THE UNPANISADS
The atman cannot be said to be a creation of Brahman. As sparks come out of a blazing fire so the atmans (finite selves) come out of Brahman. The atman is described as the minute than the minute, greater than the greatest. The heart is its abode. The Svetasvatara Upanisad says, "If the hundredth part of the point of a hair subdivided a hundred food, that is the size of a soul and yet it partakes of infinity.
What is the relation of atman and Brahman? The relation of the atam and the Brahman has been explained in the Brahmabindu Upanisad on the analogy of a ghatakasa and the mahakasa, the sapce within a jar and the space outside the jar. In the Mundaka Upanisad the relation of the jivataman and Brahmin has been shown as the two birds sitting on the same tree; the former of which each eats the sweet and bitter fruits while the latter passively observes to wards it. But when the former knows the latter. In the Chandogya Upanisad it is taught that the Brahman is the underlying substance of the world. As by knowing one piece of clay all the vessels made of clay are known, so also by knowing one's won atman everything else is known.
Why this circuit of birth and death? The root cause of bondage according to Upanisads is the ignorance of the self about its own nature, that it is not different from Brahman. He who sees difference here goes to death after death.
"The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman Hiself." Real knowledge is only that which liberates us. It is to be remembered that the liberation is not the result of the higher knowledge, the higher knowledge itself is liberation.
The knowledge is the only means of liberation according to the Upanisads. The lower knowledge leads to the higher knowledge, and the higher knowledge itself is moksa.
In the Upanisads we find all the conceptions of liberation found in the later Vedanta. We have the conception of videhamukti of Vaisnava Vedantins and also the conception of jivanmukti of Sankara Vedanta. According to the former moksa is attainable only after death and according to the latter it can be attained here in this life. The doctrine of videhamukti is the logical outcome of the eschatological doctrines of the Vedas, whereas the conception of jivanmukti is the logical outcome of the Upanisadic teaching that the liberation consists in the knowledge of the Brahman which can be attained even while emboied.
It is hardly necessary to mention here that the Upanisadic conception of liberation is the highest possible conception. We do not think that anything can be higher than to realize one's ownself as nno-different from Saccidananda Brahmin, the Ultimate Reality. Like the Upanisads for the Gita also the ultimate Reality is Brahman. Unlike the Upanisads the Gita had to make room for the persons of different temperaments. Temperamentally there are three kinds of persons, viz., in whom willing predominates, in whom feeling predominates and in whom thinking predominate. "Your right is to work only, but never to the fruits of it. Let not the fruits of action be your object, nor let your attachment be to inaction."
To those who are temperamentally active (in whom willing predominates) is taught that one must perform his duties for the sacrifice alone. The word sacrifice should not be taken in the limited sense of rituals. It means in the Gita all those actions in which the guiding principle of the agent is not the exclusive benefit of his won. In short, all those actions which are done for the universal welfare (lokasamgraha) can be said to have been done for the sacrifice.
For those in whom feeling predominates, who are devotional temperamentally, it is taught that one must offer all his actions to God to remain untouched by the sins of his actions. One must think that he is simply an instrument of the Lord. He must constantly remember that the Lord could have equally selected anybody else for doing that action. He must think that he is not doing any action but only the Lord is acting through him. One must also surrender all the fruits of the actions to the Lord. It is taught to the devotes that they should surrender all their actions to the Lord and should take refuge only in Him. The devotes should think that "all his works is worship."
For those in whom thinking predominates, it is taught that while doing actions such person should free himself from the notion of agency. He must constantly think that it is only gunas which are acting upon the gunas . He should realize that in all his actions it is only Prakrti which is acting upon Prakriti. He should realise that it is the gunas in the form of senses, mind etc. that are acting upon the gunas in the form of objects of perception. When we have such an attitude towards actions, actions do not bind us. We should try to see the inaction (of the soul) in the actions (of the Prakriti) i.e. inall the activities we should realise that the activity belongs to Prakriti and the soul is merely a passive observer.
When this type of attitude will be developed by the agent towards actions only then they will not bind him. Because really speaking, as Tilak rightly points out, "......gross or lifeless Karma by itself does not either bind or release anybody; that, man is bound by Karma as a result of his Hope or Fruits or by his own Attachment; and that, when this attachment has been got rid of, a man stands Released, not withstanding that he may be performing Action by his external organs.
Lord Krsna advises Arjuna that in this world two courses of sandhna have been enunciated by Him in the past. In the case of sankhya-yogi the sadhana proceed along the path of knowledge, where as in the case of a karma-yogi it proceeds along the path of action. But Krsna adds that they are ignorant who see the two as different. One who performs, gets the fruits of both; for, the fruits of both are the same. Thus Krsna Himself declares that sankhya-yoga and karma-yoga are not different as they appear to be. Lork Krsna advises Arjuna that though. He has nothing to attain in the world. yet He performs all the actions for the maintenance of the world order. In the past Janaka and others also have attained perfection through disinterested action i.e. actions for the sake of the universal welfare.
What is the cause of bondage? It is said in the Mahabharata that it is by actions that man is bound and by knowledge he is liberated. Actions means here only sakamakarma, those actions which are done for the fulfiment of some desire. Niskamakarma is nothing but the manifestation of knowledge itself. Only those actions which have their source in ignorance bind man. Thus ignorance is the root cause of bondage and knowledge is liberation.
It will be seen that the ideal put forth by the Gita is quite practical. Everything valuable in the philosophies and religions of the East and West is found in it. S.C. Roy writes, "We have in the liberated person of the Gita not the utopian vision of a dreamer, nor the imaginary picture of an intractable ideal, far less the conceptual construction of an unpractical philosopher, but the natural and spontaneous outpouring of the heart and the faithful and rational account of the actual mystic experiences of a person who has combined in himself the spiritual intuition of the great sages and seers of the Upanisads, the religious ecstasies of the saints and mystics of Christendom, the ethical fervour and insight of Plato and Aristotle and the pure dispassionate reasoned thinking of Spinoza and Kant.
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