14 Facts About Maitrayaniya Upanishad

Maitrayaniya Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text that is embedded inside the Yajurveda.

Maitrayaniya Upanishad is associated with the Maitrayanas school of the Yajurveda.

The chronology of Maitrayaniya Upanishad is contested, but generally accepted to be a late period Upanishadic composition.

The content and structure of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is different in various manuscript recensions, suggesting that the Maitrayaniya Upanishad was extensively interpolated and expanded over a period of time.

The common kernel of the Maitrayaniya Upanishad across different recensions, states Max Muller, is a reverence for Self, that can be summarized in a few words as, " is the Self – the immortal, the fearless, the Brahman".

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Maitri Maitrayaniya Upanishad is an important ancient text notable, in its expanded version, for its references to theories found in Buddhism, elements of the Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism, as well as the Ashrama system.

The likely root for the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is probably the name of an ancient Indian scholar, Maitra, sometimes spelled Maitri or Maitreya, giving the text the alternate name of Maitri or Maitra Maitrayaniya Upanishad.

Maitrayaniya Upanishad was probably composed in late 1st millennium BCE, likely after Atharva Veda texts such as the Mundaka Upanishad and Prashna Upanishad, but its precise chronology is unclear and contested.

Deussen states that the Maitrayaniya Upanishad is chronologically significant because its author takes for granted the concepts and ideas found in Samkhya and Yoga schools of Hinduism, which must have been established by the time Maitri Maitrayaniya Upanishad was composed.

Maitrayaniya Upanishad is embedded after the Brahmana text of Yajur Veda, and in its opening passages refers to rituals contained therein.

The quality of Rajas too, states the Maitrayaniya Upanishad, is a result of this interplay of overpowered elemental Self and guna, and lists the manifold manifestation of this as, "greed, covetousness, craving, possessiveness, unkindness, hatred, deceit, restlessness, mania, fickleness, wooing and impressing others, servitude, flattery, hedonism, gluttony, prodigality and peevishness".

The identified Yoga steps for Self-knowledge in Maitrayaniya Upanishad are: Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dhyana, Dharana, Tarka, Samadhi.

The Self, states the Maitrayaniya Upanishad, is the source of all life-forces, all worlds, all the Vedas, all gods, all beings, all knowledge, all nature, all literature, all sciences, all explanations, all commentaries, it is in everything.

Maitri Maitrayaniya Upanishad is oft cited text in comparative studies of Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as the likely influence of one on the other.