(...Contd)

We should remember that what is now doubted or disputed was not then a subject of question or controversy. Any literature, sacred or secular, must be juxtaposed with the real life of the place and period before it can be rightly understood. We should throw our minds back thousands of years, and try to recreate by an effort of imagination the world of the Upanishadic period—the way in which men lived and thought, and the way they disciplined themselves—so that we may understand and appreciate what was said by the rishis or seers.
The principal teaching of the Upanishads is this: Man cannot achieve happiness through mere physical enjoyment obtained through wealth or the goods of the world or even through the pleasures attainable by elevation to the happy realms above through the performance of the sacrifices prescribed in the Vedas. The potency of these sacrifices was a matter of implicit belief in those times. Yet, the attainment of these worlds of pleasures through Vedic sacrifice is not the object of the Upanishad teaching. In fact, pleasures in super-terrestrial worlds were regarded as hardly higher in real value than sensual enjoyment on earth. The Mundakopanishad, after a glowing description of the welcome accorded in swarga to the performer of sacrifices—how he is borne there on the rays of the sun and told in loving terms that he has earned the pleasures he is going to enjoy—goes on to say:
Perishable and transient are the results achieved by sacrifices. The person of small wisdom, who having won them, congratulates himself on having eternal bliss, is caught up again in decay and death. He only enjoys the fruits of his deeds in a distinguished place in swarga, and when they are exhausted he returns either to this world or enters a lower one.
Absolute happiness can result only from liberation and it follows therefore that spiritual enlightenment alone, which frees the soul from all illusion, can liberate the soul by breaking the bond of karma, the unending chain of work and results, and unite it again to the Supreme Being, which is moksha (liberation).
It is necessary to point out that enlightenment does not mean learning, much or little. Indeed, enlightenment (jnana) is not an intellectual state, but a state of spiritual awakening which comes through moral rebuilding. Purity of life and a mind free from selfish desires are essential for enlightenment. Without full moral self-control, no enlightenment is possible.
“Enlightenment does not come from extensive study or by learned discussion or through the intellect. It comes of itself when one’s self intensely yearns for realization, but not unless the mind has turned away from evil and has learnt to control itself and to be at peace with the world.”
—Kathopanishad, I-ii-23, 24.

(Contd...)