01:840:211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Hindu Cosmology, Upanishads, Brahmapura
Religion in Asia 01/26/17
Upanisadic Orientations (Cont’d)
● In the Upanisads - highest form of religious action (Karma) - No longer merely
propitiating (regain) the gods or sustaining the cosmos through sacrifice
- But attaining insight or knowledge (Jnana) of the essential Brahman and realizing the
unity of the individual Atman and the eternal - universal cosmic atman
<Karma and Reincarnation in the Upanisads>
● Upanisads retain the concept of Karma - but reject simple Vedic ritualism as the sole
means of reaching the absolute, i.e. Brahman. All Forms of Action Now Become
Soteriologically Meaningful
● This new understanding of action (karma) rests on the novel appearance of the
massively important theory of reincarnation (or “Redeath”)
● Every karma undertaken by an individual has a consequence (phala, “fruit”) which must
be borne in future lifetimes
● These consequences can be either good (punya, “meritorious”) or bad (papa, “Sinful”),
leading to good or bad rebirths
● Desire (Karma) is the cause of karma, and the cause of desire is ignorance of the true
nature of the self
- “A man turns into something good by good action and into something bad by bad acOon.
And so people say: ‘A person here consists simply of desire.’ A man who’s attached
goes with his acOon. [...] Reaching the end of his action, of whatever he has done in this
world—From that world he returns back to this world, back to acOon. [...] Now, a man
who does not desire—who is without desires, who is freed from desires, whose desires
are fulfilled, whose only desire is his self—his vital functions (prāṇa) do not depart.
Brahman he is, and to brahman he goes. When they are all banished, those desires
lurking in one’s heart; then a man becomes immortal, and attains brahman in this world.”
<Planes of Rebirth in the early Upanisadic era 7-5 the centuries BCE>
● Seven Heavens or Worlds (Loka) - the highest of these is called Satyaloka (“world of
truth”) or Brahmaloka (“World of Brahman”) - those who obtain rebirth in these heavens
are destined for immortality (understood as unification with absolute, eternal Brahman)
- Scholars have argued that in early Hindu cosmology, the realm of heaven was identified
with the Milky way
● The world of the ancestors of fathers (Pitr) - in general, those who attain rebirth in this
world are destined to be reborn as men.
● The world of humans
● The world of animals and plants. These are seen as “Evil Births”
● Fully articulate cosmological conception of multiple hells - Does not emerge in Hinduism
until slightly later in history (although even in the Rg Veda there are early precursors of
the concept)
<The Mechanics of Rebirth>
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Document Summary
In the upanisads - highest form of religious action (karma) - no longer merely propitiating (regain) the gods or sustaining the cosmos through sacrifice. But attaining insight or knowledge (jnana) of the essential brahman and realizing the unity of the individual atman and the eternal - universal cosmic atman. Upanisads retain the concept of karma - but reject simple vedic ritualism as the sole means of reaching the absolute, i. e. brahman. This new understanding of action (karma) rests on the novel appearance of the massively important theory of reincarnation (or redeath ) Every karma undertaken by an individual has a consequence (phala, fruit ) which must be borne in future lifetimes. These consequences can be either good (punya, meritorious ) or bad (papa, sinful ), leading to good or bad rebirths. Desire (karma) is the cause of karma, and the cause of desire is ignorance of the true nature of the self.
