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Studies in lodian Philosophy
the Vedic vision of reality which then continued in the Upa. nişads and eventually produced fully formulated mystical doctrines and philosophical systems.
As to the path, once it was found by the ancient seers it must undoubtedly have been banded down and taught in some way by them to their disciples and this process would certainly have gone on for a number of generations. The actual method can hardly be ascertained from the hymns, but one could say with Aurobindo that it must have been some kind of progressive self-culture7 and assume with Hauer that it comprised some technique of meditative absorption. A personal discipline and meditational practice have been the pillars of the mystic way in all times and all traditions.
When eventually the elaborate structure of Brāhmanic ritualism which grew around and out of the original mystical vision of the ancient seers very nearly stifled all spirituality there came a new eruption of mystical experience which is documented in the Upanişads. The approach to the transcendent through the worship of gods was largely brushed aside and a direct encounter with the ultimate reality was sought. In the final break-through it amounted to an overwhelming and all-embracing experience expressed in bold statements, such as "I am brahman" (ahman brahmāsmi, BU 1, 4, 10), " You are that” (tat tvam asi, ChU 6, 15, 3) and “I am all this” (=this whole universe, aham evedam sarvam, Chu , 25, 1). This appears to be a genuine expression of an experience of unio mystica if ever there was one. It came as a culmination of a search which involved both intellectual questioning and a strong emotional need for security and certainty io face of an uncertain world in which man was the victim of successive deaths. As a result the final experience found a ready expression in what we can classify as the metaphysical gnosticism of the Upanişads. The philosophical search progressed far enough to be able to supply adequate and appealing metaphysical terms to the mystic when his experience overwhelmed him.
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