An overview of the Upanishads
Hinduism as a religion is generally disregarded as a polytheistic idol worshipping Pagan religion. The people who do that cannot be blamed for it. On the surface it does appear that Hindus worship so many different Gods in the form of an idol. However if you read the Upanishads, which form the core of Hindu philosophy, then you get the true picture of Hinduism. In this article I will give you a brief overview of the main thought in the Upanishads and then in later we will go over individual Upanishads.
What are the Upanishads
The main foundational text of Hinduism are the Vedas, and Upanishads make the core philosophical concepts described in the Vedas. Upanishads therefore can be called as the true essences of the Vedas. Most of the Upanishads are composed in the form of a teacher giving knowledge to the students and therefore the name Upanishads is given to them. Upa stands for by or near and ni-shad stands for sit down so the word Upanishad means sit down near. Not much is known about the authorship of the Upanishads, as in, who wrote them and when were they written. Since they form the part of the Vedas, Hindus consider them to be Apurushseya, which means “not of a man” and coming directly from God.
The Impact of the Upanishads
Upanishads not only have had a strong influence on Indian thought but have had its effect on western thought as well. Arthur Schopenhauer who is German Philosopher of the early 19thcentury was greatly influenced by the Upanishads. He introduced the concept of Philosophical pessimism in the western philosophy, which affirms the concepts of asceticism and the world as an appearance (i.e. the concept of Maya) into the western thought. Although not instantly accepted, his thoughts eventually inspired the likes of Fredrick Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Shaw and many other prominent figures.
Upanishads are very Personal
Being educated in an English medium school in India, I was always of the opinion that it is the western thinkers who were more scientific and rational while Indian sages were mostly concerned with religion and spirituality. It was only after reading the Upanishads that I realized that what I thought was incorrect. When I started reading Upanishads, I realized the brilliant intellect of our Ancient sages of India and how rational and scientific they were in their approach. I will go over the major Upanishads one by one in the subsequent videos as we make progress, so that you can also realize the brilliance of these texts. However, you must be a bit careful! The text of the Upanishads is quite difficult and open to interpretations. People have interpreted it in many different forms over the ages and what I will talk about is going to be just my interpretation. I am pretty sure others might interpret it differently. So please do not limit your thought to just my interpretation, instead try to look at it from different points of view. Better still, read the text yourself and have your own interpretation. As our president Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan once said “It is strictly by a personal effort that one can reach the truth”
The Concept of Atman and Brahman
The Upanishads talk about the concept of Atman and Brahman. Here Brahman is the absolute reality and Atman is the soul or the self. Now you might ask what do you mean by absolute reality and the self? So, let me describe this in detail. Let’s first start with Brahman or absolute reality as this is easier to understand. I will start with Physics as it is easier to formulate the argument that way. I am sure you know about Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton. Up until the early 20thcentury, physics used to be all based on the Newton’s theory of motion, where it was assumed that time and space were the same across the universe. In other words, time passed at the same rate no matter where you are in the universe and similarly the space was the same everywhere. However, in came Albert Einstein and he changed all of that. Einstein proved that Newton’s theory is incorrect and that the time passes at different rate in different parts of the universe and similarly the fabric of space bends in the presence of mass and is not the same everywhere. This drastically changed the way we perceived the world. Subsequent experimental results confirmed that Newton’s theory was false, and Einstein’s theory is true. But hold on; think for a moment can we really say Einstein’s theory is an absolute truth? No, we cannot, because there are still open mysteries to be solved in physics; Einstein’s theory of relativity is incompatible with Quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is possible that in future someone might come up with a theory, which can dethrone Einstein’s theory as truth.
Coming to look at it, the more accurate way is to say that Newton’s theory is true in our day-to-day experience, but not true when we deal with very large objects, very small objects and high speeds. Einstein’s theory is true in our day-to-day experience and when we deal with large objects and high speeds but might not be true when we deal with very small things. Similarly, Quantum mechanics is true in our day-to-day experience and when dealing with very small objects but might not be true for very large objects. The theory, which is true in all situations and at all times, we still do not know. This theory will be the absolute truth or absolute reality. Now here I explained it only in the field of physics, but this concept can be applied to all the theories. As an example, same idea can be applied to Game Theory in economics. The reason I used physics to talk about absolute truth is because things get really complicated as we get into the theories related to social sciences and human interactions. All the theories there are limited and apply to only specific situations, because human nature is very complicated. Still we must realize that however complicated something might be, the absolute reality about that thing will be there, it is just that because of our limitations we are not able to comprehend it. As an example, it is extremely difficult to predict when and where an earthquake will happen, but if an earthquake has to happen somewhere it will happen. So, the reality is always there, we just do not have a way to know it. It is this reality that is termed as Brahman or the great soul of the universe in the Upanishads.
Now coming to Atman. In the Upanishads there are two different themes for the Atman, however they are quite similar. First let’s look at the commonality of these themes and then we will speak of the difference. Atman as I mentioned previously is the soul or the self. The atman is the true essence of the spirit of an individual, it is neither the body, nor the mind, nor the intellect but beyond that. As an example, when you see an object, if I were to ask you who is seeing it and you say it is my eyes, then my reply will be no, because if you remove your mind then will your eyes see an object? Of course not. Now can you say it is your mind that is seeing the object, the answer according to Upanishads is again no. Confused? Well, to understand this considers a computer attached to a camera, which is displaying image on your screen. Camera forms an image and relays it to the computer. We have already clarified that the camera is not seeing at the object. Can you say that the computer is seeing an object? No, because computer is not aware of the object. Can you say the software on the computer, which processes the image is seeing the object? Again no, why, because the software does not experience the object. It is you who is seeing the object as you are the one experiencing it. The camera here is your eyes, computer is your mind, software is your intellect and the final user you are the Atman. Atman inside us is what is experiencing everything that is happening around us. In other words our Atman is our experience, our subjective truth, or our point of view on things.
What Upanishads Preach
The Upanishads preach that we should always work towards moving the Atman towards Brahman. In simple terms my interpretation of this is that we should always work towards understanding and becoming one with the absolute truth. When your subjective truth about something is aligned with the objective truth then you have realized Brahman and are one with it. How you do that will be discussed as we discuss different Upanishads in future videos, but this concept of moving Atman towards Brahman is common across all Upanishads. Keep in mind that aligning your subjective reality with absolute reality does not mean that you should study all the sciences and be aware of all the physical phenomenon in this universe. That will be a folly, nature is infinite, and you cannot know everything about it. If you have paid attention I said aligning your subjective reality with objective reality and not making your subjective reality the absolute reality. If you do not know about something and accept that you do not know about it, then your lack of knowledge is also a truth and actually a very important one; this is what I mean by aligning your subjective reality with absolute reality. When you do that, you become open minded and free from dogmas. You realize the wisdom that you are limited and cannot know everything about this world, therefore you will be wrong on many things. This realization will make you calm and introspective you will see things as they are, free from the influence of your ego and biases. In other words you will become more self-aware and in tune with the absolute reality.
Now coming back to the different conceptions of Atman, some Upanishads say Atman and Brahman are the same, while others say Atman is a part of the Brahman. Why this difference in opinion? I think and again this is my opinion, this difference is because of a difference in world-view. Some people think that once you have completely aligned your Atman with Brahman and are self-aware then you have completely grasped the objective truth, while others think that we will never be able to grasp the absolute reality no matter how self-aware we are. The ones who think we can completely grasp the absolute reality are the one who will say Atman and Brahman are the same. While the ones who think that we can never realize the absolute truth but only a part of the truth belong to the camp, which says Atman is the part of Brahman.
As you can see this is brilliant work of our forefathers. Upanishads are very logical and profound; they are also very scientific and encourage you to have an open mind on things. In the modern times where we have people getting more and more antireligious and complain about religious dogmatism, maybe they should read the Upanishads to get a fresh perspective on religion. I see a rise in Hindu nationalism across India and am afraid that it might lead to religious dogmatism in Hinduism. It is such a shame that a religion, which produced such a brilliant work as Upanishads is succumbing to religious dogmatism. It is very important that more and more people read the Upanishads and gain wisdom of our forefathers.
Originally published at stoicsadhu.com on March 27, 2019.
