second is ether, space, or the void.^15 A third kind of favorite element is prana,
or breath, which frequently figures in creation tales and in anecdotes about the
five senses leaving the body. Prana is a favorite also because it is the key to
speech, which in turn ties in with the line of argument that the names of things
constitute their forms. Here we have something like a Platonist pluralism. Yet
there are also primitive shamanistic themes, such as those expressed by the
breath/wind magicians in the Brihadaranyaka (Chattopadhyaya, 1979: 149–
154). A fourth theme is that there is a self within the body, or within the heart
or the eye; some texts assert that this self is also in the sun or moon. A common
argument is that the self is conscious even when asleep, as in dreaming; and
sometimes it is argued that dreamlessness too is a self. Occasionally the secret
doctrine mentions where the self goes at death, or in deep sleep. Some texts
assert that the self is behind everything. Such passages in the Chandogya and
Brihadaranyaka became retrospectively famous, but even in these Upanishads
they are by no means the only cosmological doctrine.
The purposes of this new knowledge are several. (1) To upstage other priests
with one’s superior wisdom. Here emerges a genuine intellectual competition,
which hits on a topic opening the disinterested search for knowledge, asking
after the elements of which the world is composed. (2) New knowledge is also
touted as a superior magic for worldly ends. Often this is tied to passages on
rituals “that will grow leaves on a dead stick,” or for ends such as acquiring
cattle or achieving sexual pleasure or even revenge.^16 (3) Frequently the new
knowledge is said to bring immortality in heaven. Knowledge is often claimed
to be for the time of one’s death, incorporated into death chants and rituals,
or into the lore of the “forest-dwelling” stage of a Brahman’s old age. Here
emerges a genuinely new religious theme, since life after death is not important
in the Vedas. Various heavens or after-death states are now posited: the realm
of the Fathers, the realm of the gods and pleasures, with a few sparse reference
to possible hells.
This religious doctrine is not what would later become the classic Hindu
complex of karma, reincarnation, and liberation through insight or yoga. It
often exalts material life prolonged into a rather worldly afterlife. Many
Upanishads regard a long life as good.^17 Among earlier Upanishads, reincar-
nation is only sporadically mentioned; the doctrines are unsettled and distinctly
non–classic “Hindu.” Some assert that one’s thought at the moment of death
determines one’s next life, which might be in heaven (Prashna Upanishad 3.10).
Some assert that one has a choice between reincarnation and immortality; if
the latter, one’s good acts go to one’s favorite kinsmen, while bad acts go to
disliked ones (Kaushitaki Upanishad 1.2–4). Another account is that the soul
after death goes to the moon and falls back to the earth as rain. There is no
generally accepted sequence.
198 • (^) Intellectual Communities: Asian Paths