THE UPANISHAD OF A UNITARY REALIZATION

The reading of all Upanishads begins with a shanti-patha, recitation of a verse to establish peace of mind and surroundings, and in interactions. The peace is realized not merely through recitation but through the contemplation of the truth expressed in such a composition. However, the traditions have often become somewhat confused over time as various schools of teaching developed. According to Shankaracharya, the shanti-patha for this Upanishad is the Hymn of Perfection: purnam adah.... However, there is an Upanishad that cata-logs various facts about the Upanishads. This, Muktika Upanishad, states that the shanti-patha for Shvetashvatara Upanishad is the Hymn of Harmony: saha nav avatu As we have based our notes about the Upanishad on the commentary by Shankaracharya, we have chosen the Hymn of Perfection as the shanti-patha.

All traditions agree that Shvetashvatara Upanishad belongs to Krishna Yajur-veda. The published collections include up to 208 Upanishads, and there are more in the form of unpublished manuscripts; some of these are referred to in the extensive verse catalogs like that of Sadhale. Of these, ten or eleven are said to be the basic, authen-tic, Upanishads. Ten or eleven? That is where Shvetashvatara Upanishad comes in, the eleventh, somewhere in the borderline. Whether the com-mentary attributed to Shankaracharya is by the Adi-Shankaracharya or not is also doubted by the scholars. To us, the style and the philosophy look similar to that of the first Shankaracharya but these scholarly