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The Upanishads have always been regarded in India as the
crown of the Veda and as the end of the Veda as
implied by the term vedānta. The major Upanishads are not
separate books, but the last parts or the penultimate parts of the
corresponding brāhmaņa books. If the brāhmaņa has an
āraņyaka attached to it, then the corresponding Upanishad
is at the end of the āraņyaka book. Shatapatha brāhmaņa
has no āraņyaka; thus its last book or chapter contains the
Upanishad, the famous Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad.
For details, see the section, ‘other vedic books’.
“The Upanishads are not a revolutionary departure from the
vedic mind and its temperament and fundamental ideas, but a
continuation and development and to a certain extent an enlarging
transformation in the sense of bringing out the into open
expression all that was held covered in the symbolic vedic
speech as a mystery and a secret”, [1, Foundations, p.310]. “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 Chhāndogya
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 underlines all existence.
The Upanishads developed this seed of thought into the magnificent
conception of brahman.
Chhāndogya Upanishad (7.7.1) declares that rig Veda can be
understood only by meditation vijnānena. The extensive
connection between the Veda Samhitās and Upanishads
mentioned in this essay should make a reader sceptical of
statements such as, “Upanishads are a protest against the
externality of vedic practices”.
The Upanishads can be divided into roughly two categories for
study. In the first are the metrical Upanishads, relatively
smaller in size, such as Īşha, Kaţha, Mundaka,
Shvetāshvatara, Taittirīya, the middle two chapters of the
non-metrical Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad etc. These Upanishads
use symbolism sparingly, so that one can get some idea of
their contents by one's rational intellect. In the second group
belong all other Upanishads which are non-metrical and use
symbolism extensively. Both Aitareya Upanishad (1.3.14) and
Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (4.2.2) declare that, “Gods love
indirect reference or symbolism”, parokşha priyā hi devāĥ.
The purport is that the cosmic powers devāĥ prefer that the
profound truths be expressed only in a symbolic manner so that
only the eager and persistent student can understand them. The
Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad begins with the detailed symbolism of
the sacrificial horse, each one of whose limbs such as the face,
belly, legs etc., corresponds to a specific cosmic power. For
instance Uşha, the dawn is the head of the sacrificial horse. The
great commentator Shankara gives a brief explanation without
clarifying the deeper meaning. The fifth and the sixth chapters of
the Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad have verses which for a gross
mind appear to be ritualistic recipes for obtaining children of
specific characteristics. The commentators practically ignore the
fifth and sixth chapters, declaring that they are meant for the
householders who deal with mundane matters. Persons who have
attempted to pierce the symbolism in the Veda Samhitās can
easily get clues to understanding the deeper meanings of these
verses behind their apparently gross outward form.
The Upanishads, besides delineating various spiritual
experiences, also give a few hints on sādhana, i.e., paths
of spiritual realization. These methods of sādhana are
called vidyās. The Upanishad does not give much detail
about the vidyās because such details cannot be conveyed in
print. Typically, a teacher transmits these truths to the
students, often in silence. 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 [2, vol. 1] which discusses some of the secret
vidyās in the Upanishads and relates them to the corresponding
ideas in RV. These vidyās 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 Chhāndogya 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. Again
the particular method of realisation described in the sixth book
of Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad (6.3.6) involves the
chanting of the famous gāyatri hymn of RV (3.62.10) and the
madhu mantrās in 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”.
We will mention two of the vidyās in some detail since they
connect the Veda Samhitā and Upanishad, namely Madhu Vidya and
Vaishvānara Vidya in later sections.
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