Editing Upanishads (section)

===Development of thought===
{{Hindu philosophy}}

While the hymns of the Vedas emphasize rituals and the Brahmanas serve as a liturgical manual for those Vedic rituals, the spirit of the Upanishads is inherently opposed to ritual.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} The older Upanishads launch attacks of increasing intensity on the ritual. Anyone who worships a divinity other than the self is called a domestic animal of the gods in the [[Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]]. The {{IAST|Chāndogya}} Upanishad parodies those who indulge in the acts of sacrifice by comparing them with a procession of dogs chanting ''Om! Let's eat. Om! Let's drink''.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}}

The [[Kaushitaki Upanishad]] asserts that "external rituals such as [[Agnihotra]]m offered in the morning and in the evening, must be replaced with inner Agnihotram, the ritual of introspection", and that "not rituals, but knowledge should be one's pursuit".<ref>[[Paul Deussen]], Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 30-42;</ref> The [[Mundaka Upanishad]] declares how man has been called upon, promised benefits for, scared unto and misled into performing sacrifices, oblations and pious works.<ref name=maxmuller12/> Mundaka thereafter asserts this is foolish and frail, by those who encourage it and those who follow it, because it makes no difference to man's current life and after-life, it is like blind men leading the blind, it is a mark of conceit and vain knowledge, ignorant inertia like that of children, a futile useless practice.<ref name=maxmuller12>Max Müller (1962), Manduka Upanishad, in The Upanishads - Part II, Oxford University Press, Reprinted as {{ISBN|978-0486209937}}, pages 30-33</ref><ref>Eduard Roer, [https://www.shemtaia.com/SKT/PDF/Upanishads/roermundakaeng.pdf Mundaka Upanishad]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Bibliotheca Indica, Vol. XV, No. 41 and 50, Asiatic Society of Bengal, pages 153-154</ref> The [[Maitrayaniya Upanishad|Maitri Upanishad]] states,<ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 331-333</ref>

{{Blockquote|The performance of all the sacrifices, described in the Maitrayana-Brahmana, is to lead up in the end to a knowledge of Brahman, to prepare a man for meditation. Therefore, let such man, after he has laid those fires,<ref>"laid those fires" is a phrase in Vedic literature that implies [[yajna]] and related ancient religious rituals; see [https://www.shemtaia.com/SKT/PDF/Upanishads/cowellmaitriskt.pdf Maitri Upanishad - Sanskrit Text with English Translation]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} EB Cowell (Translator), Cambridge University, Bibliotheca Indica, First Prapathaka</ref> meditate on the Self, to become complete and perfect. But who is to be meditated on?
|Maitri Upanishad<ref>Max Müller, The Upanishads, Part 2, [https://archive.org/stream/upanishads02ml#page/286/mode/2up Maitrayana-Brahmana Upanishad], Oxford University Press, pages 287-288</ref><ref name=hume11>{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|title=The Thirteen Principal Upanishads|url=https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n433/mode/2up |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921|pages=412–414}}</ref>}}

The opposition to the ritual is not explicit in the oldest Upanishads. On occasions, the Upanishads extend the task of the Aranyakas by making the ritual allegorical and giving it a philosophical meaning. For example, the Brihadaranyaka interprets the practice of horse-sacrifice or ''[[ashvamedha]]'' allegorically. It states that the over-lordship of the earth may be acquired by sacrificing a horse. It then goes on to say that spiritual autonomy can only be achieved by renouncing the universe which is conceived in the image of a horse.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}}

In similar fashion, [[Rigvedic deities|Vedic gods]] such as the ''Agni'', ''Aditya'', ''Indra'', ''Rudra'', ''Visnu'', ''Brahma'', and others become equated in the Upanishads to the supreme, immortal, and incorporeal Brahman-Atman of the Upanishads, god becomes synonymous with self, and is declared to be everywhere, inmost being of each human being and within every living creature.<ref>{{citation|first=Robert Ernest|last=Hume|title= The Thirteen Principal Upanishads | url=https://archive.org/stream/thirteenprincipa028442mbp#page/n449/mode/2up|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1921|pages=428–429}}</ref><ref>Paul Deussen, Sixty Upanishads of the Veda, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120814684}}, pages 350-351</ref><ref name=pauldeussenov>Paul Deussen, {{Google books|2h0YAAAAYAAJ|The Philosophy of Upanishads}}, University of Kiel, T&T Clark, pages 342-355, 396-412</ref> The one reality or ''ekam sat'' of the Vedas becomes the ''ekam eva advitiyam'' or "the one and only and sans a second" in the Upanishads.{{sfn|Mahadevan|1956|p=57}} Brahman-Atman and self-realization develops, in the Upanishad, as the means to [[moksha]] (liberation; freedom in this life or after-life).<ref name=pauldeussenov/><ref>RC Mishra (2013), Moksha and the Hindu Worldview, [[Psychology & Developing Societies]], Vol. 25, No. 1, pages 21-42</ref><ref>Mark B. Woodhouse (1978), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27902516 Consciousness and Brahman-Atman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160804092021/http://www.jstor.org/stable/27902516 |date=4 August 2016 }}, The Monist, Vol. 61, No. 1, Conceptions of the Self: East & West (January, 1978), pages 109-124</ref>

According to [[K. N. Jayatilleke|Jayatilleke]], the thinkers of Upanishadic texts can be grouped into two categories.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}} One group, which includes early Upanishads along with some middle and late Upanishads, were composed by metaphysicians who used rational arguments and empirical experience to formulate their speculations and philosophical premises. The second group includes many middle and later Upanishads, where their authors professed theories based on yoga and personal experiences.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}} Yoga philosophy and practice, adds Jayatilleke, is "not entirely absent in the Early Upanishads".{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|p=32}}

The development of thought in these Upanishadic theories contrasted with Buddhism, since the Upanishadic inquiry fails to find an empirical correlate of the assumed Atman, but nevertheless assumes its existence,{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|pp=39}} "[reifying] consciousness as an eternal self."{{sfn|Mackenzie|2012}} The Buddhist inquiry "is satisfied with the empirical investigation which shows that no such Atman exists because there is no evidence," states Jayatilleke.{{sfn|Jayatilleke|1963|pp=39}}