by Roopa Pai
In fact, the word ‘Nigambodh’ literally translates to ‘understanding of the Veda’. Pretty cool that the prince who helped take the ‘understanding of the Veda’ to the world lived at that very spot, wot?
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MASTERMIND!
Presenting – tan-tan-taraa! – the Ultimate Challenge: The Conquest of the Mind
Circa 700 BCE. Elaborate, expensive and inflexible rituals had taken over every aspect of Arya life. Increasingly, the rituals were performed simply because they were part of tradition, with very few people trying to understand their true significance. Society had become rigidly hierarchical, with people of the upper varnas (or upper classes) cruelly discriminating against those of the lower ones. What’s more, they insisted that they had the divine sanction of the Vedas for doing so.
This kind of claim seemed outrageous to the liberal-minded thinkers of the time, who believed that all people, regardless of gender and varna, should be treated fairly and with kindness. Surely the holiest of their holy texts did not actually recommend exploitation and oppression of those who were different or less fortunate!
Reluctant to dismiss outright the sacred texts that their forefathers had lived by, these liberals decided to go back to the originals for a closer look. Maybe, if they studied them with an open mind and complete focus, they would find the secret code that cracked open the true message of the Vedas! Retreating into tranquil forests where there were few distractions, these thinkers spent years studying, analyzing and debating the message of the scriptures, while putting aside the largest chunk of time for deep and solitary reflection.
And what were their findings? A range of different ones, actually. Some thinkers came out roundly criticizing the rituals, and all the grovelling that people did in the name of worship, declaring that human endeavour should be directed not towards pleasing some god outside of us, but finding God inside ourselves. The fire that needed tending, they said, was not the one in the yagna kund, but the flame of true knowledge that burnt so brightly inside us. The real yagna was not about sacrificing animals but about sacrificing negative energies like ego, greed, hate and anger.
Others said there was nothing wrong with physical, external rituals, as long as one remembered their metaphorical meaning. It was important to remember, for instance, that the horse sacrificed during the Ashwamedha yagna, bringing power and glory to the person performing the sacrifice, was only a symbol for the universe – one had to give up one’s attachment to material things like wealth and success and fame, which come and go – for more permanent rewards like peace and contentment.
Meanwhile, some truly enlightened sages came up with beautiful, powerful ideas like ahimsa (non-violence) – which the Buddha championed, and which was later adapted to great effect in the political arena by Emperor Ashoka and Mahatma Gandhi – damyata (self-control), datta (generosity), daya (compassion) and satya (a truth-justice-‘rightness’ combine that goes well beyond ‘not lying’).
It was these thinkers who also produced the four Mahavakyas, or Great Pronouncements, which are different ways of expressing the mightiest central idea of the Upanishads – Atman is Brahman; you are God.
(You will find the Mahakavyas later in the book, as part of the Upanishads they belong to. When you find one, remember to say ‘Eureka!’.)
They put these epiphanies down as they struck them, these ancient sages of India, in rambling chunks that had neither a clear theme nor logical sequencing, over hundreds of years (obviously, it wasn’t all the same sages – even powerful sages did not live that long). Today, we know these collections of illuminating, ecstatic revelations as the Upanishads.
THE MENTALISTS
The ‘true message of the Vedas’ was only one outcome of the whole exercise of questioning. All those years spent in deep and focused contemplation helped these thinkers travel well beyond the Vedas, to unknown realms. The cool part was that these realms were not outside of themselves – they didn’t travel to the top of Mt Everest or darkest Peru or the frozen wilds of Antarctica – but deep inside their own minds!
Thousands of years before psychoanalysis was a thing, these sages explored the least probed recesses of the human mind and played around with different states of consciousness (the state of being awake, the dream state, the deep-sleep state – Inception, anyone?). They discovered, to their wonder and delight, that the world inside our minds was just as vast, complex, stunningly beautiful and dangerous to negotiate as the world outside, and far more difficult to conquer. More importantly, they found that while the joy that came from conquering the world outside was short-lived, if only because that world was constantly changing, the deep contentment that came of conquering the world inside was not only long-lasting and unchanging, but also made the conquest of the outer world seem, well, less important.
That is an exciting enough thought in itself, but before you go haring off to conquer your inner world, it might be a good idea to ask what you are actually supposed to be looking for when you plumb the depths, or how you will know that that world has been conquered. It might also help to find a wise teacher to help you get there, for the Upanishads are categorical that no one can go on this journey without an experienced guide.*
*How does one find that wise and experienced spiritual guide? Just like one finds the perfect tuition teacher – by looking around, getting recommendations from friends and seniors, taking a few trial classes and asking yourself some hard, honest questions at the end of it. Questions like – Do I feel comfortable around this teacher? Do I understand a concept better after she has taught it to me? Does she allow me to ask questions (which are sometimes admittedly dumb)? Does his teaching style involve pushing me hard or letting me be? (Both methods work, but for different kinds of students – the trick lies in picking a teacher whose style works for you.)
The analogy does not end there. Just like you may have to suffer several bad or unsuitable tuition teachers before you find the right one, you may have to try out several spiritual guides for size before you settle on a good one. Here’s what’s vital, though:
•Even after you think you’ve found him or her, make sure you keep questioning yourself about what you want from a teacher, and reflecting on whether your teacher fulfils those conditions.
•Be careful not to stay with a particular teacher simply because ‘everyone says he’s the best’.
•Most importantly, always remember that spiritual guides come in all shapes and forms – they need not be wearing saffron or white or green or have long beards or shaven heads. Anyone who lives his or her own life gently, calmly, compassionately, responsibly and cheerfully is a great guide!
Why is a guide so important, though? Because, while it isn’t so hard for the human brain to understand the ‘inner world conquest strategy’ at an intellectual level and it isn’t so difficult to tell someone else how it is done, it all becomes a lot more complicated when you actually have to do the conquering yourself, for it’s your own brain, or more correctly, your own mind, that you are trying to study and observe and conquer! As you can imagine, that is like entering a hall of mirrors, where everything is bound to get very confusing. Plus, this whole journey into the inner world is not about ‘understanding’ things, but about ‘experiencing’ things and ‘intuiting’ things. And we all know that that intuition, while it often happens by chance, isn’t easy to come by in a conscious way.
It is for this reason that the Upanishads insist on a guide. Eventually, of course, you will have to find your own way, but it will certainly help to get tips from someone who has already been there, at least part of the way, to tell you of his or her experience at each stage (like how reading up the reviews on Zomato gives you a much better idea of what to expect from a restaurant than reading the menu does).
But back to our original question – how will you know that the destination has been reached? The ultimate prize in this ultimate quest for everlasting contentment and peace, say the sages, is the mind-blowing realization that y
our life-force, the energy that fills you with life and light, is nothing but the all-pervading life-force of the universe itself. When you know that truth – declare the sages – and feel it, deeply, wholly, in every cell of your being, you have arrived.
ENTER THE CODEBREAKERS!
Once the ancient sages had themselves ‘arrived’, they hastened to share their revelations with the world. Which was great.
The trouble was, these revelations were spread across sprawling collections of poetry and prose, and were almost always oral in transmission, making them almost impossible to access in their entirety by people who had livelihoods to earn and families to take care of. Moreover, the thoughts expressed in them often bordered on the mystical, and spoke of ideas and places and experiences that ordinary people, even the most imaginative and intellectually adept among them, could not fully fathom.
The precious wisdoms may have been lost to common folk but for the efforts of a small, select band, who began to put down their own interpretations of these wisdoms in simple terms that everyone could understand. They made sure to include lots of relevant examples as well, so that more people could benefit.
The best-known of these ancient ‘CliffsNotes’ to the Upanishads are the Brahmasutra and the Bhagavad Gita. Together, the sacred triad (that number again!) of the Upanishads, the Brahmasutra and the Bhagavad Gita is considered to be the true and complete Vedanta (distillation of the Veda), containing all the guidance you need in your quest for the Brahman inside you.
The Brahmasutra, composed by a sage called Badarayana, is difficult to date accurately, but it was probably composed around the time when BCE turned to CE (or a couple of hundred years earlier, or a couple of hundred years later – you know how this goes). It comprises a set of 555 sutras, or verses, divided among four chapters that neatly and brilliantly collate, organize, classify and summarize all the lessons and wisdom of the sprawling Upanishads.
There’s more to like about the Brahmasutra – like a good NCERT science lesson, it starts by introducing the Topic (Brahman), goes on to the Definition (What is Brahman?), does a ‘Review’ of different theories about it (What do the Hindu texts say about Brahman? What about the Buddhist texts? And the Jain texts?), clears up apparent contradictions within the Upanishads themselves, lays down the steps of the ‘Process’, all the way to the ‘Result’, Moksha, in a step-by-step bullet-point format, and concludes with the ‘Uses and Benefits’ of setting off on the Great Brahman Quest.
The Brahmasutra works great as a handy guide to the Upanishads for the logical learner who wants his facts straight, but for the romantic who prefers his wisdoms laced with a nice dose of spectacle and melodrama (which is most of us), another kind of treatment was needed. Enter, stage right, the Bhagavad Gita, the most compact, comforting and accessible friend, mentor and teacher of the Upanishads that anyone could want. By cleverly locating some of the most complex philosophical ideas in the world on a battlefield, with a war about to begin, Veda Vyasa, the author of the Gita, takes the lessons of the Brahmasutra out of the textbook and into the laboratory, shifting it dramatically, and effectively, from Theory to Practicals. By delivering the Upanishads’ highest wisdoms via a conversation between two best friends, both of whom we know so well from a time much before the war, he grabs our attention and converts ‘Pure Philosophy’ into living ‘Applied Philosophy’.
Wow – 360-degree learning, anyone?
#LIFEGOALS
Purushartha – the Hindu mission statement for the ideal human life
While it is quite common, even essential, for countries and businesses to have clearly articulated goals and aspirations, it is not often that you find a religion that has one. We are not talking rules here – every religion has those by the bushel – but a set of recommendations on how to lead a good and upright life. Here are the four goals, called Purushartha, of human life, as conceived by the sages of ancient India.
•Dharma – Doing your duty, fulfilling your responsibilities (to yourself, your family and your community), leading a morally upright life and living up to your potential, whether you are student or daughter or father or teacher or boss or doctor or construction worker.
•Artha – Having a goal and purpose in life, which includes the accumulation of material wealth. This may sound surprising, but the sages of the Vedas were pretty pragmatic. Realizing that a life of dignity required a person to be able to provide himself and his family with food, shelter and clothing, they set down the pursuit of Artha (wealth) as a noble goal, as long as it was done in accordance with Dharma. That meant that exploiting others or coveting wealth beyond one’s needs was out, unless one also gave the extra wealth away to the less fortunate or used it to better the community. The sages were also pretty ruthless – by making Artha a goal, they sent out a clear message: ‘Frittering away time aimlessly, drifting along without giving back to the community and general navel-gazing are a strict no-no. Make yourself useful!’ Ouch.
•Kama – The pursuit of pleasure. Yup, the Vedic sages were so woke that they even put the pursuit of pleasure down as a legitimate goal of human existence! Love, affection and anything that pleased the senses or was considered enjoyable – a beautiful sunset on a beach holiday, the smell of the earth after the rain, listening to a concert by your favourite pop star, the feeling of your dog’s soft fur, slurping up your grandmother’s kheer, hanging out with your friends – were all considered not only good, but necessary ingredients in a life well-lived. Once again, though, pleasure had to be chased within the rules of Dharma – going to a movie on the day before your exams wouldn’t work, for instance, because it would clash with your Dharma as a student, which would demand that you spend that time studying.
•Moksha – The quest for ultimate happiness and the most complete and blissful kind of freedom. While Dharma, Artha and Kama are all worldly pursuits, and are very important – after all, we all do live in the material world – Moksha urges you to be detached from those very same worldly pleasures, i.e., love, hate, wealth, success!
Eh? How can all four be the goals of human life if one of them, Moksha, is at complete odds with the other three, or at least two? Expectedly, the ancient sages debated this question a lot – until they found a way to reconcile the two, with a killer concept called ‘Nishkama Karma’ (action without attachment). It was Krishna who explained the concept to Arjuna, and through Arjuna, to us, so famously in the Bhagavad Gita – ‘Do your duty (i.e., enjoy your concert, or go work at a job), but don’t become attached to the result of that action.’ In other words, go work at a job, but don’t make earning money (or loving your job) the object of your work; love your friends as much as you like, but don’t expect that they should love you back in exactly the same way; study as hard as you can to fulfil your Dharma as a student, but don’t fret if you don’t top the class as a result. Do that, they said, and the effects of being ‘worldly’, i.e., pursuing pleasure and wealth, will not bind you, and you will be free.
Got that? Sure. Cool concept? Maybe. Easy to follow in real life? We-ell…
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SHANKARA’S FAVES – THE TOP TEN UPANISHADS
Lists, rankings, peace prayers and other essential Upanishadic basics
You know by now that while there are differences of opinion on exactly how many Upanishads there are, ‘around 200’ seems to be a figure everyone is comfortable with. Of course, we haven’t actually been able to lay our hands on the manuscripts of all 200 – we only know many of them existed because some other Upanishad, or some other text, refers to them, or because we have found a commentary on the Upanishad (and not the Upanishad itself), written by someone who lived hundreds of years later.
The Muktika Upanishad, composed about 600 years ago, is one such text. It puts down what is considered a ‘Definitive List’, in which it names 108 Upanishads. What of the other ninety-two? We are not sure – either they did not make it to the coveted list because they were not considered worthy, or they were composed after the Mukti
ka went to press. (Yes, not all the Upanishads are over 2,000 years old!)
But even 108 Upanishads are too many to discuss in a book like this. So we shall take refuge, as so many have in the past, in the scholarship of the 8th century boy mystic from Kerala – Shankara – who, after studying as many Upanishads as were around in his time, wrote expansive, illuminating commentaries on ten of them (or possibly eleven, but the eleventh commentary has never been found, so we shall go with ten for now). Because Shankara was so highly regarded, those ten Upanishads have come to be celebrated as the Mukhya, or Principal, Upanishads, and occupy the Top Ten position in the Muktika’s Definitive List as well.
What was good enough for Shankara is surely good enough for us, so in this book we shall stick to discussing only the Principal Upanishads. Deal? Deal. (For the story of Shankara, check page 169.)
Here, then – drum roll, please! – is the list of Shankara’s Chosen Ones.*
*The following info is strictly for stats and trivia nerds. If you aren’t one, go back to reading the main text.
•Shankara’s hand-picked Upanishads made it to the ‘Top Ten’ in the Muktika’s list as well. The Muktika humbly lists itself in the 108th place as the one that completes the list.
•This list is not in chronological order. The oldest Upanishads are, in fact, the last two on the ‘Top Ten list’, from around 700 BCE. The youngest of the ten are the Prashna and the Mandukya, from around the 1st century CE.
•The span of time over which the 108 Upanishads were composed is about 2,000 years, starting with the Brihadaranyaka and ending with the Muktika in the 15th century. Phew.
1. Isha
2. Kena
3. Katha
4. Prashna
5. Mundaka