The Kaṭharudropaniṣat – Some salient features

The Kaṭharudropaniṣat (KR) forms part of the Kṛṣṇayajurveda. It is a short text with both prose and metrical structure. It is grouped under ‘sannyāsopaniṣat-s’ in the 108 Upaniṣads which have been commented upon by Upaniṣad Brahmayogin.

The text can be viewed here:

Devanāgarī:

http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_upanishhat/katharudra.html?lang=sa

Transliteration:

http://upanishad.info/upanishads/text/krishna-yajurveda/translitration/katharudra

Some salient features thereof are:

1.  The KR has many features that are contained in the Taittiriya Upaniṣad, especially the pancha kośa and pancha bhūta order.
2. It is explicitly Advaitic with many popular Advaitic ideas stated:

   प्रत्यगात्मानमज्ञानमायाशक्तेश्च साक्षिणम् ।
   एकं ब्रह्माहमस्मीति ब्रह्मैव भवति स्वयम् ॥ १२॥

   ब्रह्मभूतात्मनस्तस्मादेतस्माच्छ्क्तिमिश्रितात् ।
   अपञ्चीकृत आकाशसंभूतो रज्जुसर्पवत् ॥ १३॥

   3.Like several popular Upanishads, the KR too holds Śiva to be the Supreme Creator Brahman. That is the reason perhaps the Upaniṣad got the name ‘kaṭharudra’:

   तानि भूतानि सूक्ष्माणि पञ्चीकृत्येश्वरस्तदा ।
   तेभ्य एव विसृष्टं तद्ब्रह्माण्डादि शिवेन ह ॥ १५॥
   

   4. While there is a popular expression ‘brahmādi-stambānta’ (starting from Brahmā up to the smallest creature) to denote the entire gamut of the jīva category, the KR uses a unique expression:

   अस्यैवानन्दकोशेन स्तम्बान्ता विष्णुपूर्वकाः ।
   भवन्ति सुखिनो नित्यं तारतम्यक्रमेण तु ॥ २९॥

   [All (jīva-s) up to the tiniest creature, starting from Viṣṇu (instead of Brahmā) onward, always derive joy from this ānanda kośa on a relative scale depending on their status.] In the Taittiriya we have the ānanda tāratamya from the human up to Brahmā. The ānanda derived by these entities are finite and Brahman-Ānanda alone is infinite.

5.  The ‘yato vāco nivartante aprāpya manasā saha’ is available in KR thus:

निर्विशेषे परानन्दे कथं शब्दः प्रवर्तते ।
तस्मादेतन्मनः सूक्ष्मं व्यावृतं सर्वगोचरम् ॥ ३२॥
यस्माच्छ्रोत्रत्वगक्ष्यादिखादिकर्मेन्द्रियाणि च ।
व्यावृत्तानि परं प्राप्तुं न समर्थानि तानि तु ॥ ३३॥

6. The Tripuṭī (pramātṛ, pramāṇa, prameya) and māyā-avidyā, īśvara-jīva, vyāvahārikā ideas of Advaita are contained in the KR thus:

शुद्धमीश्वरचैतन्यं जीवचैतन्यमेव च ।
प्रमाता च प्रमाणं च प्रमेयं च फलं तथा ॥ ३७॥
इति सप्तविधं प्रोक्तं भिद्यते व्यवहारतः ।
मायोपाधिविनिर्मुक्तं शुद्धमित्यभिधीयते ॥ ३८॥
मायासंबन्धतश्चेशो जीवोऽविद्यावशस्तथा ।
अन्तःकरणसंबन्धात्प्रमातेत्यभिधीयते ॥ ३९॥

7. The KR, at the beginning itself details the Sannyāsa krama. The ‘Yatidharma sangraha’ on p.19 of the pdf (by Sri Viśveśvara Saraswati, Guru of Sri Madhusūdana Saraswati 15CE) cites from this Upaniṣad:

यज्ञोपवीतं वेदांश्च सर्वं तद्वर्जयेद्यतिः ॥ २॥

In short, several Advaitic concepts are available in this KR which makes some non-Advaitins think that this is one of those ‘bogus’ Upaniṣads.  In fact the above author in the cited work quotes from other such Upaniṣads as well.

Om Tat Sat