Isha Upanishad, Bharata Shakti and The Seed of Race

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Sir John Woodroffe, also recognized by the pseudonym Arthur Avalon, was a British Orientalist whose extensive and and intricate intric body of published works on the Tantras and various Hindu traditions played a pivotal role in sparking widespread interest in Hindu philosophy and yoga.

In addition to serving as the Advocate-General of Bengal and holding the position of Legal Member in the Government of India, Woodroffe dedicated himself to the study of Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy. His particular fascination with Hindu Tantra led him to translate around twenty original Sanskrit texts. Writing under the pen name Arthur Avalon, he not only published but also delivered prolific lectures on Indian philosophy, encompassing a broad spectrum of Yoga and Tantra subjects.

Woodroffe's works have gained global popularity, resonating not only with academics and scholars but also with a general audience around the world.

His other works also available from us Include "The Serpent Power', 'The Garland of Letters', 'The World as Power', 'The Great Liberation: Mahanirvana Tantra', 'Hymns to the Goddess and Hymn to Kali', 'Principles of Tantra', 'Introduction to Tantra Sastra', 'Sakti and Sakta', 'Is India Civilized: Essays on Indian Culture', and 'Isha Upanishad, Bharata Shakti & The Seed of Race'.

Some few years ago Mr. Jnanendralal Majumdar brought me a Sanskrit M.S. containing an unpublished Commentary of of the Isha Upanishat. I have here published it for the first time. The author was I am informed, a Bengali Tantrika Kaulacharyya of the name of Satyananda. I was told at the time that other Commentaries might be available. This one appeared to me to be of peculiar value as having been written with all lucidity and boldness from the standpoint of the Advaitavada of the Shakta Agama.

This final authority on which Tantra as every Shastra rests is Shruti. The world is eternal though it is sometimes manifest and sometimes unmanifest. In dissolution it exists undistinguishable from consciousness, as the potentiality of the creation yet to be. Veda too is eternal, being the seed of the world as idea existing in Ishvara consciousness which emanates in creation as the world-idea or word (shabda), of which the world is the meaning (artha). The first revelation of Veda is thus the cosmic ideation (Srishtikalpana) of Ishvara for whom there is no difference of shabda and artha such as exists in the divided consciousness of the Jiva. When, however, the Jiva's mind is purified he sees that the world is nothing but a kalpanâ of Ishvara. This is the secondary revelation of Veda in the minds of the Rishis or seers (drashtȧ) who see the truth in the clear mirror of their purified minds and proclaim it in language which as heard by ordinary men is Shruti. The Samhitas and Brahmanas are the Vaidik Karmakânda designed to purify the mind and, as Karma, are necessarily dualistic. The Aranyakas including the Upanishads are the monistic Jnanakânda as understood by the minds purified. Every system of Hindu spiritual culture must therefore be in consonance with the teaching of the Upanishads. So the exponents of different systems explain them in the form of commentaries.