'This world, in the beginning, was phenomenally non-existent': Āruṇi’s discourse on Cosmogony in Chāndogya Upaniṣad VI.1–VI.7

Journal article

This paper critically reads and analyzes the first discourse of Āruṇi and Śvetaketu in the first half of the sixth chapter of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (VI.1–VI.7). It argues that, except for a few interpolated lines in VI.2 and VI.3, the entire discourse constitutes one integrated whole with a specific indicatory knowledge (ādeśa) at its core that indicates deeper truth underlying all realities, and its characterization and twofold elaboration with reference to macro- and microcosmos. In light of two cosmogonic accounts from the Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa (JB) and some other Vedic passages, this paper argues that Āruṇi’s cosmogony originally posited asat as the primordial entity, which has not yet acquired any phenomenal form. Incidentally it also demonstrates that in this discourse the term ādeśa cannot denote a ‘method of substitution’ as proposed by Thieme (“ādeśa” in Mélanges d’indianisme: à la mémoire de Louis Renou, 1968) and taken over since then by several scholars.

Authors: Acharya, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Journal: Journal of Indian Philosophy More from this journal
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 833-864
• Publication date: 2015-09-10
• DOI: 10.1007/s10781-015-9283-6
• EISSN: 1573-0395
• ISSN: 0022-1791
• Language: English
• Keywords: Vedic cosmogony; Chāndogya Upaniṣad; Upaniṣadic philosophy; Ādeśa; primordial being; phenomenal and non-phenomenal existence