World of Philosophy

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

Page 530

after leaving this world. The answer, given here indirectly, suggests that the very question is due to a lack of proper understanding of the nature of Reality. The teacher (s) describes the nature of life in its global context where there is no discrimination between the ignorant and the wise. The same ānanda (value) runs through the entire gamut. We can not demarcate the line where one world ends and another begins. All are different forms of the same ananda in graded fashion, as per the kośa theory.
The third chapter of the Taittiriya is called Bhrgu Vallī. Here it has been stated that the crux of the problem is not attaining Brahman after death. We must realise that it is in Brahman that what we call creation, sustenance and dissolution take place.
The Taittiriya Upanisad forms part of the Taittiriya Aranyaka as its seventh, eighth and ninth sections (prapathakas). The Taittiriya Aranyaka, on its part, is the concluding part of the Taittiriya Brāhmana, which, in turn, is appended to the Taittiriya Samhită of the Krsna Yajurveda. It may be noted here that, unlike the other three Vedas, the Yajurveda has two recensions, the sukla (white) and the Krsna (black). As per a legend (cf. the Mahābhārata 12, 319 and also the Vişnu Purāņa, 3,5), Vyāsa authorised four of his senior disciples to convey the Vedas to posterity. Vaišampāyana was in-charge of the Yajurveda. Once he could not attend the assembly of the seers in the Mahāmeru and was, therefore, cursed. He directed his twenty-seven disciples for performing the expiatory act on his behalf. Yājñavalkya, a nephew of the seer, offered to do the ritual by himself. Vaica?pāyana took it as an offensive display of egotism and asked Yājñavalkya to return whatever he had gained from the teacher. The former vomitted all the hymns of the Yajurveda. Other disciples, at the behest of Vaišampāyana, took the form of black partridges (tittara) and ate the vomit. Thus the name Taittirīya Samhitā (or the Krsna Yajurveda). Yājñavalkya, on his part, worshipped Sun who appeared to him in the guise of a white horse and taught him the hymns of the Yajurveda in another form. This recension is known as the sukla Yajurveda or the Vājasaneyi Samhitā. It is said that Vājasana was the name of the father (or the teacher) of Yājñavalkya. The Brhadaranyaka and Isa Upanisads belong to this Samhitā. The table appended to the paper/lecture shows the distribution of the Upanisads as per the Vedas and their relevant parts.
The Isa and Brhadāranyaka upanisads have two recensions, as per the Kānva and Mädhyandini branches of Sukla Yajurveda, derived from the two sages, namely, Kanva and Mādhyandin. The latter was one of the chief disciples of Vājasana. The group of fifteen disciples included Jābāla and others. The Mädhyandin branch of the Vājasaneyi Samhitā is quite popular. The above-noted Upanisads belong to the Brhad Āranyaka of Satapatha Brāhmana of both the branches. There are some differences in two versions. For instance,
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