An Introduction to Brhadaranyaka Bhasya (An Old and Rare Book)

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The Upanisads generally form the last portions of the Veda and are positively the culmination of its philosophy. They are India's greatest contribution to the world of theology and theosophy. Forming the highest strata to which the human spirit can sore, they have dominated religion, philosophy and life in all varicty representing the Indian ethos. There has been no development, either as a religious sect or a philosophical school, in Hinduism that has not based or claimed to have based itself upon the fundamentals of the Upanisads, so much so, that heretic sects like Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism also claim them as their sources. The atheistic philosophies of the Carvakas etc. find their doubts anticipated in these Vedantas. It is interesting to note that the Communist Party has claimed not only the Upanisads, but also Sankara's ideas as the early formation of their philosophy. Thus certitudes as well as hesitanc.es, knowledge as well as nihilism and results as well as misgivings have been anticipated in them. The world of philosophies and religions has been represented in them in one essential or the other. In India, of course, for ages, men have formulated their views relying on the Upanisads to solve the chief problems of life and existence. Prof. Winternitz frankly declarcs, For the historian, who pursues the history of human thoughts, the Upanisads have yet a far greater significance. From the mystical doctrines of the Upanisads, one current of thought may be traced to the mysticism of Persian Sufism, to the mystic, theosophical logos, doctrine of the neoplatonics and the Alexandrian Christian mystics, Eckhart and Tauler, and finally to the philosophy of the great German Mystic of the nine- teenth century, Schopenhaur.' (A History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, pg. 266) Schopenhaur himself claims, 'From every sentence (of the Upanisads), deep original and sublime thoughts arise, and the whole is pervaded by a high and holy and earnest spirit. In the whole world there is no study...... so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanisads. They are products of the highest wisdom. Thoy are sooner or later to become the faith of the peoples." The Upanisads are inheretence bestowed on humanity rather upon than any national, racial or religious group. They have appealed to different people in different ages for different reasons. Professor Radhakrishnan concludes: They are said to provide us with a complete chart of the Unseen Reality; to give us the most immediate, intimate and convincing light on the secret of human existence; to formulate, in Deussen's words, "philosophical conceptions unregulated anywhere else in the world." W. B. Ycats, in his preface to the Ten Principal Upanisads accepts that they tackle every fundamental problem of philosophy. R. Golden Milburn, in his Christian Vedanta writes, "Christianity in India needs the Vedanta. We missionaries have not realized this with half the clearness that we should. We cannot move freely and joyfully in our own religion because we have not sufficient terms and modes of expression wherewith to express the more immanental aspects of Christianity." It is a historical fact that a pope of the twentieth century has allowd the Upanisads to be read in the Church as a substitute for the Old Testament. It is clear the Upanisads are World Scriptures', not belonging only to India, much less, only to Hinduism.