Month: March 2025

THE HIGHEST GOOD

We seem to stray from metaphysics into ethics today as we examine the ‘Highest Good’ as presented in the Upanishads. However if the reader will bear with me, I think its place in the Hindu conception of ultimate reality will become clear.

Last time we ended with the Upanishad’s assertion that our good and evil actions due to desire or passion cause us to identify with those actions leading us away from liberation and towards further reincarnation. In short, good and bad actions of this type are counterproductive to Brahmātmaikyan (the identity of Brahman and ātman). The Westerner might be tempted to turn away from this apparent rejection of moral responsibility, but there is more to the story.

While it is true that for the Upanishads the perfect human is constrained by Knowledge rather than good and evil, this does not mean that one is free to commit sin.¹³ Liberation depends on the prerequisite that one eradicate all evil tendencies and devote oneself to the welfare of others. The Hindu approach to ethics, we discover, is akin to the Western system of virtue ethics, but with the emphasis on purification of the mind and deepening of the inner self. However, self-purification demands care of the body, renunciation (nyāsa), self-reflection, equanimity, detachment, and self-control.¹⁴ These then culminate in the highest good.

The Upanishads teach that evil is due to association of the self with the body and mind, while the true self is beyond pleasure, pain, righteousness, and unrighteousness.¹⁵ However that will only get one so far; the direct line to the highest good is Knowledge, that is, the Knowledge that “Brahman is the sole Reality; which appears as both the objective universe and the individual self. With this Knowledge of Brahman, the self is not lost in It; the self only realizes that it has always been Brahman.”¹⁶ So instructed we understand why ultimate reality is considered by these thinkers to be beyond categories of good and evil.

But the circle of ultimate reality and ethics is finally closed. Moral behavior emerges from this Knowledge at it inevitably leads to universal love based on the recognition of “the fundamental oneness of all living beings.”¹⁷ And the impact is reciprocal: “The nature of Ultimate Reality, whether as Personal God or as Impersonal Absolute is Goodness, Beauty, and Truth, whose reflections are seen in their counterparts in the empirical world.”¹⁸ Nonetheless as in much of philosophy there is a paradox; the idea of ‘ought’ or morality is contrary to the struggle for perfection – you cannot be moral and perfect at the same time.¹⁹ Ethical behavior reveals the real self, but the real self is already intrinsically ethical, not moral by intention. In the end perfection means ‘God-realization’ or ‘Self-realization’ either of which transcends ‘oughts’ through freedom from the very idea of moral agency.²⁰

So much to contemplate…

(final continuation next post)

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¹³Nikhilananda, Swami, The Upanishads Volume 2. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1952. Page 1.

¹⁴Ibid., pages 4-8.

¹⁵Ibid., page 13.

¹⁶Ibid., page 17.

¹⁷Ibid., page 21. We cannot help but be reminded of Christ’s teaching.

¹⁸Ibid., page 26.

¹⁹Ibid., page 31.

²⁰Ibid., page 33.

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KARMA

Another metaphysical principle, Karma, is explained in Chapter IV of the Brihadāranyaka Upanishad. We learn that when the body becomes weak and unconscious, the self completely withdraws from the organs and the ‘vital breath’ (soul or self) is enfolded in a new body where it reaps “the fruits of its past action.”⁵ This includes the knowledge and experience of the prior lifetime which “help in initiating new actions as well as bringing past work to fruition.”⁶

This is utterly important to the surviving self as “Without past experience we cannot understand how anyone can proceed to accomplish any work or to enjoy the fruit of past actions.”⁷ Moreover one should strive for “good knowledge, good work, and good experience, so that one may obtain a desirable body and desirable enjoyments.”⁸ And “In the new body, the organs, under the control of the person’s past karma become active and co-ordinated…”⁹

But a key corollary metaphysical concept is not to be missed: “…the performance of good and evil deeds under the impulse of desire, anger, etc. is the cause of the ātman’s identification [with those deeds] and of its undergoing the process of rebirth. Impelled by this identification, the self takes one body after another. Therefore good and bad deeds are the cause of its rebirth.”¹⁰ However, this cycle or rebirth and death can be avoided because “…good and bad deeds prompted by desire, etc. are the cause of rebirth…When desire is absent, a deed does not lead to the accumulation of merit or demerit…desire alone is the root of transmigration.”¹¹

Here we come upon the second great discovery of Hinduism, karma terminates with Brahmātmaikyan (the identity of Brahman and atman) through a single focal point – desire. The lesson of this text is  stated unambiguously: “the man who does not desire – who is without desire, who is freed from desire, whose desire is satisfied whose only object is the Self – his organs do not depart. Being Brahman, he merges in Brahman.”¹²

Utterely beautiful and utterly simple!

(further continued next post)

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⁵Nikhilananda, Swami, The Upanishads Volume 3. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1956. Page 286.

⁶Ibid., page 290.

⁷Ibid., page 291.

⁸Ibid.

⁹Ibid.

¹⁰Ibid., page 293.

¹¹Ibid.

¹²Ibid.

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“The living come from the dead, just as the dead come from the living.” – Plato, Phaedo.

In the first part of this section we saw that for Upanishads, ultimate reality consists of three elements: (1) the eternal cosmic rhythm of Creation, Maintenance, and Dissolution, (2) Brahman, the universal spirit (possibly manifesting as three demiurges – Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Maintainer, and Shiva the Destroyer), and (3) atman – our deepest inner self. We also learned that the great discovery of the Upanishads was the equation: atman = Brahman. Today we turn to a few additional metaphysical teachings of the Upanishads in order to round out our understanding.

SAMSARA AND MOKSHA

We start with the great mystery of human mortality by returning to the Katha Upanishad. Our protagonist, Nachiketas, is sent by his angry father to the House of Yama, the god of death.¹ Because Nachiketas arrives while Yama is absent and waits unwelcomed for three days, Yama offers him three wishes in compensation. Nachiketas asks first for the forgiveness of his father which Yama grants. Second Nachiketas asks for the source of the secret fire by which heaven and immortality may be gained, and Yama reveals that it is found within the cavity of the heart.

Third Nachiketas asks to know the state of the soul after death. Yama resists, offering him instead wealth, a kingdom, and endless pleasures, but Nachiketas declines remarking that worldly goods are ultimately fleeting.² Yama congratulates Nachiketas for correctly distinguishing the true good from the merely desirable. Pleasure and wealth, we learn, are the paths on which many perish while the pursuit of knowledge and truth is the sole worthwhile objective of human kind.

Yama tells Nachiketas that the seeker of truth eventually finds the most subtle of mysteries, the Soul:

“The soul is not born and does not die. It is not produced from anyone nor does it produce. It is unborn, eternal, timeless, ancient. It is not slain when the body is slain… The Self that lodges in the heart of each man is smaller than the small, greater than the great. The man whose will is at rest sees Him and freed from sorrow; through serenity of the senses he sees the glory of the Self…He is bodiless yet dwells in things incarnate. He is permanent yet dwells in things impermanent. He is the All-Pervading. Know the embodied soul is the rider, the body is the car, intellect is the charioteer, and mind is the reins…If a man is without wisdom and impure, he does not attain to his Home but goes on the road of birth and death. If a man has wisdom he attains that Home from which he does not return again to birth.”³

Yama concludes:

“Higher than the senses are their objects, higher than these objects is the mind, higher than the mind is Intelligence. Higher than Intelligence is the Great Self. Higher than the Great Self is the Unmanifested. Higher that the Unmanifested is the Soul. Higher than the Soul is nothing, That is the goal… he who has understood the Nature of Brahm [the Universal Self] is freed from death.”⁴

The story of Nachiketas meeting with Yama discloses the classic Hindu principles of samsara (reincarnation) and moksha (liberation) and of the existence of the human and the universal soul. It also reveals the fundamental ‘fire’ (will) in the human interior which can drive us to liberation and the supremacy of truth over other human cravings.

(continued next post)

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¹Beck, L. Adams, The Story of Oriental Philosophy. The New Home Library, New York, 1942. Pages 53-57.

²The Westerner may be reminded of the choice of Solomon for wisdom in the Old Testament.

³Ibid., page 56.

⁴Ibid.

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We have been reviewing what happens when the Upanishads switch from the external search for the fundamental nature of ultimate reality to the introspective struggle to define the individual self. They find that the inmost essence of the human being is an absolute illuminated, blissful, self-awareness.

I offer one last description of the journey to the inner self by Prajapati from the Chandogya Upanishad:

“The Self free from sin, from age, and death, and grief, and hunger, and thirst, which desires nothing but the Desirable and imagines nothing but what it should imagine, that is the object of our search. He who has searched out that Self and comprehends it obtains complete beatitude.”¹⁵

The stage is now set, and we arrive at perhaps the most profound parable in the Upanishads, and perhaps in all of human literature:

 A father says to his son:

 “Fetch me a fruit of the nyagrodha tree.”

 “Here is one ,sir.”

“Break it.”

“It is broken, sir”

“What do you see?”

“Almost infinitesimal seeds.”

“Break one.”

“It is broken , sir.”

“What do you see?”

“Nothing sir.”

The father said:

“My son, that subtle essence there which you cannot perceive, of that very essence this great nyagrodha tree proceeds. Believe it, my son. In that which is the subtle essence every existent thing has its Self. It is the Self and you, O Shvetaketu, are THAT.”¹⁶

We have arrived at the apex of Hindu thought. The ultimate nature of reality cannot be directly or even indirectly grasped from the combination of our sensory inputs and our mental constructions. Rather a persistent introspection reveals that the transcendental nature of our inner self is identical to and co-extensive with the essence of every other existing entity and indeed with the entirety of reality. Atman, our inner self, is nothing less than Brahman, the cosmic Self, hence the maxim: “Thou art that” or “Tat Tvam Asi.”

We should pause here to consider this distillate of Hindu thought. Swami Nikhilananda in the preface to his four volume translation of the Upanishads elegantly explains the significance of Brahmātmaikyan (or Brahma-ātmā – aikyam meaning ‘unity of Brahman and the ātman). It is not derived from logical argument as would occur in Western philosophy, but empirically from direct and immediate experience. It cannot be proven, but the pathway to it can be disclosed. It is both perennial philosophy and permanent knowledge, that will not and indeed cannot be refuted by future discovery. In his words:

“If ever a general solution is reached of the great riddle, which presents itself to the philosopher in the nature of things all the more clearly the further our knowledge extends, the key can only be found where alone the secret of nature lies open to us from within, that is to say in our innermost self.”¹⁷

So much to think about…

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¹⁵Beck, L. Adams, The Story of Oriental Philosophy. The New Home Library, New York, 1942. Page 51.

¹⁶Ibid., page 57.

¹⁷Nikhilananda, Swami, The Upanishads Volume 1. Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York, 1949. Page vii.

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Ignorance must be overcome to end the futile life cycle of samara, and love, purity, altruism, and the ethics of dharma are prerequisites for the necessary knowledge. After this moral grounding, knowledge comes from disciplined contemplation in search of the Absolute. It turns out the Upanishads do not deny the many gods of the Vedas, but reimagine them as manifestations of the One.⁸ Nonetheless, as with most philosophers and mystics, the anthropomorphic solitary God is increasingly understood more abstractly. The great thinkers of the Upanishads start with the existence of the cyclic universe and backtrack to an originating or sustaining ‘something’ which they call Brahman.⁹  In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Brahman is inconceivable, unchangeable, and non-injurable. The Katha Upanishad says Brahman is inaudible, invisible, indestructible, cannot be tasted or smelled, is without beginning or end, and is beyond greatness. The Mundaka Upanishad concurs, describing Brahman as:

“Invisible, incomprehensible, without genealogy, colorless, without eye or ear, without hands or feet, eternal pervading all and over all, scarce knowable, that unchangeable one whom the wise regard as being womb.”¹⁰

Something remarkable happens next. Perhaps frustrated by the limits of human comprehension of the Absolute possible through contemplation of the external world, the Upanishads perform an about-face and investigate the nature of the human being effectively asking, “What am I?”¹¹ Here they make great progress. For example, in the Taittiriya Upanishad, the various elements of the individual person are enumerated in search of that which is most basic. The matter of which one is composed is eliminated as a mere covering for bodily functions which are in turn rejected as subordinate to the mind. However even mental activity is less basic than that which gives rise to mentation – the deeper self, a “bliss of total consciousness.”¹² Thus introspection becomes the means to their discovery that our fundamental essence is the inner self – that state of pure untroubled and even joyous awareness.

The Chandogya Upanishad retraces this pathway with the story of Prajapati instructing Indra (representing the gods) and Virocana (representing the demons) about the Self. Practicing prolonged self-discipline, Indra rejects as ultimate first the physical self as seen in a mirror (which is accepted by Virocana who quickly departs), then the dream self, and finally the dreamless self of deep sleep. At last Prajapati reveals the highest knowledge (paravidyam) that the true Self transcends the others; it is a fourth state called turiya, that of total self-consciousness and illumination.¹³

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad explains that this is not the ordinary dualistic knowledge of object by subject, but more real:

“Indeed, while he does not there know, he is indeed knowing, though he does not know [what is usually to be known]; for there is no cessation of the knowing of a knower, because imperishability [as a knower]. It is not however, a second thing, other than himself and separate, which he may know.”¹⁴

(further continued next post)

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⁸Beck, L. Adams, The Story of Oriental Philosophy. The New Home Library, New York, 1942. Page 47.

⁹ We stumble into adverse ambiguity. According to Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions (page 221) Brahman is the impersonal World-Spirit, while Brahmā is the creator-god or demiurge. Brāhmana is either a sacred text or a member of the priestly caste the latter who in modern form are called Brāhman. It is not clear that all authors adhere to these distinctions however.

¹⁰Koller, John M., Oriental Philosophies. Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1970. ISBN 684-13668-6, page 25.  We are reminded of the via negativa, Maimonides, and the Kabbalah.

¹¹This over 2500 years before Martin Heidegger!

¹²Ibid., page 26.

¹³Ibid., page 28.

¹⁴Ibid., page 29.

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