Upanishads

The Upanishads

Sacred Scriptures of Sanatana Dharma

Sacred Scriptures of Hinduism

Upanishad

Upa- (near), ni- (down), sad (to sit):

sitting near the teacher

Composed by various seers and sages

between 800-500 BCE, the Upanishads are a

culmination and completion of an earlier

body of Hindu sacred texts called the Vedas.

Veda = knowledge

Upanishads are Vedanta: End of the Vedas

The Vedas

• Hymns and mantras to various deities

viewed as controlling forces of nature

• Directions for sacred rituals, especially

sacrifices to the gods

• Outline of moral codes

Concept of God in

the Rig Veda

The divine is sometimes represented as a

particular personal deity and at other times as an

impersonal absolute being, the Supreme God.

The Rig Veda depicts the divine in several

different ways.

Naturalistic Polytheism (many gods, forces of nature)

Henotheism (many gods, but some central deity)

Monotheism (one single personal supreme being)

Monism (one absolute, impersonal being)

• These differences likely reflect the

historical development of the idea of God in

India.

• The movement towards monotheism and

monism was motivated in part by the

concept of rita (law or order).

Diversity in the universe Many gods

One GodUnity in the universe

The Teachings of the

Upanishads

Six Key Concepts in the

Upanishads

Brahman Atman

Karma Samsara

Moksha

Avidya

I.

BRAHMAN

The Upanishads emphasize the impermanence

of the empirical world, physical reality as we

experience it through our senses.

Maya

The Upanishads distinguish between

the changing, transient nature of the

empirical universe and a single

ultimate transcendent reality that is

unchanging and permanent.

Brahman

Ultimate Cosmic Reality

The distinction between Maya and Brahman

allows Upanishadic thinkers to affirm the unity

or oneness of all things.

All that is is Brahman. Reality is ultimately one

and unchanging, though it appears as many and

changing.

Brahman Alone is Real.

Everything Else is Illusion.

What more can be said

about the nature of

Brahman?

We can speak of Brahman as

“being” (sat), “consciousness”

(cit), and “bliss” (ananda).

However, these are merely ways

of talking about the human

apprehension of Brahman.

In itself Brahman cannot be defined or

positively described.

Ultimately “Brahman” is a way of

designating a state in which subject-object

duality ceases to exist.

“There is no better description [of

Brahman] than this: that it is not-this, it

is not-that (neti, neti).” Brhad-aranyaka

Upanishad, II, 3, 6.

Nirguna Brahman

Saguna Brahman

Brahman in itself is beyond all human

categories and conceptualization. In

itself Brahman has no attributes.

Brahman in relation to maya and

as an object of human discourse

and devotion, with attributes.

Dual Aspect Theism

Implications?

In itself the Supreme being cannot be known, as the

Infinite surpasses or transcends all human conception.

The impersonal Supreme being is made personal

through manifestations of the Infinite in finite form.

The many gods of Hinduism represent different aspects of one

and the same ultimate reality, Brahman.

Hinduism views the cosmic activity of the Supreme Being as comprised of three tasks: creation, preservation, and dissolution and recreation. Three deities (Trimurti) represent these tasks: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

Brahma Vishnu Shiva

II.

ATMAN

The True Self (Atman)

The individual personality, soul, or self

(jiva) belongs to the realm of maya. The jiva

is conditioned by Atman.

Atman is timeless, spaceless, unchanging pure

consciousness, only temporarily manifested as

jiva in maya.

The Upanishads teach the existence

of a true Self called Atman.

Relation between Atman and Jiva

Analogy:Analogy: The Atman is to the jiva

what the space around a jar is to the

space within the jar.

Space

Within

Jar

Space Outside Jar Space within the jar is space

bounded and limited by the

edges of the jar.

So the jiva is Atman

bounded and limited by

individuality.

“The wise one is not born, nor dies.

This one has not come from anywhere, has not become

anyone.

Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one

Is not slain when the body is slain. . . .

He who is the bodiless among bodies,

Stable among the unstable.

The great, all pervading Self –

On recognizing Him, the wise man sorrows not.”

Kena Upanishad II.18,22

“That Self (Atman) is not this, it is not that (neti,

neti). It is unseizable, for it cannot be seized;

indestructible, for it cannot be destroyed;

unattached, for it does not attach itself; is unbound,

does not tremble, is not injured.”

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.v.15

Relation between

Brahman and Atman

Atman is Brahman

Tat Tvam Asi

“Thou [Atman] art That [Brahman]”(Chandogya Upanishad, VI)

There is a common consciousness between

Atman and Brahman.

“The individual self, apart from all

factors that differentiate it from pure

consciousness, is the same as the divine,

apart from its differentiating conditions.”

(Eliot Deutsch, Advaita Vedanta, p. 50)

Strip away all appearances

and every self is identical

with the ultimate reality.

III.

AVIDYA and VIDYA

The human

perspective is

characterized by

ignorance (avidya)

of the true nature of

reality and the self.

Analogy

A rope may appear to be a snake.

Likewise, the universe may appear to be many and

changing, and we may appear to be individuals

within the universe.

This is appearance only, grounded in avidya.

IV.

SAMSARA

and

KARMA

Our egocentric desires and actions create

and perpetuate new physical forms or

vehicles for atman.

Avidya Egoism

New Physical FormsEgoism

Ignorance leads to egocentric desires

From this set of

Upanishadic

teachings emerges

the doctrine of

Reincarnation or

Rebirth.

Humans live multiple

embodied lives,

experiencing a

cyclical process of

birth, death, and

rebirth (samsara).

“Where one’s mind is attached – the inner self

Goes thereto with action, being attached to it alone.

Obtaining the end of his action,

Whatever he does in this world,

He comes again from that world

To this world of action.

- So the man who desires.”

Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.iv.6

“By the mind alone is It [Brahman] to be perceived.

There is on earth no diversity.

He gets death after death,

Who perceives here seeming diversity.”


Samsara and Suffering

Human suffering – lack of

satisfaction in life - is associated

with material forms of existence.

As long as samsara continues a

person is doomed to experience

suffering.

In the Upanishads karma designates a law of

cosmic justice according to which every action

has an effect that is proportioned to the moral

quality of the action.

Rebirth is governed by karma

(literally “action”).

Karma includes the character one has

formed through one’s choices and actions.

Karma determines the nature of one’s

future incarnations.

Right ActionBad Karma Good Karma

Wrong Action

Rebirth is not desirable.

It implies that a person is still

trapped in ignorance about the

nature of reality.

Suffering, associated with

material existence, has not yet

been transcended.

VI.

MOKSHA

This is a state of knowledge,

enlightenment, or absolute

consciousness in which the true nature

of reality (Brahman) and the true self

(Atman) is perceived.

The Ultimate State (Moksha)

Suffering is transcended only by

release from samsara and absorption

into Brahman, the one ultimate

reality.

It is also a state of freedom (moksha).

The only thing that can be free is that

which is one, for only that which is one

has no desire.

Being all that there is, there is nothing

else for it to desire.

There is nothing left to suffer.

“Now the man who does not desire – He

who is without desire, who is freed from

desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose

desire is the Self (atman) – his breath does

not depart. Being very Brahman, he goes to

Brahman.”


“As the flowing rivers in the ocean

Disappear, quitting name and form,

So the knower, being liberated from name

and form,

Goes unto the Heavenly Person, higher than

the high.

He, verily, who knows the Supreme

Brahman, becomes Brahman.”

Mundaka Upanishad, III.ii 8-9

The ultimate goal is not to

be reborn.

The goal is to obtain

moksha and be free from

desire and the cycle of

death and rebirth.

Six Key Concepts in the

Upanishads

Brahman Atman

Karma Samsara

Moksha

Avidya

Upanishads

Spiritual

Transcript of Upanishads