Upanishad Prasthana

Sarvamula Section :

Upanishat Prasthaana

Pt. K. Shankaranarayana Adiga

Poornaprjna Vidyapeetha, Bangalore-28

The second among the Prasthana Traya is the cluster of ten Upanishads upaniShatprasthAna. These ten Upanishads are Itareya, Brhadaaranyaka, Chhaandogya, Isha, Talavakaara, Katha, Shatprashna, Mundaka, Maanduka and Taittiriya. Samhita, Braahmana, Aaranyaka and Upanishad- this is how the entire Vaidik literature is classified. Samhita is the Mantra portion; Braahmana is the portion which professes the rituals like yAga leading to pravRuttimArga (the path of performing Karma with material desire); Aaranyaka is the section which deals with nivRuttimArga (taking a path of desireless Karma- only for bhagavatprIti ); and the final essence of this Aaranyaka is the Upanishad portion. Thus Upanishats form the ultimate quintessence of vaidikavAM~gmaya.

Upanishat advocates nivRuttimArga exhaustively and in its entirity

1. "upaniShaNNAM brahmatattvamatra" , concepts of brahma is inhabited very well here and hence it is upaniShat .

2. niShatsu upaniShatsu ca; These exceed (upa") the brAhmaNa and AraNyaka portions and hence are Upanishads, because these form the nuclesus of them.

3. Since here lies the secret of brahmatattva, it has to be contemplated in solitude (upa), these are Upanishads.

4. As commented by Acharya Madhva in his CAndogyabhAShya the j~jAna atained by deserving person as per his/her merit is also Upanishad, svayogyaM tu parij~jAnaM yattasyopaniShat smRutam

abhimAni diety for upaniShat is Ramaadevi. Upanishadbhashyas : Many had been said to have written commentaries on Upanishads, but they are not available. Shankaracharya had written Bhashya to ten Upanishads. So has Sri Madhva composed lucid Bhashyas to Upanishads. Sri Shankara wrote Bhashya to a part of Itareya whereas Sri Madhva did it exhaustively for the entire Itareya and as such it is credited as mahaitareyopaniShadbhAShyam

Acharya Madhva's contribution by way of writing Bhashya to all the four faces of Veda (saMhitA , brAhmaNa , AraNyaka and upaniShat) stands as unique and without parallel. He wrote RugbhAShya so as to guide us to how saMhitA is to be interpreted and KaNDArthanirNaya (karmanirNaya), so as to how brAhmaNa and AraNyaka are to be interpreted. This is how the Acharya showed to the world the core spiritual value of total Vedas. The rest of the Darshanikas restricted to expend their wisdom in just explaining only Adhibhautika , material aspects of meaning to the Vedas. Acharya Madhva described trayO&rthAH sarvavEsEShu- (there are three meanings in all Vedas) by illustrating how AdhyAtmika, Adhibhautika and upAsanAtmaka meanings can be arrived at.

RuShINAM punarAdhyAnAM vAcamarthO&nudhAvati When Acharya expounds interpretation to Upanishads, those interpretations closely follow the words and verses visioned by the Sages in their j~jAnadRuShTi . Sri Narayana Panditacharya in his shrImadhwavijaya has exclaimed as below about the beauties of Acharya's Upanishad Bhashyas.

dashOpaniShadO dEvIH dEvA iva samIspitAH |

yuttAH prasAdayantyarthAH EShu BAShyAmayEShvalam || (15-74)

Interpretation of Acharya Madhva illustrated in the Bhashyas bring ultimate enjoyment to the readers.

Upanishad Bhashyas of Acharya Madhva likened to the abodes where the ten Upanishads which are like the divine angels and the most apt and desired interpretations whch are like the divine Gods communioned together. Both, The Upanishadic texts and the interpretations put forward by Acharya Madhva are so well enjoyably match with each other that they are like Godly wives and husbands enjoying each other commingled in their abode i.e. Mukti. Here with this simily a very beautiful point is established, that is like niyatapati and patnI the Upanishats and the interpretations of Acharya Madhva are inseperable and they enjoy eternally with each other with full agreement to each other.

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