The Upanishadic Atman and the Indwelling Father
The Urantia Book · 111:1.5
The Adjuster and the Soul
The Adjuster is the wellspring of spiritual attainment and the hope of divine character within you. He is the power, privilege, and the possibility of survival, which so fully and forever distinguishes you from mere animal creatures. He is the higher and truly internal spiritual stimulus of thought in contrast with the external stimulus, which reaches the mind over the nerve energy mechanism of the material body.Read the full UB paper →
Ancient Source · Hindu / Vedantic
The Chandogya and Brihadaranyaka Upanishads (~800 to 500 BCE)
"That which is the finest essence, this whole world has that as its self. That is the Real. That is the Atman. That art thou, Svetaketu." And: "He who dwells in all beings, yet is other than all beings, whom all beings do not know, whose body is all beings, who controls all beings from within, He is thy Self, the Inner Controller, the Immortal."
Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 (the Tat Tvam Asi formula) and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 3.7.15, trans. S. Radhakrishnan
The Atman is the innermost self that is identical with Brahman, the cosmic reality. The Tat Tvam Asi ("That art thou") is one of the four Mahavakyas, the great sayings of Vedanta.
The Parallel
The Atman as Inner Controller (antaryamin) who dwells in every being yet is distinct from the being is structurally close to the UB's Thought Adjuster. Both are described as immortal, as the true self, as the source of spiritual life, and as a fragment or expression of the supreme. The Vedantic identification of Atman with Brahman parallels the UB teaching that the Adjuster is a literal fragment of the Universal Father.
Why It Matters
The UB places Hindu philosophy within the Salem missionary stream, with Sethard's mission carrying Melchizedek teachings to India. The Upanishadic discovery of the indwelling Atman is one of the high points of pre revelatory human spiritual insight, and the UB Papers 107 to 112 on Adjusters complete what Vedanta sensed.
Scholarship
- Radhakrishnan, S. The Principal Upanishads (Harper, 1953).
- Olivelle, Patrick. The Early Upanishads (Oxford, 1998).
- Deussen, Paul. The Philosophy of the Upanishads (Edinburgh, 1906).
- Brereton, Joel P. "The Upanishads," in Approaches to the Asian Classics (Columbia, 1990).