The Upanishads (; Sanskrit: उपनिषद्
Upaniṣad [ʊpən̪ɪʂəd̪]), a part of
the Vedas, are ancient Sanskrit texts that
contain some of the central philosophical
concepts and ideas of Hinduism, some of which
are shared with religious traditions like
Buddhism and Jainism. Among the most important
literature in the history of Indian religions
and culture, the Upanishads played an important
role in the development of spiritual ideas
in ancient India, marking a transition from
Vedic ritualism to new ideas and institutions.
Of all Vedic literature, the Upanishads alone
are widely known, and their central ideas
are at the spiritual core of Hindus.The Upanishads
are commonly referred to as Vedānta. Vedanta
has been interpreted as the "last chapters,
parts of the Veda" and alternatively as "object,
the highest purpose of the Veda". The concepts
of Brahman (ultimate reality) and Ātman (soul,
self) are central ideas in all of the Upanishads,
and "know that you are the Ātman" is their
thematic focus. Along with the Bhagavad Gita
and the Brahmasutra, the mukhya Upanishads
(known collectively as the Prasthanatrayi)
provide a foundation for the several later
schools of Vedanta, among them, two influential
monistic schools of Hinduism.More than 200
Upanishads are known, of which the first dozen
or so are the oldest and most important and
are referred to as the principal or main (mukhya)
Upanishads. The mukhya Upanishads are found
mostly in the concluding part of the Brahmanas
and Aranyakas and were, for centuries, memorized
by each generation and passed down orally.
The early Upanishads all predate the Common
Era, five of them in all likelihood pre-Buddhist
(6th century BCE), down to the Maurya period.
Of the remainder, 95 Upanishads are part of
the Muktika canon, composed from about the
last centuries of 1st-millennium BCE through
about 15th-century CE. New Upanishads, beyond
the 108 in the Muktika canon, continued to
be composed through the early modern and modern
era, though often dealing with subjects which
are unconnected to the Vedas.With the translation
of the Upanishads in the early 19th century
they also started to attract attention from
a western audience. Arthur Schopenhauer was
deeply impressed by the Upanishads and called
it "the production of the highest human wisdom".
Modern era Indologists have discussed the
similarities between the fundamental concepts
in the Upanishads and major western philosophers.
== Etymology ==
The Sanskrit term Upaniṣad (from upa "by"
and ni-ṣad "sit down") translates to "sitting
down near", referring to the student sitting
down near the teacher while receiving spiritual
knowledge. Other dictionary meanings include
"esoteric doctrine" and "secret doctrine".
Monier-Williams' Sanskrit Dictionary notes
– "According to native authorities, Upanishad
means setting to rest ignorance by revealing
the knowledge of the supreme spirit."Adi Shankaracharya
explains in his commentary on the Kaṭha
and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad that the word
means Ātmavidyā, that is, "knowledge of
the self", or Brahmavidyā "knowledge of Brahma".
The word appears in the verses of many Upanishads,
such as the fourth verse of the 13th volume
in first chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad.
Max Müller as well as Paul Deussen translate
the word Upanishad in these verses as "secret
doctrine", Robert Hume translates it as "mystic
meaning", while Patrick Olivelle translates
it as "hidden connections".
== Development ==
=== Authorship ===
The authorship of most Upanishads is uncertain
and unknown. Radhakrishnan states, "almost
all the early literature of India was anonymous,
we do not know the names of the authors of
the Upanishads". The ancient Upanishads are
embedded in the Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism's
religious scriptures, which some traditionally
consider to be apauruṣeya, which means "not
of a man, superhuman" and "impersonal, authorless".
The Vedic texts assert that they were skillfully
created by Rishis (sages), after inspired
creativity, just as a carpenter builds a chariot.The
various philosophical theories in the early
Upanishads have been attributed to famous
sages such as Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka Aruni,
Shvetaketu, Shandilya, Aitareya, Balaki, Pippalada,
and Sanatkumara. Women, such as Maitreyi and
Gargi participate in the dialogues and are
also credited in the early Upanishads. There
are some exceptions to the anonymous tradition
of the Upanishads. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad,
for example, includes closing credits to sage
Shvetashvatara, and he is considered the author
of the Upanishad.Many scholars believe that
early Upanishads were interpolated and expanded
over time. There are differences within manuscripts
of the same Upanishad discovered in different
parts of South Asia, differences in non-Sanskrit
version of the texts that have survived, and
differences within each text in terms of meter,
style, grammar and structure. The existing
texts are believed to be the work of many
authors.
=== Chronology ===
Scholars are uncertain about when the Upanishads
were composed. The chronology of the early
Upanishads is difficult to resolve, states
philosopher and Sanskritist Stephen Phillips,
because all opinions rest on scanty evidence
and analysis of archaism, style and repetitions
across texts, and are driven by assumptions
about likely evolution of ideas, and presumptions
about which philosophy might have influenced
which other Indian philosophies. Indologist
Patrick Olivelle says that "in spite of claims
made by some, in reality, any dating of these
documents [early Upanishads] that attempts
a precision closer than a few centuries is
as stable as a house of cards". Some scholars
have tried to analyse similarities between
Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist literature to
establish chronology for the Upanishads.Patrick
Olivelle gives the following chronology for
the early Upanishads, also called the Principal
Upanishads:
The Brhadaranyaka and the Chandogya are the
two earliest Upanishads. They are edited texts,
some of whose sources are much older than
others. The two texts are pre-Buddhist; they
may be placed in the 7th to 6th centuries
BCE, give or take a century or so.
The three other early prose Upanisads—Taittiriya,
Aitareya, and Kausitaki come next; all are
probably pre-Buddhist and can be assigned
to the 6th to 5th centuries BCE.
The Kena is the oldest of the verse Upanisads
followed by probably the Katha, Isa, Svetasvatara,
and Mundaka. All these Upanisads were composed
probably in the last few centuries BCE.
The two late prose Upanisads, the Prasna and
the Mandukya, cannot be much older than the
beginning of the common era.Stephen Phillips
places the early Upanishads in the 800 to
300 BCE range. He summarizes the current Indological
opinion to be that the Brhadaranyaka, Chandogya,
Isha, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kena, Katha, Mundaka,
and Prasna Upanishads are all pre-Buddhist
and pre-Jain, while Svetasvatara and Mandukya
overlap with the earliest Buddhist and Jain
literature.The later Upanishads, numbering
about 95, also called minor Upanishads, are
dated from the late 1st-millennium BCE to
mid 2nd-millennium CE. Gavin Flood dates many
of the twenty Yoga Upanishads to be probably
from the 100 BCE to 300 CE period. Patrick
Olivelle and other scholars date seven of
the twenty Sannyasa Upanishads to likely have
been complete sometime between the last centuries
of the 1st-millennium BCE to 300 CE. About
half of the Sannyasa Upanishads were likely
composed in 14th- to 15th-century CE.
=== Geography ===
The general area of the composition of the
early Upanishads is considered as northern
India. The region is bounded on the west by
the upper Indus valley, on the east by lower
Ganges region, on the north by the Himalayan
foothills, and on the south by the Vindhya
mountain range. Scholars are reasonably sure
that the early Upanishads were produced at
the geographical center of ancient Brahmanism,
comprising the regions of Kuru-Panchala and
Kosala-Videha together with the areas immediately
to the south and west of these. This region
covers modern Bihar, Nepal, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, eastern
Rajasthan, and northern Madhya Pradesh.While
significant attempts have been made recently
to identify the exact locations of the individual
Upanishads, the results are tentative. Witzel
identifies the center of activity in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad as the area of Videha, whose king,
Janaka, features prominently in the Upanishad.
The Chandogya Upanishad was probably composed
in a more western than eastern location in
the Indian subcontinent, possibly somewhere
in the western region of the Kuru-Panchala
country.Compared to the Principal Upanishads,
the new Upanishads recorded in the Muktikā
belong to an entirely different region, probably
southern India, and are considerably relatively
recent. In the fourth chapter of the Kaushitaki
Upanishad, a location named Kashi (modern
Varanasi) is mentioned.
== Classification ==
=== Muktika canon: major and minor Upanishads
===
There are more than 200 known Upanishads,
one of which, the Muktikā Upanishad, predates
1656 CE and contains a list of 108 canonical
Upanishads, including itself as the last.
These are further divided into Upanishads
associated with Shaktism (goddess Shakti),
Sannyasa (renunciation, monastic life), Shaivism
(god Shiva), Vaishnavism (god Vishnu), Yoga,
and Sāmānya (general, sometimes referred
to as Samanya-Vedanta).Some of the Upanishads
are categorized as "sectarian" since they
present their ideas through a particular god
or goddess of a specific Hindu tradition such
as Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, or a combination
of these such as the Skanda Upanishad. These
traditions sought to link their texts as Vedic,
by asserting their texts to be an Upanishad,
thereby a Śruti. Most of these sectarian
Upanishads, for example the Rudrahridaya Upanishad
and the Mahanarayana Upanishad, assert that
all the Hindu gods and goddesses are the same,
all an aspect and manifestation of Brahman,
the Vedic concept for metaphysical ultimate
reality before and after the creation of the
Universe.
=== Mukhya Upanishads ===
The Mukhya Upanishads can be grouped into
periods. Of the early periods are the Brihadaranyaka
and the Chandogya, the oldest.
The Aitareya, Kauṣītaki and Taittirīya
Upanishads may date to as early as the mid
1st millennium BCE, while the remnant date
from between roughly the 4th to 1st centuries
BCE, roughly contemporary with the earliest
portions of the Sanskrit epics.
One chronology assumes that the Aitareya,
Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka, Prasna, and
Katha Upanishads has Buddha's influence, and
is consequently placed after the 5th century
BCE, while another proposal questions this
assumption and dates it independent of Buddha's
date of birth. After these Principal Upanishads
are typically placed the Kena, Mandukya and
Isa Upanishads, but other scholars date these
differently. Not much is known about the authors
except for those, like Yajnavalkayva and Uddalaka,
mentioned in the texts. A few women discussants,
such as Gargi and Maitreyi, the wife of Yajnavalkayva,
also feature occasionally.
Each of the principal Upanishads can be associated
with one of the schools of exegesis of the
four Vedas (shakhas). Many Shakhas are said
to have existed, of which only a few remain.
The new Upanishads often have little relation
to the Vedic corpus and have not been cited
or commented upon by any great Vedanta philosopher:
their language differs from that of the classic
Upanishads, being less subtle and more formalized.
As a result, they are not difficult to comprehend
for the modern reader.
The Kauśītāki and Maitrāyaṇi Upanishads
are sometimes added to the list of the mukhya
Upanishads.
=== New Upanishads ===
There is no fixed list of the Upanishads as
newer ones, beyond the Muktika anthology of
108 Upanishads, have continued to be discovered
and composed. In 1908, for example, four previously
unknown Upanishads were discovered in newly
found manuscripts, and these were named Bashkala,
Chhagaleya, Arsheya, and Saunaka, by Friedrich
Schrader, who attributed them to the first
prose period of the Upanishads. The text of
three of them, namely the Chhagaleya, Arsheya,
and Saunaka, were incomplete and inconsistent,
likely poorly maintained or corrupted.Ancient
Upanishads have long enjoyed a revered position
in Hindu traditions, and authors of numerous
sectarian texts have tried to benefit from
this reputation by naming their texts as Upanishads.
These "new Upanishads" number in the hundreds,
cover diverse range of topics from physiology
to renunciation to sectarian theories. They
were composed between the last centuries of
the 1st millennium BCE through the early modern
era (~1600 CE). While over two dozen of the
minor Upanishads are dated to pre-3rd century
CE, many of these new texts under the title
of "Upanishads" originated in the first half
of the 2nd millennium CE, they are not Vedic
texts, and some do not deal with themes found
in the Vedic Upanishads.The main Shakta Upanishads,
for example, mostly discuss doctrinal and
interpretative differences between the two
principal sects of a major Tantric form of
Shaktism called Shri Vidya upasana. The many
extant lists of authentic Shakta Upaniṣads
vary, reflecting the sect of their compilers,
so that they yield no evidence of their "location"
in Tantric tradition, impeding correct interpretation.
The Tantra content of these texts also weaken
its identity as an Upaniṣad for non-Tantrikas.
Sectarian texts such as these do not enjoy
status as shruti and thus the authority of
the new Upanishads as scripture is not accepted
in Hinduism.
== Association with Vedas ==
All Upanishads are associated with one of
the four Vedas—Rigveda, Samaveda, Yajurveda
(there are two primary versions or Samhitas
of the Yajurveda: Shukla Yajurveda, Krishna
Yajurveda), and Atharvaveda. During the modern
era, the ancient Upanishads that were embedded
texts in the Vedas, were detached from the
Brahmana and Aranyaka layers of Vedic text,
compiled into separate texts and these were
then gathered into anthologies of Upanishads.
These lists associated each Upanishad with
one of the four Vedas, many such lists exist,
and these lists are inconsistent across India
in terms of which Upanishads are included
and how the newer Upanishads are assigned
to the ancient Vedas. In south India, the
collected list based on Muktika Upanishad,
and published in Telugu language, became the
most common by the 19th-century and this is
a list of 108 Upanishads. In north India,
a list of 52 Upanishads has been most common.The
Muktikā Upanishad's list of 108 Upanishads
groups the first 13 as mukhya, 21 as Sāmānya
Vedānta, 20 as Sannyāsa, 14 as Vaishnava,
12 as Shaiva, 8 as Shakta, and 20 as Yoga.
The 108 Upanishads as recorded in the Muktikā
are shown in the table below. The mukhya Upanishads
are the most important and highlighted.
== Philosophy ==
The Upanishadic age was characterized by a
pluralism of worldviews. While some Upanishads
have been deemed 'monistic', others, including
the Katha Upanishad, are dualistic. The Maitri
is one of the Upanishads that inclines more
toward dualism, thus grounding classical Samkhya
and Yoga schools of Hinduism, in contrast
to the non-dualistic Upanishads at the foundation
of its Vedanta school. They contain a plurality
of ideas.Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan states that
the Upanishads have dominated Indian philosophy,
religion and life ever since their appearance.
The Upanishads are respected not because they
are considered revealed (Shruti), but because
they present spiritual ideas that are inspiring.
The Upanishads are treatises on Brahman-knowledge,
that is knowledge of Ultimate Hidden Reality,
and their presentation of philosophy presumes,
"it is by a strictly personal effort that
one can reach the truth". In the Upanishads,
states Radhakrishnan, knowledge is a means
to freedom, and philosophy is the pursuit
of wisdom by a way of life.The Upanishads
include sections on philosophical theories
that have been at the foundation of Indian
traditions. For example, the Chandogya Upanishad
includes one of the earliest known declaration
of Ahimsa (non-violence) as an ethical precept.
Discussion of other ethical premises such
as Damah (temperance, self-restraint), Satya
(truthfulness), Dāna (charity), Ārjava (non-hypocrisy),
Daya (compassion) and others are found in
the oldest Upanishads and many later Upanishads.
Similarly, the Karma doctrine is presented
in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, which is
the oldest Upanishad.
=== Development of thought ===
While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals
and the Brahmanas serve as a liturgical manual
for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the
Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual.
The older Upanishads launch attacks of increasing
intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships
a divinity other than the self is called a
domestic animal of the gods in the Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad. The Chāndogya Upanishad parodies
those who indulge in the acts of sacrifice
by comparing them with a procession of dogs
chanting Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink.The
Kaushitaki Upanishad asserts that "external
rituals such as Agnihotram offered in the
morning and in the evening, must be replaced
with inner Agnihotram, the ritual of introspection",
and that "not rituals, but knowledge should
be one's pursuit". The Mundaka Upanishad declares
how man has been called upon, promised benefits
for, scared unto and misled into performing
sacrifices, oblations and pious works. Mundaka
thereafter asserts this is foolish and frail,
by those who encourage it and those who follow
it, because it makes no difference to man's
current life and after-life, it is like blind
men leading the blind, it is a mark of conceit
and vain knowledge, ignorant inertia like
that of children, a futile useless practice.
The Maitri Upanishad states,
The performance of all the sacrifices, described
in the Maitrayana-Brahmana, is to lead up
in the end to a knowledge of Brahman, to prepare
a man for meditation. Therefore, let such
man, after he has laid those fires, meditate
on the Self, to become complete and perfect.
The opposition to the ritual is not explicit
in the oldest Upanishads. On occasions, the
Upanishads extend the task of the Aranyakas
by making the ritual allegorical and giving
it a philosophical meaning. For example, the
Brihadaranyaka interprets the practice of
horse-sacrifice or ashvamedha allegorically.
It states that the over-lordship of the earth
may be acquired by sacrificing a horse. It
then goes on to say that spiritual autonomy
can only be achieved by renouncing the universe
which is conceived in the image of a horse.In
similar fashion, Vedic gods such as the Agni,
Aditya, Indra, Rudra, Visnu, Brahma, and others
become equated in the Upanishads to the supreme,
immortal, and incorporeal Brahman-Atman of
the Upanishads, god becomes synonymous with
self, and is declared to be everywhere, inmost
being of each human being and within every
living creature. The one reality or ekam sat
of the Vedas becomes the ekam eva advitiyam
or "the one and only and sans a second" in
the Upanishads. Brahman-Atman and self-realization
develops, in the Upanishad, as the means to
moksha (liberation; freedom in this life or
after-life).According to Jayatilleke, the
thinkers of Upanishadic texts can be grouped
into two categories. One group, which includes
early Upanishads along with some middle and
late Upanishads, were composed by metaphysicians
who used rational arguments and empirical
experience to formulate their speculations
and philosophical premises. The second group
includes many middle and later Upanishads,
where their authors professed theories based
on yoga and personal experiences. Yoga philosophy
and practice, adds Jayatilleke, is "not entirely
absent in the Early Upanishads". The development
of thought in these Upanishadic theories contrasted
with Buddhism, since the Upanishadic inquiry
assumed there is a soul (Atman), while Buddhism
assumed there is no soul (Anatta), states
Jayatilleke.
=== Brahman and Atman ===
Two concepts that are of paramount importance
in the Upanishads are Brahman and Atman. The
Brahman is the ultimate reality and the Atman
is individual self (soul). Brahman is the
material, efficient, formal and final cause
of all that exists. It is the pervasive, genderless,
infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does
not change, yet is the cause of all changes.
Brahman is "the infinite source, fabric, core
and destiny of all existence, both manifested
and unmanifested, the formless infinite substratum
and from which the universe has grown". Brahman
in Hinduism, states Paul Deussen, as the "creative
principle which lies realized in the whole
world".The word Atman means the inner self,
the soul, the immortal spirit in an individual,
and all living beings including animals and
trees. Ātman is a central idea in all the
Upanishads, and "Know your Ātman" their thematic
focus. These texts state that the inmost core
of every person is not the body, nor the mind,
nor the ego, but Atman – "soul" or "self".
Atman is the spiritual essence in all creatures,
their real innermost essential being. It is
eternal, it is ageless. Atman is that which
one is at the deepest level of one's existence.
Atman is the predominantly discussed topic
in the Upanishads, but they express two distinct,
somewhat divergent themes. Younger upanishads
state that Brahman (Highest Reality, Universal
Principle, Being-Consciousness-Bliss) is identical
with Atman, while older upanishads state Atman
is part of Brahman but not identical. The
Brahmasutra by Badarayana (~ 100 BCE) synthesized
and unified these somewhat conflicting theories.
According to Nakamura, the Brahman sutras
see Atman and Brahman as both different and
not-different, a point of view which came
to be called bhedabheda in later times. According
to Koller, the Brahman sutras state that Atman
and Brahman are different in some respects
particularly during the state of ignorance,
but at the deepest level and in the state
of self-realization, Atman and Brahman are
identical, non-different. This ancient debate
flowered into various dual, non-dual theories
in Hinduism.
=== Reality and Maya ===
Two different types of the non-dual Brahman-Atman
are presented in the Upanishads, according
to Mahadevan. The one in which the non-dual
Brahman-Atman is the all inclusive ground
of the universe and another in which empirical,
changing reality is an appearance (Maya).The
Upanishads describe the universe, and the
human experience, as an interplay of Purusha
(the eternal, unchanging principles, consciousness)
and Prakṛti (the temporary, changing material
world, nature). The former manifests itself
as Ātman (soul, self), and the latter as
Māyā. The Upanishads refer to the knowledge
of Atman as "true knowledge" (Vidya), and
the knowledge of Maya as "not true knowledge"
(Avidya, Nescience, lack of awareness, lack
of true knowledge).Hendrick Vroom explains,
"the term Maya [in the Upanishads] has been
translated as 'illusion,' but then it does
not concern normal illusion. Here 'illusion'
does not mean that the world is not real and
simply a figment of the human imagination.
Maya means that the world is not as it seems;
the world that one experiences is misleading
as far as its true nature is concerned." According
to Wendy Doniger, "to say that the universe
is an illusion (māyā) is not to say that
it is unreal; it is to say, instead, that
it is not what it seems to be, that it is
something constantly being made. Māyā not
only deceives people about the things they
think they know; more basically, it limits
their knowledge."In the Upanishads, Māyā
is the perceived changing reality and it co-exists
with Brahman which is the hidden true reality.
Maya, or "illusion", is an important idea
in the Upanishads, because the texts assert
that in the human pursuit of blissful and
liberating self-knowledge, it is Maya which
obscures, confuses and distracts an individual.
== Schools of Vedanta ==
The Upanishads form one of the three main
sources for all schools of Vedanta, together
with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahmasutras.
Due to the wide variety of philosophical teachings
contained in the Upanishads, various interpretations
could be grounded on the Upanishads. The schools
of Vedānta seek to answer questions about
the relation between atman and Brahman, and
the relation between Brahman and the world.
The schools of Vedanta are named after the
relation they see between atman and Brahman:
According to Advaita Vedanta, there is no
difference.
According to Vishishtadvaita the jīvātman
is a part of Brahman, and hence is similar,
but not identical.
According to Dvaita, all individual souls
(jīvātmans) and matter as eternal and mutually
separate entities.Other schools of Vedanta
include Nimbarka's Dvaitadvaita, Vallabha's
Suddhadvaita and Chaitanya's Acintya Bhedabheda.
The philosopher Adi Sankara has provided commentaries
on 11 mukhya Upanishads.
=== Advaita Vedanta ===
Advaita literally means non-duality, and it
is a monistic system of thought. It deals
with the non-dual nature of Brahman and Atman.
Advaita is considered the most influential
sub-school of the Vedanta school of Hindu
philosophy. Gaudapada was the first person
to expound the basic principles of the Advaita
philosophy in a commentary on the conflicting
statements of the Upanishads. Gaudapada's
Advaita ideas were further developed by Shankara
(8th century CE). King states that Gaudapada's
main work, Māṇḍukya Kārikā, is infused
with philosophical terminology of Buddhism,
and uses Buddhist arguments and analogies.
King also suggests that there are clear differences
between Shankara's writings and the Brahmasutra,
and many ideas of Shankara are at odds with
those in the Upanishads. Radhakrishnan, on
the other hand, suggests that Shankara's views
of Advaita were straightforward developments
of the Upanishads and the Brahmasutra, and
many ideas of Shankara derive from the Upanishads.Shankara
in his discussions of the Advaita Vedanta
philosophy referred to the early Upanishads
to explain the key difference between Hinduism
and Buddhism, stating that Hinduism asserts
that Atman (soul, self) exists, whereas Buddhism
asserts that there is no soul, no self.The
Upanishads contain four sentences, the Mahāvākyas
(Great Sayings), which were used by Shankara
to establish the identity of Atman and Brahman
as scriptural truth:
"Prajñānam brahma" - "Consciousness is Brahman"
(Aitareya Upanishad)
"Aham brahmāsmi" - "I am Brahman" (Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad)
"Tat tvam asi" - "That Thou art" (Chandogya
Upanishad)
"Ayamātmā brahma" - "This Atman is Brahman"
(Mandukya Upanishad)Although there are a wide
variety of philosophical positions propounded
in the Upanishads, commentators since Adi
Shankara have usually followed him in seeing
idealist monism as the dominant force.
=== Vishishtadvaita ===
The second school of Vedanta is the Vishishtadvaita,
which was founded by Sri Ramanuja (1017–1137
CE). Sri Ramanuja disagreed with Adi Shankara
and the Advaita school. Visistadvaita is a
synthetic philosophy bridging the monistic
Advaita and theistic Dvaita systems of Vedanta.
Sri Ramanuja frequently cited the Upanishads,
and stated that Vishishtadvaita is grounded
in the Upanishads.Sri Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita
interpretation of the Upanishad is a qualified
monism. Sri Ramanuja interprets the Upanishadic
literature to be teaching a body-soul theory,
states Jeaneane Fowler – a professor of
Philosophy and Religious Studies, where the
Brahman is the dweller in all things, yet
also distinct and beyond all things, as the
soul, the inner controller, the immortal.
The Upanishads, according to the Vishishtadvaita
school, teach individual souls to be of the
same quality as the Brahman, but quantitatively
they are distinct.In the Vishishtadvaita school,
the Upanishads are interpreted to be teaching
an Ishwar (Vishnu), which is the seat of all
auspicious qualities, with all of the empirically
perceived world as the body of God who dwells
in everything. The school recommends a devotion
to godliness and constant remembrance of the
beauty and love of personal god. This ultimately
leads one to the oneness with abstract Brahman.
The Brahman in the Upanishads is a living
reality, states Fowler, and "the Atman of
all things and all beings" in Sri Ramanuja's
interpretation.
=== Dvaita ===
The third school of Vedanta called the Dvaita
school was founded by Madhvacharya (1199–1278
CE). It is regarded as a strongly theistic
philosophic exposition of Upanishads. Madhvacharya,
much like Adi Shankara claims for Advaita,
and Sri Ramanuja claims for Vishishtadvaita,
states that his theistic Dvaita Vedanta is
grounded in the Upanishads.According to the
Dvaita school, states Fowler, the "Upanishads
that speak of the soul as Brahman, speak of
resemblance and not identity". Madhvacharya
interprets the Upanishadic teachings of the
self becoming one with Brahman, as "entering
into Brahman", just like a drop enters an
ocean. This to the Dvaita school implies duality
and dependence, where Brahman and Atman are
different realities. Brahman is a separate,
independent and supreme reality in the Upanishads,
Atman only resembles the Brahman in limited,
inferior, dependent manner according to Madhvacharya.Sri
Ramanuja's Vishishtadvaita school and Shankara's
Advaita school are both nondualism Vedanta
schools, both are premised on the assumption
that all souls can hope for and achieve the
state of blissful liberation; in contrast,
Madhvacharya believed that some souls are
eternally doomed and damned.
== Similarities with Platonic thought ==
Several scholars have recognised parallels
between the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato
and that of the Upanishads, including their
ideas on sources of knowledge, concept of
justice and path to salvation, and Plato's
allegory of the cave. Platonic psychology
with its divisions of reason, spirit and appetite,
also bears resemblance to the three gunas
in the Indian philosophy of Samkhya.Various
mechanisms for such a transmission of knowledge
have been conjectured including Pythagoras
traveling as far as India; Indian philosophers
visiting Athens and meeting Socrates; Plato
encountering the ideas when in exile in Syracuse;
or, intermediated through Persia.However,
other scholars, such as Arthur Berriedale
Keith, J. Burnet and A. R. Wadia, believe
that the two systems developed independently.
They note that there is no historical evidence
of the philosophers of the two schools meeting,
and point out significant differences in the
stage of development, orientation and goals
of the two philosophical systems. Wadia writes
that Plato's metaphysics were rooted in this
life and his primary aim was to develop an
ideal state. In contrast, Upanishadic focus
was the individual, the self (atman, soul),
self-knowledge, and the means of an individual's
moksha (freedom, liberation in this life or
after-life).
== 
Translations ==
The Upanishads have been translated into various
languages including Persian, Italian, Urdu,
French, Latin, German, English, Dutch, Polish,
Japanese, Spanish and Russian. The Moghul
Emperor Akbar's reign (1556–1586) saw the
first translations of the Upanishads into
Persian. His great-grandson, Sultan Mohammed
Dara Shikoh, produced a collection called
Oupanekhat in 1656, wherein 50 Upanishads
were translated from Sanskrit into Persian.Anquetil
Duperron, a French Orientalist received a
manuscript of the Oupanekhat and translated
the Persian version into French and Latin,
publishing the Latin translation in two volumes
in 1801–1802 as Oupneck'hat. The French
translation was never published. The Latin
version was the initial introduction of Upanishadic
thought to Western scholars. However, according
to Deussen, the Persian translators took great
liberties in translating the text and at times
changed the meaning.The first Sanskrit to
English translation of the Aitareya Upanishad
was made by Colebrooke, in 1805 and the first
English translation of the Kena Upanishad
was made by Rammohun Roy in 1816.The first
German translation appeared in 1832 and Roer's
English version appeared in 1853. However,
Max Mueller's 1879 and 1884 editions were
the first systematic English treatment to
include the 12 Principal Upanishads. Other
major translations of the Upanishads have
been by Robert Ernest Hume (13 Principal Upanishads),
Paul Deussen (60 Upanishads), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
(18 Upanishads), and Patrick Olivelle (32
Upanishads in two books).
== Reception in the West ==
The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer
read the Latin translation and praised the
Upanishads in his main work, The World as
Will and Representation (1819), as well as
in his Parerga and Paralipomena (1851). He
found his own philosophy was in accord with
the Upanishads, which taught that the individual
is a manifestation of the one basis of reality.
For Schopenhauer, that fundamentally real
underlying unity is what we know in ourselves
as "will". Schopenhauer used to keep a copy
of the Latin Oupnekhet by his side and commented,
It has been the solace of my life, it will
be the solace of my death.
Another German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm
Joseph Schelling, praised the ideas in the
Upanishads, as did others. In the United States,
the group known as the Transcendentalists
were influenced by the German idealists. Americans,
such as Emerson and Thoreau embraced Schelling's
interpretation of Kant's Transcendental idealism,
as well as his celebration of the romantic,
exotic, mystical aspect of the Upanishads.
As a result of the influence of these writers,
the Upanishads gained renown in Western countries.The
poet T. S. Eliot, inspired by his reading
of the Upanishads, based the final portion
of his famous poem The Waste Land (1922) upon
one of its verses. According to Eknath Easwaran,
the Upanishads are snapshots of towering peaks
of consciousness.Juan Mascaró, a professor
at the University of Barcelona and a translator
of the Upanishads, states that the Upanishads
represents for the Hindu approximately what
the New Testament represents for the Christian,
and that the message of the Upanishads can
be summarized in the words, "the kingdom of
God is within you".Paul Deussen in his review
of the Upanishads, states that the texts emphasize
Brahman-Atman as something that can be experienced,
but not defined. This view of the soul and
self are similar, states Deussen, to those
found in the dialogues of Plato and elsewhere.
The Upanishads insisted on oneness of soul,
excluded all plurality, and therefore, all
proximity in space, all succession in time,
all interdependence as cause and effect, and
all opposition as subject and object. Max
Müller, in his review of the Upanishads,
summarizes the lack of systematic philosophy
and the central theme in the Upanishads as
follows,
There is not what could be called a philosophical
system in these Upanishads. They are, in the
true sense of the word, guesses at truth,
frequently contradicting each other, yet all
tending in one direction. The key-note of
the old Upanishads is "know thyself," but
with a much deeper meaning than that of the
γνῶθι σεαυτόν of the Delphic
Oracle. The "know thyself" of the Upanishads
means, know thy true self, that which underlines
thine Ego, and find it and know it in the
highest, the eternal Self, the One without
a second, which underlies the whole world.
== See also ==
100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
Bhagavad Gita
Hinduism
Prasthanatrayi
Mukhya Upanishads
== Notes ==
== References ==
== 
Sources ==
== Further reading ==
Edgerton, Franklin (1965). The Beginnings
of Indian Philosophy. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
Embree, Ainslie T. (1966). The Hindu Tradition.
New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-71702-3.
Hume, Robert Ernest. The Thirteen Principal
Upanishads. Oxford University Press.
Johnston, Charles (1898). From the Upanishads.
Kshetra Books (Reprinted in 2014). ISBN 9781495946530.
Müller, Max, translator, The Upaniṣads,
Part I, New York: Dover Publications (Reprinted
in 1962), ISBN 0-486-20992-X
Müller, Max, translator, The Upaniṣads,
Part II, New York: Dover Publications (Reprinted
in 1962), ISBN 0-486-20993-8
Radhakrishnan, Sarvapalli (1953). The Principal
Upanishads. New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers
India (Reprinted in 1994). ISBN 81-7223-124-5.
== External links ==
Complete set of 108 Upanishads, Manuscripts
with the commentary of Brahma-Yogin, Adyar
Library
Upanishads, Sanskrit documents in various
formats
The Upaniṣads article in the Internet Encyclopedia
of Philosophy
The Theory of 'Soul' in the Upanishads, T.
W. Rhys Davids (1899)
Spinozistic Substance and Upanishadic Self:
A Comparative Study, M. S. Modak (1931)
W. B. Yeats and the Upanishads, A. Davenport
(1952)
The Concept of Self in the Upanishads: An
Alternative Interpretation, D. C. Mathur (1972)
