Divine Wisdom – Key to Understanding

Divine Wisdom – Key to Understanding Shrikant Vasudeo
General Commentary on Upanishad
The Upanishad are held in very high respect by the Indian population throughout the ages. However, the correct understanding of these Upanishads is lacking. In order to understand the true wisdom of these Upanishads, we need to know the background of their origin.
First of all, we must understand that these Upanishads assist us in directly reaching the state of ‘illumination’ of our inner being. They are not ‘step by step’ instructions for achieving it.
Secondly, these Upanishads are not for ‘dummies’. They are not ‘simple and clear’ explanation of the Divine. They assume an understanding of Vedic thought.
Thirdly, these Upanishads are not a ‘textbook’ of divine knowledge. They are not to be learned in a classroom. In other words, one needs to have a personal experience of the basic truths of our life. They are not just ‘bookish’ knowledge.
Fourthly, the style of expression of the Upanishad for development of the thought of divine knowledge is not explicit. The real knowledge is implicit and one needs to ‘meditate’ on these expressions to truly understand their implicit meaning. The words used in reasoning of the central idea are ‘suggestive’ in nature. They do not directly strike our intelligent mind.
Fifthly, we do not have the ‘reading’ of these texts. We have ‘hearing’ of them directly through the Divine Source. What it means is that the wisdom ‘dawns’ on our innermost being in a state of contemplative meditation.
Sixthly, the ‘hearer’ of these divine wisdom proceeds from light to Light. It helps him to confirm his intuitions, live his experience in the new light. He is not supposed to do the ‘logical analysis’ of these intuitions and experiences.

Here comes the difficulty to our modern intelligent man of ‘digital’ technology. We are used to ‘break-down’ everything to very ‘elemental’ level. We work by our brains. Intelligence is our basic means of understanding any idea or notion. We analyse, we rationalize every idea or thought. Precisely for this reason, to the modern man, the Upanishad offers insurmountable difficulty in understanding the true inner wisdom contained in them. In order for the modern man to fully understand the Upanishads, we need to explicitly bring out the hidden wisdom, give rational explanation, highlight the central theme, bridge the gap between two successive thoughts by necessary clarifications and interpretations and thus try to make him ‘understand’. This is indeed a very daunting task. However ‘hard’ we try, it is bound to fall short of the complete understanding the wisdom inherent in the Upanishad if we follow this ‘modern’ style. However, even with this lacunae, it is absolutely necessary in the present circumstances. At present, due to the horribly erroneous interpretations of these ancient scriptures, the modern man has lost out on the wealth of wisdom contained in them. We are truly very ‘rich’ in knowledge but bankrupt in understanding of the divine wisdom. We see around us stark contract in what we preach and what we practice. We are torn apart between the pulls of our desires and cravings on one side and our yearning for the long-lasting happiness and truth realization on the other. This dichotomy creates the undercurrent of anxiety, guilt feelings, a feeling of hollowness and a sense of drifting – having lost our directions in this life.

Isha Upanishad is our saviour. It is precisely dong the job of reconciling these opposites, harmonizing the different ideas and thoughts and bringing out the underlying unified truth. This we will see in the next note given separately.