The Upanishads are sacred Hindu scriptures composed between 800-500 BCE that discuss the ultimate nature of reality. They teach that [1] Brahman is the single, eternal, unchanging reality beneath the illusion of multiplicity. Atman, the true self, is identical to Brahman. However, due to [2] avidya or ignorance, humans experience [3] samsara, the cycle of rebirth governed by [4] karma. The goal is to attain [5] moksha or liberation from samsara through enlightenment of the identity of Atman and Brahman.

1. The Upanishads
Sacred Scriptures of Sanatana Dharma
Sacred Scriptures of Hinduism

2. Upanishad
Upa- (near), ni- (down), sad (to sit):
sitting near the teacher

3. Composed by various seers and sages
between 800-500 BCE, the Upanishads are a
culmination and completion of an earlier
body of Hindu sacred texts called the Vedas.
Veda = knowledge
Upanishads are Vedanta: End of the Vedas

4. The Vedas
• Hymns and mantras to various deities
viewed as controlling forces of nature
• Directions for sacred rituals, especially
sacrifices to the gods
• Outline of moral codes

5. Concept of God in
the Rig Veda

6. The Rig Veda depicts the divine in several
different ways.
Monism (one absolute, impersonal being)
Monotheism (one single personal supreme being)
Henotheism (many gods, but some central deity)
Naturalistic Polytheism (many gods, forces of nature)
The divine is sometimes represented as a
particular personal deity and at other times as an
impersonal absolute being, the Supreme God.

7. • These differences likely reflect the
historical development of the idea of God in
India.
• The movement towards monotheism and
monism was motivated in part by the
concept of rita (law or order).
Diversity in the universe Many gods
Unity in the universe One God

8. The Teachings of the
Upanishads

9. Six Key Concepts in the
Upanishads
Brahman Atman
Avidya
Karma Samsara
Moksha

10. I.
BRAHMAN

11. The Upanishads emphasize the impermanence
of the empirical world, physical reality as we
experience it through our senses.
Maya

12. The Upanishads distinguish between
the changing, transient nature of the
empirical universe and a single
ultimate transcendent reality that is
unchanging and permanent.

13. Brahman
Ultimate Cosmic Reality

14. The distinction between Maya and Brahman
allows Upanishadic thinkers to affirm the unity
or oneness of all things.
All that is is Brahman. Reality is ultimately one
and unchanging, though it appears as many and
changing.

15. Brahman Alone is Real.
Everything Else is Illusion.

16. What more can be said
about the nature of
Brahman?

17. We can speak of Brahman as
“being” (sat), “consciousness”
(cit), and “bliss” (ananda).
However, these are merely ways
of talking about the human
apprehension of Brahman.

18. In itself Brahman cannot be defined or
positively described.
Ultimately “Brahman” is a way of
designating a state in which subject-object
duality ceases to exist.
“There is no better description [of
Brahman] than this: that it is not-this, it
is not-that (neti, neti).” Brhad-aranyaka
Upanishad, II, 3, 6.

19. Dual Aspect Theism
Nirguna Brahman
Brahman in itself is beyond all human
categories and conceptualization. In
itself Brahman has no attributes.
Saguna Brahman
Brahman in relation to maya and
as an object of human discourse
and devotion, with attributes.

20. Implications?

21. In itself the Supreme being cannot be known, as the
Infinite surpasses or transcends all human conception.
The impersonal Supreme being is made personal
through manifestations of the Infinite in finite form.

22. The many gods of Hinduism represent different aspects of one
and the same ultimate reality, Brahman.
Brahma Vishnu Shiva
Hinduism views the cosmic activity of the Supreme Being as comprised of
three tasks: creation, preservation, and dissolution and recreation. Three
deities (Trimurti) represent these tasks: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

23. II.
ATMAN

24. The True Self (Atman)
The Upanishads teach the existence
of a true Self called Atman.
The individual personality, soul, or self
(jiva) belongs to the realm of maya. The jiva
is conditioned by Atman.
Atman is timeless, spaceless, unchanging pure
consciousness, only temporarily manifested as
jiva in maya.

25. Relation between Atman and Jiva

26. Analogy: The Atman is to the jiva
what the space around a jar is to the
space within the jar.
Space Outside Jar Space within the jar is space
bounded and limited by the
Space edges of the jar.
Within
So the jiva is Atman
Jar
bounded and limited by
individuality.

27. “The wise one is not born, nor dies.
This one has not come from anywhere, has not become
anyone.
Unborn, constant, eternal, primeval, this one
Is not slain when the body is slain. . . .
He who is the bodiless among bodies,
Stable among the unstable.
The great, all pervading Self –
On recognizing Him, the wise man sorrows not.”
Kena Upanishad II.18,22

28. “That Self (Atman) is not this, it is not that (neti,
neti). It is unseizable, for it cannot be seized;
indestructible, for it cannot be destroyed;
unattached, for it does not attach itself; is unbound,
does not tremble, is not injured.”
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.v.15

29. Relation between
Brahman and Atman

30. Atman is Brahman

31. Tat Tvam Asi
“Thou [Atman] art That [Brahman]”
(Chandogya Upanishad, VI)
There is a common consciousness between
Atman and Brahman.
“The individual self, apart from all
factors that differentiate it from pure
consciousness, is the same as the divine,
apart from its differentiating conditions.”
(Eliot Deutsch, Advaita Vedanta, p. 50)

32. Strip away all appearances
and every self is identical
with the ultimate reality.

34. III.
AVIDYA and VIDYA

35. The human
perspective is
characterized by
ignorance (avidya)
of the true nature of
reality and the self.

36. Analogy
A rope may appear to be a snake.
Likewise, the universe may appear to be many and
changing, and we may appear to be individuals
within the universe.
This is appearance only, grounded in avidya.

37. IV.
SAMSARA
and
KARMA

38. Avidya Egoism
Ignorance leads to egocentric desires
Egoism New Physical Forms
Our egocentric desires and actions create
and perpetuate new physical forms or
vehicles for atman.

39. From this set of
Upanishadic
teachings emerges
the doctrine of
Reincarnation or
Rebirth.
Humans live multiple
embodied lives,
experiencing a
cyclical process of
birth, death, and
rebirth (samsara).

40. “Where one’s mind is attached – the inner self
Goes thereto with action, being attached to it alone.
Obtaining the end of his action,
Whatever he does in this world,
He comes again from that world
To this world of action.
- So the man who desires.”
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.iv.6

41. “By the mind alone is It [Brahman] to be perceived.
There is on earth no diversity.
He gets death after death,
Who perceives here seeming diversity.”
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.iv.19

42. Samsara and Suffering
Human suffering – lack of
satisfaction in life - is associated
with material forms of existence.
As long as samsara continues a
person is doomed to experience
suffering.

43. Rebirth is governed by karma
(literally “action”).
In the Upanishads karma designates a law of
cosmic justice according to which every action
has an effect that is proportioned to the moral
quality of the action.

44. Karma includes the character one has
formed through one’s choices and actions.
Right Action
Bad Karma Good Karma
Wrong Action
Karma determines the nature of one’s
future incarnations.

45. Rebirth is not desirable.
It implies that a person is still
trapped in ignorance about the
nature of reality.
Suffering, associated with
material existence, has not yet
been transcended.

46. VI.
MOKSHA

47. The Ultimate State (Moksha)
Suffering is transcended only by
release from samsara and absorption
into Brahman, the one ultimate
reality.
This is a state of knowledge,
enlightenment, or absolute
consciousness in which the true nature
of reality (Brahman) and the true self
(Atman) is perceived.

48. It is also a state of freedom (moksha).
The only thing that can be free is that
which is one, for only that which is one
has no desire.
Being all that there is, there is nothing
else for it to desire.
There is nothing left to suffer.

49. “Now the man who does not desire – He
who is without desire, who is freed from
desire, whose desire is satisfied, whose
desire is the Self (atman) – his breath does
not depart. Being very Brahman, he goes to
Brahman.”
Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, iv.iv.6

50. “As the flowing rivers in the ocean
Disappear, quitting name and form,
So the knower, being liberated from name
and form,
Goes unto the Heavenly Person, higher than
the high.
He, verily, who knows the Supreme
Brahman, becomes Brahman.”
Mundaka Upanishad, III.ii 8-9

51. The ultimate goal is not to
The goal is to obtain
mokshabe reborn. from
and be free
desire and the cycle of
death and rebirth.

52. Six Key Concepts in the
Upanishads
Brahman Atman
Avidya
Karma Samsara
Moksha