Eye on Hinduism - The Upanisads

A continuation of my short essays on Hinduism:

"Upanishad" means, "be seated at the feet of the Guru to receive the teaching."

The Upanisads, which form the last section of the literature of the Veda, were begun from as early as c. 900 BCE by a succession of teachers and sages who flourished in the 7^th and 6^th centuries BCE. The term Upanisad itself usually implies the idea of sitting at the feet of a teacher. Of the approximately 112 extant Upanisads, about 13 date from the Vedic period, these principal early Upanisads sought to develop answers to questions posed in the Rig-Veda and the Brahmanas regarding the real significance of Vedic sacrifice and ritual and the source and controlling power of the world and the individual. Their answer was the doctrine of Brahman, the ultimate and universal reality of pure being and consciousness, and the identity of Brahman with the inner essence, or atman, of the human being. It was this doctrine and the philosophical pull it generated that led to the synthesis of the Vedic tradition (which it has traditionally been supposed was brought by Aryan invaders centuries before - for criticism see) with the previous and continuing Ascetic Indian traditions of the Dravidian and Harappic inhabitants of India.

Vedic religion had, until the first philosophical musings that led to the Upanisads, almost solely honored a classical pantheon of deities, such as Indra, the god of thunder and king of the gods or Agni, the god of fire, that were tied to nature. The fire sacrifice, and thus Agni, had been of utmost and central importance in taking the prayers of worshipers to the realm of the gods asking for blessings and assistance. Early Upanishadic thinkers began to view these gods of the Vedic ritual tradition as belonging to the phenomenal world, in contrast to the all-pervading reality of Brahman. But of course the problem remained of how to understand this reality. The ascetic use of tapas (“heat,” or austerity associated with meditation and yoga) was appealing in this regard because in it was bound the idea that the use of meditation or tapas destroyed human sin. And of course by destroying this nature one could become closer to the divine, leaving behind the illusion of the cycle of life and being liberated. Thus it may be argued that meditation originally arose in the early Upanishadic period as a way of internalizing the fire sacrifice (which was a way of reaching the divine) and that this lead to many streams of asceticism outside of the Brahmanical circles merging into Vedic tradition. In other words Asceticism gave to Vedic tradition the various practices used to achieve tapas, techniques such as fasting, mortification, and meditation.

This synthesis of the two through the philosophical nature of the Upanisads was also occasioned by necessity. The rise of heterodox systems of thought, such as Buddhism and the Jainism, may have been part of that same questioning nature but Buddhism in particular had enjoyed success in challenging Brahmanical (priestly) power. So it was the case that Vedic orthodoxy further saw the need to adapt to non-Vedic influences such as meditation and other forms of asceticism. As Thomas Hopkins puts it:

These emphases together undercut popular support for the non-Vedic movements and established the Brahmanical system once more at the center of the Indian religious life, but this time with much greater openness and flexibility and with much greater popular involvement.[1]

What was essential for daily life, then, was not the specific identity of Brahman but his accessibility through meditation. It was this that also allowed Vedic gods to be absorbed into the post-Vedic system. A god could still remain as a way of accessing the ultimate reality because the gods were still an aspect of the divine. So no longer was an aspirant completely dependent upon priests to mediate between his or her self and the gods, but through the appropriation of mental disciplines such as meditation from ascetic traditions, direct contact with Ultimate Reality was possible for those who were willing to submit to yoga or discipline. While the masses were certainly not able to easily avail themselves of the teachings of the Upanisads such changes filtered through nevertheless. The fulfilling of Dharma became more private for householders. Rituals could be held in private and the ascetic practices could be sought after once the duties of life had been fulfilled (As in Student, Householder and so on).

Sources Used:

· Hopkins, Thomas J. The Hindu Religious Tradition, Dickenson, Belmont, 1971.

· Klostermaier, Klaus K. A Survey of Hinduism. University of New York Press, Albany, 1994.

· Zaehner, R.C. Hinduism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1962.

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[1] Hopkins, Thomas J. The Hindu Religious Tradition, Dickenson, Belmont, 1971, p.62.

Who knows the Eternal's day
and the Eternal's night,
Each lasting a thousand ages, truly
knows day and night.
At daybreak all things are disclosed;
they arise from the unmanifest.
At dusk they dissolve into
the very same unmanifest.
Again and again, the whole multitude
of creatures is born, and when night falls,
Is dissolved, without their will,
and at daybreak, is born again.
Beyond that unmanifest is
another, everlasting unmanifest
Which has no end, although
every creature perish.
This is called the imperishable
unmanifest and the highest goal.
Who reaches it does not return.
It is my supreme abode.

[Bhagavad-Gita, 8.17-21]