Chapter 84. The Upanishadic Turn: Atman, Brahman, Karma and the Renouncers

The Upanishads close the Vedic canon. Van Voorst notes that they are “also known as the Vedanta (End of the Veda)” [Van Voorst, Anthology of World Scriptures, #63227, “Overview of Structure”]. In them the outward sacrifice gives way to inquiry into the self. They announce that the self (atman) is identical with the ground of all being (brahman), and they give the first statements of karma, of samsara as recurring birth and death, and of moksha as release from both. The same period produced the wandering renouncers from whose milieu Jainism and Buddhism grew. This chapter sets out the texts, their central doctrines and the main Indian and Western interpretations, and records how the new doctrines also served as an explanation of social hierarchy.

The texts and their setting

Van Voorst counts 123 surviving Upanishads, “but only thirteen have been influential in Hindu history”. Most were composed between the eighth and the fourth centuries BCE, and “the oldest of these are the Chandogya and Brihad-Aranyaka”. Sectarian Upanishads devoted to particular deities were added “from the beginnings of the Common Era all the way to the sixteenth century C.E.” In this literature the “‘world-affirming’ Vedic religion” becomes “a ‘world-negating’ religion that seeks release from continually reincarnated existence”. Van Voorst also notes that the Upanishads “were not fully written down until 1656 C.E.”, when the “non-Hindu Sultan Dara Shakoh” ordered a Persian translation [Van Voorst, #63227, “Historical Origin and Development”; “Contemporary Use”].

Armstrong places the earliest texts in a society “at the very beginning of the process of urbanization”. She thinks the Brihadaranyaka was “almost certainly composed in the kingdom of Videha”, a frontier state with a mixed population. Kings took part in the debates (Janaka of Videha, Ajatashatru of Kashi), and so did women, “notably Gargi Vacaknavi and Maitreyi” [Armstrong, The Great Transformation, #82303, “Knowledge (c. 700 to 600 BCE)”]. The Brihadaranyaka opens with the horse sacrifice reinterpreted. In the passage Walsh quotes, “the dawn is the head of the horse which is fit for sacrifice, the sun its eye, the wind its breath” [Walsh, A Brief History of India, #38599, “Unity and Diversity in the Upanishads”]. Armstrong comments that the ritual “could be performed and completed mentally” [Armstrong, #82303, “Knowledge”].

Atman and Brahman

The central teaching is put in the “great sayings”. Armstrong cites “This self is the brahman” (ayam atma brahman) and the Chandogya’s “That you are!” (tat tvam asi) [Armstrong, #82303, “Knowledge”]. Van Voorst’s text of the Chandogya, from Max Müller’s translation, gives Uddalaka’s teaching to Svetaketu. “In the beginning, my dear, there was one thing only, without a second”. Rivers that enter the sea “do not know I am this or that river”, and the refrain runs: “That which is that subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and that, Svetaketu, you are” [Van Voorst, #63227, “‘That You Are’ (Chandogya Upanishad 6)”]. In the Brihadaranyaka selection the primal Person declares “I indeed am this creation”. The text then adds: “Let men worship him as Soul [Atman], for in the Soul all these are one” [Van Voorst, #63227, Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad 1.4.1–7].

Armstrong presents Yajnavalkya’s method as negative. “About this self [atman], one can only say ‘not … not’ [neti … neti]. He is ungraspable, for he cannot be grasped.” His dictum “You can’t see the Seer who does the seeing” points to the atman as the agent behind all perception, and the self in dreamless sleep is a state of unified consciousness “beyond fear” [Armstrong, #82303, “Knowledge”].

The Katha, Prashna and Mundaka, in Sri M’s discourses, carry the same teaching in dialogue form. Yama tells Nachiketa: “There are two Selves that drink the fruit of karma in the world of good deeds. Both are lodged in the secret place of the heart”. Sri M glosses the Self as one “which can be neither destroyed nor is born … Knowing that Self and abiding in that Peace be free from the fear of death” [Sri M, The Upanishads: Katha – Prashna – Mundaka, #82873, Katha ch. 3]. The Mundaka declares: “In front is Brahman, behind is Brahman, to the right and to the left”. Sri M reads its image of two birds on one branch as “the ego, which is one bird, eats and enjoys and also suffers. The atman, the Self … witnesses all this” [Sri M, #82873, Mundaka]. In the Prashna, six seekers come to the sage Pippalada “with sacrificial fuel in their hands”. Sri M calls it “an Upanishad that questions” [Sri M, #82873, Prashna]. Aurobindo translates the opening of the Isha: “All this is for habitation by the Lord, whatsoever is individual universe of movement in the universal motion”. Its seventh verse asks: “how shall he be deluded, whence shall he have grief who sees everywhere oneness?” He calls the Isha “one of the more ancient of the Vedantic writings in style, substance and versification” [Aurobindo, The Upanishads, #85813, Isha Upanishad, vv. 1, 7 and “Conclusion and Summary”]. He describes the Kena as reaching the same Lord “by the antithesis of one governing self-existence to all this that exists” [Aurobindo, Kena and Other Upanishads, #50236].

Easwaran builds his exposition on the Katha. It is “relatively late – perhaps only three or four thousand years old”, and in his view “virtually all the fundamental ideas of Indian spirituality are found there”. He stresses that “its essential lesson is how to live”, as “Yama teaches Nachiketa” [Easwaran, Essence of the Upanishads, #68763, Introduction]. Ferrara quotes the Isha, “The Lord is enshrined in the hearts of all … Covet nothing. All belongs to the Lord”. He calls the Mandukya’s “fourth state” of consciousness the “supreme goal of life”, and quotes the Katha: one who knows the “deathless … unchangeable Reality, springs out of the mouth of death” [Ferrara, Sacred Bliss, #66945, ch. 1].

Burger frames the doctrine as Advaita. He quotes the Upanishads, “Of everything, God is the innermost Self”, and Shankara: “The identity of Brahman and Atman is declared in hundreds of holy texts.” He then cites Radhakrishnan to the effect that “God does not create the world but becomes it. Creation is expression … It is the self-projection of the Supreme” [Burger, Esoteric Anatomy, #68445, ch. 4 “Vedic Origins and Advaita Philosophy”].

Karma, samsara, moksha

Armstrong writes that Yajnavalkya’s teaching “is the first time we hear of the doctrine of ‘action’ (karma)”: “What a man turns out to be depends on how he acts … If his actions are good, he will turn into something good.” The doctrine was then “a new and controversial idea”. When Artabhaga asked what happens after death, Yajnavalkya answered, “We cannot talk about this in public. Take my hand … let’s go and discuss this in private.” Only knowledge of the self frees a person from “this ceaseless cycle (samsara) of rebirth and redeath”. Of one free of desire he says: “Brahman he is, and to brahman he goes” [Armstrong, #82303, “Knowledge”].

Walsh dates the idea that “humans also would experience the consequences of past acts” to the Upanishads (c. 600 BC). The least virtuous “become worms, insects, or snakes” [Walsh, #38599, “Karma and Reincarnation”]. Potter’s Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies treats “complete freedom” as the goal shared by the Indian systems. He distinguishes “path philosophy”, the search for “proper path(s) of renunciatory or disciplinary activity leading to complete freedom”, from speculative philosophy. He lists “an indefinite number of different types of Vedanta, such as Dvaita (‘dualistic’), Advaita (‘non-dualistic’), Visistadvaita”. He describes samsara as the “round of habits breeding habits … governed by karma” [Potter, Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies, #82613, Preface and “Renunciation, the Path to Freedom”]. The doctrine also shapes modern ethics. In Sorajjakool’s handbook for clinicians, “suicide is perceived as a bad way to die and a reprehensible act. Similarly, euthanasia is discouraged”, since the atman “takes on another body” at death until its “final goal—union with God” [Sorajjakool, World Religions for Healthcare Professionals, #35015, ch. 3].

Karma as social ideology

Walsh states the political side directly. The new concepts of reincarnation, karma, dharma and the four varnas “explained and justified the social and economic divisions of Gangetic society in terms of an individual’s good or bad conduct in former lives”. “Rebirth into a higher class showed that one had been virtuous in past lives; rebirth at a lower level showed the opposite”, and for most people the goal was to fulfil the duties of their varna. She quotes the Mahabharata: “A Shudra … should never amass wealth” [Walsh, #38599, “Karma and Reincarnation”]. Ferrara agrees that the karmic reward of caste duty “helped to rationalize India’s highly tiered class system”. He adds that moksha “was considered easiest to achieve in the priestly caste” [Ferrara, #66945, ch. 1].

The renouncers

Armstrong regards the renouncer (samnyasin) as the agent of the next stage: “It was he, not the Brahmin priest, who shaped the next stage of the Indian Axial Age.” She cites the Rig Veda’s wanderers with “long, loose locks” and “garments of soiled yellow hue”, devoted to Rudra. She also points to the Vratya bands and their “three breaths”, “an early form of yoga”. The renouncer shaved his head, “practiced ahimsa”, refrained from “injuring seeds” and was to be a “silent sage” (muni). “The new hero of the Axial Age was not a heroic warrior … but a monk dedicated to ahimsa … The renouncers were seeking yathabhuta, an ‘enlightenment’ that was also an ‘awakening’ to their authentic selves” [Armstrong, #82303, “Kenosis (c. 800 to 700 BCE)”]. Ferrara follows the line from the Rig Veda’s munis “girdled with the wind” to the sramanas, who “spurned the authority of Brāhman priests … and the caste system”, and on to the Jains, the Ajivakas and the Buddha [Ferrara, #66945, ch. 1]. Walsh notes that Buddhist sources list “six unorthodox teachers” for c. 600–400 BC [Walsh, #38599, “Heterodoxy in North India”].

The later sectarian Upanishads

The genre continued well past the classical texts. The library’s Shakta Upanishads lists twenty-seven goddess Upanishads drawn from the Adyar edition, among them the Tripura, Devi, Bhavana, Kalika and Sita Upanishads and an “allā-upaniṣat (Allāh)” [Shakta Upanishads, #49316]. The Ganapati Upanishad applies the full Advaita vocabulary to Ganesha. “You are being-consciousness-bliss. You are the non-dual. You are plainly Brahman.” He is “always situated in the muladhara”, and repeating the text frees a person “from the five greater and the five lesser sins” [Ganapati Upanishad, #42973].

Western reception and perennialism

Max Müller recommended the Vedanta’s study “to all true students of philosophy” and quoted Schopenhauer: “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life” [Müller, India: What Can It Teach Us?, #78088, “Veda and Vedanta”]. Burger places the tradition within Huxley’s “Perennial Philosophy”, calling the Gita “one of the clearest and most comprehensive summaries of the Perennial Philosophy ever to have been made”. He notes that “Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were students of The Bhagavad Gita” [Burger, #68445, ch. 4]. Ferrara reads Upanishadic nonduality through Maslow’s “peak-experiences”, and he also argues for cannabis as an aid to moksha among sadhus [Ferrara, #66945, Introduction, ch. 1].

Key points

• The Upanishads are the “Vedanta (End of the Veda)”. Van Voorst counts 123, of which 13 are principal, with the Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka the oldest. Sectarian Upanishads were composed until the 16th century.
• The core doctrine is the identity of atman and brahman: tat tvam asi, ayam atma brahman, and Yajnavalkya’s neti neti.
• Armstrong dates the first statement of karma to Yajnavalkya and notes that he would discuss it only “in private”. Liberation from samsara comes through knowledge of the self.
• Walsh and Ferrara state that karma and rebirth “explained and justified” the varna hierarchy.
• Armstrong presents the renouncer devoted to ahimsa and seeking yathabhuta as the new hero of the age. His milieu (sramanas, Ajivakas) produced Jainism and Buddhism.
• The Shakta and Ganapati Upanishads show the genre continuing in goddess and Ganesha cults.
• Western reception runs from Müller and Schopenhauer to Huxley’s perennialism, presented by Burger, and Maslow-based readings in Ferrara.