Upanishads – their formation and crux

The Upanishads are a collection of Vedic texts, also known as Vedanta and are considered to contain the revealed truths about the ultimate reality – brahman and the character and the form of human salvation – moksha. While more than 200 Upanishads are known, the first dozen are considered to be the oldest and the most important, thus referred to as principal or mukhya Upanishads.

Ever guessed when and how were they formed?

So the story dates back to Sri Rama's father Dasharatha. Dasharatha had a daughter – Shanta – elder to Sri Rama. When the kingdom of Anga faced severe draught the king Rompada approached Dashratha and offered to adopt Shanta and marry her off to Sage Rishyashringa. This was to break Rishyashringa's celibacy and his father Vibhandaka's urge to control nature. Vibhandaka had realized the cycle of life and how the new life was created through the seed. He realized that no living beings had control over shedding their seed except humans. He understood that through holding the life bearing seed inside the human body, one can create great power in oneself. This is controlling the nature and rising above the mad race that nature imposes on every living being. The self control is known as Tapasya and it generates Tapa or heat. So strong was Vibhandaka's tapasya that Indra had send an apsara to break him. Vibhandaka couldn't control himself when he saw the apsara. He considered his son as a result of his failure and hence kept him close away from the world and women. Not only he controlled himself, he controlled his son's nature too. Their controlling of the nature caused enough heat and caused draught all over the region where they lived. Rompada requested Shanta to woo Rishyashringa and break this control and bring rains to the kingdom. Rishyashringa and Shanta married, brought joy upon themselves and the nearby kingdoms. Rishyashringa later helped Dashratha in the yagna to get sons. And thus Rama, Bharat, Lakshmana and Shatrughna were born. At every step, we see how the nature was controlled or was made to change its course to meet the needs of the king and the people.

About the same time of the birth of the princes in Ayodhya, Janak of Mithila found a daughter in Sita and his wife Sunaina gave birth to Urmila. His brother Khushdhwaja also had two daughters – Mandavi and Shrutakirti. While everyone in Janaka's court requested him to conducted yagna to obtain sons just like Dashratha, he replied that mother earth gave him a daughter in the same manner as the fire gave Dashratha his sons. Impressed with his approach, a female ascetic Sulabha approached Janaka and requested him to conduct a congregation of learned people all over the land. She explained to Janaka that humans have the capability to imagine and think and take different perspectives on the same point! She explained that the mind should be expanded to understand nature than control it by containing it as Vibhandaka and Rishyashringa did. Inspired by her words, Janaka invited all the learned people and rishis of Aryavarta to his court and share their knowledge of Vedas. This conference allowed exchange of ideas, opinions and beliefs and thus formed the basis of what we today known as Upanishads. It is interesting to note that this was the education that Sita and her sisters received. It was during this conference that we also hear about Ashtavakra, Gargi and Yagnavalkya. Gargi asked questions about pupose of everything that irked many sages and they cursed her that her head would fall off. But her hunger of knowledge kept growing another head when one fell off.

During the conference, Yagnavalkya explained – "Atma is the brahman, a fully expanded mind. Atma is the mind that does not fear death or yearn for life. It does not seek validation. It witnesses the world as it is. Atma is Ishwar, also known as Shiva, who performs tapasya, is self-contained and self-sufficient. Atma is bhagavan, also known as Vishnu, who conducts a yagna to nourish everyone even though he needs no nourishment. May Brahma's head keep falling off till he finds the brahman".

This retelling has been adopted from Dr Devdutta Pattnaik's book – "Sita". In my wake for learning, I hope I found something that we all can benefit from.