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Updated: June 9, 2025
Taking these facts for his subject, Dwaipayana composed a holy Upanishad that has been published to the world by learned and sacred bards in the Puranas composed by them. "The study of the Bharata is an act of piety. He that readeth even one foot, with belief, hath his sins entirely purged away. Herein also hath been described the eternal Vasudeva possessing the six attributes.
They retreat to the Himalayas, die one by one and are translated to Indra's heaven . Such an account is obviously a great advance on the Chandogya Upanishad. Yet, as we ponder its intricate drama, we are faced with several intractable issues. It is true that a detailed character has emerged, a figure who is identified with definite actions and certain clear-cut principles.
Thus Yâjñavalkya says to Gârgî : "Whoever without knowing the imperishable one offers oblations in this world, sacrifices, and practises asceticism even for a thousand years, his work will perish." And in a remarkable scene described in the Chândogya Upanishad, the three sacred fires decide to instruct a student who is exhausted by austerities, and tell him that Brahman is life, bliss and space .
Those who have read the Khandogya Upanishad remember how in that treatise the father instructs his son Svetakeitu on this very subject pointing him out in succession the objects of Nature and on each occasion exhorting him to realize his identity with the very essence of the object "Tat twam asi, THAT thou art." He calls Svetaketu's attention to a tree. What is the ESSENCE of the tree?
He is a prominent figure in the Śatapatha Brâhmaṇa which is older than the Upanishad and represents an earlier stage of speculation. The sketch of his doctrines which it contains is clearly a preliminary study elaborated and amplified in the Upanishad.
It is impossible to say how many Upanishads there are, nor does a Hindu think the less of an Upanishad because it is not found in a certain list. And in mediaeval and modern times these ancient sacred books have been replaced for all except Brahmans by more recent Sanskrit works, or by a vernacular literature which, though having no particular imprimatur, claims the same authority as the Vedas .
The Maitrâyana Upanishad says that the sixfold Yoga consists of restraint of the breath, restraint of the senses, meditation, fixed attention, investigation, absorption. The Śvetâśvatara Upanishad speaks of the proper places and postures for meditation, and the Chândogya of concentrating all the senses on the self, a process which is much the same as the pratyâhâra of the Yoga.
Hence, attempts whether Indian or European to give a harmonious summary of this ancient doctrine are likely to be erroneous. There are a great number of Upanishads, composed at various dates and not all equally revered. They represent different orders of ideas and some of the later are distinctly sectarian. Collections of 45, 52 and 60 are mentioned, and the Muktikâ Upanishad gives a list of 108.
From the fact that the text, 'And indeed to him who thus knows the Brahma-upanishad, the sun does not rise and does not set; for him there is day once and for all, calls the whole Madhuvidya a 'Brahma' upanishad, and that the reward declared is the attainment of Vasu-hood, and so on, leading up to the attainment of Brahman, we clearly are entitled to infer that the meditations which the text enjoins, viz. on the different parts of the sun viewed as objects of enjoyment for the Vasus, and so on, really are meant as meditations on Brahman as abiding in those different forms.
This much will be apparent to anyone who will read and study the "Kaushîtaki- Upanishad," which is one of the most wonderful of the religious books of the East.
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