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Upanishads: The Eternal Spring of Spiritual Life SWAMI SMARANANANDA
The Greatness of Upanishads Swami Vivekananda says:
jivama kena kva ca sampratisthah | adhishthitah kena sukhetareshu vartamahe Brahmavido vyavastham |
If you look, you will find that I have never quoted anything but the Upanishads. And of the Upanishads, it is only that idea of strength.1
Upanishads have appealed not only to philosophers and saints in India, Western philosophers like Socrates, Paul Deussen, Max Muller and others too have been deeply influenced by them. Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher, for instance, read the Latin translation of the Upanishads and was so impressed by their philosophy that he called them ‘the production of the highest human wisdom.’ He famously remarked, In the whole world there is no study, so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Oupnekhat [Upanishad]. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death!
The Eternal Quest Since very ancient times the quest of the Indian sages has been to find the Permanent amidst the evanescent, to find the One amongst the many. They were committed to know the Ultimate Reality underlying the universe. Hence they raised some very fundamental questions. For example, the Shvetasvatara Upanishad2 begins with these basic questions—
What is the nature of Brahman, the Source? From what have we been born? By what do we live? And where do we exist? O knowers of Brahman, controlled by whom do we follow the rule regarding joy and its opposite?
The Upanishads which form the last part of the four Vedas have tried to probe into momentous questions such as these. They deal with the immortality of the Soul, the manifestation of the universe and so on. They delve deep into the nature of the human psyche, and the pure consciousness which focus the core of the inner Reality. In this process, both the transcendent and immanent aspects are brought out in a graphic manner. The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, from passages III.vii.3 to 23, describes allpervasiveness of Brahman. To give a glimpse of the above idea, the following passage is quoted:
kim karanam Brahma kutah sma jata o T h e
Yah prithivyam tishthan prithivya antarah yam prithivi na veda yasya prithivi shariram yah prithivimantaro yamayatyesha ta atmaantaryamyamritah He who inhabits the earth, but is within it, whom the earth does not know, whose body is the earth, and who controls the earth from within, is the Internal Ruler, your own immortal self.
The author is Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.
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