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Upanishads and its relevance in modern day society By Sneha Kothawade

While pondering over the title of this essay, I am reminisced of a story from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. The story describes that once Gods, Humans and Demons sought wisdom from the Creator. He told each of them to practice ‘Da’. Now ‘Da’ is just a syllable, not even a complete word, so it is open to interpretation. The Creator asked the pupils – Gods, Humans and Demons, whether they understood the meaning. Each replied in the affirmative. Interestingly, all three of them understood the meaning of ‘Da’ differently. The Gods, who are blessed with abundance, fond of feasting and always prodigally celebrating, understood the meaning of ‘Da’ as ‘Damyata’ (restraint). They understood that the Creator wants them to not be so ostentatious and indulgent, but practice self-restraint.
The Humans, who are typically selfish and avaricious, understood ‘Da’ to mean as ‘Datta’ (donate). They implied that Creator wants them to give generously and let go of their material possessions.
The Demons, who are naturally brutal and ruthless, understood the meaning of ‘Da’ as ‘Dayadhvam’ (Mercy). They perceived the tacit instruction from Creator to be – to become more forgiving and curb their barbarism by practicing clemency.
This story, according to me, succinctly conveys the relevance of Upanishads to the modern day society. The learning that one derives from the Upanishad varies from person to person, depending on their frame of reference. Everybody interprets them in their own unique way, and obtains that one key message which helps them advance towards the ultimate goal.
So the Upanishads cater to our heterogeneous society, essentially constituted by diverse people. Its knowledge applies to all, whether you are affluent reveling in luxuries, or toiling to make both ends meet. Everybody will find solace and meaning in these texts, whether they are depressed or happy-go-lucky kinds. Irrespective of the ambition you nurture – to become an engineer, doctor, artist etc., the knowledge of Upanishad will help one excel and achieve perfection.Though the wisdom of Upanishads is timeless, but there are reasons that make them especially relevant to the present modern times.
This modern age is characterized by the scientific virtues of questioning and rational thinking. It is also characterized by an emphasis on knowledge. Information technology has ushered in a new revolution for humanity. Never before has the sum collective of human knowledge been so widely available and accessible through internet. Never before have the persons been more inquisitive and insistent on logical answers.

Even as I write this essay, there is a widespread protest in Ireland as the people are appalled by the refusal by doctors for an abortion of a mother with the reason that it is a ‘Catholic Christian country’. The world has stood up to support Malala, a young girl who was shot at by Talibani forces who oppose education of women professing Islamic extremism. People don’t want to be submissive and silenced just because it is a matter of religion.
If I may share a personal struggle, recently one of my Yoga teachers, forbid me from chanting the Gayatri Mantra because it is a Vedic Mantra. I was infuriated to learn that in Hinduism women were denied the reading of Vedas in the earlier times, and there are some people who still believe so. I had then argued with my Yoga teacher that when eminent women like Gargi, Maitreyi had contributed to writing of the Vedas, then it is anything but chauvinistic to deny this knowledge to women. I confess that this incident drew me closer to the Vedas and the Upanishads.
As I read them, I realized that Upanishads are not like sermons from the mount or strict dictums for people to follow. The Upanishads do not expect the reader to blindly believe the written words, rather they encourage logical questioning. This made me realize that text of Upanishads was indeed very progressive as it urged the reader to reason rationally and inspired an inquisitive mind to find answers.

One of the Mukhya (main) Upanishad is titled as a question- Kena, which translates as ‘By whom’. It begins with the disciple asking – who enables our life force? Who enables us to think, see and hear? Now this is probably one of the best ways to confound a scientific person and convince them of an existence of a superior energy. Scientific thinking has at the most been able to decipher ‘how the eyes see’ – through our pupil, cornea and retina etc. But it hasn’t been able to decipher ‘who sees from the eyes’. By whom are the sounds heard through the ears? So through these series of questioning, the Upanishads established the entity of Brahman or the supreme energy driving the world and our individual selves. This approach of leading the reader towards the answer through questions is most apt for introducing spirituality to the modern populace. This approach is different from the prevailing approach of – just believe it because the ancestors said so, or God said so. Upanishads consider questioning as a virtue, which is in line with the liberal thinking of the present times.
Another aspect about the Upanishads which I feel is most interesting is that they don’t make tall claims of be authoritative, definitive, sacrosanct texts which are too complex for normal mortals. Before reading them people may imagine the Upanishads to be incomprehensible and too complex, like I did too. But after reading them, they would surely be pleasantly surprised with its simplicity. Contrary to my perception, many Upanishads are written in an incredibly easy story format. I almost felt as if I was reading tales similar to the Panchtantra or the Jataka, wherein each story is entertaining as well as educating.

For example the Katha Upanishad tells an interesting story of Nachiketa who confronts the God of Death Yama with few questions. As an answer Yama gives the allegory of the chariot in which the body is the chariot, Atman (Soul) is the chariot’s passenger, Buddhi (Consciousness) is the chariot driver, Manas (Mind) is the reins, Indriya (the five senses) are the chariot horses, and the objects that come across the senses constitute the path of the chariot. So while reading this story, you automatically begin to imbibe the underlying metaphorical knowledge also. Curiously this chariot allegory was also mentioned by Plato as well, and therefore many people speculate that Upanishads were acknowledged far and wide and also played a role in development of world’s philosophies. It must be underlined that this approach of packaging information with an entertaining story is also a feature of our present modern age. Today we prefer ‘infotainment’ as it makes the information easier to digest.
So I conclude my essay with the strong contention that Upanishads are immensely relevant to all kinds of people and they have a message for each one of us. And certain values espoused in our modern times are conducive to the study of Upanishads, enhancing their relevance even more!

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