Self and BrahmanThe Vedas to Upanishads

Purushottama Bilimoria

The Vedas

Earliest Conception of Self Rig Veda (around 1500-1600 BCE)

Principle texts (Hinduism) 4 Vedas (Sruti-’heard’

scriptures) c.2 BCE-300BCE Rig Veda Yajor Veda Sama Veda Atharva Veda

Composition of Vedas (pg 322) 4 Sections

Samhitas Brahmanas Aranyakas Upanishads▪ Vedanta

Subject Matter Karma-Kanda Upasana-Kanda Jnana-Kanda

Other Authoritative Scriptures of Hinduism

Smriti (the ‘recollected’ or ‘remembered’ scriptures)

c. 500 BCE-1700+ CE Secondary to Vedas

Rig Veda

oldest significant extant Indian text

1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses

ten books (mandalas) Hymns dedicated to

Rigvedic deities composed by sages and

poets 1400 BCE to 900 BCE

Rig Veda

Begins with puzzle Nasadiya

129th hymn of the 10th Mandala of the Rigveda

Wonders about beginning Perhaps earliest expression of skeptical

inquiry and agnosticism

Nasadiya (pg 323)

Nasadiya

Self and Creation in the Vedas

Rigvedic Seer (derived from Rig Veda) Not committed to facticity of existence

or any existent. Wonders if/how no-existence could have

arisen How/why world is how it is now Is ‘creation’ due to working of some

mysterious hand?

Purusha – The Cosmic Person

Cosmic pattern and ordering of society modeled after image of a person.

Purusha The Cosmic Person

Hymn – “Purusha – Sukta” “Hymn of Man” Describes Purusha whose dismembered

parts consitute the universe and its ‘furniture.’

Opposite of creatio ex nihilio ▪ “made from nothing.”

Purusha-Sukta, The Hymn of Man1. The Purusha (the Supreme Being), who has thousands of heads,

thousands of eyes and thousands of feet enveloped the earth on all sides and stood beyond it in the ten directions of space.

2. All this is the Purusha only; all that has been and all that will be. And He is the Lord of Immortality, which (also) grows by food.

3. Such is His greatness, but the Purusha is greater than this. All beings make up only one-quarter of Him. Three-quarters of Him which are immortal are in Heaven.

4. Three-quarters of the Purusha ascended high; one-quarter was here, again and again. And, diversified in form, it moved to the animate and inanimate world.

5. From That was born Virat (the totality of beings). From Virat was the Purusha born. As soon as He was born, He spread over the earth both in front and behind.

6. When the devas (gods) performed a sacrifice with the Purusha as the offering, the season of spring was the molten butter (used in all sacrifices), summer the sacred fuel and autumn the oblation.

6. When the devas performed the sacrifice, in which they bound the Purusha as the sacrificial animal, there were seven poles in the sacrificial enclosure and three times seven logs of sacred firewood.

7. They placed Him, the Sacrifice, Purusha, the firstborn, on the sacrificial grass and besprinkled Him with the sacred water. Then the devas, the sadhyas and the rishis performed the sacrifice with Him as the offering.

8. From that sacrifice, in which everything was offered as an oblation, was collected fresh butter. Creatures living in air (birds) and those living in forests and villages came in to being.

9. From that sacrifice, in which everything was offered as oblation, came the Riks (Vedic Hymns) and the Samans (Hymns which are sung - the Saama Gaana). The Chandases (Vedic Metres) came from it; and from it theYajus (mantra for the ritual) was born.

10. Horses were born of it, and animals with two rows of teeth. Cows were born of it, and so were goats and sheep.

11. When they cut up the Purusha, into how many parts did they divide Him? What did they call His mouth, His two arms, His two thighs and His two feet?

12. The Brahmana was His mouth, the two arms became the Kshatriya, and His two thighs became the Vaisya. Of his two feet was the Sudra born.

13. The moon was born of His mind. The Sun was born of His two eyes. Indra Agni were born of His mouth. Vayu was born of His Praana (life-breath).

11. The antariksha (middle region) came from His navel. The sky appeared out of the head, the earth from the two feet and the quarters from the two ears. Thus they created the worlds.

12. I know that great Purusha, lustrous as the Sun beyond darkness. The Wise One, having made all the forms appear, gave them names, and uttered these as they were.

13. One who knows Him whom Dhata (Creator) first revealed, and so did Sakra (Indra) who fully knew the four quarters, becomes immortal here. There is no other way.

14. The devas performed sacrifice with the Sacrifice. These were the first dharmas. They, the mighty ones, attained the height of Heaven where the ancient sadhyas and devas abide.

The Hymn of Man

Human existence has a purpose and plan that approximates the cosmos itself and is related to its various aspects.

Human life can only have meaning when it is in harmony with the cosmos

Need not necessarily lead to a single metaphysical view about the self

Thus, no definitive conception of personal self in Vedas, apart from integration with cosmos.

Terms of Note

Purusha – ‘person’ Jiva – created or individual self, akin

to ‘soul’ Cetana-atman – everlasting

intelligent principle Prana – breath/life Sutru-atman – ruler Atman vatah Hamsa – ‘all-dwelling inner power’ or

swan

Atman

Self gets referred to by all terms above, but Atman is strongest

Purusha = connotates to signify the principle of existence within each living being – gods, humans and animals alike.

Atman = used to refer to this principle in human beings.

Jiva = identifies the individual self.

Jiva

Each being has own distinguishing features that characterize it.

Substantive status is only provisional Does not imply that it has to be

permanently existing entity or substance

Jiva

On one level, self is nothing but the jiva (constituent body, mind, memory, qualities, etc.)

On another level, self may transcend the limitations of jiva and be identified by all beings. This is Self, better referred to by atman. However, jiva and atman are not two

things in an individual, instead, they are united in an inseparable relationship.

Upanishads: Brahaman and the Unity of Being

Idea of unity – individual, social, and cosmic existence

Relate atman to Brahman Brahman = absolute being.

“sacred formula” or the “word” Connotation of “holy power” Eventually represented greatness of

being Very abstract, defies human

conception

Atman and Brahman

In Upanishads, tend to identify atman (as the ‘breath’ or principle in human being) with Brahman(as the principle underlying the universe.) Ultimately there is no distinction or difference to be

made between the real self of human existence and that which ultimately is.

In conversation between sage Yajnavalka and his wife Maitreyi, he tells her that the knowledge that he seeks of the self is dear not for the sake of the husband, wife, son, wealth or any of the other castes, rather it is dear for the sake of atman, for he says that atman is all. (pg 330)

Atman equals Brahman

Chandogya – between the god Indra and the demon Virocana approach Prajapti, who says:

“The self which is free from evil, free from old age, free from death, free from grief, free from hunger and thirst, whose desire is the real, whose thought is the real, he should be sought, him should one desire to understand. He who has found out and who understands that self, he obtains all worlds and desires.”

Atman equals Brahman

However, god Indra took 101 years to understand that desire is a function of the senses and that this is not the way to self-realization, rather a deep insight into the self through knowledge and reflection is ultimately necessary.

Rest of Chandogya Upanishad presents the central teachings on the self, its various states, (‘inner space’ and in sleep, its fate at death, and its quest for immortality.)

Atman equals Brahman

The self has been elevated to another level or order of being by identifying the atman with Brahman.

Atman = all of all; although it is one, It is the non-dual, a-temporal reality that manifests itself in various forms. Atman = smaller than the smallest, and greater than the greatest.

Conception of Self

Deeper conception is jiva in its embodied existence.

Atman is the cause of the body Jiva is a subtle ball of fire

Conceived as root of ego Constructed self Jiva provides unifying network among

consciousness, since it is just a manifestation in response to its environment.

Jiva can move out of body at point of death and continue its existence when found another body.

Reactions against the Brahmanic-Hindu View

Materialists said atman had a concept of the substantial self.

Thus, Buddhism formed – denying the self.

How substantial is the atman?

Atman is beyond personal self – is same for all people

Substantial self is different in each individual

Atman appears to enable human beings to look beyond limiting conception of a self identified with bodily or conscious processes.

ConclusionThanks for listening =] Hope you’re not confused. >.<