Samayasara OR Nature of Self

Author(s): A Chakravarti
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 42

INTRODUCTION
man with atman. These terms are indiscriminately used to refer to the ultimate reality of which man and the nature are but the special manifestations. "From him the universe springs, to Him it returns.” “Thou art the self of all and maker of all.” In Maxmullers' words "it was an epoch in the History of the Human mind when the identity of self with the neuter Brahman was for the first time conceived though the name of the terms the ultimate reality which is the import of both is very often referred to as Sat-existence. Tatwaması—that thou art. This famous Upanishadic formula represents the development and the final identification of the terms atman and Brahman. Then' it becomes a transcendental concept thereafter. The significance of personality which was associated with atman gets submerged in the neuter concept of Brahman. The Upanishadıc Brahman is said to be beyond description. It can be described only negatively. It is not man or woman nor is it neuter. It is without breath, without mind, higher than the Highest, the Imperishable. The only adequate description we can have of this is Neti Neti-not this, no-no. When we go to study the Upanishads in detail we shall see more of this.
The Age of the Upanishads—The Upanishadic age has certain marked characteristics peculiar to itself and not found either in the Samhita or Brahmana period. During the Rig Vedic period the Aryans were mainly of a homogeneous society. Their Gods were magnified human beings actuated by human sympathies and sharing even human failures. The vedic singer invoked their aid both in war and peace to fight the enemy and to promote his own prosperity. This age corresponds to the Homeric age in the Greck civilisation. All this primitive simplicity disappears when we enter into the Upanishadic period. Here we have a different order of society. We are no more with the Aryans whose life was mainly pastoral, whose wealth was cattle and who spent most of their time in offering sacrifices to Indra or Agni and drinking their favourite soma To bring the Greek parallel once again we are quitting the woxld of Agamemnon and Odysseus and entering the world of Socrates and Euripides. Now we are concerned with a people already divided into different sects and we are face to face