Quotes from the Upanishads

7/23/2019 Quotes from the Upanishads

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/quotes-from-the-upanishads 1/4

Indira Peterson Mount Holyoke College 2015

SELECTIONS FROM THE UPANISHADS

Invocation for harmonious understanding and study, prefaced to the Upanishads (upani !ad )

saha nåv avatu. saha nau bhunaktu. saha vâriyam karavåvahai.

May we (two: teacher and student) be protected together! May we enjoy (learning)

together! May we act purposefully together!

tejasvi nåv adhâtam astu. ma vidvisavahai. aum. óåntiù óåntiù óåntiù.

May our learning be radiant! May we not disagree acrimoniously. Aum (Om), peace,peace, peace.

The central teaching of the early Upanishads, the most important among the 13 principal texts of

this kind, are the Ch"ndogya Upanishad and the Brihad "ra# yaka Upanishad (BAU) is that the

individual self (Atman, !tman) is identical with the real, eternal, undivided universal essence,

“Self” (Brahman).

Atman is described as a transcendent state or entity, consisting ofSat ((Unitary, unchanging, eternal Being) Chit (cit , Consciousness) Ananda

(ånanda: Bliss)

Well-known Quotations from the Upanishads. Sanskrit, texts with translation

A On the identity of Atman and Brahman, the individual /personal consciousness and theeternal, universal Self.

1. B.A.U ( Brihadåraïyaka Upaniòad ) I.3.28

asato må sad gamaya

tamaso må jyotir gamaya.

mrtyor må amãtam gamaya.



Peterson Upanishads 2

Lead me from non-Being (the Unreal) to Being (the Real),

From darkness, lead me to light!

From death, lead me to immortality!

2. Invocation to B.A.U. 5

auë – pärïam adaù pärïam idaë

pärïåt pärïam udacyate

pärïasya pärïam ådåya

pärïam evåvaóiòyate

auë óåntiù óåntiù óåntiù

Aum- That is whole, this is whole

The whole is taken from the whole.When we have taken the whole from the whole,

the whole alone remains. Aum-- Peace, peace, peace.

3. From the dialogue of àvetaketu and his father Uddålaka Çruïi in the Chåndogya Upaniòa,

6.1-3. (R.E.Hume):

“Just as, my dear, through the comprehension of one lump of clay all that is made of clay would

become comprehended – for the modification is occasioned only on account of a convention of

speech, it is only a name; while clay alone is the reality… So, my dear, is that instruction.”

(VI.14.3)

tat tvam asi: "You are that”.

4. B.A. U. 4.5.6 (P.Olivelle) From the dialogue between the sage Yajnavalkay and his wife

Maitreyi

åtmå vå are mantavyaù órotavyaù nididhyåsitavyaù..

“You see, Maitreyâ – it is one’s self (åtman) which one should see and hear, and on which one

should reflect and concentrate. For when one has seen and heard one’s self, when one hasreflected and concentrated on one’s self, one knows this whole world”.

B.A.U. 4.5.15

“By what means can one perceive him by means of whom one perceives this whole world?




About this self (åtman), one can only say “not-- , not—“ (neti neti). He is ungraspable, for he

cannot be grasped. He is undecaying, for he is not subject to decay. …Look, by what means can

one perceive the perceiver? There, I have given you the instruction, Maitreyâ. That’s all there is

to immortality (amãtatva).”

5. Kaìha U. 6. 1.

ärdhvamälo’dhaùóåkhaù eòo’óvatthaù sanåtanaù

tad eva óukram tad brahma tad evåmãtam ucyate

tasmin lokåù óritåù sarve tad u nåtyeti kaócana

This is the eternal fig tree, with roots above and branches below. That is the pure, that is called

the immortal, Brahman itself. On it are founded all the worlds, and no-one goes beyond it.

B On the path of ‘Self”-knowledge (brahma-vidy" )

1. Kaìha Upanisad. 3. 14

uttiòìhata jågrata

pråpya varån nibodhata

kòurasya dhårå nióitå duratyayå

durgaë pathas tat kavayo vadanti.

Arise, awake, know, achieve your goals, understand them!

The seers (sages) call it the path difficult to achieve, to traverse, sharp as a razor's edge.

(cf. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge).

2. Éóa U. 17

auë krato smara kãtaë smara

smara krato smara kãtam smara

O will, remember the deed!

Remember the deed, O will, remember the deed!

3. “What the Thunder Said” (T.S.Eliot quoted from these lines, in his poem The Waste Land )

B.A.U. 5.2.3.




This same thing does the divine voice here, thunder, repeat: “Da! Da! Da! ( damyata, datta,

dayadhvam), that is, restrain yourselves, give, be compassionate”.

After the Upanishads

From the Bhagavad Gâtå

On the Self

II.20 na jåyate mriyate vå kadåcin / nåyaë bhätvå bhavitå vå na bhäyaù

ajo nityaù óåóvato'yaë puråïo /na hanyate hanyamåne óarâre

"It is not born, it does not die; having been,it will never not be;

unborn, enduring, constant, and primordial,

it is not killed when the body is killed.

II.23. nainaë chindanti sastråïi nainam dahati påvakah

nainam kledyanty åpo na óocayati mårutaù

Weapons do not cut it, fire does not burn it...."

12. XI.12. divi säryasya sahasrasya bhaved yugapad utthitå..

"If the light of a thousand suns

were to rise in the sky at once,

it would be like the light

of that great spirit." (cf. Robert Oppenheimer)

Documents

Quotes from the Upanishads