Is it then true that Upanishads don’t talk about meditation?
To understand this, we need to first understand the origins of the Upanishads. Upanishads are believed to be records of first-person experiences, gained by various sages when they were in deep states of meditation. That is why Upanishads talk mostly about facts rather than techniques or methods. They talk about the abstract concept of God and what happens when someone realizes that.
However, in many places, these Upanishads do talk about how one should perform meditation to realize that abstract concept of God, which they call variably as Brahma, Atma, Sat, and so on. Though they rarely talk about worshipping that God, they do talk about meditation as a means to attain that. And this meditation is often described metaphorically, rather than as a set of step by step instructions.
Let us see some examples.
One of the Upanishads namely, the Swetaasvatara Upanishad says
“Make your body itself as one of the Aranis. Use Pranava as the other Arani. Rub these two through the process of meditation and kindle the hidden spark which is Brahma.”
“svadEham araNim krtvaa praNavam ca uttaraaraNim
dhyaana nirmathana abhyaasaat Evam pasyE nigooDavat”
- Swetaasvatara Upanishad 1.14
To understand the symbolism expressed here, we need to first understand some practices followed in the Upanishadic times. Vedic seers were used to fire rituals. In a fire ritual, the fire is kindled by rubbing two pieces of wood called Arani. When two Aranis are rubbed against each other, a spark is produced. And this spark is used to start the fire in the fire ritual.
In a highly poetical way, the Upanishad compares the Brahma to the subtle spark that can be seen by rubbing two Aranis. But these two Aranis are not some pieces of wood. What are these two Aranis? The Upanishad says that our body and the Pranava sound are the two Aranis. And the process of kindling the spark is what meditation is.
Or in other words, Brahma can be realized by meditating on Pranava.
What is Pranava? Pranava is the sound OM uttered in a specific way. Upanishads also use OM as a convenient way to talk about the abstract concept of Brahma.
Let us see another example.
In Mundaka Upanishad it is said
“praNavO dhanuh sarO hyaatmaa brahma tat lakShyam uccyatE
apramattEna vEddhavyam saravat tanmayO bhavEt”
which means
“PraNava is the bow, your body is the arrow, Brahma is the target.
Shoot the arrow with full concentration and without getting distracted.
-- Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.4”
In this beautiful simile, the Upanishad compares the Pranava to a bow that is used to shoot an arrow. It is the bow that propels the arrow. In this simile, the meditator’s body itself is the arrow. What is the target? The Upanishad says that Brahma itself is the target.
The Upanishad goes on to say that one should shoot the arrow with total concentration and hit the target. That means one should attain the Brahma with the help of the sound Pranava through the process of meditation. He should hit the target without getting distracted by any thoughts other than the Brahma and go straight towards it like the arrow.
I have explained in greater detail about how Pranava can be used for meditation in my book “Ultimate book on Yoga: All that you want to know about Yoga”. So, I will skip those details here.
The ultimate reality namely the Brahma can be reached through meditation, is further stressed in the following scenario from the Swetaasvatara Upanishad.
Once a group of sages debated on some fundamental questions. The questions raised by them were
“Did God create this world?
Where did we come from?
What sustains our existence?
What regulates our happiness and miseries?”
“Kim kaaraNam Brahma?
Kutah sma jaataa?
Jivaama kEna kvaca sampratiShTaah?
adhiShTitaah kEna vyavasThaam sukhEtarEShu ?”
– Swetaasvatara Upanishad 1.1
They were basically trying to understand the origins of this world and its sustenance. They were also wondering who could be deciding our fates.
Each sage came up with his own theory to answer these questions. But each of those theories had some flaws and were not completely satisfactory. After protracted debate, they resorted to meditation, as the only way to know the answers. And they did realize the truth finally.
“tE dhyaana yOgaanugataa apasyan
dEvaatma saktim svaguNaih nigooDhaam
-- Swetaasvatara Upanishad 1.3”
What the Upanishad is trying to emphasize is that the ultimate truth cannot be known through debate or any intellectual activity. Only meditation can give us a glimpse of that ultimate reality. That is because the ultimate reality is beyond mentation, beyond words. How can anyone talk or debate about it?
No matter what the modern Advaitis like to say, the Upanishads generally talk about God as an abstract concept. They also talk about perceptible world that emerged from this imperceptible God or Brahma. They had no need to invent the idea of Saguna Brahma. For them, the Brahma or God is both abstract as well as perceptible.
It is only the Advaitis of Sankara fold, who find a need for a concept of Saguna or personified God. They need that concept since they deny the existence of the perceptible world. At the same time, they cannot do without a perceptible Brahma. And they end up calling that imperceptible Brahma as Saguna Brahma.
Going back to Swami Dayananda Saraswati’s definition of meditationor Dhyana which mandates Saguna Brahma or personified God as the target, it is clear that the meditation talked about by the Upanishads don’t involve any personified God. At least in the examples that I have quoted, it is only the abstract concept of God that is being talked about.
The examples that I have listed also refute the claim of my reader that Upanishads don’t talk about meditation. In fact, I would say that meditation is at the heart of the Upanishads. It is the basis on which the Upanishads stand.
Well, the Upanishads may not be the ‘Meditation manual’ that lists out meditation techniques one after another. This kind of expectation is an aberration created by modern Gurus, who focus more on techniques rather than underlying concepts. They keep coming up with newer and newer ‘technique’ just to outsmart their competitors, and to attract more followers. They are like the waiters in a restaurant who lure you with an elaborate menu 😉
A really hungry person cares little about the menu and the items listed in it! His primary concern is to satiate his hunger 😉
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