Shvetashvatara Upanishad

   The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is generally dated around the third century B.C.E., making it one of the later UPANISHADS. It is the only orthodox Upanishad that refers to a sectarian divinity, in this case RUDRA-SHIVA. It understands Shiva to be the same as the BRAHMAN, the ultimate reality, who had not previously been characterized in purely theistic terms. The text equates the terms PURUSHA, which is the person from whom the world evolved in the Vedas, AT M A N (soul or self), BRAHMAN, and God, so as to make clear the identity of all des-ignations for the highest. The theistic quality of this text is developed in later Hindu theism and in theistic or God-oriented VEDANTA.

   Further reading: Swami Lokeshwarananda, trans., Svet-asvatara Upanisad (Calcutta: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, 1994); Swami Nikhilananda, The Upanishads: Katha, Isá, Kena, Mundaka, Sv’etasv’atara, Prasña, Mandukya, Aitareya, Brihadaranyaka, Taittiriya, and Chhandogya, 4 vols. (New York: Harper & Row, 1964); Patrick Olivelle, trans., The Early Upanisads (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988).