The Upanishads

The author asks a series of questions, such as who causes life to begin and inspires people to contemplate the universe. The answer is Brahman or Spirit, whom the author describes as “the ear of the ear, the eye of the eye” (51) and so on. Brahman is the cause of everything that is experienced through thought or the bodily senses. However, Brahman itself cannot be understood through a human’s senses or intellect.

In a dialogue between a master and a disciple, the master cautions the disciple that if “you think ‘I know well’, little truth you know” (51). The disciple explains that Brahman defies intellectual comprehension, but everyone, even the “simple” (52), knows that Brahman exists.

In a myth, Brahman is said to have humbled the gods after they claimed credit for a victory Brahman achieved. Brahman appears before the gods, which fills even them with “wonder” (53). Brahman challenges the fire god Agni to burn a piece of straw, but even he cannot. Likewise, Vayu, the god of air, cannot blow away the straw. The thunder god Indra is then asked to go to Brahman, but in Brahman’s place is Uma, the embodiment of divine wisdom.

Indra, Vayu, and Agni “excelled the other gods” (53) because they were the first to approach Brahman. Next, Brahman is described as being visible in both nature and in the human soul. Brahman also carries another name, Tadvanam, which means “the End of love-longing” (53-54).

To have a good afterlife, a sage named Vajasravasa gave away all his belongings while performing a religious sacrifice. His son Nachiketas has a vision where he asked Vajasravasa repeatedly whom Nachiketas would be given to, and Vajasravasa angrily replied that he would be given to Death. So Nachiketas asked, “What may be the work of Death that today must be done through me?” (55). He is told to remember how people in the past and the people who will come in the future will all die. 

Nachiketas is kept in the domain of the god of death, Yama, for three nights without anything to eat. However, Yama violated the laws of hospitality by offering no food to Nachiketas, since Nachiketas is from the caste of Brahmins (the priestly cast). Yama compensates for this by offering to do three favors for Nachiketas.

Nachiketas asks Yama to cause his father to no longer be angry at him. Next, Nachiketas requests that Yama explain the “sacred fire” that “leads to Heaven.” In response, Yama explains that it is the “fire of creation” (56) and teaches Nachiketas how to perform the ritual of sacrifice by fire, which Yama then names after Nachiketas himself. For his last wish, Nachiketas asks Yama to explain what life and death are. Yama is reluctant and asks to be released from this vow because even the gods once found death to be an impenetrable mystery. Yama tries to persuade Nachiketas into relenting by offering him material wealth and beautiful women who can play music, but Nachiketas only points out that wealth and pleasure eventually go away.

Yama relents and explains the secret of life and death to Nachiketas. In life, there is the “path of joy” and wisdom, which leads an individual to a blissful afterlife, and the “path of pleasure” (57) and ignorance, which keeps people in the cycle of rebirth and death. One should seek a “Teacher” (57) who can explain how to reach Brahman, similar to what Yama is doing for Nachiketas. By performing the fire-sacrifice and burning one’s possessions, one can “have reached the Eternal” (57). Further, by rejecting pleasures and dedicating their thoughts to God, a sage “rises above pleasures and sorrow” (59).

Yama’s teachings make Nachiketas aware of his “Atman” (59), his eternal and true self. When Nachiketas asks Yama for what he sees “beyond right and wrong, beyond what is done or not done, beyond past and future” (59), Yama teaches him the holy word “OM,” which represents Brahman. Further, Yama explains that every living being has the Atman. By understanding this and Brahman, a sage is freed from despair. 

However, the Atman is understood not through religious doctrine or intellectual thought, but by actively choosing the Atman, which in turn causes the Atman to choose them. By doing so, “the Atman reveals his glory” (60).

In an allegory, the author describes the body as a chariot, the Atman as the “Lord of a chariot” (60), reason as the charioteer, the mind as the reins, and the horses are the bodily senses. The person who does not drive their chariot well “reaches not the End of the journey; but wanders on from death to death” (60). 

By contrast, the person who controls their chariot well reaches an end in their journey and finds “the supreme everlasting Spirit” (61). The Atman itself is eternal and beyond intellectual comprehension, but when one becomes aware of it, they are “free from the jaws of death” (61).

The bodily senses are directed toward the external world and not one’s inner self. However, the author writes about a sage who could use his senses to find his own soul within himself. 

The author then lists a series of truths. Among them is that one does not find Spirit in material pleasures, but in one’s experience of color, sound, and even kisses from a lover, and that knowledge of the Atman frees a person from “fear” (62). Other truths are that one should allow the god of creation and the goddess of infinity to enter “the heart” (62) while the god of fire, Agni, should be called upon during sacrifices. Knowledge of the unity of oneself with all of creation also liberates people from the cycle of death and frees people from fear.

Spirit exists everywhere, such as in the human body, in the gods, in the sun, in wine, and in water and mountains (63). The Spirit is what gives life. The author then promises to explain the “mystery of the eternal Brahman” and “what happens to the soul after death” (64). After death, the soul might be reincarnated in a new human body or even as a plant or a tree. Through the process of reincarnation for individual beings, Spirit also “takes new forms in all things that live” (64). Nonetheless, Spirit is unaffected by the suffering of living beings, and by perceiving Spirit within themselves the wise can find peace.

Brahman is described as the “Tree of Eternity” that supports “all worlds” (65) and is impossible to move beyond. By finding Brahman in this life, one is freed from the cycle of death and rebirth. 

The wise must realize that the material senses will not lead them to Spirit. To find Spirit, one must go beyond the senses, then the mind, and then reason. Even then, one must go beyond the Spirit in individual beings to find the Spirit in the universe. The author describes this as “Purusha,” the universal consciousness that is “beyond definitions” (65).

The “Path supreme” toward Spirit begins with “Yoga” (65), which is when the bodily senses are relaxed and in harmony. Then the seeker has to achieve awareness of Spirit, which the author describes as the principle of “He is” (66). Next, one must give up all their material desires. Finally, one also has to know their own Atman to understand the universal.

“Prasna Upanishad” is written as a series of questions a group of students presents to the sage Pippalada. The first question concerns the origin of all living beings. Pippalada explains that the Creator, while meditating, generated Rayi (matter) and Prana (life). Prana gave form to the sun, since it gives life to the world, while Rayi produced the moon. There are two ways, one associated with the North, the day, Prana, and the sun, and another way associated with the South, the night, Rayi, and the moon. People who only care about performing religious rituals and who “desire children and the life of the family” (68) choose the way of the South, which leads to reincarnation. Those who instead want to discover Prana take the way of the North, which requires faith, wisdom, and purity (68).

The second question is what powers sustain life and the unity of each individual being. Pippalada lists them as “space, air, fire, water, and earth; and voice, mind, the eye, and the ear” (69). However, Life itself is the most powerful force of all. Pippalada tells a story where Life was offended when the other powers questioned its supremacy. In response, Life temporarily left the body, which left all the other powers inert.

Pippalada is then asked where Life comes from. He answers that Life originates from the Spirit, which sustains the cycle of life and death. Next, Pippalada explains the forces that control the human body. Prana moves through the mouth and the nose and exists in the eyes and the ears. Different aspects of Prana also exist in the body. These are Samana (in the “middle regions” [70], which distributes the energy gained from food) and Apana (in the “lower regions” [70]). Atman exists in the heart, which generates the life-giving power of Vyana through the body’s veins. Another aspect of Prana called Udana leads people to good and evil actions, which in turn bring people to either the “heaven of purity” or “the hell of evil” respectively or, if a person does both, they return again “to this land of man” (70).

Prana is the sun, which sustains all life. Apana is associated with the earth, Samana is the space between earth and the sun, Vyana is air, and Udana is represented by fire. When a person dies, they are accompanied by Udana and led by their Atman into whatever afterlife they are given due to their actions in life. Knowing this “meaning of life” is necessary to obtain “life everlasting” (71).

Concerning the powers, one student asks which powers remain active or rest when a human being goes to sleep, and which ones are responsible for dreaming. Pippalada explains that, even when someone is sleeping, the “fires of life” (71) continue on. When a person dreams, Samana gives “expiration and inspiration,” like offerings in a sacrifice: The mind performs the sacrifice, and Udana is the “fruit” (71), taking the mind to Brahman, which results in dreams. 

Dreaming makes the mind aware of “its own immensity” (72). After the mind experiences dreams, it is given rest. All the powers of the body, including the “sense of ‘I’” (72), finds rest in the Spirit.

Another student asks Pippalada about the sacred word OM or AUM (73) and what happens in the afterlife for someone who meditates on it. Pippalada answers that OM is Brahman and consists of three sounds. The first sound will cause a soul to be led back to the world of humanity by the hymns contained in the Rig Veda and achieve “greatness” (73). If, instead, someone meditates on the other two sounds, they are led by the humns of the Yajur Veda to the moon before returning to earth. Meditating on all three sounds and on Brahman brings a soul to the sun, where “he becomes free of all evil” (73) and is led by the hymns of the Sama Veda to see Brahman itself.

One student relates to Pippalada that a prince named Hiranyanabha Kausalya asked him about the Spirit of 16 forms, but he could not answer him, so he addresses the same question to Pippalada. He responds that the Spirit of 16 forms exists within the human body. The Spirit created life, which gave rise to “life faith and space and air, light, water, and earth, the senses and the mind,” and food, which in turn led to “strength, austerity, sacred poems, holy actions, and even the worlds” (74). The worlds bestowed names. The 16 forms flow toward Spirit and dissolve in it, like rivers into the ocean.