Uddalaka Aruni

Dzieła

• ok. 650 p.n.e.Chandogya Upaniszada

  W szóstym rozdziale Uddalaka naucza syna Shvetaketu, że wszystkie rzeczy są postaciami jednego Bytu – jak sól rozpuszczona w wodzie: „ty jesteś tym”.

Stanowisko

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.

Życie i kontekst

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.

Dalsze główne dzieła

• 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)