What The Upanishads Say

THE MESSAGE OF THE UPANISHADS
--Eternal and Universal

The aim of all religions all over is to find out the meaning and purpose of life and to locate the source of eternal happiness. Just as the ancient Greek mind and the modern European mind tried to find out the solution by searching into the material world to locate such a source, so also did our forefathers first started with the material world. All failed. While the Western philosophers stopped at it, our ancient Rishis continued their search. Having been convinced that the answer does not lie in the external world, they turned their searchlight towards the shining Soul of man inside and arrived at the right answer. The answer was the Upanishads.

The Upanishads, also called Vedanta, constitute the last phase of the Vedic revelations and they are among the great seminal books of the world which have taught man from time immemorial how to seek eternal happiness and peace of mind. They embody the ancient Indian wisdom and the grand outpourings of the spiritual experience of those unique sages and seers called Rishis who saw Truth directly through their intuitive insight. Their aim was to bring in happiness and peace of mind to the agitated minds of the struggling humanity. The Upanishads are a treasure-house of religious and spiritual knowledge and ideas and ideals of our ancient seekers of Truth. They lead men of all ages and climes to the threshold of Absolute Reality.

Though the Upanishads hold spiritual perfection as the ultimate goal of life, they have given due prominence to the cultivation of social, moral and ethical values of life as a necessary pre-requisite. The main purpose of the Upanishads is to bring about the oneness of mind and thought among the people so that all hatred is destroyed and equality is created. In fact, one of the Vedic Mantras says “Samana Hridayani Vah;
Samanam Astu Me Manah” which means that ‘let all our thoughts be alike and minds be alike’. There is another Mantra which says ‘Maa Vidvishavahai’ which means ‘let us not hate each other’. Every Upanishad always ends with the Shanti Mantra [Peace Invocation] ‘OM Shantihi, Shantihi, Shantihi’, emphasizing the importance of universal peace. The Upanishads are equally concerned about the welfare of plants and animals as is evident from another Vedic Mantra which says “Sham No Astu Dvipade Sham Chatushpade” which means ‘let there be happiness both for the bipeds and for the quadrupeds’. To achieve this task of universal peace and harmony with nature, the Upanishads give necessary guidelines as to how to lead a virtuous life. This, in a nutshell, constitutes the teaching of the Upanishads.

Scholars are divided as to the date of the composition of the Upanishads. However, the prevailing opinion is that most of the principal Upanishads belong to the 7th Century B.C. There are over 200 Upanishads, both major and minor. However, the following ten are considered the principal Upanishads: Ishavasya, Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Taittariya, Aithariya, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka. These are called principal Upanishads since Acharya Shankara [788-820 A.D.] has written exhaustive commentaries on them.
It is well established that all positive knowledge contained in any literature, including religious, is limited and conditioned by the level of contemporary and scientific knowledge prevailing at that time. Modifications and even scrapping of much of such knowledge, due to subsequent knowledge in research and development, has affected the truth and validity of the earlier findings. However, the spiritual insights of the Upanishads are an exception to this tyranny of Time. Subsequent scientific advances have not only not affected the truth value but have, on the contrary, helped to reveal the rational basis of these insights and have further enhanced their spiritual appeal. This is no wonder because these insights are the products of an equally scientific investigation into a different field of experience, namely the world of Man’s Inner Experience.

The powerful message of the Upanishads and its influence on the spiritual thought of the world has been so great that probably there is no major language in the world to which the Upanishads have not been translated. In 1656 A.D. Prince Dara Shukoh, the eldest son of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan [1592-1666] first translated the Upanishads into the Persian language. He heard about the Upanishads while in Kashmir in 1640 and was inspired to translate them. The Prince was assisted in this work called ‘Sirr-i Akbar’ by the Pandits from Kashi in Delhi. Unfortunately, the Prince was murdered two years later by his brother Aurangazeb. Had the Prince achieved the highest throne, Mogul India might have had a different historical significance.

It was the year 1671 that marked the beginning of a new phase of expansion for India’s spiritual culture. The French traveler Francois Bernier came to India bought a manuscript of Dara Shukho’s Persian translation of the Upanishad and brought it to France. The narratives of Bernier and another French traveler, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, were translated into English in 1684. The eminent linguist and brilliant French theologist Anquetil Duperron [1731-1805] inaugurated a new era in the history of human knowledge and understanding by coming all the way to India from France in search of spiritual knowledge. In 1787, he not only completed a French translation of the Upanishad from the Persian translation, but later completed a more faithful transcription with greater clarity in Latin. He completed this monumental translation in Latin after 40 years of dedicated labour, that too in an attic in war-torn France. This created a great interest among Western philosophers to study Sanskrit, the language of the Upanishads.

The Upanishadic Age is one of those rare ages in human history which have registered distinctive breakthroughs in man’s quest for Truth and set a precedent to subsequent ages. Their thinkers, the Rishis, were least bothered about there being a public to please or a critic to appease. They considered no sacrifice too heavy in their quest for truth. Referring to this characteristic of the Upanishads, the famous German scholar in Sanskrit Prof. Max Muller says; “It is surely astounding that such a system as the Vedanta should have been elaborated by the indefatigable thinkers of India thousands of years ago, a system that even now makes us feel giddy, as in mounting the last steps of the swaying spires of a Gothic cathedral. None of our philosophers, not excepting Heraclites, Plato, Kant or Hegel has ventured to erect such a spire, never frightened by storms or lightning”.
B.M.N.Murthy








ARTICLE NO. 481---THE MESSAGE OF THE UPANISHADS
Created: Friday, January 2, 2009 10:13 AM