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A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c6.s3.t4: Variation in the conception of the Path of the Gods

A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c6.s3.t4

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English

Variation in the conception of the Path of the Gods

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summer solstice,” or finally “the world of the year,” it substitutes “the worlds of deities” which are recognised as properly deities. Then it tells us, that “when such a soul has reached the world of Brahman, Brahman directs his attendants to run towards the soul and receive him with all the glory which is due to himself alone. He says that as the soul has reached the Ageless river, he can never become old. Upon the command, five hundred celestial damsels move towards the soul—a hundred with fruits, a hundred with ointments, a hundred with garlands, a hundred with clothes, and a hundred with perfumes; and they decorate the soul with all the ornaments which are due to Brahman. Being so decorated, the soul knowing Brahman, moves towards Brahman. He comes to the Ageless river which he crosses merely by the motion of the mind. He then shakes off his good deeds as well as his bad deeds. His beloved relatives partake of the good deeds, and unbeloved of the bad deeds. And as a man driving fast in a chariot looks down on the revolving wheels, so does the soul look at day and night, good and bad, and all the contrary pairs. Being free from good and free from evil, knowing Brahman, he moves towards Brahman” (S. 24. f).

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39. The culminating point, however, of the Upanishadic psychology is reached when we come to the treatment of the idea of Immortal Life. This is one of the crucial points in the interpretation of Upanishadic doctrine, and expert opinion has been divided on this point for the simple reason that every dogmatic philosopher has wished to find nothing but his own doctrine in the Upanishads. We, who stand for no dogma in particular, know how to understand the Upanishadic passages on this head, because we want to take a merely historical survey of the doctrine, and not to press the passages into the service of any particular view to which we may be committed. Looking at the Upanishads from this point of view, we see that there is a systematic evolution that could be traced through them of the ideas that were held on the subject of Immortality. We are told in a passage of the Chhāndogya Upanishad that the best kind of eternal life that may be conceived for anybody is that he should be " lifted to the region of the deity " whom he has loved and worshipped during life, and that he should partake of all the happiness that is possible in that region (S. 25. a). Another passage from the Muṇḍaka Upanishad tells us that the best kind of eternal life should be regarded rather as the " companionship " of the highest God with whom the soul should be liberated at the time of the great end (S. 25. b). Not satisfied with a mere companionship, another passage declares that eternal life consists in attaining to an absolute " likeness " to God and enjoying life of personal immortality, a view which plays so large a part in the theology of Rāmānuja (S. 25. c). On the other hand Śaṅkarāchārya would be satisfied with nothing short of an " absorption in divinity " and a life of impersonal immortality. As rivers which flow into the sea disappear in the mighty waters and lose their name and form, even so does the wise soul become absorbed in the transcendent Person and lose its name and form. As when honey is prepared by the collection of various juices, the juices cannot discriminate from which tree they came, even so when the souls are merged in the Real they cannot discriminate from which bodies they came (S. 25. d). This is nothing short of a doctrine of impersonal immortality. Finally, an important passage from the Muṇḍaka Upanishad tells us that the soul of a man who has come to self-consciousness becomes mingled after death with the whole Universe (S. 25. e). Such a soul becomes a great diffusive power, whose voice is on the rolling air and who stands in the rising sun, and who may be seen in star or flower or wherever the eye may be cast¹. Or else to express it in the words of a poet of rare imagination :

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¹ Tennyson, In Memoriam CXXX.

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“ He is made one with Nature : there is heard
His voice in all her music, from the moan
Of thunder to the song of the night’s sweet bird ;
He is a presence to be felt and known
In darkness and in light, from herb and stone,
Spreading itself where’er that Power may move
Which has withdrawn his being to its own ;
Which weilds the world with never wearied love,
Sustains it from beneath, and kindles it above ”².

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² Shelley, Adonais XLII.

Cites (2)