The Upanishads: India's soul-offering³

India’s soul-offering is the perennial light of the Upanishads. The Upanishads offer to the world at large the supreme achievement of the awakened and illumined Hindu life.

The Vedas represent the cow. The Upanishads represent milk. We need the cow to give us milk, and we need milk to nourish us.

The Upanishads are also called the Vedanta. The literal meaning of Vedanta is ‘the end of the Vedas’. But the spiritual meaning of Vedanta is ‘the cream of the Vedas, the pick of the inner lore, the aim, the goal of the inner life’. The Muktikopanishad tells us something quite significant:

The Upanishads tell us that there are two types of knowledge: a higher knowledge and a lower knowledge. Paravidya is the higher knowledge, and aparavidya is the lower knowledge. The higher knowledge is the discovery of the soul. The lower knowledge is the fulfilment of the body’s countless demands.

According to our Indian tradition, there were once one thousand one hundred and eighty Upanishads. Each came from one branch, sakha, of the Vedas. Out of these, two hundred Upanishads made their proper appearance and, out of these two hundred, one hundred and eight Upanishads are now traceable. If a seeker wants to get some glimpse of Truth, Light, Peace and Bliss, then he must assiduously study these one hundred and eight Upanishads. If a real seeker, a genuine seeker, wants to get abundant light from the Upanishads, then he has to study the thirteen principal Upanishads. If he studies the principal Upanishads and, at the same time, wants to live the Truth that these Upanishads embody, then he will be able to see the face of Divinity and the heart of Reality.

The thirteen principal Upanishads are: Isa, Katha, Kena, Prasna, Mundaka, Mandukya, Chandogya, Brhadaranyaka, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Svetasvatara, Kaivalya and Maitri.

Tad ejati tan naijati tad dure tadvantike…
That moves, and That moves not.
That is far, and the same is near.
That is within all this;
That is also without all this.

The Isa Upanishad has this special message for us. To the desiring mind, this message is vapid, nebulous, puzzling and confusing. To the aspiring heart, this message is inspiring and illumining. To the revealing soul, this message is fulfilling and immortalising. Brahman, God in His absolute Aspect, is immutable; but in His conditional Aspect He is ever-changing, ever-transforming, ever-evolving, ever-revealing, ever-manifesting and ever-fulfilling.

Again, the Isa Upanishad reconciles work and knowledge, the One and the many, the impersonal God and the personal God, in a striking manner. Work done with detachment is real knowledge. When we consciously try to see God in everything and in everybody, we soulfully offer ourselves to dedicated action. Thus knowledge is action. The One and the many: we need the One for our self-realisation; we need the many for our self-manifestation. The impersonal and the personal God: when we live in the impersonal God, we see Truth in its illumining Vision; and when we live in the personal God, we see Truth in its revealing Reality.

The Son of God declared, “I and my Father are one.” The Chandogya Upanishad makes a bold statement, to some extent more daring and, at the same time, more convincing:

What does it mean? It means that you are none other than God. Who else is God, if not you?

A God-lover knocked at God’s Heart-Door. God, from within, said, “Who is it?”

The God-lover said, “It is I.” The door remained locked. The man knocked and knocked. Finally, he went away.

After an hour, he came back again. He knocked at God’s Heart-Door. God, from within, said, “Who is it?”

The God-lover said, “It is I.” The door remained locked. The man knocked and knocked at the door in vain. Finally, he left.

After another hour, again he came back and knocked at God’s Heart-Door. From within, God said, “Who is it?”

The God-lover said, “My Eternal Beloved, it is Thou.” God immediately opened His Heart-Door.

When a seeker feels this kind of intimate and inseparable oneness with God, God opens His Heart-Door to him and offers him His very Throne.

The Upanishadic Seers felt no necessity to go to any spiritual centre, no necessity to go to a temple, no necessity to hear a talk or a sermon or even to study books. God was their only outer book, and God was their only inner Teacher. God-realisation was their only necessity, and God-manifestation was their only reality.

The great German philosopher, Schopenhauer, voiced forth,

The Upanishads offer us three lessons. The first lesson is Brahman. The second lesson is atman. The third lesson is jagat. Brahman is God, atman is the soul, and jagat is the world. When we meditate on Brahman, our life grows into immortalising Bliss. When we meditate on the soul, our life becomes a conscious and speedy evolution. When we do not neglect the world, our life becomes fulfilling manifestation.

If you study the Upanishads, not in a cursory or perfunctory manner, but with the mind’s clarity, then you will see that God and you, you and God, are eternal. And if you study the Upanishads with your heart’s receptivity, you will see that God and you are equal. And finally, if you study the Upanishads with your soul’s light, you will come to realise that there in Heaven you are the realised and esoteric God, and here on earth you are the manifested and exoteric God.

The inner strength dethrones the idol which has been installed by fear and doubt. When your inner strength comes to the fore, the poltroon, the doubter in you, will be transformed into the soul’s effulgent light.

The Upanishads are the obverse of the coin of which the reverse is consciousness. There are three states of ordinary consciousness: jagrti, svapna and susupti. Jagrti is the waking state, svapna is the dreaming state, susupti is the state of deep sleep. There is another state of consciousness which is called turiya, the pure consciousness of the Transcendental Beyond.

The Mandukya Upanishad offers us a most significant gift. It tells us about the Universal Soul. The Universal Soul has two aspects: vaisvanara and virat. The microcosmic aspect is called vaisvanara_; the macrocosmic aspect is called virat. _Jagrti, the waking state; vaisvanara, the physical condition; and the letter ‘A’ from ‘AUM’, the sound symbol of prakrti, the primal energy, form the first part of Reality. Svapna, the dreaming state; taijasa, the brilliant intellectual impressions; and ‘U’ from ‘AUM’ form the second part of Reality. Susupti, the state of deep sleep; prajña, the intuitive knowledge; and ‘M’ from ‘AUM’ form the third part of Reality.

But turiya, the fourth state of consciousness, at once embodies and transcends these three states of consciousness. On the one hand, it is one part of the four parts; on the other hand, it is the culminating whole, the end, the Goal itself. Turiya is the Reality eternal, beyond all phenomena. Turiya is the Transcendental Brahman. Turiya is Saccidananda—Existence, Consciousness, and Delight. It is here, in turiya, that a highly advanced seeker in the spiritual life or a spiritual Master can actually hear the soundless sound, ‘AUM’, the supreme secret of the Creator.

The supreme wealth of the Upanishads is the Self:

This Self cannot be won by mental brilliance. It can be won only with an aspiring heart and a dedicated life.

This Transcendental Self is covered here in the world of relativity by five distinct sheaths: annamaya kosa, the gross physical sheath; pranamaya kosa, the sheath of the vital force; manomaya kosa, the mental sheath; vijñanamaya kosa, the sheath of the advanced and developed knowledge; and anandamaya kosa, the sheath of Bliss.

There are three types of bodies corresponding to these five sheaths. These bodies are called sthulasarira, suksmasarira, and karanasarira. Sthula means ‘gross physical’, and sarira means ‘body’. Suksma means ‘subtle’, and karana means ‘causal’. The physical body, sthulasarira, comprises annamaya kosa, the material substance. Suksmasarira, the subtle body, comprises pranamaya kosa, manomaya kosa and vijñanamaya kosa. Karanasarira, the causal body, comprises anandamaya kosa, the sheath of Bliss.

On a dark and tenebrous night the glow-worms appear. They offer their light and feel that it is they who have chased the darkness away. After a while, the stars start shining, and the glow-worms realise their insufficient capacity. After some time the moon appears. When the moon appears, the stars see and feel how dim and insignificant their light is in comparison to the light of the moon. In a few hours the sun appears. When the sun appears, the joy and pride of the moon is also smashed. The sunlight chases away all darkness, and the light of the glow-worms, stars and moon pales into insignificance.

This is the planet sun. But each of us has an inner sun. This inner sun is infinitely more powerful, more beautiful, more illumining than the planet sun. When this sun dawns and shines, it destroys the darkness of millennia. This sun shines through Eternity. This inner sun is called the Self, the Transcendental Self.