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The Meaning of 108
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June.10.2020
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The Philosophy of the Upanishads
Sat
Chit Ananda
The Phi
los
ophy of
the Upanis
hads
The Vedas ar
e t
he c
or
e sc
r
iptur
es of Hinduism and the Upanishads are texts
whi
c
h for
m the philos
ophical essence of the Vedas
. The Upanishads are
col
lectively called t
he Vedant
a. Liter
ally, Vedanta means ‘end of the Vedas’ and
i
ndeed, many of
thes
e t
exts ar
e found at the end of eac
h of the four Vedas. The
Upani
s
hads ar
e also the end or culmination of the Vedas in the sense that they
embody t
he highes
t philosophical knowledge of
the Vedas. ‘The ess
ence of the
knowl
edge of
the Vedas
was
called by the name of
Vedanta, which compr
is
es the
Upani
s
hads.’
Isha-Kena-Katha-Prashna Munda-Mandukya Ti
ttirih
Aitereyam ca Chhandogyam Brhadaryankam tatha’
We hear of
108 Upani
s
hads, ten of which ar
e especially important because they
wer
e s
elec
ted for c
ommentar
y by Adi Shankarac
har
ya. There is a tr
aditional
shl
oka which lis
ts these major Upanishads –
‘Isha-Kena-Katha-Prashna Munda-Mandukya Ti
ttirih
Aitereyam ca Chhandogyam Brhadaryankam tatha’
Of
ten thes
e Upanis
hads are in the for
m of dialogues between s
ages and truth-
s
ee
ker
s.
For example in the Mundaka Upanis
had, the enquirer, Shaunaka asks
t
he s
age Angir
as , ‘Sir, what
is that, which becoming known, everything her
e
b
ecom
es known?’ In the Katha Upanishad, a little boy, Nachiketa asks about
what
, if
anything,
s
ur
vives death – and he asks this to none other than Yama,
Lor
d of
Dea
th!
Let
us go st
raight
into the heart of the Upanishads. What is their c
entr
al
message
t
o us?
You ar
e Pur
e Exi
stence
I
n the s
ixth c
hapt
er
of the Chhandogya Upanishad, we find a dialogue between a
s
age and hi
s s
on, Shvetaketu. The enquir
y her
e is, ‘What
is that knowledge by
whi
c
h e
ve
r
ything be
comes known?’ And to grasp the answer to this bold
ques
t
ion, we mus
t
appr
eciate the conc
ept that
by knowing the cause one can
know t
he effec
ts
. Thus if
you know c
la
y, you know all
pots made of clay (you
know t
hat
all s
uch pots ar
e not
hing but clay), by knowing iron one unders
tands
al
l imple
ments made of iron, by knowing gold, a
ll gold or
naments are
under
s
tood as
nothing but gold and so on.
I
n the s
ame way
, if we enquir
e deeply enough, the Upanishad claims we shall see
t
hat
all
existent things are nothing but existence itsel
f or pure existence.
S
at
i
s t
he
t
er
m used for pur
e existence.
To expl
ain fur
ther, take t
he t
raditional
example of a pot – t
he pot is nothing but
i
t
s cause clay,
clay is nothing but
its cause
p
rithvi
or t
he earth element,
p
rithvi
is
not
hi
ng but
its cause
a
p
or t
he water
element and in this way we tr
ace e
veryt
hing
b
ack to the prim
al cause, pure existence or
S
at
.
It i
s
S
at
appear
i
ng as this wor
ld
t
hr
ough the myster
ious agency of
ma
y
a.
And ‘Thou, O Shvet
aketu,’ sa
ys the sage,
‘
art That
!’ By ‘That’ of
course, he means,
S
at,
pur
e exis
tence. You, your mind and
b
ody, and indeed, everything you see around you, are essentially nothing but
pur
e exi
s
tence, appear
ing in multifarious forms, courtesy of
ma
y
a
.
I
gnor
ance
mea
ns be
i
ng unaware of your
S
at
nat
ur
e, and cons
equently being identified with
t
he body-mind c
omplex with all its attendant pr
oblems and s
ufferings.
Enl
ightenment
is jus
t
the re
verse – being aware of yourself as Sat and being free
of
t
he body, mind and all s
amsar
a. You are the immortal, unchanging Sat and the
wor
l
d is a mere shadow the pr
ojec
tion of
ma
y
a,
pas
s
ing over you. This does not
act
ually des
troy the body or the wor
ld – r
ather you begin to s
ee things as they
real
l
y are.
Your t
rue Sel
f
,
S
at
,
is not
a t
hing, an object, among ot
her objects of
t
he univer
se.
Rat
her I
t
is t
he very exis
tence of all things and they are not
apart f
rom It. To a
j
nani, each object reveals
S
at.
Part 1.
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