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THE DOCTRINE OF LIBERATION IN INDIAN RELIGIONS
"Considering sacrifice and good works as the best, these fools know no higher good, and having enjoyed (their reward) on the height of heaven gained by good works, they enter again this world or a lower one. Commenting on the Upanisadic ideas Dr. L.M. Joshi states:
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"In the Upanisads, the polytheism of the Vedas was replaced by monotheism and nondualism. Sacrifices were replaced by ethical virtue and mere ritualism by quest for knowledge and mystical revelation."15
In the Katha Upanisad, the self (ätman) is considered to be the absolute reality. We are told that the objects are the roads, the body is the chariot, the senses are the horses, the intellect (buddhi) the charioteer, the mind the reins, the ego is the enjoyer and the atman is the Lord sitting in the chariot.10
Thus the Upanisadic thinkers concentrated on the inner self (atman) in order to attain peace, freedom and bliss. They reinterpreted Vedic rituals and sacrifices in an allegorical manner. They taught that all sacrifices are useful only if a man is true to his inner-self. The way of rituals and ceremonies leading to the joys of heavens was discarded by them. Life itself was viewed as a sacrifice. They insisted upon spiritual knowledge, meditation on the self and practice of moral conduct for the realization of the highest bliss.
This anti-sacrificial tendency displayed by some Upanisadic thinkers has been traced to the impact of the thoughts of munis and sramanas. The doctrine of karma and rebirth, the highest ideal of liberation and the practice of dhyana and yoga etc., were thus of non-Vedic and non-Brahmanical origin. These ideas and practices are not known to older Vedic texts. They appear rather suddenly in the Upanisads. The Upanisadic thinkers not only offered a new meaning of Vedic rituals and sacrifices, they also homologized Śramanic ideas. They emphasized spiritual knowledge and moral conduct for knowing the self but they remained within the framework of Vedic tradition. The doctrines of early Upanisads represent a fusion of Śramanic as well as Brahmanic traditions. Dr L.M. Joshi states:
"The Upanisadic teachers were influenced by non-Vedic ascetic teachers, munis and framanas, and they attempted to
Ibid., I. ii. 19. Tr. by Max Müller.
Harbans Singh and L.M. Joshi, op. cit., p. 49.
14. 15.
16. Katha Upanisad, I. iii. 3-4.
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