The Message of the Upanishads

In India we refer most often to our vast and rich cultural as well spiritual heritage. But while making such a statement we hardly realize that the source of this heritage is the great Upanishads. The Upanishads are the transactions of the forest universities, which functioned in India ages ago. In these forest universities, the great teachers expounded fundamental truths of life to students who came to learn under their guidance. The teachings of the Upanishads are as fresh today as when they were imparted to earnest students. This is so because the approach to life which the Upanishads indicated is as relevant today as it was then. Even in the scientific and technological civilization of today one realizes its relevance and appropriateness. One may ask what indeed is the fundamental keynote of the Upanishadic approach to life?

Scientific Approach

It may seem strange, but it is true that the approach of the Upanishads is supremely scientific, and yet at the same time it is integral in its nature. The integral aspect of the Upanishadic approach can be seen if one only turns to the different major Upanishads. While in the Upanishads, like the Isavasya, the Chandogya and the Brihadaryanaka, there are philosophical and metaphysical teachings; in the Aitareya Upanishad one comes across a scientific explanation of the creation of the universe and the beginnings of life. In Mandukya Upanishad, the fundamental teaching of Hindu psychology in terms of the different states of consciousness is explained. In Taittiriya Upanishad, we see profound discussion of the problems of education. In Mundakopanishad, we see the teacher discussing the question of Knowledge and Wisdom, the apara vidya and the para vidya. In Prasnopanishad the teacher instructs the students about being qualified to ask questions not from the superficial layers of inquiry but from the deep layers of consciousness.

There is hardly any subject under the sun which is not discussed in the Upanishads. The approach of the Upanishads is very catholic in nature. They indicate to us what an integral understanding of life can be.

Modern educated man born and brought up in the traditions of science and technology may tend to regard the Upanishads as somewhat antiquated and irrelevant to present-day conditions. But nothing can be farther from truth. The Upanishads are thoroughly scientific in their approach. To be scientific is to be objective, and the Upanishads are indeed most objective in their understanding of life. In a scientific approach, it is not enough to concern oneself with the nature of the object, it is equally necessary to understand the nature of the subject, for, the subject all the time projects itself in the act of objective perception. So long as the subject is allowed to project, there can never be a true perception of the object. The idea of subjective projection is being more and more recognised by modern scientific thinkers. Physical science and technology have no means to tackle the problem of subjective projections.

It is this which is contained in the approach of the Upanishads. In all the Upanishads the subject matter is Brahman and Atman. One may say: Are the subjects like Brahman and Atman relevant to our modern conditions? Such a question betrays utter ignorance of what Brahman and Atman really mean. As Dr. S. Radhakrishnan says: “Brahman is Reality objectively comprehended, while Atman is Reality subjectively perceived.” And so in Brahman and Atman we see a discussion of the objective and the subjective aspects of man’s understanding. They together constitute a real scientific approach to life. It is in the Upanishads that we see this beautifully expounded by teacher after teacher.

Comfort versus Happiness

In one of the Upanishads we see the illuminating conversation between Yagnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi. When Yagnavalkya expresses his desire to retire to the forest, he tells his wife that he would give her the necessary share of her property. But Maitreyi says: “Will this property make me immortal? Will it give happiness to me?” Then Yagnavalkya says: “Property will give you comfort; it cannot give you happiness.” We see here the distinction between comfort and happiness. And one of the major problems of our age arises out of a feeling that comfort and happiness are identical.

In another Upanishad we come across a conversation between Sanatkumar and Narada. Narada tells Sanatkumar that even though he has learnt many sciences and arts, he is far from hap­piness. Then Sanatkumar asks Narada to tell him what he had learnt. Narada gives a long and a very imposing list of subjects which he has learnt under the direction of a guru. Sanatkumar says: “All that you have learnt is mere words, a mere verbiage.”

There is an intellectually brilliant and philosophically profound dialogue between Swetaketu and his father. When Swetaketu returns after completing education in the gurukula, his father enquires as to what he had learnt. Swetaketu enumerates the whole list of subjects. The father then asks him: “Have you learnt that by learning which nothing else needs to be learnt?” Swetaketu answers in the negative. The father says: “I will teach you that science of sciences.” He asks his son to bring a fruit of the banyan tree lying on the ground. When Swetaketu brings it, the father asks him to break it and tell him what he finds after breaking the fruit. The young man says he finds countless tiny seeds. The father asks him to break one of those tiny seeds and tell him what he finds. Swetaketu replies: “Father, I have broken the tiny seed, but I find nothing therein.” Then the father says: “Swetaketu, what you describe as nothing, out of it the vast banyan tree has come into existence. Out of nothing everything has grown.” He told his son that if he would understand that nothing, then he would come to the understanding of the science of sciences, for That Art Thou.

Everything being born out of Nothing–that is the illuminating instruction which the father gives to his son. One is reminded of what one of the brilliant scientists of our times, Fred Hoyle, has said. He says that every moment new matter is being created in this universe, but this creation comes from Nothing, and as nothing can never be exhausted, the creation of new matter in the universe will never stop. It looks as if the modern scientist is speaking the language of the ancient Upanishads.

In our age of science and technology, if only we would realize not only the potentialities of science but also its limitations we would be enabled to turn to the living philosophy of the Upanishads.

Dr. Radhakrishnan once said: “Look at the modern man–he sweeps the sky with the telescope and finds no God and therefore comes to the conclusion that God does not exist!” This is indeed the unscientific attitude we seem to be displaying today in this scientific age. Scientific instruments have great capacities, but they have their limitations. When modern man begins to see the limitations of science he will turn to the inspiring message of the Upanishads, and the time for such realization has come.
–By courtesy: All India Radio, Hyderabad