Connect To The Core 2

CONNECT TO THE CORE
By:
Satyendra Nath Dwivedi
“Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.”

[Rig-Veda I-89-i]
Part 2
In the absence of the strength which comes from an assimilation of one’s
cultural inheritance, when we try to take in Western culture, what is taken
in proves to be only the cheaper side of the culture, and not the strength
that is behind the culture. The strength we can touch only on the basis of
our own strength.
The Core
The ‘Upanishads’ along with the ‘Brahma-Sutras’ and ‘Bhagavad-Gita’ are

popularly known as the ‘Prasthana-Traya’ of Hindu Religion, i.e. ‘Sanatana
Dharma’, the Eternal Religion. All major teachers of Vedanta wrote detailed
commentaries on these scriptures.
The commentary of Shankaracharya (AD 788 – 820) is the most ancient of the
existing ones. Shankaracharya propagated the ‘Advaita’ philosophy and affirmed
that the Reality or the ‘Brahman’ is One without a second. Ramanuja (Eleventh
Century AD) propagated a philosophy of ‘Vishishta-Advaita’ and maintained that
the Brahman, the highest Reality has self-consciousness with knowledge of
Himself and a conscious will to create the world and bestow ‘salvation’ on His
creatures. Madhava (AD 1199 – 1276) maintained a ‘Dvaita’ philosophy and held
that everything is subject to control of God. Vallabha (AD 1476) developed
‘Shuddhadvaita’ and maintained that Souls are particles of God and they cannot
acquire the knowledge necessary for ‘Moksha’ except by the grace of the
Supreme.
The Hindu tradition believes that the different views are complementary.
The Bhagavat [1.2.11] says that the sages have described in various ways
the essential truth.
In a popular verse, Hanuman says:
“From the view-point of the body, I am Thy servant; from the view-point of the
ego, I am a portion of Thee; from the view-point of the self, I am Thyself. This is
my certain opinion.”
The advance of the Upanishads on the Vedas consists in an increased emphasis

on the monistic suggestions of the Vedic hymns, a shifting of the centre from the
outer to the inner world, a protest against the externalism of the Vedic practices
and an indifference to the sacredness of the Vedas.
Knowledge, mind, the senses and their objects are all finite and conditional. In
the field of morals we find that we cannot get true happiness from the finite. The
pleasures of the world are transient, being cut off by old age and death. Only the
infinite gives durable happiness.
“One thing is ‘Shreya’ (the good) and (quite) different indeed is ‘Preya’ (the
pleasant). Leading to different ends as they do, they both bind man. The good
befalls him who accepts the good, but falls he away from the goal who chooses
the pleasant.” [Katha Upanishad 1.2.1]
In religion we cry for eternal life. All these force upon us the conviction of a
timeless being, a spiritual reality, the object of philosophical quest, the fulfillment
of our desires, and the goal of religion.
“The eternal among the non- eternals, the Intelligent among the intelligent, who,
though One, fulfills the desires of the many – those ‘dhiras’ who realize Him as
existing in their own Self, to them belongs eternal peace and to none else.”
[Katha Upanishad 2.2.13]
The sages of the Upanishads try to lead us to this central reality which is infinite
existence (Sat), Absolute truth (Chit) and pure delight (Ananda).
To deny the life in this world is to destroy God within.
We are obliged to accept the reality of a universal consciousness which ever

accompanies the contents of consciousness and persists even when there are
no contents. This fundamental identity, which is the pre-supposition of both self
and non-self, is called ‘Atman’.
By the negative process, the self has to recognize that its essence is not in its
finite forms. By the positive method it finds its true self in the life of being of all.
All things exist within this true Self.
The Upanishads are decisive about the principle that Brahman is the sole
source of life in all that lives, the single thread binding the whole plurality
into a single unity.
In the firm language of the Chhandogya Upanishad [6.8.7]:
“Everything in the universe has this subtle (infinite) Reality for its Self; That is
Truth; That is Atman; and That thou art.”
The Upanishads declare that the universe is in God. But they never hold that the
universe is God. God is greater than the universe, which is his work. He is as
much and more beyond this, as the human personality is beyond the body, which
is the instrument of life here.
God expresses Himself in the world and the world is the expression of his life.
God in the infinite fullness of His being transcends His actual manifestations in
the universe of finite, physical entities which He has called into existence. God is
transcendent as well as immanent.
Though the individual soul fighting with the lower nature is the highest in the
world, it is not the highest realizable. The striving discordant soul of man should
attain to the freedom of spirit, the delight of harmony, and the joy of the absolute.
Only when the God in himself realizes itself, only when the ideal reaches its
fruition is the destiny of man fulfilled.
Finite things produce the opposite of what we aim at through them. The spirit in
us craves for true satisfaction and nothing less than the infinite can give us that.
We seek finite objects, we get them, but there is no satisfaction in them. We may
conquer the whole world, and yet we sigh that there are no more worlds to
conquer.
The Upanishads ask us to renounce selfish endeavors, but not all interests.
Detachment from self and attachment to God are what the Upanishads demand.
The Upanishads require us to work but disinterestedly. The righteous man is not
who leaves the world and retires to a cloister, but who lives in the world, loves
the objects of the world, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the infinite
value they contain, the universal they conceal. To him God has unconditional
value, and all objects possess derived value as vehicles of the whole or as the
way to God.
Every common duty fulfilled, every individual sacrifice made, helps the
realization of the Self.
The Upanishad conception of the world is a direct challenge to the spiritual

activity of man. A philosophy of resignation, an ascetic code of ethics, and
a temper of world-weariness are an insult to the creator of the universe, a
sin against ourselves and the world which has a claim on us. The
Upanishads believe in God, and so believe in the world as well.
The whole philosophy of the Upanishads tends towards the softening of divisions
and undermining of class hatred and antipathies. God is the inner soul of all
alike. So all must be capable of responding to the truth and therefore possess a
right to be taught the truth.
God gives us the security that all is well with the world and man is bound
to win.
The Upanishads declare that all men have in them the possibility of rising to their
full divine stature, and can realize it if they strive for it.
“As the flowing rivers disappear in the sea, losing their name and form, thus a
wise man, freed from name and form, goes to the Divine Person who is beyond
all.” [Mundaka Upanishad 3.2.8]
By: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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CONNECT TO THE CORE

Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

“Let noble thoughts come to us from all sides.”

The ‘Upanishads’ along with the ‘Brahma-Sutras’ and ‘Bhagavad-Gita’ are

In a popular verse, Hanuman says:

The advance of the Upanishads on the Vedas consists in an increased emphasis

To deny the life in this world is to destroy God within.

We are obliged to accept the reality of a universal consciousness which ever

In the firm language of the Chhandogya Upanishad [6.8.7]:

The Upanishad conception of the world is a direct challenge to the spiritual

By: Satyendra Nath Dwivedi

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