Maitri Upanishad

There are thirteen different principles of Upanishad.  The Maitri Upanishad explains what the observer is and that it exists within each human.  Contextually, these principles come into existence in a great era of time, around 600 BCE.  In Persia, Zoroastrianism is taking hold, and much of what Christians believe comes from Zoroastrianism.  The Maitri Upanishad method of yoga concentrates on the soul and nourishing it through observation.

Food is one of the items that the Maitri Upanishad talks about both in a literal and figurative sense.  Nature provides food for all living things.  Eating food is ritualized because as humans and animals partake meals they are becoming one with the earth and with God (“Maitri Upanishad,” n. d.). 

This idea of the soul is profound.  Socrates will later introduce the soul into philosophy and start the argument of how to prove there is one if it is within mankind.  Christianity will adopt the idea of a soul within a human later on.  People, by thinking along these lines, are trying to prove something impossible to prove.  However, it seems that those who practice Maitri Upanishad do not question the idea of the soul (“Maitri Upanishad,” n. d.).  

Instead, both soul and human have to be nourished.  Food takes care of the human, but meditation enriches the soul through observation.  The poem that is Maitri Upanishad is very religious and focuses on nourishing the entire human not just one part.  If human hunger is satiated by food, and meditation cures emptiness within, then people are united with God, the Great Being, or Brahma.  The name changes but the meaning are the same.  Getting closer to God is to gain an understanding of this life people have on earth and what they expect to come after they die.  Getting closer to perfection will eventually stop the cycle of birth and death when reincarnation is no longer needed (“Maitri Upanishad,” n. d.).

In sum, the poem of Maitri Upanishad concentrates on nourishing the soul within the man.  As it has been said, Man does not live by bread alone, but by feeding his spirit as well.

Reference

Maitri Upanishad. (n.d.). Mantraonnet. Retrieved from http://www.mantraonnet.com/upanishads/maitri-book6.html