Eternal India Encyclopedia

PHILOSOPHY

Eternal India

encyclopedia

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

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.

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

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."

"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-