Upanishads UPANISHA/TXT *********************************************************************** The upanishads: advaita vedAnta Pre-Sankaranadvaita: gauDapAda SankarAcArya Sankara'sdisciples: sureSvara padmapAda troTaka hastAmalaka maNDana miSra ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The upanishads -------------- The Principal upanishads: The upanishads are expositions of doctrine, typically found in the concluding portions of the brAhmaNas and AraNyakas of the four vedas. A number of upanishads are extant today, with commentaries on them by representatives of various schools of vedAnta. The upanishads do not form one uniform book, as they are connected to the veda in which they occur, and the upanishadic teaching is often presented in the context of a particular hymn or ritual. In the vedAnta traditions, the upanishads are referred to as the Sruti prasthAna, i.e. revealed scripture, from which knowledge of brahman is obtained. The brahmasUtras are designed to present the doctrines of vedAnta, as found in the upanishads, as a consistent whole. Philosophers who wanted to expound their school of vedAnta did so by writing a bhAshya (commentary) to the brahmasUtras. The commentators belonging to different schools mostly agree on the upanishadic sources that each sUtra is traditionally supposed to refer to. The bulk of the sUtras refer to passages in the br.hadAraNyaka and the chAndogya upanishads. These two, along with a few other upanishads on which there exist commentaries by Sankara, have acquired extra significance as the principal or more or less "canonical" upanishads. These are: aitareya (r.g veda) br.hadAraNyaka (Sukla yajurveda) ISa (Sukla yajurveda) taittirIya (kr.shNa yajurveda) kaTha (kr.shNa yajurveda) chAndogya (sAma veda) kena (sAma veda) muNDaka (atharva veda) mANDUkya (atharva veda) praSna (atharva veda) Other upanishads: A number of other upanishads are extant today. The Indian traditions regard the upanishads as Sruti, and hence the question of finding the date of composition of the upanishads is meaningless for them. Some of the texts that are called upanishads may not be accepted by specific traditions, but this is more a question of accepting a text as Sruti, rather than one of finding a date of composition for the text. Modern scholars try to find dates of composition for these texts, under the assumption that the ten principal upanishads form the oldest group of texts and that the others were composed later on. Needless to say, even the date of the principal upanishads is of no concern to the advaita tradition. The upanishads are usually classified in terms of the subject matter they cover. Thus, we have a large number of upanishads dealing with general topics of vedAnta, in addition to those that teach yoga, and those that detail the rules of sam.nyAsa. The upanishads that tend to concentrate on one of the Great Deities of Hinduism are usually classified as Saiva, vaishNava and SAkta upanishads. A list of 108 upanishads as found in the muktikA upanishad is given in the table below. The yajurveda column has two rows - kr.shNa yajurveda texts are in the upper row, and Sukla yajurveda texts in the lower one. 108 upanishads r.g veda(10)yajur veda(51)sAma veda(16)atharva veda(31) 10 Principal upanishads aitareyakaThataittirIyakenachAndogyapraSnamANDUkyamuNDaka ISAvAsyabr hadAraNyaka 24 sAmAnya vedAnta upanishads AtmabodhakaushItakImudgalaakshiekAksharagarbhaprANAgnihotra SvetASvatara ArIrakaSukarahasyaskandasarvasAramahatmaitrAyaNIvajrasUcIsAvitr AtmAsUrya yAtmanirAlambapaingalamAntrikamuktikAsubAla 17 sAm.nyAsa upanishads nirvANaavAdhUtakaTharudrabrahmaAruNeyakuNDikamaitreyIsam.nyAsanArada- arivrAjakaparabrahmaparamahamsa--parivrAjaka jAbAlaturIyAtItaparamaham. sabhikshukayAjnavalkyasAtyAyanI 20 yoga upanishads nAdabinduamr.tanAdaamr. tabindukshurikatejobindudhyAnabindubrahmavidyAyogakuNDalinIyogatattva yoga. SikhAvarAhajAbAladarSanayogacUDAmaNipASupata--brahmamahAvAkyaSANDilya dvayatArakatriSikhi--brAhmaNamaNDala--brAhmaNaham.sa 14 vaishNava upanishads -kaliSAntaraNanArAyaNaavyaktavAsudevakr.shNagAruDagopAlatApanItripAd vibhUti- mahAnArAyaNadattAtreyanr.simhatApanIrAmatApanIrAmarahasyahayagrIva tArasAra 14 Saiva upanishads akshamAlAkAlAgnirudrakaivalyadakshiNAmUrtipancabrahmarudrahr. dayajAbAlIrudrAkshajAbAlaatharvaSikhAatharvaSiragaNapatibr. hajjAbAlabhasmajAbAlaSarabha 9 SAkta upanishads tripurAbahvr.cAsaubhAgya--lakshmIsarasvatIrahasya- annapUrNAtripurAtApanIdevIbhAvanAsItA Comments: The classification of the upanishads on the basis of their subject matter seems reasonable, although some upanishads could possibly be classified under more than one heading. For example, varAha and pASupatabrahma upanishads are classified as yoga upanishads and not as vaishNava and Saiva upanishads respectively. Similarly, gaNapati upanishad is included as a Saiva upanishad, while skanda upanishad is not. Also, hamsa upanishad is called a yoga upanishad and not a sam.nyAsa upanishad, whereas paramahamsa is included as a sam.nyAsa upanishad. Similarly, the mahAvAkya upanishad and the brahmavidyA upanishad might also justifiably be included under the sam.nyAsa upanishads. In any case, there seems to be a large overlap in subject matter between the "yoga" upanishads and the "sam.nyAsa" upanishads, pointing to the close relationship between yoga practice and sam.nyAsa as an institution. This also raises the possibility that the traditional association of yoga with sAm.khya in terms of the six darSanas may be slightly misleading. It is interesting to note in this connection that the important bhAshyas on the yogasUtras of patanjali are by followers of advaita vedAnta, although all these commentators explain yoga in sAm.khyan terms. Another interesting observation in this connection is that advaita vedAntins have completely internalized yoga practice as an aid to meditation and to realize the non-dual brahman. The bulk of the vaishNava (9 out of 14), Saiva (6 out of 14) and SAkta (5 out of 9) upanishads are assigned to the atharva veda. Three SAkta upanishads are from the r.g veda, while there are no vaishNava upanishads and only one Saiva upanishad assigned to the r.g veda. Also, there are no Saiva or SAkta upanishads assigned to the Sukla yajurveda, but a substantial number of Saiva (5 out of 14) upanishads are from the kr.shNa yajus. The SAkta upanishads are grouped together although some teach worship of sarasvatI, lakshmI or pArvatI, and others describe SrIcakra upAsanA, where Sakti is identified with brahman Itself, rather than being the Sakti of one of brahmA, vishNu or Siva. Since the upanishads are associated with individual SAkhAs within each veda, it might be interesting to investigate the distribution of these upanishads further, and correlate them with the distribution of the vaidika SAkhAs among today's communities of vaishNavas, Saivas and SAktas.