The Upanishads A Study of the Oriental Texts By
Book Reviews
he aim of this study is to show that discrimination, and reliance on the original texts of the Upanishads are a great help in getting the real meaning of the Upanishadic texts. The help gained from the commentaries is acceptable to the extent they are faithful to the original text. The author, who was granted a Senior Fellowship for studying the Upanishads by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR), New Delhi, has, to prove his point, selected eight Upanishads: Isa, Kena, Katha, Mundaka, Mandukya, Svetasvatara, Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka. From seven of these, some texts are selected, their traditional commentaries by Shankara, Gaudapada or Vidyaranya are given in short, followed by the author’s views. There are two more sections of General Topics and Allied Topics having eight chapters out of a total of 30. The book is dedicated to Sri Aurobindo. Isa Upanishad is considered the most important and the ‘greatest’ of the twelve Upanishads and as many as six chapters are devoted to it. This could be because Sri Aurobindo speaks of ‘the epic massiveness of the Isa Upanishad’—and the author is his follower! The anti-ascetic teaching of the second verse, according to the author, is woven into the whole Upanishad from the beginning to the end, and also into all the other Upanishads. Because of his anti-ascetic bias he does not accept the popular notion that Mundak Upanishad is for the shaven headed sannyasins. Instead it means the Head Upanishad. One full chapter is dedicated to derive the meaning of the word ‘Atmahana’. Lesser number of chapters are devoted to other much larger Upanishads! By this one gets the
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impression that the book is more a compilation of the articles of the author on some of the selected texts of the Upanishads than a study. On going through the articles, one is bound to agree with the view of the scholars who had studied this work for extending the scholarship of the ICPR that (i) The textural meaning of the Upanishad is relative to the interpreter and is bound to end as a projection of his own mind; and (ii) The research is coloured by antiadvaitin bias, for the author is out to vanquish his advaitin adversary. He does so by giving his own interpretation and thus commits the same mistake for which the advaitin is held responsible. The author has tried to defend his position in ‘An Answer to the Critics’ claiming that it is more in keeping with the meaning of the original texts. Had the author not used the Advaitic interpretations as purvapaksha and had presented his study with occasional references to the Advaitic view, it would have been more dignified, since the author’s interpretations are rational and noteworthy. Biased or not, an impartial reader will surely enjoy and appreciate this interpretation of the Upanishadic texts. ________________ SWAMI BRAHMESHANANDA, CHANDIGARH
June 2019
T
Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 41, UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi - 110 007. 2016, paperback, pp.412, Rs.700.
43 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : S R I A D I N A R AYA N A I A H C . , B E N G A LU R U
N.Jayashanmugham
