| Shvetashvatara | |
| Devanagari: | श्वेताश्वतर |
| Sanskrit Transliteration: | Śvetāśvatara |
| Composition Time: | 1st millennium BCE |
| Type: | Mukhya Upanishad |
| Veda: | Yajurveda |
| Commentary: | Adi Shankara, Madhvacharya |
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad (Sanskrit: श्वेताश्वतरोपनिषद्,) is an ancient Sanskrit text embedded in the Yajurveda. It is listed as number 14 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads.[1] The Upanishad contains 113 mantras or verses in six chapters.[2]
The Upanishad is one of the 33 Upanishads from Taittiriyas, and associated with the Shvetashvatara tradition within Karakas sakha of the Yajurveda. It is a part of the "black" "krishna" Yajurveda, with the term "black" implying "the un-arranged, motley collection" of content in Yajurveda, in contrast to the "white" (well arranged) Yajurveda where Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and Isha Upanishad are embedded.[3]
The chronology of Shvetashvatara Upanishad is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition.[4] The text includes a closing credit to sage Shvetashvatara, considered the author of the Upanishad. However, scholars believe that while sections of the text shows an individual stamp by its style, verses and other sections were interpolated and expanded over time; the Upanishad as it exists now is the work of more than one author.[5]
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad opens with metaphysical questions about the primal cause of all existence, its origin, its end, and what role, if any, time, nature, necessity, chance, and the spirit had as the primal cause. It then develops its answer, concluding that "the Universal Selfs exists in every individual, it expresses itself in every creature, everything in the world is a projection of it, and that there is Oneness, a unity of Selfs in one and only Self". The text is notable for its discussion of the concept of personal god – Ishvara, and suggesting it to be a path to one's own Highest Self.[5] The text is also notable for its multiple mentions of both Rudra and Shiva, along with other Vedic deities, and of crystallization of Shiva as a central theme.[5]
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is commented by many of its ancient and medieval scholars.[6] It is a foundational text of the philosophy of Shaivism,[7] as well as the Yoga and Vedanta schools of Hinduism.[5] Some 19th century scholars initially suggested that Shvetashvatara Upanishad is sectarian or possibly influenced by Christianity, hypotheses that were disputed, later discarded by scholars.[6]
The name "Shvetashvatara" has the compound Sanskrit root Shvetashva (श्वेताश्व, Shvet + ashva), which literally means "white horse" and "drawn by white steeds".[8] Shvetashvatara is a bahuvrihi compound of (), where tara means "crossing", "carrying beyond".[9] The word Shvetashvatara translates to "the one carrying beyond on white horse" or simply "white mule that carries".[5] [6]
The text is sometimes spelled as Svetasvatara Upanishad. It is also known as Shvetashvataropanishad or Svetasvataropanishad, and as Shvetashvataranam Mantropanishad.[6]
In ancient and medieval literature, the text is frequently referred to in the plural, that is as Svetasvataropanishadah.[6] Some metric poetic verses, such as Vakaspatyam simply refer to the text as Shvetashva.
The chronology of Shvetashvatara Upanishad, like other Upanishads, is uncertain and contested.[4] The chronology is difficult to resolve because all opinions rest on scanty evidence, an analysis of archaism, style and repetitions across texts, driven by assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.[4] [10]
Ranade[11] places Shvetashvatara Upanishad's chronological composition in the fourth group of ancient Upanishads, after Katha and Mundaka Upanishads. Deussen states that Shvetashvatara Upanishad refers to and incorporates phrases from the Katha Upanishad, and chronologically followed it.[5]
According to Patrick Olivelle, it was composed after the Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Kena and Katha, probablyin the last few centuries BCE, showing non-Vedic influences.
Flood as well as Gorski state that the Svetasvatara Upanishad was probably composed in the 5th to 4th century BCE,[12] contemporary with the Buddha. Paul Muller-Ortega dates the text between 6th to 5th century BCE.[13] Phillips chronologically lists Shvetashvatara Upanishad after Mandukya Upanishad, but before and about the time the Maitri Upanishad, the first Buddhist Pali and Jaina canonical texts were composed.[4]
Winternitz,[14] suggests that Svetasvatara Upanishad was probably a pre-Buddhistic composition along with Katha, Isha, Mundaka and Prasna Upanishad, but after the first phase of ancient Upanishads that were composed in prose such as Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki and Kena. Winternitz states that Isha was likely composed before post-Buddhist Upanishads such as Maitri and Mandukya.
Some sections of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad are found, almost in its entirety, in chronologically more ancient Sanskrit texts,[15] as attempts to support it's doctrines "with Vedic-proof texts." For example, verses 2.1 through 2.3 are also found in chapter 4.1.1 of Taittiriya Samhita as well as in chapter 6.3.1 of Shatapatha Brahmana, while verses 2.4 and 2.5 are also found as hymns in chapters 5.81 and 10.13 of Rig Veda respectively.[16] Similarly, many verses in chapters 3 through 6 are also found, in nearly identical form in the Samhitas of Rig Veda, Atharva Veda and Yajur Veda.[2]
The text has six Adhyaya (chapters), each with varying number of verses.[2] The first chapter includes 16 verses, the second has 17, the third chapter contains 21 verses, the fourth is composed of 22, the fifth has 14, while the sixth chapter has 23 verses. The last three verses of the sixth chapter are considered as epilogue. Thus, the Upanishad has 110 main verses and 3 epilogue verses.[17]
The epilogue verse 6.21 is a homage to sage Shvetashvatara for proclaiming Brahman-knowledge to ascetics.[2] This closing credit is structurally notable because of its rarity in ancient Indian texts, as well as for its implication that the four-stage Ashrama system of Hinduism, with ascetic Sannyasa, was an established tradition by the time verse 6.21 of Shvetashvatara Upanishad was composed.[18]
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad has a poetic style and structure.[19] However, unlike other ancient poetic Upanishads, the meter structure of the Shvetashvatara Upanishad varies significantly, is arbitrary and inconsistent within many verses in later chapters, some such as verse 2.17 lack a definite poetic meter entirely,[20] suggesting that the text congealed from the work of several authors over a period of time, or was interpolated and expanded over time.[5] The first chapter is the consistent one, with characteristics that makes it likely to be the work of one author, probably sage Shvetashvatara.[5]
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad opens with the metaphysical questions about first causes.[2] Scholars have differed somewhat in their translations, with Max Muller translating the questions thus,
Paul Deussen translates the opening metaphysical questions of the Upanishad thus,
The Upanishad asserts, in verse 1.3, there are individuals who by meditation and yoga have realized their innate power of Self, powers that were veiled by their own gunas (innate personality, psychological attributes).[21] Therefore, it is this "power of the Divine Self" (Deva Atman Shakti, देवात्मशक्तिं) within each individual that presides over all the primal causes, including time and self.[22]
Verses 1.4 through 1.12 of the Upanishad use Samkhya-style enumeration to state the subject of meditation, for those who seek the knowledge of Self. These verses use a poetic simile for a human being, with the unawakened individual Self described as a resting swan.[23]
The verse 1.5, for example, states, "we meditate on the river whose water consists of five streams, which is wild and winding with its five springs, whose waves are the five vital breaths, whose fountainhead is the mind, of course of the five kinds of perceptions. It has five whirlpools, its rapids are the five pains, it has fifty[24] kinds of sufferings, and five branches." Adi Shankara and other scholars have explained, using more ancient Indian texts, what each of these numbers correspond to. For example, the five streams are five receptive organs of a human body,[25] the five waves are the five active organs of a human body,[26] and five rapids are the major health-related life stages.[27]
The subject of meditation, states Shvetashvatara Upanishad, is the knower and the non-knower, the God and non-God, both of which are eternal.[28] The text distinguishes the highest Self from the individual Self,[29] calling the former Isha and Ishvara, and asserting it is this Highest Brahman which is Eternal and where there is the triad - the bhoktri (subject), the bhogya (object), and the preritri (mover).[30] With meditation, when a being fully realizes and possesses this triad within self, he knows Brahman.[28] [30] In verse 1.10, the text states the world is composed of the Pradhana which is perishable, and Hara[31] the God that is the imperishable.[29] By meditating on Hara and thus becoming one with God Hara, is the path to moksha (liberation). From meditating on it, states verse 1.11, man journeys unto the third state of existence, first that of blissful universal lordship, then further on to "perfect freedom, the divine alone-ness, the kevalatvam where the individual self is one with the divine self."[29] [30]
The Shvetashvatara Upanishad, in verses 1.13 to 1.16, states that to know God, look within, know your Atman (Self).[29] It suggests meditating with the help of syllable Om, where one's perishable body is like one fuel-stick and the syllable Om is the second fuel-stick, which with discipline and diligent churning of the sticks unleashes the concealed fire of thought and awareness within. Such knowledge and ethics is, asserts the Upanishad, the goal of Upanishad.