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Updated: June 26, 2025
In addition, there are theological works supplementary, and of later origin, the intermediate Aranyakas, and the Upanishads, which are of a speculative cast. Not only is nature mountains, rivers, trees, etc. personified in the Vedas: the animals as the cow, the horse, the dog, even the apparatus of worship, the war-chariot, the plow, and the furrow are addressed in prayer.
But the gist of the matter is that he disliked not so much monism as philosophy. Hence he says "For me there is no use in the Advaita. Sweet to me is the service of thy feet. The relation between God and his devotee is a source of high joy. Make me feel this, keeping me distinct from thee." But he can also say almost in the language of the Upanishads.
According to Indian ideas there is no a priori objection to the appearance now or in the future of new Upanishads . All revelation is eternal and self-existent but it can manifest itself at its own good time. Many of the more modern Upanishads appear to be the compositions of single authors and may be called tracts or poems in the ordinary European sense.
But its mythology, if not Vedic, is also hardly Puranic and it knows nothing of the legends about the pastoral Kṛishṇa. It presupposes the Sâṅkhya and Yoga, though in what stage of development it is hard to say, and in many respects its style resembles the later Upanishads.
And mantra knowing persons then commenced with the help of formulae declared by Brihaspati and Usanas, those rites that are indicated in the Atharva Veda and the Upanishads and which are capable of being achieved by mantras and prayers.
Buddha who developed the practical side of the teaching of Upanishads, preached the same message when he said, With everything, whether it is above or below, remote or near, visible or invisible, thou shalt preserve a relation of unlimited love without any animosity or without a desire to kill.
By the time of the Upanishads, that is about 600 B.C., we trace three clear currents in Indian religion which have persisted until the present day. The first is ritual. This became extraordinarily complicated but retained its primitive and magical character.
But we have to turn to a later collection of writings known as the Upanishads for our knowledge of the more abstract speculations out of which Hindu thinkers, not always of the Brahmanical caste, were concurrently evolving the esoteric systems of philosophy that have exercised an immense and abiding influence on the spiritual life of India.
From every sentence deep, original, and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. . . . The access to the VEDAS by means of the UPANISHADS is in my eyes the greatest privilege this century may claim before all previous centuries." Shankara peerlessly expounded the UPANISHADS. "Please permit me to go to the Himalayas.
The Vedas and the Upanishads also have laid down that in all sacrifices, in fact, in all kinds of religious acts, the Dakshina should be earth or kine or gold. The Srutis, however, declare that in all Dakshinas, gold is superior and is, indeed, the best. I desire, O grandsire, to hear thee discourse truly on this topic. What is gold? How did it spring up? When did it come into existence?
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