Contents of Upanishads & The way Vivekananda utilized Upanishads for his philosophy of Neo-

Vedantism

Introduction

In this brief paper, I want to concentrate on the contents of the Upanishads and the ways in which
Vivekananda utilized Upanishads for his philosophy of Neo-Vedanta. It also gives a brief
understanding about the way Vivekananda explains his neo-vedantism.

Contents of Upanishads

Upanishads philosophical speculations of varying lengths in both prose and verse form 1 which are
orally passed on for generations said by the sages. The Upanishads are present insights and
doctrines that serve as the foundation for much of India’s philosophical thoughts 2. Upanishads are
the concluding portion as well as the cream of the Vedas and are therefore rightly called
‘Vedanta’3.

The notion that behind all the spatial swirl and temporal flux of the world as it is experienced by the
senses is a subtle, pervasive, timeless and unchanging reality that is identical to the undying
essence of the human being as well. The early Vedic Upanishads calls this unified and
imperishable soul “Brahman or atman”, the former applying more typically to the God head and the
later signifying the correlative divine “self” residing at the deepest level of one’s person 4.
Upanishads teach that this ‘Brahman or atman’ is a single deity known generically as Isvara or Isa
(Lord) living deep within one’s being and identified particularly as Siva, Vishnu, or the goddess by
particular sectarian community.

1
Etd. By Mircea Eliade. The Encyclopedia of Religion -Vol 15. (New York: Mac Millan Publications Co.,1987) Pg 147
2
Ibid
3
which means ‘the end of the Vedas’
4
Etd. By Mircea Eliade. The Encyclopedia of Religion -Vol 15. (New York: Mac Millan Publications Co.,1987) Pg 147
The symbolic representations in the Upanishads of the ultimate reality are consistent with a notion
that such reality is un-manifest yet vital. Brahman5 is described as ‘prana6’, ‘vayu7’ and ‘akasa8’; as
pure consciousness, bliss or eternity; and as the infinite subject by whom all objects are known ‘the
inner guide’9.

In spite of all the different strands of thoughts of the Upanishads, they do represent a significant
development of the Vedas in that they contain much that is esoteric and mystical thoughts. They
show a significant shift towards the internalization and spiritualization of many concepts and as a
result much of the Vedic tradition is demythologized with the many Gods being reduced to a single
concept be it monotheistic or theistic10. Vedic ritual is also radically reinterpreted. No linger can
‘moksha11’ be gained solely by action. Instead the devotee must overcome ‘avidya 12’ by gaining
‘jnana13’of the true nature of the universe that is veiled from the individual by ‘maya14’.

Upanishads are said to be written by ‘vanaprasathas’ 15 and ‘samnyasins’16 who gave down their
sags17 in many forms. Those were handed down for generations of the sacred lineage isolated as a
textual genre; the collections of secret teachings are known as Upanishads. Those are also called
as Aranyakas18 which are said also to be written by Ksatriyas19.

The word ‘Upanishad’ is derived from the root ‘sad’ which means
(i) To sit down
(ii) To sit beneath
5
It is also termed as ‘atman’, ‘Isvara’ etc.
6
It means ‘life giving breath’
7
It means ‘wind’
8
It means ‘empty space’
9
Etd. By Mircea Eliade. The Encyclopedia of Religion -Vol 15. (New York: Mac Millan Publications Co.,1987) Pg 148
10
Etd,. By Rosemary Goring. Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions (Edinburgh: Larousse Publications, 1994) Pg 554
11
which has the meaning ‘heaven’
12
which means ‘ignorance’
13
which means ‘knowledge’
14
which means ‘illusion’
15
which means ‘forest dwellers’ who in search of knowledge and ultimate reality went into the forests and started
dwelling there itself.
16
which means ‘renunciants’ who hated and left all they had and kept away from the people. They were in search of
their own reality and about the self and truth.
17
which means ‘teachings’.
18
which means ‘forest books’ which are written in the forests.
19
Ksatriyas are said to be the deliberate fighters who are denied from the veda teachings and because of which they
left their homes and receded into the forests and started to meditate to find knowledge .
 (iii) To destroy and
(iv) To loosen.

‘Upa’ means ‘near by’ and ‘ni’ means ‘devotedly’. The word therefore means the sitting down of the
disciple near his teacher in a devoted manner to receive instruction about he highest Reality which
loosens all doubts and destroys all ignorance of the disciple. These are Sanskrit writings which
underpin much Hindu philosophy20. Gradually the word came to signify any secret teaching about
Reality and it is used by the Upanishads in this sense21.

Upanishads are mainly classified as follows22.

Vedic Upanishads
These vedic Upanishads are divided into broader category.
I
 Brahadaranyaka
 Chandogya
 Taittiriya
 Aitareya
 Kausitaki
 Kena Upanishad (Prose part of it)

II
 Kathaor Kathaka
 Isa
 Svetasvatara
 Mundaka
 Mahanarayana
 Kena Upanishad (metrical part of it)

III
 Prasna
 Maitri (Maitrayaniya)
 Jabala
 Paingala
20
Etd,. By Rosemary Goring. Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions (Edinburgh: Larousse Publications, 1994) Pg 554
21
Dr.Chandradhar Sharma. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Private
Limited.,1987) Pg 17
22
Etd. By Mircea Eliade. The Encyclopedia of Religion -Vol 15. (New York: Mac Millan Publications Co.,1987) Pg 150-
155
  Mandukya

Apart from these three divisions, there are also later Upanishads namely
 Vedanta
 Yoga
 Samnyasa
 Mantra
 Saiva
 Vaisnava

Since the upnishads are not arranged in an orderly manner, it is hard to get analyzed. The entire
treatment is suggestive rather of intimate oral instruction than of methodological exposition. The
Mukticopanishad gives the number of the Upanishads as 108. But ten or eleven Upanishads are
regarded as important and authentic which are written between 8th and 4th century BCE23.

There has been extremely wide difference in their interpretation. All their teachings are nit equally
prominent. Some are mere flashes of thought, hints, slightly developed, mentioned by the way,
some repeated emphasized and thoroughly dealt with. There is an essential unity of purpose in
them. They emphasize the same fundamental doctrine which may be called monistic idealistic
monism. These poetic-philosophic works are full of grand imagery, extremely charming and lucid
expression abounding in crystal clarity (prasada guna). To the mind, they bring sound philosophical
doctrines.

The Upanishads develop the monistic ideas. The Aranyakas mark the shifting if the emphasis from
the ritualistic to the philosophical thought which works was completed by the Upanishads. The
Upanishads tell us that the Vedas-the storehouse of knowledge-have been breathed from
Brahman; but they regard the Karma-kanda as secondary, being only a help to purify the mind by
which purification one is made fit to receive the real teaching about Brahman 24. Sometimes the
mantras are interpreted as subjective symbolism or psychological spiritualism concealed in a
concrete and material way to hide the truth from the profane and reveal it only to the qualified and
the initiated.

23
Dr.Chandradhar Sharma. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Private
Limited.,1987) Pg 18
24
Dr.Chandradhar Sharma. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy (Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass Publishers Private
Limited.,1987) Pg 19
Neo-Vedanta philosophy

Neo-Vedantism is proposed by Swami Vivekananda. He wanted to show the regeneration of neo-

vedantism in practical application in the day to day life of the society.

Neo-vedanta was a means of looking at the cause of disunity at the practical level and of seeing
social unity among diversity. According to the proponent, the central meaning and the crux of neo-
vedanta was oneness: the whole of the upanishada thought about Advaitism which is non-duality
and nothing else25.

Though Vivekananda claimed to be a vedantist, which basically an Upanishad philosophical school

of thought, but he differed from Sankara in his interpretation of Vedanta in giving much greater
preference to social action, and tried to include other vedantic traditions too. So it is better to call
him a neo-vedantist.

His philosophical argument for non-duality was closer to traditional advaita but he was seeking
oneness by the integration of different vedantic doctrines into social awareness which is known as
neo-vedanta.

The way Vivekananda utilized Upanishads for his philosophy of Neo-Vedantism

Now this topic can be put it in a different way, that the way Vivekananda reconciles dualism,
qualified non-dualism and non-dualism to construct his synthetic Vedanta.

It is not that he found systematic philosophical exposition of different vedantic teachings. But he
found the common features among them. The Upanishads while talking about truth has given
different interpretations of the complex vedantic tradition. Vivekananda while talking about this says
that “it is foolish to attempt to prove that whole of the Vedas is dualistic. It is equally foolish to

Abraham Stephen. The Social Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda: Its relevance to Modern India. (Delhi: ISPCK,
25

Cambridge Press, 2005) Pg 77

attempt to prove that the whole of Vedas is non-dualistic. They are dualistic and non-dualistic,
both26”. He said that Upanishad books and its teachings are not at all contradictory and all
vedantists would agree with Brahma-sutras27. In spite of variations he found the germ of unity in
these essential ideals in the Upanishadic teachings.

According to him the Vedanta philosophies were stages to reach the highest stage of advaita
beginning with the dualistic or dvaita, then qualified non-duality and ending with non-duality and
ending with the non-dualistic or advaita. The next higher perception is qualified non-dualism which
three real existences, God, nature and the human self. Interestingly, in this stage God is
interpenetrating everything and there is a correlation among the three realities. “Oneness” can be
reached at the highest stage of advaita. In the advaitic stage, humans must be perfect and humans
and God are absolutely “one”.

Vivekananda tries to cover the whole basic ground of Hindu religious doctrine in one word – “neo-
vedanta”, in terms of generally accepted facts as stages of development. Perfection makes human
go higher and higher and directs his mind towards the knowledge o God only. The ultimate
oneness in self or God depends on human effort as a gradual process which is necessary to
achieve the highest goal. He goes on to explain in this line.

Conclusion

Vivekananda neo-vedanta principle seems to be so philosophical but is an attempt to tackle the

problem of Hinduism being threatened by the other religious beliefs and it’s a philosophical
apologetics. Thus it gives a wide range of scope for Hindu thinkers to defend their religious faith
through Vivekananda teachings. Thus it also tells of the Vedanta ideologies and defends its
validity.

Bibliography

26
Abraham Stephen. The Social Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda: Its relevance to Modern India. (Delhi: ISPCK,
Cambridge Press, 2005) Pg 78
27
This is a belief in God, in the authority of the Vedas and in the pure nature of the human self.
Devadas, Nalini. Swami Vivekananda. Bangalore: The Christian Institute for the Study of Religion
and Society, 1968

Etd. By Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion -Vol 15. New York: Mac Millan Publications
Co.,1987.

Etd,. By Goring, Rosemary. Dictionary of Beliefs and Religions. Edinburgh: Larousse Publications,
1994.

Mascaro, Juan. The Upanishads. UK: Penguin Books, 1978

Rao, Nagaraja P. Contemporary Indian Philosophy. Bombay: Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, 1970.

Sharma, Chandradhar. A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass

Publishers Private Limited.,1987.

Slater, T. E. Studies in Upanishads. Madras: The Christian Literature Society of India, 1897.

Stephen, Abraham. The Social Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda: Its relevance to Modern India.
Delhi: ISPCK, Cambridge Press, 2005.

Assignment
 Contents of Upanishads & The way Vivekananda utilized
Upanishads for his philosophy of Neo-Vedantism

Submitted
To
Rev. Dr. Abraham Stephen,
Department Of Religion and Culture,
UTC.

By
John Dawson. C,
BD III yr, UTC.