Quotes:Upanishad: Difference between revisions

'''{{Style S-Small capitals|Upanishad}}'''. Translated as “esoteric doctrine ”, or interpretation of the ''Vedas'' by the ''Vedânta'' methods. The third division of the ''Vedas ''appended to the ''Brâhmanas'' and regarded as a portion of ''Sruti ''or “revealed” word. They are, however, as records, far older than the ''Brâhmanas ''the exception of the two, still extant, attached to the ''Rig ‐Veda'' of the Aitareyins. The term'' Upanishad'' is explained by the Hindu pundits as “that which destroys ignorance, and thus produces liberation” of the spirit, through the knowledge of the supreme though'' hidden'' truth; the same, therefore, as that which was hinted at by Jesus, when he is made to say, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free ” (''John'' viii. 32). It is from these treatises of the ''Upanishads'' — themselves the echo of the primeval Wisdom‐Religion―that the Vedânta system of philosophy has been developed. (See “Vedânta”.) Yet old as the ''Upanishads ''may be, the Orientalists will not assign to the oldest of them more than an antiquity of 600 years B.C. The accepted number of these treatises is 150, though now no more than about twenty are left unadulterated. They treat of very abstruse, metaphysical questions, such as the origin of the Universe; the nature and the essence of the Unmanifested Deity and the manifested gods the connection, primal and ultimate, of spirit and matter; the universality of mind and the nature of the human Soul and Ego. The'' Upanishads'' must be far more ancient than the days of Buddhism, as they show no preference for, nor do they uphold, the superiority of the Brahmans as a caste. On the contrary, it is the (now) second caste, the Kshatriya, or warrior class, who are exalted in the oldest of them. As stated by Professor Cowell in Elphinstone’s ''History of'' ''India'' —  — “they breathe a freedom of spirit unknown to any earlier work except the'' Rig Veda''. . . The great teachers of the higher knowledge and Brahmans are continually represented as ''going to Kshatriya'' ''Kings to become their '' ''pupils''.” The “ Kshatriya Kings” were in the olden times, like the King Hierophants of Egypt, the receptacles of the highest divine knowledge and wisdom, the'' Elect'' and the incarnations of the primordial divine Instructors — the Dhyâni Buddhas or Kumâras. There was a time, æons before the Brahmans became a caste, or even the ''Upanishads'' were written, when there was on earth but one “lip ”, one religion and one science, namely, the speech of the gods, the Wisdom‐Religion and Truth. This was before the fair fields of the latter, overrun by nations of many languages, became overgrown with the weeds of intentional deception, and national creeds invented by ambition, cruelty and selfishness, broke the one sacred Truth into thousands of fragments.

{{Quote source HPB TG|Upanishad}}