l

The Upanishads

Joel Brereton

The Upanishads are texts of the Hindu tradition which set

world the self.
are formally quite diverse, for include narratives dia- +,
verses, ancient sages. The principal
which were composed probably between 6oo-and3oo
E., constitute the concluding portion of the Veda, the most
ancient and conventionally the most fundamental scripture of Hin-
duism, According ,o *or, reckonings, thgr-e_ a,1e -f9g1tSgn -!g-dic 14
Upaiishads, and these can be assigned a relativE'chr*Gv on the
basis of their literary form and language. The oldest are in prose. $
Among them are the Byhad Ara4yaka, Chandogya, Kaug-rtakt,
Taittirlya, and Aitareya Upanigads. A second, generally later group ;-
of Upanishads were written in verse. These includ e the Kagha, I6a, '
Mu4faka, and. Speta1oatara llpanigads.i Einally, the youngest are -
..
also in prose, but in a style which is closer to classical Sanskrit than

aL5
Joel Brereton
to the more archaic language of the oldest Upanisha{g. These in-
clude the Maitrt and Ma4/Akya lJpanigads. This division is only
approximate, for individual Upanishads may contain material from
different periods.
It is not quite accurate to say that the Upanishadic period ended
wit!,l qgete*tt.TE jgyn_"gpgtttlLqd"_becqtrelhe.!_e_slglalionof
1 $gtt" rathe. -tha^n -of-speci-fic texts, f or works called Upanishads
continued to be written through t.!e Mlddlg48e=n{_even
!!to the
e;;l)t m.a;; i*tt"d:' r*di.io" holdr ih"i th"F"i" toa up""iinua,
is a sacred number-but even more texts claim the status of
-ro8
Upanishads. These later Upanishads fall into different types which
reflect the major developments in Hindu religious thought and
practice. Some discuss topics and ideas introduced in the earlier
Upanishads, others teach yoga and the renunciation of the world,
and still others reflect sectarian worship of the classical Hindu
deities. These Upanishads are significant, but none of them has had
the enduring influence on Indic thought that the Vedic Upanishads
have had. This essay, therefore, will be concerned entirely with the
latter.
The Vedic Upanishads play a critical role in the history of Indic
religion. Literarily, they_,eie _t-be last sections,o_f ,the BrAhmanas,
which are the Vedic
literary position also reflects their historical place,
for they are later than most of the Brahmanas, and their thought
developed out of the Brahmanas. Historically, their period was one
o{'transiiibri;,when the foundations of classical Hindu religion were
.riiblishtia and archaic forms of Vedic religion were superseded.
Therefore, many basic elements of Hindu religion were first clearly
articulated in the Vedic Upanishads. These include the ideas of
karma and rebirth ; i4slluqqiqn-q cg-_4ce-14!ng. yoga, meditation, .and
asteTiciFm; the concept of a self beyond the individual self ; and the
view that there is a single reality hidden by the multiple forms of
the world.
The Upanishads are significant also because they continued to
exercise a decisive role in Hindu religious history long after their
u6
The lJpanishads
composition.'in fact, unlike the rest of the Veda, they still remain a
major source of inspiration and authority within Hinduisryr,'The
most influential schools of Hindu religious thought are the schools
i of the \fefinta; a term that means "the end of the Veda." They
have thai nime because they understand dlie-Ufanishads, which are
the last part of the Veda, to be the essence of Vedic teaching and
the ultimate authority regarding the true nature of things. Of these
schools, one has dominated both Indic and Western interpretation
of the Upanishads. This school is the Advaita Vedanta, the "Non-
dualist Vedanta," whicfwal eiiablished 5y-a ieaCher Sa"-
"i*"d
kira, wFolivEd ar6u"d loo c.r. Aicoidi"g t-o Sank&a,-the Uf'ani-
shads teach that ultimatel)l g€r9 exils--ogg, an{ grrly 9ns,-itd,-vrsible
<
I *
rditv,G"t tf," *oif,l "na itl ltt aitii".tions dre less than fully ''i
real, and whatever reality they do possess derives from that one
reality. Sankara must occasionally struggle hard to ground this
view in the Upanishads, for although much of Upanishadic thought
does stress the coherence and final unity of ,hi.rgr, it is not
/
"il
easily reduced to his or any other simple formula'
scltsetr plthe -Vedanta-di$fered profoundly wittr Sankara
-Otbgf
and with one another in their of the Upanishads.
And an important -characteristic of the
Upanishads. Like Western scriptures, they are not catechisms of
direct-insweii to religious questions, which obviate the need for
any further reflectionl Rather, they stimulate thought and chal- -f
lenge interpretation. They have this character for several reasons.
':
First, evin- individual Upanishads are far from systematic. They
- *"re lomposed by different people, living at different times and in
different areas of northern India. Moreover, those who put the
Upanishads into their final shape combined and even interwove
i various teachings. As a result, 1l-_1lgl1_9lt may move in different
directions even within one section of one Upanishad. Second, espe-
, cially t!-lofder Upanishads used the language of qimbols and con- <
'--- crete images rather than that of abstraction. Somilylifuols were
tiaditional, but the Upanishadic sages also created new images and
ref ashioned old ones, especially rh-e-ayn$-sls -s f th e Vedic -ritual'
7-a-7
t
 |oel Brereton The lJpanishads

Such language gives Upanishadic dicrion the appeal of concrete it. To clarify this vision of the
and the means by which they create
narrative and the resonance of images, but it also opens them to dihow theii I will present five para-
tffi"ds and diversity,
very different interpretations. Thus, though the Upanishads are digms that these teachings follow. Each paradigm is a method or
often understood philosophically, they call for not so much a sys- out of
temization and specifi_cation of meaning as a reading which permits of the world. These five Upanishadic paradigms
the
tle_ry1oltStlo1s_1nc| expanlionl of poetic dir.o.r.r".
- 1 correlation of different aspects of reality to one another;
While the complexity of Upanishadic language and literary his-
tory precludes any easy summary of their teaching, there is a bpad
fhehre that encompasses much of their thought. In general, each
Upadishadic teaching creates an integrative vision, a view of the
whole which draws together the separate elemenii il;ia;"e
of humin experience arrd compresses them into a "Tth" single formJo
one-who hdslhis larger vision of thingJ, the *orld is nof-a._set of teachings, but collectively they suggest their range.
. diverse and disorganized objects and living beings, but rather forms
a totality with a distinct shape and character.
iden- CORRELATION
which One means of demonstrating unity behind aPParent diversity is by
the designate &splaying c6fi6ilil3}.", "-ong things belonging to different
ifiaatEndamenfi principle is For later followers of the domains. This was not a new technique in Indic thought, since
Vedanta, the brahman has definition and a specific already the Brahmanas had made extensive use of the same para-
character, but for the Upanishads, the brahman remains an
digm. But while the Brahmanas sought such correlations within the
I

!
. concept. It is simply the to whatever or domain of the ritual and between the domains of the ritual and the
n Power a sage to the to outside world, the Upanishade-searen"p.rimarify-fqr- t-hoq" that exist
{xpliidbTe. i[ li th" ia"tity iiigl,t Uy'ttt. tro"seholder who-asiii a within and the natural domains
r"!e' "Tlirough knowing what. sir, does this whole world become Upanishads have several ways of identifying these corre-
known?" (Mupf,aka lJpanigad tr;]. spondences. o-rc-l*s link-yadeu!-p.449^-ol t-h" yslld t9 q-single,
Such an aspiration for a total vision of things is not unique to
structure{-en!1y. That is, they take a symbol or set of symbols
the Upanishads or to India. One distinctive rurn which the Upani- *hi.h it comprehensible and ordered, and then relate items from
shads give to this vision is their understanding that the fundamen-
different domains to it. In this way, the symbol becomes.d-ffir
tql_p.l.i_pt":{:::.vtbt"g j=lfo_thg-Sgl9ileachindividual.The
|ust as one understands an unfamiliar territory by comparing var-
typical designatiorilor th"t .-" ir th;- dt*t",Ji; ;seii. ious places and objects to areas on a maP/ so one comprehends the
i;i6"r;;
Lipinishadicterms, the brihiaiis dis.o"ered *iifiii" ih"Et*on, q, world by associating its parts to a known object. In the UPanishads,
conversely, the secret of one's self lies in the root of all existence.T
theordlringgli"jf gr-dglgetut*ir*rurnoely*t-oggthine*Sgn91ete.#
Within this common approach, however, the Upanishads differ Thus in the opening of the Brhad Ara4yaka llpanigad, the sacrifi- 1" :'r ,
arnong thernsglvq i1 the shape they give to that
"islo"
of t,iiffi cial horse is the image of the world. The passage begins: "Now, the , ,i,,
-:-:.. ,, it ".i :'i''t:;
rr8 aag
'trr .'
 The
Joel Brereton
{'
head of the sacrificial horse is dawn; his eye, the sun; his breath, from these in turn, it forth a
mouth of the person comes sPeecJr and then
the wind; his open mouth, the fire which is common to all" (Byhad
Ara4yaka lJpanigad r.r.r). The passage thus identifies the head of fiie; from its nostrils, breath and wind; from its eyes, sight and
the horse with the symbols of the main divisions of space. The sun sun; from its ears, hearing and the four directions; from its skin,
represents the heaven; wind, the midspace between earth and heaven; hair and plants; from its heart, thought and the moon; from its
and fire, the earth. It then goes on to equate other parts of the land navel, inhalation and death; and from its penis, semen and water.
and air with the body of the horse, the seas with the sacrificial The associations which provide the basis for most of these cor-
vessels which stand on either side of the horse, and various living relations are not difficult. The one exception is the odd correlation
beings, from gods to humans, with the different names by which of the navel, inhalation and death. On the one hand, the inhalation
the horse is addressed in the ritual. The passage thus reduces the is drawn toward the navel, which connotes birth and life. But on
whole the other, inhalation is linked with eating, which implies human
+ world a single, comprehensible obje.ct , those who reflect physicality and therefore human mortality. Hence, inhalation also
and embrace in their contem- signifies death.
The creation, the human being follows in the next part of the i-
like the sacrificial horse in such realities created fall into the sea
a
system of correlations is more typical of Brahmanas than of Upani- once of origins. This descent into the sea

shads. For the latter, the most frequent correlation is between the exPressesthe disorganization of these powers. They
it. thev enter into the human form once
t .

(r".ro.or- and the human body) ihat is, they equate the parts of need . and to ffnd
the body to the constituents of ihe visible world, so that the whole a_89!. Fire becomes speech and enters the mouth; wind becomes
world becomes the image of the human form.*In thil w_ay--instead breath and enters the nostrils; the sun becomes sight and enters the
of appearing extgrn3l apd 3l!en, the wglld bec9g.99. a, familiar pl19e eyes, and so oni''the sequence exactly reverses the order of their
and a plqqe in which hlrmans occupy a central pgsitiqn. creauon Thus, ihe elements of the world are created from the
The Aitareya llpanigad, for example, opens with a narrative cosmlc return to ln
.:a mirrors the
which tells how the world and the body became the twin images of which all people share. Hence, the
one another. Although this narrative has the form of a creation
story, it is better read not as describing the actual process of crea-
tion, but as establishing the connections that now exist within the
world.
In the beginning, there was only the self, the atman. This sel{
resolves to create. It first produces the basic form of the world, and
then from the waters, it draws forth a being that the text calls the therefore, the
"person." This ls for it is without faculties of sense correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm
or actron. the next creates illustrates how the Upanishads fashion a vision of totality through
thim forth correlation. This correspondence unifies the world in the form of
it extracts the characteristic or of the person, and therefore makes the world comprehensible as a
-o$e, and
each
' (r.zr,-)
420
 foel Brereton
whole. Furthermore, it also implies that the world and the power
that controls it are not outside, bearing down upon and threatening
theindividual&ther,,kgqq'"f h:f_g::J_,!:_qq44gq"'le!"",
to the pqrts qf a pg-rs-oa, hqmans inslud-q gv_e-grthing within them-
selves. r, ,.', ,:.. i:.
1i ,;ti' t., \ Dl '"rr,
'
.h
EMERGENCE AND RESOLUTION
(its web), as plants grow upon the earth, as head and body hair
(grow) from,a living perso",Go
9.""rytht"&Lgr"j4re-:_from the
-'. im?erishable')(Muyt/aka lJpaiigad;.r. Th" it""g".f tire spider
and its web is especially strong. The spider stands alone at the
beginning, spins its web out of itself, and finally draws it back into
itself. In the same way, the "imperishable" brahman emits the
world from itself and ultimately reabsorbs it back into itself. Thus,
,/, the world is only the outward projection of the brahman.
One of the most influential realizations of this paradigm occurs
'T ' in Chandogya Upanigad 6. The chapter takes the form of a dialogue
-/ between a sage named Uddalaka and his arrogant son Svetaketu.
After studying the Vedas for twelve yearr, Sn.t"ketu comes home
very proud of his achievement. His father then asks him if during
his education, his teachers taught him that "by which what has
unheard becomes heard, what has been unthought becomes
-,/ been
thought, what has been unknown becomes known" (Chandogya
1- Llpanigad 6t).To understand clay or copper, for example, means
i/ that one also knows the character of all clay and copper utensils,
their qualities will reflect the substance of their composi-
'' because
tion. In the same way, he asks, has Svetaketu been taught the basic
reality which comprises all things and through which the character
of all things is known? Svetaketu admits that he knows nothing of
this, and Uddalaka begins his explanation of that reality.
7-22
The Upanishads
In the begi-uring there was only heing ftom -being-tftgnlqllgws
an evolution toward inereaqi.ng m'3le-ua-lity. Being, which is imper- ,
i'
ceptible, first gives rise to heat, which can be felt. Then heat gives
rise to water, which can be felt.and seen, and finally water gives
rise to food, which can be felt, seen, and tasted. Food connotes full
materiality. Uddnlaka then confirms these relations seerng their ,.
reflection in natural processes. Heat produce water in humans,
":
does
for when they are hot, they sweat, and rainwater does produce
food. Similarly, human experience corroborates the reverse process,
the resolution of each factor into the previous one. According to
Uddalaka, people become thirsty when heat absorbs water and hun-
gry when water absorbs food.
Once he has established the fundamental evolution from being,
Uddetaka then shows how werything, and especially human beings,
are the.products of the intermingling and segmentation of the three
evoluteg. In the body, for example, each of the evolutes divides into
-food
three: becomes mind, flesh, and excrement; water becomes
breath, blood, and urine; heat becomes speech, marrow, and bone.
T\g1,lbg hgf13nlgffe_Ljgthi$ F, a _composile of the three
bqsig {actors. Likewise, the continuous process of the emergence
and resolution of the three evolutes is reflected in the process of
dyrrg. When people die, they first lose consciousness, but they still
breathe. This is the reabsorption of food by water, {or mind and ,
consciousnesJ deifie-1rom foo4-tft bieath iiimes frtim *ut"r. -I '
-ici
Then, ffi6nwef6i- rdhins heat, the breath ceases, for water
corresponds to breath. Even without the breath, however, the body
remains warm, for heat still remains. Finally, as the heat and the
life of the person dissipate into being, the body becomes cold and
death becomes complete. In Uddalaka's vision, therefore, being is
the ultimate, pervasive source of mind, body, and the world, and
/
life continues of
into leing.
In the second half of his teaching, Uddilaka drives home its
significance for Svetaketu's self-understanding. In one section, he
asks his son to bring him a fruit from the nyagrodha tree, one of
423

Joel Brereton
the s"c."d6Ee] of India. He tells him to cut it open to find the
seed, and then to cut the seed open. When he does so, Svetaketu
finds the seeds in the fruit, but then he cannot find anything in the
seed. Y,et frihm thef seed is an essence, says Uddilaka, and that
f invisible essence
tree
rs
f,€,
finest essencg-this ryhole world has that-as its self. That is the
real. That is the self. Thus are you, Svetaketu" (Chandogya Llpan-
iead6.n.3)...B_e_!g.rs_1!g_911erygr,_f ef ._bg-ing.iq.theimperceptihle
sgur9e of all creation. This being is.therefore the self .of.the ny-
agrodha, the self of the world, and the self of Svetaketu.
Here again, as ii the Aitareya llpanigad, th" t*" self is not the
individual self, but rather the identity that one shares with every-
iv',i.J i1 ,i
i:
thing elser'There is no true distinction among living beings, for
,iI
they all etmerge from being and retreat to it. All things, both
z#^ animate and inanimate, are unified in being, f".unr" they are all
the transformations of being. To understand the nature of being,
therefore, is to have the knowledge that Udddlaka promised Sve-
,a taketu, the knowledge that accounts for everything, the knowledge
I
of the totality of things.
HIERARCHY
A third method of organizing experience is through constructing a
..^ ---
'hieraiclry.,That is to say, the Upanishadic sages set up a system of
Igvels.lfiat Shows which powers include other powers or which are
dependent on which others.t Ultimately, by moving toward progres-
sively deeper levels, the sage identifies the fundamental principle
on which everything else is established.
In one sense, this is the most characteristic technique of Upani-
shads, for it is from it that the Upanishads have their name. The
word "upanigad," though g9ull!.V translated "secret teachingt-or
the like, originallt niili-iffi"iubbrdinitiiiit ofrrne thingto an-
'other.iThe
purpose of arranging things in such a progression is
\
424
The Upanishads
finally to identify the dominant reality behlnd an objeQ ln Chan-
dogya Upanigad 8.7-rz, for example, the god Indra and the anti-
god Virocana approach the creator deity, Prajapati. They ask him
the true nature of the the real answer
gods. To them he declared this upanigad: 'Oneself (atman) is to be
satisfied here. Oneself is to be served. He who satisfies his own self
here, who serves himself-he gains both worlds, this one here and
yonder (heavenly world)' " (Chandogya Upanigad 8.8.4). Viro-
cana's upanigad holds that the physical self is subordinate to no
other self bui iiihe truEindft-iidaiirental self. to revere
th6 Fht;ica-i;"8;; is a vg1y, dangerous .zp sni1ad. As Indra
and Virocana depart with this observes that
whoever "will {ollow this or anti-
gods, will pass away" (Chandogya Upanigad 8.8. will
pefiBh; fot they'do not identify themselves with an self J."
but with a self that dieg. This truth is finally recognized by Indra,
who returns to Prajnpati for further instruction. Gradually, Praja-
pati leads Indra into more profound definitions of the self until at
last, afrer Indra has studied with him for ror years, Prajapati /'n
reveals to him the reality behind the physical self and the true
foundation of the self.
The definition of the self which Indra and Virocana seek is one
of the dominant concerns of Upanishads. And of all the Upanishadic
teachers, the one most closely associated with the quest for the self
-
is a sage named Yajnavalkya. Yajnavalkya appears in Brhad Aran- j
-
yaka lJpanigad fO,6ru in a verbal contest with other brahmins
and then in dialogue with King ]anaka of Videha. According to
Yajnavalkya, the foundation of tbe self p the subjectllpon-wliich
all consciousniss de_pends and all action is establishe{iBecause that
tnie self ii ilways ttr" p"r."i"i"g rqbjA; iiG"lf *t \,",r"t become -rf*
an object of thought or perception:'l,'You could not see the seer of .i1..,-
425
 Joel Brereton
The lJpanishads

seeing. You could not hear the hearer of hearing. You could not
there is wanted and nothing lacking, and there- =k
think the thinker of thinking. You could not know the knower of
knowing" (Brhad Arapyaka llpanigad 3.4.2).
there is no
That same self, however is also the self o{ Yajna-
complete loss of knowing for the knower, because (the knower) is
valkya calls it "
which sustains both the body "9,
indestructibl e" (Byhad Ar ar.ry aka llp anigad 4 3 3o). Uprygygtlle-
and the world, but the person nor the world knows
cause there is to be that consciousness has no
,tJ (B1had Ara4yaka Upanigad 3.il.k is the "imperishable," at whose
object. captures this aspect of the experience
command "the sun and the moon," "heaven and earth," and "mo-
ifiiongh an analogy: "Just as a man, when embraced by his dear
ments, hours, days and nights, fortnights, months, seasons and
wife, knows nothing within or without, even so this embodied self,
years remain distinct," and at whose command, "some rivers flow
when embraced by the conscious self, knows nothing within or
eastward, others westward" (Brhad Ara1yaka llpanigad 1.8.g). 1^',

without" (Byhad Araryyaka lJpanigad 4J.2a).As the moment of

rhgs4v*y3l'_!g_l_$9"tt4*fl'j::41"p- j-11pll*ol3ry_pos,itive
sexual climax attenuates the awareness of any object and the dis-
content: "This is described as 'not this, not that' (neti, neti). lt is
tinction between oneself and the other, so the self knows nothing
ungra-spable, for it is never grasped. It is indestructible, for it is
outside of itself. 16rr"', own self (the "embodied self ") experiences a
never destroyed. Without attachment, {or it is not attached. Un-
only itself as the \onscious self," the ultimate subject of aI knowing.)
bound, (yet) it is never unstable, never injured" (Byhad Ara7yaka
However there is a
gies of deep sleep and
in-other,Tinte t*tl;
unconsclou-sness,,.not
to", oth"r Upanishadic teachers followed Yajnavalkya in identifying
the true self as the ultimate subject, but rejected his identification
fore there must that is deeper and more
of the state of the self and the state of deep sleep. Recall that in the
fundamental than. they. It is that unknowable, knowing subji:it
5' dialogue between Prajipati and Indra (Chandogya Upanigad 8),
which is the true self. Why then fear sickness, suffering, or death?
Indra rejected Prajapati's first explanation of the true self as the
These affect what the self do not affect what the
bodlly self. After further definitions of the self and after 96 years
s.elf is
of study, Prajapati tells Indra that the self is experienced in deep
Even if the self cannot become an object of thought, it can still
sleep. "Then with tranquil heart, (Indra) went forth. But even
be experienced. f1l1gggare,$e experience of the selfY4na-
before reaching the gods, he saw this danger: 'Obviously, now this
v"al.kya-cxamincg-dlgamless-slegp, which for him is a state in which
' (self) does not know itself, (does not know that) "This am 1,"
everything other than the self is, forgotten. In this state, the self
neither does it know (other) beings here. It becomes one gone to
emerges alone and as it truly is. (ris state of the self in itself is one
destruction. I see nothing useful in this' " (Chandogya lJpanigad
of complete fulfillment\ "Now, this is that form of his which is it
8.rr.r). Indra finds the teaching inadequate because suggests that
,-\ beyond pleasure, in fhich evil is removed, which is free of fear"
when everything is removed from the self, only unconsciousness
(Brhad Arayyaka lJpanigad 4J.2a). For one who experiences the
',;-: remains. So once more, Indra returns to Prajdpati, and after another

rz5
427
 The lJpanishads
foel Brereton

five years, Prajapati rgveals to him the true self. Similarly, the
Maafiukya Upanigad teaches that the self is experienced in a fourth
l-tgle-b*e:ptdrryekllg-dreeroin&-an@to
i{ot unconsciousness, but neither
this text, that fourth rtut" is
consciousness)at least not coilsciousness as it is normally under-
stood. The siate of the imperceptible self is unique and not identifi-
able with any other state.
These discussions of the self and of the elpgrience*_o-f,it are a
."t"i"T"iihAi tfa Up;ni;huai. r""..n i* a"n"iti"" oiiotaltty is
b noi only an inteliecnral one. To-be sure, "the.Upanisliacls seek the
satisfaction_of a comprehensive understanding of the world and the
to its innermost core: "fust as a mirror stained by dust shines
br-imanily whenlt is well cleansed, so the embodied (self), seeing
the nature of the self, becomes single, its goal attained, free from
it sorrow" (Soetd6aatara lJpanigad z.r4). The true self is the end of
the journey, for it is the foundation on which are built all the other
states of mind and self.
Comparing the approach of Yajnavalkya and his successors and
that of Uddalaka shows both the range and the common direction
of theUpanishads.T_et$e-epp:Segbgs-,b-egl4l1qh-ddf"re-+lJara-
s method is to describe the
it devolves.

psythbio$ially fuffitling identification with a deathless self beyond In contrast, the

the individual self. But in ad&tion, the Upanishadic views of self
and the world also shape experiences in which the unknown self is
directly realized. Sggg*lJpeU5lqdC_-ne.Ip_cleailhagths.*self-is- not
something that can be taught, and that successful realization of self
.::-: is noiin thl;;-til"! co"qol of ifie.6n; ;;elii"g it' ;'ti',ii r"lf
.u""oi b; ;;i"; by i"rrr,t.iio", nor by intelleci nor by much
learning. It can be attained only by the one whom it chooses. To
him that self reveals its own form" (Kafha llpanigad 2.4, Mipf,a-
ka llpanigad 3.23). According to these texts, the knowledge of the
selt comes as if it were a revelation that breaks in upon the mind,
,.'/
and not as something intellecrually achieved.
Yet within the Upanishads, there are attempts to devise methods
of reaching the self. The Soeta6oatara llpanigad, one of the latest
Upanishads, comes close to classical yogic methods of finding the
self. Accordingto Soetaiaatara llpanigad z.}ff ., ayogi should sit
d!-h rhe body- -erect. and "steady, checJ<ing bodily movements and
.
restraining the breath. Thus quieting the senses and the mind,
the yogi begins to move inward toward the core of the self and the
world: "Fog, smoke, sun, wind, fire, fireflies, lightning, crystal, the
moon-these are the preliminary appearances" (Soetulvatara
Upanigad z.rr). Deprived of external distraction, the mind experi-
ences these forms of light, which emerge from the inner light of
the self. E_y""!ggUy,_qh_e )Lsgi.-{n9_v-es _throsghlhe ,l4yers of the self
Gaa and
e$Enenca enclthen mbve thiough levels until they uncover
th; final, frindimental le"ei. rhus , according to Yajnavalkya, to
shift from the world experienced while awake to that of dreamless
sleep is to advance to the deepest level of the self. Similarly, in the
Saetu&tatara Llpanigad, different meditative states mark the prog-
ress toward the true seff. approach is based on a hierarchical
fheir
prdering of reality.;
Not only do Yalnavalkya and Uddalaka operate with different
paradrgms|6ut also they begin from opposite directions, Yajnaval- {'
kya's is eslentially an internal approach, which seeks the funda-
mental principle by turning back the layers of the self. Uddalaka,
on the other hand, begins externally, with the world outside the
self. Yajnavalkya investigates the self psychologrcally by observing
its different states of consciousness, while Uddalaka analyzes the
physical world and reduces its constituents and processes to a simple
,yra.*. But both try to confirm their teachings by observation, ,t/
either o{ internal states or of external realities. And both, whether
they move from inside to outside or outside to inside, finally locate
a principle which is simultaneously at the core of both the self and
the world. .For Yainavalkya, the self that is the unknowalle subi-ect
of all is .f the world. For Uddalaka,
being to which all

429
tz8

t
 Joel Brereton The Upanishads

li which come forth at the mind." It is unmoving because it is eternal; it is swifter than
birth. Thus both teachers create visions of totality, even the mind because it is inconceivable.
Therefore the paradox, like
they construct them differently that of the couple's wealth and , does not a real +-
contradictio-ry one. But this rhetorical paradox lays
the basis for a itt ihJ t verse. There the Upaniqad
PARADOX "*t move. It is far away and it
says that the One "moves and does not
+' Oddly, and perhaps even paradoxically, paradoxes can also create a is near. It is within everything and outside of everthing" (16A

unified vision. In a paradox, normally distinct objects are unexpect-
edly related or-even equateZ to onE anolh-eill we Jicountered a
tdftooi bnt happy couple, we could iay that "paradoxically, they
are rich in their poverqy. " Normally, wealth and poverty exclude
one another, but in these people, material want and emotional
richness coincide. In the same way, the Upanishads can use paradox
to bring together things that appear to be separate in order to create
a larger whole.
The best known Upanishadic paradox is the teaching of the sage
Saa4ily". Acttrally, this teaching occurs for the first time in a late
portion oI the Satapatha Brahmana, but it is repeated almost ver-
batim in Chandogya lJpanisad 3.r4. Sandilya's teaching fuses the
extremes of reality in a paradox. It concludes: ,,that self of mine in
,:' the heart is smaller than grain of rice or of barley or a mustard
"
seed or a grain of millet or rhe kernel o{ a grain of millet; that self
o{ mine in the heart is greater than the eafth, greater than the
midspace, greater than the sky, greater than these worlds,, (Chan-
dogya Upanisad 3t4.3). The self is the most intimate part of a
person/ the very center'of onb''s being, and therefore it is the
tm-arG]ilf tntsmalf-YE;t fi;A;t itun.; il
'6;;;;' 1,,".y-
thing. The paradox thus undeicuis any exclusio. o. separation
"ny
of an individual from the rest of the world, for there is nothing
beyond the self. If the self is the very smallest and the very largest,
what is not encompassed by it?
For one Upanishad, the I6a Llpanigad, paradox is a central strat-
egy. This entire poem consists of sets of paradoxes and antinomies.
In v. {, for example, the poet says that the One, the fundamental
principle of things, is "unmoving" and yet it is swift, ,,swifter than
tlpanigad 5). Here the running-standing model from the previous
verse is restated as a moving-not moving opposition. The rest of
the verse then develops this opposition. The consequence of movin$
is that the One is far; the consequence of not moving is that it
remains near. The limit of distance is to be outside everythinS; the
limit of nearness is to be inside. The paradoxical claim is that the
One is both. In some way, the One is beyond time and space, and
yet it is also within the world as'the source of everythi"g. Tryj-
lessness and time, perfection and lr-l-gyeI-rer-Lt:-*theseonly.appearto
be opposites, ln , the One is all of them
-Boih the teaching of and that of the I6a lJpanigad,
therefore, connect a single principle to opposite and apparently
exclusive extremes. By so linking the extremes, they imply that
this principle comprehends everything else as well. There is noth-
ing that the principle does not include, nothing that remains sepa-
rate from it and from everything else within it. In that way, the
self of Saa4ily" and the One of the I6a lJpanigad become symbols
of the totality of things.
CYCLES
A final strategy {or creating an !1t9^g131f_v-g _y-9lgl- r-s-!-9.r,epresent
wortd?Td-esscs,?t{"-c$-F. Of the various constructions o{ a vision
of toidl'it)r, ihit hut the clearest foundation in the earlier Veda. The
Vedic rituals followed the repeating sequences of natural events:
the alternation of day and night, the phases of the moon, the
seasons of rain and no rain, and the succession of years. Through
the rituals, therefore, people understood and regulated their lives

E;;' a3a
\.-
 foel Brereton
according to the course of nature. Even more explicitly than this
ritual tradition, the Upanishads consolidate life and death, the
./' succession of natural events and the divisions of time into recurring
cycles.
One such rycle follows the movement of water, which rePresents
the essence of life. This pattern appears in the parallel texts, Chan-
': _\
dogya llpanigad 53.7tt. and Byhad Ara4yaka lJpanigad 6.2.9tf.
.:2 According to them, the gods fill the moon with soma, which is the
holiest of all ritual offerings and which represents the elixir of life.
As the moon wanes, soma is poured out as rain, which falls to earth
where it nourishes the plants and becomes their sap and juice. Men
ingest it with their food and pass that life essence to women through
their semen. Within a woman, semen gives birth to a new human
being. When that person dies and the body is cremated, the life
essence rises once again with the smoke. For some, the life essence
then returns to the moon and the cycle begins again. This vision
thus integrates the birth and death of humans into the natural
movement of water down to earth and up again to the sky. But that
rycle does not continue for everyone. For those who understand
this process and do not allow themselves to be entangled in the
world controlled by this pattern, the rycle is broken at death. They
go on to realms from which there is no further birth.
These passages, therefore, contain trvo concepts which were to
become central to the Indic tradition: the idea that time mgyeg in
qyclee 4nd the idea o.f*rebjrth. The eiiliestTp6i;fi;d; present
rebirth as a concept which few know. In Byhad Arayyaka llpanigad
',9
3.2, for example, a brahmin named Artabhaga quizzes Yajnavalkya
again and again about a person's destiny after death. Finally, Yajna-
valkya says, " 'Artabhega, my friend, take my hand. We two alone
will know of this. This matter of ours is not (to be discussed) in
public.' So the two went away and deliberated. What they spoke of
was action (karma). What they proclaimed was action. Now, by
good action one becomes good, by bad action bad" (Byhad Ara4-
yaka Upanigad 3.2.g). This passage points toward the classical
concept of. karma, which comes to mean not only action but also
432
The Upanishads
the effea of action on one's own destiny. According to the devel-
oped tradition, by the accumulation of good karma, one secures a
good rebirth, by bad karma, a bad one.
"On the one hand, he who is without understanding, who is un-
does not attain the goal and goes into the
mindful and ever impure,
cycle of rebirths. But he who understands, who is mindful and ever
pure, attains the goal from which he is not born again" (Katha
Upaniead 3.7t.).
This negative turn gives the ryclical paradigm an equivocal sta-
tus. In the Brahmanas and early Upanishads, the natural cycles
provided models for making sense of the world and human life, and
gven in later texts, they never completely lost that significance.
i.However, these cycles could also be seen not just as embracing life
but also as imprisoning ii1 For this reason, in order to break out of
the rycle of constant deith and rebirth, this paradigm had to be
rejected as the final truth about human life.
THE INTEGRATIVE VISION
en i119S1qtiVe- visign. 9f thi"gg was not the only concern of the
Upanishads, but it was a central one. This survey suggests some of
the reasons for its significance. Fitlf_qd_Fndamental was the
aesthetic and intellesqsl-eag9fqgtlon in thJi6illty toiee iliin$s is a
whole. The vision cgmllelr-gnds th. *orld,-a"d"by it, people laiow
Gqth;y f";;i;h;,hq, are. Peopie iindiritand ihdfthey are
a part of everything, in fact, that they are at the very center of
everything, and they know that everything is,a part of them.
Secgr,rd.llris vipion waq g.powerful knowledge.(From early in the
v"Ji. ti"Ation, to know the truth of something *u\, ,o h"rr" .ontrol Y
over it)rb-krrq]rylhc,ruorldis- therefore-also -to- master the world - j'
433

Joel Brereton
and to direct one's fate Especially the later Upanishads insist that
insight into the true nature of things effects the highest attainment
of all, the attainment of a final release from all temporal and spatial
limitation. iransforming*dsion.
Above_al!, i!_rgqgire{ 1._lqev.aluqtiqn -of ,w*!_qt_..o3-9_--!ry.y_ tr e"a
thtiefore what is truly colseqqentl?I. In th9i1 va$ous way_s, the
- only by a supremelv indMdu
Upanishads that are aPPear to be.
seem to be individuals, vulnerable to suffering and death,
subject to their private destinies. That individual self, however, is
not the true self. Death cannot affect the true self, nor can anything
else,for the self precedes and embraces everything. The person
who truly sees the self in this way, therefore, should have neither
desire nor fear, for that person knows that no harm can come to the
self. F-ourth. this vision w49.a coqpgllng experience. The Upani-
shads are rrgt firsEpergan rgcqlds of religio-us or."yJticil-e*pe-ri*ces
-a=bg1-ryythq;:gl_Le-i-ag9-lle_gq3!*{otmqw-hichmoldedandrefl ectedsuch
experiences. As a result, they_do nol gr-ve direct access to the
of the atman or the brahiin. N;terahelest
they do suggest drama of exPeflence vision is only
fully known one becomes the true self or when one directly
perceives the world in its singleness.
- Why dld this vision develop at this tirne and in this place? One
reason was that its basis was firmly established in the Brahmanas,
,/' which anticipate the Upanishadic aspiration to see the world as
totality. Moreover, the search for an integrative vision and the
abiliry to experience this vision are not unique to India. Other
cultures have also created paradigms for consolidating the diverse
elements- of e-1pgri949e, and other societidS:hive gitdn ilaai to mys-
tical movements. The reason for the crystallization of Upanishadic
thought may lie partly in the and changes occurring
at the end of the Vedic period. This was not a time of intellec-
tual change, but one which saw the creation of cities and the
corporate identity, which can these developments, may
"..ir,p"rry
a34 '
The LJpanishads
have provoked a nostalgia for a sense of the whole and for a
definition of the self which did not isolate the lndividual. )
{- At the same time, the Upanishads are a result of the very
individuality they seem to compromise. They are the compositions
of creative individual-s, and they address themselves to individuals.
Some Upanishads imply that the realization of the truth can occur
: breaking away from society
and retreating to the forest for a life of study and meditation. Thus,
the Upanis,hads-maJ- be the product of a contradiction, but if so;n
is one of the creative contrafictions which have driven the develop-
mentof Indiccultureanditscomplexity.
,,,,( . .L wi.rr r1
(:
tr(', I
SUGGESTED TRANSLATIONS
Paul Deussen, Sixty lJpanigads of the Veila, z vols. (Delhi: Motilal Banar-
sidass, r98o). This is an English version of a German translation of the
Upanishads, originally published n fi97. Despite.the age of the briginal
and the problems of a double translation, this collection is still'useful,
especially because it indudes a large number of the later Upanishads'
Franklin Edgerton, The Beginnings of Indian Philosophy (Cambridge: Har-
vard Universiry Press, 1955). This work contains good translations of
the central chapters of the Brhad Ararlyaka upanipad, Chandogya
lJpanigad 5, and the Katha llpanigad. These selecrions provide an
excellent introduction to Upanigadic thought.
Swami Gambhirananda, Eight lJpanigails, z vols. (Calcutta: Advaita Ash-
l:ama, r.957-58). These translations of the shorter Vedic Upanishads
a
include Sankara's commentary, for those who wish to see how the
Upanishads' most influential interpreter understood them.
Robert Ernest Hume, The Thirteen Principal lJpanishads zd ed. (London:
Ofiford University Press, r93r). This remains the best translation of the
Upanishads. But the translation is literal, so rnuch so that at times it
can be difficult to read.
435