4. The Psychological aspects in the Praśnopaniṣad

This Brāhmanopaniṣad deals with the cosmological problem regarding the creation of the world. The Upaniṣad is presented as the question and answer session between Pippalāda and his pupils. According to this Upaniṣad the sense organs are eleven in number. There are five karmendriyās, five jñānendriyas and the highest Supreme God, the mind. This Upaniṣad considers mind as ‘parādevaḥ’ and ‘yajamānaḥ’ who experiences the dreams. Pippalāda says that it is none else; but the mind is the deity. This is mentioned in this Upaniṣad -the ten indriyas, the five organs of action and the five jñānedriyas the motor and the sensory organs. In waking state, man sees, hears and feels normally. In a dreaming state, man feels his own experiences. In deep sleep, he loses all feelings from his mind and the person is considered to be sleeping. Then the mind suspends its desires; it rests in the mind only. The mind is the central organ and these indriyas work under the control of the mind. At that time no one can hear or see or smell or taste or touch or speak or feel or rejoice. The chief functions of mind are perception and action^[1]. At that time all these exist in the ‘Paramātma’. When he returns to the waking stage, he again gets back all these experiences.

This Upaniṣad again states that mind is ‘yajamānaḥ’. The inhalation and exhalation would distribute the energy equally through all the parts of the body, which is ‘samāna’. The union of mind and self during sleep is done by ‘udāna’

. This is considered to be the sacrificial owner; mind worships the fire for the fruit, which is eternal Brahman.

yaducchvāsa niśvāsāvetāvāhūti samaṃ nayatītissamānaḥ | manohavāvayajamānaḥiṣṭaphalamevodānaḥ sa enaṃ yajamānamaharahabrahma gamayati || ^[2]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Praśna-upaniṣad -4.2

[2]:

Ibid -4.4