The Shvetashvatara Upanishad is one of the older, "primary" Upanishads. It is associated with the Black Yajurveda. It figures as number 14 in the Muktika canon of 108 Upanishads. Adi Shankara has called it the "Mantra Upanishad" of the Vedic Shvetashvatara school in his commentary on Brahma sutras.

This Upanishad contains 113 mantras or verses in six chapters. In the last chapter we find the following verse.

" Sage Shvetashvatara got this knowledge of Brahman which is very sacred and revered by many great sages by his penance and gods grace and taught it very well to his desciples"

By this verse we can make out that this Upanishad was due to a sage called"Shvetashvatara" or his line of ancient spiritual teachers.The name "Shvetashvatara" is not uncommon in vedic literature. It means "White Mule".Mule was a prized animal in ancient vedic india. The person who owns white horse is called "Shvetashva" and the one who owns white mule can be called "Shvetashvatara". We can notice that Arjuna is called as "Shvetashva" in epic Mahabharata.In Rigveda we find a sage's name as "shyavashva" meaning "One who owns a black horse". This Upanishad has acquired a high place among the Hindu shruti.

Commentary works on this Upanishad

There is one commentary available on this upanishad that is said to bewritten by Adi Shankara. But if we compare it with other commentary works of same author, we get a doubt if it is indeed written by Adi Shankara. There are other three commmentators namely Vijnanatma , Shankarananda and Narayana Thirtha.

Time of this Upanishad

Deciding time of the origin of this Upanishad in not easy because, apart from very ancient content, we can also see other verses which look like added in a later point of time.Many Mantras in this upanishad can also be seen in RigVeda, Black Yajurveda , White Yajurveda . Though it may not be as old as liturgic Upanishads like Chandogya or Brhadaranyaka Upanishad , we can say it belongs to time line of poetic group

Specialities

This Upanishad is just as much tough to understand as much it is wonderful.It has following specialities which arouse curiosity in the reader of vedic literature.

1] The Supreme God or Brahman is called by various names such as Shiva , Rudra etc. This feature may give rise to an assumption that it may be a Shaiva Upanishad. But such an assumption is not right because, at the time of this Upanishad, Shaiva Agamas weren't there. Also, at that time the supreme God head or Brahman used be called by different names each indicating a particular manifestation of Brahman.Just as names Shiva or Rudra are used to refer Brahman, names such as Vayu , Aditya or Agni are also used for same purpose in this Upanishad.More over, if this Upanishad is indeed a Shaiva Upanishad, other sects of Hinduism such as Vaishnavas wouldn't have quoted its verses/mantras as authority in their respective treatises.

2]Second speciality is concept of "Devotion" or Bhakti. In other Upanishads, the concept of devotion (or Bhakti) is indirectly voiced in the form of " Upasana". But here, without leaving any room for guesswork, it is explicitly mentioned.The word "ParaBhakti" is explicitly used at the end of sixth chapter.There are many words which voice submission to God or Brahman ( words such as "Sharanam", "Prapadye").This concept of devotion at later times found profound and wide meanings in Bhakti Sutras and other treatises on Bhakti or devotion.

3]Third speciality of this upanishad lies in its giving importance to the form fullness (or Moortitva) of God or Brahman which is usually described as formless in other important upanishads.Since it is difficult to concentrate mind on and/or show devotion on formless Brahman, it is only natural that this book goes ahead and tries to ascribe various forms to God. While expounding on devotion, it also ascribes various characteristics or manifestations to God, such as, mentioning God has knowledge and power.This upanishad also presents that God or Brahman is creator and sustainer of the universe, and while trying to describe various powers of God, to drive home the point, makes use of similes such as God having thousands of heads - to denote endless knowledge of God, thousands of eyes -

4] fourth speciality is use of words such as "Samkhya","Kapila", "yoga", "Prakriti". Some scholars debate that this indicates assimilation of Saankhya-Yoga-Darshana school of thought into Vedanta happened at some point of time. If this view is right, it means that Vedantic Upanishads were originated later than Saankhya-Yoga-Darshana school of thought. This view is not right because of following reasons.

i] Just because certain definitive words are similar, it doesn't imply Upanishads are of later origin than Darshana schools. The definitive words like "Samkhya, prakriti etc are always used in Vedas earlier than Darshana schools. So, these specific words are taken from Vedanta and later used by proponents of Darshana schools.

ii] The proponents of Darshanas like sage kapila describe in their treatises that they are interpreting the Vedanta, so it means Vedantic Upanishads are of earlier origin than these schools of thought.

iii] In this Upanishad, we don't see any assimilation of principles of those schools but to contrary, the thoughts that are rejected by those schools are expounded and accepted using the same words and definitions of those schools.

The philosphical jargon of Samkhya school of thought originated in vedas well before birth of Saamkhya.The word saamkhya originates from word "samkhya" which means counting or understanding. There are many verses in this upanishad that have some counting of things in them that is why word "samkhya" got another meaning as knowledge. While Yoga is practical Sammkhya is intellectual. While samkhya is purely dualistic Upanishads are clearly non-dualistic.In Samkhya the "Purusha" or self is different from "Prakriti" or Nature but in Upanishadic thought, "Prakriti"(Nature) is God derived,or God dependent force, specifically this upanishad refers to it as"Devaatma Shakti", which can be roughly translated as "Gods inner force that manifests itself as nature (Prakriti)".One hymn of this Upanishad says,

" Sages engaged in deep meditation realized secret 'Atma Shakti' of God."

It says this Atma Shakti of God is hidden secretly in the meditators own inner nature.

Regarding the usage of the word "Kapila" is concerned, if we see the contexts of hyms that have come before and later of the hymn which uses word kapila, it is clear that it does not denote sage kapila whois proponent of Samkhya. The hymn 5.2 which uses word "kapila"should be seen in the context with other hyms.4th hymn of 3rd chapter says,

" All knower Rudra gave birth to Hiranyagarbha"

12th hymn of 4th chapter says

"Rudra saw the birth of Hiranyagarbha"

later, 18th hymn of 6th chapter says,

" Parameshvara created Brahma "

Now when seen in context of these hymns, the verse 5.2, which uses the word kapila says,

"God saw birth of All-knowing Kapila"

in sanskrit, word kapila means golden coloured. Hiranya garbha means "one embodying golden core". In Upanishads Hiranya garbha is also called by other names such as Prajapati, Brahma etc.based on this context relation, we can conclude this upanishad when it uses word kapila it means Hiranya garbha rather than Samkhya school proponent.

Wrting Style of this Upanishad

Normally, Upanishads are sources of serious philosophical thought.But this Upanishad differs with other Upanishads in being same principles explained in simple, easy-going and poetic way.where ever sage shetashvatara has his independent hyms, he sees them in a beautiful, heart-catching poetic way. he is not only a seer of Mantras, but also a poet from heart. Here are few examples.

while trying to describe omnipresence of Brahman,Hymn 4.2 says,

" You are woman, you are man, you are boy and you are girl, you are the shivering old man helped by stick, you are born in the form of this world"

Hymn 4.4 says

"You are blue coloured butterfly, green eyed parrot, lightning cloud, you are the seasons, and seas, you are the one without any beginning, you are omnipresent, all the worlds are born out of you"