Book Title: World of Philosophy
Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
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The Upanişads and Their Philosophy
- Prof. S.P. Dubey
The Upanisads contain fundamental spiritual experiences of the mankind. They are virtually the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands. They are the products of the highest wisdom. They represent perennial philosophy. In the Indian context, the philosophy of the Upanişads, in the words of Paul Deussen, is the culminating point of the Indian doctrine of the universe. He also states that the thoughts of the Vedānta (the Upanisads) became for India a permanent and characteristic spiritual atmosphere, which pervades all the products of the later literature. The original idealism of the Upanisads holds its ground and remains a living force.
The term 'Upanisad' is derived as a substantive from the root 'sad' (to sit) associated with two prefixes 'upa (nearby) and 'ni (below) and 'kvip pratyaya (suffix or termination). The first preposition indicates, in contrast to 'parişad or 'samsad, a private sitting with utmost nisthā. The term suggests surrender (sarana), dejection (avasādana) and movement (gati). Sankara, in his Katha-Sambandha-bhāsya, writes: saderdhātorvisaranagatyavasiādanārthasyopanipūrvasya kvip-pratyayāntasya rūpamUpanisaditi. The term is also taken as the means to obtain Brahmavidyā: 'Upanişadyate prapyate Brahmavidyā anayā iti Upanisad'. Brahmavidyā itself is called 'Upanisad because it destroys the bonds of conception, birth, aging and death, gets rid of ignorance (ya imām Brahmavidyām... upanipūrvasya saderevamarthasmaranāt, Sambandhabhäsya of Mundaka by Sankara). Further, the Upanisads are so named as they destroy inborn ignorance which is the root cause of the phenomenal existence (cf. Sankara on Brhadāranyaka Upanişad Sambandha-bhāsya: sa hetoh samsārasyātyantāvasādanāt) or they destroy the cause of the basis of karma (karmopādäna hetu parihārāya brahmavidyā prastūyate; Sankara on Taittriya Upanişad Sambandha-bhāșya).
The Upanisads belong to the srauta-prasthāna of the Advaita Vedāntic Prasthāna-trayi (the other two being the Smārta-prastho$na - the Bhagavadgitā, and the Dārūanika-prasthāna - the Vedānta-sūtras of Bādarāyana).
The Upanisads, by and large, are taken to be rahasya-vidyā (secret science, secret sign, secret word, secret formula and secret instruction). The Nșsimha Up.(8) repeats four times ‘iti rahasyam instead of 'ityupaniat, as found in Taittiriya Up. (2,9,1; 3.10.5). The Chandogya Up. (III, 11.5) tells us that the father shall communicate this only to his eldest son (idas vāva tajjyesthāya putrāya pitā brahma prabrüyāt pranāyyāya vāňtevāsine). The
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