The Upanishads are considered as part of the Vedas of the Hindu scriptures. The core spiritual essence of Vedantic Hinduism is philosophy, meditation, and the nature of God. They are considered as the mystic or spiritual contemplations of the Vedas, their putative end and essence. Edmunds (1979) suggested that the Upanishads are known as Vedānta or the culmination of the Vedas and focus on belief in a world soul, a universal spirit, Brahman, and an individual soul.
The Vedanta is composed of Āranyakas and Upanishads, of which Aranyakas or ‘of the forest’ provide meditative yogic practices, contemplations of the mystic one, and the manifold manifested principles. The Upanishads, on the other hand, provide a realization of the monist and universal mystical ideas that started in earlier Vedic hymns. These have exerted an influence on the rest of Hindu and Indian philosophy.
It was written in the Taitiriya Upanishad that, “He who knows the Bliss of Brahman, whence words together with the mind turn away, unable to reach It? He is not afraid of anything whatsoever. He does not distress himself with the thought: ‘Why did I not do what is good? Why did I do what is evil?’ Whosoever knows this regards both these as Atman; indeed, he cherishes both these as Atman. Such, indeed, is the Upanishad, the secret knowledge of Brahman.”
Interestingly, the Upanishads do not belong to a particular period of Sanskrit literature. The oldest ones are the Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads that date to the Brahmana period, estimated at the 7th century BC before Gita was started. The more recent ones were composed in the medieval or early modern period.
As early as the late nineteenth century, Whitney (1886) has noted that “…the earliest Upanishads, about a dozen in number… are documents of high importance for their bearing on the history both of religion and philosophy in India. Taken together with kindred passages in the Brahmanas, and a few even in the Vedic hymns themselves, they exhibit the beginnings of a new movement in that history, one which is to a certain extent comparable with the prophetic movement among the Hebrews — as being, namely, a revolution against the prevailing bondage to ceremonial observances and belief in their sufficiency to salvation: only, instead of making toward a purer monotheism and loftier private and public morality, it tends to pantheism, mysticism, and metempsychosis. Not an exalted devotion to duty, but the possession of mystic knowledge, leads India to eternal blessedness” (p 2).
Radhakrishnan (1928) have noted that Upanishads “had no set theory of philosophy or dogmatic scheme of theology to propound. They hint at the truth in life but not yet in science and philosophy. So numerous are their suggestions of truth, so various are the guesses at God, that almost anybody may seek in them what he wants and find what he seeks” (p 120).
There have been varying categories of Upanishads. The later additions are highly sectarian and suggested to represent the strategies used by sectarian movements to legitimate their own texts by granting them the nominal status of Śruti (Holdrege, 1995).
Radhakrishnan (1953) suggested that the significance of the Upanishads was that they represent a great chapter in history as well as “disclose the working primal impulses of the human soul which rise above the differences of race and geographical position. To sum up, Upanishads have mystical nature and intense philosophical bent that does away with all rituals and completely embraces principles of One Brahman and the inner Atman or self. They have a universal feel leading to interpretation in various manners that have given birth to the three schools of Vedanta.
It has also been interpreted as “Tat Tvam Asi” or “That thou art” by the Advaita Vedanta. It provides the belief that in the end, the ultimate, formless, inconceivable Brahman is the same as our soul or self and that humans may realize it through discrimination. In addition, it was suggested that the Upanishads contain the first and most definitive “aum” as the divine word, the cosmic vibration of all existence and having multiple beings and principles incorporated into “One Self.”
The philosophy provided for by various literature leads to a belief in the ultimate “self,” the same as Brahman, which could easily be perceived as very appealing. In this way, many seekers of salvation and eternity would be swayed to the Upanishads as, although notably mystical, it provides quite an easy way out. Its malleability of interpretation could adopt many ways to embrace a lot of probable scope in religion and philosophy, thereby providing a real threat to other religious or philosophical beliefs.
Reference
Edmonds, I.G. (1979). Hinduism. New York: Franklin Watts.
Holdrege, Barbara A. (1995), Veda and Torah, Albany: SUNY Press.
Taittiriya Upanishad Chpt 9 (II-9-1).
Radhakrishnan, S. (1928). “Indian Philosophy.” Mind, New Series, Vol. 37, No. 145, pp. 130-131.
Radhakrishnan, S. (1953). The Principal Upanishads. Harper and Brothers.
Whitney, W.D. (1886). “The Upanishads and Their Latest Translation.” The American Journal of Philology 7 (1), pp. 1-26.