Parmenides And The Upanishads: A Comparative Analysis

From the reading, it is clear to see that there are both similarities and differences in the teaching in philosophy from Parmenides and the Upanishads. Although one is of Greek origin and the other Hindu, these different cultures created similar concepts of life and philosophy. This similarity of concepts can be seen across many other aspects of life and culture. With all things vaguely similar there will ultimately be some differences. Parmenides was a famous Greek philosopher that appears to have strange views to modern day people. Parmenides stated that change, any change, is but an illusion (Velasquez, 2014). This means that the most complex changes such as the creation of a new human life to the simple turning of a page is an illusion. I had a very hard time wrapping my head around the views of Parmenides. His teachings made very little sense in my head. How could everything we view be an illusion? Does this simply mean that life is simply not real but an illusion as he states? An expert from the passage quotes Zeno, a pupil of Parmenides. In this quote Zeno attempts to validate his teacher’s views by using the change in distance travel as an illusion (Velasquez, 2014). It may be the translation or the quote itself but it was fairly too complex for someone who is not a philosopher. Not only did this confuse me,
Upanishads teaching follows suit with the ideas of Parmenides in the sense that” Brahman cannot be seen, smelt, felt, or heard” (Velasquez, 2014). Parmenides said that which exists imperishable and unchanging. If one thing is colorless and odorless, then it is unchanging. For a smell to occur from and odorless object, then change must first occur (Velasquez, 2014). Even though one teaching is more extreme than the other, both teachings prove in a sense that there is no change in