THE PROFOUND PHILOSOPHY of the Upanishads has inspired people over the ages, both in India and the world. While passages from the Vedic Samhitas are referred to and quoted in the Upanishads, we find both characters and ideas from the Upanishads in several other texts of ancient India, including the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, which forms part of it, the Puranas, and in those of other systems of philosophy. Similar stories and characters also appear in Buddhist and Jain texts, and the same terms such as atma and karma are used, though their connotations may be different. Ideas reminiscent of the Upanishads are also seen in Greek philosophy; for instance, in the writings of Pythagoras, Empedocles and Plato, among others. Were these drawn from a knowledge of the Upanishads or were these parallel developments?
In addition, the vast number of commentators on the Upanishads, of whom several are mentioned in this book, indicate their importance in the history of Indian philosophy. Their ideas, crystallized in the philosophy of Vedanta, seeped into other philosophical systems and other sects in India, even though the Upanishads themselves became relatively unknown—the preserve of certain groups of brahmanas and philosophers, who continued to comment on and analyse these texts. Their influence can be seen in a number of medieval bhakti and other sects, some of which have been mentioned earlier. The significant idea that Brahman is One without a second probably contributed to the concept of equality among castes, put forward by many of the bhakti saints, along with medieval sects such as the Mahanubhava (see Feldhaus). One can see an even more direct influence in later sects such as those of the Panchasikhas and the Mahima Dharma.
The medieval translations into Persian by the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh probably influenced some of the Sufi sects within India. The concept of asceticism and the search for the divine within the heart are well known in some of these sects. Dara Shikoh’s Fifty Upanishads reached the Western world before British and German scholars had begun their translations. As noted earlier, the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer fell under their influence. Even though Antequil Duperron’s Latin translation was very difficult to comprehend, Schopenhauer managed to grasp the basic philosophy, which, along with Buddhism and the work of Western philosophers such as Plato and Emmanuel Kant, influenced his own work. Friedrich Nietzsche, Georg Hegel and Karl Gustav Jung were also affected by Upanishadic philosophy.
Once translations in English were available, others in the Western world, including the poets T.S. Eliot, Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson, were inspired by its concepts. Sir William Jones translated a single short Upanishad, the Isha Upanishad, into English. Next to do so was Colebrooke, followed by Rammohan Roy, Max Muller and others.
We have already seen Rammohan Roy’s pioneering efforts in the nineteenth century in making the Upanishads better known among ordinary people by translating some of them into Bengali and English and organizing readings from the Upanishads through the Brahmo Samaj. The Arya Samaj founder Swami Dayananda Saraswati did quote from the Upanishads, but his focus was the reinterpretation of the Vedic Samhitas. Sri Aurobindo wrote on the Upanishads and incorporated some of the ideas in his own philosophy. Even other philosophers such as Osho commented on these texts. The world-renowned Jiddu Krishnamurti and U.G. Krishnamurti did not acknowledge the Upanishads, but the essence of their ideas can be found in their own thoughts. Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), founder of the Ramakrishna Mission and a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, also promoted the Upanishads. He followed the concept of the universal atman and believed that ‘In hurting anyone you hurt yourself, in loving anyone you love yourself’.1 Mahatama Gandhi, known to read the Bhagavad Gita every day, was also inspired by the Isha Upanishad.2 Even Jawaharlal Nehru commented on them in Discovery of India,3 while B.R. Ambedkar quoted the mahavakyas, ‘Tat tvam Asi’ and ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, to show how they promoted equality, even though, as he commented, these ideas had not been incorporated into Hinduism.4
Today, the Ramakrishna Mission, Chinmaya Mission and other organizations continue to promote the Upanishads, providing new translations and holding classes on them. The Bhagavad Gita, which has passages similar to the Upanishads (particularly the Katha Upanishad), is well known. Yet, Upanishadic ideas and philosophy somehow have not formed a part of mainstream thought in India.
In the Bhagavad Gita it is said: ‘Among thousands of men perhaps one strives for perfection, and among thousands of those who strive perhaps one knows me in truth.’5 The Upanishads are for those who want to understand the mysteries of the universe, and of Brahman, that is said to pervade everything, the ultimate cause and ultimate goal.