أودالاكا أروني

الأعمال

• نحو 650 ق.متشاندوغيا أوبانيشاد

  في فصله السادس يعلّم أودالاكا ابنه شفيتاكيتو أن كل الأشياء صور لوجود واحد – كالملح الذائب في الماء: «أنت ذاك».

الموقف

In the sixth chapter of the Chandogya Upanishad Uddalaka instructs his son: in the beginning there was Being (sat) alone, one without a second – not non-being, for how could being arise from non-being? Being brought forth heat, water and food, and from their mixture came all things, just as all clay pots are only clay. He teaches through observation: salt dissolved in water cannot be seen yet is tasted everywhere; the tiny seed of a banyan holds the whole tree. Each lesson ends with “tat tvam asi” – “you are that”, whose exact sense scholars debate. Shankara later made it a “great saying” of Advaita.

الحياة والسياق

Uddalaka Aruni is known only from late Vedic texts – the Shatapatha Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya Upanishads – which portray him as a renowned Brahmin teacher, father of Shvetaketu and, in one lineage, teacher of Yajnavalkya. He probably lived in northern India in the 8th or 7th century BCE, but his dates are uncertain, and whether the teachings put in his mouth record a historical person is unknown.

أعمال رئيسة أخرى

• Chandogya Upanishad, chapter 6 (teachings attributed to him; text c. 6th century BCE)
• Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (appears as debater and teacher; c. 7th–6th century BCE)