The Teachings of the Upanishads - Atman and Moksha

(This is the essay submitted by me as an assignment for the course "Vedas and Upanishads" conducted by Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies - A recognized independent center of the University of Oxford )

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Upanishads provide the philosophical perspective and ideology to understand the nature of existence around us. They are presented in such a manner that humans must contemplate on questions like “who am I?”, “where do I come from?”, “what is the purpose of my existence?” etc. using intellect as a tool. These very same queries are tackled in an abstract way in all Upanishadic texts but not in very conclusive manner. While answering these queries, the concepts of Moksha (liberation from worldly existence) and Atman (nature of the self) are coined in Upanishads. My attempt would be to unfold these concepts of Upanishads, as per my understanding, in this essay. We must understand that the Upanishads are philosophical texts which targets the intellect of the human beings hence are part of jnan-kanda. These texts initially appeals to the logic of humans and then provides the bread-crumbs to the path of experiencing that, which are just intellectually grasped concepts. Upanishad focuses on experiencing the true nature of the self and once you know your true nature, how to use it to attain liberation. So it is conclusive that the knowledge alone is in vain unless you use it and perform duties accordingly to attain the experience. Upanishads also provide the step by step guidelines on how to experience the Atman and Moksha phenomenon. First, I would like to delve upon Upanishadic thoughts on Atman. Atman is seen as an entity which resides in the material body and is perceiving the world with the sense organs. Atman has so tightly identified itself with the material body that it believes that it is the mortal body. This is where Upanishads probes the intellect to realize the difference between the body and Atman. Atman is seen as a soul which is permanent, immortal. Its close identification with the body brings ignorance to Atman and shrouds the realization of the true nature of the Self. Atman is also compared to Prana (breath) that holds whole body together and alive. It has been explained in form of a very interesting story in first Brahmana of the sixth chapter of Brihadaranyak Upanishad from verses 7 to 14. The story goes like this (as referred from the translations by Max Muller [1]): The five sensory organs viz. tongue, eyes, ears, mind and genitals quarrel to know who was the greatest amongst themselves and went to Brahman for resolution. Brahman replied that by whose departure, this body trembles is the greatest of all. Now, each senses departed for a year and came back asking how others (and the body) were able to survive. Tongue departed and being absent for a year, it came back and asked how others were able to live without it. They replied: 'Like unto people, not speaking with the tongue, but breathing with breath, seeing with the eye, hearing with the ear, knowing with the mind, generating with seed. Thus we have lived.' The eyes departed, and being absent for a year, it came back and asked how others were able to live without it. They replied: 'Like blind people, not seeing with the eye, but breathing with the breath, speaking with the tongue, hearing with the ear, knowing with the mind, generating with seed. Thus we have lived.' This was repeated for all the senses. Then finally breath was about to depart and all senses were terrified. They said to him: 'Sir, do not depart. We shall not be able to live without thee.' Thus breath (Prana) was declared the greatest one. Thus Prana is atman and controlling this prana is one of the ways to realize the nature of the self. Concept of atman is also discussed in Chandogya Upanishad. It comes as a conversation between Prajapati and Indra in 4th chapter [2]. The method to deduce what is Atman used here is that of elimination. It is explained that Atman is neither body nor mind, neither consciousness nor unconsciousness. For all these elements are subject to death. That which is imperishable is Atman. If atman is personified, it is called uttam-purusha or purushottama. Further, it also states that what is inside the body does not age with the body nor die with the body. Katha Upanishad also supports this theory and says that atman is something beyond perception of human logic. It is immortal and possesses the properties like sat (eternal), chit (consciousness) and anand (bliss). It is also described as a passenger metaphorically in a chariot viz. body with intellect as its charioteer, mind as reins of the chariot, senses as horses that draw the chariot along and objects perceived by the senses as roads along which the chariot can travel. Atman is bound by the physical body. It is so attached to the body that it does not realize the difference between its true nature and that of the body. Any pain or suffering upon the body terrorizes the Self. It is by virtue of yoga, mind can differentiate between the body and the self. Upanishads not only describe the features of Atman but also propounds the ways to experience it in conjunction with their core teaching that karma and intellect together leads to ultimate realization. Shevtashvetar Upanishad discusses about ways to experience this atman within. It suggests to bring the activities of the mind to standstill using various postures and meditation techniques. It is said to control the breathing by compressing breaths and bring all the senses to rest in the heart just like a tortoise gathers all its limbs into its shell when senses any danger. Once mind and all the senses comes at rest, the covering of ignorance is removed and the true self is revealed. Thus we see that across the three most ancient Upanishads, the concept of atman and its realization is propounded in various ways, providing various examples and analogies which may appeal the human logic. However, these axioms are meant as abstract thoughts and pointers for someone who wants to seek the truth and not blindly accept the notions of Upanishads. The next step, or we can say the result of knowing the true nature of the self, would be to free the atman from the conditional, binding nature of physical body and be in its natural state of eternal bliss. This aspect of getting freed from physicality is called as liberation or moksha in upanishadic texts. The question is why any person would like to attain moksha? It is also answered in the Upanishads and can be experienced by all human beings. It is the suffering of the physical world that urges humans to look for solace that is eternal. The true nature of the atman is eternal bliss. This is confined in a limitation of the physical body. Hence atman always longs for the infinite and eternal happiness. This is the first cue of knowing the true self. It is said that the conditioned atman can be liberated only by the means of human body. Human body possesses all those qualities that helps in realization of atman and free it from the physicality. Humans have the ability to consciously perform the karma with the sense of its consequences. This drives them to acquire and attain a goal rather than just enjoying the worldly pleasures with the senses (speech, vision, taste, hearing, skin). Once senses gets weak, the mind still crave for worldly pleasures but body do not co-operate and this leads to induced sorrow and suffering in to the mind. Hence it is said that the purpose of the human body is to use it at its full potential to realize the atman and gain moksha i.e. escape from the cycle of birth and death of physical body. This concept is very beautifully explained in Katha Upanishad as part of conversation between Nachiketa and Yama the God of Death. Nachiketa asks for the boon of the knowledge on what happens when a human being dies. Yama hesitates to divulge this knowledge to Nachiketa and tries to deviate him to ask for another boon than this. Nachiketa seems to be persistent with his query and this quality shows his worthiness to acquire the mystical knowledge, hence Yama decides to unveil the secret to him. Yama explains the nature of the atman, that it is bounded in the body having two options of enjoyment viz. one is the eternal joy of Atman and the second is pleasure gained by senses. One who chooses wisely to pursue the eternal joy, only he transcends to self-realization. The ignorant ones are caught in enjoying the pleasures through senses and are caught in the cycle of birth and death. Yama also reveals that meditating on the eternal sound of AUM helps in realizing the Self and this knowledge of self helps in breaking the cycle of birth and date and attain moksha. There is also concept called Jivanmukta, which means that if a conditioned soul realizes its true nature while residing in the body and is freed from illusion and sorrow, he is called jivan mukta. However, Shvetashvetar Upanishad has a slightly different take on path to the moksha. It introduces the understanding of Prakriti (matter), Purush (atman) and God (Isha). It sees the duality in some sense while distinguishing the atman which is enjoyer of prakriti (matter) and the paramatman (God). The God is said to be the controller of Purusha and Prakriti. It is by grace of the God and realizing the God with yogic practices, atman can realize its true nature and can escape the circle of Samsara (birth and death). This does seem to be a theistic approach towards the existence of the universe however I believe that the bifurcation of the atman and parmatman is done only to be an intermediary step in attaining the ultimate goal. The Brahman which pervades everywhere has logically taken a form of a deity here. This helps the seeker to involve the emotion of longing to the Supreme Being. This emotional involvement is named as bhakti. By performing bhakti towards the Supreme Being and by the grace of the Supreme Being, moksha is achieved. Although this bifurcation has led to the development of modern Shaivism sect personifying Purusha as Shiva, Prakriti as Shakti and Atman as a devotee, the semantics are different but the core aspects remains the same. Based on the concepts of Atman and Moksha, as articulated in Upanishads, the seeker comes to a logical approach on the identity of the self and purpose of his life. Seeker, for starters, can initiate his/her journey of knowing the self by assuming the axioms stated in upanishadic literature as true and then infer them based on experience of practicing yoga including the postures and breathing exercises. Thus seekers gets all the answers to the questions we touched upon during the start of the essay. Upanishads does not decree or force its concepts on the readers but on contrary excites them to take up the journey themselves and figure out the truth. Hence it is said that only the true seeker can go along the path in search of truth. Resources: [1] https://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/hinduism/upanishads/brihad.asp#adh6 [2] https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/chhand/ch_4e.html