RELS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Nachiketa, Sannyasa, Upanishads

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELS 131
• Professor: Aditi Sen- Chowdhury

Document Summary

Many of them are texts from the forest. Sanyasa idea of renunciation: social structures where everyone conforms. Go to forest for answers young men all sought for those answers, therefore they would go to the forest in search for those answers: brahmin priest teachers: used for education. Whole body of texts are outside forest: upanishads. The idea of brahman and atman is introduced. Brahman cosmic orb from which life emanates: everything comes out of brahman, all a part of the orb, can take many forms. Atman soul, all a part of the continuous cycle: when you die, you take another form reincarnation. When you escape the cycle and find salvation, then you can become one with brahman: one can do this by opening the mind"s eye: meditation. Father tells him to go to hell: know that the water is sweet we have to know.