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DIVERSITY OF THOUGHT IN UPANIŞADS (with special reference to Mundaka Upanişad 1.2.1-12)
Y. K. Wadhwani
Upanişads form the Jhana-kānda of Vedic literture; that is, they are a repository of the contemplative thought of Indian giant-minds in that hoary past. But there is a difference of opinion as to the point whether the Jaana-kända (i.e, the bulk of Upanişads) teaches a single doctrine or not. Traditional Hinduism insists on the first alternative, and, each of the orthodox Indian Philosophical systems claims that its own doctrine 18 the only one propounded in the Vedas and Upanişads,
Nevertheless, the very fact that there are so many claims on the samo body of Upanişadic contents, implies that they are not really a composite system of thought propounding a single theory. Not only that, everyone of the older Upanigads which are more authentic and important than the later ones-, is itself a mass of variegated thought, arising from the contemplation of more thinkers than one. The Mundaka U parişad = Mund. up is no exception to this.2
The present paper attempts to add one more solid reason in support of this last statement, through the comparison of two sets of verses, occurr ing just one after the other. These are : Mund. Up. 1.2.1-6 and 1.2.7-12. 1.1 The first of these sets extols ritualism. Sacrificial rites form a path leading to the world for reward ] of good deeds to the abode of Brahman. We are told that the glittering oblations offered into the flames at a proper time, carry the sacrificer to that world, along the rays. 1.2 Immediately after this first set, however, we have an abrupt beginning of a reverse view point. Mund. Up. 1.2.7 vehemently condemos sacrifices as frail boats (which are not capable of ferrying those on board to the other shorel; those unwise men who regard these as [leading to the highest good, we are told, will have to undergo death preceded by decrepitude again and again.6
We are further told that these men, ignorant yet regarding themselves to be wise and learned, go round, being buffetted [from here to there] like blind men led by the bliad,
Mund. Up. 1.2.9-10 go on to state that those attached to Karman fall from heaven after having enjoyed the fruit of their good deeds, and enter into this world or an inferior one, in a miserable plight (alurah).
