ABSTRACT
The Upanisads are a reaction against this tendency, to be found more or less in all religious traditions, to petrify living experience and means of communion into a thing in itself that has moreover been converted into an expert activity to be followed according to strict rules. The role of the kshatriyas in the Upanishads should not, however, be exaggerated, for there are famous brahman sages in the Upanishads who reacted in the same way as did the kshatriyas. There is a subtle difference in philosophical implications of these two terms ‘monism’ and ‘non-dualism’. ‘Monism’ may be thought to have a numerical implication, one as against the many, and here unity may appear to be numerical. The Upanisads do not say that a man of knowledge will dissociate himself from all activities in this world, as Samkara insists in his interpretation of the Gita in accordance with what he believes the Upanisads preach.
