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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named Visāla. Šankara calls this Upanişad by the name 'Bahvrika-Brāhmaṇa -upanișad'.
The Svetāśvatara Upanisad belongs to the Taittiriya school of the Krsna Yajurveda. It has been handed down to us as one of the thirty-three Upanisads of the Taittirīyas. The name of the Upanişad is derived from the sage who taught it (sveta, pure, aśva, sense-organs), or the seer who has had a while mule or an old cow (jarad-gavah). As against the name of a Vedic sage Syāvāsva (black horse), it is also called svetaśva, for the sake of the metre only (cf. Vācaspatyam, p. 1222). It is sometimes called Svetāśvataranaṁ Mantropanişad, and is frequently spoken of in the plural, as Svetāśvataropanisadah. It is a theistic Upanisad and identifies the Absolute with Rudra (II, 17; III,2), Hara (1,10), Siva (III, 14) and other Vedic gods like Agni, Aditya, Vāyu etc. It teaches, in six chapters, the unity of the soul and the world in one Supreme Reality. It also tries to reconcile different religiophilosophical views prevalent during its composition, namely, Yoga, Sāmkhya, theism, dualism, absolutism etc. It has not been quoted by name by Bādarāyaṇa in the Vedānta-sūtras but has been referred to as śruta or revealed, and the like (cf. Vedānta Sūtras, 1,1,1 and 1,4,8). It is one of the twelve Upanisads chosen by Vidyaranya in his Sarvopanişad-arthānubhūtiprakāśa, and it has been singled out by Sankara as worthy of a special commentary.
Māndükya is the smallest of the Upanisads. It belongs to the Atharva Brāhmana and comprises twelve mantas, the second one containing one of the Mahāvākyas, namely, ‘ayamātmā Brahma. It explains the three syllables of Om as gross, subtle and causal bodies grounded in Viśva, Taijas and Prājña, and manifested in waking, dream and dreamless states. The 'bindu’of the Omkāra is explained as the fourth state (turīya) which transcends the three stages of our life. Gaudapāda, the grand-teacher of Ācārya Sankara, has written kārikās (215 in number), known as Āgama-śāstra, being the first systematic composition of the Advaita school. Since Sankara has commented upon these kārikās (the only commentary of the Ācārya on a human composition, known as agama-sastra-vivarana), they have been given the status of an Upanisad. Since the kārikās have several expressions akin to the Mahāyāna Buddhism, scholars like Vidhushekhara Bhattacharyya suggest a substantial impact of Buddhism on Gaudapāda (and indirectly on Sankara). But scholars like T.M.P. Mahadevan controvert such views and hold that common terminology does not implicate the influence of the one upon the other. Terminology is the common property of the academics.
The Upanisads are said to be the flowers of the Vedas. The Taittirīya is one of the best among such flowers. The Taittirīya begins with a chapter on siksā, a subsidiary Vedic discipline which teaches the art of correct chanting of Vedic hymns with proper intonation. But this discipline is given a new
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