Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

PHILOSOPHY

The Upanishads show a new direction in ancient Indian thought. The doctrine of Karma and transmigration is expounded for the first time in. the Upanishads. A main theme is the nature of the World Soul (Brahman) and the individual soul (Atman). In the Chandogya Upanishad, there is the famous story of Svetaketu who is taught by his father in a series of statements which end with the famous words Tat tvam asi — 'Thou art That' — meaning that the Atman was essentially the Brahman. When a man realises that Brahman is Atman, that Brahman resides in the human soul, that Brahman is the human soul, is Atman, the self, he is freed from transmigration. His soul becomes one with Brahman. He becomes free and transcends joy and sorrow, life and death.

"Thus the twin doctrines of samsara and Karma relate to the empirical order. While the concept of samsara tells us that this order involves constant change, the law of Karma gives us the principle governing the course of change." (T.M.P Mahadevan) The doctrine of metempsychosis is depicted in the Chandogya Upanishad. The various stages which one has to traverse after death, according to one's Karma, are elaborately dealt with. Those who are of good conduct will enter into an elevated (superior womb) and those who are of evil conduct will be born into the womb of a dog or a swine or an outcast. The doctrine of Karma provided an explanation for the existence of happiness and suffering. It provided an answer to the mystery of why some beings are happy while others experience suffering. It also provided a philosophical basis for caste and the social inequalities that had begun to appear in the Aryan community. "It is wrong to identify the doctrine of Karma with fatalism. Karma is not an external destiny driving man to his doom, nor a fluid mechanical framework from which there is no escape. All that the law of Karma implies is that our present enjoyments are the result of our past actions. So far as our future is concerned we are relatively free to fashion it after our heart's desire. It is not a blind law that operates in the universe. Freedom from the cycle of Karma is not only possible but is our ultimate goal and destiny." (T.M.P. Mahadevan) The Upanishads being works of various authors living in differ- ent ages do not present a coherent system of philosophy. They are the expressions of sages who obtained glimpses of the highest truths by earnest meditation. Their process is intuitive rather than logical and their object is to satisfy the natural yearnings of the human mind for an ultimate knowledge of the reality about God, man and the world around us. Thus while the Upanishadic philosophers soared to dizzy heights of abstract thought they failed to satisfy the normal religious cravings of the human heart and the spiritual need of the human mind. The age that followed the Upanishads saw new developments in religious thought with a view to removing these deficiencies and starting with the Upanishadic teachings they pro- ceeded in different directions to build up different systems of relig- ious belief. The philosophical thinking embodied in the Upanishads and the debates which later took place between Buddhists and Brahmans gave rise to six different schools of thought which came to be called the six systems of Hindu philosophy - Mimamsa also referred to as Purva (earlier) Mimamsa, Sankhya, Yoga, Vaisheshika, Nyaya and Vedanta, also called Uttara (later) Mimamsa. The Mimamsa (Inquiry) school of thought was expounded by Jaimini (2nd century B.C.) who defended the authority and authen- ticity of the Vedas. In the 7th and 8th centuries AD its supporters expounded a theory of salvation which emphasised respect for the Vedas and observance of Vedic injunctions. Its main supporters were orthodox Brahmans. The Sankhya (Reasoning or Enumeration) system of thought was fundamentally atheistic. It ascribed creation not to a divine being but to Prakriti (matter), the first of the 25 basic components from which the others are developed: intelligence ( buddhi ), self - con- sciousness ( ahankara ), ether, air, light, water, earth, the five mate-

Truly, he who knows Brahman becomes Brahman, And all his descendants become knowers of Brahman. He transcends suffering and the influence of evil. Free from the chains of ignorance he enjoys immortality

-From the Mundaka Upanishad

The Central theme of the Upanishads is the search for unity in the midst of diversity. "What is it that by knowing which everything in this universe is known?" (Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.3). The answer is to be found in the conception of God or Brahman as the ultimate cause of the universe, "from whom indeed these beings are born, through whom they live and merge in." (Taittiriya UpanishadIII.l) The smallest of the important Upanishads, the Mandukya, de- scribes the different states of the human soul or Atman. In the waking state it experiences the outside world; in dreams the internal world of mind; and in deep sleep only its natural bliss. In these three lower states it is called Vishwa, Taijasa and Prajna, respectively. In its Turiya (literally fourth) or transcendent state, it is described by the negation of all attributes characteristic of the other three states : "Having neither internal or external experiences nor both combined, nor mere consciousness either, neither (fully) conscious nor uncon- scious, invisible, incapable of being dealt with or seized, without indications, unthinkable, unnamable, to be traced only through the abiding notion of the oneself, where the phenomenal world is at rest, serene, gracious, free from duality, it is considered the fourth. That is the Atman" (Mandukya Upanishad .7) This is the Kutastha or immutable aspect of the Self which is identical with Brahman, the impersonal God. With this impersonal God the individual soul is fundamentally identical. Karma, which has been accepted as an article of faith in all the main systems of Indian philosophy, is not found in the earliest Vedic thought. A clear formulation of the doctrine of Karma (action, deed) and the transmigration of souls (Samsara is the Sanskrit word for transmigration or metempsychosis) is found in the teachings of Yajnavalkya as recorded in the Brhidaranyaka Upanishad. When the idea of the transmigration of souls gained currency, it lead to the theory that souls were born to happiness or sorrow in their new life according to their conduct in their previous life. "As ye sow, so ye reap." Our present is the result of our past and our future will depend on our actions in the present. Yajnavalkya says in the Brhidaran- yaka Upanishad : "As is a man's desire, such is his resolve; as is his resolve, such is the action he performs, that he procures for himself."