World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 529

dimension in this Upanisad. It is revalued and sublimated so as to be fully meaningful in the context of the wisdom of Vedänta. The first chapter ends with a detailed practical instruction given by the teacher to the disciple who is about to leave the gurukula after completing his education, which education culminates in Brahmavidya: 'satyam vada, dharmam cara...' In case of any doubt, one should follow a knower of Brahman who is alūkṣa (not harsh) and dharma-kāma (lover of virtue) and the like. The instruction is meant for leading an ideal worldly life shows that Brahmavidya or Vedanta is not an escapism. Rather it insists on making the life in this world perfect with the guidance of the Vedantic wisdom. It may be noted here that in later literature we find some advancement in such a moral situation. Kālidāsa, in his great literary drama Abhijñāna Śākuntalam, makes his hero self-decisive. King Duşyanta, in case of perplexion, maintains that a noble person's thought cannot be obversive; in such cases inner voice or conscience is the moral standard:
satām hi sandehapadesu vastușu,
pramāṇamantaḥkaraṇa-pravṛttayaḥs.
The second chapter of this Upanisad begins with a statement about the ultimate value of the wisdom of Brahman- 'Brahmavid äpnoti param. A definition (cosmological) of Brahman has also been given. Brahman is that from which this world is born, upon which is sustained and into which is dissolved (yato vā imāni bhūtāni jāyante...) Then it says that Brahman is to be directly perceived by one in his own being, as the Self. Subsequently, there is a search for the Self which becomes interiorized, from the gross to the subtle (as found in the kosa or the sheath theory).
One factor for the importance of this Upanisad is that in the beginning of the second chapter it prescribes for anterior position (pūrva-paksa or daksina-pakna) and siddhanta (or uttara-pakṣa). And Śankara follows this method while refuting the Mīmāmsa theory of karma (yajña) for getting heaven (I, xi).
In the second chapter of the Upanisad, known as Brahmānanda Valli (II, vi, ii), a subsidiary question (anu-praśna) and its answer are interesting. Since it was said in the beginning that the knower of the Brahman obtains the Ultimate, the disciple asks: "Does an ignorant person attain the yonder world after death or does the wise one alone reach that"? The question, although a single one, implies several such subsequent questions, as the term here is used in plural number - anu-praśnāḥ. Implicit in the question is the preconceived notion that the attainment of the Supreme happens after one's death. The Upanisads never teach that the enlightened one reaches the supreme
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