This post contains some passages of the Upanishads that spoke to me. Or just sounded really too cool not to pass along. If you're interested in these ancient works of India, I strongly recommend the translation found at http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2058 and especially not to skip over the introduction. As an ancient collection of works, the Upanishads cannot simply be read sensibly as if they're prose. Much like the early Bible, stories were added and updated. So there are some contradictory pieces and some absurd conjectures that don't fit with modern science or the modern evolution of any philosophy. The introduction helps bring you peace to such issues, which will then allow you to pull what you need from the texts. I have found great joy in exploring this work. I hope some of the quotes I've included below can be translated to inspirational life lessons and/or instill a sense of wonder in how such ancient words can ring true even today.
There are various clashes like pantheistic vs. polytheistic vs. monotheistic or dualist vs. monist or knowledge vs. karma viewpoints, but one need not get bogged down in these. Accept the writings as our ancient ancestors trying to reconcile religious and philosophic concepts. It's easy to slip into a mindset that the authors were simply "wrong" about this or that, but I think that is a disservice. For me personally, the Hindu concept of the Brahman/Atman fits pretty well in line with Akasha, or however you'd like to call the "one consciousness" that ties us all together (a pantheistic viewpoint). Language proves limiting when discussing such topics, and that was no less true 2500 years ago than it is today. You may find it easier to replace some of these words with "God" or "Spirit" to more fully grok and appreciate the quoted content.
One note - the word "verily" is used quite often in these texts. In modern American English, this word is virtually never used. I found it less awkward to see "truly" in its place.
The works are quite long, and so this is Part 1, covering only the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.
"From the unreal lead me to the real!
From darkness lead me to light!
From death lead me to immortality!"
-- Brih. 1.3.28
I believe this is the Sanskrit transliteration:
oṁ asato mā sad gamaya
tamaso mā jyotir gamaya
mṛtyor mā amṛtaṁ gamaya
The first chant (saman) in the Upanishads. I have found chanting to be a key part of spiritual practices. This particular one doesn't speak to me because the context is really around getting what one desires by prayer. I don't believe prayer works that way!
In the beginning this world was just the Self (Ātman), one only. He wished: "Would that I had a wife; then I would procreate. Would that I had wealth; then I would offer sacrifice." So great, indeed, is desire. Not even if one desired, would he get more than that. Therefore even today when one is lonely one wishes: "Would that I had a wife, then I would procreate. Would that I had wealth, then I would offer sacrifice." So far as he does not obtain any one of these, he thinks that he is, assuredly, incomplete. Now his completeness is as follows: his mind truly is his self (ātman); his voice is his wife; his breath is his offspring; his eye is his worldly wealth, for with his eye he finds; his ear is his heavenly wealth, for with his ear he hears it; his body (ātman), indeed, is his work, for with his body he performs work.
-- Brih. 1.4.17
I like this one - it's in the "creation myth" section, but addresses how desire doesn't complete a person, as they are already complete. They just need to realize it!
These are all alike, all infinite. Verily he who worships them as finite wins a finite world. Likewise he who worships them as infinite wins an infinite world.
-- Brih. 1.5.13
The "these" here are the three faculties (mind, speech, breath) that make up the Self. I need to think on this one more, but I like the sentiment that if you limit your beliefs you limit your world. Interestingly there's another triad mentioned in Brih. 1.6 of name, form, and work that map to speech, eye and body and phrases to the effect that the Soul is one, but also three. Should sound vaguely familiar to Catholics, although I'm not sure there's a direct connection.
Ajātaśatru said: "When this man has fallen asleep thus, then the person who consists of intelligence, having by his intelligence taken to himself the intelligence of these senses, rests in that place which is the space within the heart. When that person restrains the senses, that person is said to be asleep. Then the breath is restrained. The voice is restrained. The eye is restrained. The ear is restrained. The mind is restrained.
When he goes to sleep, these worlds are his. Then he becomes a great king, as it were. Then he becomes a great Brahman, as it were. He enters the high and the low, as it were. As a great king, taking with him his people, moves around in his own country as he pleases, even so here this one, taking with him his senses, moves around in his own body as he pleases.
Now when one falls sound asleep (suṣupta), when one knows nothing whatsoever, having crept out through the seventy-two thousand veins, called hitā, which lead from the heart to the pericardium, one rests in the pericardium. Verily, as a youth or a great king or a great Brahman might rest when he has reached the summit of bliss, so this one now rests."
-- Brih. 2.1.17
Speaks to the importance of sleep, but also how when the bodily functions are restrained you are left with your heart.
Sleep is commonly discussed as where the two worlds are closest. This is even stated literally in Brih. 3.4.9.
He who knows this becomes the eater of everything; everything becomes his food.
-- Brih. 2.2.4
This wraps up a short verse around connecting sense organs in the head to the gods. But this is such a great existential phrase! My takeaway: When you realize how connected you are, you can feast on anything in the world.
There are, assuredly, two forms of Brahma: the formed and the formless, the mortal and the immortal, the stationary and the moving, the actual (sat) and the yon (tya).
-- Brih. 2.3.1
Yin and Yang much?
Then said Maitreyī: "If now, Sir, this whole earth filled with wealth were mine, would I be immortal thereby?"
"No," said Yājñavalkya. "As the life of the rich, even so would your life be. Of immortality, however, there is no hope through wealth."
-- Brih. 2.4.2
You can't take it with you!
What they praised was karma. Verily, one becomes good by good action, bad by bad action.
-- Brih. 3.2.13
Karma in a nutshell!
"He who passes beyond hunger and thirst, beyond sorrow and delusion, beyond old age and death - Brahmans who know such a Soul overcome desire for sons, desire for wealth, desire for worlds, and live the life of mendicants. For desire for sons is desire for wealth, and desire for wealth is desire for worlds, for both these are merely desires. Therefore let a Brahman become disgusted with learning and desire to live as a child. When he has become disgusted both with the state of childhood and with learning, then he becomes an ascetic. When he has become disgusted both with the non-ascetic state and with the ascetic state, then he becomes a Brahman."
-- Brih. 3.5.1
An argument for asceticism. (BTW, I had to look up "mendicants" which essentially means "beggar".) So when do we start a commune?
He is the unseen Seer, the unheard Hearer, the unthought Thinker, the ununderstood Understander. Other than He there is no seer. Other than He there is no hearer. Other than He there is no thinker. Other than He there is no understander. He is your Soul, the Inner Controller, the Immortal.
-- Brih. 3.7.23
A section on pantheism, but I liked the term "Inner Controller". When searching for more on this, I ran across a bunch of modern psych stuff about the "Inner Critic" and a self-help stuff - only skimmed a few pages, but didn't find it enlightening.
"And on what is the heart based?"
"You idiot," said Yājñavalkya, "that you will think that it could be anywhere else than in ourselves! for if it were anywhere else than in ourselves, the dogs might eat it or the birds might tear it to pieces."
-- Brih. 3.9.24-25
This one actually made me chuckle. The preceding section goes through several threads of "on what X is based?" questions. Each of the quarters of heaven are mapped through things like the eye, sacrifice, water, truth, etc. but all end with that they are each based "On the heart". So the final questions is an obvious conclusion. The answer is clear, but the qualification with dogs and birds struck me as silly.
When he comes to weakness - whether he come to weakness through old age or through disease - this person frees himself from these limbs just as a mango, or a fig, or a berry releases itself from its bond; and he hastens again, according to the entrance and place of origin, back to life.
-- Brih. 4.3.36
On the soul at death - such nice imagery of ripe fruit falling from a branch, the soul releasing from the body. A softening of the abscission zone.
Now as a caterpillar, when it has come to the end of a blade of grass, in taking the next step draws itself together towards it, just so this soul in taking the next step strikes down this body, dispels its ignorance and draws itself together for making the transition.
-- Brih. 4.4.3
On transmigration of the soul at death. But I just love caterpillar analogies (they permeate Ram Dass's works).
I found joy and wonder in reading all of the Fourth Brahmana of the Fourth Adhyaya. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but much too long to quote in full and too complex to pull out small snippets without explanation. So here's a link: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2058#lf1395_head_097
This same thing does the divine voice here, thunder, repeat: Da! Da! Da! that is, restrain yourselves, give, be compassionate. One should practise this same triad: self-restraint, giving, compassion.
-- Brih. 5.2.3
On the three cardinal virtues (yet another triad!), but all are the syllable "Da". I can't help but remember that old Trio song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNYcviXK4rg
He lives as long as he lives. Then when he dies, then they carry him to the fire. His fire, in truth, becomes the fire; fuel, the fuel; smoke, the smoke; flame, the flame; coals, the coals; sparks, the sparks. In this fire the gods offer a person. From this oblation the man arises, having the color of light.
-- Brih. 6.2.13
An awesome eulogy I would request to be said at my funeral pyre.
If she should not grant him his desire, he should bribe her. If she still does not grant him his desire, he should hit her with a stick or with his hand, and overcome her, saying: ‘With power, with glory I take away your glory!’ Thus she becomes inglorious.
-- Brih. 6.4.7
Yeah, not a fan of this one. Misogynistic and archaic rolled into one.
[When completed, I'll add a link to Part 2 covering the Chandogya Upanishad]
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