The Upanishads

Introduction

“There was neither death nor immortality then. No signs were there of night or day. The ONE was breathing by its own power, in infinite peace. Only the ONE was: there was nothing beyond.

Darkness was hidden in darkness. The all was fluid and formless. Therein, in the void, by the fire of fervour arose the ONE.

And in the ONE arose love: Love the first seed of the soul. The truth of this the sages found in their hearts: seeking in their hearts with wisdom, the sages found that bond of union between Being and non-being.

Who knows the truth? Who can tell whence and how arose this universe? The gods are later than its beginning: who knows therefore whence comes this creation?

Only that god who sees in highest heaven: he only knows whence came this universe, and whether it was made or un-created. He only knows, or perhaps he knows not.”

(Rig Veda X. 129)

“Who sees variety and not the unity wanders from death to death.” (Katha Upanishad 2.1.10-11)

• Seeing mere words rather than the spirit that built them. This applies to within a collection (e.g., upanishads or biblical stories) and between collections (ibid)

“In rising to the best in us we rise to the Self in us, to Brahman, to God himself. Thus when the sage of the Upanishads is pressed for a definition of God, he remains silent, meaning that God is silence. When asked again to express God in words, he says: ‘Neti, neti’, ‘Not this, not this’; but when pressed for a positive explanation he utters the sublimely simple words: ‘TAT TVAM AST’, ‘Thou art That’.”

“Brahman is described as immanent and transcendent, within all and outside all. If the All is imagined as a triangle, the apex might be imagined as God transcendent, who in his expansion creates matter out of himself, not out of nothing, and thus becomes immanent until the end of evolution when the immanent has all again become transcendent in an ascension of evolution towards him. Why? For the joy of creation. Why is there evil? For the joy of good arising from it. Why darkness? That light may shine the more. Why suffering? For the instruction of the soul and the joy of sacrifice. Why the infinite play of creation and evolution? For Anandam, pure joy.”

“What a wonderful relation do we establish with a human being when in spite of his limitations we see his Infinity!
But if we merely consider him as an object of intellectual curiosity, a fixed number in static statistics, or even as a mere machine whose work we can buy and sell, we degrade both him and ourselves.”

“The greatest prayers of men have always been prayers for light and love. We cannot buy light and love in the market place of men; but they are given to us ‘without money and without price.’”

• The greatest prayers are for what money and power cannot provide. The light does not shine on just us, love does not pour on just us, they radiate to others.

“[Jesus says] ‘Behold the kingdom of God is within you’. We pray ‘Thy kingdom come’, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand; but we also pray ‘Thy will be done’, and what is the will but the will of love? The Truth of the Spirit is not found by the arguing of philosophical or metaphysical questions. How can we ask a question about something so near at hand? … We know that we are alive, but not alive to the Highest Life. If, however, we are tempted to argue about the supreme problems, forgetting the words of Indian wisdom that ‘Those things which are beyond thought should not be subjected to argument’ and that ‘When we can argue about a thing it shows that it is not worth arguing about’…”

“Our spiritual life must be a work of creation. Whether we are within a religion, or outside a religion, or against religion, we can only live by faith, a burning faith in the spiritual values of man. This faith can only come from life, from the deep fountain of life within us, the Atman of the Upanishads, Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven.“

“The path of Truth may not be a path of parallel lines but a path that follows one circle: by going to the right and climbing the circle, or by going to the left and climbing the circle we are bound to meet at the top, although we started in apparently contrary directions. This is bound to be in the end, because Truth is one. This is expressed in the Bhagavad Gita, the Song of God:
‘In any way that men love me in that same way they find my love: for many are the paths of men, but they all in the end come to me.’”

“The answer of the Upanishads [to whether an immanent-transcendent Being exists] is YES, and this means that the essence of the universe and of ourselves is positive: it is the holy word of the Upanishads, OM, one of the meanings of which is yes. How can we know? This Truth can be known in the silence of the soul.“

“The stronger is the imagination, the less imaginary it is.” — Rabindranath Tagore

“By love he knows me in truth, who I am and what I am. And when he knows me in truth he enters into my Being.” (BG 18.55)

“Brahman is beyond the historical ever-changing process of the universe, even as our Atman is beyond our ‘childhood, youth and old age’, as the Gita sings… Brahman is the God of the universe, ever watching and helping the work of creation, the God who is in the centre of our hearts, whom we can love and, what is even more wonderful, whose love we can feel.”

And what is love? We know that it cannot be defined. The words of Lao Tzu remind us of this truth, if instead of his word Tao we use the word GOD or LOVE.

‘People think that Tao is foolishness because it lacks definition:
But Tao lacks definition because it is infinite.
Il Tao could be defined, it would be small and not great.’”

More Lao Tzu:
“He who loves does not dispute;
He who disputes does not love.”

“Love is that which places the free in bondage and to those in bondage gives freedom.” — Ramon Llull

“When by love the full communion of man with God has taken place, when man sees God in all and all in God, then that man is one with Brahman, he has crossed the river of life and he has heard the songs of immortality welcoming him on the other shore. This is what all the masters of the Spirit tell us.”

“He who sees that the Lord of all is ever the same in all that is, immortal in the field of mortality - he sees the truth.
And when a man sees that the God in himself is the same God in all that is, he hurts not himself by hurting others: then he goes indeed to the highest Path.” (BG 8.27-28)

“The Life that gives life to our life.”

“If the thinker wanted to use the words of the mystic, he could soon define the nature of God. God is love and also the end of love: herein we find the whole contribution of mysticism. The mystic will never grow tired of speaking of this twofold love.
His descriptions have no end, because what he wants to describe is undescribable. But he is definite on one point: that divine love is not something belonging to God: it is God Himself.
…
All mystics are unanimous in declaring that God has need of us, even as we have need of God. Why should God need us, unless it were to give us His love?
This is the conclusion to which the philosopher who accepts the mystical experience must come. The whole creation will then appear to him as a vast work of God for the creation of creators, for the possession of beings co-workers with Him and worthy of His love.” — Henri Bergson

“I pray not for wealth, I pray not for honours, I pray not for pleasures, or even the joys of poetry. I only pray that during all my life I may have love: that I may have pure love to love
Thee.” — Chaitanya (~1500AD)

“O friend I hope for Him whilst you live, know whilst you live, understand whilst you live: for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living, what hope of deliv. erance in death?
It is but an empty dream, that the soul shall have union with Him because it has passed from the body:
If He is found now, He is found then. If not, we do but go to dwell in death.” — Kabir

• This liberating love must be found in this life. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!

“Those who rely on physical miracles to prove the truth of spiritual things forget the ever-present miracle of the universe and of our own lives. The lover of the physical miracle is in fact a materialist: instead of making material things spiritual, as the poet or the spiritual man does, he simply makes spiritual things material, and this is the source of all idolatry and superstition.“

“A seeker of the Truth of life will seek the Truth of Being and of Love, since a single flash of this Truth gives us faith far stronger than life. This faith is confirmed by the words of sacred books, by the life of those whose life was a book of life, and by the inner whisperings of our soul.”

Isa Upanishad

“He moves, and he moves not. He is far, and he is near. He is within all, and he is outside all.”

“Into deep darkness fall those who follow action. Into deeper darkness fall those who follow knowledge.
One is the outcome of knowledge, and another is the outcome of action. Thus have we heard from the ancient sages who explained this truth to us.
He who knows both knowledge and action, with action overcomes death and with knowledge reaches immortality.

Into deep darkness fall those who follow the immanent. Into deeper darkness fall those who follow the transcendent.
One is the outcome of the transcendent, and another is the outcome of the immanent. Thus have we heard from the ancient sages who explained this truth to us.
He who knows both the transcendent and the immanent, with the immanent overcomes death and with the transcendent reaches immortality.”

• Through action we come to knowledge. Through knowledge, we come to act. From immanence rises the transcendent, from transcendance arises the immanent.
• Pure knowledge/transcendance lacks practicality, it is not ‘at hand’ (ivory tower). Pure action/immanence lacks vision, merely the ‘what’ without the ‘why’

Kena Upanishad

• The Brahman as that which affords sight but cannot be seen; words but cannot be spoken; hearing but cannot be heard; sensing but cannot be sensed.

Katha Upanishad

”a mortal ripens like corn, and like corn is born again.”

“Know the Atman as Lord of a chariot; and the body as the chariot itself. Know that reason is the charioteer; and the mind indeed is the reins.
The horses, they say, are the senses; and their paths are the objects of sense. When the soul becomes one with the mind and the senses he is called ‘one who has joys and sorrows’.
He who has not right understanding and whose mind is never steady is not the ruler of his life, like a bad driver with wild horses.”

“As water raining on a mountain-ridge runs down the rocks on all sides, so the man who only sees variety of things runs after them on all sides.
But as pure water raining on pure water becomes one and the same, so becomes, O Nachiketas, the soul of the sage who knows.”

“There the sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars; lightnings shine not there and much less earthly fire. From his light all these give light, and his radiance illumines all creation.”

• Through His light we see light.

“The Tree of Eternity has its roots in heaven above and its branches reach down to earth.”

“[Purusha’s (pure consciousness)] form is not in the field of vision: no one sees him with mortal eyes. He is seen by a pure heart and by a mind and thoughts that are pure. Those who know him attain life immortal.”

“Words and thoughts cannot reach him and he cannot be seen by the eye. How can he then be perceived except by him who says ‘He is’?
In the faith of ‘He is’ his existence must be perceived, and he must be perceived in his essence. When he is perceived as ‘He is’, then shines forth the revelation of his essence.”

• The I AM THAT I AM of the burning bush.

  Mundaka Upanishad

“Abiding in the midst of ignorance, but thinking themselves wise and learned, fools aimlessly go hither and thither, like blind led by the blind.
Wandering in the paths of unwisdom, ‘We have attained the end of life’, think the foolish. Clouds of passion conceal to them the beyond, and sad is their fall when the reward of their pious actions has been enjoyed.
Imagining religious ritual and gifts of charity as the final good, the unwise see not the Path supreme. Indeed they have in high heaven the reward of their pious actions; but thence they fall and come to earth or even down to lower regions.
But those who in purity and faith live in the solitude of the forest, who have wisdom and peace and long not for earthly possessions, those in radiant purity pass through the gates of the sun to the dwelling-place supreme where the Spirit is in Eternity.”

“This is the truth: As from a fire aflame thousands of sparks come forth, even so from the Creator an infinity of beings have life and to him return again.
But the spirit of light above form, never-born, within all, outside all, is in radiance above life and mind, and beyond this creation’s Creator.”

“Radiant in his light, yet invisible in the secret place of the heart, the Spirit is the supreme abode wherein dwells all that moves and breathes and sees. Know him as all that is, and all that is not, the end of love-longing beyond understanding, the highest in all beings.
…
Take the great bow of the Upanishads and place in it an arrow sharp with devotion. Draw the bow with concentration on him and hit the centre of the mark, the same everlasting Spirit.
The bow is the sacred OM, and the arrow is our own soul.
Brahman is the mark of the arrow, the aim of the soul. Even as an arrow becomes one with its mark, let the watchful soul be one in him.”

• Very similar to the Cloud of Unknowing.

“There are two birds, two sweet friends, who dwell on the self-same tree. The one eats the fruits thereof, and the other looks on in silence.
The first is the human soul who, resting on that tree, though active, feels sad in his unwisdom. But on beholding the power and glory of the higher Spirit, he becomes free from sorrow.
When the wise seer beholds in golden glory the Lord, the Spirit, the Creator of the god of creation, then he leaves good and evil behind and in purity he goes to the unity supreme.
In silent wonder the wise see him as the life flaming in all creation.” (Part 3, Chapter 1)

• Tastes like Genesis. The active soul feels sad in unwisdom (self-conscious, eaten from the tree), yet is still afforded moments of joy beholding His glory. The wise seer does not eat, rather watches silently, leaving behind good and evil, atoning with God.

“Filled with devotion, they have found the Spirit in all and go into the All.”

“As rivers flowing into the ocean find their final peace and their name and form disappear, even so the wise become free from name and form and enter into the radiance of the Supreme Spirit who is greater than all greatness.
In truth who knows God becomes God.”

Mandukya Upanishad

“OM. This eternal Word is all: what was, what is and what shall be, and what beyond is in eternity. All is OM.“

• Four states of consciousness: waking, dreaming (like an inner wakefulness), deep sleep, and supreme (Atman, ineffable, peace and love)
• The three sounds of OM (A-U-M) mirror the first three states of consciousness: A is the beginning, knowing this the knower becomes first; U is ‘bothness’, leading to equilibrium; M is the end, knowing this one finds the final End. But the sound as a whole is the fourth state of supreme consciousness, beyond sense, it is ‘non-duality and love’.
• Reminds of the trinity - the hypostases of the Father (A), Spirit (U), and Son (M), and the ineffable essence behind it all (ousia)
• One must first know the three hypostases, and through them surrender to their ineffable source

  Svetasvatara Upanishad

“Matter in time passes away, but God is for ever in Eternity, and he rules both matter and soul. By meditation on him, by contemplation of him, and by communion with him, there comes in the end the destruction of earthly delusion.”

• Meditation, contemplation, communion. Inward, upward, between. Focus, surrender, relationship.

“God is found in the soul when sought with truth and self-sacrifice, as fire is found in wood, water in hidden springs, cream in milk, and oil in the oil-fruit.
There is a Spirit who is hidden in all things, as cream is hidden in milk, and who is the source of self-knowledge and self-sacrifice. This is Brahman, the Spirit Supreme. This is Brahman, the Spirit Supreme.”

“Without hands he holds all things, without feet he runs everywhere. Without eyes he sees all things, without ears all things he hears. He knows all, but no one knows him, the Spirit before the beginning, the Spirit Supreme everlasting.”

“Of what use is the Rig Veda to one who does not know the Spirit from whom the Rig Veda comes, and in whom all things abide? For only those who have found him have found peace.
For all the sacred books, all holy sacrifice and ritual and prayers, all the words of the Vedas, and the whole past and present and future, come from the Spirit. With Maya, his power of wonder, he made all things, and by Maya the human soul is bound.
Know therefore that nature is Maya, but that God is the ruler of Maya; and that all beings in our universe are parts of his infinite splendour.”

• Nature is in some sense God’s clothing, made to protect us from His light. Our souls, through mercy, are clothed in Maya, too (by Maya the human soul is bound). Through devotion to the ruler of Illusion, Truth, we can unclothe him (and ourselves) to abide in him (and ourselves) more faithfully. The process is painful, the outcome is liberating, losing the self to find the Self in the Light of Truth.

“Longing therefore for liberation, I go for refuge to God who by his grace reveals his own light; and who in the beginning created the god of creation and gave to him the sacred Vedas.”

Maitri Upanishad

“The soul is thus whirled along the rushing stream of muddy waters of the three conditions of nature [the Gunas - sattva, light, clarity; rajas, fire, passion; tamas, obscurity, darkness], and becomes unsteady and wavering, filled with confusion and full of desires, lacking concentration and disturbed with pride. Whenever the soul has thoughts of “I” and “mine” it binds itself with its lower self, as a bird with the net of a snare.” (3.2)

• The soul is pure as a drop of water on a lotus leaf, but is under the power of the Gunas and thus is bound into confusion (great word here—both confused as perplexed and con-fused as in interwoven, a pouring together of the Gunas)

“Even as a spider reaches the liberty of space by means of its own thread, the man of contemplation by means of OM reaches freedom.” (6.22)

“Even as water becomes one with water, fire with fire, and air with air, so the mind becomes one with the Infinite Mind and thus attains final freedom.”

• Water lost in water, fire lost in fire, air lost in air, mind lost in Mind.

Kaushitaki Upanishad

“It is not speech which we should want to know: we should know the speaker.
It is not things seen which we should want to know: we should know the seer.
It is not sounds which we should want to know: we should know the hearer.
It is not mind which we should want to know: WE SHOULD KNOW THE THINKER.” (3.8)

Chandogya Upanishad

Truth <- knowledge <- thought <- faith <- progress <- creation <- joy <- the Infinite

“Where nothing else is seen, or heard, or known there is the Infinite. Where something else is seen, or heard, or known there is the finite. The Infinite is immortal; but the finite is mortal.” (7.16-25)

• Unity vs. Duality. Unity Eternal, duality temporal
• No joy in the finite, no boundless joy in the finite

8.7-12 tells the story of the devas and asuras studying with Prajapati to learn the nature of the Self. Very good story.

The Supreme Teaching

“There the Spirit knows not, yet knowing not he knows. How could the Spirit not know if he is the All? But there is no duality there, nothing apart for him to know.
For only where there seems to be a duality, there one sees another, one feels another’s perfume, one tastes another, one speaks to another, one listens to another, one touches another and one knows another.
But in the ocean of Spirit the seer is alone beholding his own immensity.”

• On deep sleep consciousness.

“Those who know him who is the eye of the eye, the ear of the ear, the mind of the mind and the life of life, they know Brahman from the beginning of time.
Even by the mind this truth must be seen: there are not many but only One. Who sees variety and not the Unity wanders on from death to death.
Behold then as One the infinite and eternal One who is in radiance beyond space, the everlasting Soul never born.
Knowing this, let the lover of Brahman follow wisdom. Let him not ponder on many words, for many words are weariness.”