The difficulty of assuring oneself that any interpretation is absolutely the right one is enhanced by the fact that germs of diverse kinds of thoughts are found scattered over the Upani@sads

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which are not worked out in a systematic manner.  Thus each interpreter in his turn made the texts favourable to his own doctrines prominent and brought them to the forefront, and tried to repress others or explain them away.  But comparing the various systems of Upani@sad interpretation we find that the interpretation offered by S’a@nkara very largely represents the view of the general body of the earlier Upani@sad doctrines, though there are some which distinctly foreshadow the doctrines of other systems, but in a crude and germinal form.  It is thus that Vedanta is generally associated with the interpretation of S’a@nkara and S’a@nkara’s system of thought is called the Vedanta system, though there are many other systems which put forth their claim as representing the true Vedanta doctrines.

Under these circumstances it is necessary that a modern interpreter of the Upani@sads should turn a deaf ear to the absolute claims of these exponents, and look upon the Upani@sads not as a systematic treatise but as a repository of diverse currents of thought—­the melting pot in which all later philosophic ideas were still in a state of fusion, though the monistic doctrine of S’a@nkara, or rather an approach thereto, may be regarded as the purport of by far the largest majority of the texts.  It will be better that a modern interpreter should not agree to the claims of the ancients that all the Upani@sads represent a connected system, but take the texts independently and separately and determine their meanings, though keeping an attentive eye on the context in which they appear.  It is in this way alone that we can detect the germs of the thoughts of other Indian systems in the Upani@sads, and thus find in them the earliest records of those tendencies of thoughts.

The quest after Brahman:  the struggle and the failures.

The fundamental idea which runs through the early Upani@sads is that underlying the exterior world of change there is an unchangeable reality which is identical with that which underlies the essence in man [Footnote ref 1].  If we look at Greek philosophy in Parmenides or Plato or at modern philosophy in Kant, we find the same tendency towards glorifying one unspeakable entity as the reality or the essence.  I have said above that the Upani@sads are

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[Footnote 1:  B@rh.  IV. 4. 5. 22.

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no systematic treatises of a single hand, but are rather collations or compilations of floating monologues, dialogues or anecdotes.  There are no doubt here and there simple discussions but there is no pedantry or gymnastics of logic.  Even the most casual reader cannot but be struck with the earnestness and enthusiasm of the sages.  They run from place to place with great eagerness in search of a teacher competent to instruct them about the nature of Brahman.  Where is Brahman?  What is his nature?