Some notes on the interpretation of the Ṥvetāṥvatara Upaniṣad

The problems posed by the interpretation of the Ṥvetāṥvatara Upaniṣad are almost as interesting as is the Upaniṣad itself. There are both in the West and in India two clearly discernible trends in the method of such interpretation. One follows quite strictly the line of the monistic, advaita doctrine, involving frequent disregard of the text itself. The other shows a realistic appreciation of a largely deistic philosophy of the Upaniṣad, which leans towards soteriological concepts of the Sāṃkhya or rather the Sāṃkhya-Yoga syncretism. The Upaniṣad presents, in fact, a triadic combination of (I) Īṥvara = puruṣa , (2) Brahman, whose role as that of a creator is idenfield with the role of the prakṛti, pradhāna , or buddhi , and who is the intermediary between the Īṥvara, and (3) āman = jīva

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