The Metaphysics of Meditation: Sri Aurobindo and Adi-Sakara on the Isa Upanisad

In this book Stephen Phillips focuses on one of the most important poems about meditation in world literature, as understood by two of the greatest philosophers of India, one classical, one modern. Sankara's commentaries on the Upanisads are a core of the Vedanta tradition and Aurobindo is a towering figure of 20th-century Hindu thought. This is the first time their approaches have been studied together. The Isa (c. 500 BCE) an “Upanisad” belongs to a genre of “adhyatmika” learning-concerning self and consciousness-in early Indian literature. According to the Ancient Indian tradition of yoga, meditation is antithetical to willful bodily and mental action. Breathing is all you do. In the conception of the Isa Upanisad, we are told that the best that comes from meditation is because of what the “Lord” is. In Sankara's interpretation it comes to block out the little “you,” whereas according to Aurobindo it comes as a divine connection, an occult “Conscious Force” belonging to truer part of oneself, atman, and an “opening” to that self's native energy. Framed around Aurobindo's translation of each of the Isa's eighteen verses, along with a translation of each verse, Phillips follows a different reading of Sankara as laid out in his commentary. All this is done against the backdrop of modern scholarship. Convergences and divergences of these streams are the focus throughout. Appendix A presents the Upanisad with the two readings side by side. This book traces a worldview and consonant yoga teaching common to two authors who are typically taken to be oceans apart, not only chronologically but in intellectual stance. Addressing a huge gap in the contemporary literature on meditation in the Hindu traditions, Phillips presents a compelling new way of thinking about meditation in the Advaita Vedanta philosophy and Upanisad. Cover Halftitle page Bloomsbury Studies in World Philosophies Title page Copyright page Dedication Epigraph Contents Acknowledgments Sanskrit Transliteration and Pronunciation Introduction: Vedānta and Yoga Vedāntic meditation Upanisạds Śan ̇kara and Aurobindo Sāṃkhya’s pradhāna vs Vedānta’s brahman The Bhagavad Gītā The Brahma-sūtra and Vedāntic metaphysics Action and “liberation” Meditation and “knowledge” Modern studies of Vedānta Aurobindo vs Śan ̇kara 1 Who is Addressed by Śan ̇kara, Who by Aurobindo? 2 “Blocked Out” by the Lord or “Integrated?” Īśā 1, 2, and 3 3 The Whole in the Part Īśā 4 and 5 and the man ̇gala-vācana 4 Mystical Knowledge of Unity Īśā 6 and 7 5 (K)nots of Metaphysics: The Causal Argument for the “Self-Existent,” svayam-bhū Īśā 8 6 Knowledge of Self (ātman) and Knowledge of the Occult Īśā 9–14 7 A Theistic Way to Self-Discovery Īśā 15 and 16 8 Aspiration and Surrender Īśā 17 and 18 Appendix A Appendix B Śan ̇kara’s Commentary on the Īśā Upanis·ad Appendix C Part One Part Two Appendix D Glossary of Sanskrit Words Classical Authors, Schools, and Texts Notes Bibliography Index