Assignment 1: Individual SelfSelf-Introspection and the UpanishadsPratyusha Nagavarapu, 2nd sem M.AWhile trying to understand what exactly the universe comprises, as a modern day thinker anddoer, it comes to mind that the Upanishad tries to asolve the mind o! the igger "uestion andring it to the most !undamental o! entities. While things like time, space, world, and universeare concepts that take up some time to relate to, how one thinks aout them in the !irst place isproaly the "uestion that needs to e addressed. Where these things remain uncertain ecausewehaven#texperiencedthem, thesethingsremainuncertainecausewehaven#texperiencedthem ourselves. Watching movies aout things space and what could e out there ring us a stepcloser,i!that, utthatisall.$hetrueexperiencelieswithme, mysel!, andcompletelywithmysel! in the state that % am. And % cannot e surer o! anything ut what % know, and this is whymaye the sel! is such an important aspect to explore as !ar as the Upanishads are in "uestion.&What could e more certain than our own sel!'( )Mathur *+,2, -+*. While, in the grand schemeo! things, it does matter what this world is made o!, whether we are an important part o! it andwhether we are the only part that is aware o! what is going on around us, "uestions that possilycannot e experienced y us cannot e explained y us. $his, and the !act that the sel! remainssuchanintegral part o!everylittlethingdoneyeverysinglehumaneing, must ringtothought the "uestion o! the sel!, aout what it is and the like. %s the /sel!# madeo! something'0an the sel! itsel! e experienced, as opposed to eing the one to experience' 0an % call the /sel!#spiritual innature, somethingthat is toein!erredrather thanexperienced' $hekinds o!"uestions that crop up in the process o! "uestioning the sel! might sound sel!1re!erential, ut verymuch relevant to the Upanishads. 2orgetting aout the world and why it placed as it is, % thinkthe sel! is, and always will remain, the "uestion that needs to e asked, even i! it is a con!usingone. When one thinks aout it, while "uestioning this entire universe and its existence and then"uestioning the sel! and in turn its existence, one is con!ounded into !eeling a similar sense o!disconcertment. Where% thought % knewaout mysel!, % knowas% makearguments that %proaly didn#t know it at all.While the Upanishads try and explain the sel!, they try to !irst explain, as % see it, what is not thesel!. $his seems toeaneasywayto!irst egintheanalysis o! thesel! ecausewhat issomething, i! not what it isn#t' $he asence o! what could make the sel!, the sel!, makes meeasily assume that % know the sel! and its eing. 2or instance, is thinking an act o! the sel!' 3oesthe/sel!#makerationalthoughtsandper!ormlogical activitiesandday1to1daydecisionsthata!!ect a li!e' According to the Upanishads, no, it doesn#t4 &An act o! thinking as an existentialoccurrence is concerned with an o5ect other than itsel!. 678( )Mathur *+,2, -+2. 9o thinking issomething that is evoked !rom an external source, a source that outside or external that stimulatesthought and attention to it. While the sel! is thought to e an internal device, something thatexists within )within the ody, the mind, the skin, the human, %#m not sure. ut this itsel!, that theact o! thinking aout something is thinking aout something external suggests that the sel! isinternal, inside, and emodied, perhaps. Where the sel! comes into "uestion though, automatically comes into mind the "uestion o! li!e,and hence death. What happens to the sel! when death comes !or the !rail human ody' % supposeanaly:ing the sel! may ring certain ovious drawacks, ut the ma5or one would proaly ethat i! the sel! were mortal as is the human ody, so there would e no "uestion o! what occursonetheodydisintegrates. 9inceit isaundantlyclearthat thesel!exists, accordingtotheUpanishads, andasperseveral storiesandmetaphorsexistsinthisshell without completelyknowing itsel!, the ;at 1+?, =+1+>.@ut % !ind the "uestion that others me the most is the "uestion o! the sel! and its characteristics.%s it possile to wonder aout the sel! !or a moment and wonder i! the sel! is to e had, y theody, mind, or i! the ody has a sel!, or i! % am mysel!. When speaking o! the /sel!# as a literarydevice, !or example, as in the case o! Aaneri#s argument, % have to wonder i! the sel!, mysel!,remains purely unidenti!ied !or the !act that % have tried to severely identi!y it with things andideas that make sense to me. %t is most possile that the sel! is a construction, that it could e astorythat the Upanishadsareased on,that it ismerelythis core thatis re"uiredto e aledeconstruct everything else that human li!e comprises. )Aaneri 2>>,, *+. 2rom !lesh and loodto research papers and knowledge, % have all these things, these human things, ut do % have asoul, a sel!' 3o % own it, possess it, or perhaps % identi!y with it, and it with me, and that is thereason it exists at all' Br perhaps there is a simpler explanation to why the sel! exists, i! it exists at all. Perhaps myenunciatingits existence, "uestioningit, wonderingaout it rings it, un"uestionaly, intoexistence, and perhaps in my perseverance there will e some answers !or what the sel! is, and i!it is. Practicing this, practicing what is known as the sel!, will possily ring this to truth, asAaneri suggests in his work, and they remain impeccaly related to the soul, the sel!, as eing anart o!thiscorepart o!humanity.)Aaneri 2>>,, C.While%experiencethings, %wonderi!%experience mysel!, and wonder whether % truly know mysel! as everyone suggests % should do. Atthis point "uestioning its existence seems to e the easiest way to start, and perhaps keeping at itwill produce results o! some kind, i! not the kind % seek.DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDBibliography3. 0. Mathur, The Concept of Self in the Upanishads: An Alternative Interpretation )@rockport4University o! New Eork, *+,2., -+>1-=?Fonardon Aaneri, The Concealed Art of the Soul: Theories of the Self and ractices of Truth inIndian !thics and !pistemology )New Eork4 Bx!ord University Press %nc, 2>>,., C1GW. 3. Whitney, Translation of the "atha-Upanishad )U9A4 $he Fohn Hopkins University Press,*=+>1*=+?., ==1+-