Most
of these focus
prominently on one indescribable entity namely the Ätma or
the Brahma – a rough equivalent of God in common parlance.
It
looks quite paradoxical to say that they described something indescribable! How
can someone describe something that is beyond words? Can any such thing really
exist? Or is it just some sort of weird happening in the brain when one is put
in a deep meditative state?
Long
long ago, I used to write short articles in a magazine. These articles were
based on some insights I had. But I used to cloak them in what I used to call
‘absurd style’ to make them appear funny. Many of my readers liked these
articles for altogether different reasons, but none understood what I
originally meant to convey.
One
of my friends, a Vedic scholar who used to read my articles, once told me that
my articles have lot of similarities with what is described in the Upanishads.
In those days I was not at all familiar with Upanishads, let alone write
articles based on them. So I jokingly dismissed his observation by saying that
“May be anyone who lives
in a certain style and develops some form of mental makeup, comes up with same ideas!” ;-)
Now,
after several years, I had sufficient time to study the Upanishads in detail
and I see how right my friend was. So, the thoughts expressed in the Upanishads
can be anybody’s provided they put themselves in the same state as the sages of ancient times. They need not be sages themselves ;-)
That
still does not make these ideas valid. But most likely to be so. I think you
can decide for yourselves after reading subsequent posts.
What
I intend to do is
to publish a series
of posts discussing
interesting points
from various Upanishads.
Ponder over them and see what they mean to you. Feel free to share your
thoughts.
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