ABSTRACT
The Maitri Upanisad contains musings on philosophical themes that preoccupy the authors of other Upanisads affiliated with the Black Yajurveda, such as Yoga and the notion of primordial matter. The eighth-century philosopher Sankara, who composed commentaries to most of the oldest Upanisads, did not comment on the Maitri Upanisad. It is, however, included among the upanisadic texts commented on by Vidyaranya in the fourteenth century CE and Ramatirtha in the seventeenth century CE. The discovery of the true nature of the atman is the central theme in the Maitri Upanisad, as it is in many of the older Upanisads. The Maitri Upanisad differentiates between two different atmans: The highest atman, who does not act and is merely a spectator, and the lower atman, called bhutatman, which is that which is reborn and suffers karmic consequences. In a curious passage of the Maitri Upanisad, the highest being is referred to as niratman, unusual characteristic of the highest principle in the Upanisads.
