Brhadaranyaka Upanisad- A Critical Study (An Old and Rare Book)

The Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, the most ancient, extensive and authentic scriptural text aims mainly to deal with the problem of pure subjectivity, logically claiming as it does priority in philosophical disquisition, from both view-points, namely, that of verbal authenticity based on direct intuitive perception of Ultimate Reality by the great sages of the Vedic age and that of rational critique of the given states of consciousness, universally experienced by man. The conclusion derived from this balanced methodological approach points to the unity of the primeval Being that is aware of itself, which for the sake of its own manifestation, adopts the mode of auto-differentiation into the subject and the object, the epistemological polarity, the fundamental condition for the formation of the corpus of objective knowledge. The revolutionary finding of such an inquiry is that man can transcend-if he learns to decipher the structure of the inner layers of his own being the subject-object dichotomy and gain absolute union with the transcendent Being which gives rise to the comprehension of the totality of the objective existence. This is the significance of the assertion, atmani vijnate idam sarvam vijnātam If this can be termed as systematic determination of the subject, it can go a long way in balancing the frame of epistemology, since the overemphasis on scientific specification of natural object alone, a direct result of Cartesian duality, has led to a dangerous imbalance in the morphology of knowledge, the root-cause of several disharmonies and inversion of the time-honoured and tested value-systems, plaguing mankind, under ineluctable force of which all movements of human society have been of late appearing not only as directionless but misdirected.

As the psychiatric treatment seeks to trace the rhizome of a disease embedded in the unconscious of a man, the existential disorders besieging humanity may be traced in the depths of ancient human thinking and treated perhaps successfully through philosophical analysis bearing directly on the paradigms of experiences of man.

RAMKRISHNA T. VYAS: At present working as Director, Oriental Institute, M. S. University of Baroda, Vadodara. Graduated in Sanskrit (Prin.) with Honours from the University of Bombay with Ist class, Obtained his Master's and Doctoral degrees also from the University of Bombay. Passed the Vyakarana Sastri and Vyakarana Acarya examinations from the Sampurnananda Sanskrit Vishvavidyalaya, Varanasi and Mumbadevi Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya, Bombay respectively. He was awarded gold-medal for securing the highest marks at the Vyakaranacarya examination. He served in different capacities as Lecturer, Professor in Sanskrit, Dean, Arts Faculty, Rector and Superintendent at the Colleges and other Research institutions of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, for about twenty four years. Also served as Director of the Institute of Indology at Dwarka for about a year. Joined the Oriental Institute, MS University of Baroda in 1982 as Deputy Director.

He edited the Sanskrit quarterly Samvid for about ten years. Co-authored the work "Ten Classical Upanisads", with Dr. P. B. Gajendragadkar, Retired Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India, published in 1981. He edited and translated into English Mahavakyadarsa of Jayaram Nagara, a work of seventeenth century on the Advaita Vedant published in 1986. He has to his credit more than fifty papers and articles presented at different national and international Seminars and Conferences and published in leading Research Journals. Several articles and poems written in Sanskrit, presented at national Seminars and broadcast from A.I.R., are also published in Sanskrit Journals.

The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda has a series of publications called " M. S. University of Baroda Research Series". In this series, we publish selected research works of high quality prepared by the teachers and students of this University.

The thesis "Brhadaranyaka Upanisad-A Critical Study" by Dr. R. T. Vyas who worked for the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Sanskrit, University of Bombay, was approved for the award of the Ph.D. degree in Sanskrit in 1981, is now published in this series.

We acknowledge with thanks the financial help received from the University Grants Commission toward this publication.

I am extremely happy to welcome the publication of "Brhadaranyaka Upanisad-A Critical Study" by Dr. R. T. Vyas, a sound scholar of Vedanta Philosophy. The book is originally a thesis approved for the Ph.D. degree of the University of Bombay, a prestigious University of the country. Needless to say that the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad is most significant from the Advaitic standpoint. The rich propounding and elaboration of the concept of the Atman in the Upanisad, is the keynote of the philosophy of the Upanisads. The Upanisadic studies by foreign and Indian scholars like Deussen, Colebrooke, Hume, Gough, Roer and Cowell, Radhakrishnan and Ranade, have been of a great value. But the present study on the Brhadaranyaka is of a special and scholarly nature. The author, Dr. R. T. Vyas, studying the Brhadaranyaka, has taken into account the prominent aspects like metaphysics, psychology, cosmology; ritualism and eschatology. The study explores the dimension of the subjective aspect of reality, ultimately arriving at the non-dual, and transscendent subject called Atman or Brahman that comprehends and compasses the totality of the objective existence.

In the earlier history of Vedanta, the Brahmasutra of Badarayana is of great significance. Really speaking, it is on the logic of the Brahmasutra, that the total Advaitic and Vaisnavite tenets have been developed. In this regard, Dr. Vyas has rightly undertaken the study of the Brhadaranyaka and the Brahmasutra. Thus I can unhesitatingly say that Dr. Vyas's treatment of the subjects in this study, shows his high scholarship and proper scheming for research.

The study evinces the sastric as well as most brilliant critical approach of the scholar. The aid of original Sanskrit works and critical works of high standard in the field, has further made the study most authentic and valuable. I am sure that this work of Dr. Vyas will be widely read and highly appreciated by the scholars of the field. I further hope that the readers of Vedanta Philosophy will have many more works from the spilled pen of Dr. R. T. Vyas.

Nature has endowed man with inquisitive spirit, apart from some basic instincts and a few higher impulses. To satisfy the latter has been his primary concern, but that could not make him complacent, as the former has always been found to be the most powerful urge, very much alive, after each attempt at satisfying those cravings and even after many superior and finer accomplishments. As a result, his unremitting quest has been frequently directed to comprehend the reality of existence. There have been seers among all peoples of the world who succeeded in solving the riddle of existence, by perceiving the reality directly through intuitive experience. Scriptures of various peoples are the records of such experience. But one has to find truth for oneself newly-an adventure of the highest order and the necessity of the greatest magnitude-in which these timeless hoary revelations may serve as beacon-light or cynosure. A study of scriptures, therefore, is very useful to help one to re-live the ancient hut eternal verities.

Philosophy, as a rational inquiry into the Ultimate Reality, may be defined as a science of Reality. Taylor, a great exponent of Plato's philosophy observes that metaphysics sets itself more systematically and universally than any other science, to ask what, after all, is meant by being real and to what degree our various scientific and non-scientific theories about the world are in harmony with the universal characteristics of real existence. Aristotle defined it as "a science of Being qua Being". This shows that Reality and Being are identical.

The science of Reality, unlike the discursive natural sciences, such as physics or chemistry and social sciences like history or economics, is essentially intuitive and demands very high norms of moral refinement, keen discerning intellect and the capacity to reject what is not real. This psychological apparatus-criticus is incumbent on an earnest student of philosophy, as his very being is directly involved in this uncommon pursuit, to prevent it from being reduced to a fruitless exercise of nerves.

The term metaphysics suggests the study of what is beyond the scope of physics (the Greek word meta means after or beyond). Metaphysics thus denotes the field of psychology and abstract reasoning. But the world philosophy, a combination of the Greek words philos= lover and sophia wisdom, signifies love of wisdom and brings us nearer the real objective of this uncommon pursuit. Philosophy, therefore, is both the science of Reality and the art of attaining it.

**Contents and Sample Pages**