Advaita its Origin and texts
In the Bhagavadgita, Sri Krishna himself says that those who are devoid of proper knowledge of the real purport of the Vedas and the proper method of propitiating the Almighty, are deluded by ignorance. They think that they themselves are capable of performing Vedic sacrifices, even without the help or grace of God. (11)
One of the most striking depictions of the relation between the macrocosm and the microcosm, the absolute and the relative, the ultimate cause and its effect (karana brahma and karya brahma) and the assertion that both are, in reality, infinite, full and perfect, occurs towards the end of the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita in the shanti mantra for the Ishavasya Upanishad beginning with ‘Purnamadah purnamidam; That (supreme Brahman) is infinite, and this (conditioned Brahman) is infinite.’
Several portions of the Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita (for instance, the ‘Rudradhyaya’) contain ideas that are strikingly Advaitic in content and form. Some mantras of the ‘Purusha Sukta’ (which occurs in the Shukla Yajur Veda as well) are interpreted even by Sayanacharya in Advaitic terms. Commenting on the mantra beginning with ‘Paridyava prithivi sadya itva parilokan paridishah parisvah; Having gone swiftly round the earth and heaven, around the worlds, around the sky, around the quarters’, Sayana states: ‘Here the nature of jiva is Brahman.’ (12)
Similarly, the Krishna Yajur Veda Samhita too is full of mantras which have an Advaitic content. The Tandya Brahmana and the Samavidhana of the Sama Veda are equally rich in Advaitic ideas. So also the Atharva Veda.
The literal meaning of Advaita has been explained by Madhusudana Saraswati as ‘that in which there is no twofoldness’. Shankara’s Advaita siddhanta is not only the climax of philosophical speculation and the highest philosophy of ethics, but also a way of life. As the culmination of man’s metaphysical contemplation and spiritual evolution it is the natural final goal of our spiritual sadhanas. In fact, some of the most beautiful Upanishadic verses which Shankara has interpreted in the light of Advaita occur in the Samhita portion of the Rig Veda. For example, the following mantra traditionally associated with the Mundaka Upanishad (3.1.1) is found in the Rig Veda as well:
‘Two birds that are ever associated and have similar names, cling to the same tree. Of these, one eats the fruits of divergent tastes, and the other looks on without eating.’ (13)
The mantra brings out the essence of Advaita philosophy and the identity of jiva and Brahman. The bird on the lower branch is the jiva and the one sitting on the upper branch of the tree as witness, without eating fruits, is God Himself. This mantra shows that though its philosophical and logical perfection is reached in Upanishadic literature, the origin of Advaita philosophy is, in fact, to be found in the Rig Veda Samhita itself.
The well-known ‘Devi Sukta’ (10.125) is another striking example of a Samhita mantra depicting Advaitic experience. The word cikitushi in the third mantra of this sukta is explained by Sayana as: ’She (the rishi) had known or realized as her own Self the supreme Brahman, that which must be realized.’
Innumerable mantras of the Rig Veda Samhita have been explained by Sayana in an exclusively Advaitic sense.
The Rig Veda gives a great message in the first mantra of the thirteenth sukta of the tenth mandala. This is perhaps the most forceful expression of man’s divinity and immortality found in the whole of Vedic literature. It runs as follows:
‘O my sense organs and their presiding deities, I salute you (that is, I merge you all with the eternal Brahman through meditation). May this hymn of praise spread everywhere through the medium of the wise. May you all, children of immortal Bliss, and all those living in the bright (divine) worlds, listen to me!’
The famous ‘Nasadiya Sukta’ (Rig Veda 10.129) contains the most sublime depiction of Advaitic monism that was later elaborated upon in the Upanishads and expounded by the great Shankaracharya. In this hymn all phenomena are traced to the one Principle which is beyond opposites like life and death, existence and non-existence, being and nonbeing, day and night, and so on. The one Reality is neither existence nor non-existence; it is beyond name and definition. The concept of maya, which explains why the perfect Reality appears as this imperfect world, has its roots in the ‘Nasadiya Sukta’. Here we may very well remember that Advaita is, after all, a matter of inner experience (‘anubhavaikavedyam; known through experience alone’, in the language of Shankaracharya) and not a subject for philosophical speculation.
The ‘Nasadiya Sukta’ is perhaps the most scientific description of the ultimate Reality as well as of the projection of the phenomenal world. It makes the relative and the Absolute, nature and Spirit, the twin aspects of that one Reality and shows that men of wisdom (kavayah), who had controlled their senses, found out the ultimate cause of this world (which appears to be real) in their own hearts (hridi) through concentrated intellects (manisha). |