The Upanishads
and
Hindu Philosophical and
Religious Traditions
Themes from the Upanishads
1. Impermanence and Permanence
• The world of sense objects is impermanent, but
there is a permanent, enduring reality.
• This permanent reality is sat-chit-ananda (beingconsciousness-bliss).
• When sat-chit-ananda is viewed as an external,
cosmic reality, it is called “Brahman.” When
viewed as the inner reality of the individual
person, it is called “Atman.”
2. The Brahman Reality
• Many of the Upanishads teach that Brahman is
non-duality, and identical with Atman.
• Non-dual sat-chit-ananda appears or manifests as
the multiplicity of objects in our experience. What
endures is one, but it’s name and form (nama-rupa)
is many.
• The non-dual conception of the Brahman/Atman
reality implies ultimate reality has no attributes
(nirguna) and is thus not a personal being.
Brahma
Vishnu
Shiva
The Non-Dual interpretation of Brahman implies that
“gods” represent different provisional manifestations of
formless Brahman.
Brahma
Vishnu
Shiva
The Trimurti (three forms) represent formless Brahman
manifested or immanent in the cosmic processes of
creation, preservation, and dissolution/recreation of
the cosmos. This is the meaning of the mantra OM or
AUM.
Brahman as Personal God
• The Upanishads also refer to Brahman under various
attributes (saguna Brahman), including those
indicative of personhood: knowledge, will, and moral
goodness (Svetasvatara Upanishad, VI.1-23).
• Some passages in Mundaka Upanishad subordinate
imperishable Brahman to the supreme “Purusha”
(person).
• Other later Upanishads emphasize personal theism
(e.g. Katha, Isa, and Svetasvatara).
Atman and Personal God
• Brahman as the Supreme personal being
implies that atman (the true Self) and the
Absolute are distinct, though intimately
related to each other.
• This also suggests a plurality of atman
realities, as multiple finite manifestations of
the infinite essence of Brahman.
• The true Self of each person is to Brahman
what a wave is to the ocean.
3. The Human Condition
• The impermanence of the world is found also
in the human disposition to identity Self with
the body-mind.
• The “separate self” is the atman reality
conditioned by attachments to sense objects.
• Attachment = identifying the Self with the
body or mind (thinking, perceiving, and
sensing).
Unhappiness
• Where there is a “separate self,” there is
unhappiness, lack of peace, lack of satisfaction
or fulfillment.
• By virtue of its self-understanding, the “separate
self” is by definition separated from the
permanent sacred reality that alone is the peace
or fulfillment it seeks.
• The “self-understanding” of the separate self is
really a form of ignorance (avidya).
4. Spiritual Practice
The Upanishads refer to a variety of “spiritual
practices” by means of which the separate self is
dismantled and true peace (ananda) is realized.
Unhappiness
Separate Self
Attachment to Sense Objects
Since the separate self is grounded in attachment to
sense objects, the dissolution of the self-separate self is
by way of non-attachment, which is facilitated by three
practices:
• Discrimination (jnana) between what is enduring and
non-enduring.
• Meditation (dhyana) on the inner Self or God as the
enduring reality.
• Love or devotional service (bhakti) to the Self or God.
The Upanishads and Hindu
Philosophical Traditions
Sankhya Philosophy
• Oldest systematic philosophy of the Hindu traditions,
extending back to the period of the Upanishads.
• Central concepts: the distinction between matter
(prakriti) and consciousness (purusha). Liberation
from samsara requires cultivation of practices to
realize the Self as consciousness unconditioned by
matter.
• Sankhya is dualistic: there are many true selves.
• Sankhya is atheistic, since belief in a god is not part
of Sankhya.
Raja-Yoga of Patanjali
• Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (circa 100 BCE – 500 CE).
• One’s true Self is purusha or atman, buried beneath
the layers of a separate self.
• Yoga is chitta-vritti nirodha, stilling the thought forms
of the mind by practices of moral virtue,
discrimination, meditation, including physical
posture and breath control.
• Belief in a personal god is included in the Yoga
Darshan. It’s a marginal element, though, since what
is essential for liberation is individual self-effort not
the grace of a god.
Vedanta
Originating with Shankara (circa 9th century CE) the systematic elaboration of the Upanishads.
Shankara’s tradition of Vedanta
is Advaita Vedanta, “advaita”
meaning not-two. This school
of Vedanta adopts a radically
non-dual understanding of
reality.
By contrast, Bhakti Vedanta traditions affirm that
Brahman is ultimately a personal reality, the true self
of each person is distinct from Brahman and each
other, even though they are intimately related.
Vedanta in the United States
The Advaita tradition came to the United States in the
last quarter of the 20th century through the teachings
of Swami Vivekananda (right), the great disciple of
19th century guru Sri Ramakrishna (left).
Vedanta in the United States
The Bhakti tradition came to the United States in the
1960s under the guidance of A.C. Bhaktivedanta
Swami Prabhupada, founder of the Hare Krishna
movement (a species of Vaishnavism)
Devotional Hindu Religious
Traditions
Textual Sources
• Theism (belief in a single Supreme personal being)
emerges in many of the later Upanishads (8th-6th
centuries BCE).
• Theism is an important motif in the Epic literature of
India beginning around the 5th century BCE.
• The Bhagavad Gita (circa 300 BCE), for example,
emphasized the ultimately personal nature of
ultimate reality (Brahman), as well as its
manifestation in human form as Bhagavan (Lord)
Krishna.
The Puranas
• Hindu devotional traditions are also based on the
various texts called the Puranas, which were
composed largely during the Gupta period (circa 320500 century CE), and revised during the medieval
period.
• The Puranas are conceptually influenced by aspects
of both the Upanishads and Epic literature. As such
they are an interesting blend of non-dual philosophy,
cosmology, and theism.
The Puranas
• The Puranas are essential for understanding worship
of the gods in the mainline devotional traditions of
India today.
• Although acknowledging many of the different gods
of the Hindu pantheon, the Puranas demonstrate the
rise in popularity of the worship of Vishnu and the
worship of Shiva as the Supreme being.
• Some of the Puranas are written from a sectarian
viewpoint in which Vishnu or Shiva is the Supreme
being, and all other gods are subordinate entities.
Bhakti Renaissance
• Between the 6th to 9th centuries CE, bhakti traditions grew in
intensity in South India among many poets and mystics, and
by the 11th century were widespread in North India.
• The worship of Vishnu (Vaishnavism) and Shiva (Shaivism) as
the Supreme being were the prominent general forms of
religious worship in the Bhakti traditions.
• Bhakti traditions emphasized the loss of ego in total surrender
and love for God, often rejecting more formalized aspects of
religious worship (formal temple worship, yoga, and
theology).
Contemporary Devotional
Traditions
Vaishnavism:
Worship of Vishnu
or Krishna as the
Supreme Being.
Vaishnava Traditions
• Vaishnavism designates a variety of different
traditions centered on the worship of Vishnu (or
Krishna) and his many expansions or manifestations.
• Some Vaishnava traditions (dvaita) are strongly
dualistic in nature, affirming a distinction between
God, the world, and souls. Others (Vishishtadvaita)
are non-dualistic with qualification: souls are part of
God’s being. Others (Gaudiya Vaishnavism) affirm the
simultaneous difference and non-difference between
the Self and God.
Shaivism: Worship
of Shiva as the
Supreme Being.
Saiva Siddhanta:
Dualistic – Shiva and the
devotee are distinct.
Kasmir Shaivism:
Non-dualism – Shiva and
the devotee are nondistinct, whose essential
nature is consciousness.
Shaktism: Worship
of Shakti or Devi
– the Divine
Mother – as the
Supreme Being.
Rooted in the Puranas
and Tantric texts.
Less clearly defined
than Vaishnavism and
Shaivism.
Often indistinguishable
from Shaivism.
Smartism: Worship of one’s own chosen deity as one
among many different manifestations of formless
Brahman. Philosophically grounded in Advaita
Vedanta.
“Truth is one, but the sages call it by different names.”
– Rig Veda
References
• Steven Rosen, Essential Hinduism (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006).
• R.C. Zaehner, Hindu and Muslim Mysticism (New York: Schocken
Books, 1969), Chapters 2-4.
• R.C. Zaehner, Hinduism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1972).
• Swami Prabhavanda, The Spiritual Heritage of India: A Clear
Summary of Indian Philosophy and Religion (Hollywood, CA: Vedanta
Press, 1979), Chapters 1-3.
• Gavin Flood, Introduction to Hinduism (Cambridge University Press,
1996).
• Hans Torwesten, Vedanta: Heart of Hinduism (New York: Grove Press,
1991), Chapter 1.
• Dominic Goodall (ed.), Hindu Scriptures (Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 1996).