Man is essentially Divine. However, he believes himself to be
an individual, limited and temporary, because he is entangled in
the characteristics of the Five Elements, namely, Sound, Touch,
Form, Taste and Smell. This error brings about joy and grief, good
and bad, birth and death. To escape from this association with the
Elements, to rid oneself of the pulls of their characteristics, is
the sign of Liberation, called in Sanskrit as Kaivalya, Moksha or
Mukthi. Names may change; but the achievement is the same.
While entangled in the Five Elements, man is attracted,
distracted or disappointed by them; all this causes distress.
Wealth, possessions - vehicles, buildings - all these re
transmutations of the elements. Man craves for them; when he loses
them or fails to get them, he spurns them.
Let us take the Five Elements, one by one. The living being has
the first one, the Earth, as its base. Water, the second, is the
basis for the earth. Water is produced from Fire, the third
element, Fire itself emanating from Wind, the fourth. Wind or Vayu
arises from Ether, or Akasa. Akasa emerges from the Primal Nature
and the Primal Nature is but the manifestation of one aspect of
the majesty of God, or the Supreme Sovereign Atma, the Param-atma.
Seeking to reach that Param-atma, the source and core of the
Universe, the Individual or Jivi, who has entangled himself in the
elements, has to overcome, by discrimination and steady practice
of detachment, the bonds one by one; such a person is a Sadhaka;
he who wins in this struggle is the Jivan-muktha, 'Liberated even
while alive.'
For the exercise of such discrimination and for the
visualisation of one's innate reality, one has to study the
Upanishads. They are collectively called Vedanta. They form the
Jnana kanda of the Vedas, the section that deals with the Higher
Wisdom. Liberation from the consequences of Ignorance can be
secured only by Knowledge or Jnana. The Upanishads themselves
declare, "Jnaanaad eva thu kaivalyam": "By Knowledge alone
can freedom be won."
The Vedas are reputed to be "three sectioned", "Kaanda-thrayaathmakam"
- the three sections being Jnana, Upasana and Karma. These three
are found in the Upanishads too; they provided the basis for the
Adwaitha, Visishtadvaitha and the Dwaitha systems of Philosophy
also.
The term Upanishad denotes the study and practice of the innate
truth: the term, Brahmavidya, denotes the supremacy of spiritual
contemplation; the term, Yogasastra denotes the mental churning
that brings success. What is the fundamental activity which is
required of man? What is the basic thing to be known? It is only
one's basic reality. The Upanishads describe the various stages
and the various modes of this search for realising this.
The name is full of significance. 'Upa' means the process of
studying with 'Nishta' or steadfastness; 'shad' means the
attainment of the Ultimate Reality. The name Upa-ni-shad arose for
these reasons. The Upanishads teach not only the principles of
Atmavidya; they indicate also the practical means of realisation.
They point out not only the duties and obligations one has to
bear, but also the actions to be done and those to be avoided.
The Gita is but the essence of the Upanishads. Arjuna acquired
through the lessons of the Gita the fruit of listening to the
Upanishads. In the Upanishads, the statement, "Thath-thwam-asi",
"That thou art", is found. In the Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna, "I
am Arjuna among the Pandavas", that is to say, "I and You are the
same". This is the same as saying "Thou art That", that Jiva and
Iswara are the same.
So, whether it is the Gita or the Upanishads, the teaching is
Non-duality, not Duality, or qualified Monism. The human eye
cannot delve into the minute or the magnitudinous. It cannot read
the mystery of the virus or the atom or the stellar universe.
Therefore, scientists supplement the eye with the telescope and
the microscope. Similarly, sages are able to experience Divinity
through the eye of knowledge, gained by following the Dharma of
moral conduct and spiritual discipline. When the human eye stands
in need of an extraneous instrument to observe even the
insignificant worm and virus, how can one refuse to go through the
process of manthra if he desires to see the omnipresent
transcendent Principle? It is very hard to acquire the eye of
wisdom. Concentration is essential for this. And, for
concentration to develop and stabilise itself, three things are
very important: purity of consciousness, moral awareness and
spiritual discrimination. These qualifications are difficult of
attainment by ordinary folk.
Man is endowed with the special instrument of discrimination,
of judgement, of analysis and synthesis, which among all animals,
he alone possesses. He has to develop this and utilise it to the
best purpose. Through this instrument, he can realise the Immanent
Divinity.
Instead, man pesters himself and others with the question:
Where does God reside? If He is real, why is He not seen? Hearing
such queries, one feels like pitying the poor questioners. For,
they are announcing their own foolishness. They are like the
dullards who aspire for university degrees without taking pains
even to learn the alphabet. They aspire to realise God without
putting themselves to the trouble of practising the Sadhana
required. People who have no moral strength and purity talk of God
and His existence and decry efforts to see Him. Such people have
no right to be heard.
Spiritual Sadhana is based on the holy Sastras. They cannot be
mastered in a trice. They cannot be followed through talk. Their
message is summed up in the Upanishads; hence, they are revered as
authoritative. They are not the products of human intelligence;
they are the whisperings of God to man. They are parts of the
eternal Vedas. The Vedas shine gloriously through all their parts.
The Upanishads are authentic and authoritative, as they share
the glory of the Vedas. They are 1180 in number, but, through the
centuries, many of them disappeared from human memory and only 108
have now survived. Of these, 13 have attained great popularity, as
a result of the depth and value of their contents.
The sage Vyasa classified the Upanishads and allotted them
among the four Vedas; The Rigveda has 21 branches and each branch
has one Upanishad allotted to it. The Yajurveda has 109 branches
and 109 Upanishads. The Atharvanaveda has 50 branches and 50
Upanishads were its share. The Samaveda has a thousand branches
and the balance, namely, 1000 Upanishads were its share. Thus, the
1180 Upanishads were assigned by Vyasa to the Four Vedas.
Sankaracharya raised the status of ten among the Upanishads by
selecting them for writing his commentaries and so they became
especially important. Humanity stands to gain or fall by these
ten. All who are seeking human welfare and progress are now
apprehending whether even these ten will be forgotten, for,
neglecting them will usher in moral and spiritual disaster. There
is no reason, however, for such fears. The Vedas can never be
harmed. Pundits and those with faith should resolve to present
before humanity these ten Upanishads at least. They are Isa,
Kena, Katha, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Thaithiriya, Aithareya,
Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka.
The remaining 98 are: Brahma, Kaivalya, Svethasva, Jabali,
Hamsa, Garbha, Aruni, Paramahamsa, Amrithanada, Narayani,
Amrithabindu, Atharvasikha, Atharvasira, Kasithara, Mathrayani,
Nrisimhatapani, Brahmajabala, Maithreya, Kalagnirudra, Sulabha,
Manthrika, Kshithi, Niraalamba, Sarvahara, Vajrasuchika,
Subharahasya, Thejobindu, Nadabindu, Dhyanabindu, Brahmavidya,
Atmabodhaka, Yoga, Thathwa, Naradaparivrajaka, Brahmana, Sita,
Yogachudamani, Nirvana, Mandala, Dakshinamurthi, Skandaa, Sarabha,
Adwaitha, Thaaraka, Mahanarayana, Sowbhagyalakshmi,
Saraswathirahasya, Mukthika, Bhavaricha, Ramathapana, Ramarahasya,
Mudgali, Vasudeva, Pingala, Sandilya, Mahabhikshuka, Yogasiksha,
Sanyasa, Thuriyathitha, Parmaparivrajaka, Narasimha, Akshamalika,
Annapoorna, Ekakshara, Akshika, Adhathya, Surya, Kundisakhya,
Aatma, Savithri, Parabrahma, Pasupatha, Thripurathapana,
Avadhootha, Thripura, Devi, Bhavana, Katha, Yogakundali,
Rudrahrdaya, Rudraksha, Bhasma, Darsana, Ganapathi, Thahasata,
Mahavakya, Panchabrahma, Gopalathapani, Pranagnihothra, Garuda,
Krishna, Datthatreya, Varaaha, Yajnavalkya, Sathyaayana, Avyektha,
Hayagriva, and Kalisantharna.
The Upanishads have also inspired other works on Geography,
Astronomy, Astrology, Economics and Political Theory, as well as
the 18 Puranas comprising Skanda, Siva, Garuda and others. The
Vedas and the Upanishads are the very foundation for Sanathana
Dharma.
There is one interesting feature to be noted. This religion has
no one Founder as the others have. That invisible unknown founder
is God, the source of all wisdom. He is the Prophet of this
Sanathana Dharma. He is the Founder; His Grace and His Inspiration
manifested through the pure Sages and they became the spokesmen of
this Dharma. When the moral purity of men degenerates, God takes
form as grace and inspiration in sages and teachers. He has also
given through the Upanishads the Sathya-Jnana, the Wisdom
concerning the Reality.