The knowledge of the Vedas reached its pinnacle in what is known as the Vedanta, or "the end of the Vedas." This culmination of Vedic thought occurred in a genre of literature collectively termed the Upanisads, which concerns itself with cosmic speculation. The Upanisadic thinkers sought to find mental equivalences, or bandhus, between the universe and the central focus of the Vedas, the ritual. A translation of the word 'upanisad' is "hidden connection," referring to the cosmic/ritual homologies found within its texts. In the Rg Veda, the ritual is related to all aspects of reality through the power of the ritual, called "brahman." In the Upanisads, the emphasis moves from karma, or ritual action, to jnana, or knowledge. Knowledge of the bandhus is considered an internalization of the sacrifice, in which the karma is constantly being performed. To internalize the sacrifice is to internalize brahman. The core essence of all beings is the personal atman. To internalize brahman is to realize the deepest jnana, which is that brahman and atman are identical. Thus much effort is spent in the Upanisads speculating and explaining how brahman and atman are one. In other words, the Upanisads seek to reconcile the realm of the absolute with that of the relative. Understanding how the perceived diversity of existence is unified is a deeply philosophical paradox. The Upanisadic thinkers attempted to formulate this truth in various ways. Joel Brereton has categorized these formulas into five classes, which are correlation, emergence and resolution, hierarchy, paradox, and cycles. This writing will concern itself only with correlation and emergence and resolution. The correlation paradigm shows the connection of the brahman and the atman through the use of analogies, from a cosmic scale to an intermediary and then human scale. For instance, in the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, the entirety of the physical existence of the universe is explained as corresponding to a sacrificial horse. Portions of its head represent the structure of space, from the heavens to the earth. The horse's body is symbolic for the land and seas and their many features, while its actions equate to the various phenomena of nature, such as lightning and rain. To equate the whole of the cosmos with the horse allows a person to intellectually grasp the overwhelmingly large spectrum of the universe succinctly. In an equally concise manner, a horse, chariot, driver, and rider are used as a symbolic representation of aspects of the human person in Katha Upanisad. The rider represents the self, or the atman. The driver is the intellect, which uses the reins, which are the mind, to control the horses, which represent the senses. The chariot is the body that simply follows the senses and contains the other portions of the person. Using this analogy, the teaching of the way to the highest jnana is again reiterated. Use the intellect and mind to control the senses to allow the subtle atman to reveal itself. To understand the atman as the self, which is analogous to the horse, the chariot, and its passengers, is to understand the atman as brahman, which is like the horse and the cosmos. It may appear that a leap in logic has occurred. This misconception is cleared up through the paradigm of the emergence and resolution, where a more direct explanation of the equivalency of the atman and brahman can be found. All things emerge from the fundamental ground of being and return to it upon their resolution. In the Chandogya Upanisad, a man explains to his son how to "know that which is unknown." To know a lump of clay is to intimately know all things made of clay, despite the names and the cognitive categorizations given to them. He then extrapolates the story to contain the whole of reality. In the beginning, there was only what already was. "Being" gave forth heat, which emitted water, which brought forth food. In this story, each step becomes increasingly more physical, culminating with food, which represents reality as is known by humans now. This evolution establishes the emergence of figural reality from the fundamental ground of existence, which is being, or brahman. The multiplicity of reality arises from the one-being, and its return is explained further in the father's teachings to his son. The father continues on to explain that all beings are merely these three constituent parts of reality; heat, water, and food. As an example, he explains how food becomes a person's mind, water becomes the breath, and heat becomes the bones. Having come into existence in a specific order, they return to the all-pervading being in the reverse order. In human death as food is reabsorbed by water, the consciousness of the mind ends. Once water is evaporated by heat, the breath leaves the body, but the body remains warm until finally heat returns to the source of existence as well. This is how the many phenomenon of reality are unified. They emerge from the same source and return to it upon their dissolution. The man then asks his son to bring him the fruit of a banyan tree. Having cut the fruit in half, the son finds the seed, but having cut the seed in half he does not find anything. His father reassures him that, although unseen, there remains an essence from which the seed becomes the tree and sequentially the fruit. In the same manner, this essence is found in all things. To recapitulate, he invites his son to stir salt into a cup of water. The son can taste the salt in any portion of the water, but cannot detect it with his eyes. He throws out the water and later finds that the salt was there all along. Much like the salt, the atman is found in all beings as the fundamental self. This confirms the atman as the brahman through the principle of the emergence and resolution of all things from the one to the one. The Upanisadic thinkers sought to explain the proposed unity of all things. Through the correlation of items from separate domains, they were able to trace the bandhus from the cosmic to the atomic. Expounding upon the evolution of material existence from a common ground of being, and equating that being with the essence of all creatures, animate and inanimate, the brahman and atman were shown to be one. There is a basic substrate of all phenomenon, and this explains the non-duality of the seemingly separate. The absolute and relative are reconciled through the unity of the atman and brahman.
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