Shvetashvatara Upanishad

A text generally regarded as one of the
latest upanishads, the speculative religious texts that themselves form the
most recent stratum of the Vedas. This
judgment is based on both the Shvetashvatara Upanishad’s form and on its
content. Stylistically, the earliest upanishads tend to be written in prose, or
prose mixed with verse, whereas the
later upanishads, including the Shvetashvatara, are completely in verse. In
terms of content, the earlier upanishads
tend to be long and rambling, whereas
in the later ones the ideas are far more
concise and clearly developed. The
Shvetashvatara Upanishad’s most original idea is its description of the
Supreme Being in completely theistic
terms, in contrast to the abstract,
impersonal representations in the earlier
upanishads. It identifies Ultimate
Reality as the god Rudra, who was later
identified with the god Shiva, one of the
most important modern Hindu deities.
The text is also notable for an explicit
description of the process and results of
649
Shvetashvatara Upanishad
yoga, which is the first known written
explanation of this tradition.
Although it is best noted for these
new ideas, the upanishad also reveals
continuity with the older tradition. The
second chapter begins with an extended
invocation to the god Savitr (Surya),
the sun, using verses drawn directly
from Vedic texts composed a thousand
years earlier. Such anachronisms
indicate that there was no clear dividing
line between the four differing types
of Vedic text—samhita, Brahmana,
Aranyaka, and upanishad—but rather
that these textual styles were composed
in overlapping periods.