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The Upanishads
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BetaChapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Maitri Upanishad”
This Upanishad begins with a series of questions that the sage Valakhilyas asks the god Prajapati. The first question asked is, if the body is like a chariot, who is that chariot’s driver? It is the Spirit who is within all things and is also above all things. The Spirit “comes as a messenger to the body” (99) even when a person is asleep, which means that the Spirit is both consciousness and provides consciousness. The Spirit is “never-changing, never-moving, unpollutable” and is beyond desire and the “three conditions and constituents of the universe” (100).
Besides the Atman, there is also the soul “bound by the light or darkness which follow works” (100), the bhutatman. This “human soul” (100) is composed of the tan-matras, the five subtle elements, and the mahabhutas, the five gross elements. This soul is also under the power of the three conditions of nature, which are obstacles to a human understanding of the Spirit.
Brahman is both “ONE and infinite” (101) and generates new worlds. The universe itself exists within Brahman’s consciousness. The goal of contemplation through meditation is to become aware of oneness with Brahman. By removing all thought of the external world and achieving inner tranquility, a wise person’s “spirit of life” can become “free from the movements of will and desire,” a state of consciousness called turya (102). There are two methods for contemplating Brahman. One is through sound with the mantra OM. The other way is through silent contemplation.
In samsara, the “transmigration” (103) of souls through reincarnation, the mind of an individual shapes what they become in the next life. This is why purifying one’s mind in this life is important. A mind becomes impure if it is “in the bondage of desire” (103). Becoming free from such desires leads a mind to “liberation” and “joy” and “final freedom” by becoming one with Brahman (103). This Upanishad ends with a prayer to the god of fire, Agni, the god of wind, Vayu, and the sun god, Aditya.
Chapter 9 Summary: “Kaushitaki Upanishad”
The selections begin with a description of the “never-ending immortal offerings of man” (105), which is that when he breathes he cannot speak and when he speaks, he cannot breathe. Another selection prescribes three prayers for the sun—for sunrise, midday, and sunset—and asking the sun to free the person saying the prayer from their sins.
Next, a series of sayings describe Brahman as existing in the light of the fire. When a fire fades, Brahman goes to the sun and the “breath of life to the wind” (105). Likewise, when the sun sets, Brahman goes into the light of the moon, then lightning, and then to heaven, with the breath of life going to the wind each time.
When the king Pratardana spoke to the storm god Indra, he asked for the best gift possible for all humanity. Indra eventually replied, “Know me, for this is the best for man: to know God” (106). Indra then recited a series of sayings. The first was a description of the “breath of life,” which includes “When we speak, life speaks” and “When we think, life thinks” (106). Indra then explained that consciousness and the breath of life are one and the same, since consciousness is how the eye sees, the ear hears, and so on. As a result, people should not want to know the speech, but the speaker; they should not want to know what it is seen, but the person seeing; and so on.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Taittiriya Upanishad”
This Upanishad is presented as a series of proverbs and prayers. One such prayer is that one be able to “wash” their “sins away” (109). Another lists characteristics and practices that are “needful” (109), which are truth, self-control, peace, humanity, peace, ritual, and “sacred learning and teaching,” two things that also comprise the virtue of “austerity” (109).
Brahman and Atman created space, which then produced air, then fire, then water, then earth, then plants, then food and seed, then humanity. Brahman is the origin of all joy, while having a “gulf” (110) between oneself and God causes fear.
Once the god Varuna explained to his son Bhigru Varuni about Brahman. Varuna described Brahman as “whom all beings have come, by whom they all live, and unto whom they all return” (110). Bhigru Varuni would go on to practice tapas multiple times, and after each meditation Varuna explained to him another part of Brahman’s mystery, namely that Brahman is also prayer, life, mind, reason, and joy. Brahman is also described as “that food which eats the eater of food” and as “beyond the universe” with the “light of the sun” as its “light” (112).
Chapters 8-10 Analysis
Like connecting with Brahman, samsara, which refers to The Cyclical Nature of Life and Death, is connected inexorably with Brahman and the Atman. The Upanishads’ concept of universal unity encompasses both the process by which souls are reincarnated or are liberated from the cycle, and what guides the process as well. This is what the “Maitri Upanishad” refers to when it states, “The poets say that this is the Spirit who wanders on this earth from body to body, free from the light and darkness which follow our works” (99).
Likewise, one’s mindset can lead to unification with Brahman but also toward one’s fate after one’s soul is reincarnated. That is what the author means when they state that reincarnation “takes place in one’s own mind” (103). Good or evil actions lead to a good or evil mind, which in turn affects the soul and its fate. Having knowledge of Brahman is what leads to God, and having desire for the material world leads to reincarnation in the material world. The “Maitri Upanishad” compares giving into selfishness and desire with getting captured: “Whenever the soul has thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ it binds itself with its lower self, as a bird with the net of a snare” (101). One way to summarize this belief is, “You are what you do and think.”
The “Taittiriya Upanishad” also presents a list to highlight The Guidance of Ethical Principles (109). What these virtues have in common is that they represent abstention from desire, and the ability to control one’s thoughts and actions. The text itself deeply links such morals to spiritual truth and knowledge. Throughout the Upanishads, it is implied that virtue and spirituality are symbiotic or two sides of the same coin, as seen in the two verses, “May the light of sacred knowledge illumine us, and may we attain the glory of wisdom” and “O Lord, let me come unto thee and come thou unto me, O Lord. In thy waters, O my Lord, may I wash my sins away” (109). Moral actions lead to spiritual enlightenment, and spiritual enlightenment leads to moral actions, hence the importance of both.
These Upanishads also continue to try to explain the nature of Brahman as part of their exploration of Ultimate Reality Within the Individual. Brahman is often compared to the sun and light, given by the moon or lightning. This is a metaphor intended to explain the nature of Brahman in terms that could be understood. Specifically, light is used to convey a spiritual sense of what Brahman is because light fills all space, it fills seemingly empty spaces, and it is something that life depends on for its existence: “He is seen in the radiance of the sun in the sky, in the brightness of fire on earth, and in the fire of life that burns the food of life” (101).
Light is also something that exists but is also intangible. This is like silence and sound, two things that also describe Brahman (102). While elsewhere Brahman is also compared to tangible objects and beings, such as mountains (63), the author of the “Maitri Upanishad” appropriately compares Brahman to things that can be experienced, yet are also intangible.
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