Abstract
In this paper, I offer a close comparative reading of a creation myth from chapter 1 of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad, which opens with the startling statement “ātmaivedam agra āsīt”, “in the beginning there was the self (ātman)”. I read this classical text with Śaṅkara, its foremost commentator, in dialogue with an ensemble of Indologists (Wilhelm Halbfass, Greg Bailey and Frederick Smith) and theorists (Walter Benjamin, Ramchandra Gandhi and Hélène Cixous), and vis-à-vis, the creation myth narrated in chapter 1 of the Book of Genesis. My aim is to decipher the intrinsic relation between identity, difference and diversity underlying the Upaniṣadic myth, and the ambivalent relationship (fear and desire) between self and other depicted here. The Upaniṣad presents a narrative of “the self first”, and implied is the aspiration to retrieve and rediscover this first self, the ātman, which precedes and encompasses everything else. I challenge this narrative drawing on Mukund Lath’s paper (J World Philos 4:6–23, 2003/2018). According to Lath, being is becoming, and change is a precondition of identity-formation. Identity, he argues, does not only accommodate but also invites change and plurality. Identity for Lath is a matter of creation, not restoration. It is pregnant with the future, not obsessed with premordiality. Lath’s unique case study for his counter-Upaniṣadic discussion of identity and self is classical Indian music, rāga music.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
Not applicable.
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Notes
On my use of the word “myth”, one of the readers for the JICPR remarked:
“The Upaniṣads are expositions of Reality, or in the least, it is a discourse on the concept of Reality. Hence, Upaniṣadic thought logically cannot be a myth. It may be referred to either as an idea, or discourse, or paradigm, or any other term that does not violate its original spirit. [… The term “myth” and the phrase] “creation-myth” indicates a pūrvagraha [a preconceived opinion, or judgement, or even prejudice, on behalf of the author]”.
In the spirit of difference, diversity and plurality, I’m quoting the reader, appreciating his or her insidership in the text, in the tradition.
Greg Bailey suggests that “the words eka eva are suggestive of the ātman in a state of absolute isolation, having undergone no modification” (2016, 64). In his reading, this state of “no modification” stands in contrast with the depiction of the ātman in BU 1.4.1 as puruṣavidhaḥ, “in the shape of a man”. The prefix vi in the compound puruṣavidhaḥ indicates according to Bailey, “a sense of distinction/modification”. He further suggests that the ātman is “in a modified state already”, unlike the “eka eva” ātman of BU 1.4.17. The Sanskrit articulation in 1.4.1, Bailey implies, anticipates what he refers to as “the transition of the ātman to worldly existence”. The phrase “eka eva”, on the other hand, signifies according to him sheer primordiality, prior and before any trace of creation.
This is the opening sentence of Aurobindo’s “Man and the Supermind”, in Essays Divine and Human (1997, 157).
References
Aurobindo, S. (1997). Essays divine and human: Writings from Manuscripts, 1910–1950 of the Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo (Vol. 12). Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
Bailey, G. (2016). Ātman and its transition to worldly existence. In R. Seaford (Ed.), Universe and Inner Self in Early Indian and Early Greek Thought (pp. 55–70). Edinburgh University Press.
Benjamin, W. (1999). The Task of the Translator. Illuminations (Harry Zorn trans.) (pp. 70–82)
Bhattacharyya, K. (2008). Studies in Philosophy. Motilal Banarsidass. (ed. Gopinath Bhattacharyya).
Chakrabarti, A. (2011). Troubles with a second self: The problem of other minds in 11th century Indian and 20th century western philosophy. Argument, 1, 23–35.
Cixous, H. (1994). The Hélène Cixous Reader. Routledge. (ed. and trans. Susan Sollers).
Deussen, P. (1995). Sixty Upaniṣads of the Veda. Motilal Banarsidass. (trans. V.M. Bedekar and G.B. Palsule).
Gambhirananda, S. (2009). Trans. Brahma Sūtra Bhāṣya of Śaṅkarācārya
Gandhi, R. (2011). Advaita is Ahiṃsā. I am Thou Meditations on the Truth of India (p. 238). Academy of Fine Arts and Literature.
Gupta, S. R. (2008). The word speaks to the faustian man: A translation of the Prasthānatrayī and Śaṅkara’s Bhāṣya Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad (Part I) (Vol. 5). Motilal Banarsidass.
Hume, R. E. (1951). The Thirteen Principal Upanishads. Oxford University Press.
Joyce, M. (1961). Trans. Plato’s Symposium. In E. Hamilton & H. Cairns (Eds.), The Collected Dialogues of Plato (pp. 526–574). Princeton University Press.
King, R. (1997). Early Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism: The Mahāyāna Context of the Gauḍapādīya-Kārikā. Sri Satguru Publications.
Krishna, D. (1999). Thinking creatively about the creative act. Panjab University Research Bulletin (ARTS), 30(1–2), 18–26.
Krishnamurti, J. (1956). Aloneness and Isolation. In his Commentaries on Living: https://www.jkrishnamurti.org/content/series-i-chapter-5-aloneness-and-isolation. Retrieved 03 Mar 2023
Lath, M. (2016). Thoughts on Svara and Rasa: Music as Thinking/Thinking as Music. In A. Chakrabarti (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Indian Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art (pp. 93–106). Bloomsbury.
Lath, M. (2018). Identity through necessary change. Journal of World Philosophies, 4, 6–23.
Madhavanada, S. (1997). The Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad with the Commentary of Śaṅkarācārya. Advaita Ashrama.
Olivelle, P. (1998). The Early Upaniṣads. Oxford University Press.
Radhakrishnan, S. (1953). The Principal Upaniṣads. George Allen and Unwin.
Rousseau, J.-J. (1992). Discourse on the origin and foundations of inequality among Men. University Press of New England. (Judith R. Bush, Roger D. Masters, Christopher Kelly and Terence Marshal, Trans.).
Smith, F. M. (2006). The self possessed: Deity and spirit possession in South Asian literature and Civilization. Columbia University Press.
Taber, J. A. (1983). Transformative philosophy: A study of Śaṅkara, Fichte and Heidegger. Hawaii University Press.
Timalsina, S. (2014). Self, Causation, and Agency in the Advaita of Śaṅkara. In M. R. Dasti & E. F. Bryant (Eds.), Free Will, Agency, and Selfhood in Indian Philosophy (pp. 186–209). Oxford University Press.
Ten Principal Upaniṣads with Śāṅkarabhāṣya (Īśā, Kena, Kaṭha, Praśna, Muṇḍaka, Māṇḍūkya, Taittirīya, Aitareya, Chāndogya, Bṛhadāraṇyaka). (2007). Works of Śaṅkarācārya in the original Sanskrit (2007), Motilal Banarsidass
Yati, N. C. (1994). The Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad. DK Printworld.
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Not applicable.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
No conflicts.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Raveh, D. Identity, Difference and Diversity: A Journey from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka-Upaniṣad to Mukund Lath. J. Indian Counc. Philos. Res. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-024-00327-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40961-024-00327-2