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ISAVASYA UPANISHAD
Isa Upanishad is evidently influenced by Christian concepts as acknowledged by all those who have come across it and introduces Isa as immanent in the cosmos as well as transcendent to it - a concept never found in the earlier Vedas. It also brought in the concept of Sin, Judgment, and Hell which are clearly expressed in this Upanishad. It continually repeats the phrase "Thus have we heard from the wise who taught us this" indicating that the message and teaching as something new and something heard and taught as opposed to the religious teachings current in India at the time and taught by the religious leaders of the period. Thus Isa Upanishad is a clear indication of the wide existence of "Christianity" throughout India soon after the ministry of Thomas. Gnostics who were the major opponents in the Europe for Christianity came to India in the second and third centuries. Isa was probably written when this conflict between the Way and the Gnostics were in their height and the major thrust of the Upanishad is the exposition of the fallacy of Vidyayam (Gnostic knowledge).
My contention here is that Isa Upanishad was one of the earliest Christian doctrinal treatises of India defending Christian Way against the onslaught of Gnosticism of the late second century.
The text itself must have undergone changes and redactions and additions. Since Yajur Veda itself is a collection of useful ritual liturgies and procedures, this is not surprising. This can to some extent traced when we compare the two known versions. The order of the Mantras differs in the Shukla Yajur Veda's two sakhas. White Yajurveda has two branches: vajasaneyi madhyandina (VSM) (popular in North India, Gujarat, Maharashtra -north of Nasik) and northern parts of Orissa,), vajasaneyi kanva (VSK)( popular in Maharashtra -south of Nasik, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.). Here is the order of the mantras.
VSK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 VSM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14 9 10 11 (17) - 15 16
As the comparison of the two branches indicates, mantras 17 and 18 are certainly later additions. Mantra 18 is a copy of Rig Veda verse so it was probably never really the part of the Isa Upanishad. It is omitted in Madhyandina version. Verses 15 - 18 were most probably added later than the earlier portions and are really used during the rituals of death and burial. Since we have no means of determining the time of writing or the sequence or modification made later we can be assured of the integrity of the first fourteen verses alone as really the part of the original Isa. The remaining verses may actually refer to lower gods indicating a redaction. But can be reinterpreted to the theme.
Isa as the manifest form of God appears only in one more Upanishad -this time in the The Svetasvatara Upanishad belonging to the Taittiriya school of the Yajur Veda. (Black Yajur Veda). The emphasis is not on Brahman the Absolute, whose complete perfection does not admit of any change or evolution and cannot have any character or properties, but on the personal form of God as Isa, omniscient and
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