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INTRODUCTION
51
this transcendental Idea. Besides this advaitic attitude there are also symptoms of theistic tendency. Brahma is spoken as identical with Rudra and Vishņu. He is spoken of as the creator and sustainer of the Universe. The individuals are to look up to him for spiritual guidance and help and for final emancipation from Samsāra. Besides these general tendencies there are other characteristics of the Upanişadic Age.
I) The Upanişads are mainly antiritualistic. Since they are antiritualistic they are in a sense anti-Vedic also. Internal evidence indicates that the new thought had its origin mainly among the Rājarişis.
(11) Asceticism and the practice of Yoga seems to be the characteristic institution of the Upanişadic age. The practical course of realising the Brahma contemplated by the Upanişads involves an elaborate process of selfdiscipline. As against the older forms of fire sacrifice the Upanişads contemplate a new kind of sacrifice. Sacrificing one's own attractions towards the world. “These two are unending immortal oblations referring to the sacrifice of speech and other sense-qualities. Whether waking or sleeping one is sacrificing continuously uninterruptedly. Now whatever other oblations there are they are limited, for they consist of works-Karma māyā. Knowing this very thing verily indeed the ancients did not sacrifice the agnihotra sacrifice" (Kausitaka Upanişada II Adhyāya ). This passage indicates that Yoga or Tapas is considered as an ancient institution and has taken the place of the traditional agnihotra about the time of the Upanişads, This is further strengthened by circumstantial evidence that the Upanişadic age must be of very long duration comprehending within itself an earlier conflict between antiritualism and ritualism and a later attempted reconciliation of some sort. Asceticism of the type of spiritual agnihotra must necessarily imply what is elsewhere called the other-worldliness. The concrete of our everyday life is associated with evil and suffering. The goal of life is emancipation from samsāric cycle. The means of attaining this goal consists in eradicating all desires by performing Tapas. All that is of the nature of evil in Life must be burned in the spiritual fire of the Atman, This is the path of self-realisation. Instead of the sacrifice of various animals to realise the aim of one's life one has to offer one's own desires as the sacrificial victim in his higher agnihotra. The Yāgakuņda of the Upanişadic age is in the very heart of one's own self, It is a sort of crucifying the old Adam in man for the glorification of the new one. Thus we have in this age of theosophic wisdom all the terms of a later systematic philosophy. Here we are able to trace the Vedantic idealisin as well as the Sámkhyan realism. Here we find the traces of all theistic tendencies in India. We have also in the same age the ground of the intellectual condition that ultimately developed into the religion of peace and
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