“Become This Whole World”: The Phenomenology of Metaphysical Religion in <i>Chāndogya Upaniṣad</i> 6–8

• Main Author: Jessica Frazier
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-06-01
• Series: Religions
• Subjects: Indian philosophy; Heidegger; phenomenology; <i>Upaniṣads</i>; Vedānta; religious experience; comparative philosophy; subjectivity; mysticism
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/6/368

Implicit in Heidegger&#8217;s 1920&#8722;1921 <i>Phenomenology of Religious Life</i> is an account of religion as a radical transformation of the very structures of experience. This article seeks to apply that account to a classical Indian discourse on reality and the self, <i>Chāndogya Upaniṣad</i> chapter six. This classical source-text for two thousand years of Hindu theology advocates a new &#8216;religious life&#8217; achieved through phenomenologically reorienting the very structures of cognition toward the <i>broadest</i> truths of reality, rather than the finite features of the world. The goal is to create a new form of primordial subjectivity with an altered relationship to phenomena, finitude, and the divine. The article proceeds in two parts: The first section brings out Heidegger&#8217;s theory of religion through a reading of Heidegger&#8217;s 1920 <i>Phenomenology of Religious Life</i> with the help of his lectures, <i>On the Definition of Philosophy</i>, from the previous year. The second section tries to demonstrate the value of integrating traditional textual/historical scholarship in the <i>Chāndogya Upaniṣad</i> with Heidegger&#8217;s method. The juxtaposition aims to both (1) foreground the phenomenologically transformative goals of this influential Indian text, and (2) challenge Heidegger&#8217;s scepticism about the religious value of metaphysical reflection.