The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c40.s7.t3.85

v2.c40.s7.t3.85

The Upaniṣads themselves contain traces of the doctrine of Yoga, regarded as a discipline by which the mind can be withdrawn from the things of this world and unity with the absolute can be attained, although it is only in the Kaṭha, the Çvetāçvatara, and the much later Maitrāyaṇīya that these traces are of importance. The Çvetāçvatara, however, contributes an element which in the classical Yoga distinguishes it from the Sāṁkhya, the presence of a personal deity, though the figure of the god in the Upaniṣad is infinitely more vivid and important than that of the Īçvara of the Yoga. This Upaniṣad, however, is distinctly marked by lack of clearness of conception, and attempts at harmonization of contrasting views. Recognizing the strength of the popular religion which craved for aid from the gods, and in no wise satisfied with mere Yoga methods of securing the end desired, the Çvetāçvatara introduces into its system the conception of god. But in this introduction we find a repeated confusion between god as an addition to the empiric universe beside matter and spirits, and god as identical with the absolute. In the first sense¹ we have the conception of the absolute as comprehending the three; god, who is the knower, the inciter to enjoyment, the lord; spirit, the enjoyer, the ignorant, not the lord; and nature, which is to be enjoyed by each spirit according to its merit or demerit. Two birds there are dwelling in one tree, one eats the sweet fruit, the other merely gazes on the scene; one, spirit, is distressed in contact with nature, but when it beholds the other, the lord, is freed from its woes. In the classical Yoga this picture presents itself in the form of a god who is a special spirit untouched by the impurity of the world, by action and its fruits, and who promotes the freedom of unemancipated spirits. The objections to the later view are obvious; how can there exist a god, who is not removed from all connexion with the world as is the released spirit, and yet is untouched by the misery of the world? In the Upaniṣad, however, god has a much more real existence; he is hailed as Rudra² and begged to spare the votary; he is invoked with the names of Maheçvara, Hara, and Çiva, and he is identified at times with the Brahman, which, though also set above Rudra, is immediately after³ expressly given the name of Lord, Īça, which is essentially that of Rudra. The end of man is to know, to see mystically this god, who is the magician⁴ who creates the universe in which the soul by illusion (*māyā*) is bound. He is the maker of all, all-knower, self-sourced, intelligent, the author of time,⁵ yet above the three times and impartite,⁶ possession of qualities, omniscient, the ruler of matter (*pradhāna*), and of the spirit, lord of qualities, the cause of transmigration and of liberation, of continuance and of bondage. When men shall roll up space as if it were a piece of leather, then only will there be an end of evil apart from the knowledge of god.⁷