2.3: Chandogya Upanishad
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Reading Three: Chandogya Upanishad (Ch. 6, Khandas: 1, 12, 13)
The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the most famous and often-read Upanishads. It tells the story of a father teaching his son the ultimate truth of Hinduism. In the beginning of the Upanishad, the father sends the boy away to study the Vedas with a religious instructor. This was a common practice among the Brahmin caste. It takes the boy 12 years to study the Vedas! When he returns home, his father apparently thinks that he is too full of himself because he believes that the Vedas (the most sacred Hindu scriptures) tell everything that needs to be known about Hinduism. But the father decides to teach his son that there is more to Hinduism – there is a mystical knowledge as well that cannot come from reading scriptures alone. The Upanishads, ironically, emphasize this theme over and over again – in a work of scripture the stories keep repeating that religion is more than just scripture!
The father then teaches the boy about the underlying unity of everything in the world. He uses examples of several different elements – clay, gold, iron – to demonstrate this point. He says that if you know one item of these elements you know them all, because underneath all their differences, they are all the same. In Hinduism, the same is true for everything in the world – there are differences, but they are only superficial. Since everything has the divine essence within it, everything is actually Brahman, and all is one.
In the next section the father uses a few experiments with a seed and salt to teach his son about the “Self” and “subtle essence” of the whole world. The father is connecting the Hindu concept of “Brahman”, “Truth,” or in western terms, God, that pervades the entire universe, and the “atman”, or personal soul that we each have within us. In Hinduism, the two are one and the same – our personal soul is divine, our divine spark, that is made of the same essence as God. This teaching us summarized in his repeated phrase to his son “thou art That” – you are Brahman.
Chandogya Upanishad
There lived once a boy named Svetaketu Âruneya. To him his father said: 'Svetaketu, go to school; for there is none belonging to our caste, darling, who, not having studied (the Vedas), is, as it were, a Brahmin by birth only.'
Having begun his apprenticeship (with a teacher) when he was twelve years of age Svetaketu returned to his father when he was twenty-four, having then studied all the Vedas,--conceited, considering himself well-read, and stern.
His father said to him: 'Svetaketu, as you are so conceited, considering yourself so well-read, and so stern, my dear, have you ever asked for that instruction by which we hear what cannot be heard, by which we perceive what cannot be perceived, by which we know what cannot be known?'
'What is that instruction, Sir?' he asked.
The father replied: 'My dear, as by one clod of clay all that is made of clay is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is clay;
'And as, my dear, by one nugget of gold
all that is made of gold is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is gold?
'And as, my dear, by one pair of nail-scissors all that is made of iron is known, the difference being only a name, arising from speech, but the truth being that all is iron,--thus, my dear, is that instruction.'
The son said: 'Surely those venerable men (my teachers) did not know that. For if they had known it, why should they not have told it me? Do you, Sir, therefore tell me that.' 'Be it so,' said the father.
'Fetch me from thence a fruit of the Nyagrodha tree.'
'Here is one, Sir.' Break it.'
'It is broken, Sir.'
'What do you see there?'
'These seeds, almost infinitesimal.'
'Break one of them.'
'It is broken, Sir.'
'What do you see there?'
'Not anything, Sir.'
The father said: 'My son, that subtle essence which you do not see there, of that very essence this great Nyagrodha tree exists.
'Believe it, my son. That which is the subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art That.'
'Please, Sir, inform me still more,' said the son.
'Be it so, my child,' the father replied.
. 'Place this salt in water, and then bring it to me in the morning.'
The son did as he was commanded.
The father said to him: 'Bring me the salt, which you placed in the water last night.'
The son having looked for it, found it not, for, of course, it was dissolved.
The father said: 'Taste it from the surface of the water. How is it?'
The son replied: 'It is salty.'
'Taste it from the middle. How is it?'
The son replied: 'It is salty.'
'Taste it from the bottom. How is it?'
The son replied 'It is salty.'
The father said Throw it away and then come back to me.'
He did so; but salt exists for ever.
Then the father said: 'Here also, in this body, forsooth, you do not perceive the True (Sat), my son; but there indeed it is.
'That which is the subtle essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art That.'
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