Saṃnyāsa Upaniṣads
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SAMNYASA UPANISADS This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank SAMNYASA UPANISADS Hindu Scriptures on Asceticism and Renunciation Translated with Introduction and Notes by PATRICK OLIVELLE New York Oxford OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1992 Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Copyright © 1992 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Upanishads. English. Selections. Samnyasa Upanisads : Hindu scriptures on asceticism and renunciation translated with introduction and notes by Patrick Olivelle. p. cm. Translated from Sanskrit. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-507044-5 ISBN 0-19-507045-3 (pbk.) i. Sannyasi—Early works to 1800. 2. Asceticism—Hinduism—Early works to 1800. I. Olivelle, Patrick. II. Title. BLi 124.54. £5 1992 294.5'9218—dc2O 9I-H353 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Meera prajam anu prajayase tad u te martydmYtam In your offspring you are born again; That, O mortal, is your immortality. TB 1.5.5.6 This page intentionally left blank Preface Now that this task is complete, it is my duty to pay my debts to individuals and institutions who made it possible; would that all my duties were as pleasant! The Department of Religious Studies and the Office for Research of Indiana University at Bloomington supported this project with a variety of grants. Few institutions provide a better environment for personal growth and scholarly endeavors. My gratitude is heightened as I prepare to leave them after a seventeen-year association to join the University of Texas at Austin. The Wolfson College of Oxford University provided unpar- alleled resources and a beautiful environment during 1977—1978 and 1981 — 1982 to conduct research. The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Poona and the Theosophical Society in Adyar, Madras, were generous in accommodating even my most unreasonable requests. Research at Oxford and in India was supported by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the American Institute of Indian Studies. We owe an intellectual debt to all those from whose labors we profit. They are too numerous to name; some of them will appear frequently in the footnotes and the bibliography. To two of them, however, I owe a special debt of gratitude. This VII Preface translation would have been much poorer but for the many works of Professor Joachim Friedrich Sprockhoff listed in the bibliography. Over innumerable cups of tea at his home I learned a great deal from the late Dr. V. V. Bhide—about the Vedic ritual, about the intricacies of Mimamsa exegesis, but most of all about the way Brahmin pandits think and write. His un- timely death is a great loss to Indological studies. Mary Jane Gormley read all the translations and helped me with more than commas and colons. Ross Vemeer assisted me in compiling the index. Anne Feldhaus read an early draft of the introduction; it is the better for it. Cynthia Read's patience is matched only by that of my wife, Suman; to both a heartfelt thank you. To Meera this book is dedicated; contrary to Vedic theologians, she has proven that a daughter does indeed bring unsurpassable delight to a father and is "a light in the highest heaven." Bloomington, Ind. P.O. April 1991 viii Contents Note on the Translations, xiii INTRODUCTION 1. The Samnyasa Upanisads, 3 1.1 Editions, Translations, and Studies, 6 1.2 Dates, 8 1.3 Context: Brahmanical Literature on Renunciation, n 2. Renunciation and Society: The Inner Conflict of Tradition, 19 2. i Vedic Theology: Sacrifice and Marriage, 23 2.2 Socioeconomic Changes in Sixth-Century India, 29 2.3 Rival Views of Religious Life, 33 2.4 The Emergence of a New World, 39 2.5 The Householder and the Celibate, 42 2.6 When Two Worlds Meet: Conflict and Compromise, 46 IX Contents 3. The Nature and Purpose of Renunciation, 58 3.1 Renunciation as a Non-ritual State, 60 3.2 Renunciation as the Perfection of the Ritual, 68 3.3 The Ritual Effects of Renunciation, 71 3.4 Renunciation and Detachment, 75 3.5 Renunciation and Liberation, 78 4. The Rite of Renunciation, 82 4.1 The Qualification for Renunciation, 83 4.2 The Renunciation of Fire, 86 4.3 Ritual Death and the Abandonment of Ritual Implements, 89 4.4 The Ritual Formula of Renunciation, 94 4.5 The Symbols of the Renunciatory State, 96 5. The Classifications of Renouncers, 98 6. The Behavior and Customs of Renouncers, 101 6.1 Wandering Alone and Homeless, 101 6.2 Mendicancy, 103 6.3 Possessions and Emblems, 105 6.4 Courting Dishonor: Madness and Acting Like Animals, 107 TRANSLATIONS Aruni Upanisad, 115 Laghu-Samnyasa Upanisad and Kundikd Upanisad, 120 Kathasruti Upanisad, 129 Paramahamsa Upanisad, 137 x Contents Jdbdla Upanisad, 141 Brahma Upanisad, 147 Asrama Upanisad, 154 Maitreya Upanisad, 158 Ndradaparivrajaka Upanisad, 170 Nirvana Upanisad, 227 Bhiksuka Upanisad, 236 TuriydtTtdvadhuta Upanisad, 238 Brhat-Samnydsa Upanisad, 241 Paramahamsaparivrajaka Upanisad, 257 Parabrahma Upanisad, 266 Brhad-Avadhuta Upanisad, 273 Yajnavalkya Upanisad, 278 SafyayflwFyfl Upanisad, 281 Laghu-Avadhuta Upanisad, 288 Abbreviations and Bibliography, 291 Index to the Introduction, 297 Index to the Translations, 303 XI This page intentionally left blank Note on the Translations The ideal of every translator is clarity and accuracy, two goals that often tend to exclude each other. I have attempted here to reproduce in English as accurately as current scholarship and my abilities permit the meaning of the original Sanskrit text. Although this work may be of some help to scholars who know Sanskrit, it is nevertheless aimed primarily at the non-specialist. The introduction provides a context for reading these docu- ments, and I have tried to make the translation as clear and comprehensible as possible on its own without reference to the Sanskrit original. I have regularly ignored the Sanskrit syntax, therefore, using several short English sentences to translate a single Sanskrit .sentence. I have also departed from the common practice of placing within parentheses all English words not directly founded on the Sanskrit. Such parenthetical words and phrases only dis- tract the reader who has no access to the original. It is, fur- thermore, unnecessary to use parentheses when the English translates accurately the original and often succinct Sanskrit, even when the English idiom or the exigencies of comprehen- sion may require more words. On a few occasions, however, I have used parentheses to demarcate phrases not found in the original but that I felt would add to the comprehension of the text. Xlll Note on the Translations The translation follows Schrader's critical edition. It contains numerous conjectural readings that are on the whole plausible and necessary. I have not noted all these conjectural readings in the translation; they are meaningless to readers unfamiliar with the original Sanskrit, and those who have access to the original can always find them in the critical edition. I have placed within brackets the following: (i) all explanatory material not syntactically connected to the translation; (2) numbers of sec- tions not given in the critical edition; (3) page numbers of the critical edition; and (4) passages that are placed within brackets in the critical edition. I have given within brackets the page numbers of Schrader's critical edition so as to facilitate cross-reference. For the same reason, I have also used these page numbers in the index. It is the current scholarly practice to refer to these Upanisads by the page numbers of that edition. These numbers may appear in the middle of sentences. Where the difference in syntax be- tween the two languages made it impossible to place a page number at the proper place within a sentence, I have placed it at the beginning of that sentence. I have left samsara untranslated. It has entered the English vocabulary and dictionaries, and there is no simple English equivalent. It means life subject to rebirth, the world in which that life is led, and the suffering nature of that life. The term dharma has such a vast semantic range that one can never be consistent in translating it. I have used "duty" (duties), "right," "righteousness," and "Law," and on a few occasions I have left it untranslated. I have translated the several Sanskrit terms for the Veda uniformly as "Veda," and the rather vague term smrti as "scripture(s)." The terms varna and dsrama have been rendered as "class" and "order," respectively. I have not at- tempted to translate directly such uniquely Sanskrit idioms as katham iti cet (NpU 171). Similarly, I have left untranslated the initial atha, except when it begins a narrative, where I have translated it as "once," and the repetitions of final words that signal the conclusion of a major section. xiv Note on the Translations Although I am sensitive to the use of sexist language, I have consistently used the masculine pronouns unless the context calls for the inclusion of both sexes. There is no point in hiding the fact that these documents and much of Brahmanical theology speak almost exclusively to men. The historian's task is to be accurate, not to pass judgment.