Upanishads

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Tat Tvam Asi

Upanishads are the cream and essence of the Vedas. Since they are part of the end-portion of the Vedas, they are also called Vedanta. Upanishads are greatest of all the scientific and philosophical works. 

They deal with deepest mysteries of the Universe: What is creation? What is God - the unimaginably brilliant intelligence behind of this incredibly complex creation? What is the relationship of individual souls with the Supreme Lord? What is life and What is death?


Upanishads show the way for individual souls to be freed from the never-ending demands of the body & mind, and to be able to achieve the state of unconditional happiness. The path shown by the Upanishads is perfectly scientific - everyone is open to question the teachings thoroughly before accepting them. There is no punishment for not accepting the teachings. 

The teachings are thoroughly practical - the striving soul is to put in tremendous self-effort in reaching the highest state of Supreme Bliss and Supreme Knowledge, known by various names like Nirvana, Atma-Sakshatkara, Brahma-Sakshatkara, Brahma Vidya or Brahma Jnana. Upanishads boldly proclaim that this Supreme state is the birth-right of every soul - as it is of the nature of one's own True Self - the Atman.


There are in total 108 Upanishads, but only 10 of them are considered to be primary. They are: Ishavasya, Katha, Kena, Prashna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Aitareya, Taittiriya, Brihadaranyaka and Chhandogya. The glorious sage Adi Shankaracharya has written deeply insightful commentaries on these 10 Upanishads.


The word Upanishad has 3 meanings. First (from upa "by" and ni-shad "sit down") translates to "sitting down near", referring to the spiritual knowledge received by the student after approaching a Guru, and humbly sitting down near him. The primary means of receiving the Supreme Wisdom is by approaching a Guru who has himself received the Wisdom from the unbroken Guru Parampara. The student is supposed to surrender himself completely at the feet of the Guru, serve him, and learn the Teachings from him with great humility and Shraddha. 


The second meaning is "secret doctrine". The teachings of the Upanishads can't be understood by any amount of independent application of intelligence. This is because the fundamental requirement for understanding the Truth is complete effacement of ego. Every sincere spiritual aspirant recognizes that he can't achieve the Wisdom on his own, and hence surrenders to the Guru. It is only the rare few who have completely surrendered at the Guru's feet who finally get to realize the Truth. In this sense, the teachings are called "secret doctrine".

The Katha Upanishad reveals the story of the 9-year old boy Nachiketa who goes to the home of the Lord of Death, Yamaraj for learning the Supreme Wisdom. Yamaraj, claiming that this was the "supreme secret", puts Nachiketa through extremely difficult tests. The brave lad comes out with flying colors, and becomes fit to receive Brahma Jnana.


The third meaning is "destroying spiritual ignorance by revealing the Knowledge of the Supreme Self." The teachings destroy the deep-rooted illusion of identification with the body-mind complex, which has been prevalent through countless past births. With the destruction of this ignorance, the Jeeva realizes his oneness with the Supreme Being.


According to the Upanishads, this vast universe has One fundamental reality behind it - Infinite Existence (Sat), Infinite Consciousness (Chit) and Infinite Bliss (Ananda). Sat-Chit-Ananda is also called Brahman (Impersonal aspect of God). 

Brahman, by Its own inscrutable veiling power known as Maya, takes on a Personal aspect - Ishwara. In this aspect, He is the Creator, Sustainer and Destroyer of the universe. 

Ishwara projects this vast universe along with all the Jeevas as an appearance upon Himself. He does this using His Maya Shakti. He projects the Jeevas based on their individual store-house of past Karmas and Samskaras, collectively called Antahakarana.


Just as God has 2 aspects, Jeevas (individual  souls) also have 2 aspects of Consciousness. The impersonal aspect is known as Kutastha Chaitanya (immutable consciousness), also called Atman. Atman is fundamentally of the same nature as Brahman - pure Sat-Chit-Ananda. Atman is the result of the infinite Brahman being seemingly delimited by the Jeeva. In reality Atman is ever one with Brahman, just as the space within a pot (Ghatakasha) is ever one with the infinite space (Mahakasha).

The personal aspect of Jeevas is known as Jeevatman (soul). This is the result of Ishwara entering into the hearts (Antahakarana) of the Jeevas, and functioning through each of trillions upon trillions of bodies. Even to operate a single body requires Supreme intelligence - as even the tiniest of beings has so many complex functionalities like seeing, hearing, breathing, digestion, movement,... All this is done by the Lord of all - Ishwara. 


Antahakarana can be compared to muddy water inside a pot. Each of the Antahakaranas is different (based on the actions performed over infinite number of past births), just like the extent of muddiness of the water inside pots is different. The one Sun gets reflected differently from various different pots depending on the muddiness of the waters. In the same way, even though Ishwara Himself operates each of the countless bodies, the manifestation of divine qualities like kindness, love, sacrifice, humility, generosity, patience, etc is different based on the level of spiritual purity of individual Antahakaranas.


The Mundaka Upanishad presents a beautiful allegory. It speaks of 2 birds perched on the same tree. One bird keeps hopping from one branch to the other, sometimes eating a sweet fruit and sometimes a bitter fruit. The other bird sits majestically peaceful on the topmost branch without hopping around. The former bird, tired once in a while with bitter-sweet experiences, looks up to the latter occasionally and derives some peace momentarily, only to again continue with the hopping around. After countless such iterations, the former bird finally reaches the topmost branch, merges with the effulgence of the latter bird, and becomes supremely peaceful. 


In the same way, Upanishads explain that Jeevas have been hopping around countless births undergoing infinite variety of bitter-sweet experiences. Jeevas are under the illusion that they are individual souls (Jeevatman), while in reality their True nature is Atman - the Infinite Consciousness. More the level of impurity of the Antahakarana, more is the extent of identification with the Jeevatman. This mistaken identification shows up as the ego. With the practice of spiritual Sadhanas as instructed by the Guru, the Antahakarana gets gradually purified, and the ego starts shrinking. When perfect purity is achieved, the ego is completely effaced and the Jeeva finally realizes his oneness with the Atman - his True nature. He reaches the state of Supreme Bliss and Supreme Knowledge.


This is the highest state of Brahma Jnana to be achieved by each individual soul. The clarion call of the Upanishads awakens Jeevas and gets them marching on the Path of Supreme Perfection. May the blessings of the Upanishads be upon us all so that we strive hard on this most glorious path, and reach the state of Supreme Wisdom in this birth itself!

Aham Brahma asmi

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