The Chandogya Upanishad (Sanskrit: , IAST: Chāndogyopaniṣad) is a Sanskrit text embedded in the Chandogya Brahmana of the Sama Veda of Hinduism. It is one of the oldest Upanishads.
The Upanishad belongs to the Tandya school of the Samaveda.
As one of the most extensive Upanishadic compilations, it comprises eight Prapathakas (literally 'lectures' or 'chapters'), each divided into multiple sections containing numerous verses.
Chandogya Upanishad is one of the most cited texts in later Bhasyas (reviews and commentaries) by scholars from the diverse schools of Hinduism, with chapter six verse 8-16 containing the famous dictum Tat Tvam Asi, "that('s how) you are." According to Deutsch and Dalvi, "the entire sixth chapter is no doubt the most influential of the entire corpus of the Upanishads."
Etymology
The name of the Upanishad is derived from the word Chanda or chandas, which means "poetic meter, prosody". The nature of the text relates to the patterns of structure, stress, rhythm and intonation in language, songs and chants. The text is sometimes known as Chandogyopanishad.
Chronology
Chandogya Upanishad was in all likelihood composed in the earlier part of 1st millennium BCE, and is one of the oldest Upanishads.
Scholars have offered different estimates ranging from 800 BCE to 600 BCE, all preceding Buddhism. According to a 1998 review by Patrick Olivelle, Chandogya was composed by 7th or 6th century BCE, give or take a century or so. Phillips states that Chandogya was completed after Brihadaranyaka, both probably in early part of the 8th century BCE.
Structure
The text has eight Prapathakas (प्रपाठक, lectures, chapters), each with varying number of Khandas (खण्ड, volume).
Each Khanda has varying number of verses. The first chapter includes 13 volumes each with varying number of verses, the second chapter has 24 volumes, the third chapter contains 19 volumes, the fourth is composed of 17 volumes, the fifth has 24, the sixth chapter has 16 volumes, the seventh includes 26 volumes, and the eight chapter is last with 15 volumes. The first chapter of the Brahmana is short and concerns ritual-related hymns to celebrate a marriage ceremony and the birth of a child.
A notable structural feature of Chandogya Upanishad is that it contains many nearly identical passages and stories also found in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, but in precise meter.
The Chandogya Upanishad, like other Upanishads, was a living document. Every chapter shows evidence of insertion or interpolation at a later age, because the structure, meter, grammar, style and content is inconsistent with what precedes or follows the suspect content and section. Additionally, supplements were likely attached to various volumes in a different age.
Klaus Witz structurally divides the Chandogya Upanishad into three natural groups. The first group comprises chapters I and II, which largely deal with the structure, stress and rhythmic aspects of language and its expression (speech), particularly with the syllable Om (, Aum). It calls the syllable Om the udgitha (उद्गीथ, song, chant), and asserts that the significance of the syllable is this: the essence of all beings is earth, the essence of earth is water, the essence of water are the plants, the essence of plants is man, the essence of man is speech, the essence of speech is the Rig Veda, the essence of the Rig Veda is the Sama Veda, and the essence of Sama Veda is udgitha.
In section 1.4, the text highlights the importance of Om in the High Chant.
Good and evil may be everywhere, yet life-principle is inherently good
The second volume of the first chapter continues its discussion of syllable Om, explaining its use as a struggle between Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) – both being races derived from one Prajapati (creator of life). The Prajapati is man in general, in this allegory.
The legend in section 1.2 of Chandogya Upanishad states that gods took the Udgitha (song of Om) unto themselves, thinking, "with this [song] we shall overcome the demons". The gods revered the Udgitha as sense of smell, but the demons cursed it and ever since one smells both good-smelling and bad-smelling, because it is afflicted with good and evil. The debaters summarize their discussion as,
This premise, that the human body is the heaven world, and that Brahman (highest reality) is identical to the Atman (Self) within a human being is at the foundation of Vedanta philosophy. The volume 3.13 of verses, goes on to offer proof in verse 3.13.8 that the highest reality is inside man, by stating that body is warm and this warmth must have an underlying hidden principle manifestation of the Brahman. This, states Paul Deussen, is with Satapatha Brahmana 10.6.3, perhaps the oldest passage in which the basic premises of the Vedanta philosophy are fully expressed, namely – Atman (Self inside man) exists, the Brahman is identical with Atman, God is inside man. These are,
The teachings in this section re-appear centuries later in the words of the 3rd century CE Neoplatonic Roman philosopher Plotinus in "Enneads 5.1.2". This chest is where all wealth and everything rests states verse 3.15.1, and it is imperishable states verse 3.15.3. The best refuge for man is this Universe and the Vedas, assert verses 3.15.4 through 3.15.7. This section incorporates a benediction for the birth of a son. The Chandogya Upanishad makes one of the earliest mentions of this ethical code in section 3.17. This is one of the earliest statement of the Ahimsa principle as an ethical code of life, that later evolved to become the highest virtue in Hinduism.
The metaphor of man's life as a Soma-festival is described through steps of a yajna (fire ritual ceremony) in section 3.17. Death is like ablution after the ceremony. These verses suggest a developed state of mathematical sciences and addition by about 800-600 BCE. Secondly, verse 3.17.6 mentions Krishna Devakiputra (Sanskrit: कृष्णाय देवकीपुत्रा) as a student of sage Ghora Angirasa. This mention of "Krishna as the son of Devaki", has been studied by scholars whether this part of the verse is an interpolation, or just a different Krishna Devikaputra than deity Krishna, because the much later age Sandilya Bhakti Sutras, a treatise on Krishna, cites later age compilations such as Narayana Upanishad and Atharvasiras 6.9, but never cites this verse of Chandogya Upanishad. Others state that the coincidence that both names, of Krishna and Devika, in the same verse cannot be dismissed easily and this Krishna may be the same as one found later, such as in the Bhagavad Gita.
The verse 3.17.6 states that Krishna Devikaputra after learning the theory of life is a Soma-festival, learnt the following Vedic hymn of refuge for an individual on his death bed,
Thou art the Aksitamasi (indestructible, imperishable, undecaying),
Thou art the Acyutamasi (imperturbable, unchangeable, imperishable),
Thou art the Prana-samsitamasi (fountainhead, crest of life-principles, fortified by breath).
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|Chandogya Upanishad 3.17.6
Fourth Prapāṭhaka
Samvargavidya
The fourth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad opens with the story of king Janasruti and "the man with the cart" named Raikva. The moral of the story is called, Samvarga (Sanskrit: संवर्ग, devouring, gathering, absorbing) Vidya, summarized in volume 4.3 of the text. Air, asserts the Upanishad, is the "devourer unto itself" of divinities because it absorbs fire, [S]un at sunset, [M]oon when it sets, water when it dries up. In reference to man, Prana (vital breath, life-principle) is the "devourer unto itself" because when one sleeps, Prana absorbs all deities inside man such as eyes, ears and mind. The Samvarga Vidya in Chandogya is found elsewhere in Vedic canon of texts, such as chapter 10.3.3 of Shatapatha Brahmana and sections 2.12 - 2.13 of Kaushitaki Upanishad. Paul Deussen states that the underlying message of Samvarga Vidya is that the cosmic phenomenon and the individual physiology are mirrors, and therefore man should know himself as identical with all cosmos and all beings. Satyakama's mother reveals to the boy, in the passages of the Upanishad, that she went about in many places in her youth, and he is of uncertain parentage. The boy, eager for knowledge, goes to the sage Haridrumata Gautama, requesting the sage's permission to live in his school for Brahmacharya. The teacher asks, "my dear child, what family do you come from?" Satyakama replies that he is of uncertain parentage because his mother does not know who the father is. The sage declares that the boy's honesty is the mark of a "Brāhmaṇa, true seeker of the knowledge of the Brahman". The sage accepts him as a student in his school.
The sage sends Satyakama to tend four hundred cows, and come back when they multiply into a thousand.
Penance is unnecessary, Brahman as life bliss joy and love, the story of Upakosala
The volumes 4.10 through 4.15 of Chandogya Upanishad present the third conversational story through a student named 'Upakosala'. The boy Satyakama Jabala described in volumes 4.4 through 4.9 of the text, is declared to be the grown up Guru (teacher) with whom Upakosala has been studying for twelve years in his Brahmacharya.
Upakosala has a conversation with sacrificial fires, which inform him that Brahman is life, Brahman is joy and bliss, Brahman is infinity, and the means to Brahman is not through depressing, hard penance. The fires then enumerate the manifestations of Brahman to be everywhere in the empirically perceived world. Satyakama joins Upakosala's education and explains, in volume 4.15 of the text,
The Upanishad asserts in verses 4.15.2 and 4.15.3 that the Atman is the "stronghold of love", the leader of love, and that it assembles and unites all that inspires love.
The first volume of the fifth chapter of the text tells a fable and prefaces each character with the following maxims,
The fable, found in many other principal Upanishads, describes a rivalry between eyes, ears, speech, mind. Each rivaling organ leaves for a year, and the body suffers but is not worse off.
The five fires and two paths theory
Volumes 5.3 through 5.10 of Chandogya Upanishad present the "Pancagnividya", or the doctrine of "five fires and two paths in after-life". These sections are nearly identical to those found in section 14.9.1 of Sathapatha Brahmana, in section 6.2 of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, and in chapter 1 of Kaushitaki Upanishad. Paul Deussen states that the presence of this doctrine in multiple ancient texts suggests that the idea is older than these texts, established and was important concept in the cultural fabric of the ancient times. The path of the fathers, in after-life, is for those who live a life of rituals, sacrifices, social service and charity – these enter heaven, but stay there in proportion to their merit in their just completed life, then they return to Earth to be born as rice, herbs, trees, sesame, beans, animals or human beings depending on their conduct in past life. The path of the Devas, in after-life, is for those who live a life of knowledge or those who enter the forest life of Vanaprastha and pursue knowledge, faith and truthfulness – these do not return, and in their after-life join unto the Brahman.
The five householders approach a sage named Uddalaka Aruni, who admits his knowledge is deficient, and suggests that they all go to king Asvapati Kaikeya, who knows about Atman Vaishvanara.
Sixth Prapāṭhaka
Atman exists, Svetaketu's education on the key to all knowledge - Tat Tvam Asi
According to Deutsch and Dalvi, "the entire sixth chapter is no doubt the most influential of the entire corpus of the Upanishads." It contains the famous dictum "Tat Tvam Asi," traditionally interpreted as "That Thou Art," and as such the most influential of the Upanishadic statements, yet, according to Brereton, followed by Olivelle and Doniger, the correct translation is "That's how you are."
Yet, according to Brereton, followed by Olivelle and Doniger, the correct translation is "That's how you are":
- "That which is this finest essence, that the whole world has as its self. That is the truth. That is the self. In that way are you, Śvetaketu."
- "The finest essence [the existent] here — that constitutes the self of this whole world; that is the truth; that is the self (atman). And that's how you are, Śvetaketu."
The Tat Tvam Asi dictum emerges in a tutorial conversation between a father and son, Uddalaka Aruni and 24-year-old Śvetaketu Aruneya respectively, after the father sends his boy to study the Vedas, saying "take up the celibate life of a student, for there is no one in our family, my son, who has not studied and is the kind of Brahmin who is so only because of birth." The son returns after studying the Vedas for twelve years, "swell-headed [and] arrogant." The father inquires if Śvetaketu has asked about that by which "we perceive what cannot be perceived, we know what cannot be known"? Śvetaketu admits he hasn't, and asks what that is. His father, through 16 volumes of verses of Chandogya Upanishad, explains. The various objects produced from these materials do not change the essence, they change the form. Thus, to understand something, studying the essence of one is the path to understanding the numerous manifested forms.
In volume 2 Uddalaka, rejects the idea that the world was born from the non-existent [a-sat], asserting that "in the beginning this world was simply what is existent [sat]- one only, without a second."