Janine kindly sent me Patrick Olivelle's translation of the Upanishads for the Oxford World Classics, which looks very promising. He points out something I had not realised - that the different Upanishads are associated with different geographical regions. So when Yajnyawalkya defeats the gurus of Kuru-Pancala, that is a political statement that the Eastern Ganges region of Videha have a superior and novel philosophy.
I've also just got Brian Black's book THE CHARACTER OF THE SELF: TEACHERS, KINGS AND WOMEN IN THE EARLY UPANISHADS which is another new and really exciting book. He gives a lot of attention to the way the stories are told, which is a point neglected by traditional Indian and many Western scholars.
An interesting one - how many times in the Brihad and Chandogya Upanishads does it state that Atman = Brahman?
1 comment:
The answer to this question (which I can see had everyone excited) is ONE.
The only mention of the unity of Atman and Brahman is early on in the Chandogya. The early Upanishads are mainly concerned with what Atman is. Brahman means a number of different things. Shandilya is credited with the idea that the two are identical.
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