[Advaita-l] The significance of metaphorical meditations in various Upanishads

[Bhaskar YR]

Only it's notable that when the Upanishads were first taught, and for many centuries thereafter, the presumed students would be those few mentioned in that Gita passage you cite who had come to the guru to deliberately strive for God, no? Were the Upanishadic passages ever taught to the masses? Perhaps my history is off... I am not sure.

praNAms Sri Akilesh Aiyar prabhuji
Hare Krishna

When ‘the veda’ (shAstra) is  the fundamental teaching tool and injunction (vidhi) for leading the meaningful and systematic materialistic  life I don’t think directly Upanishad has been taught to all the students of ‘veda mArga’.  The veda as a whole, as we know, has the significant share of karma kAnda (ritualistic part) and other details as well apart from bhUma vidya which finds the place at the end of veda-s (vedAnta).   PurushArtha also includes dharma, artha & kAma, to follow once own dharma (svadharma) and within the boundaries of dharma achieving the material prosperity like (artha and kAma) shAstra and smruti-s are the basic premise.  Those who want to indulge themselves merely in sukha prApti and duHkha nivAraNa due to their pUrva saMskAra will hold only ritualistic part which aids them to grow vyAvahArically.  And after multiple janma-s, with the grace of Ishwara finally after getting the enough chitta shuddhi they will get mumukshatva and strives for the ultimate liberation. And this sincere mumukshatva comes only one or two in crores as I said earlier.  For them only,  the final syllabus of veda-s comes into picture, by doing the shravaNAdi sAdhana under the able guidance of shrOtriya, brahmanishTa guru in the traditional atmosphere they will get the final emancipation from vedAnta/shruti.  For the rest of the loukika-s like me, who strives hard to get the better CTC every year (though not deserved),  cursing the boss if not given 😊 who has unconditional and passionate attachment to  samsara wife and kids etc. vedAnta is still an aloof place to live.  Though we talk a lot about vedAnta in the innermost recesses of our mind / heart we are still loukika-s and not real vedAntins.  So for the people like me, first goal is to follow svadharma, follow the vidhi-nishedha as enshrined in shruti-smruti texts.  And in the hope that one fine day will come to do the vedAnta practice with real viveka and vairAgya.  Till then the syllabus is, strictly speaking not vedAnta but veda in general.  Hence veda mAta accommodate the mass loukika-s like me with all the details of others other than brahma vidyA.  As a mother she knows very well what needs to be fed to her children 😊

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar