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Thread: What are "Tapani" Upanishads?

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    What are "Tapani" Upanishads?

    Namaste

    Recently I saw a reference to some Upanishads called the "Tapani" Upanushads, such as the Radhika Tapani Upanishad and Gopala Tapani Upanishad and many others.

    What are these? I never heard of them. Is a Tapani Upanishad some commentary or Appendix to an actual Upanishad but authored later by some initiated savant of a particular school?

    Thank you in advance.

    Om Namah Sivaya

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    Re: What are "Tapani" Upanishads?

    Quote Originally Posted by ShivaFan View Post
    Namaste

    Recently I saw a reference to some Upanishads called the "Tapani" Upanushads, such as the Radhika Tapani Upanishad and Gopala Tapani Upanishad and many others.

    What are these? I never heard of them. Is a Tapani Upanishad some commentary or Appendix to an actual Upanishad but authored later by some initiated savant of a particular school?

    Thank you in advance.

    Om Namah Sivaya
    Namaste,

    ----

    EDIT: Tapaniya means 'gold' or 'that which is heated', 'gold purified with fire'.

    Gold is purified by heating. gold stands for purity. several interpretations can be deduced.

    Learning these upanishads makes one pure, as gold. Since gold is noble metal which does not degrade, the one who understands and digests the essence of tapaniya upanishad reaches to a state of purity and immortality (non-degradable).

    Fire referred to is the 'tapa' or fire symbolize 'GYAna' (knowledge). this means that gold, which was already pure, was once mixed with other elements (jIva), is purified by heating --> fire (tapas) and becomes pure once again. This pure gold retains purity. After learning tapaniya upanishad, one also knows true nature and retains purity.

    Gold refers to golden aura or energy and some even mention gold as kundalini Sakti (not sure as some say it is brilliant white light). some say tat after tapas and activating of kundalini energy bodies or subtle bodies are transformed into golden. Great yogis like Mahavatar Babaji, Yukteshwar Giri, have golden bodies. (corrections welcome)

    ----

    As far as I know, tApaniya upanishads are traditionally considered as 'upanishads' belonging to vAjasayeni SAkhA of SUkla yajurveda. (corrections welcome).

    They are not commentaries but upanishads.

    Regarding authenticity narasimha pUrva tApaniya is said to be commented by Adi Sankara (authenticity disputed) and narasimha uttara tApaniya is cited more than once by vidyAraNya svAmI in panchadaSI.

    Regarding other tApaniya upanishads,

    gOpAlatApani (gOpAla TApaniya) upanishad - Commentary by V=viSveSvara
    rAma-pUrva-tApanIya upanishad - dipikA by nArAyaNa tIrtha
    rAma-uttara-tApanIya upanishad - dipikA by nArAyaNa tIrtha

    Though gOpAla tApaniya up. has a commentary of viSveSvara and ofcourse Upanishad Brahma Yogin, it is still not considered as authentic by some as it is said that Krishna already gave essence of upanishads as gItA, so upanishads must be older than him and so cannot contain the name. But chAndogya up. 3.17.6 has the word 'krishna'

    I do not have info about other tApaniya upanishads. Since rAdhA is not found in veda-s, hence it is less likely that a non-vedic deity which does not have any beej mantra like OM Namah SivAya are considered as authentic.

    I am not able to find any beej mantra related to

    Srimati rAdhAranI
    bhagavAna kruShNa

    Siva mantra is OM namah SivAya - found in srI rudram
    OM namO nArAyaNAya is found in nArAyaNa upanishad - cited by Adi Sankara in viShNu sahasranAma and may be in brahma sUtra bhASya.

    nArAyaNa upanishad is not a part of muktikA's 108.

    Some simply discard sectarian upanishads as 'later upanishads'.

    There are many parameters and so mostly judging authenticity of any upanishad is a guess work.

    About word 'upanishad'

    Adi Sankara in intro padacCeda of viShNu saharanAma bhASya quotes many verses of bhagavad gItA and cites their source as 'gItopaniSat' (in Gita Press version).

    So upanishad does not mean actually 'upanishad'. It may be a generic name given to any text which gives an essence of something.

    kaula upanishad, not a part of muktika's 108, commented by bhAskarAya makhin, a Sakta-advaitin, contains instructions about karma kANDa i.e. it belongs to samhitA part.

    another vedic text called as 'Siva samkalp khilA' of rg veda is called as Siva samkalp upanishad though it has just 6 verses.

    Some say khilA's are later additions (appendix) to the main veda-s, while many including sAyanAcArya say that khilA's are the very part of veda-s.


    Also note that radhika tapaniya and chaitanya is not listed in muktikA upanishad.

    muktikA upanishad

    mutikA upainshad is not considered as genuine by some scholars.

    vidyAraNya svAmI has quoted muktikA up. 2.64 in his pancadaSI 4.68

    vidyAraNya svAmI in his panchdaSI also mentions 'many' yOga upanishads after citing amrita nAda up. and sys that they are mostly concerned with steadying mind and making one qualify for GYAna. (I do not remember exact verse no.)

    ---

    Great saints like Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and other saints like Jai deva must have seen rAdhA in their trance. Unfortunately they I could not find rAdhA in veda-s, in bhAgavat purANa and in mahabhArata (i think rAdhA is the name of karNa's mother ?? )

    few thoughts


    We must also consider one fact that we only have 1 % of veda-s.

    another point to consider is that if a commentary of any saint say Adi shankaracharya's sutra bhashya, becomes very famous, commentaries of his predecessors or other saints prior to him become extinct. So even if someone has quoted an upanishad, the name buries with his commentary.

    Some saints are not very popular that their work is well-maintained. In this case too, not his successors will quote him and his commentaries will die a natural death of ignorance.

    Hari OM
    Last edited by Amrut; 28 April 2014 at 06:14 AM. Reason: added lines after EDIT
    Only God Is Truth, Everything Else Is Illusion - Ramakrishna
    Total Surrender of Ego to SELF is Real Bhakti - Ramana Maharshi

    Silence is the study of the scruptures. Meditation is the continuous thinking of Brahman which is to be meditated upon. The complete negation of both by knowledge is the vision of truth – sadAcAra-14 of Adi SankarAcArya

    namah SivAya vishnurUpAya viShNave SivarUpiNe, MBh, vanaparva, 3.39.76

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    Re: What are "Tapani" Upanishads?

    Namaste ShivaFan
    Quote Originally Posted by ShivaFan View Post
    Recently I saw a reference to some Upanishads called the "Tapani" Upanushads, such as the Radhika Tapani Upanishad and Gopala Tapani Upanishad and many others.

    What are these? I never heard of them. Is a Tapani Upanishad some commentary or Appendix to an actual Upanishad but authored later by some initiated savant of a particular school?
    As far as I know there are several Tapani Upanishads quoted by Vaishnava authors:
    Gopala Tapani Upanishad describes Lord Krishna (known as Gopala).
    Rama Tapani Upanishad describes Lord Rama.
    Nrisimha Tapani Upanishad describes Lord Nrisimha (Narasimha).
    All these Upanishads belong to the Atharva Veda.

    There is also the Radha Upanishad (Radhopanishad) but it is, at least as far as I know, not counted in the group of Tapani Upanishads although it also belongs to the Atharva Veda.
    There is another Upanishad very similar to the Radha Upanishad, called Purusha Bodhini Upanishad which also belongs to the Atharva Veda. Gaudiya vaishnava authors used to quote verses from it because it also describes Radha just like Radha Upanishad.
    In fact it is said that Purusha Bodhini Upanishad and Radha Upanishad are very similar and share some verses and should be studied together.

    All of the above are true Atharva Vedic Upanishads and not just some sort of comments or something.
    All of them are studied and respected in the tradition of Gaudiya vaishnavas. Among them Gopala Tapani Upanishad is respected and studied in the tradition of Nimbarka vaishnavas also.


    regards

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    Re: What are "Tapani" Upanishads?

    Thank you both for the informative background and details!

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