Samayasara

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 67

INTRODUCTION
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harmony which preached the glory of renunciation. Max Muller says, "The Upanişads are to iny mind the germs of Buddhism while Buddhism is in many respects the doctrine of the Upanişads carried out to its last consequences. The doctrine of the highest goal of Vedānta, the Knowledge of the true self is no more than the Budhism the common property of the Sangha fraternity open alike to the young and old, to the Brāhmaṇa and the Sudra the rich and the poor, the literate and the illiterate." In the Upanişads we have the germs of all the philosophical system not only to the Vedic and the orthodox but also those religiophilosophical systems which are non-vedic such as Jainism and Buddhism. We may repeat our statement that it was an age of general philosophical outbursts in which there were several tendencies with multifarious characteristics, Crystalisation of these tendencies and forces ultimately resulted in the rise of several systems of Philosophy which adorned the succeeding period, THE RUDIMENTS OF UPANIŞADIC THOUGHT IN THE
SANHITAS AND THE BRAHMANAS Upanişadic literature practically forms a part of Vedic literature in general. Thus it is a part of Sruti as opposed to Smrti. When we spoke about the various Brāhmaṇas we saw what these Brāhmaṇas treated about. The Brāhmaṇas are associated with different Vedic groups, i. e., we have the Brāhmaṇas belonging to Rg, Yajur and so on. Thus we have the mantras or the sacrificial hymns constituting the Samhita 'portion of a particular Veda followed by the Brāhmaṇas which explain the sacrificial procedure. These Brāhmaṇas contain what are known as āranyakas or forest-treatises and Upanişads, a sort of Philosofical discourse. These Upanişads constitute the last of the śruti or Vedic literature. Hence they are sometimes known as Vedant, the last of the Vedas which name was specialised to represent a particular school of Philosophy later on. Now we have to consider this third stage of Vedic literature known as the Upanişadic literature. It is here we have the origin of genuine philosophy. There are two fundamental conceptions implicitly present throughout the early vedic literature which finally become the central ideas in the Upanişads. These are ātman and Brahman. Ātman is derived from a Samskrit root meaning Breath, It implies soul or spirit of the individual and indirectly of the universe as well. In a verse of the Rg Veda it is used in the sense of Life. "Increase or Bright Indra this our manifold food thou givest us like sap." This life-principle was early recognised to be inside of and different from body. The next step in the history of Vedic thought is to recognise the soul or life of the universe. Just as there is a non-material principle constituting the essence of man there is an essential principle at the centre of the universe. This spiritual principle at the core of the universe is also designated by the same term ātman. Another