Chandogya Upaniishad Chapter-6

The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the most prominent among the major group of philosophical and mystical texts of the triad of Indian Culture, being constituted of the Upanishads, the Brahmasutras and the Bhagavadgita. Among the ten major Upanishads, the Chandogya and the Brihadaranyaka stand above the rest in their grand stature and majesty, these two texts being viewed by scholars as representing the cosmic and the a-cosmic aspect of Reality. The Chandogya, tries to be more realistic in its rather matter-of-fact consideration of the issues of life.

The sections of the Chandogya Upanishad, is a study of a gradational ascent of knowledge for the purpose of meditations which lift us above the phenomena of ordinary experience, such as birth and death and bondage of every kind, and point to the methods of transcending all sorrow, whatever be its nature, and regaining the originality of being. The various sections that follow are a systematic teaching on what we may call Adhyatma-Vidya, or Atma-Vidya, a knowledge of the ultimate Self, which is the only remedy for the malady of empirical existence.

The sixth chapter constitute the instruction of Sage Uddalaka to his son Svetaketu. There is one Self. Everywhere, wherever you go, whatever you touch is an encounter of yours in respect of a single Reality. Whatever the experience, you are travelling within the body of that single Self. Anything that you do is known to that Self; it has connection with that Self, so that every Self is one’s self. Towards this subject the sixth chapter of the Upanishad is carried, and the chapter commences with an anecdote, a story, an occurrence, a description of a conversation between father and son, Uddalaka Aruni and his student, his son, Svetaketu.