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Upanishads are not
the revolt of the new teachers like Janaka
or Ashvapati against the ritualism of
the Veda, as some moderns opine. Rather, the Upanishads capture
the fundamental spiritual thought of the Veda
Samhitās and express them in a way an intellectual mind can
understand. Chhāndogya and
Bŗhadāraņyaka are the two most
voluminous and most important of them all. Like the Rig Veda, they
express the deep spiritual thought using the words of rituals like
soma pressing, fire, lighting, dīkşha
etc. The importance of
understanding the symbolism in the Upanishads has not been
appreciated. Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad,
which is quoted frequently in Vedāntic
literature, begins its first mantra (1.1.1) with the symbolic
description of the sacrificial horse. It compares the various
parts of the horse to the various aspects of our cosmos like dawn,
sun, rivers, etc. The table of concordance is given below.
| atmosphere |
= |
its belly |
| dawn |
= |
the head |
| earth |
= |
the underbelly |
| fire |
= |
its open mouth |
| four quarters |
= |
flanks |
| grasses & trees |
= |
its hair |
| intermediate directions |
= |
ribs |
| lightning |
= |
its yawning |
| months & half-months |
= |
joints |
| mountains |
= |
liver & lungs |
| rain |
= |
its voiding urine |
| rain-cloud |
= |
its flesh |
| rising sun |
= |
its forepart |
| rivers |
= |
its bowels |
| sand |
= |
its food |
| seasons |
= |
its limbs |
| setting sun |
= |
the hind part |
| sky |
= |
its back |
| speech |
= |
the voice of the horse |
| stars |
= |
its bones |
| sun |
= |
its eyes |
| the days and nights |
= |
its feet |
| thunder |
= |
its whinnying |
| wind |
= |
its breath |
| year |
= |
the horse's body |
Whatever may be this
ashva, it has nothing to
do with the physical four- legged animal horse. See [C14] for a
discussion of the symbolism of this ashva.
Both the
Aitareya Upanishad and
Bŗhadāraņyaka Upanishad declare that
symbolism is an essential aspect of the Upanishad. The
Aitareya
U. (3.14) and Br. U. (4.2.2) specifically state:
“The deities or
Cosmic forces love being hidden (parokşhapriyaĥ)
i.e, they reveal themselves only
indirectly.''
Chhāndogya
U. (7.7.1) declares that “Rig Veda, Yajur
Veda, Sāma Veda and
Atharvaņa have to be understood by
adoration and understanding (vijnānena)''.
We give here two
selections: one from Chhāndogya
Upanishad and the other from Mahānārāyaņa
Upanishad which is the last chapter of the
Taittirīya Āraņyaka at the end
of the Taittirīya Upanishad. Both of
them explain the concept of inner yajňa
in different ways.
Chhāndogya
Upanishad (3.17)
The most celebrated person in the Indian culture who insisted that
all activities should be done as a yajňa
is Sri Krişhņa.
The germ of this idea is in the teaching which Sri
Krişhņa obtained from the sage
Ghora Angirasa.
The text of the Upanishad (3.17) states that the teaching here was
given to
Krişhņa,
son of Devaki, by the
rişhi Ghora
Angirasa.
The section (3.17)
views the entire life as the performance of
yajňa, inner and outward. It views the entire outward life
as made of seven steps. For each step, it gives a meaning of
yajňa which can be viewed as internal
or external.
- Intense activity
with little food as in the days of
brahmacharya or studentship: In the
yajňa, it corresponds to
dīkşha or consecration, both in
inner and outer yajňa.
- Leading an
ordinary calm life: this corresponds to
upasad yajňa. In the inner
yajňa, it corresponds to sitting
quietly feeling the presence of the deity. The outward
upasad
yajňa allows for intake of moderate quantities of food like
milk. It is not strenuous.
- Period of
enjoyment in life involving laughing, talking and sexual activity
of intense pleasure. In the yajňa,
this corresponds to the recitation of
shastra (Rig Veda) and stotra
(Sāma Veda). This activity releases
intense delight in the inner yajňa.
- Gifting: In
outer yajňa, this step corresponds to
offering dakşhiņā to priests
and Gods. In the inner yajňa, it
corresponds to the offering of all you have and yourself to the
Divine.
- Achieving
maturity in life by developing the qualities of
straightforwardness (ārjava),
non-violence (ahimsa), telling the truth (satya
vachana) and practising
askesis (tapas);
development of these qualities is rarely mentioned in the
outer yajňa. In the inner
yajňa, their development is essential.
- The
manifestation of new powers, such as new thoughts, new way of
doing things, effective ways of teaching students, etc. The word
used in this Upanishad is soshyati, which means the birth of the Cosmic powers, like the power of
will (Agni), mental powers (Indra),
etc. In the ordinary yajňa, one
usually prays for the material benefits like cows, horses,
long-life and children.
- The final step
in life is death, maraņa; the corresponding word used in the text is
avabhŗta. In the outer
yajňa,
avabhŗta is the concluding shower of water on the
yajamāna. In the inner
yajňa, it means the shower of divine
energies which offers protection (ava)
and also upholds us (bhŗta).
This section ends
with a mantra (1.50.10) from the Rig Veda addressed to the Sun.
“Beholding a higher
light that shines up above this ignorance, we have come to the
most excellent Light, Sūrya,
God among Gods.''
We find here the
seed of the idea that all aspects of life should be handled as
yajňa (Bhagavad
Gīta 4.28):
dravya
yajňa (gift of wealth)
tapo
yajňa (tapas)
yoga
yajňa (practices of yoga)
svādhyāyā
yajňa
(self-study and recovery of knowledge by
tapas)
jňāna
yajňa
(yajňa
of knowledge through teaching)
Mahānārāyaņa
Upanishad
(anuvāka
80)
(It is
anuvāka 64 in the
Sāyaņa edition.)
In the case of a man
of knowledge (vidhuşha), the
yajamāna is
his own Self (ātma). His
faith is his wife; his body is his sacrificial fuel (idhma);
his chest (amura) is his altar
(vedi); his hairs are his holy
grass; the Veda he has learnt is his tuft of hair; his heart is
his sacrificial post (yūpa);
his desire (kāma) is his
clarified butter (ājyam); his
anger is his animal (pashu) to
be immolated; his askesis (tapa)
is his fire; his sense-control (dama)
is his immolator (damaĥ
shamayita); his gifts are his
dakşiņā; his speech is
his hotŗ priest; his breath
(prāņa) is his
udgātŗ priest; his sight is his
adhvaryu priest; his mind is
his brahman priest; his hearing
is his agnīd priest; so long as
he is borne (dhriyate), it is
his consecration (dīkşha); what
he eats, that is his oblation; what he drinks, that is his
drinking of soma juice; when he delights himself, that is his
Upasad rite; when he walk, sit
and stand that is his pravargya
rite; that which is his mouth, that is his
āhavanīya Fire; that which is his (vyāhŗti),
that is his offering of oblation (āhuti);
that which is his knowledge (vijňana),
that is what he sacrifices (juhoti);
when he eats in the afternoon and forenoon, that is his
samidhoma (oblation of
fuel in the fire); the three divisions of the day forenoon, midday
and evening relating to him are his
savanas; the day and night are his
darshapūrņamāsa sacrifices; the
half- months and the months are his
chāturmāsya sacrifice; the seasons are his animal
sacrifices; the samvatsaras and the parivatsaras are
his ahargaņa sacrifice; the
total sacrifice is, indeed, his sattra;
death is the avabhŗtha or
completion of his sacrifice. |
