Upanishads signifies “sitting at the feet or in the presence of a teacher”. It may also mean to shatter or destroy fetters of ignorance. The teachings take the form of a dialogue, later adopted by Plato and other Greek philosophers. Upanishad is called “Srutis”, what is heard. Smritis are minor scriptures recorded through memories. The value of the Upanishad does not rest on antiquity but upon the vital message they contain for all times and all people. The collections of Vedas are Rig, Sama, Yajus, and Atharva.
Main Essence
- Upanishad teaches man his identity with the divine. “That Thou Art” and “I am Brahman”. Man learns his true spiritual nature, learns the true path (The Ancient Wisdom) and gain mastery of his lower nature.
- The human goal is to practice discipline and service; and glorify the Solar Logos, AUM. The word is the highest symbol of the Absolute.
- Seek a true teacher by the purity of heart (and the four lower vehicles), clarity of mind (Citta, vritti, Nirodha)(The mind alone is to be realized. There is no difference between the visible and the invisible), and by meditation.
- Teaching is by words, living the spiritual life, and illumination. Living the life and attaining illumination are superior to just studying the words.
- He who is rich in the knowledge of the Self does not covet external power and possession. Live to perform karma.
- To perceive the Self, the heart must be pure from every unworthy selfish desire, and the thought must be indrawn from all external objects.
- The Self is the Lord of the Chariot, the body is the chariot, the intellect is the driver, and the mind the reins. The horses are the senses and emotion, the road over which these horses travel is made up of all external objects which attract and repel the senses. The Self is the enjoyer and the master when He is joined with the body, mind, and senses. The Self is perceived through the heart, intellect, and mind.
- Vedic teaching is one tremendous whole becoming the world, and again the world merging in that whole. It also strives in various ways to define that source, knowing all else is known and without which no knowledge can be well established..
The teachings are summed up in two Maha-vakyam or Great Saying – “Tat Twam Asi” (That thou art); and Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman). This oneness of soul and God lies at the very root of all Vedic thought, and it is this dominant ideal of the unity of life and the oneness of truth which makes the study of the Upanishads especially beneficial at the present moment.
Every Upanishad begins with a peace chant (Shanti- patha) to create proper atmosphere of purity and serenity. To study God, the whole nature must be prepared so united and with loving heart teacher and disciples prayed to the Supreme Being for His grace and protection. Until our mind is withdrawn from varied distraction and agitation of worldly affairs, we cannot enter into the Spirit of Higher religious study. We must have peaceful attitude towards all living things, must strive to the ultimate through suggestion by chanting or repeating holy text.
Isa (Lord) Upanishad (1-18)
Isa – Vasya, “God-covered”. The use of Isa (Lord) is a more personal name of the Supreme Being than Brahman, Atman or Self. The oneness of the soul and God, the value of both faith and work is a means of ultimate attainment of this Upanishad. To help him acquire this knowledge is the aim of this and all Upanishads.
OM – that invisible is whole; whole is this (the visible phenomenal); from the invisible whole comes forth the visible whole. Through the visible whole has come out from that invisible whole, yet the whole remains unaltered. The true wisdom: phenomenal and the Absolute are inseparable.
1. All that exists in the universe are covered by the Lord. Do not covet the wealth of any man. He who is rich in the knowledge of the Self does not covet external power or possession.
2. Live to perform karma. There is no other way. By this, karma will not defile thee. When man performs action clinging to the four lower selves, his action binds him to the plane of birth and death.
3. Immortal soul cannot be destroyed, but can be obscured. Those who serve the flesh, the soul does not shine and so neglect the Atman. He experiences death many times.
4. The one motionless is swifter than the mind. The senses cannot overtake it. The Atman is present everywhere, even the air must be supported by this Self, and as nothing can live without breathing air, all living things must draw their life from the Cosmic Self.
5. It moves and it moves not. It is far and also it is near. It is within and also it is without. It is near to those who have the power to understand it but seem far to those living in illusion.
6. He sees self in all beings and the Self is in all beings.
7. He who perceives the self everywhere never shrinks from anything because through his higher consciousness he feels united with all life. Grief and delusion rest upon a belief in diversity which leads to competition and all forms of selfishness.
8. The self is all, encircling, resplendent, bodiless, and spotless, without sinew, pure, transcendent, self existence. When our mind is cleansed from the dross of matter, we can behold vast radiance, pure, spotless, the true basis of existence.
9. Man who worships avidya enters blind darkness, and enters greater darkness if he worships vidya (knowledge).
10. Same as No. 9.
11. Man, who knows vidya and avidya, crosses over death by avidya and immortality by vidya.
12. The essence is the same as No. 9 and 10.
13. The essence is the same as No. 9 and 10.
14. The essence is the same at No. 9 and 10.
15. The face of truth is hidden by the golden disk. Uncover to behold the truth.
16. Same as No. 15.
17. Atman life, breath goes to all pervading and immortal prana. Om remembers thy deeds. Let the four lower selves burn to ashes (or etherealized) that the soul may attains to freedom. Death is nothing more than casting off of worn out garment.
18. O Agni (Bright Being). Lead us to blessedness by the good path.
Brahma Vidya as the knowledge of the all pervading Deity. Self Knowledge is the theme of the Logos
Katha Upanishad – The Secret of Death. It is the triumph of the Higher Self from the lower selves. The triumph over death is attained by first, no fear of death; second, sacrifice with full three-fold knowledge of fire the foundation of the world; and third, the search for the immortal light.
The good is one thing, the pleasant another. These two, having different ends, bind a man. It is well with him to choose the good. He who chooses pleasant misses the true end.
The conveying of spiritual knowledge teachings does not depend upon words only. It is the life, the illumination that counts. The knowledge of the self cannot be gained unless the heart of the disciple is open and ready for the truth.
There are many who puffed up with intellectual conceit believing they are capable of guiding others. While they possess certain amount of worldly wisdom, they are devoid of deeper understanding. Therefore they merely increase doubt and confusion in the mind of those who hear them. They are likened to blind leading the blind. They lack the power of discrimination and are easily carried away be fleeting objects, tempted by pleasure, power, name, and fame. To them these seem to be the only reality.
When man can identify himself with his undying nature, which is one with God, then he overcomes death.
When taught by a man of inferior understanding, this atman cannot be truly known. There is no other way to know except taught by illumined teacher, for it is subtler than the subtle and beyond argument.
The secret regarding Hereafter cannot be known through reasoning or mere intellectual gymnastics. It is to be attained only in a state of consciousness which transcend the boundary of reason.
The teacher said that the imperishable cannot be attained by the perishable shows that no amount of observance of rituals and ceremonies can earn the imperishable and the eternal.
By means of the highest meditation on the Self knows the Ancient One, difficult to perceive, seated in the innermost recess, hidden in the cave of the heart, dwelling in the depth of inner being, as God, is liberated from the fetters of joy and sorrow.
The goal that the Vedas glorify, which all austerities proclaim, desiring which people practice Brahmacharya (a life of continence and service), is AUM.
A is the mother sound, being the natural sound uttered by every creature when the
Throat is opened. No sound can be made without opening the throat.
U As one carries the sound from the throat to the lips, it passes through
The sound “U”.
M The last letter “M” spoken by closing the lips.
Their combination is called akshara or the imperishable word, the sound, Brahman or the word. The word is indeed Brahman, the Supreme. He who knows this word obtains whatever he desires. The word is the highest symbol of the Absolute.
To perceive the atman, the heart must be pure and freed from every unworthy selfish desire; the thought must be indrawn from all external object (Citta, Vritti, Nirodha), the mind and body under control, whole being calm and serene. It is the boundless, sustaining power of the whole universe that upon all existence rests.
The Self cannot be attained by study of the scriptures nor by intellectual perception or frequent hearing of it. He whom the Self chooses, by Him alone it is attained. To him the Self reveals Its true nature.
Knowledge comes through direct perception for those pure in heart and spiritually awakened.
When the truth shines clearly in the heart of the knower, then he surmounts the apparent duality of his nature and becomes convinced that there is but one and all outer manifestations are nothing but reflections or projection of that one.
Know the Self (Atman) as the Lord of the Chariot, and the body as the chariot, the intellect the driver, and the mind the reins. The horses are the senses or emotion, the road over which these horses travel is made up of all external objects which attract or repel the senses. Each sense unless retrained by the discriminative faculty seeks to go out toward its special objects. When the Self is joined with the body, mind, and senses, it is called the intellectual enjoyer because it is the one that perceives and does everything.
Beyond the great Atman is the unmanifested, beyond the unmanifested is the Purusha (the Cosmic Soul), beyond the Purusha is no thing, the final goal.
The Self created some wise man desiring immortality, with eyes turned away from the external sees the Atman within. The wise who sees deeper into the nature of things are not deluded by the charm of the phenomenal world and do not seek for permanent happiness among its passing enjoyment.
All knowledge as well as sense perception in every state of consciousness – sleeping, dreaming, or waking is possible only because the Self exists. There can be no knowledge or perception independent of the Self. Identify with the Higher Self and transcend the realm of grief.
The Great Self is the cause of all created objects; His first manifestation was Brahm, the personal God, or creator, born of the fire of wisdom. He existed before the evolution of the five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Hence, he was born before water. He is the Self dwelling in the hearts of all creatures.
The Self rises with prana (the life principle), existent in all the Devas, who having entered into the heart, abides there, and who was born from the elements.
Fire is called all-seeing because its light makes everything visible. Fire was regarded as one of the most perfect symbol of Divine Wisdom, worshipped by all seekers of truth, followed by the path of meditation or the path of rituals.
What is here (the visible world), that is there (in the invisible); he who sees difference (between visible and invisible) goes from death to death.
The mind alone is to be realized. There is no difference between the visible and invisible. He who sees the difference goes from death to death. In the sight of true wisdom, there is no difference between the creator and the created. Even physical science recognizes that cause and effect are but two aspects of one manifestation of energy. Only the essence which dwells within is unchangeable and imperishable, its perception is attained by purified mind.
The Purusha, the size of the thumb, resides in the middle of the body as the Lord of the past and the future. Those who know Him fear no more. He is like the light without smoke.
The city of the unborn, this human body, is called a city with eleven gates. This city is where the unborn spirit dwells:
Two eyes
Two ears
Two nostrils
Mouth
Navel
Two lower apertures
Imperceptible opening at the top of the head
The intelligent man through constant thought and meditation realizes the splendor of this Supreme Spirit, becomes free from that part of his nature (which grieves and suffer), and attain liberation.
The Self is the sun dwelling in the bright heaven, dwelling in space, the fire burning in the altar, the guest dwelling in the house. He dwells in Man.
As air, though one, having entered the world, becomes various according to what it enters, so does the Atman within all living beings, though one, becomes various according to what it enters. It also exists outside.
As the sun, the eye of the whole world, is not defiled by external seen by the eyes, thus the one inner self of all living beings is not defiled by the misery of the world, being outside it.
Whatever there is in the universe is evolved from prana and vibrates in prana. That is a mighty terror. They who know, that becomes immortal.
Just as the body cannot live or act without a soul, similarly nothing in the created world can exist independent of Brahma, who is the basis of existence.
A wise man never confounds the Atman which is birth less and deathless. When he sees his physical organism waxing and waning, he knows that his real Self within can never be affected by these outer changes, so he remains unmoved.
His form is not to be seen. No one see Him with the eye. He is perceived by the heart, by the intellect and by the mind.
There are a hundred and one nerves of the heart. One of them penetrates the center of the head. Going upward through it, one attains immortality. The other one hundred (100) nerves lead in departing to different world.
The nervous system of the body provides channel through which the mind travels. The direction in which it moves is determined by its desires and tendencies. When the mind becomes pure and desire less, it takes the upward course and at the time of departing passes out through the imperceptible opening at the crown of the head. But as long as it remains full of desires its course is downward toward the realm where those desires can be satisfied.
Kena Upanishad
Kena ishitam “by who directed”. It is also called talavakara – Brahmana of the same Veda. Its purpose is to lead the mind from the gross to the subtle, from effect to the cause. It seeks to locate the source of man’s being, to expand his self-consciousness until it has become identical with the God consciousness.
An ordinary man hears, thinks, and is satisfied to know as much as can be known through the senses. He does not analyze and try to find that which stand behind the ear and the mind. He is identified with external nature which concerns the outer man only. He has no consciousness of that which enable his senses and organs to perform their tasks.
There is a vast difference between the manifested form and that which is manifested through the form, and then we know that we shall not die with the body. When man knows the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, having severed himself from his physical nature becomes immortal. Immortality is attained when man transcend his apparent nature and finds that subtle eternal and inexhaustible essence which is within him.
Ordinarily there are three states of consciousness – the waking, dreaming and sleeping. The fourth state of consciousness is the super-consciousness which transcends the first three states. The fourth state of consciousness can be gained through the purity of vision. It can perceive the Divine. The mind described in the Upanishad is the super-conscious mind.
Having given the definition of the Higher Self, Brahman, and the disciple must experience it. Mere intellectual recognition will not give true knowledge of it. Neither can It be taught to you. The teacher can only show the way. You must find it for yourself.
The Upanishad is based on tapas (practice of the control of body, mind and senses), dama (subjugation of the senses), karma (right performance of prescribed actions). The Vedas are its limbs, Truth is its supports.
Vedic teaching is one tremendous whole becoming the world, and again the world merging in that whole. It also strives in various ways to define that source, knowing all else is known and without which no knowledge can be well established. That which is the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, that is inexhaustible river of being which flow on eternally; while bubbles of creation rise on the surface, live for a time, then burst.
Reference: The Upanishads translated and commented by Swami Paramananda
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