Self-divinity in Hindu
General description of the texts on “Disclosing the Self”
- Unpanishadic teachings creates an integrative vision, a view of the whole which draws
together the separate elements of the world and of human experience and compresses
them into a single form
- To one who has this larger vision of things, the world is not a set of diverse and
disorganized objects and living beings, but rather forms a totality with a distinct shape and
character
- The integrative vision is made by identifying a single, comprehensive, and fundamental
principle of the world
Brahman
- the fundamental principle, power, behind all things (parallel to the “logos” of the Greeks)
- discovered within the atman, or conversely, the secret of one’s self lies in the root of all
things
Atman – the fundamental principle of everything at the core of each individual
Unpanishadic paradigms of constructing a totality out of the multiplicity of the world
(1) the correlation of different aspects of reality to one another;
(2) the emergence of the world from a single reality and its reality back into it;
(3) a hierarchy which leads ultimately to the foundation of all things;
(4) a paradoxical coincidence of things which are ordinarily understood to exclude or oppose
one another; and
(5) a cycle which encompasses the processes of life and the world.
The integrative vision of things is a central concern though not the only concern in the
Unpanishads
(1) There is an aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction in the ability to see things as a whole
o The vision comprehends the world, and by it, people know who they are and where
they are
o People understand that they are a part of everything. In fact, that they are at the
very center of everything, and they know that everything is a part of them
(2) This vision is a powerful knowledge
o To know the truth of something was to have control over it
o To know the world is therefore also to master the world and to direct one’s fate
o Insight into the true nature of things effects the highest attainment of all, the
attainment of a final release from all temporal and spatial limitation
(3) This vision of totality was a transforming vision
o Towards a realization of what one truly is
o The peripheral view of individuals is that they are vulnerable to suffering and death,
subject to their private destinies
o That individual self, however, is not the true self
General description of the texts on “Disclosing the Self”
- Unpanishadic teachings creates an integrative vision, a view of the whole which draws
together the separate elements of the world and of human experience and compresses
them into a single form
- To one who has this larger vision of things, the world is not a set of diverse and
disorganized objects and living beings, but rather forms a totality with a distinct shape and
character
- The integrative vision is made by identifying a single, comprehensive, and fundamental
principle of the world
Brahman
- the fundamental principle, power, behind all things (parallel to the “logos” of the Greeks)
- discovered within the atman, or conversely, the secret of one’s self lies in the root of all
things
Atman – the fundamental principle of everything at the core of each individual
Unpanishadic paradigms of constructing a totality out of the multiplicity of the world
(1) the correlation of different aspects of reality to one another;
(2) the emergence of the world from a single reality and its reality back into it;
(3) a hierarchy which leads ultimately to the foundation of all things;
(4) a paradoxical coincidence of things which are ordinarily understood to exclude or oppose
one another; and
(5) a cycle which encompasses the processes of life and the world.
The integrative vision of things is a central concern though not the only concern in the
Unpanishads
(1) There is an aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction in the ability to see things as a whole
o The vision comprehends the world, and by it, people know who they are and where
they are
o People understand that they are a part of everything. In fact, that they are at the
very center of everything, and they know that everything is a part of them
(2) This vision is a powerful knowledge
o To know the truth of something was to have control over it
o To know the world is therefore also to master the world and to direct one’s fate
o Insight into the true nature of things effects the highest attainment of all, the
attainment of a final release from all temporal and spatial limitation
(3) This vision of totality was a transforming vision
o Towards a realization of what one truly is
o The peripheral view of individuals is that they are vulnerable to suffering and death,
subject to their private destinies
o That individual self, however, is not the true self
