There is a Netflix docuseries called Wild Wild Country.  It covers the Rajneesh religious movement and their expansion into central Oregon in the early 1980s.  The Rajneesh were a spiritual group out of India that followed Rajneesh, an Indian man, who often went by the name Osho.  His movement grew rapidly out of India, and gained a fervent following by individuals around the globe seeking a better life and spiritual enlightenment.  From the show, it's clear the man was as mysterious as he was lavish and charismatic.   The elevation of holy idol, accorded Osho by his followers, was a testament to his intrigue.  The idolization paradox is certainly not lost on me either - one of Osho's primary messages was that of looking within to find truth, rather than searching elsewhere.  From his writings, his third commandment is precisely this:  "Truth is within you, do not search for it elsewhere."  Likewise, his first commandment states:  "Never obey anyone's command unless it is coming from you also."  Yet, it's clear in the series his followers idolized him and did as he beckoned.  Every word was adored when he spoke. 
 
And not to denigrate the movement - this paradox is intertwined within every religion, cult, and self-help guru or author.  It can't be avoided.  The issue lies with how far people are willing to go to defend the idol in the name of spiritual attainment.  When shit hits the fan, do zealots take the masters' words of peace to heart, or revert to the primal protection circuit, destroying every adjacent threat, to safeguard their tribe?  Osho's outspoken assistant Sheela, and some of her devotees, certainly lost this internal battle.  Later in the series we learn she convinced some of the followers to covertly paste salmonella bacteria onto vegetables in a restaurant salad bar.  The restaurant fed many residents in the nearby town of The Dalles - residents whom were fed-up with the Rajneesh commune and looked to vote away some of the commune's rights in an upcoming election.  Many of the residents were soon hospitalized with salmonella.  The extremism didn't stop there, either.  Another incident involved Sheela and her cohorts where they allegedly attempted to put a dead beaver in a nearby water reservoir, which could have resulted in mass poisoning of some of the registered opposition voters.   
 
However, it's difficult to attribute some of these fanatical episodes to Osho himself, (most of which seemed to be conspired by Sheela independently), but Osho surely bent his message when it benefited him, or again when it didn't.  Regardless of his motives, whether ulterior or in good faith, Osho's eclectic message moved people.  His articulate formula drew from diverse sources including:  Hinduism, Taoism, Christianity, Buddhism, and many others like the Upanishads.  The final goal, it seemed, was the creation of the whole man.  For him, "The East is introvert, the West is extrovert.  Man is split, mind is schizophrenic.  That’s why all the great masters have come from the East and all the great scientists have come from the West.  The West has developed science and has completely forgotten about the inner soul; is concerned with matter, but has become oblivious of the inner subjectivity.  The whole focus is on the object.  Hence all the great scientists are born in the West."  While the western approach can probably trace it's roots to ancient Greece and Mesopotamia, the eastern undoubtedly has some of its roots in the Upanishads, (and other ancient Indian scriptures).  What about these ancient scriptures intrigued Osho, and so many others? 

Although the exact origin of this collection of writings, known as the Upanishads, is unknown, scholars believe the first texts may have been composed as far back as the 7th century BCE.  Contained within are the reflections of ancient sages - people in search of the truth of reality and what our place is in the universe.  To do this, they looked inward in meditation and contemplation.  The uncovered truths were then "realized" by interested students after strenuous dedication and training of the mind.  Ultimately, they were concerned with life's great mysteries - What happens at death?  Does life have a purpose, or is it governed by chance?  What makes my hand move, my eyes see, my mind think?  In a sense, it was the original eastern man's version of science - looking inward to uncover reality.
 
The answers to these questions, of course, wouldn't come with equations, new contraptions, or verbose theories; but rather in bite-size bon mots - acute and clever, and catchy enough to be found today on framed posters in contemporary offices.  Regarding the importance of speech, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad reflects, "Then speech is our light, for by that we sit, work, go out, and come back.  Even though we cannot see our own hand in the dark, we can hear what is said and move toward the person speaking."  And later in the same Upanishad, the nature of the self is described, "The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses.  Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the Self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams." 
 
In the Manduka Upanishad, we have an intimation of ancient psychology.  Brahman, and the four states of consciousness are described, "Brahman is all, and the Self is Brahman.  This Self has four states of consciousness.  The fist is called Vaishvanara, in which one lives with all the senses turned outward, aware only of the external world.  Taijasa is the name of the second, the dreaming state in which, with the senses turned inward, one enacts the impressions of past deeds and present desires.  The third state is called Prajna, of deep sleep, in which one neither dreams nor desires.  There is no mind in Prajna, there is no separateness; but the sleeper is not conscious of this.  Let him become conscious in Prajna and it will open the door to the state of abiding joy...The fourth is the superconscious state called Turiya, niether inward nor outward, beyond the senses and the intellect, in which there is none other than the Lord.  He is the supreme goal of life.  He is infinite peace and love.  Realize him!  Turiya is represented by AUM.  Though indivisible, it has three sounds."

On a side note, AUM is close the chant Om, which is often used in Hinduism.  In Christianity, the Hebrew name for God is Yahweh.  In Islam, they have Allah.  And in Rastafarianism, they have Jah.  What do all these words have in common?  They all have the same vowel sound - 'Ah'.  Immanuel Velikovsky argues in his book, Worlds in Collision, that the roots of the word God, come from a loud, reverberating sound heard across the planet after a world disrupting comet impacted Earth many thousands of years ago.  The shock wave continued for some time with a "yao" or "yahoo" such sound heard around the globe.  In this theory, ancient people would have attributed such a devastating impact as an act of God, and the subsequent sounds as God's word.  Is there any weight to this theory?  There certainly is evidence for a major comet or asteroid impact around 14,000 years ago.  Would there be a loud, reverberating sound heard across the planet after the impact?  Who knows, but it would have been a hell-storm of apocalyptic proportions to endure anything of that magnitude.  Surely, if any of the Upanishad sages were alive during an extraterrestrial impact, they would attributed it to a divine figure.  To them, God was in all things.  In the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, this connection is clear, "The Lord dwells in the womb of the cosmos, the creator who is in all creatures.  He is that which is born and to be born; his face is everywhere."    
 
In the Upanishads, the Self is all, and the Lord dwells in all.  He is Self, and all things before, now and soon to be.  The gentle rhythms and metaphors of the Upanishads are lovely and easy to understand.  The issue for me, is with the circular arguments evident in some of the passages.  It's a kind of logical fallacy, that, I suppose wasn't really scrutinized since rational argumentation wasn't en vogue yet, at least to the degree we know today.  Simply saying something like "God is true, because He's all things, and all things are true", certainly has a ring to it.  Students back then may have regarded this idea as very profound and novel.  Many wise men and wannabee wise men have rephrased this message, in a variety of forms, garnering followers and adoration.  But these statements don't necessarily answer our questions.  Or, if they do, it's in a superficial manner.    
 
In short, there is something to be learned in these pages and something also to be left behind.  Science and rational inquiry have given us the tools to understand the inner mechanics of many systems - something the Upanishads in part, attempts to do in its own way, even if at times, with circular arguments.  The value in these texts is the notion of bringing back attention to our true self, something that can easily drift away, especially in our modern era disconnected from hunting and gathering and nature, and overstuffed with media and a sedentary lifestyle.  I think the rift in the mind is real, if not as an eastern mind vs a western mind struggle, then within our own selves.  The rift is between the external world and the internal world.  In the U.S., it's perhaps our overemphasis on appearance and material gain.  Americans often neglect looking internally for truth and wisdom.  The self, when subjected to our own internal microscope, is still a place of mystery, creativity, and universal truths - something we could all probably benefit from if we start to look.     
 
 
 
Summary:  Essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in Hinduism or religion history, the Upanishads offers introspective and thoughtful prose - although it lacks deeper intellectual profundity.  
 
Rating:  4.5

-E.B.
2018-08-03