12-13}}<ref name="olivelleintro" /> | |||
Meanwhile, the Indologist ] argues for a later date for the Upanishads than has generally been accepted. Bronkhorst places even the oldest of the Upanishads, such as the ''Brhadaranyaka'' as possibly still being composed at "a date close to ] and ] " (i.e., {{circa}} 2nd century BCE).<ref name="Bronkhorst" /> | |||
The later Upanishads, numbering about 95, also called minor Upanishads, are dated from the late 1st-millennium BCE to mid 2nd-millennium CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}} ] dates many of the twenty ] Upanishads to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period.{{Sfn|Flood|1996|p=96}} ] and other scholars date seven of the twenty ] to likely have been complete sometime between the last centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE to 300 CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}} About half of the Sannyasa Upanishads were likely composed in 14th- to 15th-century CE.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}} | |||
A distinctive quotation that is indicative of the call to self-realization, one that inspired ] in titling a book he wrote on ], is as follows: | |||
===Geography=== | |||
:''Get up! Wake up! Seek the guidance of an'' | |||
] | |||
:''Illumined teacher and realize the Self''. | |||
The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads is considered as northern India. The region is bounded on the west by the upper Indus valley, on the east by lower Ganges region, on the north by the Himalayan foothills, and on the south by the Vindhya mountain range.<ref name=olivelleintro/> Scholars are reasonably sure that the early Upanishads were produced at the geographical center of ancient Brahmanism, ]-], and ]-], a "frontier region" of Brahmanism, together with the areas immediately to the south and west of these.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxvii-xxxix}} This region covers modern ], ], ], ], ], ], eastern ], and northern ].<ref name=olivelleintro/> | |||
:''Sharp like a razor's edge is the path,'' | |||
:''The sages say, difficult to traverse.'' | |||
::--- Death Instructing Nachiketa in the ''Katho (Word) Upanishad'' | |||
While significant attempts have been made recently to identify the exact locations of the individual Upanishads, the results are tentative. Witzel identifies the center of activity in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as the area of Videha, whose king, Janaka, features prominently in the Upanishad.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxviii}} The Chandogya Upanishad was probably composed in a more western than eastern location in the Indian subcontinent, possibly somewhere in the western region of the Kuru-Panchala country.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxxix}} | |||
The Upanishads also contain the first and most definitive explications of ] as the divine word, the cosmic vibration that underlies all existence and contains multiple trinities of being and principles subsumed into its One Self. | |||
The ''Isha'' says of the Self (Verses 6, 7 & 8 of ]): | |||
:''Whoever sees all beings in the soul'' | |||
:''and the soul in all beings'' | |||
:''does not shrink away from this.'' | |||
:''In whom all beings have become one with the knowing soul'' | |||
:''what delusion or sorrow is there for the one who sees unity?'' | |||
:''It has filled all.'' | |||
:''It is radiant, incorporeal, invulnerable,'' | |||
:''without tendons, pure, untouched by evil.'' | |||
:''Wise, intelligent, encompassing, self-existent,'' | |||
:''it organizes objects throughout eternity.'' | |||
Compared to the Principal Upanishads, the new Upanishads recorded in the {{IAST|Muktikā}} belong to an entirely different region, probably southern India, and are considerably relatively recent.{{sfn|Deussen|1908|pp=35–36}} In the fourth chapter of the Kaushitaki Upanishad, a location named Kashi (modern ]) is mentioned.<ref name=olivelleintro/> | |||
"''Aum Shanti Shanti Shanti''" This, too, is found first in the Upanishads, the call for tranquility, for divine stillness, for Peace everlasting. | |||
==Classification == | |||
], the ] ], and son of ] emperor ], translated the Upanishads in ] in order to find in it elements of ] that might pave the way for a common ] language between ] and ]. | |||
==List of Upanishads== | |||
{{wikisourcelang|oldwikisource|उपनिषद्|उपनिषद्}} | |||
=== |
===Muktika canon: major and minor Upanishads=== | ||
There are more than 200 known ''Upanishads'', one of which, the ''{{IAST|]}}'' Upanishad, predates 1656 CE{{sfn|Tripathy|2010|p=84}} and contains a list of 108 canonical Upanishads,{{sfn|Sen|1937|p=19}} including itself as the last. These are further divided into Upanishads associated with ] (goddess Shakti), ] (renunciation, monastic life), ] (god Shiva), ] (god Vishnu), ], and ''Sāmānya'' (general, sometimes referred to as Samanya-Vedanta).<ref>{{Cite book | title = The Samanya-Vedanta Upanishads | publisher = Jain Publishing (Reprint 2007) | isbn = 978-0895819833 |first = T. R. Srinivasa | last= Ayyangar |year = 1941 | oclc = 27193914 }}</ref>{{Sfn|Deussen|1997|pp=556-568}} | |||
The following is a list of the ten "principal" ('']'') Upanishads that were commented upon by ], and that are accepted as shruti by all Hindus. They are listed with their associated Veda (] ({{Unicode|ṚV}}), ] (SV), ] ({{Unicode|ŚYV}}), ] (KYV), ] (AV)). | |||
Some of the Upanishads are categorized as "sectarian" since they present their ideas through a particular god or goddess of a specific Hindu tradition such as Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, or a combination of these such as the ]. These traditions sought to link their texts as Vedic, by asserting their texts to be an Upanishad, thereby a '']''.{{sfn|Holdrege|1995|pp=426}} Most of these sectarian Upanishads, for example the ] and the ], assert that all the Hindu gods and goddesses are the same, all an aspect and manifestation of ], the Vedic concept for metaphysical ultimate reality before and after the creation of the Universe.<ref>{{cite book |last=Srinivasan |first=Doris |title=Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes |publisher=BRILL Academic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC&pg=PA111 |isbn=978-9004107588 |year=1997 |pages=112–120 |access-date=8 March 2016 |archive-date=14 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514224113/https://books.google.com/books?id=vZheP9dIX9wC&pg=PA111 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Ayyangar| first = TRS| year=1953| title=Saiva Upanishads| publisher = Jain Publishing Co. (Reprint 2007)|isbn= 978-0895819819|pages=194–196}}</ref> | |||
# {{IAST|]}} (ṚV) | |||
# {{IAST|]}} (ŚYV) | |||
#] (ŚYV) | |||
#] (KYV) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (KYV) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (SV) | |||
#] (SV) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (AV) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (AV) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (AV) | |||
===Principal Upanishads=== | |||
The {{IAST|]}}, {{IAST|]}} and {{IAST|]}} Upanishads are sometimes added to extend the canon to 12 or 13. They are also the oldest Upanishads, likely all of them dating to before the ]. From linguistic evidence, the oldest among them are likely the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya Upanishads, belonging to the late ] period; the remaining ones are at the transition from Vedic to Classical Sanskrit. | |||
{{Main|Principal Upanishads}} | |||
The Principal Upanishads, also known as the ''Mukhya Upanishads'', can be grouped into periods. Of the early periods are the ''Brihadaranyaka'' and the ''Chandogya'', the oldest.<ref>M. Fujii, On the formation and transmission of the JUB, ], Opera Minora 2, 1997</ref>{{refn|These are believed to pre-date ] ({{circa}} 500 BCE){{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=3–4}}|group=note}} | |||
]'' manuscript]] | |||
===Canon by Vedic Shakha=== | |||
The Aitareya, Kauṣītaki and Taittirīya Upanishads may date to as early as the mid-1st millennium BCE, while the remnant date from between roughly the 4th to 1st centuries BCE, roughly contemporary with the earliest portions of the ]. One chronology assumes that the ''Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka, Prasna'', and ''Katha Upanishads'' has Buddha's influence, and is consequently placed after the 5th century BCE, while another proposal questions this assumption and dates it independent of Buddha's date of birth. The ''Kena'', ''Mandukya,'' and ''Isa Upanishads'' are typically placed after these Principal Upanishads, but other scholars date these differently. {{sfn|King|1995|p=52}} Not much is known about the authors except for those, like Yajnavalkayva and Uddalaka, mentioned in the texts.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=56}} A few women discussants, such as Gargi and Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkayva,{{sfn|Ranade|1926|p=61}} also feature occasionally. | |||
The older Upanishads are associated with Vedic Charanas (]s or schools). The Aitareya Upanishad with the Shakala shakha, the {{IAST|]}} Upanishad with the Bashakala shakha; the {{IAST|Chāndogya}} Upanishad with the Kauthuma shakha, the Kena Upanishad, and the ], with the ] shakha; the {{IAST|Kaṭha}} Upanishad with the Caraka-Katha shakha, the {{IAST|Taittirīya}} and {{IAST|]}} with the ] shakha; the {{IAST|Maitrāyaṇi}} Upanishad with the Maitrayani shakha; the {{IAST|Bṛhadāraṇyaka}} and {{IAST|Īṣa}} Upanishads with the Vajasaneyi Madhyandina shakha, and the {{IAST|Māṇḍūkya}} and {{IAST|Muṇḍaka}} Upanishads with the ] shakha. Additionally, parts of earlier texts, of ]s or passages of the Vedas themselves, are sometimes considered Upanishads. | |||
Each of the principal ''Upanishads'' can be associated with one of the schools of exegesis of the four Vedas ('']s'').{{sfn|Joshi|1994|pp=90–92}} Many Shakhas are said to have existed, of which only a few remain. The new ''Upanishads'' often have little relation to the Vedic corpus and have not been cited or commented upon by any great Vedanta philosopher: their language differs from that of the classic ''Upanishads'', being less subtle and more formalized. As a result, they are not difficult to comprehend for the modern reader.{{sfn|Heehs|2002|p=85}} | |||
===The Muktika canon=== | |||
The following is a list of the 108 canonical Upanishads of the ] school, according to the ] (number 108), 1:30-39 (which does not list the associated Veda). In this canon, | |||
*10 Upaniṣads are associated with the ] and have the Shānti beginning ''{{IAST|vaṇme-manasi}}''. | |||
*16 Upaniṣads are associated with the ] and have the Shānti beginning ''{{IAST|āpyāyantu}}''. | |||
*19 Upaniṣads are associated with the ] and have the Shānti beginning ''{{IAST|pūrṇamada}}''. | |||
*32 Upaniṣads are associated with the ] and have the Shānti beginning ''{{IAST|sahanāvavatu}}''. | |||
*31 Upaniṣads are associated with the ] and have the Shānti beginning ''{{IAST|bhadram-karṇebhiḥ}}''. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
The first 10 are grouped as '']'' "principal", and are identical to those listed above. 21 are grouped as ] "common ]", 23 as ], 9 as ], 13 as ], 14 as ] and 17 as ] Upanishads.{{fact}} | |||
|+ Veda-Shakha-Upanishad association | |||
|- | |||
! Veda!!Recension!!]!! Principal Upanishad | |||
|- | |||
| ]||Only one recension||] || ] | |||
|- | |||
| rowspan=3|]|| rowspan="3" |Only one recension ||Kauthuma || ] | |||
|- | |||
| ]|| '']'' | |||
|- | |||
|Ranayaniya || | |||
|- | |||
|rowspan=7|]|| rowspan="5" |Krishna Yajur Veda||Katha ||] | |||
|- | |||
|]||] | |||
|- | |||
|Maitrayani || | |||
|- | |||
|Hiranyakeshi (Kapishthala)|| | |||
|- | |||
|Kathaka || | |||
|- | |||
|rowspan=2|Shukla Yajur Veda||Vajasaneyi Madhyandina||] and {{IAST|]}} | |||
|- | |||
|] || | |||
|- | |||
|rowspan=2|]|| rowspan="2" |Two recensions|| ]||] and ] | |||
|- | |||
||Paippalada|| '']'' | |||
|} | |||
===New Upanishads=== | |||
#], (ŚYV, Mukhya) "The Inner Ruler" | |||
There is no fixed list of the ''Upanishads'' as newer ones, beyond the Muktika anthology of 108 Upanishads, have continued to be discovered and composed.{{sfn|Rinehart|2004|p=17}} In 1908, for example, four previously unknown Upanishads were discovered in newly found manuscripts, and these were named ''Bashkala'', ''Chhagaleya'', ''Arsheya'', and ''Saunaka'', by ],{{sfn|Singh|2002|pp=3–4}} who attributed them to the first prose period of the Upanishads.{{sfn|Schrader|Adyar Library|1908|p=v}} The text of three of them, namely the ''Chhagaleya'', ''Arsheya'', and ''Saunaka'', were incomplete and inconsistent, likely poorly maintained or corrupted.{{sfn|Schrader|Adyar Library|1908|p=v}} | |||
#] (SV, Mukhya) "Who moves the world?" | |||
#] (KYV, Mukhya) "Death as Teacher" | |||
#], (AV, Mukhya) "The Breath of Life" | |||
#] (AV, Mukhya) "Two modes of Knowing" | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (AV, Mukhya) "Consciousness and it's phases" | |||
#] (KYV, Mukhya) "From Food to Joy" | |||
#], (ṚV Mukhya) "The Microcosm of Man" | |||
#] (SV, Mukhya) "Song and Sacrifice" | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (ŚYV, Mukhya) | |||
#{{IAST|Brahma}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Kaivalya}} (KYV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Jābāla}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#] (KYV, Sannyasa) "The Faces of God" | |||
#{{IAST|Haṃsa}} (ŚYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Āruṇeya}} (SV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Garbha}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Nārāyaṇa}} (KYV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Paramahaṃsa}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Amṛtabindu}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Amṛtanāda}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Śira}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Atharvaśikha}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#] (SV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (ṚV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Bṛhajjābāla}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Nṛsiṃhatāpanī}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Kālāgnirudra}} (KYV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Maitreyi}} (SV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Subāla}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Kṣurika}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Mantrika}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Sarvasāra}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Nirālamba}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Śukarahasya}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Vajrasūchi}} (SV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Tejobindu}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Nādabindu}} (ṚV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Dhyānabindu}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Brahmavidyā}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Yogatattva}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Ātmabodha}} (ṚV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Parivrāt}} ({{IAST|Nāradaparivrājaka}}) (AV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Triśikhi}} (ŚYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Sītā}} (AV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Yogachūḍāmaṇi}} (SV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Nirvāṇa}} (ṚV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Maṇḍalabrāhmaṇa}} (ŚYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Dakṣiṇāmūrti}} (KYV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Śarabha}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Skanda}} ({{IAST|Tripāḍvibhūṭi}}) (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Mahānārāyaṇa}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Advayatāraka}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Rāmarahasya}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Rāmatāpaṇi}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Vāsudeva}} (SV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Mudgala}} (ṚV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Śāṇḍilya}} (AV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Paiṅgala}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Bhikṣu}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Mahad}} (SV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Śārīraka}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Yogaśikhā}} (KYV Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Turīyātīta}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (SV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Paramahaṃsaparivrājaka}} (AV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Akṣamālika}} ({{IAST|Mālika}}) (ṚV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Avyakta}} (SV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Ekākṣara}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Annapūrṇa}} (AV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Sūrya}} (AV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Akṣi}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Adhyātmā}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Kuṇḍika}} (SV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Sāvitrī}} (SV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Ātmā}} (AV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Pāśupata}} (AV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Parabrahma}} (AV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Avadhūta}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Devī}} (AV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Tripurātapani}} (AV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Tripura}} (ṚV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Kaṭharudra}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Bhāvana}} (AV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Rudrahṛdaya}} (KYV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Yogakuṇḍalini}} (KYV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Bhasma}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Rudrākṣa}} (SV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Gaṇapati}} (AV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Darśana}} (SV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Tārasāra}} (ŚYV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Mahāvākya}} (AV, Yoga) | |||
#{{IAST|Pañcabrahma}} (KYV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Prāṇāgnihotra}} (KYV, Samanya) | |||
#{{IAST|Gopālatāpani}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Kṛṣṇa}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Yājñavalkya}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Varāha}} (KYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Śāṭyāyani}} (ŚYV, Sannyasa) | |||
#{{IAST|Hayagrīva}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Dattātreya}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Gāruḍa}} (AV, Vaishnava) | |||
#] ({{IAST|Kali}}) (KYV, Vaishnava) | |||
#{{IAST|Jābāla}} (SV, Shaiva) | |||
#{{IAST|Saubhāgya}} (ṚV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Sarasvatīrahasya}} (KYV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|Bahvṛca}} (ṚV, Shakta) | |||
#{{IAST|]}} (ŚYV, Samanya) | |||
Ancient Upanishads have long enjoyed a revered position in Hindu traditions, and authors of numerous sectarian texts have tried to benefit from this reputation by naming their texts as Upanishads.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}} These "new Upanishads" number in the hundreds, cover diverse range of topics from physiology<ref>Paul Deussen (1966), The Philosophy of the Upanishads, Dover, {{ISBN|978-0486216164}}, pages 283-296; for an example, see ]</ref> to renunciation<ref name=olivellesamnyasa1>Patrick Olivelle (1992), The Samnyasa Upanisads, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195070453}}, pages 1-12, 98-100; for an example, see ]</ref> to sectarian theories.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}} They were composed between the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE through the early modern era (~1600 CE).{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}}<ref name=olivellesamnyasa1/> While over two dozen of the minor Upanishads are dated to pre-3rd century CE,{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp= 5, 8–9}}{{Sfn|Flood|1996|p=96}} many of these new texts under the title of "Upanishads" originated in the first half of the 2nd millennium CE,{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}} they are not Vedic texts, and some do not deal with themes found in the Vedic Upanishads.{{sfn|Varghese|2008|p=101}} | |||
==The Upanishads in media== | |||
One of the Upanishads is used in the lyrics of some of the tracks of The Matrix Revolutions Original Soundtrack | |||
The main ] Upanishads, for example, mostly discuss doctrinal and interpretative differences between the two principal sects of a major ] form of Shaktism called ] ]. The many extant lists of authentic ''Shakta Upaniṣads'' vary, reflecting the sect of their compilers, so that they yield no evidence of their "location" in Tantric tradition, impeding correct interpretation. The Tantra content of these texts also weaken its identity as an Upaniṣad for non-Tantrikas. Sectarian texts such as these do not enjoy status as ] and thus the authority of the new Upanishads as scripture is not accepted in Hinduism.{{sfn|Brooks|1990|pp=13–14}} | |||
==References== | |||
* Edmonds, I.G. Hinduism. New York: Franklin Watts, 1979. | |||
===Association with Vedas=== | |||
* ], The Upanishads. Nilgiri Press, 1987. | |||
All Upanishads are associated with one of the four Vedas—], ], ] (there are two primary versions or ''Samhitas'' of the Yajurveda: ], ]), and ].{{sfn|Parmeshwaranand|2000|pp=404–406}} During the modern era, the ancient Upanishads that were embedded texts in the Vedas, were detached from the ] and ] layers of Vedic text, compiled into separate texts and these were then gathered into ] of the Upanishads.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}} These lists associated each Upanishad with one of the four Vedas. Many such lists exist but they are inconsistent across India in terms of which Upanishads are included and how the newer Upanishads are assigned to the ancient Vedas. In south India, the collected list based on Muktika Upanishad,{{refn|group=note|The Muktika manuscript found in colonial era Calcutta is the usual default, but other recensions exist.}} and published in ], became the most common by the 19th-century and this is a list of 108 Upanishads.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}}<ref>Paul Deussen (2010 Reprint), Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, pages 566-568</ref> In north India, a list of 52 Upanishads has been most common.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|pp=xxxii-xxxiii}} | |||
* Embree, Ainslie T., ed. The Hindu Tradition. New York: Random House, 1966. | |||
* Merrett, Frances, ed. The Hindu World. London: MacDonald and Co, 1985. | |||
The {{IAST|Muktikā}} Upanishad's list of 108 Upanishads groups the first 13 as '']'',<ref name=PeterHeehs/>{{refn|group=note|name=mukhya101213|Some scholars list ten as principal, while most consider twelve or thirteen as principal ''mukhya'' Upanishads.<ref>Robert C Neville (2000), Ultimate Realities, SUNY Press, {{ISBN|978-0791447765}}, page 319</ref><ref name=stephenphillips28>Stephen Phillips (2009), Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0231144858}}, pages 28-29</ref>{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=xxiii}}}} 21 as ], 18 as ],<ref name=olivellesamnyasa/> 14 as ], 14 as ], 8 as ], and 20 as ].<ref name=ayyangaryoga> TR Srinivasa Ayyangar (Translator), SS Sastri (Editor), Adyar Library</ref> The 108 Upanishads as recorded in the {{IAST|Muktikā}} are shown in the table below.{{sfn|Parmeshwaranand|2000|pp=404–406}} The mukhya Upanishads are the most important and highlighted.<ref name=stephenphillips28/> | |||
* Pandit, Bansi. The Hindu Mind. Glen Ellyn, IL: B&V Enterprises, 1998. | |||
* Smith, Huston. The Illustrated World’s Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions. New York: Labrynth Publishing, 1995. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
* Wangu, Madhu Bazaz. Hinduism: World Religions. New York: Facts on File, 1991. | |||
|+ Veda-Upanishad association | |||
! Veda !!Number{{sfn|Parmeshwaranand|2000|pp=404–406}} !!style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|Mukhya<ref name=PeterHeehs>Peter Heehs (2002), Indian Religions, New York University Press, {{ISBN|978-0814736500}}, pages 60-88</ref>!!Sāmānya !!Sannyāsa<ref name=olivellesamnyasa>] (1992), The Samnyasa Upanisads, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195070453}}, pages x-xi, 5</ref> !!Śākta<ref>AM Sastri, The Śākta Upaniṣads, with the commentary of Śrī Upaniṣad-Brahma-Yogin, Adyar Library, {{oclc|7475481}}</ref> !!Vaiṣṇava<ref>AM Sastri, The Vaishnava-upanishads: with the commentary of Sri Upanishad-brahma-yogin, Adyar Library, {{oclc|83901261}}</ref> !!Śaiva<ref>AM Sastri, The Śaiva-Upanishads with the commentary of Sri Upanishad-Brahma-Yogin, Adyar Library, {{oclc|863321204}}</ref> !!Yoga<ref name=ayyangaryoga/> | |||
|- | |||
|Ṛigveda||10||style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|], ]||], ]||]||], ], ]||-||]||] | |||
|- | |||
|Sāmaveda||16 || style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|], ]||], ], ]||], ], ], ] (Laghu-Sannyāsa)||-||], ]||], ]||], ] | |||
|- | |||
|Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda||32 ||style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|], ], ], ]{{refn|group=note|Parmeshwaranand classifies Maitrayani with Samaveda, most scholars with Krishna Yajurveda{{sfn|Parmeshwaranand|2000|pp=404–406}}<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 217-219</ref>}}||], ], ], ], ], ], ]||], (Laghu, Brhad) ], ]||]||], ], ],||], ], ], ], ]||], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] | |||
|- | |||
|Śukla Yajurveda||19 ||style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|], ]||], ], ], ], ], ]||], ], ], ], ]||-||]||-||], ], ], ] | |||
|- | |||
|Atharvaveda ||31 || style="background: #FFDD00; color: black"|], ], ]||], ], ]<ref>Prāṇāgnihotra is missing in some anthologies, included by Paul Deussen (2010 Reprint), Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, page 567</ref>||Āśrama, ], ], ], ]||], ], ], ]||], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]||],<ref>Atharvasiras is missing in some anthologies, included by Paul Deussen (2010 Reprint), Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 2, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814691}}, page 568</ref> ], ], ], ], ]||], ], ] | |||
|- | |||
|style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|Total Upaniṣads|| style="background: #FFCC88; color: black" |108||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|13{{refn|group=note|name=mukhya101213}} ||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"| 21 ||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|18||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|8 ||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|14||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|14 ||style="background: #FFCC88; color: black"|20 | |||
|} | |||
==Philosophy== | |||
{{See also|Vedanta}} | |||
] and the Ātman]] | |||
The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person,{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lii}} postulating ] and ] as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe,"{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lv}}{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=59}}{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}} but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}} | |||
The Upanishads reflect a pluralism of worldviews. While some Upanishads have been deemed 'monistic', others, including the ], are ].{{sfn|Glucklich|2008|p=70}} The Maitri is one of the Upanishads that inclines more toward dualism, thus grounding classical ] and ] schools of Hinduism, in contrast to the non-dualistic Upanishads at the foundation of its Vedanta school.{{sfn|Fields |2001|p=26}} They contain a plurality of ideas.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=4}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality|Oliville: "In this Introduction I have avoided speaking of 'the philosophy of the upanishads', a common feature of most introductions to their translations. These documents were composed over several centuries and in various regions, and it is futile to try to discover a single doctrine or philosophy in them."{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=4}}}} | |||
The Upanishads include sections on philosophical theories that have been at the foundation of Indian traditions. For example, the ] includes one of the earliest known declarations of ] (non-violence) as an ethical precept.<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 114-115 with preface and footnotes;<br />Robert Hume, 3.17, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Oxford University Press, pages 212-213</ref><ref>] (1999), Hindu Ahimsa, in Violence Denied (Editors: Jan E. M. Houben, et al.), Brill, {{ISBN|978-9004113442}}, page 40</ref> Discussion of other ethical premises such as ] (temperance, self-restraint), ] (truthfulness), ] (charity), ] (non-hypocrisy), ] (compassion), and others are found in the oldest Upanishads and many later Upanishads.<ref>PV Kane, , History of Dharmasastra, Vol. 2, Part 1, page 5</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Chatterjea|first1=Tara|title=Knowledge and Freedom in Indian Philosophy|publisher=Lexington Books|location=Oxford|page=148}}</ref> Similarly, the Karma doctrine is presented in the ], which is the oldest Upanishad.<ref>Tull, Herman W. The Vedic Origins of Karma: Cosmos as Man in Ancient Indian Myth and Ritual. SUNY Series in Hindu Studies. P. 28</ref> | |||
===Development of thought=== | |||
{{Hindu philosophy}} | |||
While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals and the Brahmanas serve as a liturgical manual for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} The older Upanishads launch attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the ]. The {{IAST|Chāndogya}} Upanishad parodies those who indulge in the acts of sacrifice by comparing them with a procession of dogs chanting ''Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink''.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} | |||
The ] asserts that "external rituals such as ]m offered in the morning and in the evening, must be replaced with inner Agnihotram, the ritual of introspection", and that "not rituals, but knowledge should be one's pursuit".<ref>], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 30-42;</ref> The ] declares how man has been called upon, promised benefits for, scared unto and misled into performing sacrifices, oblations and pious works.<ref name=maxmuller12/> Mundaka thereafter asserts this is foolish and frail, by those who encourage it and those who follow it, because it makes no difference to man's current life and after-life, it is like blind men leading the blind, it is a mark of conceit and vain knowledge, ignorant inertia like that of children, a futile useless practice.<ref name=maxmuller12>Max Müller (1962), Manduka Upanishad, in The Upanishads - Part II, Oxford University Press, Reprinted as {{ISBN|978-0486209937}}, pages 30-33</ref><ref>Eduard Roer, {{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Bibliotheca Indica, Vol. XV, No. 41 and 50, Asiatic Society of Bengal, pages 153-154</ref> The ] states,<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 331-333</ref> | |||
{{Blockquote|The performance of all the sacrifices, described in the Maitrayana-Brahmana, is to lead up in the end to a knowledge of Brahman, to prepare a man for meditation. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires,<ref>"laid those fires" is a phrase in Vedic literature that implies ] and related ancient religious rituals; see {{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} EB Cowell (Translator), Cambridge University, Bibliotheca Indica, First Prapathaka</ref> meditate on the Self, to become complete and perfect. But who is to be meditated on? | |||
|Maitri Upanishad<ref>Max Müller, The Upanishads, Part 2, , Oxford University Press, pages 287-288</ref><ref name=hume11>{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|title=The Thirteen Principal Upanishads|url=https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n433/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921|pages=412–414}}</ref>}} | |||
The opposition to the ritual is not explicit in the oldest Upanishads. On occasions, the Upanishads extend the task of the Aranyakas by making the ritual allegorical and giving it a philosophical meaning. For example, the Brihadaranyaka interprets the practice of horse-sacrifice or '']'' allegorically. It states that the over-lordship of the earth may be acquired by sacrificing a horse. It then goes on to say that spiritual autonomy can only be achieved by renouncing the universe which is conceived in the image of a horse.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} | |||
In similar fashion, ] such as the ''Agni'', ''Aditya'', ''Indra'', ''Rudra'', ''Visnu'', ''Brahma'', and others become equated in the Upanishads to the supreme, immortal, and incorporeal Brahman-Atman of the Upanishads, god becomes synonymous with self, and is declared to be everywhere, inmost being of each human being and within every living creature.<ref>{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|title= The Thirteen Principal Upanishads | url=https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n449/mode/2up|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921|pages=428–429}}</ref><ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 350-351</ref><ref name=pauldeussenov>Paul Deussen, {{Google books|2h0YAAAAYAAJ|The Philosophy of Upanishads}}, University of Kiel, T&T Clark, pages 342-355, 396-412</ref> The one reality or ''ekam sat'' of the Vedas becomes the ''ekam eva advitiyam'' or "the one and only and sans a second" in the Upanishads.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} Brahman-Atman and self-realization develops, in the Upanishad, as the means to ] (liberation; freedom in this life or after-life).<ref name=pauldeussenov/><ref>RC Mishra (2013), Moksha and the Hindu Worldview, ], Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 21-42</ref><ref>Mark B. Woodhouse (1978), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804092021/http://www.jstor.org/stable/27902516 |date=4 August 2016 }}, The Monist, Vol. 61, No. 1, Conceptions of the Self: East & West (January, 1978), pages 109-124</ref> | |||
According to ], the thinkers of Upanishadic texts can be grouped into two categories.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}} One group, which includes early Upanishads along with some middle and late Upanishads, were composed by metaphysicians who used rational arguments and empirical experience to formulate their speculations and philosophical premises. The second group includes many middle and later Upanishads, where their authors professed theories based on yoga and personal experiences.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}} Yoga philosophy and practice, adds Jayatilleke, is "not entirely absent in the Early Upanishads".{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}} | |||
The development of thought in these Upanishadic theories contrasted with Buddhism, since the Upanishadic inquiry fails to find an empirical correlate of the assumed Atman, but nevertheless assumes its existence,{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|pp=39}} " consciousness as an eternal self."{{sfn|Mackenzie|2012}} The Buddhist inquiry "is satisfied with the empirical investigation which shows that no such Atman exists because there is no evidence," states Jayatilleke.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|pp=39}} | |||
===Atman and Brahman === | |||
{{main|Ātman (Hinduism)|Brahman}} | |||
The Upanishads postulate ] and ] as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe."{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lv}}{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=59}}{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}} Both have multiple meanings,{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=lvi}} and various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}} | |||
Atman has "a wide range of lexical meanings, including ‘breath’, ‘spirit’, and ‘body’."{{sfn|Black|}} In the Upanishads it refers to the body, but also to the essence of the concrete physical human body,{{sfn|Olivelle|1996|p=lv}} "an essence, a life-force, consciousness, or ultimate reality."{{sfn|Black|}} The Chāndogya Upaniṣhad (6.1-16) "offers an organic understanding of ātman, characterizing the self in terms of the life force that animates all living beings," while the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad "characterizes ātman more in terms of consciousness than as a life-giving essence."{{sfn|Black|}} | |||
Brahman may refer to a "formulation of truth," but also to "the ultimate and basic essence of the cosmos," standing at the "summit of the hierarchical scheme, or at the bottom as the ultimate foundation of all things."{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=lvi}} Brahman is "beyond the reach of human perception and thought."{{sfnp|Brodd|2009|p=43-47}} Atman likewise has multiple meanings, one of them being 'self', the inner essence of a human body/person.{{sfn|Olivelle|1998|p=lv}}{{sfn|Lochtefeld|2002|p=122}}{{refn|group=note|name=scholarsatman3}} | |||
Various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.{{sfnp|Raju|1985|p=35-36}}{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}} Two distinct, somewhat divergent themes stand out. Older upanishads state that ''Atman'' is part of Brahman but not identical, while younger Upanishads state that Brahman (Highest Reality, Universal Principle, Being-Consciousness-Bliss) is identical with ''Atman''.<ref name=johnkoller/><ref>], {{Google books|B0QzAQAAMAAJ|The Philosophy of the Upanishads}}, Dover Publications, pages 86-111, 182-212</ref> The ] by Badarayana ({{circa}} 100 BCE) synthesized and unified these somewhat conflicting theories. According to Nakamura, the Brahmasutras see Atman and Brahman as both different and not-different, a point of view which came to be called '']'' in later times.<ref>Nakamura (1990), ''A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy'', p.500. Motilall Banarsidas</ref> According to Koller, the Brahmasutras state that Atman and Brahman are different in some respects particularly during the state of ignorance, but at the deepest level and in the state of self-realization, Atman and Brahman are identical, non-different.<ref name=johnkoller>John Koller (2012), Shankara, in Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion, (Editors: Chad Meister, Paul Copan), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415782944}}, pages 99-102</ref> This ancient debate flowered into various dual, non-dual theories in Hinduism. | |||
===Reality and Maya=== | |||
{{main|Maya (illusion)}} | |||
Two different types of the non-dual Brahman-Atman are presented in the Upanishads, according to Mahadevan. The one in which the non-dual Brahman-Atman is the all-inclusive ground of the universe and another in which empirical, changing reality is an appearance (Maya).{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|pp=62-63}} | |||
The Upanishads describe the universe, and the human experience, as an interplay of ] (the eternal, unchanging principles, consciousness) and ] (the temporary, changing material world, nature).<ref>], {{Google books|2h0YAAAAYAAJ|The Philosophy of the Upanishads|page=161}}, pages 161, 240-254</ref> The former manifests itself as ] (soul, self), and the latter as ]. The Upanishads refer to the knowledge of ''Atman'' as "true knowledge" (''Vidya''), and the knowledge of ''Maya'' as "not true knowledge" (''Avidya'', Nescience, lack of awareness, lack of true knowledge).<ref name=beamsc>Ben-Ami Scharfstein (1998), A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0791436844}}, page 376</ref> | |||
Hendrick Vroom explains, "the term ''Maya'' has been translated as 'illusion,' but then it does not concern normal illusion. Here 'illusion' does not mean that the world is not real and simply a figment of the human imagination. ''Maya'' means that the world is not as it seems; the world that one experiences is misleading as far as its true nature is concerned."<ref>H.M. Vroom (1996), No Other Gods, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, {{ISBN|978-0802840974}}, page 57</ref> According to ], "to say that the universe is an illusion (māyā) is not to say that it is unreal; it is to say, instead, that it is not what it seems to be, that it is something constantly being made. Māyā not only deceives people about the things they think they know; more basically, it limits their knowledge."<ref>Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1986), Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities, University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0226618555}}, page 119</ref> | |||
In the Upanishads, Māyā is the perceived changing reality and it co-exists with Brahman which is the hidden true reality.<ref name=aegough>Archibald Edward Gough (2001), The Philosophy of the Upanishads and Ancient Indian Metaphysics, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415245227}}, pages 47-48</ref><ref>Teun Goudriaan (2008), Maya: Divine And Human, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120823891}}, pages 1-17</ref> ''Maya'', or "illusion", is an important idea in the Upanishads, because the texts assert that in the human pursuit of blissful and liberating self-knowledge, it is ''Maya'' which obscures, confuses and distracts an individual.<ref name=knaiyar>KN Aiyar (Translator, 1914), Sarvasara Upanishad, in Thirty Minor Upanishads, page 17, {{oclc|6347863}}</ref><ref name=adishankaratu>Adi Shankara, {{Google books|d0oAAAAYAAJ|Commentary on Taittiriya Upanishad}}, SS Sastri (Translator), Harvard University Archives, pages 191-198</ref> | |||
==Schools of Vedanta== | |||
{{Main|Vedanta}} | |||
], expounder of ] and ] ('']'') on the Upanishads]] | |||
The Upanishads form one of the three main sources for all schools of Vedanta, together with the Bhagavad Gita and the ]s.{{sfn|Radhakrishnan|1956|p=272}} Due to the wide variety of philosophical teachings contained in the Upanishads, various interpretations could be grounded on the Upanishads.{{refn|group=note|name=Olivelle_plurality}}{{refn|group=note|name=Collins}} The schools of Vedānta seek to answer questions about the relation between atman and Brahman, and the relation between Brahman and the world.{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=176-177}} The schools of Vedanta are named after the relation they see between atman and Brahman:{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} | |||
* According to ], there is no difference.{{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} | |||
* According to ] the jīvātman is a part of Brahman, and hence is similar, but not identical. | |||
* According to ], all individual souls (jīvātmans) and matter as eternal and mutually separate entities. | |||
Other schools of Vedanta include ]'s '']'', ]'s ''Suddhadvaita'', and Chaitanya's ''Acintya ]''.{{sfn|Ranade|1926|pp=179–182}} The philosopher ] has provided commentaries on 11 ] Upanishads.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=63}} | |||
===Advaita Vedanta=== | |||
Advaita literally means non-duality, and it is a ] system of thought.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} It deals with the non-dual nature of ] and Atman. Advaita is considered the most influential sub-school of the ''Vedanta'' school of Hindu philosophy.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}} Gaudapada was the first person to expound the basic principles of the Advaita philosophy in a commentary on the conflicting statements of the Upanishads.{{sfn|Radhakrishnan|1956|p=273}} Gaudapada's Advaita ideas were further developed by ] (8th century CE).{{sfn|King|1999|p=221}}{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=31}} King states that Gaudapada's main work, Māṇḍukya Kārikā, is infused with philosophical terminology of Buddhism, and uses Buddhist arguments and analogies.{{sfn|King|1999|p=219}} King also suggests that there are clear differences between Shankara's writings and the ''Brahmasutra'',{{sfn|King|1999|p=221}}{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=31}} and many ideas of Shankara are at odds with those in the Upanishads.{{sfn|Collins|2000|p=195}} Radhakrishnan, on the other hand, suggests that Shankara's views of Advaita were straightforward developments of the Upanishads and the ''Brahmasutra'',{{sfn|Radhakrishnan|1956|p=284}} and many ideas of Shankara derive from the Upanishads.<ref>John Koller (2012), Shankara in Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Editors: Chad Meister, Paul Copan), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415782944}}, pages 99-108</ref> | |||
Shankara in his discussions of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy referred to the early Upanishads to explain the key difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts that Atman (soul, self) exists, whereas Buddhism asserts that there is no soul, no self.<ref name=eroer1>Edward Roer (translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=3}} to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'' at pages 3-4; Quote - "(...) Lokayatikas and Bauddhas who assert that the soul does not exist. There are four sects among the followers of Buddha: 1. Madhyamicas who maintain all is void; 2. Yogacharas, who assert except sensation and intelligence all else is void; 3. Sautranticas, who affirm actual existence of external objects no less than of internal sensations; 4. Vaibhashikas, who agree with later (Sautranticas) except that they contend for immediate apprehension of exterior objects through images or forms represented to the intellect."</ref><ref name=eroer2>Edward Roer (Translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=3}} to ''Brihad Aranyaka Upanishad'' at page 3, {{oclc|19373677}}</ref><ref>KN Jayatilleke (2010), Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, {{ISBN|978-8120806191}}, pages 246-249, from note 385 onwards;<br />Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0791422175}}, page 64; Quote: "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";<br />Edward Roer (Translator), {{Google books|3uwDAAAAMAAJ|Shankara's Introduction|page=2}}, pages 2-4<br />Katie Javanaud (2013), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913132314/https://philosophynow.org/issues/97/Is_The_Buddhist_No-Self_Doctrine_Compatible_With_Pursuing_Nirvana |date=13 September 2017 }}, Philosophy Now;<br />John C. Plott et al. (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120801585}}, page 63, Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism".</ref> | |||
The Upanishads contain four sentences, the ] (Great Sayings), which were used by Shankara to establish the identity of Atman and Brahman as scriptural truth: | |||
* ] - "Consciousness is Brahman" (]){{sfn|Panikkar|2001|p=669}} | |||
* "Aham brahmāsmi" - "I am Brahman" (]){{sfn|Panikkar|2001|pp=725–727}} | |||
* ] - "That Thou art" (]){{sfn|Panikkar|2001|pp=747–750}} | |||
* "Ayamātmā brahma" - "This Atman is Brahman" (]){{sfn|Panikkar|2001|pp=697–701}} | |||
===Vishishtadvaita=== | |||
The second school of Vedanta is the Vishishtadvaita, which was founded by ] (1017–1137 CE). Ramanuja disagreed with Adi Shankara and the Advaita school.{{sfn|Klostermaier|2007|pp=361–363}} Visistadvaita is a synthetic philosophy bridging the monistic Advaita and theistic Dvaita systems of Vedanta.{{sfn|Chari|1956|p=305}} Ramanuja frequently cited the Upanishads, and stated that Vishishtadvaita is grounded in the Upanishads.<ref name=staffordbetty>Stafford Betty (2010), Dvaita, Advaita, and Viśiṣṭādvaita: Contrasting Views of Mokṣa, Asian Philosophy, Vol. 20, No. 2, pages 215-224, {{doi|10.1080/09552367.2010.484955}}</ref><ref name=fowlerr299>{{cite book|author=Jeaneane D. Fowler|title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-898723-93-6|pages=298–299, 320–321, 331 with notes|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=22 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122065042/https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita interpretation of the Upanishads is that of qualified ].<ref name=williamindichcav1>{{cite book|author=William M. Indich|title=Consciousness in Advaita Vedanta|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ykZjWOiBMoC|year=1995|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1251-2|pages=1–2, 97–102|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=13 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220213135335/https://books.google.com/books?id=7ykZjWOiBMoC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=brucesullivan239>{{cite book|author=Bruce M. Sullivan|title=The A to Z of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xU4ZdatgRysC|year=2001|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8108-4070-6|page=239|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=15 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415064539/https://books.google.com/books?id=xU4ZdatgRysC|url-status=live}}</ref> Ramanuja interprets the Upanishadic literature to be teaching a body-soul theory, states Jeaneane Fowler – a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, where the Brahman is the dweller in all things, yet also distinct and beyond all things, as the soul, the inner controller, the immortal.<ref name=fowlerr299/> The Upanishads, according to the Vishishtadvaita school, teach individual souls to be of the same quality as the Brahman, but quantitatively distinct.<ref name=staffordbetty215>Stafford Betty (2010), Dvaita, Advaita, and Viśiṣṭādvaita: Contrasting Views of Mokṣa, Asian Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East, Volume 20, Issue 2, pages 215-224</ref><ref>Edward Craig (2000), Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415223645}}, pages 517-518</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Sharma |first=Chandradhar |title=A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy|year= 1994|publisher= Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=81-208-0365-5 | pages=373–374}}</ref> | |||
In the Vishishtadvaita school, the Upanishads are interpreted to be teaching about ] (Vishnu), who is the seat of all auspicious qualities, with all of the empirically perceived world as the body of God who dwells in everything.<ref name=fowlerr299/> The school recommends a devotion to godliness and constant remembrance of the beauty and love of a personal god. This ultimately leads one to the oneness with abstract Brahman.<ref name=jabvanbuirhtp/><ref name="Sydnor2012p20">{{cite book|author=Jon Paul Sydnor|title=Ramanuja and Schleiermacher: Toward a Constructive Comparative Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae4FBAAAQBAJ|year=2012|publisher=Casemate|isbn=978-0227680247|pages=20–22 with footnote 32|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=3 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103173247/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ae4FBAAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=joeschultz81>{{cite book|author=Joseph P. Schultz|title=Judaism and the Gentile Faiths: Comparative Studies in Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dchpiP-9YQAC|year=1981|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|isbn=978-0-8386-1707-6|pages=81–84|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=3 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103172821/https://books.google.com/books?id=dchpiP-9YQAC|url-status=live}}</ref> The Brahman in the Upanishads is a living reality, states Fowler, and "the Atman of all things and all beings" in Ramanuja's interpretation.<ref name=fowlerr299/> | |||
===Dvaita=== | |||
The third school of Vedanta called the Dvaita school was founded by ] (1199–1278 CE).{{sfn|Raghavendrachar|1956|p=322}} It is regarded as a strongly theistic philosophic exposition of the Upanishads.{{sfn|Chari|1956|p=305}} Madhvacharya, much like Adi Shankara claims for Advaita, and Ramanuja claims for Vishishtadvaita, states that his theistic Dvaita Vedanta is grounded in the Upanishads.<ref name=staffordbetty/> | |||
According to the Dvaita school, states Fowler, the "Upanishads that speak of the soul as Brahman, speak of resemblance and not identity".<ref name="Fowler2002p356">{{cite book|author=Jeaneane D. Fowler|title=Perspectives of Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C|year=2002|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-898723-93-6|pages=356–357|access-date=3 November 2016|archive-date=22 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122065042/https://books.google.com/books?id=8dRZ4E-qgz8C|url-status=live}}</ref> Madhvacharya interprets the Upanishadic teachings of the self becoming one with Brahman, as "entering into Brahman", just like a drop enters an ocean. This to the Dvaita school implies duality and dependence, where Brahman and Atman are different realities. Brahman is a separate, independent and supreme reality in the Upanishads, Atman only resembles the Brahman in limited, inferior, dependent manner according to ].<ref name="Fowler2002p356"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Madhva (1238–1317) |first=Valerie |last=Stoker |publisher=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=2011 |access-date=2 November 2016 |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/madhva/ |archive-date=12 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012131604/http://www.iep.utm.edu/madhva/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Edwin |last= Bryant| title=Krishna : A Sourcebook (Chapter 15 by Deepak Sarma)| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2007| isbn= 978-0195148923|pages=358–359}}</ref> | |||
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita school and Shankara's Advaita school are both nondualism Vedanta schools,<ref name=jabvanbuirhtp>J.A.B. van Buitenen (2008), {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006100847/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ramanuja |date=6 October 2016 }}, Encyclopædia Britannica</ref> both are premised on the assumption that all souls can hope for and achieve the state of blissful liberation; in contrast, Madhvacharya believed that some souls are eternally doomed and damned.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sharma |first=Chandradhar |title=A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy|year= 1994|publisher= Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=81-208-0365-5 | pages=374–375}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|first=Edwin |last= Bryant| title=Krishna : A Sourcebook (Chapter 15 by Deepak Sarma)| publisher= Oxford University Press| year= 2007| isbn= 978-0195148923|pages=361–362}}</ref> | |||
==Similarities with Platonic thought== | |||
{{See also|Proto-Indo-European religion|Ṛta|}} | |||
Several scholars have recognised parallels between the philosophy of ] and ] and that of the Upanishads, including their ideas on ], concept of justice and path to salvation, and Plato's ]. Platonic psychology with its divisions of reason, spirit and appetite, also bears resemblance to the three '']s'' in the Indian philosophy of ].{{sfn|Chousalkar|1986|pp=130-134}}{{sfn|Wadia|1956|p=64-65}}{{refn|group=note|For instances of Platonic ] in the early Upanishads see Randall.{{sfn|Collins|2000|pp=197–198}}}} | |||
Various mechanisms for such a transmission of knowledge have been conjectured including Pythagoras traveling as far as India; Indian philosophers visiting Athens and meeting ]; Plato encountering the ideas when in exile in Syracuse; or, intermediated through Persia.{{sfn|Chousalkar|1986|pp=130-134}}{{sfn|Urwick|1920}} | |||
However, other scholars, such as ], ] and ], believe that the two systems developed independently. They note that there is no historical evidence of the philosophers of the two schools meeting, and point out significant differences in the stage of development, orientation and goals of the two philosophical systems. Wadia writes that Plato's metaphysics were rooted in ''this'' life and his primary aim was to develop an ideal state.{{sfn|Wadia|1956|p=64-65}} In contrast, Upanishadic focus was the individual, the self (atman, soul), self-knowledge, and the means of an individual's ] (freedom, liberation in this life or after-life).{{sfn|Keith|2007|pp=602-603}}<ref>RC Mishra (2013), Moksha and the Hindu Worldview, Psychology & Developing Societies, Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 21-42; Chousalkar, Ashok (1986), Social and Political Implications of Concepts Of Justice And Dharma, pages 130-134</ref> | |||
==Translations== | |||
The Upanishads have been translated into various languages including ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ].{{sfn|Sharma|1985|p=20}} The ] ]'s reign (1556–1586) saw the first translations of the Upanishads into Persian.{{sfn|Müller|1900|p=lvii}}{{sfn|Müller|1899|p=204}} His great-grandson, ], produced a collection called '']'' in 1656, wherein 50 Upanishads were translated from Sanskrit into ].{{Sfn|Deussen|1997|pp=558-59}} | |||
], a French Orientalist, received a manuscript of the ''Oupanekhat'' and translated the Persian version into French and Latin, publishing the Latin translation in two volumes in 1801–1802 as ''Oupneck'hat''.{{Sfn|Deussen|1997|pp=558-59}}{{sfn|Müller|1900|p=lvii}} The French translation was never published.{{sfn|Müller|1900|p=lviii}} More recently, several translations in French of some Upanishads or the whole of 108 have been published : by indianists ], ''Kausitaki, Svetasvatra, Prasna, Taittiriya Upanisads'', 1948;<ref>{{cite book|language=fr |author=] | title= Kausitaki, Svetasvatra, Prasna, Taittiriya Upanisads | place=Paris |editor=Adrien Maisonneuve | date=1948 | pages=268 |isbn=978-2-7200-0972-3 }}.</ref> ], ''Mahâ-Nârâyana Upanisad'', 1960,<ref>{{cite book|language=fr |author=] | title=Mahâ-Nârâyana Upanisad, 2 vol. | place=Paris |editor= Éditions de Boccard | date=1960| pages=155 and 144 |isbn= }} Reprint in 1986.</ref> and ''Sept Upanishads'', 1981;<ref>{{cite book|language=fr |author=] | title=Sept Upanishads | place=Paris |editor=] | date=1981| pages=227 |isbn=9782020058728 }}.</ref> Alyette Degrâces-Fadh, ''Samnyâsa-Upanisad (Upanisad du renoncement)'', 1989;<ref>{{cite book|language=fr |author=Alyette Degrâces-Fadh | title= Samnyâsa-Upanisad (Upanisad du renoncement) | place=Paris |editor=Fayard | date=1989 | pages=461 |isbn=9782213018782}}.</ref> Martine Buttex, ''Les 108 Upanishads'' (full translation), 2012.<ref>{{cite book|language=fr|author=Martine Buttex|title=Les 108 Upanishads|place=Paris|editor=Éditions Dervy|date=2012|pages=1400 | isbn= 978-2-84454-949-5}}.</ref> | |||
The Latin version was the initial introduction of the Upanishadic thought to Western scholars.{{Sfn|Deussen|1997|pp=558-559}} However, according to Deussen, the Persian translators took great liberties in translating the text and at times changed the meaning.{{Sfn|Deussen|1997|pp=915-916}} | |||
The first Sanskrit-to-English translation of the ] was made by ]<ref name=colebrook1858>See Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1858), ''''. London: Williams and Norgate. In this volume, see chapter 1 (pp. 1–69), ''On the Vedas, or Sacred Writings of the Hindus'', reprinted from Colebrooke's ''Asiatic Researches'', Calcutta: 1805, Vol 8, pp. 369–476. A translation of the ] appears in pages 26–30 of this chapter.</ref> in 1805, and the first English translation of the ] was made by ] in 1816.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vV_FAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA187|title=Rammohun Roy and the Making of Victorian Britain, By Lynn Zastoupil|access-date=1 June 2014|isbn=9780230111493|last1=Zastoupil|first1=L|year=2010|publisher=Springer |archive-date=2 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002082612/https://books.google.com/books?id=vV_FAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA187|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01011.htm|title=The Upanishads, Part 1, by Max Müller|access-date=2 June 2014|archive-date=29 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729182732/http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe01/sbe01011.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The first German translation appeared in 1832 and Roer's English version appeared in 1853. However, Max Mueller's 1879 and 1884 editions were the first systematic English treatment to include the 12 Principal Upanishads.{{sfn|Sharma|1985|p=20}} Other major translations of the Upanishads have been by Robert Ernest Hume (13 Principal Upanishads),<ref>{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|url=https://archive.org/details/thirteenprincipa028442mbp |title=The Thirteen Principal Upanishads|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921}}</ref> ] (60 Upanishads),{{Sfn|Deussen|1997}} ] (18 Upanishads),<ref>{{citation|first=Sarvapalli|last=Radhakrishnan |year=1953|url=https://archive.org/stream/PrincipalUpanishads/129481965-The-Principal-Upanishads-by-S-Radhakrishnan#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Principal Upanishads|location=New Delhi|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers (1994 Reprint)|isbn=81-7223-124-5}}</ref> ] (32 Upanishads in two books){{Sfn|Olivelle|1992}}{{Sfn|Olivelle|1998}} and Bhānu Swami (13 Upanishads with commentaries of Vaiṣṇava ācāryas). Olivelle's translation won the 1998 A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aasianst.org/book-prizes-ramanujan.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020625104035/http://www.aasianst.org/book-prizes-ramanujan.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=2002-06-25|title=AAS SAC A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation|publisher=Association of Asian Studies|date=2002-06-25|access-date=2018-11-27}}</ref> | |||
Throughout the 1930s, ] ] worked with the Indian-born ]-teacher ] on their own translation of the Upanishads, eventually titled '']'' and published in 1938. This translation was the final piece of work published by Yeats before his death less than a year later.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead%2Fmss0126.xml%3Btab%3Dprint |title=William Butler Yeats papers |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=library.udel.edu |publisher=University of Delaware |access-date=30 October 2020 |archive-date=2 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201102123314/https://library.udel.edu/special/findaids/view?docId=ead%2Fmss0126.xml%3Btab%3Dprint |url-status=live }}</ref> | |||
==Reception in the West== | |||
], impressed by the Upanishads, called the texts "the production of the highest human wisdom".]] | |||
The German philosopher ] read the Latin translation and praised the Upanishads in his main work, '']'' (1819), as well as in his '']'' (1851).{{sfn|Schopenhauer|Payne|2000|p=395}} He found his own philosophy in accord with the Upanishads, which taught that the individual is a manifestation of the one basis of reality. For Schopenhauer, that fundamentally real underlying unity is what we know in ourselves as "will". Schopenhauer used to keep a copy of the Latin ''Oupnekhet'' by his side and commented, | |||
{{blockquote|In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.{{sfn|Schopenhauer|Payne|2000|p=397}}}} | |||
Schopenhauer's philosophy influenced many famous people and introduced them to the Upanishads. One of them was the Austrian Physicist ], who once wrote: | |||
{{Blockquote|text=“There is obviously only one alternative,” he wrote, “namely the unification of minds or consciousnesses. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads.”<ref>{{Citation|last1=Schrodinger|first1=Erwin|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107295629.016|work=What is Life?|pages=140–152|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-29562-9|access-date=2021-05-10|last2=Penrose|first2=Roger|title=Science and Religion|year=2012|doi=10.1017/cbo9781107295629.016|archive-date=2 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002082617/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/what-is-life/science-and-religion/A4777179321044F6045B30F3AF85D667|url-status=live}}</ref>}} | |||
Another German philosopher, ], praised the ideas in the Upanishads,<ref>{{cite book|author=Herman Wayne Tull|title=The Vedic Origins of Karma: Cosmos as Man in Ancient Indian Myth and Ritual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auqGWz2l9pYC&pg=PA14|year=1989|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-0094-4|pages=14–15|access-date=4 November 2016|archive-date=8 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200608205943/https://books.google.com/books?id=auqGWz2l9pYC&pg=PA14|url-status=live}}</ref> as did others.<ref>{{cite book|author=Klaus G. Witz|title=The Supreme Wisdom of the Upaniṣads: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jnPlEqwe_UC&pg=PA35|year=1998|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1573-5|pages=35–44|access-date=4 November 2016|archive-date=9 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200609142049/https://books.google.com/books?id=2jnPlEqwe_UC&pg=PA35|url-status=live}}</ref> In the United States, the group known as the ] were influenced by the German idealists. Americans, such as ] and ] embraced Schelling's interpretation of ]'s ], as well as his celebration of the romantic, exotic, mystical aspect of the Upanishads. As a result of the influence of these writers, the Upanishads gained renown in Western countries.{{sfn|Versluis|1993|pp=69, 76, 95. 106–110}} | |||
The poet ], inspired by his reading of the Upanishads, based the final portion of his famous poem '']'' (1922) upon one of its verses.{{sfn|Eliot|1963}} According to ], the Upanishads are snapshots of towering peaks of consciousness.{{sfn|Easwaran|2007|p=9}} | |||
], a professor at the University of Barcelona and a translator of the Upanishads, states that the Upanishads represents for the Hindu approximately what the ] represents for the Christian, and that the message of the Upanishads can be summarized in the words, "the kingdom of God is within you".<ref>Juan Mascaró, The Upanishads, Penguin Classics, {{ISBN|978-0140441635}}, page 7, 146, cover</ref> | |||
] in his review of the Upanishads, states that the texts emphasize Brahman-Atman as something that can be experienced, but not defined.<ref name=pauldeussenreview/> This view of the soul and self are similar, states Deussen, to those found in the dialogues of Plato and elsewhere. The Upanishads insisted on oneness of soul, excluded all plurality, and therefore, all proximity in space, all succession in time, all interdependence as cause and effect, and all opposition as subject and object.<ref name=pauldeussenreview>Paul Deussen, University of Kiel, T&T Clark, pages 150-179</ref> Max Müller, in his review of the Upanishads, summarizes the lack of systematic philosophy and the central theme in the Upanishads as follows, | |||
{{blockquote| | |||
There is not what could be called a philosophical system in these Upanishads. They are, in the true sense of the word, guesses at truth, frequently contradicting each other, yet all tending in one direction. The key-note of the old Upanishads is "know thyself," but with a much deeper meaning than that of the ''γνῶθι σεαυτόν'' of the ]. The "know thyself" of the Upanishads means, know thy true self, that which underlines thine Ego, and find it and know it in the highest, the eternal Self, the One without a second, which underlies the whole world. | |||
|]}} | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
{{Portal|Hinduism}} | |||
* ] | |||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
== |
== Notes == | ||
{{reflist|group=note|35em|refs= | |||
Original text: | |||
<!-- A --> | |||
* | |||
<!-- Advaita_monism | |||
{{refn|group=note|name=Advaita_monism|Advaita Vedanta as monism or nondualism: | |||
* {{harvnb|Cornille|1992|p=12}}''Advaita Vedanta'', summarized by Shankara (788–820), advances a non-dualistic (''a-dvaita'') interpretation of the Upanishads." | |||
* {{harvnb|Phillips|1995|p=10}} "These Upanishadic ideas are developed into Advaita monism. Brahman's unity comes to be taken to mean that appearances of individualities.}} --> | |||
<!-- C --> | |||
<!-- "Central concepts" --> | |||
{{refn|group=note|name="Central concepts"|Central concepts:<br> | |||
* {{harvtxt|Doniger|1990|p=2-3: "The Upanishads supply the basis of later Hindu philosophy; they are widely known and quoted by most well-educated Hindus, and their central ideas have also become a part of the spiritual arsenal of rank-and-file Hindus." | |||
* {{harvtxt|Dissanayake|1993|p=39}}: "The Upanishads form the foundations of Hindu philosophical thought"; | |||
* Patrick Olivelle (2014), ''The Early Upanisads'', Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195352429}}, page 3: "Even though theoretically the whole of vedic corpus is accepted as revealed truth , in reality it is the Upanishads that have continued to influence the life and thought of the various religious traditions that we have come to call Hindu. Upanishads are the scriptures par excellence of Hinduism"; | |||
* Michael McDowell and Nathan Brown (2009), World Religions, Penguin, {{ISBN|978-1592578467}}, pages 208-210. | |||
These new concepts and practices include rebirth, samsara, karma, meditation, renunciation and moksha.{{harv|Olivelle|1998|pp=xx-xxiv}} The Upanishadic, Buddhist and Jain renunciation traditions form parallel traditions, which share some common concepts and interests. While ]-], at the central Ganges Plain, formed the center of the early Upanishadic tradition, ]-] at the central Ganges Plain formed the center of the other ] traditions.{{harv|Samuel|2010}}}}}} | |||
<!-- Collins --> | |||
{{refn|group=note|name=Collins|{{harvnb|Collins|2000|p=195}}: "The breakdown of the Vedic cults is more obscured by retrospective ideology than any other period in Indian history. It is commonly assumed that the dominant philosophy now became an idealist monism, the identification of atman (self) and Brahman (Spirit), and that this mysticism was believed to provide a way to transcend rebirths on the wheel of karma. This is far from an accurate picture of what we read in the Upanishads. It has become traditional to view the Upanishads through the lens of Shankara's Advaita interpretation. This imposes the philosophical revolution of about 700 C.E. upon a very different situation 1,000 to 1,500 years earlier. Shankara picked out monist and idealist themes from a much wider philosophical lineup."}} | |||
<!-- S --> | |||
<-- scholarsatman3 --> | |||
{{refn|group=note|name=scholarsatman3|Atman:<br> | |||
* , Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press (2012): "1. real self of the individual; 2. a person's soul"; | |||
* John Bowker (2000), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0192800947}}, See entry for Atman; | |||
* WJ Johnson (2009), A Dictionary of Hinduism, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0198610250}}, See entry for Atman (self); | |||
* Richard King (1995), Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0791425138}}, page 64 "Atman as the innermost essence or soul of man, and Brahman as the innermost essence and support of the universe. (...) Thus we can see in the Upanishads, a tendency towards a convergence of microcosm and macrocosm, culminating in the equating of Atman with Brahman". | |||
* Chad Meister (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0195340136}}, page 63: "Even though Buddhism explicitly rejected the Hindu ideas of Atman ("soul") and Brahman, Hinduism treats Sakyamuni Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Vishnu." | |||
*David Lorenzen (2004), The Hindu World (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, {{ISBN|0-415215277}}, pages 208-209: "Advaita and nirguni movements, on the other hand, stress an interior mysticism in which the devotee seeks to discover the identity of individual soul (atman) with the universal ground of being (brahman) or to find god within himself".}} | |||
}} | |||
== References == | |||
Translations: | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
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* The complete text, with transliteration, word-for-word meanings, and commentary | |||
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{{refend}} | |||
==Further reading== | |||
* {{cite book|last=Edgerton |first=Franklin|title=The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy|location=Cambridge|publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1965}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Embree|first=Ainslie T.|author-link=Ainslie Embree|title=The Hindu Tradition|location=New York|publisher=Random House|year=1966|isbn=0-394-71702-3|url=https://archive.org/details/hindutraditionre00ains}} | |||
* {{cite book|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|url=https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n7/mode/2up |title= The Thirteen Principal Upanishads |year=1921 |publisher=Oxford University Press}} | |||
* {{cite book|first=Charles|last=Johnston|url=https://archive.org/stream/fromupanishadsby00thomiala#page/n9/mode/2up |title=From the Upanishads |publisher=Kshetra Books (Reprinted in 2014) |year=1898|isbn=9781495946530}} | |||
* {{cite book|last=Mascaró |first=Juan|title=The Upanishads|location=London, England|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd. |year=1965}} | |||
* ], translator, , New York: Dover Publications (1879; Reprinted in 1962), {{ISBN|0-486-20992-X}} | |||
* Müller, Max, translator, , New York: Dover Publications (1884; Reprinted in 1962), {{ISBN|0-486-20993-8}} | |||
* {{cite book|first=Sarvapalli|last=Radhakrishnan |year=1953 |title=The Principal Upanishads|location=New Delhi|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers India (Reprinted in 1994) |isbn=81-7223-124-5| url = https://archive.org/stream/PrincipalUpanishads/129481965-The-Principal-Upanishads-by-S-Radhakrishnan#page/n5/mode/2up}} | |||
* Adi Shankara (2020). . Lulu Press. ] | |||
* ] (2020) ] | |||
==External links== | |||
{{Wikiquote|Upanishads}} | |||
{{Wikisource|Sacred Books of the East/Volume 1|Upanishads}} | |||
{{Wikisourcelang|sa|उपनिषत्}} | |||
{{Commonscat|Upanishads}} | |||
* translated into English by ] | |||
*, Adyar Library | |||
*, Sanskrit documents in various formats | |||
* article in the '']'' | |||
*, ] (1899) | |||
*, M. S. Modak (1931) | |||
*, A. Davenport (1952) | |||
*, D. C. Mathur (1972) | |||
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Latest revision as of 19:57, 4 January 2025
Ancient Sanskrit religious and philosophical texts of Hinduism
Upanishads | |
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The Upanishads (/ʊˈpʌnɪʃədz/; Sanskrit: उपनिषद्, IAST: Upaniṣad, pronounced [ˈʊpɐnɪʂɐd]) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hinduism. They are the most recent addition to the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, and deal with meditation, philosophy, consciousness, and ontological knowledge. Earlier parts of the Vedas dealt with mantras, benedictions, rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices.
While among the most important literature in the history of Indian religions and culture, the Upanishads document a wide variety of "rites, incantations, and esoteric knowledge" departing from Vedic ritualism and interpreted in various ways in the later commentarial traditions. The Upanishads are widely known, and their diverse ideas, interpreted in various ways, informed later traditions of Hinduism. The central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person, postulating Ātman and Brahman as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe", but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.
108 Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen or so are the oldest and most important and are referred to as the principal or main (mukhya) Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmanas and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized by each generation and passed down orally. The mukhya Upanishads predate the Common Era, but there is no scholarly consensus on their date, or even on which ones are pre- or post-Buddhist. The Brhadaranyaka is seen as particularly ancient by modern scholars. Of the remainder, 95 Upanishads are part of the Muktikā canon, composed from about the last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through about 15th-century CE. New Upanishads, beyond the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to be composed through the early modern and modern era, though often dealing with subjects that are unconnected to the Vedas. The mukhya Upanishads, along with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutra (known collectively as the Prasthanatrayi), are interpreted in divergent ways in the several later schools of Vedanta.
Translations of the Upanishads in the early 19th century started to attract attention from a Western audience. German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer was deeply impressed by the Upanishads and called them "the most profitable and elevating reading which ... is possible in the world." Modern era Indologists have discussed the similarities between the fundamental concepts in the Upanishads and the works of major Western philosophers.
Etymology
The Sanskrit term Upaniṣad originally meant “connection” or “equivalence", but came to be understood as "sitting near a teacher," from upa "by" and ni-ṣad "sit down", "sitting down near", referring to the student sitting down near the teacher while receiving spiritual knowledge (Gurumukh). Other dictionary meanings include "esoteric doctrine" and "secret doctrine". Monier-Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary notes – "According to native authorities, Upanishad means setting to rest ignorance by revealing the knowledge of the supreme spirit."
Adi Shankaracharya explains in his commentary on the Kaṭha and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the word means Ātmavidyā, that is, "knowledge of the self", or Brahmavidyā "knowledge of Brahman". The word appears in the verses of many Upanishads, such as the fourth verse of the 13th volume in the first chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad. Max Müller as well as Paul Deussen translate the word Upanishad in these verses as "secret doctrine", Robert Hume translates it as "mystic meaning", while Patrick Olivelle translates it as "hidden connections".
Development
Authorship
The authorship of most Upanishads is unknown. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan states, "almost all the early literature of India was anonymous, we do not know the names of the authors of the Upanishads". The ancient Upanishads are embedded in the Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism's religious scriptures, which some traditionally consider to be apauruṣeya, which means "not of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless". The Vedic texts assert that they were skillfully created by Rishis (sages), after inspired creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.
The various philosophical theories in the early Upanishads have been attributed to famous sages such as Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka Aruni, Shvetaketu, Shandilya, Aitareya, Balaki, Pippalada, and Sanatkumara. Women, such as Maitreyi and Gargi, participate in the dialogues and are also credited in the early Upanishads. There are some exceptions to the anonymous tradition of the Upanishads. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad, for example, includes closing credits to sage Shvetashvatara, and he is considered the author of the Upanishad.
Many scholars believe that early Upanishads were interpolated and expanded over time. There are differences within manuscripts of the same Upanishad discovered in different parts of South Asia, differences in non-Sanskrit version of the texts that have survived, and differences within each text in terms of meter, style, grammar and structure. The existing texts are believed to be the work of many authors.
Chronology
Scholars are uncertain about when the Upanishads were composed. The chronology of the early Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states philosopher and Sanskritist Stephen Phillips, because all opinions rest on scanty evidence and analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, and are driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies. Indologist Patrick Olivelle says that "in spite of claims made by some, in reality, any dating of these documents that attempts a precision closer than a few centuries is as stable as a house of cards".
Some scholars have tried to analyse similarities between Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist literature to establish chronology for the Upanishads. Precise dates are impossible, and most scholars give only broad ranges encompassing various centuries. Gavin Flood states that "the Upanisads are not a homogeneous group of texts. Even the older texts were composed over a wide expanse of time from about 600 to 300 BCE." Stephen Phillips places the early or "principal" Upanishads in the 800 to 300 BCE range.
Patrick Olivelle, a Sanskrit Philologist and Indologist, gives the following chronology for the early Upanishads, also called the Principal Upanishads:
- The Brhadaranyaka and the Chandogya are the two earliest Upanishads. They are edited texts, some of whose sources are much older than others. The two texts are pre-Buddhist; they may be placed in the 7th to 6th centuries BCE, give or take a century or so.
- The three other early prose Upanishads—Taittiriya, Aitareya, and Kausitaki come next; all are probably pre-Buddhist and can be assigned to the 6th to 5th centuries BCE.
- The Kena is the oldest of the verse Upanishads followed by probably the Katha, Isa, Svetasvatara, and Mundaka. All these Upanishads were composed probably in the last few centuries BCE. According to Olivelle, "All exhibit strong theistic tendencies and are probably the earliest literary products of the theistic tradition, whose later literature includes the Bhagavad Gita and the Puranas."
- The two late prose Upanishads, the Prasna and the Mandukya, cannot be much older than the beginning of the common era.
Meanwhile, the Indologist Johannes Bronkhorst argues for a later date for the Upanishads than has generally been accepted. Bronkhorst places even the oldest of the Upanishads, such as the Brhadaranyaka as possibly still being composed at "a date close to Katyayana and Patañjali " (i.e., c. 2nd century BCE).
The later Upanishads, numbering about 95, also called minor Upanishads, are dated from the late 1st-millennium BCE to mid 2nd-millennium CE. Gavin Flood dates many of the twenty Yoga Upanishads to be probably from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period. Patrick Olivelle and other scholars date seven of the twenty Sannyasa Upanishads to likely have been complete sometime between the last centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE to 300 CE. About half of the Sannyasa Upanishads were likely composed in 14th- to 15th-century CE.
Geography
The general area of the composition of the early Upanishads is considered as northern India. The region is bounded on the west by the upper Indus valley, on the east by lower Ganges region, on the north by the Himalayan foothills, and on the south by the Vindhya mountain range. Scholars are reasonably sure that the early Upanishads were produced at the geographical center of ancient Brahmanism, Kuru-Panchala, and Kosala-Videha, a "frontier region" of Brahmanism, together with the areas immediately to the south and west of these. This region covers modern Bihar, Nepal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, eastern Rajasthan, and northern Madhya Pradesh.
While significant attempts have been made recently to identify the exact locations of the individual Upanishads, the results are tentative. Witzel identifies the center of activity in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as the area of Videha, whose king, Janaka, features prominently in the Upanishad. The Chandogya Upanishad was probably composed in a more western than eastern location in the Indian subcontinent, possibly somewhere in the western region of the Kuru-Panchala country.
Compared to the Principal Upanishads, the new Upanishads recorded in the Muktikā belong to an entirely different region, probably southern India, and are considerably relatively recent. In the fourth chapter of the Kaushitaki Upanishad, a location named Kashi (modern Varanasi) is mentioned.
Classification
Muktika canon: major and minor Upanishads
There are more than 200 known Upanishads, one of which, the Muktikā Upanishad, predates 1656 CE and contains a list of 108 canonical Upanishads, including itself as the last. These are further divided into Upanishads associated with Shaktism (goddess Shakti), Sannyasa (renunciation, monastic life), Shaivism (god Shiva), Vaishnavism (god Vishnu), Yoga, and Sāmānya (general, sometimes referred to as Samanya-Vedanta).
Some of the Upanishads are categorized as "sectarian" since they present their ideas through a particular god or goddess of a specific Hindu tradition such as Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, or a combination of these such as the Skanda Upanishad. These traditions sought to link their texts as Vedic, by asserting their texts to be an Upanishad, thereby a Śruti. Most of these sectarian Upanishads, for example the Rudrahridaya Upanishad and the Mahanarayana Upanishad, assert that all the Hindu gods and goddesses are the same, all an aspect and manifestation of Brahman, the Vedic concept for metaphysical ultimate reality before and after the creation of the Universe.
Principal Upanishads
Main article: Principal UpanishadsThe Principal Upanishads, also known as the Mukhya Upanishads, can be grouped into periods. Of the early periods are the Brihadaranyaka and the Chandogya, the oldest.
The Aitareya, Kauṣītaki and Taittirīya Upanishads may date to as early as the mid-1st millennium BCE, while the remnant date from between roughly the 4th to 1st centuries BCE, roughly contemporary with the earliest portions of the Sanskrit epics. One chronology assumes that the Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka, Prasna, and Katha Upanishads has Buddha's influence, and is consequently placed after the 5th century BCE, while another proposal questions this assumption and dates it independent of Buddha's date of birth. The Kena, Mandukya, and Isa Upanishads are typically placed after these Principal Upanishads, but other scholars date these differently. Not much is known about the authors except for those, like Yajnavalkayva and Uddalaka, mentioned in the texts. A few women discussants, such as Gargi and Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkayva, also feature occasionally.
Each of the principal Upanishads can be associated with one of the schools of exegesis of the four Vedas (shakhas). Many Shakhas are said to have existed, of which only a few remain. The new Upanishads often have little relation to the Vedic corpus and have not been cited or commented upon by any great Vedanta philosopher: their language differs from that of the classic Upanishads, being less subtle and more formalized. As a result, they are not difficult to comprehend for the modern reader.
Veda | Recension | Shakha | Principal Upanishad |
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Rig Veda | Only one recension | Shakala | Aitareya |
Sama Veda | Only one recension | Kauthuma | Chāndogya |
Jaiminiya | Kena | ||
Ranayaniya | |||
Yajur Veda | Krishna Yajur Veda | Katha | Kaṭha |
Taittiriya | Taittirīya | ||
Maitrayani | |||
Hiranyakeshi (Kapishthala) | |||
Kathaka | |||
Shukla Yajur Veda | Vajasaneyi Madhyandina | Isha and Bṛhadāraṇyaka | |
Kanva Shakha | |||
Atharva Veda | Two recensions | Shaunaka | Māṇḍūkya and Muṇḍaka |
Paippalada | Prashna Upanishad |
New Upanishads
There is no fixed list of the Upanishads as newer ones, beyond the Muktika anthology of 108 Upanishads, have continued to be discovered and composed. In 1908, for example, four previously unknown Upanishads were discovered in newly found manuscripts, and these were named Bashkala, Chhagaleya, Arsheya, and Saunaka, by Friedrich Schrader, who attributed them to the first prose period of the Upanishads. The text of three of them, namely the Chhagaleya, Arsheya, and Saunaka, were incomplete and inconsistent, likely poorly maintained or corrupted.
Ancient Upanishads have long enjoyed a revered position in Hindu traditions, and authors of numerous sectarian texts have tried to benefit from this reputation by naming their texts as Upanishads. These "new Upanishads" number in the hundreds, cover diverse range of topics from physiology to renunciation to sectarian theories. They were composed between the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE through the early modern era (~1600 CE). While over two dozen of the minor Upanishads are dated to pre-3rd century CE, many of these new texts under the title of "Upanishads" originated in the first half of the 2nd millennium CE, they are not Vedic texts, and some do not deal with themes found in the Vedic Upanishads.
The main Shakta Upanishads, for example, mostly discuss doctrinal and interpretative differences between the two principal sects of a major Tantric form of Shaktism called Shri Vidya upasana. The many extant lists of authentic Shakta Upaniṣads vary, reflecting the sect of their compilers, so that they yield no evidence of their "location" in Tantric tradition, impeding correct interpretation. The Tantra content of these texts also weaken its identity as an Upaniṣad for non-Tantrikas. Sectarian texts such as these do not enjoy status as shruti and thus the authority of the new Upanishads as scripture is not accepted in Hinduism.
Association with Vedas
All Upanishads are associated with one of the four Vedas—Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda (there are two primary versions or Samhitas of the Yajurveda: Shukla Yajurveda, Krishna Yajurveda), and Atharvaveda. During the modern era, the ancient Upanishads that were embedded texts in the Vedas, were detached from the Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic text, compiled into separate texts and these were then gathered into anthologies of the Upanishads. These lists associated each Upanishad with one of the four Vedas. Many such lists exist but they are inconsistent across India in terms of which Upanishads are included and how the newer Upanishads are assigned to the ancient Vedas. In south India, the collected list based on Muktika Upanishad, and published in Telugu language, became the most common by the 19th-century and this is a list of 108 Upanishads. In north India, a list of 52 Upanishads has been most common.
The Muktikā Upanishad's list of 108 Upanishads groups the first 13 as mukhya, 21 as Sāmānya Vedānta, 18 as Sannyāsa, 14 as Vaishnava, 14 as Shaiva, 8 as Shakta, and 20 as Yoga. The 108 Upanishads as recorded in the Muktikā are shown in the table below. The mukhya Upanishads are the most important and highlighted.
Philosophy
See also: VedantaThe central concern of all Upanishads is to discover the relations between ritual, cosmic realities (including gods), and the human body/person, postulating Ātman and Brahman as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe," but various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.
The Upanishads reflect a pluralism of worldviews. While some Upanishads have been deemed 'monistic', others, including the Katha Upanishad, are dualistic. The Maitri is one of the Upanishads that inclines more toward dualism, thus grounding classical Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism, in contrast to the non-dualistic Upanishads at the foundation of its Vedanta school. They contain a plurality of ideas.
The Upanishads include sections on philosophical theories that have been at the foundation of Indian traditions. For example, the Chandogya Upanishad includes one of the earliest known declarations of Ahimsa (non-violence) as an ethical precept. Discussion of other ethical premises such as Damah (temperance, self-restraint), Satya (truthfulness), Dāna (charity), Ārjava (non-hypocrisy), Daya (compassion), and others are found in the oldest Upanishads and many later Upanishads. Similarly, the Karma doctrine is presented in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is the oldest Upanishad.
Development of thought
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While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals and the Brahmanas serve as a liturgical manual for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual. The older Upanishads launch attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The Chāndogya Upanishad parodies those who indulge in the acts of sacrifice by comparing them with a procession of dogs chanting Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink.
The Kaushitaki Upanishad asserts that "external rituals such as Agnihotram offered in the morning and in the evening, must be replaced with inner Agnihotram, the ritual of introspection", and that "not rituals, but knowledge should be one's pursuit". The Mundaka Upanishad declares how man has been called upon, promised benefits for, scared unto and misled into performing sacrifices, oblations and pious works. Mundaka thereafter asserts this is foolish and frail, by those who encourage it and those who follow it, because it makes no difference to man's current life and after-life, it is like blind men leading the blind, it is a mark of conceit and vain knowledge, ignorant inertia like that of children, a futile useless practice. The Maitri Upanishad states,
The performance of all the sacrifices, described in the Maitrayana-Brahmana, is to lead up in the end to a knowledge of Brahman, to prepare a man for meditation. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires, meditate on the Self, to become complete and perfect. But who is to be meditated on?
— Maitri Upanishad
The opposition to the ritual is not explicit in the oldest Upanishads. On occasions, the Upanishads extend the task of the Aranyakas by making the ritual allegorical and giving it a philosophical meaning. For example, the Brihadaranyaka interprets the practice of horse-sacrifice or ashvamedha allegorically. It states that the over-lordship of the earth may be acquired by sacrificing a horse. It then goes on to say that spiritual autonomy can only be achieved by renouncing the universe which is conceived in the image of a horse.
In similar fashion, Vedic gods such as the Agni, Aditya, Indra, Rudra, Visnu, Brahma, and others become equated in the Upanishads to the supreme, immortal, and incorporeal Brahman-Atman of the Upanishads, god becomes synonymous with self, and is declared to be everywhere, inmost being of each human being and within every living creature. The one reality or ekam sat of the Vedas becomes the ekam eva advitiyam or "the one and only and sans a second" in the Upanishads. Brahman-Atman and self-realization develops, in the Upanishad, as the means to moksha (liberation; freedom in this life or after-life).
According to Jayatilleke, the thinkers of Upanishadic texts can be grouped into two categories. One group, which includes early Upanishads along with some middle and late Upanishads, were composed by metaphysicians who used rational arguments and empirical experience to formulate their speculations and philosophical premises. The second group includes many middle and later Upanishads, where their authors professed theories based on yoga and personal experiences. Yoga philosophy and practice, adds Jayatilleke, is "not entirely absent in the Early Upanishads".
The development of thought in these Upanishadic theories contrasted with Buddhism, since the Upanishadic inquiry fails to find an empirical correlate of the assumed Atman, but nevertheless assumes its existence, " consciousness as an eternal self." The Buddhist inquiry "is satisfied with the empirical investigation which shows that no such Atman exists because there is no evidence," states Jayatilleke.
Atman and Brahman
Main articles: Ātman (Hinduism) and BrahmanThe Upanishads postulate Ātman and Brahman as the "summit of the hierarchically arranged and interconnected universe." Both have multiple meanings, and various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found.
Atman has "a wide range of lexical meanings, including ‘breath’, ‘spirit’, and ‘body’." In the Upanishads it refers to the body, but also to the essence of the concrete physical human body, "an essence, a life-force, consciousness, or ultimate reality." The Chāndogya Upaniṣhad (6.1-16) "offers an organic understanding of ātman, characterizing the self in terms of the life force that animates all living beings," while the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣhad "characterizes ātman more in terms of consciousness than as a life-giving essence."
Brahman may refer to a "formulation of truth," but also to "the ultimate and basic essence of the cosmos," standing at the "summit of the hierarchical scheme, or at the bottom as the ultimate foundation of all things." Brahman is "beyond the reach of human perception and thought." Atman likewise has multiple meanings, one of them being 'self', the inner essence of a human body/person.
Various ideas about the relation between Atman and Brahman can be found. Two distinct, somewhat divergent themes stand out. Older upanishads state that Atman is part of Brahman but not identical, while younger Upanishads state that Brahman (Highest Reality, Universal Principle, Being-Consciousness-Bliss) is identical with Atman. The Brahmasutra by Badarayana (c. 100 BCE) synthesized and unified these somewhat conflicting theories. According to Nakamura, the Brahmasutras see Atman and Brahman as both different and not-different, a point of view which came to be called bhedabheda in later times. According to Koller, the Brahmasutras state that Atman and Brahman are different in some respects particularly during the state of ignorance, but at the deepest level and in the state of self-realization, Atman and Brahman are identical, non-different. This ancient debate flowered into various dual, non-dual theories in Hinduism.
Reality and Maya
Main article: Maya (illusion)Two different types of the non-dual Brahman-Atman are presented in the Upanishads, according to Mahadevan. The one in which the non-dual Brahman-Atman is the all-inclusive ground of the universe and another in which empirical, changing reality is an appearance (Maya).
The Upanishads describe the universe, and the human experience, as an interplay of Purusha (the eternal, unchanging principles, consciousness) and Prakṛti (the temporary, changing material world, nature). The former manifests itself as Ātman (soul, self), and the latter as Māyā. The Upanishads refer to the knowledge of Atman as "true knowledge" (Vidya), and the knowledge of Maya as "not true knowledge" (Avidya, Nescience, lack of awareness, lack of true knowledge).
Hendrick Vroom explains, "the term Maya has been translated as 'illusion,' but then it does not concern normal illusion. Here 'illusion' does not mean that the world is not real and simply a figment of the human imagination. Maya means that the world is not as it seems; the world that one experiences is misleading as far as its true nature is concerned." According to Wendy Doniger, "to say that the universe is an illusion (māyā) is not to say that it is unreal; it is to say, instead, that it is not what it seems to be, that it is something constantly being made. Māyā not only deceives people about the things they think they know; more basically, it limits their knowledge."
In the Upanishads, Māyā is the perceived changing reality and it co-exists with Brahman which is the hidden true reality. Maya, or "illusion", is an important idea in the Upanishads, because the texts assert that in the human pursuit of blissful and liberating self-knowledge, it is Maya which obscures, confuses and distracts an individual.
Schools of Vedanta
Main article: VedantaThe Upanishads form one of the three main sources for all schools of Vedanta, together with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutras. Due to the wide variety of philosophical teachings contained in the Upanishads, various interpretations could be grounded on the Upanishads. The schools of Vedānta seek to answer questions about the relation between atman and Brahman, and the relation between Brahman and the world. The schools of Vedanta are named after the relation they see between atman and Brahman:
- According to Advaita Vedanta, there is no difference.
- According to Vishishtadvaita the jīvātman is a part of Brahman, and hence is similar, but not identical.
- According to Dvaita, all individual souls (jīvātmans) and matter as eternal and mutually separate entities.
Other schools of Vedanta include Nimbarkacharya's Svabhavika Bhedabheda, Vallabha's Suddhadvaita, and Chaitanya's Acintya Bhedabheda. The philosopher Adi Shankara has provided commentaries on 11 mukhya Upanishads.
Advaita Vedanta
Advaita literally means non-duality, and it is a monistic system of thought. It deals with the non-dual nature of Brahman and Atman. Advaita is considered the most influential sub-school of the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Gaudapada was the first person to expound the basic principles of the Advaita philosophy in a commentary on the conflicting statements of the Upanishads. Gaudapada's Advaita ideas were further developed by Shankara (8th century CE). King states that Gaudapada's main work, Māṇḍukya Kārikā, is infused with philosophical terminology of Buddhism, and uses Buddhist arguments and analogies. King also suggests that there are clear differences between Shankara's writings and the Brahmasutra, and many ideas of Shankara are at odds with those in the Upanishads. Radhakrishnan, on the other hand, suggests that Shankara's views of Advaita were straightforward developments of the Upanishads and the Brahmasutra, and many ideas of Shankara derive from the Upanishads.
Shankara in his discussions of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy referred to the early Upanishads to explain the key difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts that Atman (soul, self) exists, whereas Buddhism asserts that there is no soul, no self.
The Upanishads contain four sentences, the Mahāvākyas (Great Sayings), which were used by Shankara to establish the identity of Atman and Brahman as scriptural truth:
- "Prajñānam brahma" - "Consciousness is Brahman" (Aitareya Upanishad)
- "Aham brahmāsmi" - "I am Brahman" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)
- "Tat tvam asi" - "That Thou art" (Chandogya Upanishad)
- "Ayamātmā brahma" - "This Atman is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad)
Vishishtadvaita
The second school of Vedanta is the Vishishtadvaita, which was founded by Ramanuja (1017–1137 CE). Ramanuja disagreed with Adi Shankara and the Advaita school. Visistadvaita is a synthetic philosophy bridging the monistic Advaita and theistic Dvaita systems of Vedanta. Ramanuja frequently cited the Upanishads, and stated that Vishishtadvaita is grounded in the Upanishads.
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita interpretation of the Upanishads is that of qualified monism. Ramanuja interprets the Upanishadic literature to be teaching a body-soul theory, states Jeaneane Fowler – a professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, where the Brahman is the dweller in all things, yet also distinct and beyond all things, as the soul, the inner controller, the immortal. The Upanishads, according to the Vishishtadvaita school, teach individual souls to be of the same quality as the Brahman, but quantitatively distinct.
In the Vishishtadvaita school, the Upanishads are interpreted to be teaching about Ishvara (Vishnu), who is the seat of all auspicious qualities, with all of the empirically perceived world as the body of God who dwells in everything. The school recommends a devotion to godliness and constant remembrance of the beauty and love of a personal god. This ultimately leads one to the oneness with abstract Brahman. The Brahman in the Upanishads is a living reality, states Fowler, and "the Atman of all things and all beings" in Ramanuja's interpretation.
Dvaita
The third school of Vedanta called the Dvaita school was founded by Madhvacharya (1199–1278 CE). It is regarded as a strongly theistic philosophic exposition of the Upanishads. Madhvacharya, much like Adi Shankara claims for Advaita, and Ramanuja claims for Vishishtadvaita, states that his theistic Dvaita Vedanta is grounded in the Upanishads.
According to the Dvaita school, states Fowler, the "Upanishads that speak of the soul as Brahman, speak of resemblance and not identity". Madhvacharya interprets the Upanishadic teachings of the self becoming one with Brahman, as "entering into Brahman", just like a drop enters an ocean. This to the Dvaita school implies duality and dependence, where Brahman and Atman are different realities. Brahman is a separate, independent and supreme reality in the Upanishads, Atman only resembles the Brahman in limited, inferior, dependent manner according to Madhvacharya.
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita school and Shankara's Advaita school are both nondualism Vedanta schools, both are premised on the assumption that all souls can hope for and achieve the state of blissful liberation; in contrast, Madhvacharya believed that some souls are eternally doomed and damned.
Similarities with Platonic thought
See also: Proto-Indo-European religion and ṚtaSeveral scholars have recognised parallels between the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato and that of the Upanishads, including their ideas on sources of knowledge, concept of justice and path to salvation, and Plato's allegory of the cave. Platonic psychology with its divisions of reason, spirit and appetite, also bears resemblance to the three Guṇas in the Indian philosophy of Samkhya.
Various mechanisms for such a transmission of knowledge have been conjectured including Pythagoras traveling as far as India; Indian philosophers visiting Athens and meeting Socrates; Plato encountering the ideas when in exile in Syracuse; or, intermediated through Persia.
However, other scholars, such as Arthur Berriedale Keith, J. Burnet and A. R. Wadia, believe that the two systems developed independently. They note that there is no historical evidence of the philosophers of the two schools meeting, and point out significant differences in the stage of development, orientation and goals of the two philosophical systems. Wadia writes that Plato's metaphysics were rooted in this life and his primary aim was to develop an ideal state. In contrast, Upanishadic focus was the individual, the self (atman, soul), self-knowledge, and the means of an individual's moksha (freedom, liberation in this life or after-life).
Translations
The Upanishads have been translated into various languages including Persian, Italian, Urdu, French, Latin, German, English, Dutch, Polish, Japanese, Spanish and Russian. The Mughal Emperor Akbar's reign (1556–1586) saw the first translations of the Upanishads into Persian. His great-grandson, Dara Shukoh, produced a collection called Sirr-i-Akbar in 1656, wherein 50 Upanishads were translated from Sanskrit into Persian.
Anquetil-Duperron, a French Orientalist, received a manuscript of the Oupanekhat and translated the Persian version into French and Latin, publishing the Latin translation in two volumes in 1801–1802 as Oupneck'hat. The French translation was never published. More recently, several translations in French of some Upanishads or the whole of 108 have been published : by indianists Louis Renou, Kausitaki, Svetasvatra, Prasna, Taittiriya Upanisads, 1948; Jean Varenne, Mahâ-Nârâyana Upanisad, 1960, and Sept Upanishads, 1981; Alyette Degrâces-Fadh, Samnyâsa-Upanisad (Upanisad du renoncement), 1989; Martine Buttex, Les 108 Upanishads (full translation), 2012.
The Latin version was the initial introduction of the Upanishadic thought to Western scholars. However, according to Deussen, the Persian translators took great liberties in translating the text and at times changed the meaning.
The first Sanskrit-to-English translation of the Aitareya Upanishad was made by Colebrooke in 1805, and the first English translation of the Kena Upanishad was made by Rammohun Roy in 1816.
The first German translation appeared in 1832 and Roer's English version appeared in 1853. However, Max Mueller's 1879 and 1884 editions were the first systematic English treatment to include the 12 Principal Upanishads. Other major translations of the Upanishads have been by Robert Ernest Hume (13 Principal Upanishads), Paul Deussen (60 Upanishads), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (18 Upanishads), Patrick Olivelle (32 Upanishads in two books) and Bhānu Swami (13 Upanishads with commentaries of Vaiṣṇava ācāryas). Olivelle's translation won the 1998 A.K. Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation.
Throughout the 1930s, Irish poet W. B. Yeats worked with the Indian-born mendicant-teacher Shri Purohit Swami on their own translation of the Upanishads, eventually titled The Ten Principal Upanishads and published in 1938. This translation was the final piece of work published by Yeats before his death less than a year later.
Reception in the West
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer read the Latin translation and praised the Upanishads in his main work, The World as Will and Representation (1819), as well as in his Parerga and Paralipomena (1851). He found his own philosophy in accord with the Upanishads, which taught that the individual is a manifestation of the one basis of reality. For Schopenhauer, that fundamentally real underlying unity is what we know in ourselves as "will". Schopenhauer used to keep a copy of the Latin Oupnekhet by his side and commented,
In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.
Schopenhauer's philosophy influenced many famous people and introduced them to the Upanishads. One of them was the Austrian Physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who once wrote:
“There is obviously only one alternative,” he wrote, “namely the unification of minds or consciousnesses. Their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind. This is the doctrine of the Upanishads.”
Another German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, praised the ideas in the Upanishads, as did others. In the United States, the group known as the Transcendentalists were influenced by the German idealists. Americans, such as Emerson and Thoreau embraced Schelling's interpretation of Kant's Transcendental idealism, as well as his celebration of the romantic, exotic, mystical aspect of the Upanishads. As a result of the influence of these writers, the Upanishads gained renown in Western countries.
The poet T. S. Eliot, inspired by his reading of the Upanishads, based the final portion of his famous poem The Waste Land (1922) upon one of its verses. According to Eknath Easwaran, the Upanishads are snapshots of towering peaks of consciousness.
Juan Mascaró, a professor at the University of Barcelona and a translator of the Upanishads, states that the Upanishads represents for the Hindu approximately what the New Testament represents for the Christian, and that the message of the Upanishads can be summarized in the words, "the kingdom of God is within you".
Paul Deussen in his review of the Upanishads, states that the texts emphasize Brahman-Atman as something that can be experienced, but not defined. This view of the soul and self are similar, states Deussen, to those found in the dialogues of Plato and elsewhere. The Upanishads insisted on oneness of soul, excluded all plurality, and therefore, all proximity in space, all succession in time, all interdependence as cause and effect, and all opposition as subject and object. Max Müller, in his review of the Upanishads, summarizes the lack of systematic philosophy and the central theme in the Upanishads as follows,
There is not what could be called a philosophical system in these Upanishads. They are, in the true sense of the word, guesses at truth, frequently contradicting each other, yet all tending in one direction. The key-note of the old Upanishads is "know thyself," but with a much deeper meaning than that of the γνῶθι σεαυτόν of the Delphic Oracle. The "know thyself" of the Upanishads means, know thy true self, that which underlines thine Ego, and find it and know it in the highest, the eternal Self, the One without a second, which underlies the whole world.
— Max Müller
See also
- The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
- Bhagavad Gita
- Hinduism
- Prasthanatrayi
- Principal Upanishads
Notes
- ^ Central concepts:
- Doniger (1990, p. 2-3: "The Upanishads supply the basis of later Hindu philosophy; they are widely known and quoted by most well-educated Hindus, and their central ideas have also become a part of the spiritual arsenal of rank-and-file Hindus." * Dissanayake (1993, p. 39): "The Upanishads form the foundations of Hindu philosophical thought"; * Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanisads, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195352429, page 3: "Even though theoretically the whole of vedic corpus is accepted as revealed truth , in reality it is the Upanishads that have continued to influence the life and thought of the various religious traditions that we have come to call Hindu. Upanishads are the scriptures par excellence of Hinduism"; * Michael McDowell and Nathan Brown (2009), World Religions, Penguin, ISBN 978-1592578467, pages 208-210. These new concepts and practices include rebirth, samsara, karma, meditation, renunciation and moksha.(Olivelle 1998, pp. xx–xxiv) The Upanishadic, Buddhist and Jain renunciation traditions form parallel traditions, which share some common concepts and interests. While Kuru-Panchala, at the central Ganges Plain, formed the center of the early Upanishadic tradition, Kosala-Magadha at the central Ganges Plain formed the center of the other shramanic traditions.(Samuel 2010))
- ^ Oliville: "In this Introduction I have avoided speaking of 'the philosophy of the upanishads', a common feature of most introductions to their translations. These documents were composed over several centuries and in various regions, and it is futile to try to discover a single doctrine or philosophy in them."
- Vedanta has been interpreted as the "last chapters, parts of the Veda" and alternatively as "object, the highest purpose of the Veda".
- These are believed to pre-date Gautam Buddha (c. 500 BCE)
- The Muktika manuscript found in colonial era Calcutta is the usual default, but other recensions exist.
- ^ Some scholars list ten as principal, while most consider twelve or thirteen as principal mukhya Upanishads.
- Parmeshwaranand classifies Maitrayani with Samaveda, most scholars with Krishna Yajurveda
- Atman:
- Atman, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press (2012): "1. real self of the individual; 2. a person's soul";
- John Bowker (2000), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0192800947, See entry for Atman;
- WJ Johnson (2009), A Dictionary of Hinduism, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0198610250, See entry for Atman (self);
- Richard King (1995), Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791425138, page 64 "Atman as the innermost essence or soul of man, and Brahman as the innermost essence and support of the universe. (...) Thus we can see in the Upanishads, a tendency towards a convergence of microcosm and macrocosm, culminating in the equating of Atman with Brahman".
- Chad Meister (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Religious Diversity, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195340136, page 63: "Even though Buddhism explicitly rejected the Hindu ideas of Atman ("soul") and Brahman, Hinduism treats Sakyamuni Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Vishnu."
- David Lorenzen (2004), The Hindu World (Editors: Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby), Routledge, ISBN 0-415215277, pages 208-209: "Advaita and nirguni movements, on the other hand, stress an interior mysticism in which the devotee seeks to discover the identity of individual soul (atman) with the universal ground of being (brahman) or to find god within himself".
- Collins 2000, p. 195: "The breakdown of the Vedic cults is more obscured by retrospective ideology than any other period in Indian history. It is commonly assumed that the dominant philosophy now became an idealist monism, the identification of atman (self) and Brahman (Spirit), and that this mysticism was believed to provide a way to transcend rebirths on the wheel of karma. This is far from an accurate picture of what we read in the Upanishads. It has become traditional to view the Upanishads through the lens of Shankara's Advaita interpretation. This imposes the philosophical revolution of about 700 C.E. upon a very different situation 1,000 to 1,500 years earlier. Shankara picked out monist and idealist themes from a much wider philosophical lineup."
- For instances of Platonic pluralism in the early Upanishads see Randall.
References
- "Upanishad" Archived 20 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ Olivelle 1996, p. xxiii.
- Flood (1996), p. 35–39.
- A Bhattacharya (2006), Hindu Dharma: Introduction to Scriptures and Theology, ISBN 978-0595384556, pp. 8–14; George M. Williams (2003), Handbook of Hindu Mythology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195332612, p. 285
- Jan Gonda (1975), Vedic Literature: (Saṃhitās and Brāhmaṇas), Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447016032
- Olivelle 1998, pp. 51.
- ^ Olivelle 1996, p. lii.
- ^ Olivelle 1996, p. lv.
- ^ Mahadevan 1956, p. 59.
- ^ Raju (1985), p. 35-36.
- ^ Stephen Phillips (2009), Yoga, Karma, and Rebirth: A Brief History and Philosophy, Columbia University Press, ISBN 978-0231144858, pp. 25-29 and Chapter 1.
- E Easwaran (2007), The Upanishads, ISBN 978-1586380212, pages 298-299
- ^ Mahadevan 1956, p. 56.
- ^ Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanishads, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195124354, pages 12-14.
- ^ King 1995, p. 52.
- ^ Bronkhorst, Johannes (2007). Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India, pp. 258-259. BRILL.
- ^ Olivelle 1992, pp. 5, 8–9.
- ^ Flood 1996, p. 96.
- Ranade 1926, p. 12.
- ^ Varghese 2008, p. 101.
- Ranade 1926, p. 205.
- Max Müller, The Upanishads, Part 1, Oxford University Press, page LXXXVI footnote 1
- Clarke, John James (1997). Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-415-13376-0. Archived from the original on 17 May 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
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Patrick Olivelle (2014), The Early Upanishads, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195124354, pages 583-640 - WD Whitney, The Upanishads and Their Latest Translation, The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 7, No. 1, pages 1-26;
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Robert Hume, Chandogya Upanishad 3.17, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads, Oxford University Press, pages 212-213 - Henk Bodewitz (1999), Hindu Ahimsa, in Violence Denied (Editors: Jan E. M. Houben, et al.), Brill, ISBN 978-9004113442, page 40
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- "laid those fires" is a phrase in Vedic literature that implies yajna and related ancient religious rituals; see Maitri Upanishad - Sanskrit Text with English Translation EB Cowell (Translator), Cambridge University, Bibliotheca Indica, First Prapathaka
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Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791422175, page 64; Quote: "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";
Edward Roer (Translator), Shankara's Introduction, p. 2, at Google Books, pages 2-4
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{{cite book}}
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Further reading
- Edgerton, Franklin (1965). The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
- Embree, Ainslie T. (1966). The Hindu Tradition. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-71702-3.
- Hume, Robert Ernest (1921). The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Oxford University Press.
- Johnston, Charles (1898). From the Upanishads. Kshetra Books (Reprinted in 2014). ISBN 9781495946530.
- Mascaró, Juan (1965). The Upanishads. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd.
- Müller, Max, translator, The Upaniṣads, Part I, New York: Dover Publications (1879; Reprinted in 1962), ISBN 0-486-20992-X
- Müller, Max, translator, The Upaniṣads, Part II, New York: Dover Publications (1884; Reprinted in 1962), ISBN 0-486-20993-8
- Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli (1953). The Principal Upanishads. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India (Reprinted in 1994). ISBN 81-7223-124-5.
- Adi Shankara (2020). Atma Bodha and Tattva Bodha. Lulu Press. ISBN 9781631184017
- Gurumaa, Anandmurti (2020) Sri Adi Shankaracharya Krit Atmabodha ISBN 9381464650
External links
- The Upanishads translated into English by Swami Paramananda
- Complete set of 108 Upanishads, Manuscripts with the commentary of Brahma-Yogin, Adyar Library
- Upanishads, Sanskrit documents in various formats
- The Upaniṣads article in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- The Theory of 'Soul' in the Upanishads, T. W. Rhys Davids (1899)
- Spinozistic Substance and Upanishadic Self: A Comparative Study, M. S. Modak (1931)
- W. B. Yeats and the Upanishads, A. Davenport (1952)
- The Concept of Self in the Upanishads: An Alternative Interpretation, D. C. Mathur (1972)
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