Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

SR No.: 006522
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 240
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Religion
File Size: 11 MB

Page 159

THE BRAHMANICAL DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION
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(pranava) is the bow. The arrow is the soul (ātman.). Brahman is said to be the mark (lakṣya). By the undistracted man is it to be penetrated, one should come to be in it, as the arrow (in the mark)."48
The Upanisads also stress the necessity and importance of a spiritual teacher. He must be devoted to brahman and must have sound knowledge of Upanisadic lore. Faith in such a teacher is essential for a seeker. In addition to the service of the teacher, adequate moral preparation, practice of meditation, and possession of right knowldge are the other requirements of a student of brahma-vidya. The Mundaka-Upanisad states: "Let him, in order to understand this, take fuel in his hand and approach a guru who is learned and dwells entirely in brahman."49 The Svetasvatara-Upanisad states a similar view: "To a high-minded man, who feels the highest devotion for God and for his guru as for God, then they will shine forth, then they will shine forth indeed."50 To see the self (atman) one must become, "calm, controlled, quiet, patiently enduring, and contented."51
Thus the Upanisadic thinkers suggested three main pathways to the realization of brahman: Upanisadic knowledge, practise of yoga and true devotion. The Mundaka Upanisad teaches that:
"Having well ascertained the object of the knowledge of the Vedanta and having purified their nature by the yoga of renunciation, all anchorites, enjoying the highest immortality, become free at the time of the great end (death) in the world of Brahma."52
Mircea Eliade53 has pointed out that "the three highest roads of liberation-Upanisadic knowledge, yoga technique, and bhakti" found in the early Upanisads were intergated and synthesized in later period.
In conclusion it may be stated that the dominant notion of the Upanisads is that liberation consists in the consciousness of unity with the atman or brahman as the first principle. We have seen above that the destruction of all desires, impurities and limitations
52.
53.
48- Mundaka Upanisad, II.2,3-4. Tr. by R.E. Hume, p. 372.
49. Ibid., 1.2.12. Tr. by Max Müller.
50. Sveta vatra Upanisad, VI.23. Tr. by Max Müller.
51.
Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, IV. 4.23. Tr. by Max Müller, See also Radhakrishnan and A. Moore, A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, p. 38.
Mundaka Upanisad, 111.2.6. Tr. by Max Müller.
Mircea Eliade, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom, p. 120.