The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s1.18

v2.c40.s1.18

Two different theories of the origin of the term have, however, been urged and require some notice. It is the view of Oldenberg¹ that the real sense of Upaniṣad is worship or reverence, that the word expresses the same ideas as Upāsanā,² and that it is due to the constant practice of the text to recommend the adoration of the Brahman or the Ātman under the guise of some symbol. There can be no doubt about the fact of the use of symbols in this way, but it is certain that the use of *upa-sad* as a verb in the Upaniṣads is always quite clearly distinguished from the meaning ‘worship’, and relates only to the going to a teacher, and sitting beside him for instruction: it is admitted that in this sense the normal use is *upa-sad*, not *upa-ni-sad*, but it is also plausible that the choice of the term was dictated by the fact that Upasad has in the ritual a very definite meaning of its own, which rendered the selection of a different word desirable to describe the action intended. In the second place it is clear that the idea of reverence or worship must have passed away at an early date from its original sense, and that, therefore, there is nothing to commend it on the ground of simplicity as an explanation: the Taittirīya Upaniṣad uses the term of the mere knowledge of the combination of letters, and the sense ‘rule’, as in ‘not to beg’, cannot be deduced from ‘worship’ as easily as ‘secret instruction’ can be deduced from ‘session’, beside a teacher, as opposed to a gathering for open discussion, Pariṣad or Saṁsad. In the third place, though this is not at all conclusive, the Ātman or the Brahman is not properly the object of reverence at all, since reverence implies the very duality which the Upaniṣads deny, and, if in reality the origin of the word lay in that sense, then it must be admitted that the Upaniṣads bear a name which their essential doctrine transcends. This of course is quite possible in itself: the other two considerations set out make it improbable.