Essence of upanishadic wisdom

Introduction

The Upanishads are the revelatory texts found in the vedas.

The vedas are series of mantras , verses that contain both ritualistic knowledge of means and ends, knowledge of karmas that are not available to direct perception or inference, but importantly also have various mantras and verses, that communicate the nature of reality.

As per the upanisadic knowledge, the reality is non dual, eternal, all pervading, limitless, complete, changeless, and of the nature of awareness or consciousness.

This reality is called “brahman” or “ishvara”, and the individual self, I, is none other than this reality brahman alone.

The upanisad communicates this knowledge , of oneness of the individual self, and the reality that is brahman, in a number of statements, the statements carrying this equation are called as ‘mahavakyas’.

The upanisads have a number of verses containing the mahavakya, and are mostly in the form of a question answer, between a guru and sishya.

A guru is the one who has received and internalized this knowledge of the upanisad, from his guru, in a traditional manner, which means by means of a teaching methodology. The upanisadic verses are not understandable by mere reading, but require teaching. The teaching involves a specific teaching methodology, wherein the teacher makes use of certain tools called as prakriyas which are meant to create the appropriate knowledge and communicate the reality conveyed by the mahavakya ( oneness of individual self and brahman). Hence the guru must be from a traditional parampara or teaching tradition.

A student is one who is interested in spiritual truth, or interested in knowing the reality. There are various levels of readiness for a student to gain this knowledge, a students readiness is called adhikaratvam.

A student maybe a uttama, madhyama or manda adhikari. Highly qualified, medium qualification, low qualification. There are also completely uninterested or unqualified who do not fall under the category of a student.

In order to achieve qualifications, the student has to live a disciplined life guided by values. The student must recognize moksa as a goal, and must understand that this goal is achievable via knowledge gained from guru and upanisad or sastra.

The bhagavad gita, which was taught by lord Krishna to arjuna, in the battlefield of the kurukshetra, is the greatest guide for every spiritual aspirant to gain this qualification, and ultimately this knowledge also.

What is this knowledge?

The upanisad teaches, that all that is here, is one vastu. This vastu is called brahman, or ishvara, or para vastu, parabrahman, paramatma, and so on.

The nature of this vastu is taught. This vastu brahman is :

a.       Limitless

b.      Of the very nature of existence

c.       Of the very nature of consciousness

d.      All pervading

e.      Non dual

f.        Changeless

g.       Attribute less and Formless

The individual self is indeed this brahman. Hence it can be said from standpoint of individual that brahman is :

a.       Non doer

b.      Non receiver of the fruits of actions

c.       Consciousness that happens to be the witness of 3 states of waking dreaming and sleeping

d.      Consciousness that is the truth of the subtle, and gross body as well as the causal body

The same brahman from the standpoint of the entire universe is parameshvara, or bhagavan, or maya devi. From total standpoint same brahman is:

a.       Cause of the universe

b.      Existence pervading all objects

c.       Conscious spark in all living beings

d.      Order that governs the entire universe

e.      Intelligence that puts together a functioning universe

f.        The truth of all names and forms, hence essentially it is every name and form

The difference between individual and universal self is only in terms of the bodies being an individual or universal body.

Per the veda, the names and forms are not intrinsic to brahman, rather superimposed on brahman.

This superimposition is not real, it is merely an appearance, such as the appearance  of a snake on a rope, or pearl in an oyster .

Same way due to ignorance of the true self that is attributeless, and partless whole, names, forms, and material attributes are superimposed on the self.

By understanding that the universal self, is attributeless consciousness, which is none other than self evident atma, I , the ignorance of there being an individual self goes away.

Since there is only the universal , non dual brahman, which is oneself, all names and forms are understood as functional reality, that is a superimposed , and not real, or mithya.

Brahman is the truth or satyam, and names and forms laden universe, is none other than brahman appearing to have these attributes, brahman appearing to be the individual and the total. This appearance is not real, and hence as good as non existent, being false.