THE UPANISHADS

Authors Unknown

The poetic backbone of Hinduism, the millennia-old Upanishads are some of the oldest religious documents ever written. The selections offered in ‘The Upanishads’ illuminate a path that is as “narrow as the edge of a razor” but pregnant with freedom and bliss. Through vivid metaphors and timeless prose, the book exemplifies how the path of yoga leads beyond the treacherous web of karma to the final, blissful union of the personal soul, atman, with the universal soul, Brahman.

As written in one of the reviews, ‘An “Upanishad” is a teaching session with a guru, and the thirteen texts of the “Principal Upanishads”—which comprise this volume—form a series of philosophical discourses between teacher and student that question the inner meaning of the world. Composed beginning around the eighth century BC, the Upanishads have been central to the development of Hinduism, exploring its central doctrines: rebirth, karma, overcoming death, and achieving detachment, equilibrium, and spiritual bliss. Speaking to the reader in direct, unadorned prose or lucid verse, the Upanishads collected here embody humanity’s perennial search for truth and knowledge.’

The interblend of philosophical and spiritualistic teachings are infused with both age-old wisdom and idealistic selfishness of thought and living – the balance could only be drawn somewhere between these two paradigms. Much of the text draws distinct parallels between biblical teachings and Hindu/Buddhist mythology; however it varies in the essence that its discourse is one of pursuing self-centered security and well-being as opposed to the biblical aspirations of servanthood and generosity of heart.