Upanishad Series - 2: Katha Upanishad is a Sankhya Text
August 5, 2024
This is a good link of Katha Upanishad which is the discussion between a young boy Nachiketa and Lord Yama (God of Death).
This has sanskrit transliteration with commentary.
One can read the sanskrit themselves and demystify the upanishad!
The author compiled the commentary from several commentators including Sri M, Shankara, Sankhya texts, etc. He mentions it but does not give the proper citations or bibliography to trace back. I have read some of the commentary, so I was able to spot some of them, but there are more uncredited author's work in this.
http://www.srimatham.com/uploads/5/5/4/9/5549439/katha_upanishad.pdf
Katha Upanishad is Sankhya Text:
The famous Katha upanishad celebrated widely as Advaitic text borrows so heavily from Sankhya Texts on many key concepts that one can safely declare it to be Sankhya Text!
Major Sankhya Concepts found in Katha Upanishad:
- Adhyatma Yoga (Supreme Soul) [Adhi-atma Yoga is taught in detail in Uddhava Gita by Lord Krishna)
- Mahat-Tattva, Avaykta (Prakriti), Purusha
- Up-Side Down Tree (As elaborated in Gita for this existence)
- A person who masters Atma- Vidya (knowledge) goes to Vishu Param-Padam (Supreme Abode of Vishnu)
- Final destination to Brahma-Loke (World of Brahma)
- Analogy of Shade & Light in heart of the psyche to explain Jivatama & Paramatma relationship (2 birds in tree analogy)
- Thumb sized Purusha/ Paramatma living in all species who knows past, present and future (similar verses in Bhagvad Gita)
It is common to borrow and take concepts from other sects, this happens continously over the centuries.
Proper citations or credits has to be given to the appropriate sects or teachers or thought originators, but upanishads are so old and transmitted orally, so it is understandable that it is very diffcult to accredit the rival school's works and concepts or the citations could have been lost in time!
Katha Upanishad vs Bhagvad Gita/ Uddhava Gita
Katha Upanishad was an evolving text, it existed before Bhagvad Gita and later on many more chapters were added, some concepts like nadis clearly show a departure from the original tone of first few chapters which discusses philosophy from a birds eye view.
So, many concepts like Adhi-Atma Yoga, Upside down tree, Mahat, Prakriti interaction with purusha appears to be half baked and incomplete in the Katha Upanishad as the Rishis were still evolving and making progress based on divine inspirations and their evolutionary status.
Much later, Lord Krishna himself has to step down on earth and explained in details of all the half baked concepts listed in katha upanishad and he also went beyond these tiny upanishad built over thousands of years and showed Virata/ Vishwarupa form to show that he is originator and master regulator of all the three worlds!!
All respects and pranaams to Rishi of Upanishad times for their contribution in spiritual science dealing with atma when most of humans were still busy playing and researching stone age and iron age tools.
But it is not fair to compare the words coming out from the mouth of Paramatma and Orignator of Universe, Sri Krishna in the form of Bhagvad Gita and Uddhava Gita to the works of upanishad rishis.
To put in perspective, a crude analogy: ants are million times bigger than bacteria same way these Upanishad rishi's are bigger than common laity in spiritual knowledge and maturity wise.
But any mountain or sky range is trillion or zillion times bigger than these tiny ants, that's how gigantic these Paramatmas like Lord Krishna, Lord Shiva & Goddess Durga (Prakriti) compared to Upanishadic sages when it comes to the status of the Atma category and the inherent rights these Paramatma's exhibit over this creation.
