The Religions Book

HINDUISM 105

Concealed in the heart

of all beings is the

Atman, the Spirit,

the Self; smaller than the

smallest atom, greater

than the vast spaces.

Katha Upanishad

When many candles

are kindled from another,

it is the same flame

that burns in all candles;

even so, the one Brahman

appears to be many.

Sage Vasishtha

Death and beyond

If the self, or soul, is nonphysical

and therefore separable from the

physical body, the possibility of

surviving death and living on in

another form becomes logically

possible. Most Western religions

see each individual soul as being

created at a particular point in

time, but capable of living on

indefinitely following the death

of the body. Hindu thought sees

the self as timeless, having no

beginning, and identified with

the single, undifferentiated

reality. This self takes on physical

form in a succession of lives,

which is the idea of reincarnation.

For Western monotheistic

religions, the issue is whether the

soul is genuinely separable from

the body, and how, if separated,

it might maintain its identity. For

Hindus, the issue is to intuitively

grasp that this self and this life

are only a part of something

much larger, and that the self is

one with the fundamental reality

of the universe.

Although Hindus hope that, by
generating good karma, they will
improve their prospects in future
lives, there is always the threat that
bad karma will lead to them being
reborn into a lower caste, or as
an animal. However, this is not
as important as it first appears,
because moving on to another life
(good or bad) is not viewed as a
final goal in Hinduism. Unlike in
monotheistic religions, in which
the prospect of life beyond death
is a promise to be welcomed, in

Hinduism the aim is to be released

from the suffering that inevitably

arises from living and dying in one

life after another.

A conscious intuition

The arguments presented by the

Chandogya Upanishad’s stories

about the fig seeds and the salt

water are logical. In a sense, they

are no more than scientific analysis

of matter, but presented in the

language of a prescientific age.

Today, the equivalent would be

to say that everything is comprised

of subatomic particles, energy,

and the fundamental forces.

However, the purpose and

implication of the Upanishadic

dialogues and modern science are

quite different. In the Upanishads,

reasoned argument is not an end

in itself, but a means of leading a

person to an intuition that goes

beyond words. The logic of the

argument for the identity of

atman and Brahman represents

no more than the starting point for

understanding them. The aim of

the Upanishads’ teachings is to

encourage students to internalize

and meditate on the arguments

until the reality that they suggest

is directly experienced—in a

way that goes beyond reason

and language. This wordless

awareness is said to produce a

state of bliss (ananda).

It could be argued that a self

formed by sense experience and

reason alone would suffice for the

purposes of a human life. This

was challenged by the sages who

produced the dialogues of the

Upanishads. The Katha Upanishad

uses a chariot as an analogy of the

self. The senses are the chariot’s

horses and the mind is its driver.

But riding in the chariot is the

atman. The implication of this

image is that, for someone whose

whole awareness is limited to

reason and sense experience,

the onward rush of the chariot

is without purpose, since it lacks

a passenger who is making the

journey. That is what the intuition

of the atman restores.

Hinduism does not see gaining

consciousness of the atman as easy.

It can occur only after other possible

identities have been examined and

discarded as inadequate. It is not a

fact to be learned, but an intuition

that can gradually inform a person’s

conscious awareness. ■