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The Upanishads have always been regarded in India as the crown of
the Veda. We will briefly explore the relationship between the
Upanishads and the Rigveda Samhita. Ancient Upanishads like
Chāndogya trace some of their statements to Veda Samhitās. Key
statements of Upanishads such as the Absolute or Brahman is
beyond the range of thought [Tai. U. (2.4)] is in RV (1.170.1) or
(10.12.6).
The cryptic symbolism used in Rigveda prevented the deep knowledge
of Veda Samhitās from becoming widespread and the age of Rigveda
came to an end. Much later, perhaps a millennia or so, attempts
were made to recover the knowledge of the Vedās. The
Brāhmaņa books like the Shatapatha Brāhmaņa focused
mainly on the rituals whereas the Upanishads attempted to recover
the spiritual knowledge. As Sri Aurobindo states: “The rişhis
of the Upanishads sought to recover the lost or waning
knowledge of the Veda by meditation and spiritual experience and
they used the text of the ancient mantrās as a prop and authority
for their own intuitions and perception or else the vedic
word was a seed of thought and vision by which they recovered old
truths in new forms. What they found, they expressed in other
terms more intelligible to the age in which they lived”. As
examples of the first method, we may mention the Chāndogya
Upanishad (3.12.5) or Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (4.4.23)
which state “as stated in the Rik, the mantra of Rigveda”.
As an example of the second, we may mention the concept of
Brahman. RV mentions repeatedly the Supreme One, or the One
Truth, ekam sat, which underlies all existence. The
Upanishads developed this seed of thought into the magnificent
conception of Brahman.
Upanishads themselves are not philosophical, but express their
findings in a manner which the intellect can understand. These
findings are the basis for the later systems of Indian philosophy.
But in the Indian tradition, intellectual knowledge alone will not
lead to the realisation of the spirit. The Upanishads contain many
hints for spiritual practice. But there are not many books in
print which discuss the relevance of Upanishadic thought for
spiritual practice. One such book is the “Light on the Upanishads”
by Sri T.V. Kapāli Sāstry which discusses some of the secret
vidyas in the Upanishads and relate them to the corresponding
ideas in RV. These vidyas are identified either by the name of the
teacher like Shāndilya Vidya, Bhŗgu Vāruņi Vidya or by
their contents like the Bhūma Vidya, Vaishvānara Vidya, Madhu
Vidya, Prāņa Vidya and so on. Vaishvānara means the
divine force, which permeates every aspect of existence. This
knowledge in the Chāndogya Upanishad is related to the
similar idea in the RV contained in the ten hymns to the Deity
Vaishvānara. The madhu vidya or the doctrine of the
honey or bliss as the foundation of all existence, discussed in
detail in Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (2.5), is related to the
corresponding mantrās in the first book of Rigveda (1.90). Again
the particular method of realisation described in the sixth book
of Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (6.3.6) involves the chanting of
the famous gayatri verse of RV (3.62.10) and the madhu
mantrāĥ of RV (1.90). This particular method is extolled in
the Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (6.3.7 - 6.3.12) stating, “If
any one sprinkles it on a dry stump, branches would grow and
leaves spring forth”.
There are numerous mantrās of RV quoted verbatim in Upanishads.
There are many key phrases in the Upanishads which have their
corresponding ones in RV. A systematic study of the Veda and
Upanishads has not been done. We give here just a few examples.
The oft-quoted passage of Shvetāshvatara Upanishad (2.5),
“Hear ye, children of immortality”, occurs originally in Rigveda
(10.13.1). The famous hamsa mantra of Katha
Upanishad (2.2.2), “The Swan that settles in the purity... born of
Truth, -- itself the Truth, the Vast” occurs originally in RV
(4.40.5). The famous mantra of the two birds signifying the
individual soul and supreme soul found in Mundaka Upanishad
(3.1.1) is originally from RV (1.164.20), boxed below. It is
hardly a coincidence since the word suparņa translated as
bird occurs in more than half a dozen verses of RV bearing always
the symbol of soul. Some commentators often misinterpret the
phrase two birds in RV as husband and wife. The definition of
Brahman's in transcendental RV (1.170.1). The famous utterance of
Upanishad that Brahman cannot be attained by duality is in
RV (5.12.2). The idea that Brahman cannot be attained by
mere action or effort is in RV (8.70.3) and (5.48.5), Brahman
cannot be approached by thought (RV.1.170.1 or Kena U., 1.3).
We reiterate that the vedic sages did not regard the family
life as an obstacle to achieving spiritual excellence. A detailed
discussion is beyond the scope of this essay.
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