Upanishads - Essence of Ancient Hindu philosophy

For a detailed expostion of Indian philosophy, I would highly recommend the excellent book - A Source Book in Indian Philosophy
- coauthored by Dr Radhakrishnan, former president of India. It covers all the major ancient Indian thought, including the scriptures and the philosophical meaning behind them. While a part of Indian scripture is by necessity ritualistic and mystical, there are powerful universally applicable thoughts that I have distilled in these posts.

My last post, among other things, summarized the message of the Vedas. It walked through the transition from polytheistic thought to belief in a single formless unity of God. The more philosophical sections of the Vedas, the Upanishads, are summarized next.

The origin of the universe: In the beginning there was nothing. Then came the Supreme Being (some verses claim that the supreme Being existed forever). Then came desire, and then came the rest of the world.

The dilemma of life: Fulfilling worldly desires are clearly not eternally satisfying. So, what is the point in pursuing desires in this ugly world and smelly body?

The solution: To achieve eternal bliss, we need to rise above the drudgery of life and death and rebirth (due to our sins) and attain freedom (moksha) wherein we are no longer reborn.

The formulae for moksha: Comprehend the Supreme Unity, Shed desire and emotions, do your duty. Da Da Da or practice self restraint, giving and compassion.

The ultimate knowledge: Tat Tvam Asi – You are that. The Brahman (or the externally/objectively discerned Ultimate One) is the same as the Atman (the introspectively discerned Ultimate One). In other words, you (the Atman) are that (the Brahman).

The incomprehensibility of the Unity: Neti Neti – not this, not that. While all the rest of the self and the world are comprehensible by the senses, thought, etc., the Ultimate One can not be grasped by learning, senses, or by any means else. Hence, The Ultimate One is not this, not that.

Conclusion: The world is an illusory (Maya) projection of the Brahman. The Supreme Self is the same as the Brahman, and the ego-self (the self we refer to as ‘I’) is a projection of the Supreme Self.

Analysis:

The Vedas and Upanishads were written more with the intent of guiding the people than with providing a rigorous rational analysis. Hence, the question of how we know all this is rarely discussed. To be accepted, the impact of the acceptance seemed to have been the chief criterion, rather than its validity or provability. Some of these concepts can be interpreted in modern day terms.

There are fundamental laws that seem to govern the external world – the abstraction that represents those laws could be called the Brahman – or the external Supreme One. On the other hand, the self or consciousness is much less understood, but the scientific community works under the axiomatic assumption that the laws of nature are the same for the external world as for the self – this is the principle that is stated as Tat Tvam Asi (or the Supreme Self – the Atman - is the same as the External God –the Brahman).

Also, even after all these years, the ability to firmly grasp the nature of the self in physical terms has eluded us. Hence, the directive of the scripture to look for the Supreme One by other means - Neti Neti – it is not this, nor is it that. It has to be comprehended by more sophisticated means than pure physical and sensory instrumentation.

Finally, the moral law provided above can be seen as a set of guidelines that attempt to bring about harmonious living by removing the root of all evil – worldly desire. Other than natural calamities, most human wrought damage was clearly a product of worldly desire. By popularizing a framework for avoiding worldly desire, and positioning bliss as to be found in introspection, people are less prone to harm each other out of worldly desire.