Category: Upanishads

There are certain portions in Upanishads which can be interpret-able as carrying materialistic ideas. Thus in Brihadaranyaka Upanishad the great sage Yanjavalkya is conversing to his wife, Maitreyi, that ‘it is for its own sake that Self perform everything’. “He said. It is not for the sake of the husband, my dear, that he is loved, but for one’s own sake, that he is loved. It is not for the sake of wife, my dear, that she is loved, but for one’s own sake that she is loved. It is not for the sake of the sons, my dear, that they are loved, but for one’s own sake that they are loved but for one’s own sake that they are loved. It is not for the sake of wealth…

In Advaita Vedanta individual self and supreme self are one and same. Individual self is the reflection of the supreme self on avidya. When this avidya becomes exhausted, individual self become aware of its supreme status and realize the Brahman. In short, as per Advaita Vedanta, we all are already liberated beings. But due to avidya we are not aware of it. When we acquire Brahma-vidya, we will realize our default supreme nature, or the divinity within us. This is the nutshell of Advaita Vedanta. We can find several passages in the Upanishad collection about the non-dual nature of Atman and Brahman. In fact, though several…