The Upanishads

Knowledge and ignorance are important because, according to the Upanishads, they determine an individual’s fate after death. They state that, “Ignorance passes away and knowledge is immortal” (93), meaning that ignorance leads to reincarnation or passing into “regions of utter darkness” (49). On the other hand, knowledge causes one to achieve “liberation” and become free from “sorrows,” “bondage” (63), and “fear” (60). The texts thus stress the importance of knowledge in spiritual liberation. 

It is true that action, meaning correct adherence to religious rituals, is important. The “Isa Upanishad” states, “He who knows both knowledge and action, with action overcomes death and with knowledge reaches immortality” (49). However, along with other actions such as “meditation” and yoga, and virtues such as “self-control” and “humanity” (109), ritual is a tool for achieving knowledge of Brahman. The authors of the Upanishads are consistent in stressing that the ultimate goal is knowledge of Brahman or the Spirit. More specifically, the “Mundaka Upanishad” distinguishes between “higher” and “lower” wisdom. Lower wisdom includes the rituals and hymns from the other Vedas, while higher wisdom “is that which leads to the Eternal” (73). In other words, lower wisdom is still beneficial, but only higher wisdom will lead to liberation after death.

Exactly what form this liberation will take is unclear in the Upanishads, beyond the fact that it would entail freedom from the cycle of death and reincarnation. The “Kena Upanishad” promises, “Those who follow wisdom pass beyond and, on leaving this world, become immortal” (51). Another possibility is the one presented in the “Brihad-Aranyaka Upanishad,” whose author argues that “there is no consciousness after death” since the individual’s soul merges with the “ocean of pure consciousness boundless and infinite” (132). However one interprets the concept, the Upanishads is consistent in arguing that liberation will mean a permanent end to desire and negative emotions.

Still, the “Mundaka Upanishad” is clear that piously following religious ritual and even doing moral actions are not sufficient to achieve spiritual liberation. As the author writes, “Ritual and charity is not enough” (77). Ignorance or “unwisdom” (80) also comes from the desire for material possessions, or “the path of pleasure” which is taken by “the fool” (58). To avoid ignorance, one must develop an interior awareness that evolves into knowledge of Brahman and the Atman through “renunciation” (81) of material desires and “meditation and contemplation” (85). In doing so, the wise individual will liberate themselves from material desires while alive and escape the cycle of reincarnation after death.

In the Hindu beliefs expressed in the Upanishads, souls are often reincarnated in a cycle of death and rebirth. The process is termed “samsara” or “the transmigration of life” (103). The Upanishads also suggest a soul may at least temporarily become trapped in “worlds of no joy, regions of utter darkness” (141). If one instead reincarnates, one could be reborn as a human, but also as a non-human like a plant (64) or as one of the “celestial beings” or gods (137). The Upanishads thus frequently explore the cyclical nature of life and death in various ways.

The cycle is compared to “a caterpillar, when coming to the end of a blade of grass, reaches out to another blade of grass and draws itself over to it” because it is “the same way the Soul, leaving the body and unwisdom behind, reaches out to another body and draws itself over to it” (139). The entire cycle is also part of how Brahman operates: “He is God who spreads the net of transmigration and then withdraws it in the field of life” (93). Elsewhere, the cycle of life and death is called “the bondage of time” which is contrasted against “freedom in Eternity” (96).

What drives this cycle is essentially one’s mindset throughout one’s life. According to the “Maitri Upanishad,” samsara “takes place in one’s own mind” (103). The effect that one’s behavior and thoughts in life have on one’s fate after death is called “the law of Karma” (79). This is described in “The Supreme Teaching” as: “According as a man acts and walks in the path of life, so he becomes. He that does good becomes good; he that does evil becomes evil. By pure actions he becomes pure; by evil actions he becomes evil” (140). This cycle is endless unless one achieves “liberation” (63) through spiritual awareness and moral action that allows one to reach unity with Brahman. The “Prasna Upanishad” compares such liberation to when a snake sheds its skin. When this happens, “he goes to the heaven of Brahma where from he can behold the Spirit that dwells in the city of the human body and which is above the highest life” (73). 

In sum, the importance of the internal state of a mind explains both how karma operates and how a soul can achieve liberation. If one continues to have desires for possessions in the material world, or even just for a family and children (69), then one becomes reborn in the material world. On the other hand, having a mind that is “ever pure” (61) of material desires,  committed to aestheticism, and filled with knowledge of Brahman, will lead one to become one with Brahman.